Raspberry and Vanilla cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream

by Charlie Bloom
Thursday March 26, 2015

A Sunday lunch show-stopper, this raspberry and vanilla cake will make for the perfect addition to your Easter Sunday lunch.

Bake a 6” Raspberry and Vanilla Cake in 2 x 6” tins

What You’ll Need:

Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

What To Do:

Beat the butter and sugar together until it’s very light and fluffy. (About 5 minutes in a stand mixer)
Sift the flour.
Add the happy eggs, one at a time, with a spoonful of the flour, beating well between adding each egg.
Add the milk and stir gently.
Add the remaining flour, and gently fold in.
Fold in the raspberries.
Place into 2 x 6” greased and lined cake tins and bake in a preheated oven (130C conventional oven or 140 C fan oven) for around 60 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.
Leave cakes to cool.

Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Gently heat the raspberries in a saucepan until they are reduced and form a puree.
Leave to cool.
Place the happy egg whites and sugar in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
Stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved completely and the egg whites are hot (160F).
Whip this mixture with the whisk attachment of a mixer until the meringue is thick and glossy and the bowl is cool.
Add the salt and cubes of butter one at a time until each is incorporated. If the mixture curdles, keep mixing and it will come back together.
Add the raspberry puree. And mix in well.

Assemble, cover and decorate the cake.

Level the top of each cake with a sharp knife.
Cut each in half so you have 4 layers.
Spread some buttercream on a 6” cake board then place the first layer of cake on this.
Spread a thin layer of buttercream, then the next layer of cake.
Continue until you have 4 layers of cake and 3 layers of buttercream.
Trim the sides of the cake so you they are straight with no bulges.
Spread a thin layer of buttercream all over the cake.
Cover with pale blue sugarpaste.
Cover a 10” cake drum with pale green sugarpaste.
Roll out some green sugarpaste quite and cut out the grass shapes. Attach these around the base of the cake using edible sugar glue. Leave to dry for a few hours.
Spread some royal icing on the green covered cake drum, then place the blue cake on top.

Model decorations using Modelling paste

Knead 1 teaspoon of Tylo powder into 100g of sugarpaste to make the modelling paste.
Colour the modelling paste using paste or gel colours in brown, red, yellow, pink, blue, beige white.
Make a nest using small rolled pieces of the beige paste.
Make the hens body and wings out of brown modelling paste. To make the beak, take a tiny bit of yellow sugarpaste, roll in your fingers to make a smooth ball, then form into cone shape and cut off the smaller end, attach to the head with edible sugar glue.
Make the Hen Comb and wattle. Take a tiny size bit of sugarpaste, roll in your fingers to make a smooth ball, flatten slightly, then form into a teardrop shape and cut off the smaller end.
Make 3 of these for each hen, and 2 smaller ones for the wattle.
Attach to the head with edible sugar glue.
Draw in the eyes using a black edible pen.
Make the chicks using yellow modelling paste. Make the beaks as above and draw in the eyes using a black edible pen.
Cut out tiny flowers using flower cutters and pipe a tiny dot of royal icing in the centres.
Attach all the decorations onto the cake using either edible sugar glue or royal icing.