Gorgeous Organic Edible Flower Cake

I was doing a little bit of surfing on the internet and come across a wonderful organic cake recipe that I believe most of you will love! As soon as I saw this recipe I knew I had to share it with all of you. Judging by the picture of it it does truly look gorgeous. The name of the cake is “Gorgeous Organic Edible Flower Cake”. The recipe is by Laura Klein. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

½ cup whole organic milk
3 organic egg whites
½
teaspoon hazelnut extract
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1
cup plus 2 tablespoons organic cake flour
¾ cup organic
sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3
ounces organic sweet butter, plus a little extra about ½ ounce
to grease cake pan

Buttercream:

1 pound sweet organic butter at room
temperature or soft
1 cup organic sugar
¼ cup filtered
water
5 organic egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tarter
1
tablespoon dark rum or another liquor of your choice
1 teaspoon of
pure vanilla extract

30-40 edible organic geraniums (or other
edible organic flowers of your choice) for decorating top of cake
plus additional petals to put around bottom of cake.

Method:

Preheat oven to 350°

Grease a 9 inch cake pan with removable bottom with one once of
butter and cover bottom with parchment paper. Grease parchment paper
and dust with 2 tablespoons of cake flour.

Mix wet ingredients: milk, egg whites and extracts in a medium
bowl with a fork and set aside.

In a bowl of a heavy duty electric mixer fitted with a paddle
attachment, mix 1 cup of flour, sugar, baking powder and salt on slow
speed. Add butter and continue to beat on slow speed until the
mixture resembles moist crumbs. Do not over beat because mixture will
then become too moist.

Add ½ cup of milk mixture to the moist crumbs and beat at
medium speed for 1 ½ minutes (please follow time guidelines;
otherwise if the batter gets overworked, it becomes rubbery). Add
remaining ½ cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds longer.
Stop mixer and scrape down sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium
speed and beat an additional 20 seconds.

Pour batter into prepared pan and level top with offset spatula.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a tooth pick when inserted in the
middle of the cake comes out clean.

When cake is done baking, let cake rest in pan for about 3-4
minutes. In the meantime grease a cake rack. Invert cake onto greased
cake rack, invert again and let cool completely about 1 ½
hours.

To make buttercream:

In a heavy duty mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat
butter until it is of spreading consistency, soft and smooth. Scrape
butter onto a sheet of plastic wrap, and wrap and set aside until
needed.

Bring ¾ cup sugar and ¼ cup filtered water to a
simmer in a heavy bottomed sauce pan and sugar has dissolved. Do not
stir otherwise crystals will form in the mixture.

Once sugar has dissolved, brush down the sides of the pan with a
pastry brush dipped in cold water and repeat as needed. Increase heat
and using a candy thermometer bring mixture to 248°- 250° -
firm ball stage. It can take up to 30 minutes to reach this point.

In the bowl of a heavy duty mixer, beat the egg whites until foamy
and add the cream of tarter. Beat until soft peaks form. Slowly add
the remaining ¼ cup of sugar and beat until whites are glossy
and firm.

Slowly pour the sugar mixture in a steady stream into the meringue
keeping the stream between the bowl and the whisk so the mixture is
not splattered by the turning whisk. Whip until the mixture has
cooled to room temperature. This could take about 15-20 minutes. You
can tell it is cool by touching the bowl of the mixture (if you do
not let the mixture cool, the butter will melt when added to the
meringue and you don’t want that). Mixture will look like marshmallow
cream.

Add softened butter 1 tablespoon at a time to cooled meringue.
Keep mixing after the last tablespoon of butter has been added and
buttercream is perfectly smooth. Add the rum or chosen liquor and
vanilla and beat to blend.

Use buttercream immediately or keep cool in the refrigerator until
ready to use. Buttercream must be tightly covered and can be stored
in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 days or in the freezer for one month.
Make sure there are not any strong odors in your refrigerator as
buttercream can easily pick up strong odors which will taint your
flavor. To bring buttercream to room temperature when ready to use,
beat in a heavy duty mixer with the paddle attachment to bring back
its smoothness. If buttercream looks curdled do not worry. Keep
beating as its smooth consistency will come back.

Constructing the Cake:

Put the cake on a turntable or a cake plate set on a Lazy-Susan so
you can rotate the cake as you cut it. Mark the middle of the cake @
2-3 inch intervals around the cake with tooth picks. These tooth
picks will be your cutting guide. Using a serrated knife, hold it
against the cake and toothpicks and gently rotate the cake allowing
the knife to create a guide around the cake which becomes your marker
for where to cut. Insert the knife at your midway marker point you
just created and cut the cake using a sawing motion while rotating
the cake; this will create even layers.

Place one cake layer cut side up on your cake plate. Dollop 1/3rd
of the buttercream on top of the cake layer. Using an offset spatula,
neatly spread and smooth buttercream across the top of the cake layer
and down the sides (the sides do not need to be perfect as you will
do this in the end, but do create a smooth even top layer). Place
second layer of cake on top of first cake round covered in
buttercream. Dollop remaining buttercream on top of cake and smooth
over cake and sides with your offset spatula. This is where you can
get creative making inspired patterns with your spatula. Once
buttercream is smooth and you are happy with the texture, place
edible geranium flowers (or other edible flowers of your choice)
around the cake starting with the edge of the cake and working
towards the center. Once the top of the cake is covered place loose
petals around the base of the cake.

jennl | My Bio & Articles

Jennifer is a freelance writer, and has written for various health and environmental blogs, which includes running her own green living blog. Currently she is studying to become a C++ Programmer.