THE SNOWFLAKE CAKE

This is the second dessert for the Steel Mags dinner last night and I love the festive look and I will say it was worth every bit of trouble to make this cake.

A day or two before you make the cake you will make the fondant stars & snowflakes.  As you can see I used the pre-made Wilton fondant.  It is VERY easy to work with and the end product is really beautiful.  Just assemble some star & snowflake cookie cutters.  I have a good collection of them but if you do not I will add under resource the ones that are really necessary. I ended up just using the larger pearls, clear sprinkles and glitter crystals. It may seem obvious but please note you may only use food products on these, edible glitter and sprinkles. 

Just roll out the fondant, cut out your shapes and then let them sit overnight on either Silpat mats or parchment paper. What you are seeing here are stars & snowflakes cut from one cutter and then to get the true snowflake look you go back with a small teardrop cookie cutter and cut out those shapes to attain the snowflake look. They need to dry overnight.  If you did not have that option you could cut them out and put them in the oven with just the oven light on for several hours and turn them over every hour or so as they need to become almost completely hard before you can then put the edible glitter on them.

This is what they look like after the sprinkles and glitter applied.  Using a small brush you brush them lightly with vodka (just enough wetness for the glitter to stick, you do not want too much or it will wick through the star and make it wet). I just bought one of those little airline size bottles of vodka at the liquor store. I wanted some of them to be good from both sides and so I would do the process, put them in the oven (with ONLY the oven light on) then turn them over and do the same process. You can see that I cut one of the bigger ones in half to add a little more interest.

 

Once you have baked your cake and made your buttercream frosting you are ready to assemble - the easy part as you have already done all the work - it really is easy to put together.  No right or wrong (I like that) I added the pearls all the way around the cake and then I just put snowflakes and stars all around then added more to the top.  It really is a pretty cake.

  Mrs. Billet's White Cake

Ingredients

• Parchment paper
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 cups cake flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 5 egg whites
• Vanilla butter cream frosting
• Garnish: fondant snowflakes

Preparation

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 3 (8-inch) round cake pans; line bottoms with parchment paper, and grease and flour paper.
2. 2. Stir together milk and vanilla.
3. 3. Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Sift together flour and baking powder; add to butter mixture alternately with milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition.
4. 4. Beat egg whites at medium speed until stiff peaks form; gently fold into batter. Pour batter into prepared pans.
5. 5. Bake at 350° for 20 to 23 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks; discard parchment paper. Cool completely (about 40 minutes).
6. 6. Spread Vanilla Buttercream Frosting between layers (about 1 cup per layer) and on top and sides of cake.

Buttercream Frosting:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 (32-oz.) package powdered sugar
• 6 to 7 Tbsp. milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Beat butter and salt at medium speed with an electric mixer 1 to 2 minutes or until creamy; gradually add powdered sugar alternately with 6 Tbsp. milk, beating at low speed until blended and smooth after each addition. Stir in vanilla. If desired, beat in remaining 1 Tbsp. milk, 1 tsp. at a time, until frosting reaches desired consistency.

Cooks Notes: I only had two 8" cake pans so I baked the third layer in an aluminum disposable pan and when I baked them the cakes in the regular pan became brown around the edges before the center was done while the cake in the disposable pan baked perfectly. I know my oven temperature is spot on so I have no explanation for this but I plan on making this cake for Christmas day and I will use three disposable pans.  Also, the batter for this cake will be much stiffer than a normal cake batter but will loosen somewhat when you add the egg whites.

Just to gild the Lilly it is after all Christmas, they had homemade peppermint ice cream to go with the cake.

Peppermint Ice Cream - Using Cuisinart Machine

---

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups whole milk
1-1/8 cups granulated sugar
3 cups heavy cream
1-1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
1 t pure peppermint extract
3/4 cups crushed peppermint candies

Instructions

In a medium mixing bowl, use a hand mixer on low speed to combine the milk and granulated sugar until the sugar is dissolved, about 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream peppermint extract and vanilla. Turn the machine on; pour the mixture into freezer bowl, and let mix until thickened, about 20 to 25 minutes. When you see the ice cream getting thick gently fold in the 3/4 cups crushed peppermint candies. The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture.

- See more at: http://www.cuisinart.com/recipes/desserts/95.html#sthash.OXrNfumF.dpuf

---

Resource

Edible pearls, sparkles and glitter, Walmart and specialty baking stores and online sellers
Recipe source, Southern Living Magazine
Tear drop cookie cutter, Hobby Lobby
Link to snowflake set including the tear drop, Amazon
Red Christmas house, Grandin Road
Ice Cream Containers, $ store

Thank you for stopping by.