Strawberry and Basil Cakes
A basil sponge and strawberry buttercream make the cutest mini-layer cakes you've ever seen! Perfect for an afternoon tea stand!
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 tbsp basil leaves from four stalks
- 225 g caster sugar
- 225 g unsalted butter
- 275 g self-raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 4 large eggs
- 4 tbsp whole milk
Buttercream
- 3 g freeze-dried strawberries
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 175 g icing sugar
Instructions
- For the cake: Firstly, preheat the oven to Fan 160C/Gas Mark 4 and grease and line a 30x23cm baking tin.
- Place the basil leaves and sugar into a food processor, and blitz until the basil is completely broken up and combined.
- In a large bowl, combine the butter and basil sugar using an electric whisk until its light and fluffy. Then add the rest of the cake ingredients and beat until just combined, ensuring you scrape down the sides to incorporate the whole mixture. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and bake for 35-40 minutes until the cake has shrunk a little from the sides of the tin and springs back when lightly pressed. Leave the cake to cool a little in the tin, and then remove and place onto a cooling rack.
- For the buttercream: Blitz the freeze-dried strawberries until they're a fine powder. Then place in a bowl, with the butter and icing sugar. Whisk using an electric whisk, for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Then place in a piping bag and set aside.
- To assemble: Once the basil cake is completely cool, using a 2.5 inch round cutter, cut out 16 rounds. Then snip off the end of the piping bag, and pipe small circles on top of each cake round before stacking them to create 8 mini cakes.