Vanilla Latte Cake
I don't know what's happened, but I can't stop baking. This will be my fourth baked good in one week, and I'm not sure when it will stop. I work in an office with about 85 people so I can bring the baked goods into work and they get eaten pretty quickly - no extra calories for me and no wasting food!
I started on this cake last night so the cakes would be able to cool in the refrigerator overnight until they were ready to be frosting this morning. I was getting everything set up and ingredients sifted together only to realize the impossible had happened. I had run out of butter. So I shut the oven off, covered everything so Wallis wouldn't crawl into the flour or eggs, and headed off to the store.
With the butter crisis averted, it was back to baking. Now I am a caffeine addict. I have gone months without caffeine, but currently I am drinking caffeine all day every day. Mostly through energy drinks (I know), but the smell of this coffee at 9:30 pm really wasn't helping the addiction. After they came out of the oven I was very tired and so covered them with foil and put them in the fridge.
This morning I slept in until about 8:30 am and got back to the fun part - frosting. The frosting gods were not on my side this morning. I had a vision of how I wanted the cake to look and had purchased some dark chocolate espresso beans to help decorate the cake, but I wasn't feeling any of it this morning. Instead I swirled some lighter frosting in with the darker to make it look more like a latte, and did a real messy job frosting the top.
I think I'll try to make some cookies this week to round out the cycle of baking before I head out to Phoenix to help a friend move into the house her and her fiance just purchased. Hoping to move them early in the morning (she's NOT a morning person) and then spend some time hiking in the mountains and seeing what Arizona has to offer!
Vanilla Latte Cake:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 cup milk, room temperature
1 Tbsp espresso powder
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter,re softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Vanilla Latte Buttercream:
1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste
4-5 Tbsp whole milk
1 Tbsp instant espresso powder
4-5 cups powdered sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
Vanilla Latte Cake:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 8” cake rounds and line with parchment.
In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt together and until well combined. Set aside.
In a small cup, stir milk and espresso powder together until dissolved. Set aside.
Using the paddle attachment in a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together on high for about 3 minutes until pale and fluffy. Reduce the speed and add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating them into the mixture before adding another.
Reduce the speed and stir in vanilla bean paste.
Alternate adding flour mixture and espresso milk, beginning and ending with flour (3 additions of flour and 2 of milk). Mix until all ingredients are incorporated.
Bake for 27-30mins or until a tester inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. Cake will be very dense and continue to cook in the pan when you take it out.
Place cakes on wire rack to cool for 10mins then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.
Place back into the cake pans and cool in the refrigerator until ready to frost.
Vanilla Latte Buttercream:
Using the paddle attachment in a stand mixer, whip butter until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Stir in vanilla bean paste.
In a small glass, mix together the milk and espresso powder until the espresso is dissolved.
In the stand mixer, alternate adding the powdered sugar and espresso milk until all ingredients have been mixed in. TIP: If the frosting is too thin, add more butter and powdered sugar.
Frost cake with offset spatula.