Eggless Vanilla Cake with Buttercream Frosting

Fresh Cherries – 20
Powdered Sugar – 1/2 cup

Or, you can use canned cherries

1. Grease and dust a square cake tin.
2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
3. Sift the flour twice. Keep aside.
4. Powder the sugar. If it is fine granule sugar, you can use it as is.
5. Beat the curd in a large mixing bowl until smooth.
6. Add powdered sugar and beat for 2-3 mins.
7. Add baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix it well. The mixture will now become frothy and increase in volume.
8. Add vanilla essence and mix gently so that the air captured in the mixture is not lost.
9. Fold in the sifted flour in two batches and beat gently. Do not over mix as the air captured in the batter will be lost.
10. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin.
11. Bake at 180 degrees C for 30 mins or until the skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
12. Let the cake stand in oven for 10 minutes.
13. Remove the cake from the oven and place it on a wire rack. Let it cool down completely.
14. Carefully unmould the cake.
15. Refrigerate the cake for about 30 minutes.

For Butter cream Frost:

1. Take butter in a large mixing bowl and cream it till light and fluffy at medium speed, using an electric mixer.
2. Beat in icing sugar, salt and vanilla essence. Beat well.
3. Add milk and beat until soft peaks are formed. Keep aside.
4. Left over butter cream can be refrigerated in an air tight container.

Assembling the Cake:

1. Remove the cake from the refrigerator and place it on a platform.
2. Remove the browned layer from top carefully to flatten the surface.
3. Cut the browned edges from all the sides.
4. Using a fine thread or a floss, divide the cake horizontally, into two.
5. Smear a tbsp of butter cream in the center of a cake board, preferably a square cake board. I did not have a square cake board handy, so used a round one.
6. Place the bottom half of the cake on the cake board.
7. Brush off the cake crumbs from the surface.
8. Smear a generous amount of butter cream on the surface.
9. Spread a layer of cherry mixture evenly on top of butter cream.
10. Place the other half of the cake on top of the cherry layer. Press gently.
11. Smear the butter cream all over the cake such that the cake is completely covered.
12. Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour so that the butter cream hardens.
13. Remove the cake and design the cake with remaining butter cream, using a piping cone, as desired.
14. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.