Lychee Rose Cake with Lychee Cream Filling

After making my pandan macarons with lychee I had oodles of lychee syrup left over. Since that sweet stuff is just too good to toss away I wanted to put it to good use. But what to make!? My first thought was cake. Other than the obvious reasons (because cake is good) I thought it was a good idea because 1. I've never seen a lychee cake before and 2. My honey's birthday was approaching and so it was meant to be.

 I have to say this lychee cake was a long process. First I researched lychee cake and it turns out there is such a thing. Seems to be common in Asian countries ( duh they have the best stuff!) but what I mostly found was a recipe for spongecakes and this oh so famous lychee martini cake. A spongecake was a little more effort than I was willing to put in. And although vodka soaked lychees sounded good it just wasn't what I was looking for. So maybe just a white cake with lychees in between. Next I researched white cake recipes. I found many recipes for this of course but then I thought " Geez I don't need to make a whole 9 inch cake for two people! I will never get rid of post baby weight! " Enter the 6 inch cake. Brilliant. The trouble is there are not so many recipes for just a 6 inch cake. And yes I COULD have taken the time to calculate how to divide the ingredients and so on, which I considered really, but after reading how to do that my brain exploded. Seriously read it and yours will explode too. So back to the cake...I scoured the internet for a 6 inch cake recipe and finally found one. I still had my heart set on the lychee cake so some minor tweaks to the recipe were in order. Lastly a quick trip to the Asian store. I had all my ingredients but in the days between the macarons and the lychee cake the lychees I was storing in the fridge got eaten. A simple mistake. How can you resist the yummy-ness of a lychee? So really it was my fault. The trip to the asian store was bountiful. Rice flour, bihon noodles, 3 cans of lychee, shrimp chips and a gem of a find : Rose essence! I noticed most lychee cake recipes called for a combination of rose or raspberry. I wasn't keen on the raspberry but the rose intrigued me so now it was going to be a Lychee Rose Cake.

Now to the good stuff...

 6 Inch Lychee Rose Cake

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 egg whites, room temperature
• 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla extract
• 1/2 Tsp. Rose essence
• 2 Tbsp. Lychee syrup ( from canned lychees)
• 1/2 cup milk 
• 2-6 inch cake pans

1. In a Medium bowl whisk together flour and baking powder and set to the side.

2. In a seperate bowl cream together butter and sugar. Add egg whites one at a time and then beat in vanilla and rose essence and lychee syrup. The rose essence is bright pink and will stain your fingers so beware. It gives the cake a nice floral aroma and a beautiful pink color.

3. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in thirds, alternating with the milk, mixing well and scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl after each addition. (The addition of the flour mixture and milk will go as follows: 1/3 of the flour mixture followed by 1/2 of the milk, another 1/3 flour mixture followed by the remaining milk, and then the final 1/3 of the flour mixture.)

4. Pour the batter into the greased cake pans evenly. Tap the pans to release any air bubbles.

5. Bake at 350 F. for 18- 22 minutes. (Don't forget to toothpick check your cakes) Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.

Lychee Cream Filling

• 1/2 pint fresh whipping cream
• 1 tsp. Vanilla extract
• 1/4 C. chopped Lychees (  from the can )
• 5 Tbsp. Lychee syrup 

1. Separate the lychees from the syrup by straining. Keep the syrup in a separate bowl. Chop the lychees and set the side. A rough chop is ok or you can puree in a blender.

2. In a medium bowl whip the fresh cream, vanilla and lychee syrup. Best if you're using an electric mixer. Whip until fluffy ( like whipped cream duh)

3. Gently fold the chopped lychees into the cream and then refrigerate.

* When your ready to assemble the cake you will sandwich the cream in between the cake layers.

Easy Vanilla Frosting

• 1 C. softened butter
• 1 1/2 C.  Fine Powdered Sugar
• 1 Tsp. Vanilla

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix together the butter and sugar.  Begin mixing on low speed until crumbly, and then increase to high and beat for 3 minutes. Then add Vanilla and beat again for another minute.

Assembling the Cake

My cake frosting skills still need improvement. The one thing I've learned though is to crumb coat your cake. That means doing a light coat of frosting on the cake then refrigerating overnight and finish frosting the next day. This gives your frosting time to set which will make it easier later. Ever try frosting a cake but the cake crumbs smear into it? Annoying. This prevents that.

1. Once the cakes have cooled . Place one layer of cake down. Top with the lychee cream filling. I put a giant heap. Go on, go crazy with it. Spread with a spatula. Then place second layer on top.

2. Crumb coat the stacked cakes with a light layer of frosting. Then place in the fridge.

3.  The next day or several hours later...finish frosting with leftover frosting. ( assuming you refrigerated the frosting..take it out ahead of time to allow it time to softened. Smearing cold frosting is darn near impossible)

4. Once the cake is frosted. Decorate to your liking! I added some of the canned lychees on top for a pretty but simple design.

 * I only made 1-6 inch cake so I halved this recipe for the cake. That's why my cake is not THAT tall.

The cake was rather tasty. It had the sweet lychee flavor combined with the rose which made it springy and floral. It made it a nice pink color too (always a plus!)