It Could Be None More Green.

We're only 5 days into March, and you better believe we've been amping up for Saint Patrick's Day in this house for all 120 hours of it. I mean, I ditched my strict 8 p.m. bedtime to go to a Dropkick Murphy's concert with my husband last weekend, and there is nothing like a little Celtic punk music to really put you in the mood for a St. Patty's Day celebration...and to remind you that after the age of 30, standing for long periods of time at a concert with result in several day's worth of back aches and fond memories of pain-free concerts in your early 20s. However, I was feeling inspired to celebrate one of my other favorite baking holidays (T-minus 240 days until Halloween), and I decided to go as big and as wild as the day deserves. This means there would be plenty of booze, plenty of cake, and plenty of green.

And plenty of shine because I have a large addiction to shiny things. Maybe I was a crow in past life.

Mirror glaze Saint Patrick's cake may be my crowning achievement in a list of the 20+ St. Patty's themed desserts I've made since I began this baking blog 5 years ago. I mean, this baby is so shiny it was hard to get a photo without a ton of glare, but I suppose that's kind of the point. I'm pretty sure in that bottom right photo you can see the faint reflection of my smug look of self satisfaction for out-caking myself. Four tiers of green ombre caramel cake coated in salted caramel Baileys Swiss meringue buttercream and all ensconced in mirror glazed chocolatey goodness...for under 400 calories a slice. I'd attribute it to the luck of the Irish, but it's really just because I'm insanely devoted to having my cake and eating it, too, this close to swimsuit season. I sectioned my cake into 12 servings for 365 calories a slice; you could easily turn this into 14 or 16 slices since it's such a tall cake for 313 or 274 calories respectively. I, however, went more feast over (potato) famine (too soon?) on my servings because I have other Baileys-laced desserts that aren't going to make or eat themselves this month, so I can't waste too much time on one cake, even if it is a green, shining beacon of festivity.

And the cake practically makes itself.

So I fell down the rabbit hole looking at extracts on Amazon, which is either a new low or a new high for me, still undecided. I came across caramel extract and thought it would be a great way to add to the Baileys flavor without adding to the Baileys calorie count. I will now be adding this extract into everything I eat for the foreseeable future (that good). To make this 4-tiered, 6-inch round cake, you need:

• 1 box vanilla cake mix
• 2 egg whites
• 10 ounces diet creme soda
• 2 tsp caramel extract
• Gel dye in leaf and Kelly greens

Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare your 6-inch round pans with cooking spray. Dump all ingredients together and blend on medium-high for 2 minutes. Divide your batter into 4 equal servings, each about a cup. Place plain white batter from one portion into a prepared cake pan. Dye another portion with a tiny, teeny amount of leaf green dye, then place into another prepared cake pan. Bake these for 22-24 minutes and set to cool on a cooling rack while still in the pan. While these bake, take the remaining batter and dye one half of it with several drops of leaf green and place into a prepared pan. Dye the last bit of batter with plenty of Kelly green and place into a prepared pan. Bake at same time/temp. Let all your cakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before turning out onto cooling racks.

It will be a colorful cooling session.

I knew I was making my cake over the course of a few days, so once my cake rounds were completely cool, I wrapped each in plastic wrap and placed in a freezer bag before freezing overnight. I do recommend this to make frosting easier.

We meet again, Swiss meringue...

So after that incredibly detailed blog post about how I FINALLY won over Swiss meringue buttercream, I'm going to keep this nice and brief. I pulsed my Swerve in the food processor this time though, which did help make it a little less grainy, but no matter how long I cooked my Swerve and egg whites together, I could not get it to dissolve all the way. Since I did not have this problem later with melting the Swerve in the mirror glaze, I'm going to try using more egg whites next time to up the amount of liquid that the sugar has to dissolve itself in. For this recipe, I used:

• 3 egg whites
• 1 cup Swerve granular
• 1 cup of butter at room temp
• 2 TBS salted caramel Baileys (could've even done 1 more and the frosting would've been firm enough for the glaze to stick to...hindsight)

 Definitely see the link above for the play-by-play if this is your first time making meringue. It's a long process, but worth it for the end result. This was buttery-rich with a smooth Baileys aftertaste. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

The photos aren't helping.

