In my banana baking frenzy yesterday, I also made two neat little layer cakes filled with Meyer lemon curd and frosted with white chocolate cream cheese buttercream. The cake itself is of course my favourite recipe Cordon Rose Banana Cake, all from the trusty The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. This is probably one of my most used books. This banana cake recipe has a fine crumb and the flavour was perked up by some lemon zest. The Meyer lemon curd is less tart than regular lemon curd and it picked up the subtle lemon taste from the cake without overwhelming the banana flavour. The white chocolate cream cheese buttercream is rich and tangy to offset all that fruitiness. This is a light and fresh combination that goes well after a heavy meal.
As you can see from the picture, I did a pretty sloppy job of masking the cake. This is certainly one of those skills that requires frequent practice! As a shortcut to ensure more or less uniform thickness of buttercream all around, I piped the buttercream onto the cake using a large plain tip. This is too slow if you work in a bakery but it's a good trick for home bakers.
I brought one of the cakes to a party last night and it was hastily decorated with chopped walnuts on the side and a ring of walnut halves on the cake. The other cake had a chance to properly rest in the refridgerator overnight so the buttercream firmed up by the time I decorated it this morning. I remembered a bunch of cake stencils that I bought in Hong Kong and it was the perfect opportunity to try them out. Being susceptible to all things cute, of course I chose to stencil a teddy bear onto the cream-coloured buttercream. So absolutely adorable that Teddy wants a bite too!
Happy New Year everyone and may 2009 bring you lots of sweetness everyday!
