Lyndsay Sung Transcript
Jessie Sheehan:
Hi, peeps. You are listening to She's My Cherry Pie, the baking podcast from The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. I'm your host, Jessie Sheehan. I'm a baker, recipe developer, and cookbook author, and my fourth book is coming out this fall. Each Saturday I'm hanging out with the sweetest bakers around and taking a deep dive into their signature bakes.
My guest today is Lyndsay Sung, the baker behind Coco Cake Land, Instagram and blog. Lyndsay's cakes are whimsical creations featuring bright colors and playful piping. She released her second cookbook “Plantcakes” in 2023, and it's filled with approachable plant-based baking recipes. Lyndsay joins me today to chat about her funfetti cake with Swiss meringue buttercream and birthday cake crumbles. I've always been a huge fan of sprinkles, and funfetti cakes are some of my faves. I loved learning more about Lyndsay and her journey in plant-based baking, so stay tuned for our chat. If you'd like to follow along, you can find today's recipe at cherrybombe.com.
Thank you to Grappa Nonino for supporting today's show. Grappa is a traditional Italian spirit made by distilling pumice, the skin, seeds, and stems of grapes, leftover from the wine making process. Generations have loved to sip grappa or use it in cocktails and some even used grappa as an ingredient in baked goods and desserts. I've used bourbon, rum, and amaretto before but never grappa, so the folks at Grappa Nonino challenged me to create some special treats with their award-winning grappa varietals. I made a chocolate budino with Nonino's Monovitigno Chardonnay grappa. The varietal's notes of bread, vanilla, and pastry paired so well with the chocolate. Nonino's Monovitigno Merlo grappa with its notes of rose petal and cherry and its fruity finish was the perfect addition to my ricotta cake with strawberries. A trifle is always a showstopper, so I made a raspberry trifle but swapped out the traditional cherry for Grappa Nonino Monovitigno Moscato. This varietal's floral sage, thyme, and vanilla flavors were an ideal compliment to the tart raspberries and sweet mascarpone cream. Nonino has been distilling grappa since 1897 and has been led by generations of amazing women, from Silvia Nonino, Italy's first female master distiller, to Sylvia's three granddaughters, who run the distillery today. Keep an eye on my Instagram, @jessiesheehanbakes to learn and see just how I use Grappa Nonino in my baked goods and desserts and to get the recipes. You can also learn more about Grappa Nonino at grappanonino.it.
Peeps, have you heard the news? Cherry Bombe's first ever Jubilee Wine Country is happening in Napa Valley on October 26th and 27th. It'll be a weekend filled with great wine, winemakers, beautiful food, seasonal produce, conversation, connection, and California. Passes are now available. To learn more and snag a pass, visit cherrybombe.com.
Let's check in with today's guest. Lyndsay, so happy to have you on She's My Cherry Pie and to chat vegan funfetti cake with you and so much more.
Lyndsay Sung:
Oh, thank you so much, Jessie, for having me. I'm very excited.
Jessie Sheehan:
You are a self-taught baker. You didn't even start baking till you were 30. You're a cookbook author, you're a punk rock musician, you're a cat lover, you're a mom photographer, cancer survivor. I'm just going to say because I speak from experience, you are an all-round good time.
Lyndsay Sung:
Oh, thank you so much.
Jessie Sheehan:
You're so welcome.
Lyndsay Sung:
I guess I am all those things. Wow.
Jessie Sheehan:
I wondered if we could start with maybe an early sweets memory of yours? I know you didn't do a lot of baking when you were little, but is there a memory you recall, maybe something you ate rather than made? Maybe something that was beautifully or creatively decorated that you remember?
Lyndsay Sung:
As a kid we would have lots of big celebrations and dinners and stuff. Often go out to a Chinese restaurant for dinner or go to somebody's house for an auntie's or uncle's birthday celebration, and there'd always be a myriad of desserts. Being Chinese Canadian, there would be a mishmash of Western and Asian dessert, I guess.
I have this memory of going to a Chinese restaurant for somebody's birthday party. Of course for dessert, there's always either a plate of cutup oranges, which is very not what a little kid really wants to eat, or dessert soup, which is oftentimes it would be like red beans soups or there'd be chunks of beans in there. Again, you want ice cream or something. My cousins and I would just very brattily start like a little Dairy Queen chant. We'd be like, "DQ, DQ!". All of a sudden we'd be out of there and we'd go get soft serve or sundaes or something.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. I love DQ so much.
