Cheat Berry Macaron Birthday Cake
Homemade chocolate layer cake, chocolate buttercream and topped with fresh berries and store bought (or homemade if you prefer) macarons. This very simple cake makes for an impressive spectacle, without all the hard work.
Making or Buying Macarons
Although I have made homemade macarons in the past, when you have a birthday party to organize, a complex cake can be too much to take on. On this occasion I bought myself some macarons from Whole Foods, choosing to alternative raspberry and salted caramel flavor. It works wonderfully for a party because every slice can be topped with a macaron, what a treat!
If you are baking for a peanut butter fan, you could make some of my chocolate peanut butter macarons. Buying macarons can be expensive but as it was a birthday celebration I allowed myself the cheat!
Buttercream Preferences
Traditional buttercream decoration makes use of a thin crumb coat which is chilled, scraped into the perfect shape and chilled again before adding a second perfect layer of buttercream. Not only is this time consuming, but I find it can result in too much buttercream. How often have you cleared party plates to find each has a hunk of buttercream left scraped tot he side? It’s just too much for most people. I personally love the look of the crumb coat, a little sponge peeking through for a little texture.
Cheat Berry Macaron Birthday Cake
Ingredients
- For the sponge:
- 2 cups (300g) all-purpose flour
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (75g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup canola oil (or vegetable)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
- For the buttercream:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3 cups confectioners sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 to 4 Tbs heavy whipping cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- For decorating:
- 18-20 macarons
- 6oz raspberries
- 7-8 strawberries
- Sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 9″ cake pans and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Using a hand mixer (or stand mixer), mix in the canola oil, milk, egg and vanilla extract until combined.
- Add the hot water and stir the mixture into a smooth, thin batter. It will seem very runny but this is normal for a classic hot water cake.
- Pour the cake batter evenly into the two 9″ pans.
- Bake for about 20 minutes. An inserted toothpick should come out clean.
- Allow your cakes to cool completely before removing from pans.
- Cream the butter (medium-high speed) for around 3minutes, until it looks light in color.
- Add the powdered sugar gradually, one cup at a time and mix on low speed until combined with butter. In between each cup of sugar, add some of the vanilla extract (until full amount added) and beat the buttercream for another 2 minutes.
- Spread the chocolate buttercream on one of the sponges and sandwich the layers together. Then, cover the entire sandwich cake in a thin layer of buttercream and smooth with a spatula.
- Place the macarons edge up on the top of the cake, pushing slightly into buttercream to hold in place. Create a circle by placing the macarons around the edge of the cake.
- Fill the space in the center of the cake with fresh raspberries and cut the strawberries into quarters to place around the perimeter at the cake base.
- Add sprinkles (optional) to the top of the raspberries for extra birthday vibes. I used gold and white balls.
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