Seasons Eatings

I was combing through my previous December bakes and found a startling number of peppermint desserts. Consider me basic in both fall AND winter, apparently. There's only so many ways you can mix peppermint into desserts, and I've pretty much done all of them. This meant it was time for my least favorite thing in the world: stepping out of my minty-cool comfort zone and finding a new flavor to deck the halls with. Needless to say, the answer was booze. I mean, isn't always? I decided to bake with an old favorite: Rumchata. Now, if you've never had the pleasure of drinking Rumchata, let me set the scene. Remember pouring yourself a giant bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal as a kid, letting it get a little soggy (R.I.P. roof of mouth), and by the end, you'd be left with this ultra creamy, cinnamon milk goodness? Yep--that's exactly what Rumchata tastes like. I figured cinnamon + booze = acceptable holiday offering. 'Tis the season to be boozy, fa la la la la la la la *hiccup.* I knew I also wanted to decorate in a winter theme because quite frankly, it may be the only winterscape I view in Florida (Hi, it's 69 degrees today, and I am sweaty and upsetty).

For my Florida readers, this is not a beach cake. It is a winter cake. Winter is a season generally marked by cold weather, immediately following Autumn, another season that, never mind, you don't need to know this. You'll never experience either.

Topped with white chocolate snowflakes and cool-swirled meringues, this blue ombre Rumchata cake with Rumchata buttercream frosting is TO DIE FOR. It's boozy, but not in an, "Oh boy, my throat is on fire," kind of way. A forkful of this cake starts off with a vanilla flavor and is followed by a creamy hit of cinnamon Rumchata goodness that lingers just right. I also added some extra cinnamon to the buttercream to take it over the top. It is soft, it is flavorful, and it is so moist thanks to the booze. I always find boozy bakes cook out the alcohol, leaving rich flavor and a moist cake behind (cake hangovers are far superior). This is a 3-tiered, 6-inch round cake with 12 servings, at only 341 calories a slice sans meringue or snowflake. Adding in those extra elements will total out to 356 calories a slice (oh yes, they are most definitely worth it). Trust me, this cake, frosting technique, and snowflake technique are INSANELY EASY. Meringues on the other hand...well, keep the Rumchata bottle handy, cause you're gonna need it...

I had no idea Rumchata came in bottles this small. Would've been useful information in college.

The base of this cake starts out with a box mix, and it stays pretty straight forward. You need:

• 1 vanilla cake mix
• 3 egg whites
• 4 ounces of diet creme soda
• 8 ounces of Rumchata

Now, you could forgo the soda and use all Rumchata, but it will definitely cost you in the calorie department since Rumchata is basically cinnamon sugar in liquid form. Whip up your egg whites on medium-high in the bowl of a stand mixer until fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare three 6-inch round cake pans with bake-even strips and cooking spray. Once your whites are fluffy, add in the cake mix, soda, and liquor. Blend on medium-high for 2 minutes, then evenly pour the batter into your prepared pans. Bake for 25-28 minutes, and then let the cakes cool in their pans for 5-10 minutes on a cooling rack. Turn these out of the pan and onto the racks to cool another 10 minutes before wrapping in plastic wrap and letting freeze for several hours (boozy cakes are sticky, so this will help when you frost your cake later). You can make your snowflakes and meringues while you wait. Because it will take you 17 hours, a phone call to a priest, and a lot of cursing to get these meringues made.

Have I scared you? Good. Use that fear.

Let's start with the easy and quick snowflakes. I Googled "snowflake piping template," copied and pasted the image into a Word doc, resized a few, and printed out. I set my templates under some Parchment paper and grabbed about 1/3 of a bag of white chocolate melts, melting in a large bowl in the microwave according to package directions. I poured my chocolate into a piping bag fitted with a #3 Wilton tip. I let this cool off for 5-10 minutes, so I could handle the chocolate without burning my hands too much. I piped out a bunch of snowflakes by tracing over my templates, but I still had a ton of chocolate leftover, so I free-handed stars and other little quirky designs. You only need like 6 snowflakes to decorate the cake, unless you're taking a hard pass on the meringues, then go snowflake crazy. Once piped, let these rest while you make your meringues; alternatively, if you're terrified of making meringues, let these sit on the counter for an hour or so before handling. Use a small angled spatula to gently lift off the Parchment and place on your cake.

Tiny but adorable. Super easy to make, so definitely don't skip this part!

Now, my next move was to make meringue. I studied several blog posts, websites, and baking videos. I felt confident I could do this. I'm also super into Pavlovas, and I need to know how to make meringue in order to eat my desired number of Pavlovas per year (I'm guessing about 50). I could still be studying how to make meringue, and it never would've properly prepared me. Much like earning the love of a good man, walking in 6-inch stilettos, or driving a manual transmission--you just have to go all in.

I mean, how hard can cracking three eggs be, right? Oh past, naive Kate...

Meringues are simple enough where ingredients are concerned:

• 3 egg whites at room temperature
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp clear vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup of Swerve granular

I HIGHLY recommend going to view this video and extremely lengthy blog post about how to make a decent meringue. I could spend at least 6 blog posts detailing this process, but I have an entire cake to go eat, so go check that out and get my CliffNotes version here. Basically, you whip your whites, tartar, and vanilla on medium high until the whites begin to get stiff. Then, while the mixer is still running, dump in the sugar very slowly, allowing it to become fully dissolved before adding in any more. When you have extremely stiff peaks forming in your bowl (i.e., you can stop the mixer, pull up the attachment, and the meringue stays perfectly put on it, you're there).

Piping can be a bit tricky, but I am here for you.

