Vanilla Cake with Buttercream Frosting

Okay, I love vanilla cake, but it's hard to find one that is moist and still airy.  The proportions for this recipe make two 9 inch round cakes, so I tripled the recipe to make my tiered cake (pictured at the bottom).  I quadrupled the frosting recipe to ensure there was enough to frost all three tiers and make buttercream roses.

Vanilla Cake Recipe
Ingredients:
     5 egg whites
     1 cup buttermilk
     1 1/2 sticks of butter (12 tablespoons), softened
     2 teaspoons vanilla extract
     3 cups sifted cake flour
     1 3/4 cups sugar
     1 teaspoon baking powder
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, then grease two 9 inch round pans.  Mix egg whites and vanilla extract together, then set aside.  Mix butter, cake flour, sugar, and baking powder in a bowl, then gradually add in buttermilk.  Gradually add the egg white mixture, then beat until smooth.  Pour batter into cake pans, then bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Buttercream Frosting Recipe
Ingredients:
     2 sticks butter, softened
     4 cups powdered sugar, sifted   
     1 tablespoon vanilla extract
     4 tablespoons milk (more or less, depending on how thick you want the frosting)
Beat butter until creamy, then add 3 cups of powdered sugar and beat until thoroughly mixed.  Add the vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of milk, then beat until smooth.  For thicker frosting, add more powdered sugar.  For thinner frosting, add more milk.

Frost one layer of cake, then stack the other on top and frost it.  I used ribbon to decorate the base of each tier, and secured the ends of the ribbon with frosting.  I dyed most of the remaining frosting purple to make roses, and a bit of it green for leaves.  For tutorials on how to make buttercream roses and leaves, I included links to videos below.

Buttercream Rose Tutorial
Buttercream Leaf Tutorial

Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes

A very basic cupcake, but it's delicious and you can make it pretty with almost any decorations you want (I chose white chocolate leaves).

Chocolate Cupcake Recipe
Ingredients:
     3 eggs
     3/4 cup butter (softened)
     2 cups flour
     3/4 cup cocoa powder
     1 tablespoon vanilla extract
     2 cups sugar
     1 1/2 cups buttermilk
     1 teaspoon baking powder
     1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cupcake pans with 24 liners.  Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.  Beat together eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract.  Alternate between adding the flour mixture and buttermilk gradually, starting and ending with the buttermilk.  Beat mixture thoroughly until smooth, then fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes.

Chocolate Ganache Recipe
Ingredients:
     1 cup heavy cream
     12 oz chopped chocolate
Bring heavy cream to a boil over medium high heat, then remove saucepan from heat and stir in the chocolate until smooth and glossy.  Allow to set for 10 minutes (or long enough to set slightly), then glaze cupcakes with the ganache.


White Chocolate Leaves
Ingredients:
     White Chocolate (not white chocolate chips) - 24 oz
     Leaves (I used spinach leaves, as leaves with prominent veins make the best imprints) - 72
For the white chocolate leaves, you just need white chocolate and leaves.  Wash the leaves, then pat dry and set aside.  Make sure to use baking chocolate instead of white chocolate chips, because there are additives in chocolate chips to make them keep their shape that will prevent the chocolate from tempering properly, thus stopping the leaves from setting.  Chop the chocolate into small chunks, then divide in half.  Melt half of the chocolate in a small bowl over a pot of boiling water until smooth, the remove the bowl from the heat.  Gradually mix in the other half of the chocolate, stirring thoroughly to remove any lumps until smooth and glossy.  For the next step, I used a baking brush to paint the white chocolate onto the leaves, but a spoon works, too.  Paint the white chocolate onto the leaves (the backside, as the veins will then make better impressions).  Make sure to make a thick enough layer of white chocolate that it won't break when you peel the leaf off.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes, then peel the actual leaves off of the white chocolate, as the white chocolate won't be pliable enough once it sets.  Put the leaves on the cupcakes, and voila!