 Take your frozen rounds, prepare for a crappy photo montage, and start by plopping the white layer on a cake board and frosting with a thin amount of buttercream. I ended up cutting a new cake board to fit the cake's exact diameter later--do this first and not last like I did to make your life easier when you mirror glaze it. Picture me trying to transfer a fully frosted cake to a new cake round without ruining everything to remind you to do this FIRST. While a funny mental image, I do not recommend. I was cursing in several languages; some of which I did not even know I knew how to speak.

Top with the lightest green cake round, add more frosting, and go!

Add the leaf green layer on top of this, frost, and guess what?

I mean, there's only one color left, so I feel like you get it at this point.

 Once the layers are filled, use the rest of your delicious Baileys Swiss meringue to place a very thick layer of frosting around the entire cake.

This weighed 15 pounds.

 Smooth out with a bench scraper and a large angled spatula before popping into the freezer for at least 2-3 hours before you pour liquid hot mirror glaze magma on top of it. I have only ever done mirror glaze once before using an American buttercream, so I was nervous at this point that the Swiss would once again be too neutral and not allow the mirror glaze to firmly stick to it. I put this in the freezer overnight while we enjoyed a concert so good, I forgot I had something to worry about. That's a true testament to the Dropkick Murphy's.

There's just so many ingredients...

It had been almost 2 years since my first and only successful attempt at mirror glazing in the form of a galaxy cake. I remembered lots of sweating, but I figured that was because I made it in June. Wrong. It's the last step in decorating a cake, and the one with the highest chance of things going wrong. I made this cake days ago, and even thinking about it now is making me twitchy. No, it's not really that hard, I'm just incredibly dramatic when I'm hungry, so I better eat some cake while I finish this. Mirror glaze for this cake required:

• 8 ounces of lime green or white chocolate melts (I used lime)
• 5 tsp Knox gelatine
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 cup Swerve granular
• Additional 1/4 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup of fat free sweetened condensed milk
• Lime green, leaf green, and Kelly green gel dyes
• Gold star sprinkles 

And every kitchen utensil you have.

 Please see my link above for a detailed account of how to make mirror glaze. It's blooming gelatin, then cooking your sugar/1/4 c water/corn syrup until bubbly, adding in the condensed milk and gelatin, and pouring on top of your chocolate melts before straining into a large bowl. I go into the minutiae in that blog link though and include a video you can watch. 

There's no galaxy here, though. Seems very Earth-adjacent.

 I split my glaze into three bowls: one dyed super lime green, one dyed a nice leaf green, and the base of the cake/bulk of the glaze a super dark Kelly green. Let this sit for a minute or two to reach 90-100 degrees.

Cakes elevated to the next level. It's what I do.

 While your glaze cools off just a bit, take your cake out of the freezer, put it on a vase or jar (I use my butter bell bottom) and place that on top of a pan lined with foil.

This part is as satisfying as it is terrifying.

Make sure you have all your glaze colors lined up, each with their own clean spoon, and work quickly. Pour the Kelly green base color all over the cake, ensuring every last bit is covered in dark green and no white is peaking through anywhere.

Tiger stripe success!

 Then take the other two colors and drizzle them one at a time on top of the Kelly green base until you get a look you like. You can use a large angled spatula to smooth out the top and even out the colors, but I liked how striped this looked. My lime green showed up well, but my leaf green faded into the background a bit. I'd recommend doing lime green and maybe white instead if you want more of a contrast.

Right, the sprinkles.

 Wait for about 5-10 minutes while your glaze continues to drip off your cake. Once this has stopped, top with *hopefully* gold star sprinkles. Because gold and Saint Patrick's Day are thing that go together. Sadly, my AC Moore was out of gold stars, so I had to settle for silver. I'm not sure any leprechaun is going to be looking for a pot of silver at the end of the rainbow, but it still looked pretty. Carefully transfer your cake to a serving plate and let it rest for a few hours before serving.

Clean and green, baby!

