White Wedding Cake With Flowers – Raffaello Mango, Strawberry Buttercream, Lemon Curd

Method

Tier 1: Carrot Cake, Cream Cheese Frosting, Salted Caramel Frosting

• Prepare the carrot cake according to this recipe and bake it in two 14cm / 5.5 inches diameter baking pans. After cooling down, wrap in cling film and refrigerate.

  For the cream cheese frosting, simply mic together cream cheese (room temperature), butter (room temperature), powdered sugar and lemon juice with a hand mixer or whisk until it is well combined. Add gelatin according to package instructions.

  For the salted caramel frosting, mix caramel (room temperature), butter (room temperature), cream cheese and salt together until well combined.

Tier 2: Vanilla Sponge Cake, Raffaello Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting, Mango Puree

• Prepare 1 ½ times of the vanilla sponge cake recipe and bake it in two 22cm / 8.5 inches diameter baking pans. After cooling down, wrap in cling film and refrigerate.
  
  Mix the cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk together. In a fat-free bowl (wipe out bowl with vinegar), whip the heavy cream and vanilla sugar until stiff peaks. Then carefully fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture. Add gelatin according to package instructions. Add the desiccated coconut and chopped Raffaellos into the mixture. Cool the frosting for at least 4 hours for it to become firm, this is super important for wedding cakes.

  The mango puree can be made with frozen or fresh mango. Once the mango is at room temperature, blend to a puree. Heat up almost all of the mango puree in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly to avoid burning it. Mix the remaining mango puree with the sugar and cornstarch. Once the puree starts to boil, add the remaining mixture and continue to mix well with a whisk until it starts to thicken. Remove saucepan from heat and add gelatine according to package instructions. Pour the mango puree into a bowl, cover the surface with cling film and leave to cool down to room temperature.

Tier 3: Vanilla Sponge Cake, Strawberry Buttercream, Lemon Curd Buttercream

• Prepare twice the amount of the sponge cake recipe and bake in two 28cm / 11 inches diameter baking pans. After cooling down, wrap in cling film and refrigerate.
  
  This strawberry buttercream can be made with frozen or fresh strawberries. Once the strawberries are at room temperature, blend to a puree. Place almost all of the strawberry puree in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly to avoid burning. Mix the remaining strawberry puree with the sugar and cornstarch. Once the puree starts to boil, add the remaining mixture and continue to mix well with a whisk until it starts to thicken. Remove saucepan from heat and add gelatin according to package instructions. Pour the strawberry mixture into a bowl and press cling film onto the surface and leave to cool to room temperature. Whip the butter (room temperature) until light and fluffy and add the strawberry puree spoon by spoon until it’s a nice strawberry buttercream.

  Heat up the lemon juice in a saucepan. Mix milk with sugar, egg yolk and cornstarch. Once the lemon juice starts to boil, add the milk mixture to it while constantly stirring until thickened. Pour into a bowl and cover the surface with cling film and leave to cool down to room temperature. Whip the butter (room temperature) until light and fluffy and add the lemon curd spoon by spoon until it becomes a beautiful lemon curd buttercream.

Crumb Coat: German / Ermine Vanilla Buttercream

• For the German buttercream, in a saucepan bring almost all of the milk to a boil, mix the remaining milk with the sugar and cornstarch and add to the milk when it starts to boil, stirring constantly with the whisk. As soon as it begins to thicken, pour into a bowl, add the vanilla flavor and gelatin here, stir and then press cling film onto the surface and let cool down to room temperature. Whip the butter (room temperature) until light and fluffy and the pudding spoon by spoon.

Coating: Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• In a fast-free bowl (wipe bowl with vinegar), add egg whites and sugar with salt. Place over a saucepan with boiling water. While the bowl starts to become warm, constantly stire with a whisk until all the sugar crystals dissolved and you can no longer feel them between your fingers. Using a stand mixer, whip the egg whites on high speed until they’re at room temperature and perfectly whipped meringue. This can take up to 10 minutes, I often put ice packs on the sides of the bowl to help the meringue cool faster. Once it has reached room temperature, add the butter (room temperature) spoon by spoon, while continuing to whip the buttercream. Add a dab of purple food coloring and mix in to remove any last bit of yellow. In order for the buttercream to become super creamy, add some of the buttercream in a bowl and briefly heat it up so that the buttercream slightly melts. Add back to the remaining buttercream and swap the whisk with a dough hook and mix on low speed for 5 minutes to obtain a perfectly smooth the buttercream.

Assembly & Decoration

• For each tier, cut the cakes into 4 horizontally equally sized cake layers. Decide which will be the bottom and the top cake layer for each tier. Fill the German / Ermine buttercream into a piping bag and spread a bit on the cake board and press the bottom cake layer on it. If you like, soak the cake layers with a little milk or syrup. With the German / Ermine buttercream pipe a ring around the edge of the cake layer. Spread 1/3 of the filling on it. If there are two fillings, first spread one filling, e.g. of Raffaello frosting, and then the other filling on top, e.g. mango puree. For the bottom tier I alternately used the strawberry buttercream, then all of the lemon curd buttercream, and then the other half of the strawberry buttercream. Finally place the top cake layer on top. Apply a thin layer of crumb coat with the German / Ermine buttercream and cool well for several hours. Then cover in Swiss meringue buttercream. For the buttercream lines, shortly heat the spatula in warm water, dry and then go around the cake on the turntable to create beautiful lines. Then cool each tier well.

  For assembly, place a piece of cardboard underneath each tier, for the top and middle tiers, the board should be slightly smaller than the respective tier. In the bottom and middle tiers, insert thick straws or stabilizing sticks that are slightly smaller than the height of the respective tier. Build the cake on site, spreading some buttercream between the tiers and placing them on top of each other with the help of a cake lifter and spatula. Then decorate with flowers, wrap the stems in cling film or cover with white chocolate and let it harden.