After reading an article yesterday from http://pastrychefonline.com/2012/06/11/recipe-shy/ I felt intrigued to try my hand at a different kind of Buttercream. Seeing that I am not a professional chef and have no formal training or education in culinary arts I am always delighted when presented the opportunity to learn something new about cooking ( Seriously, it's like Nerdvana in my kitchen! ) So, when I read this article and discovered there was more than just one type of butter cream my imagination started running wild with thoughts of all the glorious things I could fill and smother with butter cream!... ( Nerdgasm? I don't know what you speak of! ) The possibilities were endless! I thought of buttercream filled chocolate covered strawberries, cakes, pies, etc. Hell! I was even half tempted to go find some hottie and pipe butter cream all over their body! Yes, I am sure I need to get out more. But in the mean time, buttercream anyone?... Enjoy!
Ingredients for cake:
1/3 cup cake flour ( Sifted, not self-rising )
3 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
4 large eggs ( 2 eggs, 2 separated )
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp coconut sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla extract ( Real stuff! )
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
Two 17 x 12-inch jelly-roll pans
One large, clean smooth kitchen towel. Do not use terry cloth or anything else with texture.
Prepare the baking pan and preheat the oven to 450
Prepare, one 17 x 12-inch jelly-roll pan: grease and line with parchment paper or a nonstick liner. ( Do not use wax paper! )
In a small bowl Mix the flour, cornstarch and salt.
In a chilled seperate bowl beat the eggs and yolks together with sugar for a total of 5 minutes or until the mixture becomes thick, fluffy, and triples in volume.
*** Secret Tip***
use a stand mixer ( Kitchen aide ) Place your bowl in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes so that it is really cold and when using the stand mixer use a paddle attachment instead of the whisk attachment ) Start the mixer on low for a few seconds and then adjust it to high speed. Stop the mixture every once and a while to Scrape the side and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula make sure you don't squash the egg foam!
Fold it in gently but rapidly with a large rubber spatula until the flour has disappeared, Making sure you scrape the side and bottom of the bowl as you do.
Sift the remaining half of the flour over the egg mixture and fold it in until the flour has disappeared.
Set aside just long enough to beat the egg whites.
In a medium size deep bowl, with straight sides, beat the egg whites (2 large egg whites from 2 large eggs, separated) on low until foamy.
Add the cream of tartar and increase the mixer speed to high and beat until soft peaks form when the beater is raised.
Add the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and continue to beat on high until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised.
Fold the egg whites in the egg/flour mixture, until all the whites have been incorporated
Fill the prepared pan with batter and bake the cake for about 7 minutes or until golden brown
When the cake is done baking, immediately loosen the edges with a small knife making sure that you go all the way around the cake.
While the Cake is cooling you can work on the fruit filling and the butter cream.
Fruit Filling:
1 peach ( sliced into thin wedges )
1 nectarine ( Sliced into thin wedges )
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup strawberries ( Sliced )
2 tsp. Honey
Place all ingredients in a bowl and toss in honey until evenly distributed. Set in fridge while working on buttercream.
Champagne Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
5 oz. egg whites ( Roughly 5 eggs )
5 oz. sugar ( Roughly 2/3-3/4 cup )
1/4 tsp. salt
the scrapings from 1 vanilla bean
1 lb. unsalted butter ( 4 sticks, cut into 2″ chunks, room temperature )
3 tbsp. Champagne
For the Frosting:
Combine the egg whites, sugar salt and vanilla bean together in a clean bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of water and turn the heat on medium-low.
Whisk frequently to prevent an egg white omelet forming on the sides, but continual mixing isn’t necessary. Aim to get the mixture to at least 145°F for food safety reasons, but reaching 150°F would make for a nice margin of error. If your egg whites are at room temperature, this won’t take very long, maybe just a few minutes.
When the mixture is sufficiently hot, remove from the heat and whip on medium-high speed until the mixture has doubled in volume and turned snowy white. Continue whipping until the meringue is cool. Use your hands to feel the bowl itself, rather than simply testing the temperature of the meringue. You want it to feel perfectly cool to the touch with no trace of warmth.
Change to the paddle attachment and turn the mixer down to medium-low and begin adding the butter, one chunk at a time. If you didn’t let your meringue cool enough, this is when you’ll really regret it. By the time you’ve added all the butter, you may need to scrape down the bowl to fully incorporate any butter or meringue that’s stuck to the sides.
Finally add your champagne! Mix until fully incorporated. Your cake should be cooled enough by this time.
Frost your cake then spoon fruit mixture over frosting, spreading evenly throughout the cake.
Carefully roll up your cake roll. If you have remaining fruit you can spoon it over the top of the cake roll.
Best served surrounded by serenity and love.
What did you think about the Champagne Swiss Meringue Buttercream?
We would love to hear about it in the comment section!
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