Hello all, Ami here! I am so excited to share this post with you. This past weekend I threw a surprise party for Tara and it could not have gone any better. If you are familiar with our blog you know that we are two sisters. As you can imagine, growing up with a twin sister you share everything and your birthday is no exception. Over the years Tara has thrown numerous parties for me and many of her friends. She is one of those people that is always doing stuff for other people and never asks for anything in return. I wanted to show Tara how much she meant to me and all of her friends so I decided to throw her a surprise party for her birthday. This was a party to celebrate her, not for our birthday, just hers! This is something I have been wanting to do for a very long time and I decided to stop thinking about it and actually do it!
Getting the Plan in Place
In my opinion there a three things you need to set in place to pull off a perfect surprise party: #1 Make sure your guest of honor doesn’t make plans that day by creating fake plans for them, #2 Make them think you and other friends have plans of their own and #3 Plan it on a day or time they wouldn’t expect. Our birthday is May 21st so I decided to have the party the weekend before we would normally celebrate our birthday so she wouldn’t be expecting anything. May 11th ended up being the chosen date and it ended up being perfect for many reasons. First things first, I needed to make sure she didn’t make plans for that day and I also wanted her to think I was busy with my own plans since her and I hang out quite often on the weekends. I enlisted one of our really good friends, Morgan, to help me out. Morgan was leaving on the 18th to go to Europe so I had her make plans with Tara on the 11th for an early birthday get together since she was going to miss her birthday. Reason number one for this date being perfect, Morgan wasn’t going to be intown on the 18th. Morgan and Tara are really close so I really wanted her there and them getting together was the perfect fake plans for Tara. As for my plans, I had a friend who was having a birthday for her son on the 11th. Sadly since this was the day I decided to plan the party I was unable to attend. Plus side, Tara had already seen the invite on my fridge and was expecting me to be at this party. Reason number two this was the perfect date. To throw her off even more I pretended I was going to put together a little get together on the 18th for our birthday. Things were coming together great. The date was set, Tara had plans for the day, she assumed I had plans of my own and she was expecting something to happen on a completely different weekend. Now for what to do for the party.
The Party
I decided to have the party be ladies only. I was going back on forth on may different ideas: hosting a party at my house, wine tasting, casual get together at a bar, cooking/baking class, laser tag, trapeze, escape room, you name it. One thing I kept going back to was high tea, but Tara planned a high tea for my bachelorette party so I was hesitant do that again. Then one day we were hanging out and she says “remember when we did high tea? That was fun, we should do that again”. Sold! High tea it is! I researched a bunch of different places and since the party was on mother’s day weekend a lot of places were booked, then I finally lucked out and an opening became available at Graham’s Royal Tea in Bothell. The place was perfect, absolutely PERFECT! If you live in the Seattle area and are planning a girls get together, bridal/baby shower, bachelorette, birthday, etc. I highly recommend checking them out. They host private adult and kids parties, the space is perfectly decorated, the menu is delicious and to top it off they have a room with fascinators, hats, boas, dresses, etc. you can dress up in for the party. Plans were set, location was booked and guests were invited. All we had left was to make it to the day without Tara finding out.
The Cake
A Basil and Buttercream planned party wouldn’t be complete without a show stopping cake! Once I had the plans for the party I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the cake. Tara and I are huge fans of rhubarb pie/crumble. It is actually my all time favorite dessert. Tessa Huff of Style Sweet CA has a Riesling Rhubarb Crisp cake that we have been wanting to try. I have also been wanting to make a buttercream flower painted cake. I couldn’t think of a better cake flavor and design for a high tea themed party. The great thing about this cake design is that you can have fun with it and create so many different looks. All you need is a chilled frosted cake, buttercream colored in your desired color palette and a small offset spatula/palette knife.
The day has finally arrived!
I have anxiously been waiting for this day for weeks to see how Tara would react and if we successfully had her fooled. I am proud to announce that she had no idea! She was so surprised and had the best time. All her closest friends were there and to top it off my two sisters, mom and cousin-in-law drove over from eastern Washington to surprise her. Our dad was in town as well, but didn’t attend the party since it was ladies only. And if you are wondering, everyone loved the cake. I am so happy I could share this with you all. I hope I inspired you to plan a surprise party for someone you love or sparked your creative side to create your own painted cake.
Tessa Huff’s Riesling Rhubarb Crisp Cake
Ingredients
For the Riesling Cake
- Butter or nonstick cooking spray for pans
- 3 1/4 cups cake flour, plus more for the pans
- 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 6 large egg whites 6 ounces
- 1 1/2 cups sweet Riesling
For the Rhubarb-Strawberry Compote
- 1 3/4 cups (8 ounces) fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
- 1 cup (4 ounces) fresh rhubarb, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
For the Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- 1 cup egg whites
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 cups (6 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
For the Rhubarb-Strawberry Buttercream
- 2 cups swiss meringue buttercream (above)
- 1/2 cup rhubarb-strawberry compote (above)
For the Oat Crumble
- 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
- 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
Instructions
For the Riesling Cake
- Pre-heat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour 3 (8-inch) round cake pans and set aside.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar and mix on medium-high until the butter is light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.
- Turn the mixer to medium-low and gradually add the vanilla and egg whites until combined. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl. Turn the mixer to low and add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the Riesling, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix on medium for no more than 30 seconds after the last streaks of the dry ingredients are combined.
- Evenly divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean, switching the cakes between racks halfway through. Let them cool on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes before removing the cakes from their pans.
For the Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote
- Combine the strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, and lemon juice in a medium saucepan and cook them over medium-high heat, stirring intermittently with a wooden spoon, until the juices start to bubble.
- Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the fruit starts to break down. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool.
For the Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- Place the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk them together by hand to combine.
- Fill a medium saucepan with a few inches of water and place it over medium-high heat. Place the mixer bowl on top of the saucepan to create a double boiler. The bottom of the bowl should not touch the water. Whisking intermittently, heat the egg mixture until it registers 145°F to 155°F (63°C to 68°C) on a candy thermometer or is hot to the touch.
- Once hot, carefully fit the mixer bowl onto the stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, beat the egg white mixture on high speed for 8 to 10 minutes, until it holds medium-stiff peaks. When done, the outside of the mixer bowl should return to room temperature and no residual heat should be escaping the meringue out of the top of the bowl. Stop the mixer and swap out the whisk attachment for the paddle.
- With the mixer on low speed, add the butter, a few tablespoons at a time, and then the vanilla. Once incorporated, turn up the mixer speed to medium-high and beat until the buttercream is silky-smooth, 3 to 5 minutes.
For the Rhubarb-Strawberry Buttercream
- Remove all but 2 cups of the buttercream from the stand mixer bowl. Add 1/2 cup rhubarb compote (reserve the rest for serving) to the mixer and mix until combined.
For the Oat Crumble
- Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 375°F (190°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the oats, almonds, brown sugar, flour, butter, honey, cinnamon, and salt with a wooden spoon until combined. The mixture should resemble clumps of sand.
- Sprinkle it over the baking sheet and bake, stirring halfway through, for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden-brown. Let it cool and crumble the mixture into smaller pieces, if necessary.
To Assemble the Cake
- Once the cakes have completely cooled, level them and choose which layer will be at the bottom. Place it on a cake plate or serving dish.
- Spread on 1 cup of the rhubarb buttercream with an offset spatula. Sprinkle it with 1/2 to 3/4 cup (50 to 75 gramof the oat crumble. Top with the next layer of cake and repeat with the buttercream and remaining crumble, finishing with the final layer of cake.
- Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining vanilla buttercream. Serve with the remaining compote.
Notes
