I’m back with another cake post. This cake was for a bake sale we had at work. I’m usually against bringing baked goods into work1 but decided to us this as an opportunity to practice making an OTT layer cake.
The Process
Ideation
The inspiration for this actually came from an event next month, the AYFP zine launch which I plan to attend. I thought it might be fun to make a cake for it and thought about how I might bring the yarn/fibre theme into a cake which led me to the latticed rhubarb idea. We’re on the last legs of rhubarb season so I froze a bunch of stalk a few weeks ago and made some rhubarb and star anise jam (I love the sweet/warm/bitter combination).
With the rhubarb bit decided the natural pairing was strawberries. I mentioned in my previous newsletter that I’ve been really enjoying SIFT and in it Nicola Lamb extolls the virtues of roasting fruit so rather than use a plain jam, I decided to roast the strawberries with brown sugar.
Putting it together
I made the olive oil base from Natasha Pickowicz’s stunning cookbook, More than Cake which is one of the best baking books I’ve come across in a long time. Pickowicz has such a great sense of flavour and writes very complete, easy-to-follow recipes. The olive oil cake is no exception. It’s one of my favourite layer cake bases— structured enough to hold up but remarkably tender and the flavour is great. The olive oil is present but not overpowering. I made 1.5x the recipe and spread it out over two sheet pans.
I then made a swiss meringue buttercream which is honestly my go-to frosting. The tonka bean was honestly a happy accident. I just ran out of vanilla paste and think of tonka bean as a nice alternative.
For the filling, I landed on a mascarpone2 mousse, also from More than Cake as it seemed like the kind of thing that would add a bit of richness without being too heavy.
Finally, the lattice. Since the rhubarb had been frozen, the stalks were already quite soft/watery so I was just looking to make them a bit sweeter. I figured poaching was probably my best bet. To do this I sliced the stalks fairly thinly and then placed them in a pan with brown sugar, lemon rind, and a star anise and let them soften for a few minutes before taking out and letting them cool.
Then it was on to assembly. There were five cake layers so I alternated jams between them along with mousse between each layer. Popped that in the fridge for a bit while my buttercream softened. Applied a crumb coat, back in the fridge, added a final layer of buttercream before weaving the rhubarb stalks for the lattice, trimming the edges with kitchen scissors, piping the trim, and adding the strawberries.
The notes:
Overall I’m really happy with the outcome. It was moist, sweet but not cloying, had enough structure to survive the 16ish hours between assembly and serving and the layers maintained definition. Some things I’d change for the future:
My mousse was a bit runny, I think it might be because I over-whipped the double cream before adding in the egg yolk/mascarpone mixture.
I think the strawberries on top look so silly with the little white blobs of buttercream under them! Not sure how I would have handled this differently, though. I like the addition of strawberries to the decor! Maybe on the side of the cake would have been better
5 layers meant that it was taller than my cake carrier allowed 😳 lesson learned
I want a cake turntable!
The outfit
Honestly the making of this cake was spread out over many days so there isn’t one single outfit but here’s what I wore on Sunday when I roasted the strawberries. I also wore this to go get a scoop of lemon gooseberry ice cream from Soft & Swirly and forage for fennel. I’m happy to say I was successful and managed to find some along the hackney canals. The pollen has been used to make a strawberry jam :)
It’s a two piece set from the Comme des Garcons SS08 collection and one of my favourite pieces to wear during the summer. My girlfriend says that Comme des Garcons clothing has the distinct ability to make anyone dumpling-shaped (what a great euphemism for unflattering) and I think this set does it particularly well. The shoes are a Comme x Dr. Martens collab I got at the Dover Street Market Market sale last year.
The aftermath
So in addition to a bake sale, there were a panel of judges (a work-GBBO if you will) and I’m chuffed to say: my cake won first place (and there was some tough competition— I sampled a beautiful cherry frangipane tart). The prize was a baking class3 so I’m hoping to take one where I learn more about lamination.
Thanks for reading! If you liked this post please do subscribe! By the time this is poster I’ll be backpacking in Norway so maybe I’ll do a writeup of the hut food when I get back. No Comme on the trails, though. It’s all functional gear up there.
This is perhaps a controversial take, but I stand by it. Have you ever seen a woman in power at a [tech] workplace who regularly brings in baked goods? I have not.
Until writing this up, I thought it was spelled marscapone, not mascarpone!
A somewhat funny prize, but I’m excited! I have growth mindset and new things to learn!