I put my cake in the fridge for a few hours to ensure I could get a nice, clean slice for a photo. I absolutely love how festive this cake is inside and out. There was no half-assing with this cake, only whole-assing for the sake of Saint Patrick's Day. I'm not even Irish, I just really like the color green. We'll say I made this for my Irish husband, but we know I'm doing the bulk of the cake eating here.

I did earn it, though. This was 3 days of my life!

 Granted, if you had a normal Saturday with several hours set aside, you could make this magic happen without the aid of four leaf clovers or tiny drunk leprechauns. It definitely would be a showstopper at your Saint Patrick's Day festivities before Irish Car Bombs start dropping, the Guinness starts flowing, and everyone starts seeing double. I'm sure it would look really cool though with all that shiny mirror glaze blazing in and out of boozy view. Bottom line is this--I will use any excuse to make a themed cake, but I will go above and beyond when it's a holiday I also happen to fancy. This is my ode to St. Patty's Day--and it is delicious. Caramel cake with buttery Baileys Swiss meringue and chocolatey sweet mirror glaze...every bite reminds me why Baileys will always be the best baking ingredient in my book. Rich but not too heavy, sweet but not overly so. Who needs a pot of gold when you've got an entire cake?! Enjoy your festivities, I'm off to drool over this cake some more and plot my next Saint Patrick's Day dessert. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

I mean, I would take the gold, too, but I'm fairly certain the cake might be a little lighter to carry...

Because Normal People Celebrate Valentine's Day...

In all my life, outside of receiving chalky candy hearts in elementary school, I've never been a fan of Valentine's Day. I mean, I have "feelings." I, too, like to take long romantic strolls through Target with my husband, and if I'm being extra sappy, we'll even make a stop at Lowe's for his sake. Look, I've never been accused of being mushy. I'm a pragmatic romantic--I tell my husband to wait until the chocolates and Shari's Berries go on sale the day after Valentine's Day to bring any home. Pro tip: sale chocolate tastes way better than regular chocolate. But I wanted to try my hand at making a chocolate cage cake for awhile now, and I figured Valentine's Day probably qualified as the most seasonally appropriate holiday for me to do so outside of a super Gothic cage cake creation for Halloween, but I didn't want to wait over half a year to execute this idea. Besides, Valentine's Day is the perfect opportunity to remind your spouse why they love cake you, so baking a treat from the heart is always a good idea.

This is about as grand a romantic gesture as my tiny heart is capable of pulling off.

This strawberry cake covered in Swiss meringue buttercream (oh yes, it worked this time) and topped with chocolate-drizzled strawberries was the perfect backdrop for a fun, whimsical chocolate cage. I had an amazing time making this chocolate cage. I'm not going to lie--the hardest part about the entire decorating process was figuring out how to cut the cake once the cage was on it. These, my dear friend, are the best kind of problems to have. Whether you attack it with a knife, shovel, or your bare hands, it's a tasty mix of dark chocolate, sweet strawberry, and buttery-delicious Swiss meringue buttercream. Since it's already 70 in Florida, nutritional content was most definitely taken into consideration (I have a date with our pool in t-minus 2-3 weeks). This three-tiered six-inch round cake makes 12 servings for only 330 calories a slice (and that's with a chocolate-drizzled strawberry on top, literally). I'm also going to go on and on about how amazing Swiss meringue buttercream is (even if it is a pain in the butt to make), and it definitely lent itself to this low calorie count for something ensconced entirely in chocolate. A Valentine's Day miracle!

Thanks, Cupid.

I have not had strawberry cake in ages, and it is definitely in my top 5, so I was happy to try out the low-cal trick to see how it would turn out. Short answer: absolutely delicious. Long, selfish answer: I will not share with you because it's just too good. To make, you need:

• 1 box strawberry cake mix
• 2 egg whites 
• 10 ounces diet creme soda

Mix all the ingredients together for 2 minutes on medium high in a stand mixer. Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare three 6-inch round pans with cooking spray and line the outside with bake even strips. Pour mixed cake batter evenly into each pan (about 1 1/4 cup into each pan). Bake for 30 minutes, or until your cakes can pass the toothpick test.

"Pink- it's like red but not quite" (You're welcome, Mom, lifelong lover of all things Aerosmith).

