Belated Bridal Shower cake post

Hello all!
This is very belated post on the cake I made for my friend's bridal shower! (Her bridal shower was in April ...oops!) Better late than never :)

This was my first time trying a naked layer cake and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! The cake was nice and moist and not too sweet! It wasn't too difficult or time consuming either! So give it a go :D

Red Velvet Layer Cake with Chocolate Frosting
Recipe adapted from Sweetest Menu

Ingredients

Red Velvet Cake

350g (2 1/2 cups) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
20g (1/4 cup) cocoa powder
300g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
230g unsalted butter
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla essence
240ml (1 cup) greek yoghurt
2 tsp white vinegar
4 tsp red food colouring
60ml (1/4 cup) milk

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease and line two 8 inch round cake tins.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. Add sugar and whisk.
3. Melt the butter in the microwave.
4. In a separate mixing bowl, add eggs, vanilla and butter and whisk together until smooth. Add the greek yoghurt and stir.
5. In a small bowl mix together the red food colouring and vinegar.
6. Add the wet mixture into the dry mixture along with the food colouring and start to gently fold. Add milk and stir until just combined.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tins and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Place cakes on wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Frosting

230g unsalted butter, softened at room temp
150g (1 cup) dark chocolate
625g (5 cups) icing sugar
60ml (1/4 cup) milk

8. Place butter in large mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer until pale and creamy.
9. Melt the chocolate in a microwave and set aside to cool.
10. Once butter is pale and creamy, add one cup of icing sugar and one tablespoon of milk and beat on low until icing sugar is incorporated. Add the rest of the icing sugar, one cup at a time, and the milk, one tablespoon at a time, until thick and creamy.
11. Add melted and cooled chocolate to the buttercream until chocolate is completely mixed through. 
12. Level the cakes using serrated knife and set the leftover cake aside for decoration.
13. Place one of the cakes onto a turntable then gently frost the top. Add second cake layer on top and frost the sides and top of the cake. Scrape the buttercream from the side of the cake to get the "naked" cake look. Place cake in the fridge while you make the ganache. Set aside the remainder buttercream for decoration.

Chocolate ganache

150g (1 cup) dark chocolate melts
180ml (3/4 cup) thickened cream
Chocolate malt balls to decorate

14. Place chocolate melts in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, add cream and heat on medium heat until just before cream boils. Immediately pour cream over chocolate, cover the bowl with a plate and leave for 3-5 minutes. Whisk mixture until smooth and creamy. Place in fridge for 5-10 minutes to thicken.
15. To decorate cake, gently pour chocolate ganache over the top and gently push drips over the sides of the cake. Leave to set. Before serving, pipe buttercream to the top of the cake. Add chocolate malt balls and sprinkle remaining cake crumb.

Nice even layers yay!

Hope I can continue blogging regularly ^^" till next post~~

Bridal shower cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a friend's bridal shower! I also made the cake which I will show you in another post ^^ This recipe is great to make after you make the Chocolate lava cake (see previous post) because you will have 2 leftover egg whites which you can use for these cupcakes (partly why I chose this recipe).

Very Vanilla Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients
210g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp salt
200g caster sugar
115g unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 large egg whites
60g greek yoghurt/plain yoghurt/sour cream
180ml milk
2 tsp vanilla essence
seeds scraped from 1/2 split vanilla bean (if you have)

Vanilla frosting
115g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
240-300g soft icing sugar
60ml thickened cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
seeds scraped from 1/2 split vanilla bean (if you have)
pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Line muffin tin with 12 cupcakes liners and set aside.
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a separate bowl. Whisk in the sugar. Whisk in egg whites, yoghurt, milk and vanilla essence until combined. Add scraped seeds from 1/2 split vanilla bean.
3. Slowly mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients until smooth. 
4. Divide batter among 12 cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. For frosting, beat softened butter on medium speed using an electric or stand mixer. Beat until smooth and creamy (around 3 minutes). Add icing sugar, cream, vanilla essence, vanilla bean seeds with the mixer running. Increase to high speed and beat (around 3 minutes). Add more icing sugar if frosting is too thin or more cream if too thick. Add salt to taste. 
6. Transfer frosting to piping bag and frost cooled cupcakes. (I topped these with malt chocolate balls)

I brought a few cupcakes to the cafe to try and sell and I made my first sale :D The lady said they looked really pretty and tasted delicious *Confidence boost*! Too bad I am no longer working there... so can't sell anything else! Maybe I should set up a stall at a market...