These shamrock shaped cakes are the perfect St. Patrick's day treat! The yuzu is such an interesting flavor and goes so well with the earl grey frosting. If you don't have yuzu juice (I use this one) then you can substitute lime juice. You can choose how many shades of green you'd like to do. I chose to do 3 colors and mix and match the colors in each cake.
This Swiss meringue earl grey buttercream is absolutely amazing!! It's so fluffy and the tea flavor helps cut the sweetness of the frosting.
I found it easiest to pipe the frosting on each cake by lining the edges and the filling in the middle.
Recipe
Makes: Time:
Ingredients
Cake:
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
5 tbsp yuzu juice (or sub fresh lime juice)
Green and yellow food coloring
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Buttercream:
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/8 cup (6 grams) loose Earl Grey tea
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoons egg whites (2-3 large eggs)
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
Cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 13 by 18 sheet pan with parchment paper.
Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl and set aside.
In a large bowl, beat butter until smooth. Add sugar and beat to blend. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then the lime juice, lime peel. Batter may look curdled, but that’s just fine.
Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, in 3 additions.
Separate the batter into 3 bowls to add the food coloring. I used a mixture of green and yellow to get an electric green color. Start with the darkest color, then the lightest, and finish with the middle color. This ensures an even gradient of color.
Spread each color into 1/3 of the pan. It doesn't really matter how even it is, just try and get the batter as flat as possible.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely before removing from pan.
Frosting:
Place 1 stick of butter in a saucepan with the loose tea. Heat over medium heat until the butter melts, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the tea steep for 5 minutes more. Strain the butter through a fine-meshed sieve set over a bowl and refrigerate it until it reaches the same consistency as softened butter, 20 to 30 minutes.
Place the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk them together by hand to combine. Fill a medium saucepan with a few inches of water and place it over medium-high heat. Place the mixer bowl on top of the saucepan to create a double boiler. Whisking intermittently, heat the egg mixture until it reaches 160 F (70 C) on a candy thermometer or is hot to the touch.
Carefully fit the mixer bowl onto the stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, beat the egg white mixture on high speed for 8 to 10 minutes, until it holds medium stiff peaks. When done, the outside of the mixer bowl should return to room temperature and no residual heat should be escaping from the meringue out of the top of the bowl. Stop the mixer and swap out the whisk attachment for the paddle.
With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, tea infused butter, and remaining stick of butter, a couple tablespoons at a time. Once incorporated, turn the mixer to medium high and beat until the buttercream is silky smooth, 3 to 5 minutes.
Assembly:
Flip the cake out onto a cutting board. Use a cookie cutter (I used a shamrock one to celebrate St. Patrick's Day) and cut out as many sections of cake as you can.
Take one piece of cake and pipe a layer of frosting, place another piece of cake on top and add another layer of frosting. You can do this a third time if you want to use all 3 colors in each cake or you can just mix and match colors.
Optional: garnish the top of each cake with lime zest.
Recipe adapted from A Farm Girls Dabbles Key Lime Baby Cakes Recipe and A Beautiful Plate's London Fog Earl Grey Buttercream.
Comments