Walnut Maple Buttercream Cake for Mother's Day

Recently I discovered a nice blog - Jeannie Tay's blog which she shared many recipes. Her pictures showed how lovely her bakes turned out, which prompted me to try some. Since it's Mother's Day weekend, I decided to bake a Walnut Maple buttercream cake for my mum.
Recipe for Walnut Maple Buttercream Cake

Walnut butter cake, adapted from Jeannie.
(Makes a 7" round cake)

Ingredients:
3 Egg yolks (70g with shell)
20g Castor sugar
113g Unsalted butter, melted n cooled
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
70g Plain flour
56g Walnuts, roasted and chopped
1/2 tsp Baking powder

3 Egg whites
70g Castor sugar
1/4 tsp Corn flour

Method:

1. Line the bottom of two 7" round cake pans. Preheat oven to 150C.
2. Whisk yolks and sugar till light and fluffy. Add melted butter, and vanilla extract. Set aside.

3. Mix the corn flour into the sugar. Whisk egg whites until frothy, then gradually add sugar into the whites and beat till firm peaks.
4. Sift flour into yolk mixture and mix. Add in chopped walnuts. Batter is very thick and almost unfoldable at this stage. 
5. Add 1/3 meringue to loosen the gluten. Continue to fold in the remaining meringue 1/3 at a time. 
6. Pour equally into two baking pans. Shake gently from side to side to level the batter.
7. Baked at 150 degrees at lowest rack for 30mins or till golden brown. Test with a skewer for doneness before removing from the oven.

8. Unmould immediately and place them onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Maple Italian Meringue Buttercream
(Makes enough to frost a 3 layer 7" cake or a 2 layer 8" cake)

Ingredients:
60g Water
150g Sugar
3 Egg whites
250g Unsalted butter
2 tbsp Maple Syrup

Method:

1. Boil water and sugar till rolling ball stage, which is about 115C. This takes approximately 5mins on medium heat.
2. At 3mins, whisk egg whites on the mixer on low speed till frothy.
3. When the sugar solution is ready, turn the mixer speed on medium-low and start pouring in the sugar gradually, slowly and steadily.

4. Then turn the mixer speed to medium and continue beating till the meringue cools down.
5. Change the whisk to k-beater and add in butter in three batches.
6. Continue beating till butter is incorporated into the meringue.
7. Add in maple syrup and mix well.

Assembly:
1. Place one cake layer on the cake board.

2. Spread with maple buttercream generously and evenly.

3. Place another layer on top.
4. Coat the sides with buttercream and even it out.
5. Spread the top with buttercream and even it out.

6. Pipe a heart shape on the cake top and add toasted chopped walnuts.
7. Sprinkle with maple syrup and decorate as desired.
8. Chill in the fridge.
9. Remove from the fridge 15mins before serving.


Happy Mother's Day!