This weekend will be St. Patrick’s Day! Never did I think I’d be living in Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day. Since arriving I’ve been thinking about different recipes to try and create while I’m here. I knew I would want to try something with Irish Cream. I settled on the idea of making a Shamrock Cake covered in green fondant. When I am making a big cake like this I generally take it in steps, sometimes over a couple of days. If you have room in the freezer, the cake layers can be frozen ahead of time. I like to do this the day before. I always make my fondant ahead of time by 3 days to a week in advance. The recipe I use is great but it needs time to rest before using it. Flavors! I’ve been daydreaming about flavors for awhile with this cake. A coffee and cream cake? Maybe next time. Chocolate is what I wanted. A nice rich chocolate cake paired with Irish Cream. Yum!

I had fun trying out the flavors as I went. I don’t believe I’ve ever had Irish Cream in anything other than coffee before this. I really enjoyed the ganache and I’m sure it would make good truffles. I wasn’t sure how much ganache I would need and oops! I made too much for the cake. I have adjusted the recipe below to make a smaller amount. No worries though! I’m sure I can find a use for the extra. I went with a Swiss meringue buttercream because I didn’t want the frosting to be too sweet. This worked out into a nice, light and fluffy frosting with a hint of Irish Cream. If you don’t want to add Irish Cream you could always make a plain ganache filling and vanilla buttercream and still have a great shamrock cake that is also kid friendly. I decided to use 6 inch heart pans as my clovers. I baked 4 cakes that I could split into half for my layers. (1 extra cake just in case any broke )  I also needed some extra cake anyway to cut and to use as the stem. You can always make cake pops with any leftover cake and buttercream. Leftovers don’t stick around too long here with three kids popping in and out of the kitchen to see if they can try anything.

Follow this link for the Fondant Recipe. https://tamerastidbits.com/2018/03/16/fondant-recipe/

Cake Ingredients

• 3/4 cups strong hot coffee
• 3/4 cups dutch process cocoa
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 2 1/3 cups sugar (granulated)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cups vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs +2 egg yolks (room temperature)
• 2 tsp vanilla

Method for preparing cake

• Preheat oven to 350 F / 175 C
• In a bowl add 3/4 cups hot coffee and stir in 3/4 cups cocoa until smooth. Set aside to cool.
• Prepare the heart pans. I have 2 pans so I made the cake in two batches. If you have 4 pans you could make them all at once. The size I used are 6 inches by 2 inches deep. Cut a piece of parchment to line the bottom of each pan. I find the easiest way is to trace around the pan while it is lying on the parchment. Cut out the shape a half centimeter or so inside the traced line. Set the parchment aside while you grease or butter the inside edges of the pans. Dust them with flour and shake any excess flour out of the pans. Place parchment in the bottom of the pans. This step really is important to get the cakes cleanly out of your pans.
• Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a mixing bowl and turn on low briefly just to stir ingredients together.
• In another bowl gently stir together the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and vegetable oil. With the mixer on low slowly add all these ingredients. Mix on low.
• Once the other ingredients are incorporated, add the cocoa and coffee mixture. Mix on low to medium speed for a couple of minutes. Try not to overwork your batter. I don’t go past medium speed with this mixture. Scrape the bowl and stir to make sure everything is evenly mixed
• Fill the pans to half full. This batter will rise a lot, all the way to the top of the pan as it bakes. Make sure not to go over half way when filling the pans.
• Bake at 350 F/ 175 C for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into cake comes out clean.
• Pull out of oven and let cake cool for at least 15-20 minutes
• Carefully run a thin offset spatula or knife between the cake and pan and tip over to release the cake. I leave the parchment on while it cools until I am ready to frost it.
• If you are making the cakes a day in advance or more you can let them cool on the counter first. Split the cakes in half lengthwise to make your layers and wrap and freeze them until you are ready to continue. If you are making them the same day make sure they are completely cooled before frosting them. I like to still put them in the refrigerator to cool before frosting.

