Rose Water Cakes with Roasted Strawberry Buttercream (w/th Café, Cacau e Canela)

Hello, friend.

Note: I’m feeling incredibly lazy (and I have two exams to study for), so I’m going to make this blog post short and sweet (much like these cakes!) These mini rose water cakes are wonderfully aromatic with subtle floral notes. The slowly roasted strawberries are perfectly folded into the cloud-like buttercream making for the ideal (end of) summer dessert. A few months backs Laura from Café, Cacau e Canela and I were messaging back and forth about how we have never collaborated before and how we NEEDED TO. We started brainstorming ideas for how we were going to go about this. We decided to use the same core ingredients and see where our creativity took us. Once you’re done checking out my recipe, click on over to Laura’s site for her recipe (spoiler alert: it’s going to be a delicious one. Just sayin’)

With summer ending, Laura and I decided that we wanted to hold on to the seasons produce for just a tad while longer and bake with some fresh strawberries. We also wanted to work with coconut flour and cinnamon, because...reasons. Excited with these ingredients, we proceeded to both forgot one of them in the development of our recipes; the cinnamon. Great minds think alike right (or rather, forget alike)? For my recipe, I was inspired by Molly’s recipe for her mini cakes that I wanted to adapt a recipe of my own. I was inspired by the Taste of Home’s recipe for Texas sheet cake and decided to give it the old TK twist. Luckily, I had some rose water in my fridge as well, so I decided that this was no better time than ever to bake with it.

These cakes were just so dainty and incredibly delicious. The strawberries were slightly tart which paired beautifully with the sweet buttercream frosting. The combination of buttery cake and rich strawberry buttercream made for a perfect end-of-summer celebration. Now I’m officially ready for pumpkin and apple spice season.   

Rose Water Cakes with Roasted Strawberry Buttercream

Original cake recipe adapted from Taste of Home
Original roasted strawberries recipe adapted from 101 Cookbooks
Original buttercream recipe adapted from the Food Network 

Ingredients

        

    For the cake

1 cup (256 g) all-purpose flour + 1 cup (256g) coconut flour (or just 2 cups all-purpose flour)

2 cups (402 g) sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 cup (227 g) butter, cubed

¾ cup (6 oz.) water + ¼ cup rose water (2 oz.) (or just 1 cup [8 oz.] of water)

2 large eggs

½ cup (4 oz.) crème fraiche or sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

          

  For the buttercream

3 cups (384 g) confectioners’ sugar

1 (227 g) cup butter

Roasted strawberries*

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 to 2 tablespoons coconut cream

For the roasted strawberries

8 oz. strawberries, hauled and sliced

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon red wine

1 teaspoon agave (optional)

Directions

For the roasted strawberries. Preheat the oven to 350 F / 180 C. Slice strawberries and arrange them in a single layer on a prepared baking sheet or in an iron skillet. In a small bowl mix together to the honey, olive oil, salt, lemon juice, cinnamon, red wine, and optional agave nectar. Pour this mixture over the strawberries and gently toss to coat all the berries. Roast for about 40 minutes, or just long enough for the berries to release all their juices and those juices start to thicken. Allow to cool before using in the buttercream.

For the cakes. Preheat the oven to 375 F / 190 C. Grease a 13 x 9 in baking pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda until well combined. In a small saucepan, combine the butter and water, bring just to a boil. Stir into the flour mixture. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, crème Fraiche, and vanilla extract until blended. Add to the flour mixture and whisk constantly until incorporated.

Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes.

*note. If making mini cakes, cover the cooled cake with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for 6 hours or overnight. This will make it easier to cut the cake into rounds.

For the buttercream. In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, beat together the sugar and butter until mixture is light and fluffy. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes. Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more. Add in the cooled strawberries and mix until well incorporated.

Assembly. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out cake rounds from the sheet cake. Using a piping bag, pip on a single layer of buttercream on each top of the cakes. Stack three to make one mini cake. Top with a slice of strawberry and serve immediately (preferably with glass of rosé)