Hippopotamousse: Vanilla Bean Cakes with Cherry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I talked a lot in the last post about the lovely fresh produce summer brings. Here is another example of that produce - these lovely, flavoursome, juicy cherries. I must admit most of these were eaten before I decided to use them to make cherry Swiss Meringue buttercream to top these lovely moist, light and fluffy vanilla bean cakes.

If you are looking for a seriously cherry-esque kick then I would recommend replacing the fresh cherries with glacé cherries as using fresh ones provides you with a delicate, more natural flavour that may be too subtle for those of you who are die-hard cherry fans.

My Swiss Meringue buttercream application skills are abysmal, as you can see, so for the sake of pretty photos I mixed icing sugar with the cherry puree I had left to make some contrasting pink cakes. This is the first time I have worked with Swiss Meringue buttercream so I hope you will forgive the shoddy work! What it lacks in appearance it certainly makes up for in taste. It's sweet enough to hit the spot, but very light and airy at the same time, making it much easier to pop a few in your mouth in one sitting without feeling wretched afterwards as traditional sickly sweet buttercream can often leave you feeling.

If you look at the photo above you can see for yourself just how moist, light and fluffy the cake it. Feel free to use extract rather than vanilla bean paste - I'm a sucker for the little black dots which when I was younger were only found in 'posh' vanilla ice cream.

When I was thinking initially about this recipe I wanted the Swiss Meringue buttercream to be swirly - rather like meringue but I failed in that endeavour. You may like to give that a go. If you succeed please send me a photo accompanied by instructions because these didn't turn out nearly as pretty as I had hoped!

They tasted, however, much better than I could ever have imagined. Hannah told me it is the best sponge I've ever baked, yipeee! I also gave one to my mum with a cup of tea when she got off the train and I got her stamp of approval as I did with the onion bagels!

Ingredients

For the cake:

110 g unsalted butter
350 g granulated sugar
320 g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
300 ml buttermilk (I used 300 ml semi-skimmed milk + 1.25 tsp lemon juice and left it to stand for 20 mins)
3 medium eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

For the Swiss Meringue buttercream:

2 egg whites
115 g caster sugar (I used granulated whizzed in a food processor for 10 seconds or so)
160 g unsalted butter
1 cup cherries, pitted

Directions

1. Pre heat the oven to 170 degrees C and grease and line an 8" x 11" roasting tin that is at least 1.5" deep.
2. In a stand mixer (or by hand) cream together the butter and sugar until exceptionally light and fluffy.
3. Beat the eggs into the mixture.
3. Sift in half the flour and 1 tsp of baking powder and pour in half the buttermilk. Mix until well combined then sift in the remaining flour and add the remaining buttermilk and the vanilla bean paste. Mix until you have a smooth mixture but only until this point as overworking the gluten will make a more chewy cake - here we want extreme light and fluffiness!
4. Pour the mixture into the pre-lined and greased baking tin and bake for 1 hour until the whole cake is golden and a cocktail stick comes out clean when you put it in the centre of the cake. Depending on your oven it could take up to 1 hour 20 minutes. (That seems like a long time but trust me it IS worth it, grab a cuppa, put your feet up and get yourself stuck into a good book or catch up on that episode you missed.)
5. Leave the cake to cool for 15 minutes before lifting it out of the tin and placing it on a wire rack to cool completely.
6. To make the cherry Swiss Meringue buttercream, firstly cut your butter into roughly 1" cubes and weigh the sugar into a medium sauce pan and add the 2 egg whites. Heat, stirring continuously, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Mix mix mix mix mix. This stage sterilizes the mixture - I, myself would never eat raw eggs.
7. Take it off the heat and scrape it into a large mixing bow. Whisk for about 5 minutes until the mixture has cooled and is very thick and stiff peaks form which hold their shape.
8. Whisk in the butter 1/4 of the cubes at a time and stop whisking when the butter is mixed evenly.
9. In a food processor, whizz the pitted cherries until a smooth puree has formed. Fold the cherry puree into the mixture with a wooden spoon a bit at a time to avoid the Swiss Meringue becoming too runny.
10. When the cake has cooled completely cut it into even squares roughly 2" x 2". Using a spatula or a piping bag apply the cherry Swiss Meringue buttercream to the top of the cakes in whatever way you see fit and think would look pretty.
11. Serve, share eat and ENJOY! :D

NB: You can keep the swiss meringue buttercream in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. When needed, leave to cool to room temperature then whisk for 4 to 5 minutes and apply as in step 10.