May Flowers

Gateau Hydrangea Flores

May is a busy month for my family. On top of Mother's Day, it's also my mothers birthday month! It was quite fitting that this cake would be mom themed, more specifically "My Mom". Some facts about my mom; She loves walnuts and chocolate. She loves hydrangeas. Shes from Boston (Somerville) and frequently is teased for dropping her "Rs". She loves her two beautiful and talented daughters more than anything. She says she doesn't want a cat, even though I think she secretly does... Now I couldn't exactly fit all that in a cake, but I did my best. The deets....

Cake: I went with a request from her to make the Marble Cake Recipe. She usually gets to sample most of the cake scraps that I make, and decided she wanted this one all to herself. This marble cake is simply just the best marble I've ever had and I highly recommend you make it yourself.

Filling Part 1: She also requested raspberry jam, but didn't want homemade jam because "you're doing enough for me as it is", classic mom amirite? So I bought a fancyish jar of organic seedless raspberry jam. It was pretty good. Very sweet, but refreshing and tart. 

Filling Part 2: For the second filling element I wanted to do something a little different for her, so I made a dark chocolate swiss buttercream and folded in toasted walnuts. This came out delicious! It almost had a little burnt flavor from the toasted walnuts. The bitter was nicely balanced out with a sweetness from the BC. The walnuts added a crunch peppered into the smooth creamy filling. 

Buttercream: Last Request from mom was her favorite white chocolate buttercream. I added 8oz of melted white chocolate into my classic swiss buttercream recipe. It adds that lovely sweetness that only white chocolate has, SO GOOD!!

Decor: After putting all those cake layers and fillings/frosting together I finished it with a semi-sweet ganache pour. This gives the top of the cake a glossy smooth finish that drips delightfully down the edges of the cake. There may be nothing more beautiful than watching ganache drip slowly down the sides of a cake. Scratch that, eating it is more beautiful!! After that cooled I mixed up some blue and purple colors of BC leaving some white as well. I then painted some colored frosting up the side of a pastry bag, equipped with a 2D Wilton Tip, and filled in the center of the bag with some white BC. This technique gives the effect of perfectly colored hydrangea flowers when you pipe. 

The cake came out simply beautiful and elegant. The flavors were absolutely delicious, and worked perfectly together. Most importantly my mom LOVED it!  Go forth and eat cake!