Earl Grey & Vanilla Bean Birthday Cake

 

It's my mother's birthday again!  My mom loves tea, so I decided to make her a little earl grey cake this year.  Since earl grey is a pretty mild, delicate flavor, I decided to accompany it with a subtle vanilla bean buttercream.

My mom also loves roses.  Last year, I made her some pink chocolate plastic roses for her chocolate raspberry cake.  This year, I've done more roses in fondant and used them to hold each of the five candles.  I made them a dusky blue color to go with the earl grey cake, and added a little shimmer using pearl dust.

To make the roses, I once again followed Wilton's tutorial, with a couple modifications.  After making the rose center, I pushed a candle into it.  I also did four blossom layers instead of three to make a fuller rose.

For the cake recipe, I started with a Chai Cake recipe from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes.  Instead of using chai tea bags, I used earl grey and left the chai spices out.  I've followed this recipe before, and found it to be a little dry.  In an effort to offset this dryness, I decided to do six layers - each with some creamy buttercream in between.  I was hoping that the abundant buttercream would make the cake more moist.

I still thought this was a little dry, but everyone else (my mom included) said the buttercream did its job and the cake seemed nice and moist.  I was pretty happy with the earl grey - it made for a really nice, interesting cake flavor.  I may re-visit this recipe to try and tone down the dryness, but for now it made a great little birthday cake.

Happy birthday, Mom!

Earl Grey & Vanilla Bean Birthday Cake

Earl Grey Cake
Adapted from Huntsman and Wynne's Chai Cake (Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes).  Makes 3 6-inch round cake layers.

Ingredients
⅔ cup milk
4 earl grey tea bags
2 whole eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1¼ cups + 2 tablespoons (160 grams) cake flour
1 cup sugar
2¼ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
blue or purple food coloring (optional)

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 350° F.
2. Line three 6" round cake pans with parchment paper.  Grease and flour.
3. In a small saucepan, heat the milk until simmering.  Remove from heat, add the tea bags, and steep for 5 minutes.  Remove the tea bags and allow the milk to cool completely.
4. Whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla in a small bowl.  Set aside.
5. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
6. Add the butter and cooled milk to the dry ingredients.  Beat on low until well-blended.  Raise the speed to medium and beat for another minute.
7. Add the egg/vanilla mixture in three additions, beating well after each addition.
8. If desired, beat in food coloring.
9. Divide the batter between the three pans and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
10. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Remove from the pan and allow to cool completely.

Vanilla Bean Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients
4 egg whites
1¼ cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
½ tablespoon vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped
pinch of salt

Method

1. Cube the butter and leave out at room temperature (make sure you don't leave it over the dishwasher or oven or it will get too warm).
2. Whisk the eggs whites and sugar together in the top part of a double broiler.  Make sure that the water in the bottom part is simmering, not boiling.  Keep whisking until a candy thermometer reads 160° F.
3. Transfer to a stand mixer with the whisk attachment installed.  Whip at a medium speed until the mixture is at room temperature (the bowl feels neutral when you touch it).
4. Lower the mixing speed and add the butter, one cube at a time.  Keep mixing until there is an obvious change in the consistency of the buttercream - from soupy to much more solid (you can usually hear the mixer start making different noises).  If it stays soupy for a very long time, throw the bowl in the refrigerator for ten minutes or so and retry.
5. Add the vanilla extract, vanilla bean, and salt and keep mixing until they are incorporated.

Assembly

1. Level and torte (cut in half) each cake layer so that you have 6 even layers.  I like using a cake leveler to do this.
2. Place your first cake layer on your decorating surface.  Spread a thin layer of buttercream evenly over the cake layer.  Place the next layer on top, and repeat.  Repeat with the remaining layers.
3. Spread a thin coat of buttercream over the top and sides of the cake.  Don't worry if you get crumbs in the frosting - that's what this layer is for!  Place the cake in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to allow the frosting to set.
4. Remove your cake from the refrigerator and frost with a final, thicker layer of buttercream.
5. Top with fondant rose candles if desired.