Naked Cake with Sugared Berries
Naked Cake with Sugared Berries.
I like cake. No, not true. I LOVE cake. I don’t mind baking cakes, because I get to eat said cake. However, I have never considered myself a cake decorator. I can bake you a delicious cake, but the decorating part isn’t my forte. I know my strengths and weaknesses. Doesn’t stop me from trying to do things I’m not the best at though. It does however encourage me to find different paths, and this is one of those paths. The Naked Cake. It’s my new cake best friend. Why? Because it’s a not so good at cake decorating kinda cake. Never mind that it’s currently super trendy. I will be making this cake for all of always.
I think it’s beautiful in it’s simplicity, it’s right up my alley. It’s perfectly imperfect. Just like me. This is a mile high cake. It’s definitely an eye catcher, a conversation starter and please give me a slice of that right now kind of cake. I’ve used two large layers but this could easily be a four layer cake. Because I’m a fan of icing and the outside isn’t heavy on icing, hello naked cake, I’ve compensated by using a hefty portion of icing in between the layers. Problem solved. Finding different paths. I’m good at that. If you’re not an icing fan, use less. No worries.
Naked Cake with Sugared Berries.
Sugared Berries and fresh rosemary were the perfect compliment to the naked cake. You could easily sub out seasonal berries. Cranberries and rosemary would be gorgeous this time of year as well.
xo!
Naked Cake with Sugared Berries
Ingredients
- 2 cups cake flour
- 3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter - room temperature
- 2 cups packed brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- BUTTERCREAM
- 3/4 cup coffee
- Strawberries
- 1 egg white
- granulated sugar - to roll
- fresh rosemary to garnish - optional
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Generously butter two deep sided 8-inch cake pans. Dust with flour, tapping out any excess.
- Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric or stand mixer, beat butter until smooth. Add sugar and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each. Add vanilla. Mix to combine.
- Add flour mixture in 3 portions alternating with buttermilk in 2 portions, beating just until blended after each addition. Gradually add coffee, beat until smooth.
- Divide batter between pans; smooth tops removing any air bubbles. Bake cakes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 40-45 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on rack 10-15 minutes.
- Run butter knife around sides of pans to loosen cakes. Invert cakes onto racks. Cool completely.
- Prepare Buttercream
- To assemble cake: Place a layer of buttercream between cakes. To create a crumb coat, lightly frost as smoothly as possible a light layer of buttercream over entire cake. Transfer to refrigerator to set up for approximately 10 minutes.
- Finish frosting entire cake with remaining buttercream. Taking your icing spatula and scrape the outside, to wipe off some of the icing to create the unfinished naked look.
- To sugar berries: Whip egg white with 1 teaspoon of water until frothy. Using a small paintbrush, paint egg white onto sugar. Immediately dip into sugar to coat. Set aside. Continue with desired amount of strawberries.
- To decorate, Place strawberries into a random mound in center of cake. Garnish with rosemary leaves as desired.
- Store cake covered with dome or carefully with plastic wrap in refrigerator. Bring cake to room temperature prior to slicing/serving.
1 Comment
Valentine's Day is coming! We can help with our CHOCOLATE RECIPES ROUNDUP!
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I love this cake, it’s so pretty and festive!