Sweet Vanilla Cake

I call this Sweet Vanilla Cake as it looked sweet to me... sweet feeling, not sweet tasting.

I saw my friends making Korean Style Flower Buttercream deco and they were so pretty. I can't pipe like that, and so when I saw these fresh edible flowers in Cold Storage Sunway Pyramid, I quickly bought them. I planned to make a cake once I get home few days later.

I'm imagining a cake with strong vanilla flavour as the sweet scent complements a sweet looking cake.

To make the vanilla buttercream well infused with vanilla, I chose to make a cooked buttercream so that the heat will create a stronger vanilla flavour. Use extract if you like... but somehow I like to see specks of vanilla seeds on the cream.

I used the sponge recipe from Fruit Pie Cake and modified it again, and I like it even more this time.
I am happy with my frosting this time, as the cake looked so smooth :)
Got some runaway crumbs somewhere... but not that obvious unless you want to nitpick it.

There was no occasion and my kids call no occasion cakes as 'Eating Cakes'.
But I think this makes a nice Mother's Day cake.

Sweet Vanilla Cake

by WendyinKK 

Meringue
6 egg whites from Grade B egg (around 60-63gm each)
110gm sugar
1/4 tsp vinegar or pinch of cream of tartar

Yolk batter
6 egg yolks
60gm melted butter
30gm sugar
4 Tbsp water
1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped, or 1 tsp vanilla extract
110gm cake flour
25gm cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder

Topping
1 portion of Vanilla Flour Buttercream
Edible flowers for decoration

1. Line the base of two 2 inch tall pan (8  inch diameter). Lightly grease the sides.
2. Preheat oven at 180C.
3. Mix egg yolks, vanilla seeds, melted butter and sugar together. Then add in water. Mix.
4. Sift flour together with cornstarch and baking powder into the yolk mixture. Mix until smooth. Set aside.
5. Prepare meringue. Beat egg whites until frothy. Add in vinegar or cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks. Gradually add in sugar and beat the meringue until stiff (hooked).
6. Add 1/3 of the meringue into the yolk batter and fold. Add another 1/3 of the egg whites and fold.
7. Pour the yolk batter into the remaining meringue and scrape the yolk batter bowl clean. Fold the batter until even with quick strokes.
8. Pour the batter into the two lined pans and level.
9. Put into the oven on the middle rack, and bake for 30 minutes or until done.

Assembly:
1. Scrape off the crust from each cake and sandwich with some vanilla buttercream.
2. Apply a thin layer of buttercream all over cake, and chill the cake for 30 minutes. Chill the remaining cream as well.
3. Remove cake from fridge and give it a nice smooth layer of frosting.
4. Decorate with cleaned edible flowers.

they wilted a bit after 3 days...