YUM

It was an usually chilly mid May day, the grass was wet and heavy; when DF, my husband, decided to play gardener. He knew his wedding band was on, he never allows the ring to leave his finger. Sydney and I were baking pain au chocolates, when the phone rang, I  heard Sydney exclaim an alarming phrase. My first thought was DF had been hurt by the tracker he was playing on, I was mistaken (thankfully). He had lost his wedding band, we both immediately stopped what we were working on and ran outside. In the  front lawn we found my husband, Sydney’s father, walking in a circle. He had panicked and emptied the cut grass in lawn (three times), all he keep saying was he saw his wedding band fall off his finger right in that spot.

Sydney just loves the photograph on the bottom

Since our house stands on five acres and almost a full acre of grass lays in the  front portion (to be precise 43,560 square feet), Sydney realized the ring could have fallen off DF’s finger almost anywhere. So while my DF walked in a radius of a 3484 square foot circle, we campused  the rest of the front yard.

Oh did I mention this was the same day “Harold Camping” wrongly declared the world would expeditiously come to the end, so as the sun was now setting DF declared his life source, force field, and strength had expeditiously left him, he felt his world was ending.

As awful as Sydney and I felt for DF, it was time for us to finish our work and reluctantly went back into the house. I, had placed the dough in the refrigerator prior to running outside, as I was rolling it out, when once again Sydney called for me. She was glancing out the front window, and saw DF with head in his hands shaking. The ring of course was insured, but for almost twenty years, the end of june to be exact, his wedding band had be been apart of his finger, he did not want a new ring just the one he had.

What a Cake 

For some reason I didn’t feel the ring was truly lost, but my husband felt devastated; I decided Sydney and I would create a “wedding looking cake” after I we finished with the pain au chocolate. It was the only action, at that moment, in our power to help him. I won’t claim to recreate our original wedding cake, but all the elements were in this cake. A white cake with raspberry filling, a white chocolate mousse, and white chocolate frosting. I had been teaching Sydney piping techniques. The rose worked perfectly for both venues.

DF went to bed agitated and sad, before he fell asleep I suggested buying a metal detector and looking once again the next morning. DF was ready when the stores opened that Sunday to purchase his metal detector, while he searched for his wedding band Sydney and I finished decorating his cake. Believe it or not he was out in the front yard for five minutes when he found his band!

WE had spent hours the day before and in five minutes with a metal defector he found it, the irony!

White Velvet Cake Raspberry Cake:

(Adapted from “The Cake Bible”)

135 grams/ 4 ¾ -ounce egg whites, this must be exact

242/ 1 cup milk

9 grams / 2¼ -teaspoons vanilla

300 grams/ 2 7/8-cups cake flour sifted twice

300/ 1 ½-cups grams sugar

20 grams/1 1/3(1-teaspoon)-Tablespoon baking powder

1-teaspoon salt

170 grams/ 12 Tablespoons butter

Prepare your mise en place, spray and flour 2 8×2 pans with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/ 350 degrees F.  In a medium bowl combine egg whites, 60 grams/ ¼ -cup  of milk and vanilla.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, with the paddle attachment,  sift all the dry ingredients and mix on low speed just to blend. Add the butter and remaining 182 gram/3/4 –cup of milk. Continue to mix on low speed till the dry ingredients are moistened, raise the speed to medium and beat for about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and gradually add the egg mixture in thirds, beating for 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the sides.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans, smooth the top with a spatula. The pans will be about half filled. Bake the cakes for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean and the center of the cake springs back when gently pressed. The cakes will shrink as they cool.

Allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes. Loosen the sides with a metal spatula invert onto a cooling rack lined with parchment paper. Re invert to prevent cracking.

Raspberry Sauce

White Chocolate Crème Frosting:

33o grams white Chocolate

165 grams cream

170 grams crème frâiche

215 grams cream, heavy

Place the white chocolate into a food processor, and pulse a few times.

Place 165 grams/ 3/4-cup of cream in a small saucepan, and bring just to a boil over medium-high heat.  Add gelatin, and stir for 30 seconds to dissolve completely.  Pour into a food processor with the motor running, and process until chocolate mixture is smooth.

Whip remaining heavy cream and crème frâiche to soft peaks.

Fold into chocolate mixture.

Vanilla Buttercream Filling:

(For the Roses)

I used a striping bag to fringe the color

227 butter/ about 2 sticks room temperature

65 grams/ 1/4-cup shortening

100 grams/ ½ -cup sugar

30 grams/ 2-Tabblespoon water

75 grams egg whites

15 gram vanilla extract

In the bowl of a standing mixer, with the paddle attachment place the butter, shortening, and beat until smooth and creamy, set aside.

Prepare an Italian Meringue. Once the meringue is cooled beat the beaten butter 1-Tablespoon at a time, add the extract.

Assemble:

From left to right, top to bottom: Mise en place, the cakes, splitting the cakes and second layer of frosting

For the best results place the cooled cake, wrapped in plastic wrap, in the freezer for 20 minutes.After frosting each layer place the cake back into the freezer for 20 to 40 minutes. The first layer of frosting should be thin, the crumb layer. The second layer is the cover layer and then decorate!

  1. Using a cake turntable and a 8-inch cardboard round or square, spread a small amount of  buttercream on the cardboard so the cake adheres.
  2. Slice each cake in half, equally across.
  3. Frost the first layer top, pipe an edge and spread some raspberry sauce.
  4. Repeat the process for each layer.
  5. Frost the sides first and than the top twice.
  6. Decorate with a scallop or shell edge and add the roses.

Voila!

 

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