Chocolate cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream
With a day off and no where really to go, I decided to try out a new cake buttercream recipe. It was Fourth of July weekend, but with covid-19 cases on the rise, I def did not want to attempt doing any sort of super social activities. So, I made a chocolate cake with Italian meringue buttercream! It turned out pretty good if I may say so myself! I made the cake and hit the road home to visit my family. I figured that was the safest plan.
I simply thought my nieces would like having cake!
Making the chocolate cake
I love Yolanda Gampp and her how to cake it videos. I think she is so awesome! I followed one of her recipes but because I know my family is super anti sugar and anti cake, I figured id make it a bit more appetizing for them by skipping on half of the sugar. Sorry Yolanda! I know my family and with the hope they might have more cake, I figured id skip out on some of the sugar. It turned out very chocolaty and not very sweet, which was great!
The Italian Meringue Buttercream
Ok... so I have been trying out different cake icing recipes to see what I like best. This one was bit more challenging and included some extra steps but it turned out awesome! it felt like I was using a ton of butter but I kept on adding the butter as instructed!
Melting the sugar on the stove was a new experience. The first step was to melt the sugar on the stove top with water and clip a candy thermometer on the pan. I did not have one, so in preparation, I purchased one at walmart. The recipe was very specific and asked for the sugar to be melted and reach a temperature of 240 degrees. While the sugar melted, I had to prep the egg whites in the mixing bowl. When the sugar reached 230 degrees, I was to turn on the mixed to whip the egg whites. Once the sugar reached 240 degrees, I slowly poured the melted sugar into the egg whites. The was challenging to pour into the mixer because I had to make sure to turn the pot sufficiently for the melted sugar to go into the mixer but not stick to the side of the pot and pour the wrong way. I was successful though! Once l'd poured all the sugar, I added the room temperature butter. This was crazy! At some point as I would add butter, the mixer would slosh out some of the mix... I was worried much of my buttercream would end up outside my actual bowl! Luckily, was able to control this by adding the butter more slowly and allowing the whip to mix in the butter a little at a time. I continued to add the butter until I had added all of it and let the mixer keep whipping the mix until it looked thick and glossy! Once I stopped the mixer, I tried it and it supper yummy!
Decorating
Ok.. so decorating is a skill I am trying to work on. Icing a cake and making it pretty is super challenging! I want to slowly but surely become better at this but I think it will take lots and lots of practice. I will say, I have noticed some improvement and have seriously learned from my mistakes. I didn't make a specific plan... I just sort of went with it to see what I'd end up with...
The delivery
I decided to surprise my family and went home.... well my sister is able to track my location and knew I was on my way when she checked my location because I wasn't answering video calls about 18 miles away from home! I was so so so close to surprising them all! It's okay though because she did not tell anyone! My nieces was so happy to see a cake, they began singing happy birthday. My sister said it was a beautiful cake! 😊
With a day off and no where really to go, I decided to try out a new cake buttercream recipe. It was Fourth of July weekend, but with covid-19 cases on the rise, I def did not want to attempt doing any sort of super social activities. So, I made a chocolate cake with Italian meringue buttercream! It turned out pretty good if I may say so myself! I made the cake and hit the road home to visit my family. I figured that was the safest plan.
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I simply thought my nieces would like having cake!
Making the chocolate cake
I love Yolanda Gampp and her how to cake it videos. I think she is so awesome! I followed one of her recipes but because I know my family is super anti sugar and anti cake, I figured id make it a bit more appetizing for them by skipping on half of the sugar. Sorry Yolanda! I know my family and with the hope they might have more cake, I figured id skip out on some of the sugar. It turned out very chocolaty and not very sweet, which was great!
The Italian Meringue Buttercream
Ok... so I have been trying out different cake icing recipes to see what I like best. This one was bit more challenging and included some extra steps but it turned out awesome! it felt like I was using a ton of butter but I kept on adding the butter as instructed!
Melting the sugar on the stove was a new experience. The first step was to melt the sugar on the stove top with water and clip a candy thermometer on the pan. I did not have one, so in preparation, I purchased one at walmart. The recipe was very specific and asked for the sugar to be melted and reach a temperature of 240 degrees. While the sugar melted, I had to prep the egg whites in the mixing bowl. When the sugar reached 230 degrees, I was to turn on the mixed to whip the egg whites. Once the sugar reached 240 degrees, I slowly poured the melted sugar into the egg whites. The was challenging to pour into the mixer because I had to make sure to turn the pot sufficiently for the melted sugar to go into the mixer but not stick to the side of the pot and pour the wrong way. I was successful though! Once l'd poured all the sugar, I added the room temperature butter. This was crazy! At some point as I would add butter, the mixer would slosh out some of the mix... I was worried much of my buttercream would end up outside my actual bowl! Luckily, was able to control this by adding the butter more slowly and allowing the whip to mix in the butter a little at a time. I continued to add the butter until I had added all of it and let the mixer keep whipping the mix until it looked thick and glossy! Once I stopped the mixer, I tried it and it supper yummy!
Decorating
Ok.. so decorating is a skill I am trying to work on. Icing a cake and making it pretty is super challenging! I want to slowly but surely become better at this but I think it will take lots and lots of practice. I will say, I have noticed some improvement and have seriously learned from my mistakes. I didn't make a specific plan... I just sort of went with it to see what I'd end up with...
The delivery
I decided to surprise my family and went home.... well my sister is able to track my location and knew I was on my way when she checked my location because I wasn't answering video calls about 18 miles away from home! I was so so so close to surprising them all! It's okay though because she did not tell anyone! My nieces was so happy to see a cake, they began singing happy birthday. My sister said it was a beautiful cake! 😊
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