Lyndsay Sung:
Oh my gosh, yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
I read that you actually were hoping that your first job could be, or maybe you're still hoping this will be your job, a cake decorator at Dairy Queen.
Lyndsay Sung:
Yes. When I go to DQ and I open that freezer, I just admire just the cute little whatever the person behind the counter has been up to, just with their gel decorating and weird piping and big beer mug with a frothy head or whatever. There's something charming about it.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that.
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, and I've always loved a soft serve swirl. Maybe about 20 years ago I wanted to open a softer place called Swirly. I even went on a tour of Taylor soft serve machine factory and did all this research and stuff on how to pull a perfect soft serve. I just love the look of it.
Jessie Sheehan:
Am I right in thinking there wasn't actually a lot of sweets making or baking happening in your childhood home?
Lyndsay Sung:
My mom was awesome at putting food on the table and cooking and stuff, but that was not her forte baking or cooking specifically.
But I do remember a very crispy, dare I say almost burnt, chocolate chip cookie that would make its way into our home. There was always Oreos or some sort of store-bought treat, but we would only be allowed literally one. I grew up in a fruit and vegetables household. My dad worked in fruit and vegetable also. We had a lot of fruit and veggies, and my mom had more of a health food focus a little bit for treats.
But then my grandma was the one that gave me my KitchenAid mixer. She was the one that was the baker and would make lots of cookies and different treats and stuff, and I did a little bit of baking with her.
Jessie Sheehan:
When you first did jump into baking when you're a bit older, you baked your way through “Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook,” which is literally one of my favorite, most used books. Obsessed with that book.
I had a couple of questions. How did you pick that book, and did you literally bake everything? You did one of those things where you started on page one and kept going?
Lyndsay Sung:
I didn't literally bake every single thing, but I did learn all the principles of baking cakes, cookies, scones through that book, and even Swiss meringue buttercream the first time I'd ever attempted that. That I got as it was either a bridal shower gift or a birthday gift from my sister.
Jessie Sheehan:
All this baking through Martha's book led you to a little cottage cupcake business out of your kitchen. It also led to your blog Coco Cake Land. I wanted you to tell us about the “Very Hungry Caterpillar” cake, which first of all, “Very Hungry Caterpillar” is one of my favorite Eric Carle books ever.
Lyndsay Sung:
Oh my gosh, yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
I mean I love them all, but it's so good. I know that this cake virally catapulted you. Or, as you like to say, caterpillared you.
Lyndsay Sung:
I had my little cottage cupcake and cake biz out of my home many years ago and just got an order for a first birthday cake. They wanted that theme and I was like, "Ah, okay, cute." Just came up with the head and then the cupcakes just doing this big rainbow-y movement. It had a lot of movement, the cake. And then I did a two-tone buttercream for the green frosting. And then I actually had the chocolate sprinkles, like the long skinny ones, and I actually used a pair of tweezers and I just clocked them into it like little hair bits.
It had a lot of detail and it was very charmingly, cute, and maybe the start of the kawaii vibe for coco cake and that type of thing. I took some crappy photos of it. I just had a point and shoot digital camera back then and my super random blog, which the name was like cococupcakeblogspot.com. That's so long. And then put pictures up on that. And then a design blog, it was Swiss Miss, I don't know if you have heard of that blog, and I don't know if she's still around blogging, but she shared it. And then it just got out there.
Jessie Sheehan:
And then the orders started coming in. Because it wasn't Instagram, right, or was it also an Instagram?
Lyndsay Sung:
No, it wasn't on Instagram. No, it was all just good old blogs. No, that was before Instagram. It got shared on the internet quite a bit, and then more people were interested in my work. My blogs became more popular and eventually that led to some work, either doing freelance work for other blogs or websites and doing photography and doing some sponsored work, so that sort of thing. The old caterpillar was my little helper, my little buddy.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. I heard you say it, but can you describe that style of those animal cakes and how that maybe the caterpillar was the beginning of it?
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, so I then became known a couple years later for my buttercream furry animal cakes, so like animal face cakes, and I call them kawaii cakes, so very cute.
Jessie Sheehan:
Tell us what kawaii is.
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, it's like a Japanese term, which just means super cute.
Jessie Sheehan:
Love that.
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah. My first book, “Coco Cake Land,” half of what was cute animals, half of what was pretty buttercream piping. And so yeah, that was what the first book was.
Jessie Sheehan:
Coco Cake Land was the name that you picked for your blog. It's also your persona and the title of your first book. I had a couple of questions. First of all, I wanted to know where the name came from, and then I wanted you to describe the Coco Cake Land aesthetic.