 Let you cakes cool off in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. I made my cakes a day ahead of time, so I wrapped these in plastic wrap and put each into a freezer bag before freezing overnight. This made my frosting application an absolute breeze. Do try to freeze your cakes for at least 2 hours before frosting.

65th time's the charm, Swiss meringue...

I failed so miserably when I tried making maple Swiss meringue buttercream last month, that like any hard-headed, stubborn Capricorn, I simply could not let that stand. I was going to make this frosting pay for making me do something so vile--improvise--when it comes to cake. There are few things I am more passionate about that planning out an amazing dessert to the last detail: Vikings football, my dogs, and napping. That's about it. So to make this evil Swiss meringue buttercream pay, I used:

• 3 egg whites
• 1 cup Swerve granular
• 1 cup of butter, barely at room temp (I could press the stick of butter and have it gently give way, but not squish flat entirely)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp almond extract
• An iron will and tons of patience

Full disclosure, my frosting turned out a little grainy, but I think that's because I didn't whisk long enough while cooking my egg whites (note: more bicep workouts needed). Swerve granular isn't quite as fine as regular granular sugar, so the next time I make this, I will probably give it a quick swirl in the food processor first. I did use some tricks to make the texture work, but more on that later. First, the arduous prep work.

You're gonna need a lot of lemon.

 After the last catastrophe, I studied up on Swiss meringue buttercream (yes, I am a nerd, thank you). Swiss's mortal enemy is grease...and I here I thought the Swiss were always neutral about everything. So wipe down anything and everything that will come into contact with your egg white/sugar syrup. Whisks, mixing bowls, paddle attachments, your soul--all of it needs a good cleansing with a rag soaked in lemon juice.

Once done, crack eggs one at a time into a small metal or ceramic dish. If ANY yolk gets into your whites, dump it out and start over. It will not be able to whip up with any trace of yolk, so use the small dish so you can do this one at a time and not lose a ton of egg whites when the last egg you crack inevitably decides to betray you.

After each white is separated, dump it into the mixing bowl. Once all 3 are added, pour in the sugar. Fill a medium pot with 1 1/4 cup of water and bring to a low boil; reduce heat to a simmer, then place your mixing bowl with the whites and sugar on top of this. You don't want the water touching the bottom of the mixing bowl, so use a deep pot. Now whisk like your life depends upon it, because for the sake of your cake, it does.

You should continually whisk until your mixture reaches 160 degrees. My arm got sore and I am not an ambi-whisker, so I gave up at about 140 degrees, hence my meringue being a little grainy. Cooking the egg whites to the correct temp will help ensure its warm enough to dissolve all the sugar. You should be able to rub a little of the mixture between your thumb and index finger and not feel any grit--this is when you're ready to move on (I'd say give it 5-7 minutes of perilous whisking if you don't have a candy thermometer).

I didn't take photos during this epic ordeal because I was IN THE ZONE. Sorry. At this point, place your bowl into your stand mixer, turn it on high, and walk away for 10 minutes. You need to let your mixing bowl cool completely while it whips up the meringue, so check on it from 8-10 minutes out to ensure you have a light, fluffy bowl full of meringue. If you do, congrats--you have done the hard part, turn off the mixer and scrape the bowl. If not, do not pass go, do not collect $200. If your bowl is still too hot to the touch (should only be barely warm at this point), put everything in the freezer for 20 minutes and try whipping up again after the bowl is totally cool. Otherwise, there was probably grease or yolk that got in there, and you'll have to start over. Swiss meringue buttercream is a science, for sure. I should know. I am both a baker and a person who works in a science museum, so this is the best use of my trivial knowledge without a doubt.

Cut all the butter into tablespoon chunks, turn your mixer on medium, and add one tablespoon at a time, waiting until each chunk is incorporated before adding more. Things will get curdly and gross, but this is part of the process. Once all butter has been added, add in your extracts and return the mixer to high for 2-3 minutes, until the meringue is completely fluffy again. You can add in gel coloring now if you'd like, or pour yourself a very large, very well-deserved glass of wine.

Trust me, this part is a sinch compared to that frosting.

