Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! I hope you’re celebrating this holiday with someone special, doing something special, and/or eating something special. Personally, I’m doing all three of those things!
That’s right, I had two of my girlfriends come to San Francisco this weekend to celebrate our own version of the holiday - Galentine’s Day. We hit the town, explored a new restaurant, came back to my place for rooftop wine drinking, and then made our way back to my kitchen where I had prepared a lovely Galentine’s Day Letter Cake for them.
I’m really loving this type of cake lately - I’m calling it a letter cake for lack of a more creative term - but they are quickly becoming my favorite style of cake because they allow for so much creativity. Let’s talk about the components of this lovely Galentine’s Day Cake, shall we?
First up is the cake portion, which actually isn’t a traditional cake at all. It’s more along the lines of a shortbread cookie, which makes it very solid for stacking. I once made this style cake with actual cake, and while it was quite delicious, the cake layers were difficult to stack and there was a lot of waste because you can’t form the cake into the shape you want before you bake it, therefore a lot of carving, trimming, and shaping has to happen.
I knew that one of my galentines is a huge chocolate fan (just check out the birthday cake I made for her last year) so I decided to make my shortbread cake a chocolate layer for this one. I really liked the way it came out - not too sweet, but very chocolatey.
Next, I made French buttercream because I have a ton of egg yolks just sitting in my refrigerator (I’ve been making SO many macarons lately, which is why I have unused yolks) so it was either that or pastry cream.
As much as I love using Swiss Buttercream to frost my cakes with because of its stability, French buttercream is delicious and soft and I really wasn’t relying on the frosting for structural support here, so I chose this one because of its rich flavor and silky texture. I dyed it pink with the help of The Sugar Art’s Master Elite Hot Pink powdered food coloring to get the vibrant color you see in the photo, then piped stars of buttercream along the bottom and top layers of cake.
I mention that I’ve been making macarons a lot lately, and some of them have been because I knew this cake needed to be decorated with pretty (and delicious) pieces, so I developed a chocolate dipped strawberry macaron, a white chocolate raspberry macaron, and a birthday cake macaron. The strawberry and raspberry macarons still need some tweaking, but the birthday cake macaron is perfection and will be added to my menu very soon.
For some extra deliciousness and texture, I baked a few of my amazing funfetti cookies and cut them in quarters to place all along the cake. I feel like no matter what flavors or colors a letter cake is using, these funfetti cookies will always be appropriate.
Lately I’ve been on a huge sprinkle kick (honestly, they just make my desserts look so much happier!), and I knew this cake would need that hint of glamor so I ordered the Vintage Rose Gold sprinkle mix from Sprinkle Pop and added an elegant dusting of sprinkles to the mix.
Lastly, for a pop of color, I dyed some more of the French buttercream purple and piped tiny rosettes all around the heart for a lovely added effect. My galentines loved it, and I sent all of the leftovers home with them to enjoy with their own Man Candies™ (or just for themselves).
And there you have it - a super delicious, indulgent, rich, and flavorful letter cake to celebrate those you love, whether they are a romantic partner or some of your favorite gal pals. Either way you choose, I hope your Valentine’s Day is just as delicious as mine was 💗
Happy eating, y’all!
If you tried this dessert, or any other desserts in my blog, please share my Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram posts about them and let people know what you think! Mahalo!
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