Lyndsay Sung:
Coco was my first cat. My beloved little fluffer, who was actually a total nut who only would really let me pet her. But actually she was my first idea of what a cat was, and I thought all cats were that crazy and psycho. But actually the two cats I have now are the complete opposite, just the little cuddle snugly cat. One of them is almost more like a dog.
But I fell in love with her. She was my little fluffy ginger baby. That's where the name came from, coco cake. Yeah, Coco Cake Land. The aesthetic and the vibe, I always think of colorful, fun, bright. The sense of comedy or a little bit of sense of humor in there and fun, I guess.
Jessie Sheehan:
We're going to talk about how you've moved with this next book towards more of a plant-based baking style or vibe. But could you describe your dessert style generally? Not only decorating but a little more, and if it has changed since your caterpillar moment.
Lyndsay Sung:
Yes, I feel like it's really shifted and changed. I'm really casual. I really enjoy a casual bake. I love “Snackable Bakes,” your book.
Jessie Sheehan:
Thank you.
Lyndsay Sung:
I just love how something simple like a one panner. There's some a little textural element or something. Those are great.
My cakes lately that I've been making, I don't do any orders really anymore. It's more like a friend's birthday or my niece or nephew or my kid. But I just like to try and keep it simple and fun with maybe some natural elements, but also some piping, too. But really more like freeform and I'm trying not to be so... I'm anal-retentive about my design I guess, but I can definitely go there as well. But it's so much more relaxing this way.
Jessie Sheehan:
You and I are both cancer survivors, which we've actually talked about when we've seen each other. You mentioned this fact in the intro of both of your books, and I thought that was so interesting. I'm a little bit more shy about it or maybe worried that... I don't know. I have some issues that I'm thinking I need to get over, but I so appreciate your honesty in putting it out there.
I know you've said that this is obviously, as it has mine, really influenced your life. You say something like it's all in the attitude is the way that you deal with this fact. Can you tell us a little bit about that attitude? I'm also interested in the openness you have about it. It almost feels like a need or this is an important part of who I am.
Lyndsay Sung:
I think as I was going through it, so I was diagnosed in 2015 and then I felt I wanted to share. It was something where I was like, "Wow, I never thought this would happen to me and how could I deal with it?" I didn't want to not share it with people that follow me, I guess.
I ended up using it to help me in a way to express myself through some art stuff or creativity. I did a cake series around my treatment, but in a way that also feels so long ago as well. I feel so lucky to still be here. Also, it's almost shocking to me that I experienced that. But I also I want people to know that life can change so quickly. To really appreciate what you have and to appreciate the people around you, practice gratitude, because anything can change at any moment.
Jessie Sheehan:
Agree. I always think get some gratitude in your attitude.
Also, it was long ago for me so that I wasn't even baking. I don't know if I would've, but I didn't even have an opportunity to maybe think about it as something to share in that way. I didn't have anyone to share it with but my friends and family. And then also something to bake, I remember, not at the time but later, seeing the cakes that you had made and...
Lyndsay Sung:
I mean, I don't know, I feel now I feel a little more shy about it or don't want to talk about it as much because I... It's definitely a chapter of my life, but I really love where I am now, too. I had my son. I wanted to maybe have more children, but that was not an option because of the cancer.
But now I feel really happy with how things have ended up. I get to write cookbooks, I get to play music, and we get to travel as a family and do lots of fun stuff. I feel really lucky and I feel really grateful.
Jessie Sheehan:
More recently plant-based baking has become an obsession, and I want to know why that happened and how that happened.
Lyndsay Sung:
20 years ago there was no vegan treats to be seen or had that weren't tasting of, say, chalk or a tasting of nothing. I also have some really good friends who are vegan. I love hosting, so I love entertaining. I have people over a lot. I love having parties. I love making people feel included and making people have a blast, and food is such a way to do that. I have had many vegetarian bathes in my life as well, so I know that feeling of being at the Chinese restaurant and 10 dishes come out and then the last dish is the vegetarian noodles and everyone be like, "Oh, see your dishes here."
I love having people over. All the food is delicious and amazing. There's no question of whether it's plant-based or not or vegan or not because it's just all really tasty. To have everybody be included when it's cake time, especially because cakes are very important to me. My goal, I was like, okay, I just want to develop a amazing cookbook that has all the cakes are just delicious, beautiful. They're fun. They've got tasty elements. There's a textural element. There's a juicy element. There's all these great flavors, and they're really fun to look at and they just happen to be vegan. Everybody can have a slice. I even have some gluten-free recipes, too.