After dealing with "all that," making the chocolate cage and strawberries are an absolute delight. I used one bar of semisweet chocolate, pink and white sanding sugar, a #3 open tip, and several strawberries.

Told you, I plan out everything.

You will need to measure the diameter of your cake rounds and how tall they are stacked together to make your cage. My cakes were 18" in diameter, and about 4.5" inches high. So I took two strips of WAX paper (easier to peel off), and cut each to 9"x5" before very obviously free-handing a pattern for my cage with a Sharpie. Flip over and melt some chocolate!

This looks like the worst hedge maze ever created.

I broke up my chocolate bar and heated on 50% power for 1 minute in the microwave before giving a stir and heating an additional 30 seconds. I mixed it until completely smooth, then poured into a piping bag fitted with a #3 tip. I let this cool for about 20 minutes before piping onto my wax paper guide. Set this aside for 40 minutes.

Oh yes, I get it, Valentine's Day. I do. Chocolate makes everything sexy.

Once finished with your cage, drizzle lines of chocolate over 6-8 strawberries and immediately sprinkle with pink and white sanding sugar to adhere to the wet chocolate. Set these aside and get ready to frost your cake.

So...smooth.

Okay, as much of a pain it is to make, this frosting spreads, well, like something containing a ridiculous amount of butter. I frosted my entire cake and had it smoothed out in under 5 minutes. The amount of time spent whisking (and praying) earlier felt justifiable for how easy it was to cover an entire cake in this frosting. I spread a dollop onto my bottom layer of cake, and then to help offset the grainy texture that resulted from my impatience and bird-like arm strength, I brought more strawberries into the mix.

Thanks, ingenuity!

I thinly sliced 4 strawberries, placing half onto my bottom layer and the other half onto my middle layer of frosting. If you're grainy, this is a great way to give another texture--you can also add some sanding sugar so it totally looks like that's the what you were going for, but I just added a bit more frosting onto my strawberries before moving on and adding another layer of cake.

Thank you, baking gods.

 I didn't even need a crumb coat since my cakes were frozen, so I lathered on a thick layer of frosting all around and smoothed out with my bench scraper and a small angled spatula, and in no time flat, I had the world's smoothest cake without any special paper towel tricks or intermittent frosting freezing. Say that three times fast.

If it's not topped with sprinkles, it isn't finished.

I added pink and white sanding sugar on top because 1. It's pretty. And 2. Because I put sprinkles on everything. Then I checked on my chocolate cage. It should be firm to the touch but still pliable. This took 40 minutes for my design. It was still very slightly shiny, but my finger did not disrupt the surface of the chocolate when I touched it. I was told that was the magic moment, so I took each strip and placed it on my frosted cake.

There was lots of breath holding.

 You should be able to gently press the chocolate into the frosting layer to adhere it to the cake. I let this rest for 5 minutes to completely stick.

Reminder: you can breathe now.

Then, I very gently and slowly peeled the wax paper away from the chocolate. This was like that glorious moment when you get a new TV and peel the packaging off, but you don't get to eat the TV after you've done that, so this definitely wins for most satisfying peel-off moment.

Victory!

Repeat with the other sheet of wax paper, and you have won the cake game--go you. It really is quite simple and a lot of fun to make these cages, so I can't wait to do this again.

Don't forget the berries on top!

I evenly spaced out my drizzled strawberries, and found I had made one too many. Perhaps I had done this subconsciously so I could enjoy that extra strawberry as a reward for surviving Swiss meringue buttercream making. Thanks, past self. It was delicious.

Loops for dayyyyys.

 It is simple, but it is effective. It's a romantic cake, topped with sprinkles and strawberries, and the best way to celebrate international card and candy giving day. Well, it's the only way we are acknowledging it in this house until chocolate goes on sale, anyway. My husband is actually going to a concert with his husband on Valentine's Day, and I could not be happier for them...they're the most epic bromance since Matt and Ben or Turk and JD. And this means I get to watch Grey's Anatomy uninterrupted on Thursday night because I hate happiness. At least I have the cake?

The real MVP.

