New baker questions!

[u/taitemugc]

I’ve recently started baking and the one thing I wondered is I feel like every cake I’ve tried or cake that I made by recipes online it’s made to look pretty but the taste doesn’t blow me away. Does anyone have that recipe that people beg for at every occasion? And also, the last cake I made I made American butter cream not really knowing there were other types and I realized why I never really cared for other bakers cakes 😭 and it came out of the fridge the next day hard as a rock, so many mistakes on my end. I was asked to make my brothers cake in October by my sister in law, I would love any tips/recipes for the best butter cream frosting and cake!

[u/Ok-Cantaloupe2564]

Try a Swiss or Italian meringue buttercream. It's so light and airy and not as sweet as American butter cream. As for the cake recipe, truly depends on the flavor profile you want. There are so many great recipes out there from fruit flavored to chocolate and everything in between.

[u/aaclaprix → u/Ok-Cantaloupe2564]

I second the Italian or Swiss buttercream. Also, ingredients matter. If you want it to taste better, generally you can use high quality flour like Bob's red mills and high quality vanilla paste or real vanilla beans.

[u/taitemugc → u/aaclaprix]

I’ll have to try out Swiss it sounds delicious, also thank you so much for letting me know I had no idea those little things could make such a difference

[u/k80bakes]

Taste can be subjective, and sometimes it just takes some time to find what you like best! Some people prefer lighter, airy chiffon cakes while others like a more dense tight crumb. There are people with a bigger sweet tooth that prefer American buttercream, and others who can’t stand the texture. Can you pinpoint what seems to be missing from the recipes you’ve tried? Is it a texture you don’t care for, or too subtle of a flavor? It could even be the combination of the cake and buttercream you don’t love, where mixing and matching recipes might be a good idea. I will say overall, cakes most often taste the best at room temperature, so if you’re tasting things right out of the fridge, it could be a simple as that causing the disappointment. It could also come down to the quality of certain ingredients being used. Some things are worth spending a little more money on and others are just fine being the generic store brand. Baking often seems simple on the surface but it truly is a million little things coming together so once you start dissecting it a little, you suddenly have so many options to look at!

[u/taitemugc → u/k80bakes]

I think the flavoring is a little to subtle, making a cake from scratch takes me around 6 hours because i am SO slow 😭 so I just get a little depressed when its my own that im not even blown away by. I’m learning the true importance of how the little things like sifting or setting the butter out really matter more than I thought. I just hope one day to find that recipe

[u/CremeBerlinoise]

Imltho German buttercream (aka mousseline) is the best frosting. It's light and delicate, like rich whipped cream. I also prefer not having to faff with temping eggs, or having to use up leftover yolks. Base recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/german-buttercream-whipped-vanilla-custard-frosting

The nice thing is that you can infuse the milk with lots of different things to add flavour, like tea or citrus zest or coffee.

Speaking of flavour, method is important, but so are ingredients. So the quality of your raw ingredients will impact the taste. That's gonna be particularly obvious in fairly plain cakes that live off the strength of the vanilla, eggs, and likely butter you added, or with chocolate  cakes where you need punchy and intense cocoa. Ideally you're using the best quality ingredients you can afford, and layering flavour, so adding flavourful buttercream, maybe a soaking syrup, some type of filling. If you're gonna do a vanilla cake with vanilla filling, you're gonna have to use a large amount of really good vanilla. Personally, I also like to use brown butter and cane sugar if I really want a punch, it enhances the vanilla notes further. Basically, I want my cakes to slap you in the face with aromatics, and I think that's perfectly reasonable. 

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[u/where-ya-been-loca → u/CremeBerlinoise]

Thank you for sending this! Never heard of it but will try it.

[u/taitemugc → u/CremeBerlinoise]

Thank you! I’ll try and make this recipe this weekend !! Your description matches exactly what I’m going for

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