Lemon Rose Cake with Strawberry Gelée

The royal wedding is just 2 days away and I can't wait! The bride and groom will look gorgeous no doubt but I am more excited about the cakes! There will be two cakes. One of which will be a traditional cream and white multilayered fruit cake decorated with edible flowers of the four home nation - English rose, Scottish thistle, Welsh daffodil and Irish shamrock. This is made by Fiona Cairns and will be the centrepiece of the Buckingham Palace reception. The other will be a McVities chocolate biscuit cake specially requested by Prince William. A biscuit cake???  Apparently, it will be unbaked and made with dark chocolate and crushed Rich tea biscuits. Sounds like a giant chocolate-covered cheesecake crust to me. I can't wait to see how that turns out!

With the excitement of the fourthcoming royal wedding, I thought I'd post this long-awaited rose cake recipe before the wedding fever is over. I made this cake for Tate and Lyle Sugars “Let Them Eat Cake” Competition a couple of weeks ago and promised and follow-up recipe. A little late, but better than never right?! This cake has 3 major components (not counting the red sprinkles). The lemon yogurt cake (recipe adapted from The Waitakere Redneck's Kitchen), a strawberry gelée filling in the middle and a rose-design exterior made with buttercream frosting (detailed tutorial at iambaker here). The strawberry gelée filling was a last minute decision and was an idea I got from the Baking Obsession. I wanted something different, something extra in terms of flavour and texture. And the outcome was what I wanted - a wonderful marriage of flavours!

As for the buttercream frosting, you will need a lot of it. You can use whatever recipe you are used to or comfortable with. I have not done any proper cake-decorating prior to this and the only buttercream I have experience with was when I made Swee San's opera cake. Instead of coffee essence, I used lemon essence. I made one batch of it and it was barely enough. As you can see, the cake wasn't evenly covered and there were still gaps in between the roses. I would suggest making 1 1/2 batches of the buttercream.

I had fun baking and decorating the cake. I was really pleased with the results - looks pretty and the cake was delicious, just too much frosting (a problem with all pretty cakes). Well, I did say pretty, not healthy.

Lemon Rose Cake with Strawberry Gelée

Printable recipe
By Pig Pig's Corner

Prep time: 1 hr 30 mins - overnight (for gelée to set)
Cook time: 40 mins
Yield: 9-inch cake


Ingredients:

Strawberry gelée:

• 350 g strawberries - coarsely chopped OR use 1 1/2 cups strawberry puree
• 3 leaves gelatin
• 1/2 lemon's juice
• 3 tbs sugar (more or less to taste)

Lemon yoghurt cake batter:

• 2 large eggs
• 200 g caster sugar
• 1 lemon's zest - finely grated
• 1/2 lemon's juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 280 g plain flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup Greek yoghurt
• 1/2 cup oil

Lemon buttercream: makes 1 batch, I would suggest making more, about 1 1/2 batches

• 125 g (about 3) egg white
• 100 g caster sugar
• 500 g unsalted butter - cold, cut into cubes
• 4 tsp lemon essence

Red sprinkles:

• Royal icing sugar
• Water
• Red colouring

Directions:

Strawberry gelée: The gelée can be made up to two days in advance and kept in the refrigerator.

• Puree strawberries in a food processor or blender and pass this through a sieve. You should get about 1 1/2 cups of puree.
• Line an 9-inch round cake pan/ container with plastic wrap. Lightly oil the wrap. Set aside.
• Place the gelatin leaves in a bowl with cold water to soften the gelatin.
• In a small saucepan, combine the strawberry puree, lemon juice, and sugar. Heat to dissolve sugar under medium low heat.
• Drain the gelatin leaves, squeeze to get rid of as much water as possibe and put them into the saucepan with hot strawberry puree. Whisk to fully dissolve the gelatin.
• Pour into the plastic-lined container and leave to cool at room temperature. When completely cooled, cover the container with clingfilm and refrigerate overnight till set.

Lemon yoghurt cake:

• Pre-heat oven to 180°C.
• Beat eggs and sugar until pale and thick.
• Add lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Mix till combined.
• In another bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder. Fold into the egg mixture.
• Mix in yoghurt.
• Then, mix in oil.
• Bake at pre-heated oven for about 30 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Leave cake in tin to cool for 10 mins before transferring to a cake rack to cool.

Lemon buttercream:

• Mix together egg whites and sugar in a bowl.
• Slightly warm the egg white mixture over bain marie and lightly mix with a whisk or fork until sugar is dissolved. You can check by rubbing some of the egg white mixture in between your fingers, there shouldn't be any grainy bits. [Be careful, the egg white cooks really easily.]
• Transfer egg whites to stand mixer and whisk until stiff and cool. [I left it to whisk for about 10 mins.]
• Add all of the cold butter. Whisk until all butter is incorporated.
• Add lemon essence to taste.

Red sprinkles: can be made a day in advance.

• Make icing according to manufacturer's instructions.
• Mix in red colouring until you get the colour you desire.
• Pipe and leave aside till set.

Assemble the cake:

• When the cake is completely cooled, slice the cake into half horizontally.
• Unmold the gelée and place it carefully on the cut side of one cake layer.
• Place another cake layer (cut side down) on the top of the gelée.
• Spread the frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Decorate. Click here for detailed rose-design frosting tutorial. In short: Use a 1M tip (or any large star tip) with pastry bag filled with buttercream frosting. For single rose: start in the center, then slowly move your tip in a circle around the center point. Repeat until the whole cake is covered.