I gotta say, a super sweet American buttercream just doesn't do it for us anymore. Ever since going mostly sugar free, that level of tooth-rottingly sweet just makes us gag. The reason I wanted to perfect Swiss meringue buttercream is because it is a still a piping-consistency frosting just without that sickening sweetness. It's a nice, mellow flavor. A hint of sweet, but mostly smooth and rich. A silky, buttery flavor complimented by the vanilla and almond extract. This is now how I frost my cakes--so that means I get to try to figure out how to add copious amounts of Baileys to a Swiss meringue buttercream before Saint Patrick's Day. But this buttery goodness and that saccharine sweet strawberry cake are absolutely amazing together. Add in a little bit of chocolate cage and real strawberries, and this is the right amount of decadent. A whole slice leaves you perfectly content, without rotting out any teeth or inducing any gut bombs. Swiss meringue buttercream--you may be difficult, but like most difficult things (hi!), you're totally worth it in the end. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Now that is a sultry-looking baked good. I'm coming around to ya, Valentine's Day. Oh no...I'm feeling feelings, but considering they're about cake, I guess that's not very surprising. Carry on!

Everything Is Better with Syrup

Breakfast is not only the most important meal of the day, it is also my favorite because breakfast is as close as I can get to eating dessert first thing in the morning and still have it be socially acceptable. Pancakes? Waffles? Crepes? Sweet, delicious, and all have one thing in common: they taste best when drizzled with heaping amounts of maple syrup. God bless the (I assume Canadian) person who took one look at a maple tree and just knew it was hiding the delicious nectar of the gods within it. I love maple syrup...I've been known to "accidentally" pour too much on my French toast, causing it to ooze on over to my bacon and eggs, covering them substantially in a pile of sticky sweetness to compliment their saltiness. Like I said, closest I can get to dessert first thing in the morning. I decided if I can have dessert for breakfast, why not have breakfast for dessert? And in true Canadian fashion, I wanted to make sure my breakfast dessert was absolutely drenched with maple syrup.

Because maple syrup is magical. Cures any and all illnesses, although you might want to fact check that.

As someone with (French) Canadian heritage, there are three things I hold in extremely high regard: Tim Horton's, hockey, and maple syrup. You can bet if there was a Timmy's within a 50-mile radius of me, I'd be eating this maple syrup cake topped with cinnamon streusel and maple syrup buttercream along with a heaping pile of Tim-Bits while watching Hockey Night in Canada. This cake is like eating the lightest, fluffiest stack of streusel-topped pancakes drizzled with pure Canadian maple syrup. I am absolutely gaga for this recipe, and to top it all off, it's only 310 calories a slice (no stack of pancakes can make the same claim). This recipe yields one 9x13 cake with 16 total servings, and I would be willing to fight a grizzly bear (just not a moose) for the last slice.

It's so good, I'm considering buying my maple syrup in bulk so I can make it at least once a month. Potentially to have for breakfast or dessert because versatility is important to me.

I know, I waited for the good part: common pantry staples make the cake itself come together in absolutely no time flat. After vertical layer cakes, meringue-topped cakes, and all the other crazy concoctions I've baked up in the past few months, making a simple 9x13 cake seemed like a reward for all that hard (tasty) work. To make, you'll need:

• 1 box of vanilla cake mix
• 3 egg whites
• 6 ounces diet creme soda
• 6 ounces pure maple syrup (you could try sugar free syrup as well to lower calorie content even more)

Mix all of the ingredients together in a stand mixer on medium-high for 2 minutes while you preheat your oven to 350/325 for convection baking and grease a 9x13 pan. Turn your prepared batter into the pan and bake about 28-30 minutes until done. You'll know it's ready to come out of the oven when your house smells like Canada.

The smells of syrupy goodness.

 Let you cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting. While your cake cools, keep your oven at 350/325 for convection and make your streusel.

Brown sugar Swerve is now a thing!!! Rejoice, sugar-free people!

Streusel is something I had actually never made before, and I now consider it dangerous to know it's so quick and easy to make. Swerve now has a brown sugar version, and this changes everything. I am definitely going to figure out how to make toffee with it, along with a thousand different cookie recipes. To make the streusel, mix together:

• 6 TBS melted butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup of flour
• 3/4 cup of packed Swerve brown sugar 

Stir these ingredients together by hand in a medium bowl until everything has come together.

