Alive

Introducing the Butter& + Brightland-exclusive Pepita Saffron Olive Oil Cake

Recipe by: Team Butter&

We teamed up with Butter&, a modern designer cake shop serving the San Francisco Bay Area, to create an exclusive cake.

Butter& is a modern designer cake shop serving the San Francisco Bay Area. They use technology to create a better customer experience, and champion ethical treatment of food service workers.We adore their beautiful cakes with nuanced, delightful flavors. Read below to make this Pepita Saffron Olive Oil Cake for yourself and sweeten your week.

ALIVE Olive Oil Buttercream

Ingredients

4 sticks soft butter
3/4c + 2 tablespoons egg whites
1c sugar
text
Scant 1tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon salt
5 Tbsp Brightland ALIVE olive oil

Instructions

1 Place sugar and egg whites in a double-boiler. Whisk continually until all the sugar is dissolved. Once the sugar is dissolved, add lemon juice, salt, and Alive oil.
2 Place butter in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix until smooth to ensure there are no cold chunks. While mixer is running, slowly pour in egg white mixture. Mix until you have a homogenous silky buttercream.
3 Note: Don't worry if the mixture looks like it's separated, keep mixing and it will come together.

Light Brown Sugar Cake

Ingredients

4 1/2 c AP flour
3 c brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 c water
1 c + 2 tbsp Brightland ALIVE olive oil
5 eggs
1 c SC
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Instructions

1 Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Place all dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together.
2 Mix together all of the wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients into dry, whisking as you pour.
3 Grease 2-9
4 Note: Each oven runs a little differently. The actual temperature may be cooler or hotter than what you've set it to. Best practice is just to check a bit before the time to avoid over baking!

Saffron Soak

Ingredients

1/4 t loose saffron
1/4 c water
2T sugar

Instructions

1 Heat water and add sugar. Dissolve. Add saffron and steep for 10 minutes. Strain saffron.
2 Tip: Have extra syrup? Try it in your next latte or lemonade!

Pepita Praline

Ingredients

2 c roasted and salted pepitas
1/2c + 2 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons water

Instructions

1 Add all ingredients to a food processor. Pulse until you have coarse bits of pepitas. I like the coarse look that you can still see fragments of pepitas instead of a paste. Baker's preference!

Assembly

Instructions

1 Trim the tops of the cakes so that you have an exposed crumb and flat, even surfaces to work with.
2 With a pastry brush (basting brush or even a spoon), apply the saffron soak onto the tops of each cake layer.
3 On the first layer, apply a thin layer of pepita praline onto the cake with an offset spatula, spreading just to the edge of the cake.
4 Next, spread buttercream on top of the pepita layer. The buttercream should be thicker than the pepitas and can be spread to the edges. Don’t worry if it goes over, we’ll clean that up later.
5 Repeat these steps with the next layer.
6 With your offset (or a knife), apply a crumb coat to the sides of the cake. A crumb coat is a thin layer of buttercream that catches all the crumbs so you don’t see them in the final ice.
7 Onto the final ice! Apply a thicker coat of buttercream.
8 For a rustic finish with lots of texture, take your offset and go around the cake with a series of long and short strokes.
9 For a more refined finish, and if you have a cake turntable (or even a lazy susan), grab an offset and place the cake on the center of the turntable. Hold the offset gently, but firmly in the center of the cake. Continuously turn the table while gradually moving the offset from the center of the cake to the edge, creating a spiral. Then hold the offset against the bottom of the cake and continuously turning the table while gradually raising the offset along the side of the cake to create the same spiral on the sides.
10 Decorating is always so fun and everyone has their own style, so let your hair down and show us what you got!