Jessie Sheehan:
“Plantcakes” is your second book and you've written it's for those who love cake, it's for plant lovers, it's for plant forward peeps, it's for plant curious folks, and for plant-adjacent people.
I kind of know what you mean, but can you unpack who your audience is?
Lyndsay Sung:
I mean, cake lovers pretty obvious. You'll love cake. Plant lovers, so people who are vegan are plant-based. Plant curious would be people who, I mean there's so much plant-based and vegan things out there right now that you throw a rock and you'll definitely find some sort of plant-based thing to eat or hear about. It's like, oh, what is this cramp based? People who are curious about learning how to bake that way.
And then plant-adjacent, so I always think of my grandma when I went vegetarian at university. She's plant-adjacent, or she would be vegetarian-adjacent at the time, making me vegetarian soups full of beans and stuff and just wanting to make something delicious for someone in your life who is vegan or plant-based. Yeah, that's what plant-adjacent is.
Jessie Sheehan:
I think also this was written about the book, but that the book provides accessible plant-based alternatives for baking essentials, which I think is probably a lot of the time what turns people off about, oh, I don't want to make it vegan because where am I going to find this, or where am I going to find that? I thought that was great that you were able to say, "Here's the liquid you're going to need, here's the fat you're going to need, and here are the eggs."
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, everything in the book for ingredients you can find at your grocery store, even just a typical grocery store. You can go high or you can go low as far as ingredients. If you wanted to do an all organic cake, you can definitely do that. Or you can go to any old grocery store and grab this can of beans or this flour and you can still make something delicious.
Jessie Sheehan:
I thought it might be fun to just go through the three main, usually dairy, products that we find in your plant-based recipes.
For butter, you like a firm unsalted brick style for your butter creams for creaming into the cake batter. Is there a particular brand?
Lyndsay Sung:
In Canada, I use a brand called Becel, B-E-C-E-L. But in America, Country Crock has a good solid unsalted plant-based butter. I've also used Miyoko's Creamery before, but that has some cashew and coconut oil as well, so depending on nut allergies. Violife is another one that Nicole Rucker actually mentioned. Violife.
Jessie Sheehan:
I noticed in the book you say plant-based rather than vegan for the butter. That's a choice, obviously.
Lyndsay Sung:
I do say vegan in the book a few times, but plant-based I feel like is more friendly to all. I don't know if that makes sense, but-
Jessie Sheehan:
Inclusive.
Lyndsay Sung:
I really want it to feel open. There's no judgment with this book. It's really about trying something. Or if you're already vegan or plant-based, it can hopefully be your little bake treasury. That was my idea with the term.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that.
If a recipe calls for sour cream or yogurt, let's say, I'm not sure if they do in your book or not, but if a recipe calls for sour cream or yogurt, you just would buy a vegan or plant based sour cream or yogurt to use. Are there brands of that you would recommend that we might know?
Lyndsay Sung:
I use Tofutti brand in Canada, and I'm pretty sure that's available in America. I've heard Trader Joe's has a lot of great plant-based ingredients, too. I need to make a little blast over the border to check this out. Yeah, so that's what I genuinely use.
And then in Canada there's a brand called Yoggu for yogurt. I don't really have too many yogurt-y things in the book just simply because I wasn't sure about brands as far as cross Canada, America, wherever else.
Jessie Sheehan:
And then in terms of eggs, you have two things that you like to use. Aquafaba, which is the liquid from a can of chickpeas, and I love this, AKA, you call it bean water, which I love. That would be three tablespoons of that for one egg. Or you like to use a mixture of baking soda and vinegar, which reminds me of... We call them wacky cakes or Depression era cakes. That's exactly how you get those cakes to rise.
I wondered with your recipes in the book, it seems like maybe you're using both the aquafaba as an egg and the baking soda method to get a little extra lift. Is that correct?
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the paranoia. You got to get both.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, I don't think it's paranoia. I think it's brilliance.
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Now back to our guest. Now we're going to talk about the recipe, which is a funfetti cake. It comes with vanilla buttercream, or that's how it's listed in the book. But we're going to talk about it with vanilla buttercream as well as Swiss meringue buttercream. The cake has birthday crumbles.
Lyndsay Sung:
Yes, I love a textural element to any of my cakes, so I'm always trying to think of how can I make something like a little texture-y thing on top or inside or something, yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
First, can you tell us what a funfetti cake is? And then also I believe the crumbles are inspired by Milk Bar. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about the crumbles.
