This stunning angel food cake covered in cherry whipped cream was inspired by a recipe my friend, Jessie Sheehan, included in one of her cookbooks. Jessie visited Minnesota last summer and she joined me to eat our way through the Minnesota State Fair for season 3 episode 8 of Zoë Bakes on Magnolia Network!
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Red Velvet Cake has a single, albeit significant purpose in my world, to celebrate my stepmother’s birthday. It is a cake her late mother used to bake for her when she was growing up in Alabama. This is why I love baking cakes, they can bring back memories of a sweet moment and the feeling of love. The modern, bright red cake is often thought of as a Southern cake but it was actually made famous in New York City at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Originally dating back to the Victorian era, it was made with natural (reddish-hued) cocoa powder or even beets, but eventually, the color was enhanced with food color.
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These are the sour cherry streusel bars I made on the Nordic Treats episode of Zoë Bakes on Magnolia Network! In this episode I pay tribute to my Nordic heritage by preparing Swedish cream and krumkake, a pressed cookie and visiting a ladies’ church group for a lesson in making the traditional Norwegian flatbread, lefse. I make these bars because you can’t go to a gathering in Minnesota without bringing something to share!
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Cherry season is here, and while these tart beauties may be best known as Northeastern fruit (D.C. cherry blossoms, anyone?), different varieties are plentiful across the northern states. I love using cherries in cakes and desserts because they are tart AND sweet, making them a burst of balanced fruit flavor. They’re tasty in toppings, filling or inside cakes. You’ll find all kinds of cherry desserts below.
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I’ve been intrigued with mirror glaze cakes ever since they started popping up on my instagram feed years ago. There is something so satisfying about the glassy, reflective finish. Aesthetically, it’s not typically my style to create something quite so glitzy and glam, but sometimes ones inner Liberace needs to come out. The technique alone was calling me, I just had to understand how it was done. I have to admit it was simpler than I imagined. I hunted around for a recipe for the mirror glaze and landed on one by my friend, Phillip Fryman of Southern Fatty. His differed from many on the internet because he uses glucose syrup, instead of corn syrup. They are typically interchangeable and you can really use either for this recipe, BUT glucose is WAY thicker and I thought that may be a nice advantage in the glaze coating the cake well. I think my assumption was right, because the glaze was thick and clung to the cake like a champ.
I often see mirror glaze cakes done in several psychedelic colors, spiraling together on the cake, like candy colored marble, but my cake was inspired by the bright red sour cherries my dad picked for me off of his tree, so I went with the simplicity of one color. The success of the mirror glaze cake is in the finish. If you can see yourself, then you’ve won the day. Not only could I see my reflection, but I captured a video of the clouds passing by out the window as reflected off my cake! It is so cool and you can see that and watch me make the cake in my instagram video.
Oh, the cake under the mirror glaze is a no-bake cherry cheesecake.
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The magic trick of cake decorating was revealed to me 16 years ago when I attended a week long class at the Wilton School of Cake Decorating and Confectionery Art outside of Chicago. Anyone who loves cake and piping icing knows the Wilton name and reaches for their products to get the job done. I was beyond thrilled and honored when they asked me to try out their new line of products, Texturra Performance Bakeware and Versa-Tools, and create a signature dessert using them. This Cherry Blossom Cake came to me instantly, because I wanted to utilize the piping skills I learned from their classes all those years ago. I had just been on a trip to NYC and the cherry trees were in full bloom with their sweet, delicate blossoms. The inside of the cake is a spiral of sponge cake, which I baked in the new Texturra Performance baking sheet. Since they claim it is truly non-stick, I tested it by skipping the parchment paper. This is not something I would usually do, since parchment is the insurance policy, I rely on to make sure my cakes don’t glue themselves to the pan. The Wilton promise was spot on, the cake released from the unlined Texturra pan with ease, rendering the extra parchment unnecessary. For avid bakers, you know how exciting this is.
I filled the sponge cake with a simple whipped cream and cherry sauce. This is where the new multi-functional Versa-Tools came in handy. I used them to make the filling, spread it, roll the cake and even decorate the sides. They are flexible, useful and multipurpose, which is everything you want in a kitchen tool.
For the flowers I piped a simple cherry blossom with lemon royal icing and stuck them to the buttercream covered cake. There are a few steps to this Cherry Blossom Cake, but it is such a fun project and the results are stunning.
You can watch me make this cake start to finish in my Instagram video and the recipe below.
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