Katyane says “This cake wasn’t just flavoured with peppermint essence and described as having a Candy Cane flavour, this was flavoured with actually Candy Canes, with both the peppermint flavour of the candy canes, and the candy flavour as well.
I have gone into a lot of detail with the steps below in order to make it as easy as possible for you to replicate one of these delicious cakes yourself. I hope you will enjoy my Candy Cane creation.”
To view more of Katie’s work check out her facebook page.
Candy Cane Cake Recipe
Cake Ingredients:
200g butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
5 candy canes, crushed into small pieces
¾ cup milk + 1 tablespoon
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
OPTIONAL: red food colouring (gel colouring is preferred, though liquid is fine)
Ganache Ingredients:
250g plain white chocolate (I recommend whittakers)
¾ cup cream + 1 tablespoon (around 195ml)
5 candy canes, crushed into small pieces
20g butter, cold from the fridge, cut into small pieces
Buttercream Ingredients:
250g butter, softened
1/2 cup milk
4 candy canes, crushed into small pieces
1 kg icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
Any remaining ganache
OPTIONAL: Wilton White White icing colour (this helps make the icing whiter as the candy canes infused into the milk will give it a slightly pink tint)
Steps:
- Infuse milk
- Infuse cream and make the ganache
- Bake the cake(s) and allow to cool completely (chill in fridge to make it easier to halve)
- Halve and fill the cake(s) with ganache
- Make the Buttercream
- Crumb coat the cake and chill for 15 minutes
- Ice the cake and decorate
The night before baking:
- Infuse the milk with candy canes. Do this by heating the milk with the candy canes in a small saucepan on the stove. Be sure to stir the mix constantly, or the candy canes will catch on the bottom of the pan and burn. The milk is infused once the candy canes have melted into it. Pour into a container and leave in the fridge to cool overnight. Also do this for the milk for the Buttercream (these can be put into the same container).
- Make the ganache. The easiest way to make this is by breaking up the chocolate into medium-sized pieces, putting them into a food processor, and processing them until they are small/fine pieces in size. Infuse the cream in the same way you infused the milk. While the cream is still hot, pour it over the processed chocolate, and allow to sit for around 10 seconds. Process the chocolate and cream together, and add the butter into the mixture. Process the mix until it is smooth and everything had combined. Pour into a shallow dish and allow to thicken in the fridge overnight, ready to be used.
To make the cake:
- Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees fan bake or 160 degrees bake, and prepare an 8” round cake tin by greasing and lining it.
- Cream the butter and the sugar.
- Add the eggs and mix to combine.
- Add the candy cane infused milk, vanilla extract and the vanilla bean paste. Mix till all combined.
- Sift over the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Using a spatula, partly mix these into the wet ingredients so there are no large patches of flour on the surface. Mix for around 10 seconds on a medium speed.
- At this stage, mix the batter slightly with a spatula to assess if more milk is required. The batter shouldn’t be hard to mix. If you do feel it requires more milk, simply use normal milk rather than using some of the infused milk for the Buttercream.
- OPTIONAL – to marble the cake like I did, all you need to do is put around half a cup of the batter into another bowl and tint it red. Be aware that if you use liquid food colouring, too much will make the batter slightly watery, so you may need to add a tablespoon more of flour. I personally used Americolour Tulip Red (a “no taste” red) gel colouring (gel colours won’t affect the consistency). Once you have poured the batter into the cake tin (as in step 7), simply dollop spoonfuls of the red-tinted batter on the top, and mix these in with a skewer or toothpick.
- Pour the batter in a lined and greased 8” round cake tin, and bake at 150 degrees on fan bake, or 160 on bake, for around 50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out cleanly and the top of the cake is golden in colour.
Makes one 8” round cake
To make the cake in the photographs, I made two of these cakes, and cut each one in half.
NB: if you are not confident about baking this cake, you can always use an Edmonds Vanilla Cake box mixture, add an extra egg, add 100g melted butter, and replace the water for infused milk. If you want to marble the cake, simply follow step 6 as outlined above.
For assembling the cake:
- Using a 10” round cake board, place little ganache right in the centre of the board, and place the first layer down onto the ganache – ideally this will go the cut side down onto the board, as the un-cut sides are easiest to top with ganache, which will help it stick to the board.
- Dollop about 1/4 of the ganache on to the top of the first layer and using a butter knife or an offset spatula (recommended), smooth the ganache around the top of the cake, taking it towards the outside edge of the cake. Don’t put too much on though, or you might not have enough. I used about ¼ of the ganache for each layer, and used the remaining ¼ for the buttercream. Top with the next layer of cake.
- Repeat with the remaining layers. Reserve on of the bottom halves for the top of the cake, as this will give you a nice flat and smooth surface to work with when you ice the cake.
- Place back into the fridge while you make the buttercream.
To make the Buttercream:
- Beat the butter for around 1 minute by itself on a medium speed. It should become pale and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste, as well as any remaining ganache, mix to combine.
- If using the Wilton White White icing colour, start adding this in now – squeeze in a little while mixing the vanilla’s into the butter, and squeeze more in while mixing in the icing sugar (I used what felt to be around half the bottle in all).
- While the mixture is beating on a low speed, gradually add in the icing sugar.
- Add the icing sugar until the mixture begins to look a little dry. At this point, add around a quarter of the infused milk (you may not need to use it all, so be wary).
- Continue to add in the icing sugar, adding small amounts of the milk while mixing.
- If the milk begins to make the buttercream have a little pink tint, add some more of the wilton white white food colour if you are using it.
- Once you have added all the icing sugar into the mixture, check the consistency of the buttercream. If it feels stiff to run a spoon through, then you will need to add more milk it, but if it is too runny, then you will need to add more icing sugar. Once it is a consistency you are happy with, beat the buttercream for another 2-3 minutes to make it really light and fluffy.
Icing the cake:
- Once the buttercream is made, place a large dollop of the buttercream onto the top of the cake in the centre, and using a butter knife or an offset spatula, move the buttercream towards the edge of the cake. It is best to put too much on at this part of the process (a lot of it will be coming off). You want to have it so that some of the buttercream is hanging over the edge of the cake.
- Using the buttercream that is hanging over the edge, using your knife or offset spatula, begin to draw this down the sides of cake. If you have any gaps or spaces around the side of the cake where there is no filling, etc. fill these spaces with buttercream. You want to obtain smooth sides.
- OPTIONAL (and only recommended if you have an offset spatula): Once the cake is iced, with remaining buttercream, tint this red. Using your offset spatula, proceed to run a medium-with of red around the bottom of the cake. Once you have done this the whole way around, blend the red into the white slightly with your offset spatula.
- Proceed to decorate. I use edible glitter and silver stars, as well as small snowflake sprinkles.
