Cherry Blossom Cake With Cherry Blossom Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

Cherry Blossom flavor Cake:

2 ½ cups cake flour (OR 3 cups all purpose flour minus 3 tbsp of the flour + 3 tbsp corn starch)
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp table salt
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter ( 1 ½ sticks ) at room temperature
3 large eggs at room temperature
¾ cup whole milk at room temperature
2 teaspoon cherry blossom extract
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cherry Blossom Whipped Buttercream:

1 ½ cups unsalted butter ( 3 sticks ) at room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp whole milk at room temperature
2 tsp cherry blossom extract
2 tsp vanilla extract

Lychee Curd:

2/3 cup lychee juice
½ cup granulatead sugar
3 egg yolks
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
6 tbsp unsalted cold butter cut into 6 pieces

Decoration:

Cherry Blossom Jam( available at anything-from-japan.com )
Americolor gel paste for the pink shades and blue
Edible pearls to decorate

Instructions

Lychee Curd:

Combine the granulated sugar, egg yolks, salt, lemon juice, and lychee juice in a medium mixing bowl and whisk for 1-2 minutes to produce a ribbon-like consistency.
Add the lychee mixture to a medium saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly with a whisk for about 5 minutes, or until the liquid thickens. Make sure the mixture does not cling to the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as it begins to thicken. When the curd clings to the spatula and you can run your index finger through the centre while leaving the curd on the side, your curd is done.
To remove any pieces, strain the curd through a fine sieve into a small basin. Mix in the butter until everything is well combined. Cover the curd with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Curd can be refrigerated for up to 3-4 hours.

Cherry Blossom Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray 3 6 inch cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Spray the parchment paper with cooking spray once more. Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing basin.
Add the granulated sugar and butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and mix on low speed for one minute. Increase the speed to high and let it run for 2 minutes, or until the sugar is completely dissolved in the butter. To bring the mixture down, scrape the edges of the basin.
Now add the three eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Whisk in the cherry blossom and vanilla extracts until well combined.
After each addition of flour and milk, slowly add the flour in two additions, alternating with the milk, and blend on low speed. Do not overmix the ingredients. Scrape the bowl’s sides.
Divide the batter evenly among three bowls using a weighing scale. Mix in colours of royal pink and fuschia in one and the batter in the other. This is how the ombre effect is achieved.
Fill each cake tin pan halfway with batter. Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow the cake to cool for an hour.
Wrap each layer of cake in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge overnight to set and firm.

Cherry Blossom Buttercream Frosting:

Add the butter and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and whisk on high speed for a minute. Combine the powdered sugar, milk, and extracts in a mixing bowl. To prevent the powder from flying around, start combining at a modest speed. To produce a smooth buttercream frosting, gradually raise the speed to medium. If the mixture is too stiff, whisk in a tablespoon of whole milk until the buttercream is smooth. If the mixture is too runny, add 12 cup more powdered sugar and stir to blend. The buttercream should be stiff yet pippable at the same time.
Remove approximately a third of a cup of buttercream from each of the three bowls for the embellishment. Using three distinct tiny rubber spatulas, whisk together Royal pink, Fuschia, and Brown gel paste in each of the three bowls. Fill a pipping bag with each color of buttercream with a Wilton pastry tip No. 1 or No. 2. Scrape the buttercream all the way down from the top with a bench scraper, twist the bottom of the bag, and clip to fasten.
Fill a pipping bag with around 3 cups of the simple cherry blossom buttercream with a 1 inch round tip. Scrape the buttercream all the way down from the top of the bag with a bench scraper, twist the top of the bag, and clip to fasten.

Assembly:

Using a sharp bread serrated knife, remove the domes from the cakes.
Apply a small amount of buttercream to the bottom of a cake turntable to help the bottommost layer of cake stay. Place the cake’s cream layer on top. Create a rim around the cake with the simple cherry blossom buttercream and the pipping bag. Using a tiny offset spatula, level out roughly 1 cup of the lychee curd. Repeat the outside buttercream rim with the second layer of cake. In the center of the cake, spread roughly 1 cup of cherry jam. Level the jam with an offset spatula. Carefully place the last layer of cake on top.
To make the crumb coat, fill the pipping bag halfway with buttercream and pipe it around the cake, leaving approximately half an inch between pippings. Level off the buttercream with a wide cake spatula while moving the turn table parallel to the cake to secure the crumb around the cake.
Apply buttercream on the top of the cake and smooth it out with the broad spatula to secure the crumb. Maintain a crisp edge all the way around the top of the cake. Refrigerate the cake for at least 30 minutes.
Remove the cake after half an hour. You may make ombre frosting like I did by dividing the leftover normal buttercream into four bowls and adding pink in two different hues to two of them, sky blue to another, and cream to the fourth. Alternatively, leave the icing uncolored.
Begin by evenly applying one color to the bottom of the cake using a tiny offset spatula. For the following level of the cake, choose a new hue. For the next level of the cake, repeat with the third color. Apply the blue buttercream to the cake’s top. Level off the frosting all over the cake using a cake frosting leveler while carefully moving the turn table to smooth the sides. Repeat the technique until the sides are smooth. Level the top of the cake with a big spatula at a 45-degree angle, and bring the frosting into the center of the cake from the edge of the cake. Repeat the technique all the way around the cake’s rim.
Using a tiny offset spatula, a glass of hot water on the side, and a towel, clean the cake by dipping the spatula in hot water and drying it on the towel. Repeat until you have a very clean cake.
Refrigerate the cake for an hour to allow it to solidify.
Make a cherry blossom design with the pipping bags, using the brown first to create branches. Place the flowers on top. Use your imagination to figure out where you want to put them. Add the pearls last.