Strawberry, White Chocolate & Vanilla Cake

So it was my sister's birthday and she loves strawberries. She wanted a healthy strawberry cake. I delivered on one of these. 


Makes 1 Cake

175g Golden Caster Sugar

175g Butter, cubed at room temperature
3 Eggs
225g Self Raising Flour
1½ tsp Baking Powder
50g White Chocolate
125g Strawberries, pureed

Filling/Topping/Decorations
1 Punnet of Strawberries, topped and cut in half
3/4 tbsp Strawberry Jam
2 Boxes of White Chocolate Fingers
250g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature and cubed
500g Icing Sugar, sifted
1tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
Red Food Colouring

1. Line an 8 inch cake tin with greaseproof paper. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan assisted.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together. Then add the eggs gradually. It should resemble scrambled eggs.

3. Then shift self raising flour and baking powder in the bowl and stir. Microwave the white chocolate so it's melted. Leave to cool slightly then add the white chocolate and strawberries.

4. Pour into the greased cake tin and put in the oven for 50-55 minutes. Check with a skewer through the centre to see if it's done (skewer should come out clear if its done). Allow to cool on wire rack.

5. While the cake is cooling make the vanilla buttercream icing. Mix the butter and icing sugar together until smooth and then add the vanilla and give another mix. Add the red food colouring (see below for colour grading).

Colour of Buttercream Icing: If you are looking for a more red colour you will need more food colouring. For a pinker colour use less red food colouring. Add a tsp at a time and mix to see if its the colour you want and add more if needed.

6. Cut the cake in half horizontally, so you have 2 pieces. To assemble the cake take the bottom half and smoother the top of the cake with some of the buttercream. Then add strawberry jam. Then layer with the other piece of cake. Then cover the whole cake with buttercream icing. Use a spatula to get the side and get an even cover.

7. To decorate add the chocolate fingers around the side of the cake. Then dab the cut side of the strawberry with kitchen roll to remove excess juice then place on top of the take. Put in a container. Place in the fridge for when its needed. Keeps the strawberries fresh and sets the icing a bit.

Serve a piece of fabulous cake.

Reviews;

'It's so moist'

'Going in for another piece'

'That's food porn'

Viennese Whirls (V)

A lovely biscuit which is delectable with a nice cup of tea. Tried and tested on friends and family.

Makes 15 Biscuits

Biscuit
250g Butter, at room temperature
50g of Icing Sugar
250g Plain Flour, shifted
50g Cornflour
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Filling
100g Butter, left at room temperature
100g  Raspberry Jam
1/2 vanilla extract
200g Icing Sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 200c/180c fan assisted oven. Grease a baking tray and line with grease proof paper.

2. In a food processor put all the biscuit ingredients in and blend until smooth. This will take a couple of minutes. Make sure you put all of the mixture from the processor into the pipping bag with a large star nozzle (Pipping Bag I used can be seen at the bottom of the post).

3. When pipping the mixture onto the tray make sure the pipping bag is at a 90 degree angle to the tray and squeeze the mixture out a medium size rosettes of dough. Make sure they are spread out so they don't stick together when they bake. Put in the oven and make for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

4. Leave the biscuits to cool on a wire rack. While they are cooling, make the butter icing by mixing the butter, icing sugar and the vanilla extract in a bowl. Mix with a fork until fully combined.

5. Once the biscuits are cooled put a small teaspoon of jam on the smooth side of the biscuit, butter icing and top with a biscuit. Repeat the process until you are out of biscuits. Dust with some icing sugar and serve.