 

Ingredients for Irish Cream Ganache

• 3.5 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips
• .25 oz unsalted butter (a little under 1 1/2 tsp)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup Irish cream

Method for Making the Ganache

• In a heatproof bowl add the chocolate chips and butter and set aside
• Add both the heavy cream and Irish cream to a sauce pan and stir over medium heat.
• Keep stirring the cream and when it just starts to steam and bubble a little at the sides, pour it over the chocolate. (I use a small spatula. You want to keep stirring and watching so it doesn’t boil or burn at the bottom)
• Stir the chocolate and cream until you have a smooth chocolate mixture. Resist the urge to eat this mixture as you will need it for your filling. I wish you luck! Set aside the ganache and it will continue to harden as it sits. Stir occasionally. You’ll want it to be soft enough to spread but not warm at all.

Ingredients for the Swiss Meringue Irish Cream Buttercream 

• 8 large egg whites
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 10 ounces unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 Tbsp Irish Cream

Method for Making the Buttercream

• Start by whisking together egg whites and sugar in the top of a double boiler over just simmering water. You can also use a bowl over a saucepan but make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. The steam from the simmering water will gently heat up the mixture. Don’t try to rush the process by turning up the heat. You want to do this slowly or you can end up with overheating the mixture and making sugary scrambled eggs.
• Whisk continuously as the sugar dissolves into the egg whites. Using a thermometer keep whisking and as soon as the mixture reaches 140 F/ or 60 degrees Celsius, immediately remove the mixture from the heat and pour into mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment turn on the mixer and whip until stiff peaks form and bowl is cool to the touch. This can take 8-10 minutes. It will be very thick and white and glossy.
• At this point I like to switch to a paddle attachment. Slowly add the butter by the spoonful until it is incorporated. The mixture will deflate some as you start adding the butter. (Medium speed) Scrape the bottom of the bowl and continue mixing.
• With the mixer on low, so it doesn’t splash, add the vanilla and Irish Cream. Turn the mixer speed back up to medium high. Your frosting should come together as a light and fluffy buttercream.
• If your buttercream starts to curdle or is too soft then the butter may have been too soft when added or the meringue may have still been too warm when it was added. Simply place the bowl in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or so to chill and beat again. Depending on how warm your kitchen is and how soft the butter gets you may need to do this.

 

Assembly

• To make the shamrock clovers, you will need three of the heart shaped cakes. Split each cake in half lengthwise so you can fill them. Make sure not to mix up which top goes to which bottom. I leveled the very top of each cake as well to make them all even with each other. I didn’t cut off the entire top to make it flat, as I likes a little of the dome shape for the clovers. I took about 1/2 inch to an inch off of each cake.
• Lay out the bottom of the first heart layer on a cake board or your tray you will be keeping the finished cake on.

• Using a piping bag with a large round tip, pipe a border of buttercream on the inside of the cake. You are essentially making a wall to keep the ganache inside.
• Fill the center of the cake with 2 tbsp of the ganache. The ganache should be cooled enough by now. If it is warm or hot please wait for it to cool so it does not melt the buttercream. Spread it evenly to the inside edge of the buttercream border.

• Place the next two bottom layers next to the layer on the cake board so that all the points of the hearts meet at the middle. Repeat the same steps with the buttercream border and ganache filling for each cake.

• Place the cake tops on the cakes.

• Using the last cake, cut a stem for the shamrock. For the stem I just used the buttercream as the filling as well as the frosting on the outside of the cake without any ganache.

• Frost the heart cakes and the stem. Frost the stem on a separate small cake board. It will be easier to add the fondant separately and then move it to the base of the clovers.

• Chill the cake to let the buttercream harden some before adding the fondant. I chill it for around 30 minutes. You can let it chill longer and it will be fine.

• Once the cake is chilled you can roll out the fondant on powdered sugar. Knead the fondant first just to soften it up a little to the right consistency. Be sure your rolled out fondant is large enough to cover all sides of the cake. You can always roughly measure with flexible measuring tape.

• Gently lift the fondant over your rolling pin and place it over the cake gently. Working from the top down, gently shape the fondant to the cake.

• Carefully trim away the excess fondant at the base of the cake.
• Roll out another piece of fondant for the stem and gently shape it to the cake. Trim away any excess fondant on the base of the stem.
• Carefully move the stem to the base of the cake to finish your shamrock.

 

 

I added a little more green food coloring gel to some leftover fondant. Using a small fondant heart cutter I made some smaller shamrocks for embellishment. The fondant will stick to the cake with just the tiniest bit of water. Water is a great fondant glue.