Naked Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Naked cakes are becoming very popular not just as family cakes but as celebration cakes such as wedding cakes. They are effortlessly chick and have a Victorian feel to them. There really are no rules when it comes to making naked cakes. In essence all you need do is sandwich cakes together and you have a naked cake like the Chocolate Butter Cake in the picture below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can also make naked cakes by crumb coating your cake layers like the Naked Wedding Cakes below. Tutorial here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can elevate naked cakes to an art and that is what I tried to achieve with this Chocolate Naked cake filled with Raspberry Buttercream and topped with a Ganache and fruits. This is a tutorial on how I achieved this look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

(1) Chocolate Butter Cake (Recipe here)

(2) Raspberry Buttercream Frosting (Recipe here)

(3) Ganache (Recipe here)

(4) An assortment of Fruits.

Note: It is customary to top Naked Cakes with Fruits. They can also be topped with Flowers, Vines and Leaves. I chose to frost the cake with Raspberry Buttercream because chocolates and raspberries are a match made in heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROCEDURE:

(1) Bake cakes and allow to cool down. I usually place my cakes in the fridge to harden before leveling and frosting to prevent tears and cake crumbs. For this cake, I baked two tiers: a 7 inch and a 9 inch.

(2) When cakes are firm to the touch, make buttercream frosting or any other frosting or filling of your choice. Now, you can just frost the cakes as you normally would. You however have to make sure that the frosting is visible outside the cake. The way I do this is by lining a spring form cake pan with cling film and frosting the cakes in the pan. This way, I can apply pressure on the top layer in order to expose the frosting between the layers without fear of the frosting spilling. Keep frosted cakes in fridge until you are ready to top with fruits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(3) To assemble, make Ganache and allow to cool down a bit before using. It will thicken a bit and become easier to work with. Place bottom tier on cake board and add wooden dowels. The dowels will provide support for the top tier and ensure that its weight does not rest in the bottom tier. You can read more about how to stack cakes here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4) Apply ganache to bottom tier and place cake board for top tier over dowels. The cake board should be a bit smaller than the size of the top tier so it is not visible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(5) Apply top tier and top with ganache.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(6) Now its time to get creative with the fruits. For larger fruits like the red pear on top of the cake, use a wooden skewer to make it stand on the cake and hold it on place. I decided to make the fruit slant to the side for aesthetic reasons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(7) For fruits like the grapes, use bent floral wires to pin them to the sides of the cakes. (These by the way are Okanagan or Coronation Grapes grown only in a part of Canada and available only in the early Fall. They are so juicy and tasty.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(8) Place your other fruits around the cake. The chocolate ganache will help hold them in place.

(9) Store cake in fridge and remove about an hour before serving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have fun creating your own master pieces.