Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting and Lingonberry Filling
My first cake is done, and I must say I am quite pleased with the way it came out. We will see what my "focus group" aka my coworkers think.
For the cake, I chose a new recipe from Hershey's for "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate cake. I was very impressed with how moist the final cake came out, wondering if this is a result of the 1 cup of boiling water that the recipe called for. This recipe does have a frosting recommendation but I decided to do use a buttercream frosting instead and for the filling I mixed lingonberries, left over from my Norwegian feast with the buttercream.
For the buttercream frosting I used one of my favorite recipes (below), from the Magnolia Bakery in New York City. The result is a smooth and creamy frosting that spreads and pipes well.
My opinion on the final product: cake is moist and extra chocolaty, filling was good, frosting tasted good - but I need to work on applying it so that it is smooth and seamless.
To help the frosting look super smooth, I spritz the whole cake (after putting on the frosting, of course) with water -- a really light coating. Then, take your offset spatula and oh-so-gently smooth things out. The water helps the spatula to glide perfectly across the frosting without actually moving the frosting around on the cake. Hope it helps!
ReplyDeleteAlso, how do you like working with the buttercream? I've used recipes with Crisco instead of butter. I don't like the texture as much as a recipe with real butter, but it was way easier to work with because of its higher melting temp.