And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.

—Khalil Gibran

Happy 13th birthday to La Pêche Fraîche. Lucky lucky.

The idea that this project has now reached its teenagehood is truly frightening.
What pubertal horrors, dumb ideas, and fresh obsessions await this space?

For most of these past years, I have made a pink cake of some sort to celebrate my blog baby’s birthday. This year, I became fixated on making a cake that looked like a gigantic raspberry. I figured it should be made of hundreds of raspberries all studded around it.
Thus, I found myself rifling through cartons of raspberries like an absolute lunatic at the grocery store, spending 50 foolish dollars, bringing them home, and then promptly picking through and sorting them by size, shape, and color for an hour.
I suppose this is a sign of continued madness to come in the next years. The man silently, reluctantly, and hastily choosing strawberries next to me at Fairway certainly picked up on it.

The cake itself is a lovely buttermilk yellow cake, soft and tender and wonderfully vanilla-y.
A good bittersweet mocha frosting sandwiches a few broken raspberries inside, which I preferred over jam for their freshness and to balance out the overall sweetness of the cake.
Obviously, the aforementioned raspberries are the very expensive garnish.
A ribbon, a candle, and voilà! A birthday cake shaped like a gigantic raspberry.

Thanks to all who still come to read my writing and share in this space. You are a bit mad, too. XOXO

Twelve years / tomato and olive oil cake
Eleven years / banana and maple caramel cake
Ten years / choco-Kewpie ichigo daifuku cake
Nine years / raspberry cloud cake
Eight years / white chocolate, mascarpone, and lemon cake
Seven years / yellow cake with cherry buttercream
Six years / vegan coconut and chocolate cake
Five years / simple chocolate cake
Four years / eclectic chocolate cake
Three years / vanilla almond cake
Two years / malted milk birthday cake
One year / eek

Raspberry Mocha Cake

for the buttermilk cake:
270 grams (2 1/4 cup) flour
10 grams (4 teaspoons) cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
168 grams (1 1/2 sticks, 6 ounces) butter, softened
266 grams (2 1/3 cup) sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
240 grams (1 cup) buttermilk

for the mocha frosting:
345 grams (12 ounces, 3 sticks) butter, softened
120 grams (4 ounces) dark chocolate, chopped
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon instant coffee
3 to 4 tablespoons half and half or cream
480 grams (4 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
30 g (1/3 cup) cocoa powder, sifted

to assemble:
4-5 pints raspberries

directions:
Make the cake: grease and flour 3 6″ pans.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Sift flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and baking soda together.
Whisk eggs and vanilla together.
Beat butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add sugar and salt.
Beat for an additional 2 minutes, then slowly stream in the eggs and beat for another 3 minutes.
Scrape the sides of the bowl and add 1/3 the flour mixture, stir until just incorporated, then add 1/2 the buttermilk.
Repeat with remaining dry and wet ingredients, alternating, and then scrape the bowl to ensure everything is homogeneous.
Portion evenly into prepared pans and bake for 25 minutes.
Allow to cool completely.
Make the buttercream: whip butter on high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Meanwhile, gently melt the chocolate over low heat with a bain-marie or in a microwave, going in small bursts.
Add the salt, half the powdered sugar, and cocoa powder to the butter; whip until incorporated.
With the mixer running, slowly stream in the melted chocolate.
Once fully incorporated, add the other half of the powdered sugar a spoonful at a time.
Level the cakes if they have domed; fill each with 3 tablespoons frosting and a few torn up raspberries.
Cut the stacked cake into desired shape.
Crumb coat the cake and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes, and up to 2 hours.
Spread the remainder of the frosting thickly over the cake, then arrange raspberries, pressing firmly to “seal” them to the frosting.