I preheated my oven to 215 and lined a large baking tray with Parchment. I then fitted several piping bags with (from left to right) an Ateco #869 tip, a #1M tip, a #2D tip, and a #32 tip. I painted the piping bag with the Ateco #869 tip with 4 stripes of blue gel dye, then plopped some meringue in. I then piped large mounds (seen in blue and white below), before taking plain white meringue, making some stars and large mounds with my 1M tip and some roses with my 2D tip, and then dyed what I had leftover with a tiny drop of blue gel dye and put it in my bag with my #32 tip and piped smaller stars and swirls.

I was so full of hope.

Before everything went wrong, looking back, I could've easily prevented some disasters from happening (hindsight is a cruel mistress). I should have put my meringue in the fridge to keep it firm while I piped with different tips. My roses were last, and my meringue was not as cold, so these completely lost their shape in the oven and turned into blobs resembling dog poo. I also did not need to cook these anywhere nearly as long as I had found in my meringue studies. My oven cooks very, very hot, so I should have pulled the plug around 40 minutes; I was terrified to open the oven door and check on them though, and the oven light didn't show signs of burning, but by the time I hit 60 minutes and turned the oven off, my smaller pieces were tanner than I have ever been in my life. Thankfully, the bigger meringues were only slightly tanned, so they made the cut.

You really need a watchful eye with these because the second they all *look* done, turn your oven off, crack open the door, and let your meringues continue to fully cool in the oven and finish up. Next time, I know to pay closer attention to the timing. But burnt or not, the pieces I didn't use on my cake still tasted absolutely delicious. For science!

Thanks for saving the day, tiny Rumchata bottle.

 Thankfully, frosting this cake is an absolute breeze, even if it looks time consuming with the end result. Honestly, it took me 5-10 minutes from start to finish/assembly to fully frosted. The magic of piping bags, baby. For the frosting you need:

• 4 ounces of 1/3 fat cream cheese at room temp
• 1/2 cup of butter at room temp
• 1 tsp clear vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 3 TBS Rumchata
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• One 12oz bag of Swerve confectioners

Blend the butter and cream cheese for 2-3 minutes, until fluffy and fully mixed. Add in the vanilla, cinnamon, one TBS Rumchata, and the 2 cups of powdered sugar. Blend on medium-low until just mixed, then add in the Swerve and last two TBS of Rumchata. Blend fully until you have a nice consistency for piping. Divide your frosting into thirds. One third will stay white, one third will get a few (3-4) drops of blue gel dye, and the final third will get about 6 drops of blue gel dye.

You want a gradual color change, nothing too intense.

  Place each of these colors into their own piping bag fitted with a #12 round tip. Now, get your cakes out of the freezer and place one layer face down on a cake plate.

This is the opposite of the Target logo.

I wanted a neat surprise inside of the cake, but not one as time consuming and crazy as another damn vertical layer cake (I came, I saw, I conquered, I ate). So I took my white frosting, piped out a few circles on the outer edge of the cake, then took my lighter blue and piped a few circles on the middle of the cake, and then took my darkest blue and piped the middle. Then I took an angled spatula and smoothed out:

Like a delicious bullseye.

I took another layer of cake, placed evenly on top of this, and repeated my swirled filling. I took my final layer, placed it face down on top of this, and then got ready for an easy ombre frosting job.

I swear I was not drinking the Rumchata when I did this.

Basically, starting at the bottom of your cake and working your way up, pipe out several lines of dark blue on the bottom cake layer, several lines of light blue on the middle cake layer, and pipe white lines on the last layer and the top of the cake. This takes like 2 minutes. You don't have to be exact, it doesn't have to look good, you just need a nice thick layer around the cake.

The best baking tool you could ever buy is obviously the bench scraper, because it can take you from hot mess to totally flawless in one swipe. Like the cake equivalent of a beauty blender.

I placed a bench scraper parallel to the side of my cake, pressed it gently into the side, and turned my cake table slowly. After a full rotation around my cake, I cleaned off excess frosting from my scraper, and took another pass. I repeated this a third time and all my colors had been blended together nicely. I used an angled spatula to smooth the top of the cake and then, because I have a real problem with Florida's lack of seasonally-appropriate weather, added sanding sugar to the top to look like snow. It will be the only snow I see this month, guaranteed.

The weather outside is frightful(ly hot), but Rumchata cake is so delightful...

I then grabbed some snowflakes, stars, and a few meringues and gently pressed them into my cake to achieve my desired look, or as I'm calling it, "What I wish it looked like when I stare out my window."

Instead, I shall settle for "What it looks like on my plate."

I love the cute little pop of color the frosting layers on the inside of the cake have. I am definitely going to use this technique again on the future to add some flare to the inside of a cake the easy way.

Looking at this cake makes me feel so cold inside. I love it.

It may not ever dip below freezing here in Florida, but thanks to baking, I can fake it until I make it to Tahoe in January. I'm prepared to freeze my entire butt off, and I could not be more excited about the prospect. I just want to be an environment that makes my cold little heart feel right at home, what can I say. Aside from my near meringue meltdown, I had a ton of fun getting in to the season baking and decorating this cake. But anything filled with tons of booze generally helps liven up the holiday spirit anyway. Peppermint is great, but Rumchata is next level holiday goodness. It's simple to make, and the flavor is anything but. It's buttery and smooth, sweet but not too sweet (yes, this is a thing), and the Rumchata lingers on your tongue like Rumchata was made to do. It's definitely a cake that will give you a holly jolly Christmas. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

I can almost remember what it feels like to not be a muggy hot mess when I look at this cake, and that's the greatest gift of all.