Lyndsay Sung:
For sure, so a funfetti cake is a vanilla cake and it's got rainbow sprinkles in it. That makes it the fun part. When you cut into it's like, oh my gosh, confetti inside my cake. It's a celebration. That's the idea behind the funfetti cake.
Of course, the birthday cake crumbles. Again, I really love a texture of some kind to a cake and the birthday cake crumbles I remember putting the “Milk Bar” cookbook Christina Tosi's recipe. It's basically a cookie crumble on top and it's got little sprinkles in it, but it's also, I like it just to touch salty too, so it's like sweet salty. After you sprinkle on whatever you need onto the cake, you may be just flopping that into your mouth because it's really addictive.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, that's the chef's little treat.
First, we're going to heat our oven to 350 degrees, and we're going to grease three seven-inch round cake pans. I thought this was interesting. Maybe this is not standard in America, but I feel like we're usually using three eight-inch cake pans or two nine. Is that a difference that in Canada they tend to be seven inch?
Lyndsay Sung:
No, I don't know why I did that.
Yeah, I mean I also make eight inch or nine inch, but generally this is just a slightly smaller cake. I mean, it still ends up being a very substantial looking cake, but I just like the height and size of this one. You could definitely do it in three eight-by-two inch pounds. It would just be slightly shorter.
But in fact, what I actually love doing these days is I love to bake my cakes, and all the recipes in “Plantcakes” you can do this with, in a baking sheet pan. I just love doing this. It's a Natasha Picowicz from “More Than Cake.” I learned this from her. You just use a round cake ring, and you punch out your shapes, and then you just build it up eight-inch by three-inch round cake pan, and then you just turn it out and then frost it that way. I don't know. I'm loving that. Yeah, it's really easy to add your syrups or your coffee milk to the layers, and it's just a fun way to build a cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, Natasha was a guest on the podcast and we talked all about that. It's brilliant. It's brilliant. If you have an extra large sheet pan, and maybe even in the standard size it's working, but it's just so much easier than having three fussy little pans. You've got one huge sheet pan. You have to buy that tool that's almost like an enormous biscuit cutter, cut out your rounds.
Is there a brand of cake pan that you like?
Lyndsay Sung:
Fat Daddio.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yep. I have Fat Daddio, too.
To grease these pans, you say just spritz with vegetable oil. Is that just cooking spray?
Lyndsay Sung:
Cooking spray, or honestly sometimes I just will use parchment paper and just add the vegetable all myself.
Jessie Sheehan:
Now we're going to line those pans with parchment paper. Now we're going to take some soy milk. We're going to add a little bit of apple cider vinegar. I wondered, when you're at home, are you using metal bowls? Are you using glass bowls?
Lyndsay Sung:
Glass.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yep, and we're going to set that aside to thicken and curdle so we're essentially making a vegan or a plant-based buttermilk. Listeners, just so you know if you ever run out of buttermilk, you can take a cup of either cow's milk or dairy-free milk and add a tablespoon of vinegar or of lemon juice and you have buttermilk.
Lyndsay Sung:
I know that was such a cool thing when I asked that many years ago.
Jessie Sheehan:
It's so great.
We're making the buttermilk as an ingredient in the cake, but it also is serving the other purposes of the leavening issue. Because since we've added the vinegar, when we later add the baking soda, those two things are going to react together and help our cake to rise.
Lyndsay Sung:
A fizzy, puffy...
Jessie Sheehan:
Yep. Love. I just wondered, are you using a whisk at this point to mix the soy milk and the vinegar?
Lyndsay Sung:
Yes, whisk it together.
Jessie Sheehan:
Is there a brand or a type of whisk that you like? A balloon whisk, a skinnier whisk?
Lyndsay Sung:
Just a small little whisk. I've got a whisk that I probably got as a bridal shower gift, so it's like 17 years
old. It works great.
Jessie Sheehan:
Perfect. Now we're going to take some aquafaba.
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, the liquid from a can of chickpeas.
Jessie Sheehan:
Exactly, and we're going to whisk the aquafaba until foamy and light, about one minute. The recipe calls for about a half cup in the cake batter. How many 15-ounce cans of chickpeas is that? 15 ounces is the standard size.
Lyndsay Sung:
Oh, yeah. Okay. I would say that's probably like half the amount of whatever's in that can.
Jessie Sheehan:
Perfect, so we've set aside our aquafaba.
And then in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, we're going to cream together room temperature plant-based butter, a little bit of vegetable oil, granulated sugar, and we'll mix that together until it's creamy and blended.
