Valentine’s day cake, this year again take 2 on my Valentine’s Vintage cake. This Valentine’s day give that someone special this dreamy flavour combo of rose scented frosting and the lightest of the saffron infused cake. This Saffron and rose cake also nestles itself perfectly in the season, the dreary weather of February needs some fun flavours too right? 
Valentine’s Vintage Cake : Saffron & Rose Cake
Saffron & Pistachio cake:
Fluffy, saffron infused sheet cake, cut into little heart cakes. Fresh toasty pistachios bits in the saffron cake gives it an extra texture.
Rose cream cheese frosting:
Rose water scented, airy cream cheese frosting to fill and frost the cake. This cream cheese is super light from adding the whipping cream to the cream cheese frosting.
Cake Filling:
Fragrant Rose petal jelly is between the cake layers, I have used a store bought jelly. However you can also substitute with a homemade/ store bought strawberry or raspberry jam.
Vanilla Buttercream:
The lightest of the vanilla buttercream for the piping details on the outside. Not only is this buttercream more stable for piping intricate details than the cream cheese frosting, it also adds. new depth of flavor in the cake . This vanilla buttercream is mixed with colour mill hot pink for all the variations of pink used on the cake.
Piping tips used :
- Wilton 1A round tip – for the base frosting
- Wilton 4B open star – for the swirls on top and bottom
- Wilton 124 petal- for the frilly bits
- Wilton 67 leaf tip for the hanging garland pattern around the cake
- Wilton 5 for the piping at the bottom and the thin lines around the cake.
optional elements : maraschino cherry and edible gold dust.
Valentine's Vintage Cake : Saffron and Rose Cake
Valentine's Vintage Cake : Heart shaped saffron layer cake with rose petal jelly, rose cream cheese frosting and vintage lambeth cake piping
Servings 5 people
Equipment
- 1 4B - Wilton Piping Tip
Ingredients
Saffron cake (½ sheet pan --> 4 x 5" heart shaped layers)
- 0.5 g Saffron
- 30 ml Hot Water
- 150 gm Salted Butter 1¼ stick Butter
- 125 ml Canola oil ½ cup
- 250 g Granulated Sugar 1¼ cup
- 4 L eggs
- 125 ml Milk ½ cup
- 10 ml Lemon juice 2 tsp
- 360 g All purpose Flour 3 cups
- 40 gm toasted chopped pistacchio
Rose petal jelly - 100-150 ml
Rose whipped cream cheese frosting
- 180 g Salted Butter (Room temp) 1½ stick
- 300 g Cream cheese (Room Temp) 2½ cups / 10.5 oz
- 250 g Icing sugar 2 cups
- 125 ml Heavy Cream/ Whipping Cream ½ cup
- 2-3 tsp Rose Water
- Hot Pink - Colour mill
Vanilla Buttercream
- 240 g Salted Butter 2 sticks
- 300-325 g Icing sugar 2 ½ cups
- 3 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 30 ml Heavy Cream/ Whipping Cream
Instructions
Saffron cake (½ sheet pan --> 4 x 5" heart shaped layers)
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/ 180° C. Grease and line a half sheet pan 18x13" rectangular pan thats 1" deep.
- In a small bowl seep the saffron in hot water until ready to use.
- In an another small bowl add the milk and lemon juice together. If you have cultured buttermilk use that instead.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, add the butter, oil and the sugar. Cream the butter and sugar until light, pale and fluffy.
- Add and beat one egg at a time. Add the milk and vanilla extract into the bowl.
- Sift in the cake flour and baking powder. Make sure the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients are fully incorporated.
- Pour the saffron mixture into the cake batter and mix. Also fold in the chopped pistachios.
- Pour the batter into a half sheet pan cake pan 18x13" rectangular pan thats 1" deep. Bake for 35 -40 mins. Check with a wooden skewer to see if the cake is baked (if the skewer comes out wet the cake needs a few more minutes
- Remove from oven and let it cool. Using a 5" heart shaped cookie cutter, cut 4 pieces of saffron cake. If you plan your heart cut outs well, you could get a 5th one too, for a 5th layer.
- Keep aside until ready to frost. If you plan to frost it after a couple of days you can wrap each layer and freeze them until ready to frost. If you are a beginner to frost cakes this would make it easier as the cake is not too flimsy to handle. The cake will be ready to eat once thawed.
Rose whipped cream cheese frosting
- In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add the butter and ⅓ of the icing sugar. Cream until smooth.
- Add half of the cream cheese and ⅓ of icing sugar and beat for another 2 mins. Change the paddle to whisk attachment.
- Add the rest of the cream cheese and Icing sugar and as you start whisking, pour the cream on the side. Whisk on low speed for 2 mins and whisk on medium to high for 2 minutes. The cream will be smooth and silky.
- Add your rose water and food colouring as needed and give it a good whisk on medium for 30 seconds. Chill it in the fridge if not using immediately. It stays well in fridge for upto 5 days.
Vanilla Buttercream
- In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add the butter and ⅓ of the icing sugar. Cream until smooth.
- Add the rest of the Icing sugar, cream and vanilla extract and beat for 2-3 minutes until it all comes together smooth. If its too thick add a few drops of milk. If its too runny add 1-2 tsps icing sugar as needed.
- Portion the buttercream into different bowls for adding pink colouring. I added color mill hot pink in various portions to adjust my pink variations.
Assembly
- This is really the most crucial part of the cake as this is where it all comes together.
- On a cake board/ place, add a dollop of rose cream cheese frosting. Place the bottom layer of the heart cake. Transfer the rose cream frosting into piping bag fitter with a round tip (I use 1A)
- On the first layer of cake, add a thin layer of frosting. Pipe a dam of frosting around the border of the cake.
- Fill the inside gap with rose petal jelly. You can substitute strawberry jam or raspberry jam with rose petal jam.
- Repeat until all the layers are stack. Once all four are filled and stacked, frost the outside with a thin crumb coat. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or freezer for 15 minutes.
- Take the cake out of freezer/ fridge and add a layer of frosting on the outside and smoothen using an offset spatula and a cake scraper. This doesn't have to be perfect on the edges as there are so much details that will be added.
- Chill the cake in the fridge until you are ready to frost. Again if you dont want to frost immediately or want a sturdy cake to frost freeze it in an airtight container.
Lambeth / Vintage Buttercream piping details
- You have a blank canvas your baby pink heart shaped cake!
- Portion the buttercream into various bowls, add hot pink in various proportions in the buttercream. You want some gradient of lighter pink (darker than your cake base) to bright hot pink and the colour mill hot pink works great for this.
- The first step is to make the border on the base this helps form the frilly skirt around the base. I used wilton 124 Petal tip.
- Using the wilton 4B open star tip, pipe around the cake on the frilly bits at the bottom and on the border on the top and also the middle of the cake little piping bit.
- Next is the wilton 67 leaf tip. using a cookie cutter, mark the cake around the sides with semi circle. This will be your guide, while piping keep our hand closer to the cake and make sure your buttercream and the cake are still stable and not soft. At any time if the cake is soft put it in the freezer for 15 min befreo you work on it again.
- Lastly the Wilton 5 round tip, use this to draw garlands below the previous one piped with 67. Use your imagination and pipe some dots around.
- The most important step is to have fun!!! When the cake is all pied out, add a few maraschino cherries on top and a razzle dazzle of edible gold dust.
- Enjoy with your loved ones! Happy Valentines day...
Notes
The cake stays fresh in the fridge in an air tight container for 3-4 days!
Lookinng for more valentine’s inspiration
Happy Baking and Happy Valentine’s Day
xx
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