My Blog's First Birthday - Birthday Disaster!

Where on earth to begin with this absolute failure...

Well... MY BLOG IS 1!

Exactly one year ago today I started writing down my little thoughts about my little bakes! And to celebrate I decided I'd attempt a recipe that I've had my eye on for quite some time, this Peach Bellini Cake!

Well... says it all...

You don't need to go back for a second look to notice that this cake has collapsed. Honestly, I'm laughing when I write this, as this disaster is, ironically, one of the freshest tasting cakes I've eaten for a long time (if ever!), but it has also given me the chance to do something I'm usually too embarrassed to do, write about my failures. A first for a first birthday!

This cake consists of 3 three layers of vanilla sponge brushed with a prosecco syrup, and is filled with both a vanilla and orange blossom honey crème Chantilly, and a peach and prosecco compote! The cake is (was, before it collapsed!) decorated with extra crème Chantilly, sliced peaches and mint sprigs. 

You kind of see the compote 
in the middle I suppose?

In fairness, the cake was going very well, and it was the very last hurdle that I fell at. To start with, the sponge batter is prepared by creaming together butter and sugar, before adding eggs, vanilla, buttermilk, salt, self-raising flour and ground almonds. When baked, the warm sponges were brushed with a sugar and prosecco syrup to give them an extra hit, contributed both to the sponge's flour and moist texture! 

Whilst the sponges cooled, it was time to prepare the first of the fillings, the peach and prosecco compote. Peaches, prosecco, caster sugar, and lemon juice were added to a pan, brought to the boil, and allowed to simmer for half an hour. Once thickened, the mixture is blended into a thick compote and left to cool. 

Just before I was ready to assemble the cake, I prepared the crème Chantilly by whisking together orange blossom honey, double cream, and vanilla paste to soft peaks. Ideally, this would have served to stick the layers together and stop them from sliding around. Spoiler alert, it didn't!

Ironically one of the nicest 
compotes I've eaten!

To start the assembly, I spread a little crème Chantilly onto a glass cake stand, a very pretty glass stand I picked up from an antique shop in Sheffield last weekend! Admittedly, it's much more charity shop bric-a-brac then antique, but I love it all the more for this look! The first sponge layer could then go on the stand. On top of this layer a decent blob of crème Chantilly is spread, before a ring of the same crème is piped around the edge of the sponge. The centre of this ring is filled with the peach compote, before being topped with the second sponge layer. 

I repeated this with the second layer, topping with the third sponge, and spreading the remaining crème Chantilly on top. To decorate, I used peach slices and mint sprigs, before drizzling with the remaining prosecco syrup and dusting with icing sugar. 

Have you ever seen a more 
sad looking picture?

So the cake was complete, and I was determined to get a picture of the cross section. I was so desperate in fact that I didn't get a photo of the cake intact before it collapsed. As I sliced into the cake the layers began to slip. Cutting the cake in half was relatively fine, but as soon as I made to cut a slice from one half both halves of the cake collapsed. I wonder if chilling the cake in the fridge to allow both the compote and crème Chantilly to firm up a little would have prevented Armageddon...  

Alright, so maybe failure is a strong word! The cake might not have stayed vertical for very long, but the combination of flavours passed the taste test with flying colours. The texture of this cake was something of a sensation, with the sponge melting in the mouth and pairing well with the crème Chantilly and compote!

Sadness... but note the Peach 
Bellini in the background!

I'd even made a couple of Peach Bellinis to go with this cake, by combing peach puree and prosecco in a flute, so at least this went well! 

As I come to the end of this post, I've just remembered that this cake is gluten-free too! Ordinarily if a gluten-free cake collapsed I'd look to the structure, or rather lack of structure, from the sponge as the problem, but the texture of this sponge was divine and clearly wasn't where the issue came from! Regardless, I know I will 100% be trying this again sometime in the very near future! 

Happy First Birthday to the Gibby Bakes Blog! 

Gibby x