My rosebush has started to bloom again (although I hacked it back aggressively last weekend – I should have done so in February, but never found the time). So when I came across this rose cake recipe, I felt inspired. Technically speaking, though, you only “need” roses to decorate, and even that is optional; as long as you have rose water, you’re good to go (I always have some in my pantry because it keeps indefinitely). I think this would be great with crystalized flowers, too.
The cake itself was a little wet for my taste, though, so maybe I’d just use a standard recipe and substitute rose water for some of the liquid, although it can be hard to scale down recipes for a 6-inch pan. I didn’t slice the cake in half because it just hadn’t risen enough. I wonder if it’s something I’m doing, because this seems to be a recurring problem for me, even in different cities/kitchens/climates. It’s not that the cake rises unevenly, or that it doesn’t rise at all, just that it doesn’t rise enough for me to be able to slice it in half and not have it tear or crumble on me. Perhaps things would be different if I used butter instead of margarine, but that would be playing with fire in my case…
For me, the frosting was the best part of this. I imagine you could easily double or triple the amount to frost a regular-sized cake or cupcakes!
For the cake
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter or margarine, softened
½ cup sugar
2 Tbsp. rose water
1 large egg
¾ cup flour
1/8 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ cup buttermilk (lactose-free milk with a splash of lemon juice)
For the buttercream
1 stick unsalted margarine, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 ½ Tbsp. rose water
2 oz. white chocolate, chopped
rose buds, dried or fresh, for garnish (optional)
For the cake
Preheat the oven to 350 °F and grease a 6” round cake pan. Line the bottom with a round of parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, beat together with an electric mixer the butter, sugar, and rose water. Beat very well, about 1-2 minutes.
Add the egg and beat until well combined, about 15 seconds.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add half of this to the batter and beat lightly. Stir in half of the buttermilk and continue beating. Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat, then stir in the remaining buttermilk.
Scrap the batter into the pan, smoothing the top and bake on a small sheet pan for 37-39 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Let cool on a wire rack in the pan. Carefully remove the cake from the pan once it has cooled and set aside.
For the buttercream
In a medium bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and rose water and beat until combined.
Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate in a bowl in the microwave at 50% power for 30-second intervals. Stir between each interval. (You can also do this with a double boiler.)
Stream the slightly-cooled white chocolate into the buttercream, and beat to combine.
Slice the cake in half evenly to make 2 layers (see note above).
To frost the cake, layer slightly more than half of the buttercream on top of 1 half of the cake. Gently place the second layer on top. Frost the top as you wish. (For example, use a piping bag to make dollops of frosting all around the edges, then use a spatula to press the dollop down and towards the middle of the cake. Or just frost it with a knife.) Decorate the cake with rose buds and serve.
2 comments:
I will show my cutting the cake in half technique this summer. But generally I find that no regular cake rises enough to slice in 2, rather, I prefer to use a pan with 3" sides and literally make the cake taller.
Right, but for a pan with a set diameter, then you need more batter, no? I hate having to do math and cross my fingers that physics still works with those quantities...
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