This cake wasn’t so much a project as a thrown-together amalgamation of the leftovers from my sesame/tahini experiments over the past week. I had a bunch of sesame-caramel ganache from my sesame macarons, plus extra sesame seed brittle from the ice cream I made to go with my sesame chess pie, plus extra egg yolks from that same pie, plus a few extra macarons that I hadn’t gotten around to eating yet… what else could I do but make a cake? (I do have a history of doing this, you know)
I looked hard to find a yellow cake recipe that would use my three extra yolks and no more, and I did find one, but honestly I didn’t care for it– it was an oil-based cake rather than a butter-based cake, and while the oil made for a very moist crumb I just think that the recipe called for too much oil. The batter didn’t fully emulsify and I got small tunnels in the finished crumb, plus the cake was so rich that it seemed heavy. I won’t post the cake recipe here– I need to find a better one for when I have extra yolks– but I will post the fabulous tahini buttercream that I made to go with it, which turned out great. The tahini added a wonderful savoriness to the frosting that worked well with the salted caramel ganache and the sugary macarons.
Tahini Buttercream
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened but still cool
- 1/2 cup stirred tahini
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 2-3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until creamy. Add tahini, vanilla, and salt and continue to beat until smooth.
- Add powdered sugar and stir in before beating until smooth again.
- Add the heavy cream and continue to beat until fluffy. (the cream helps get rid of the last bits of grittiness from the powdered sugar, and lightens up the frosting)
- Use immediately.
