Good day ladies and gentlemen. How’s your Christmas prep going? I’ve finally found some breather in my life- to be able to get back to blogging at 1 PM in the afternoon on a weekday {oh, and I can’t tell you what bliss this is} – and in the coming days you will see a whole lot of furniture revamp, decor talk and Christmas recipes with a modern spin here on Trumatter. If you like what you hear, hold on to Trumatter, all December and January!

 Berry Blast Cake 3

Last month when a few of my husband’s office mates and one of my best friends came over for lunch, I made this layered cake for them: it was an instant hit.

Honestly, cooking and baking to me is very personal. I can cook up a storm for a person I know well and I can give you my word that they will appreciate what’s being put on their plate. But problem occurs when I don’t know them so well, for whom I am cooking. Simply because when I don’t know what they are like, and what they like in terms of taste, I feel I’ll disappoint them hugely. I don’t know why that happens but I get an instant cold feet when I am asked to cook for people I have never met before or have no clue about. Nervousness I am guessing. Or you know, sort of a cooking OCD where I have to have my data in place to be able to organize the data and execute. Or maybe because I do not have much confidence in me as a good cook. Maybe when I know people, I know that they’ll like it because they like me 😛 Let’s not get into this layered discussion!

Berry Blast Cake 2So yeah, in such scenarios I leave my head to rest and take out my fool proof book of crowd pleaser:  recipes which are tried and tested on people, rabbits and other species through time {and sometimes on people who actually dont like me that much} and they all seem to like them irrespective of their affinity to moi, age group and levels of sweet tooth snobbery.

This Berry Blast Cake is one of my fool-proof dessert recipes and is a great substitute for heavy Christmas flavors. Combining two types of berries in the filling and garnish and 2 types of cream, this cake is a classic and a winner. Built around a dense, buttery vanilla cake which is not too sweet and holds the sweet and tart flavors from strawberry and blueberry just right, Of course, thanks to its fair looks, it can pass off as a Christmas dessert without one having to preach too hard. Here’s the recipe:

For Base- Plain Vanilla Cake I have used this recipe for years and it has never failed me. Honestly, you can use a good vanilla cake recipe that works for you as well. There is no such hard and fast rule.

Berry Blast Cake Closeup

For Topping and Filling

Tropolite Non Dairy Whipping Cream

Strawberries- 7-8/mashed, 3-4 for garnish

American Garden Blueberry Filling – (I used the one I use in Pies) See recipe below

Cream Cheese- 1 package

1/2 a stick of butter

1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar or icing sugar

How To

Thaw Whipping cream if frozen and whip about 1 cup of whipping cream with a hand mixer for about 3 minutes in maximum speed. It should form stiff peaks when its done. Keep refrigerated.

With a hand blender mix 1/2 package cream cheese, 1/2 portion of butter and 1/2 portion sugar. Fold in strawberry mash and refrigerate.

Repeat with about 3-4 tbsp blueberry filling in a separate bowl.

Berry Blast Cake Closeup

Assemble

Cut cake in 2 layers. Rest all 3 pieces on top of your counter.

If the top of your cake has formed a dome {which in my opinion, will} cut it with a flat, sharp cake knife- and with the palm of your hand atop the dome. It’s important that you keep your palm atop or you will not be able to slice it evenly.

Add about 1/2″ thick blueberry cream cheese filling on top of one half, rest the next half of the cake and add 1/2″ strawberry cream cheese filling. Place the final cake layer.

Icing

Honestly, you just might be a better baker and icer {is there a word} than me so I’ll not give instructions here but this is what I did. I added dollops of whipped cream on the top first and evened it with a spatula. Did the same with the sides and covered it evenly. Because I {s-word} at piping and doing textures, I took my spatula and brushed the sides lightly in an angular fashion for a raised texture and piped the rim with the only piping nozzle I had {and because i had it}. Added sugar pearls on top of the peaks to make it look good.

Add a few strawberry with leaves intact, on top and refrigerate. Serve chilled.

christmas-garland-798968

Rukmini

XO

2 thoughts on “Christmas Cake Recipes- Berry Blast”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *