It was the last week of summer, and I wanted to round it up it with a delight and nothing is more delightful than cake. I love cake. To know me is to know most manner of baked goods brings me joy, except custard in tarts. Custard in general I find gross; any kind of past type thing or oats… I find oats unappealing but, in a cookie, heavenly. Gails does the best oatmeal cookie by the way, and I am taking no dissenting arguments.
Anyways, back to cake, this cake is rather special, it involves alcohol that can be substituted for non, but this is adult only that features one of the best and delicious frizzantes from California I have ever had. It’s a delight, I tell you, a true delight.
Cook’s notes:
Room temperature: I used to be the person who bulked at room temperature because I never seem to remember to bring things out of the fridge, but it makes a difference to bring things to room temperature so do bear this in mind when baking. Bring it out the night before to come to overnight.
Is it a pinch is it a dash: eyeball it and you’ll be fine.
Strawberries in pastry: I typically do not like strawberries, fresh ones, in baked goods. Strawberries are wet, too moist and can and will affect the texture of a cake; I tend to avoid having these inside the cake at most I will place this as a topping, but in pastries… it’s on a case-by-case basis. Rather, dry strawberries but I also have an aversion to dry fruit so do you.
Butter in Icing: some recipes for frosting does not include butter and the texture may suffer because they call for milk or some liquid which will most certainly equate to a running mix… in my case I can never reverse the cause, but butter mixed with cream cheese gives it such a lovely texture that sticks,
Icing / powdered sugar: ALWAYS, ALWAYS SIFT YOUR POWDERED SUGAR. THEN SIFT IT AGAIN. Take it from someone who has always regretted skipping this step but sift your powdered sugar to a fine texture and you will not regret it.
And now, we bake.
INGREDIENTS;
The Cake Batter:
- 250g spelt flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 0.6g baking soda (this equates to a little more than a pinch)
- 141g of butter
- 225g of caster sugar
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 egg yolk at room temperature
- 187g buttermilk at room temperature: split into two equal measures.
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tsp la fantasia wine
Frosting:
- 4 oz cream cheese at room temperature
- 4 oz butter at room temperature
- 260g powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1 teaspoon fantasia wine.
Optional strawberry topping:
- Extra-large strawberries stalked
- 1 cup La Fantasia wine
How To:
- Preheat the oven to 175ºC
- Cream two round 9-inch cake tins with butter and dust the sides with flour for ease of extraction. For added protection, line the base of the tin with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl combine your dry ingredients, flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and then split these into thirds.
- In a stand-alone or handheld mixer, soften the butter if it is not already softened, but more important his is to make the butter creamy. About three minutes.
- Add the caster sugar to the creamy butter and mix until light and fluffy. Here’s what I know about this step in baking, the timing is never as they say it is, it needs a bit more time, so it is left to you to eyeball this. Once the texture is light and fluffy and just before you think you need to do it a little more, stop. Its perfect.
- Add one egg at a time and beathing for 50 seconds, after each.
- Add in the yolk and beat for a full minute.
- Add the first third of the flour and combine the mixture until just; as soon as the flour is combined, add in the first third of butter milk. Combine until just.
- Add in the second 3rd of the flour again combine until just. Then add in the butter milk and as in before mix until just combined.
- Add in the last third and combine until the flour us incorporated.
- Divide the batter into the two prepared cake tins
- Bake for about 30 minutes. Start checking it at 20 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVER IN THE FIRST 10 MINUTES.
- Once baked, remove from the over and place it on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then remove the cakes carefully from the tins and leave to cool completely.
OPTIONAL FILLING:
- Soak the strawberry in the cup of La Fantasia wine and let it sit in the Fridge for the duration of the bake.
ICING:
- In a stand-alone mixer combine the butter and cream cheese until well combined.
- Add in the flavouring, vanilla and la fantasia wine.
- On low speed, add in the powdered sugar one cup at a time and combine until it meets your desired consistency.
- Once the cake has been cooled completely, proceed to ice the cake how you please.
- If you are using the optional filling, slice the strawberries and place them on top of the iced cake.
- Bon Appetit!