Rosé Cake With Buttercream

Ingredients

Rosé Cake
6 Tbsp Unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 C Canola oil
1 1/2 C Sugar
1 Tbsp Vanilla extract
2 2/3 C + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp Baking powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 C Rosé Wine
1/2 C Milk
6 Lg Egg whites, room temperature
Pink food colouring
Fresh Raspberries for garnish, if desired

Filling
3/4 C Seedless Raspberry Jam

Rosé Frosting
6 C Powder Sugar
1/3 C Butter, softened
1/3 C Rosé Wine

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare two 8-inch round cake pans by lining the bottoms with a round of parchment paper and generously greasing and flouring the sides. Be sure to shake out excess flour.

In a large bowl, beat butter on medium-low speed with hand mixer until creamy. Add sugar, oil, and wine. Beat until all ingredients are well-combined and creamy. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and then stir in your vanilla extract. In separate bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, and salt. Measure out your milk. With mixer on medium speed, gradually alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Stir until each one is almost completely combined before adding the next. Occasionally scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.

In separate bowl, combine your egg whites and, with a hand-mixer on high-speed, beat until stiff peaks form. Using a spatula, gently fold your egg whites into your batter. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl so that ingredients are well-combined, and DO NOT to over-mix.

Evenly divide cake batter into prepared pans.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake layer comes out clean or with few crumbs (should not be wet). For best results, rotate your cake pans halfway through baking to ensure even baking. Cakes will be a light golden brown when done baking.

Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the inside rim of each pan and invert each onto a cooling rack. Once cooled completely, spread the seedless raspberry jam onto of the one cake and top with second cake. Allow to sit in fridge for 15 min to let the jam and cake combine. Remove from fridge and cover with Rosé Buttercream frosting. Garnish with fresh raspberries.

Originally published in The Wine Cellar September 2018.

White Wine Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

3 Cups Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Cup Unsalted Butter
2 Cups Sugar
4 Large Eggs
Zest of 3 Lemons + 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Vanilla
3/4 Cup Buttermilk
1/2 Cup White Wine (I used a Citrus forward Pinot Grigio)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325F Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla to the butter mixture. Add flour mixture and the buttermilk, alternating 1/2 cup of each, mix after each addition. Add wine to cupcake batter. Line muffin tin with paper liners and fill each cup 2/3 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Makes approximately 24 cupcakes.

To finish each cupcake, using a filling piping tip and pipping bag, fill piping bag with lemon curd ( recipe below), and insert into cupcake. Fill cupcake and as you pull out of the cupcake, pipe a small amount of lemon curd on top of the cupcake. Using a star tip and a clean piping bag, pipe seven minute frosting (recipe below) on top of lemon curd. Using a kitchen/pen torch, brown the meringue.

Lemon Curd

8 Large egg yolks
Finely grate lemon zest of 2 lemons
1/2 Cup Lemon juice
1 Cup Sugar
1/8 Tsp Salt
10 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold cut into chunks

DIRECTIONS

Combine yolks, zest, lemon juice and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, while scraping sides of pot to ensure mixture is well blended, until mixture is thick enough to coat back of spoon. Approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add butter, one chunk at a time. Add salt and mix till smooth. Strain through fine sieve into a medium bowl. Cover surface of lemon curd with saran wrap to prevent skin from forming. Refrigerate about 1 hour till set.

7 Minute Frosting
1 1/2 Cup+ 2 Tbsp Sugar
2/3 Cup water
2 Tbsp Light corn syrup
6 Large egg whites, room temperature

DIRECTIONS
Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves. Now continue boiling WITHOUT stirring until candy thermometer reaches 230 degrees. Meanwhile, whisk egg whites with a mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form. While still mixing egg whites, add the 2 tbsp sugar to egg whites until combined. Soon as syrup reaches 230 degrees, remove from heat. While mixer is on medium low speed, pour syrup down the side of bowl in a slow and steady stream into egg white mixture. Raise speed to medium high speed until mixture is cooled and stiff peaks form, about 7 minutes. Use IMMEDIATELY.

Originally published in The Wine Cellar March 2017.

Dark Chocolate Stout Cake with Irish Cream Cream Cheese Icing

INGREDIENT LIST

Dark Chocolate Stout Cake
1 cup Stout beer
1 cup + 1 tbsp   butter
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups caster/superfine sugar
2/3 cups sour cream
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour
2½ tsp baking soda

Irish Cream Cream Cheese Icing
4-5 cups sifted icing sugar
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
8oz cream cheese at room temperature
4-6 tbsps  Irish Cream (to taste)

DIRECTIONS

Dark Chocolate Stout Cake
Preheat oven 350°F and butter and line a 9" springform pan.
Melt the butter into the Stout in a saucepan over low heat.
Whisk in the cocoa and sugar and take the saucepan off the heat.
Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl until combined, than add to the beer mixture.
Whisk in the flour and baking soda until combined.
Pour the cake batter into the pan and bake for an hour. The middle of the cake may still be slightly wet when you take the cake out, but it will firm up as it cools down.
Leave to cool completely in the pan as it is quite a damp cake and could collapse.

Irish Cream Cream Cheese Icing
Cream the butter and icing sugar together until well mixed.
Add the cream cheese in cubes slowly until incorporated.
Add in Irish Cream  and continue mixing for 5 minutes until the icing is light and fluffy.
Dollop lashings of the icing onto the top of the cake to recreate the froth on a glass of a Stout. If you want, you can cut the cake in half and put icing in the center. There will be enough. Enjoy.

Originally published in The Wine Cellar March 2016.