This is my standard, most used, best recipe for the base of a cake decorated with fondant. I tried a lot of them in the beginning and there was always something not quite to my liking. That until I discovered this recipe. It is so easy and quick to make, absolutely no trouble, it tastes great and will leave you enough patience and energy to deal with the really complicated part of the process: the actual decorating of the cake.
The taste of the cake is very good but pretty neutral, that is you can fill it with just about anything you like, without worrying that the flavors won’t go well together. If you prefer a chocolate cake for a change (I rarely do) than you can add 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons more liquid to the batter. To flavor the cake I sometimes replace the buttermilk/yogurt with egg liquor (Advocaat) or Bailey’s. These versions are really worth trying too, you will love the result.
You can fill the cake with the following filling or any other filling you like. If you use a filling which contains yogurt, heavy cream and stuff like that and wish to cover the cake in fondant than have a look at this post, it will show you how you can achieve that without the risk of having your fondant melting after the work is done.
If you fill the cake with a buttercream or ganache filling, than just cut and fill your cake the way you normally do.
I made this Old Man Cake in November for my brother-in-law’s 40th birthday. I wanted to make a funny cake, so I thought depicting him as an already old man would do it. It did, it was a laugh.
The inside of a cake was a wonderful recipe created of a friend of mine, featuring blueberries and sour cream. The way to fill the cake was described in this post.
Serves: 12-14
- 4 eggs
- 200 g/ 1 cup/ 7 oz sugar
- 200 ml/ 1 cup and 2 tablespoons/ 6.5 oz fl.oz buttermilk or plain yogurt or egg liquor or Bailey’s
- 200 ml/ 1 cup and 2 tablespoons/ 6.5 oz fl.oz vegetable oil
- 300 g/2 ½ cups/ 10.5 oz plain flour
- 1 packet/ 14 g/ 2 teaspoons baking powder
- For the chocolate version add:
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons more liquid
- Ingredients for the filling:
- 1 glass blueberries (200/ 7 oz g after draining, about 330 ml/ ca 1⅓ cups liquid reserved)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons corn starch
- 4 leaves gelatine
- 100 g/ ½ cup/ 3.5 oz quark
- 200 g/ ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons /7 oz sour cream
- 200 g/ ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons/ 7 oz heavy cream
- 100 g/ ½ cup/ 3.5 oz sugar (or to taste)
- the juice of half a lemon (or to taste)
- Ingredients for the buttercream:
- 225 g/ 2 sticks/ 8 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
- 225 g/ 1 ¾ cups/ 4 oz powdered sugar
- vanilla extract to taste
- 1 egg yolk
- For the base:
- Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Butter your springform and sprinkle it with some plain flour. Shake the form well to coat it with the flour, than shake out the excess flour.
- Break the eggs into a large bowl, add the sugar and beat with a hand held mixer until light and frothy. Add half of the yogurt/buttermilk/liquor, mix well, than add the half of the oil. Mix again and repeat with the rest of the yogurt and oil.
- Mix together and sieve the flour and the baking soda. If you wish to make a chocolate cake, add the cocoa powder now and don't forget to add the 2 extra tablespoons of liquid to the wet ingredients. Gently mix the flour mixture with the wet ingredients, stirring until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared springform and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes.
- Remove the cake from the oven and leave it in the form for about 15 minutes. Take out of the form, place on a wire rack and leave to cool completely. You can then cut the cake following these instructions and fill it with the sour cream filling or any other filling you like.
- If you use my filling, you will need 3 layers of the cake. Place the first layer of cake on a cake platter and place a metal ring around it. Fit the cut stripe of cake into the ring. For more details on this procedure look here.
- For the filling:
- Drain the blueberries reserving all the liquid. In a small bowl mix the corn starch with about 5 tablespoons of the blueberry juice and the 2 tablespoons sugar.
- Pour the rest of the liquid into a small pan and bring to a boil. Whisk in the corn starch and bring to a boil again while whisking all the time. Remove from the heat and stir in the blueberries. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes, than pour this mixture on the first layer of the prepared base. Leave it to cool down while you make the rest of the filling.
- For more details about working with gelatine, see this post.
- Soak the gelatine in cold water for about 10 minutes.
- In the meanwhile mix together the quark, sour cream, sugar and lemon juice.
- Squeeze the gelatine gently to remove the excess water, place in a small pan and dissolve gently on a very low flame. It will not take long and please don't let the gelatine boil, it will be ruined.
- Remove from the heat and start adding the quark mixture, tablespoon by tablespoon. Only add the next tablespoon after the one before has been completely incorporated. Place this mixture in the fridge until it begins to set and in the meanwhile beat the heavy cream until stiff. Gently add the heavy cream to the mixture.
- Place the second layer of cake on top of the blueberries and press it gently. Pour the quark mixture on top and cover with the third cake layer. Place the cake in the fridge until it sets, I prefer to leave it there overnight.
- For the buttercream:
- Place the butter into a bowl and beat until white and frothy. Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until completely incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and the egg yolk and mix everything together very well.
- Use the buttercream to frost the cake than cover the cake with fondant.
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