Whipped Cream Cake

I hate winter. I really really do. Its cold and unpleasant. Now when I say cold, here in Sydney its been down to about 5C (that's about 40F) at its worst, which I guess for a lot of people isn't that bad, but its bad enough for me! And its not just the cold, I hate the rain and I hate that it gets dark so early.  And I also hate that it's flu season. Yes, I have a cold or the flu, who knows, all that matters is that I aint feeling all that great.  But this cake did make it a little better. The special thing about this cake is that it uses whipped cream instead of butter. It also uses brown sugar, giving it a really nice colour and flavour. The original recipe had a caramel frosting but I decided to use a fluffy frosting instead. I had some extra cake mixture so used it to make 6 cupcakes. I think next time I'll just make cupcakes. I filled them with cream and then topped them with a little frosting.

The unfrosted cupcakes

The unfrosted cake. I didn't get a photo of the completed cake because it was getting dark and then I had race out the door to get it to church on time. And it fell apart in the car, turns out my driving isn't very good for cakes.

• I don't know why but I love Rainbow Cakes. I will have to try this one from Megan's cookin for the next birthday
• Another great birthday cake would be this Chocolate Covered Coconut Cake from The Kitchen Sink Recipes
• A Little Owl in the Kitchen has some beautiful Tiramisu Tartlets. A friend of mine is obsessed with tiramisu so this is definitely one I'm going to have to try
• Grab Your Fork is a great Sydney based blog. This week sharing an Upside-down Pear and Macadamia Cake
• I love this idea. Chocolate-orange Mini Icebox cakes from One Ordinary Day

Whipped Cream Cake

Recipe from AWW Bake

Ingredients

600ml thickened cream

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar

2 cups self raising flour

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Grease deep 22cm-round cake pan; line base with baking paper.

2. Beat half of the cream in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form.

3. Beat eggs and extract in another small bowl with electric mixer until thick and creamy; gradually add sugar, beating until dissolved between additions. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Fold in a quarter of the whipped cream, then sifted flour, then remaining whipped cream. Spread mixture into pan.

4. Bake cake about 50 minutes. Stand cake in pan 5 minutes; turn, top-side up, onto wire rack to cool.

5. Meanwhile, beat remaining cream in small bowl with electric mixer until firm peaks form.

6. Split cold cake in half; sandwich layers with cream. Spread with frosting.

Fluffy Frosting

Ingredients

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup water

1 egg white

Method

Stir sugar and water in small saucepan over heat, without boiling until sugar is dissolved. Boil, uncovered, without stirring about 5 minutes, or until syrup reaches 116C/240F on a candy thermometer. Syrup should be thick but not coloured. Remove from heat, allow bubbles to subside. Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. While mixer is operating, add hot syrup in thin stream, beat on high speed about 10 minutes or until mixture is thick and cool.