Two questions. What speed should our mixer be on at this point? Also, I love the combination of using the plant-based butter and the vegetable oil. Was there a thought that was behind using both?
Lyndsay Sung:
I would say a medium speed for blending.
And then for the vegetable oil and butter, just a real moisture blast just keeping it really tender and moist.
Jessie Sheehan:
I hate a dry cake. Now we're going to add our foamy aquafaba right into the stem mixer bowl with some vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste.
Two questions. Why both, and do you have a favorite brand?
Lyndsay Sung:
I love just using the vanilla bean paste because I love the little flex of vanilla and it just adds a little extra kick of vanilla flavor.
For brands, I mean Nielsen-Massey or Rodelle I use as well. I mean, there's so many great vanilla brands.
Jessie Sheehan:
Now we're going to whisk together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt in a bowl.
I had a couple of questions. First, I was curious why cake flour and not all-purpose? And then I also wondered if we didn't need the baking soda and vinegar to help lift the cake, we probably wouldn't include it in the recipe, right? I mean, I feel like in general, I feel like the cakes I make are leavened with baking powder as opposed to baking soda. I know that's not true if you're using cocoa powder, but I wondered about that choice.
Lyndsay Sung:
As I was just saying earlier, the paranoia of just really wanting that rise to get a little bit puffy, I love that reaction of the baking soda and the vinegar. You'll find it in a lot of these cakes. You can actually swap out all-purpose if you wanted as well. I've done that many times. I feel the fineness of the cake flour and it's nice and light and fluffy. But honestly, I've done both and both work.
Jessie Sheehan:
Also, there's a great tip for making all-purpose flour into cake flour by taking a cup of flour, removing two tablespoons, and adding two tablespoons of corn starch.
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, yeah, I've heard that. Yeah, I've never tried it myself.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, I've tried it. It works.
Lyndsay Sung:
Awesome.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, it's nice.
Now we're going to have the mixer on low speed, and we're going to alternate between adding the flour and the soy milk mixture to our fat, which is in the stand mixer bowl. We'll begin and end with our flour mixture until just combined. We don't want to over mix. And then we'll use a spatula to fold in any stray bits of flour.
Now we're going to gently fold in some rainbow sprinkles. You say do not use natural colored sprinkles because the color won't be bright and it will dilute while baked. But are these plant-based rainbow sprinkles?
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, these are from Sweetapolita. She's an amazing woman, Rosie. She started off as a baker and a blogger. She has a cookbook as well, and now she has this sprinkles empire, and she's such a lovely person. I love her sprinkles. Yes, she has a ton of vegan sprinkles as well, so I have just these big containers of the rainbow sprinkles on hand, whether I'm making a plant-based cake or a conventional cake. They're great for that recipe. They make a beautiful confetti.
I will say though when you're mixing sprinkles in you want to not do too many turns because the color can start streaking. That's why I say about three to four turns when you're folding the sprinkles in. That's very important because you can just turn the whole cake batter into a different color at some point.
Jessie Sheehan:
That is a great tip. Yeah, I love that.
Now we're going to divide the batter evenly amongst the three prepared cake pans. We'll bake for like 22 to 25 minutes until the cake's edges are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out with a moist crumb. I love that you are a moist crumb girl. I am, too. I hate a clean toothpick. Always-
Lyndsay Sung:
Yes. You got to go moist.
Jessie Sheehan:
Go moist or go home.
Lyndsay Sung:
Cling, too.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes. Cling, too.
Now we'll let the cakes cool, and we're going to make the crumbles. We're going to heat the oven to 300. And I actually wondered, would you start to assemble the crumbles while the cake was baking and then when the cakes come out turn the temperature down to 300-
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, can totally do that.
Jessie Sheehan:
... then pop these in?
Lyndsay Sung:
Or you can also make those a day or two in advance, the crumbles, and just store them at room temp.
Jessie Sheehan:
We're going to heat the oven to 300, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Do you have a brand of baking sheets that you're partial to?
Lyndsay Sung:
Whatever they sell at Costco. Also, if you have a Silpat that would be a great usage, too.
Jessie Sheehan:
Then we're going to combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, cake flour, baking powder, salt, sprinkles in a medium bowl. Are we whisking this all together?
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, just a quick little combine. Yeah, a little whisk is good.
Jessie Sheehan:
Awesome, so I had a couple of questions. I wanted to know why we're using two different kinds of sugar. I wanted to know if we could use all-purpose flour here instead, and you've already said that you can substitute all-purpose for the cake.