Like so.

 Things will be a little crumbly, but that's normal. Spread your streusel out on a Silpat (just buy them, they're life changing) or Parchment-lined baking tray. Bake the streusel for 6 minutes at 350, then remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely. Once cooled to the touch, crumble it up into finer pieces.

Some larger chunks make for a pretty texture (and taste) when topped on the cake.

Now we come to the part of the story where everything went wrong. I wanted so, so badly to try to make a maple syrup Swiss meringue buttercream. I knew my cake was going to be sweet, even more so with the streusel on top, so I wanted to go away from a traditional American buttercream that is 10000% sweetness. I tried multiple times, but I could not get my meringue to whip up with the addition of the maple syrup, so after wasting like, a lot of eggs and all the pure maple syrup I had, I turned to the pantry to do my least favorite thing in the entire universe: improvise.

Seriously...I sketch out every cake and write out every recipe in full before baking.

Getting thrown a curve ball happens to even the best bakers (I know, I watch the Great British Bake Off), but I was still extremely sad to have to revert to a typical buttercream...especially since I ran out of the "hard stuff," a.k.a., all my pure maple syrup. Since I guzzle syrup like normal people guzzle water, I typically use sugar free Hungry Jack so I don't add an extra 13,000 calories to my waffles every weekend. I decided to give it a go and used:

• 1 - 12 ounce bag Swerve confectioners
• 1 cup of regular powdered sugar
• 1 cup of butter at room temp
• 4 TBS sugar free Hungry Jack syrup

I whipped my butter, which, unlike my eggs in my failed meringue, got light and fluffy, before adding in the Swerve and two tablespoons of syrup. I mixed well before finishing with the last two tablespoons of syrup and the cup of regular powdered sugar to cut the "cooling" effect Swerve confectioners has on its own. It's a very sticky, albeit incredibly delicious, frosting, and using the sugar free syrup definitely helped keep it from getting way too sweet when added in with everything else. I had quite a bit of frosting leftover, and I'm pretty sure that's going on top of English muffins from now until the sad day when it runs out.

It was all I could do to not dive in with a shovel.

 I didn't crumb coat this cake since I wasted so much time trying to make meringue happen and just wanted to eat a dang slice, so I took a thick amount of frosting and spread it on with a large angled spatula on top. To help smooth it out, I ran my spatula under extremely hot water before taking a few swipes on top to even everything out. I did this again with a small angled spatula to cover all the sides of the cake.

"Shell-o, is it me you're looking for?"

I originally intended to pipe an interlocking "V" border, but since this buttercream was nowhere near as firm as a Swiss meringue, trying to get a clean line from something this sticky and soft was virtually impossible. Instead I went with a tried and true shell border with the help of a #21 Wilton tip. The classics are classic for a reason, after all.

And they are so very complimentary to the streusel.

My shell border ended up being the perfect basin to hold in all my streusel, so there's something to be said for happy accidents. Once I piped my border all around the top and bottom edges of my cake, I took my crumbled streusel and dusted it on top of my cake, pressing it down to affix it to the frosting.

Bonus: you can lick your fingers once you're done with this part!

Ta-da! That's it...super simple decorations, but it looks absolutely scrumptious. And it is.

Back off, she's mine!

I woke up in the mood for a slice of this cake, although I resisted somehow because I realized ending my Monday with it would be way more rewarding than starting my Monday with it. Besides, Tuesday seems like the perfect day for breakfast cake anyway. The cake itself is so rich with maple flavor but still extremely light and fluffy. A forkful with frosting and streusel added in will transport you to another plain of existence (located approximately somewhere in British Columbia, Canada). I'm not saying you should put maple syrup on everything, but you should put maple syrup on cake for sure. This is definitely going down in my book as one of the best Kate Bakes Cakes original recipes, and I am so very glad we still have 14 more slices to fight to the death over in my house. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

I mean, check that cake to streusel action. Coffee cake wishes it looked this fine.