Lyndsay Sung:
I guess flavor wise the brown sugar, and then of course white sugar will make it nice and crispy too. Yeah, the flour we can use either.
Jessie Sheehan:
Now we're going to add some vegetable oil to this mixture. Is there a type of oil, like canola, or this or-
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, just canola oil.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay, yep. Great.
So we add vegetable oil, vanilla extract? We'll mix until small clumps of crumble form. We'll spread those evenly on our prepared baking sheet, bake for about to 20 minutes until lightly browned and baked through. And then we'll cool completely before using but break up any large pieces. I imagine some of them stick together or bake into something larger-
Lyndsay Sung:
Form a larger cookie.
Jessie Sheehan:
Is it cake crumble more like a cake batter or a cookie batter?
Lyndsay Sung:
It's more of like a cookie-
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, I love that.
Lyndsay Sung:
... like a crispy cookie.
Jessie Sheehan:
Now we're going to make our buttercream, and I thought we'd walk through both ways just because the traditional is pretty easy. We'll do that one first. When you make this sort of plant-based, traditional buttercream, does the flavor taste like traditional, not plant-based buttercream? Is there a difference?
Lyndsay Sung:
I don't think it tastes any different than a-
Jessie Sheehan:
Isn't that amazing?
Lyndsay Sung:
... dairy buttercream, yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah, I love that.
For the traditional buttercream and the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, we're going to pulse together maybe on a low speed.
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah. Well, I do pulse. I just go ting, ting, ting, ting, ting, ting with my-
Jessie Sheehan:
I like that.
Lyndsay Sung:
My own personal pulse style.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Oh, I love that. Peeps, we are pulsing with our stand mixers. You didn't know you could, but Lyndsay has shared that we actually can.
Lyndsay Sung:
Yes, and you need to do that sound effect.
Jessie Sheehan:
We're going to pulse together room temperature, plant-based butter, icing sugar, which we usually call confectioner's-
Lyndsay Sung:
Confectioner's sugar.
Jessie Sheehan:
... powdered sugar, vanilla extract, salt. We're going to gently combine that in the stand mixer because we don't want it to cause this crazy dust storm of powdered sugar flying everywhere. And then once combined, we'll increase the mixer to high speed and we'll beat until the frosting is fluffy and creamy, another one to two minutes.
I noticed that in the book you have us creaming the butter first and then adding the dry ingredients. Does it matter? Can we just do it all at the same time?
Lyndsay Sung:
I think doing it all at the same time. That's why I wrote that for you specifically. I was like, what do I actually do?
I mean, you certainly can cream the butter first. But I mean if you do the pulsing thing just so you're not recreating that dust storm, I throw it all in. Another thing I do is I'll just do a very lightly damp tea towel, and you can put that over top of your mixture too to stop any-
Jessie Sheehan:
It from-
Lyndsay Sung:
... any dusty times, yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Next we are going to talk about the Swiss meringue buttercream plant-based. We're going to first make sure our stand mixer bowl is super clean and grease free, which surprised me. Just like we need to-
Lyndsay Sung:
Just like any meringue.
Jessie Sheehan:
... with egg whites when making meringue. We need to do that because if there's any grease, it will preclude the egg whites from getting as fluffy and big and voluminous.
And then I loved this tip, which I had never read. You actually use some lemon juice to degrease the bowl and the whisk. Do you do that every time or is that just-
Lyndsay Sung:
I mean, again, it's like a precautionary thing. If you really want to ensure that that is grease free, you can do that and then just wipe it out again, yep.
Jessie Sheehan:
I thought this was interesting. In the book you talk about how to reduce aquafaba, which is, again, as you say for all of these little tips, it's just extra insurance. But my question to you is, are you reducing every time? We're going to talk about how to reduce, but is that something you do every time? Is it important for newbie, like peeps who have never made a plant-based Swiss marine buttercream with aquafaba? Like please reduce, you will have better luck?
Lyndsay Sung:
I think so. I think it's a newbie thing if you are trying this out. For me at this point now I do do that sometimes still, but I'll also now just crack open my can of chickpeas, put a strainer on top of a bowl, dump it out, and I'll start from that liquid as well.
I feel like it's also dependent on the chickpea brand. I know that the one I use will work for me, but I'm not sure the consistency of other brands because there's so many different brands. I think also that may be a good tip or help for if you're using a brand that I'm not familiar with. That reducing it down, just getting some of that water content out, will be helpful for you.
Jessie Sheehan:
We're going to strain the liquid from a can of chickpeas, and we're going to place it over medium high heat in a small sauce pan. In this instance it doesn't really matter because we're cooking it, but in general, do we want our aquafaba, our bean water, to be room temperature when we're using it?
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, no, it hasn't made a difference for me.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay, good to know.
We're going to strain the liquid from the can over medium high heat in a small sauce pan, bring it to a low boil. Then, we'll reduce the heat and simmer till it's reduced by half, about 15 minutes. We're going to add some granulated sugar and chill that overnight so it gels. When we use it the next day. We don't have to bring it to room temp. We can use it just like that.
Lyndsay Sung:
I'll just use it as is, yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Great.
Then with the whisk attachment in a stand mixer on low speed, we're going to whisk the aquafaba. Now we're back to our Swiss meringue buttercream steps. We reduced our aquafaba, that's our ingredient. With the whisk attachment in the stand mixer on low speed, we're going to whisk the aquafaba with cream of tartar until slightly frothy, about three minutes. Then with the mixer on high speed, we'll keep mixing until soft peaks form, again about another three minutes.
And if we did not reduce the aquafaba, we're now adding some granulated sugar as well as powdered. We're going to add the sugars a tablespoon at a time until the meringue has thickened and reached medium stiff peaks, which can take up to 15 minutes you said. But I love this. Well, first of all, you have us test it. If you turn off the mixer and lift the head or remove the whisk, the meringue should hold thickly to the whisk. Are we not looking for a stiff peak at the top?
Lyndsay Sung:
I have never achieved the ultra thick stiff peak that I have achieved with an egg white, but I have made buttercream with even a medium peak of aquafaba and it still works. I aim for medium stiff. Stiff enough that when you lift the head up it's attached, but it's not going to be as thick as a traditional egg white meringue. Not as pointy and quite as thick and sticky, but still holds its shape.
Jessie Sheehan:
Basically if we go about 15 minutes and it's holding onto the whisk, we're good to go.
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, and it could take you shorter than 15. Well, so I would say anywhere between eight and 15 depending.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay.
Now with the mixer on low speed and with the paddle attachment, we're going to add our unsalted room temp plant butter, about one inch of a piece at a time. Kind of like about a tablespoon each?
Lyndsay Sung:
Yeah, I'd say that for a one-inch cube.
Jessie Sheehan:
And you say, I love this, that you just have your kitchen knife or a butter knife and you're just slicing it off and throwing it in.
Lyndsay Sung:
Yes, slice and go. I don't prep my butter.
Jessie Sheehan:
Once all the plant-based butter's added, we're going to turn the mixer to medium high and whip until the mixture forms into a thick, creamy buttercream. We'll add our vanilla extract and paste, pinch of salt, and incorporate for about 30 seconds.
I also wanted to mention for people, I have never heard of this product, and I was very curious, if you do not want to do this aquafaba situation, you can buy something called Versawhip. Can you tell us about Versawhip, and is it easy to find?
Lyndsay Sung:
Versawhip you can find online at a large retailer and probably at some cooking specialty stores.
This is something that when I was doing all my testing for vegan Swiss meringue buttercream, a fellow cake baker, I had messaged her being like, "What do you do with all your extra chickpeas? You're doing all these vegan cakes so much." She was like, "Actually, I use this really cool product called Versawhip." I was like, "Whoa, cool," so I checked it out and basically it makes foam.
In fact, I was watching an old Top Chef episode with my kid Teddy. He loves Top Chef right now. They mentioned Versa Whip. This is like some old 10 years ago episode. I'm like, "What?" I think that's where it came from, and so it will whip up just like a meringue. You can use it in the same way.
Jessie Sheehan:
Now we'll fill and frost our cake layers. We'll sprinkle the top of the cake liberally with our cake crumbles. I love the way you do it in the book. You just make a pile on top and then sprinkle some more funfetti rainbow sprinkles over everything.
Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today, Lyndsay-
Lyndsay Sung:
Oh, for sure.
Jessie Sheehan:
I just want to say that you are my cherry pie.
Lyndsay Sung:
Aw, thank you, Jessie.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's it for today's show. Thank you to Nonino and California Prunes for supporting this episode. Don't forget to subscribe to She's My Cherry Pie on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen and tell your baking pals about us. Visit cherrybombe.com for today's recipe. She's My Cherry Pie is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network and is recorded at CityVox Studio in Manhattan. Our producers are Kerry Diamond, Catherine Baker, and Elizabeth Vogt. Our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu, and our content and partnerships manager is Londyn Crenshaw. Thank you so much for listening to She's My Cherry Pie and happy baking.