Vanilla Guava Celebration Cake

Sometimes, I daydream about having my own bakery. It would be warm and inviting, like an old family-run coffee shop. There would be smooth jazz (with a Latin vibe) playing just faintly enough to fill the room. Fresh pastries of every kind and color would line the wood display cases. The scents of vanilla and chocolate chip cookies would fill the air and this Vanilla Guava Celebration Cake would be a best-seller.

One year ago, when I was spending much of my time caring for my mom at home, I blindly dove into the world of food blogging. The cooking, picture-taking, and writing has served as a creative outlet for me. It’s been an incredibly fun and exciting year. I’ve learned so much while stumbling my way along this world of food blogging. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since I first pressed that ‘Publish’ button with this post. Although I wish I had the time to post recipes more religiously, my responsibilities to my kids, my mom, and my job, often make that difficult. Nevertheless, I’m so happy to have shared almost 50 recipes with you this past year. I have about 50 more spinning around in my head that I plan on bringing you.

As I have alluded to, today’s post is about Celebration. Happy Blogiverasary Casablanca Cooks! Thank you to all of you who read my words and make my recipes. It’s always my hope to bring a little happiness to your soul and your belly through our mutual love of food. Let’s make a cake to celebrate…

When I was contemplating what type of cake to make, the flavor was a no-brainer. It would involve my favorite vanilla cake and be filled with one of my favorite cake and pastry fillings – guava (nod of acknowledgement to my heritage). Deciding how to decorate it took a little more brainstorming. So many possibilities! Then, I realized my inspiration was right in front of me…literally.

I bought this agenda last year at a time when I was deliberating whether or not to throw myself into the food cyberworld. I had so many doubts. Could I pull it off and still maintain balance at home? Would anyone read the blog? Was my writing decent enough? Could I photograph food and still make it look edible? Would anyone make my recipes? The list goes on and on.

In the midst of my self-defeating thoughts, I came upon this planner while strolling the aisles of my local Home Goods. It sort of stopped me in my tracks and I took it as a sign. I loved its message and its colors. It gave me the reassurance I needed and I started blogging. Never would I have imagined that a year later I would be using it as inspiration for the design of my Blogiversary cake.

I mimicked the watercolor design by randomly applying tinted meringue buttercream. That was both fun and scary at the same time. I realized this type of decorating doesn’t come very naturally to me, as my mind works in a very orderly fashion. But, I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone because I really enjoyed it. Tapping into my inner artist and using cake as a canvas felt freeing (I’m a cake nerd). The best part – you really can’t mess it up.

That’s not to say I didn’t have a moment or two of doubt once I stepped back to look at the finished product. So many colors. Too many colors? It was loud. Too loud? The voices were back. But, I had a hunch that the finishing touches I had in store would tame it down a bit.

The text you see on the cake was made using edible frosting sheets and wafer paper. I thought it would be fun to showcase all of this year’s posts somehow. So, these are the titles of the 47 recipes I have posted this past year. I’m really happy with the concept and the way it turned out. I would like to give a huge shout-out to my friend for custom-making both the cake strips and the gorgeous wafer paper flower. She recently opened an Etsy store, which you can find here. I highly recommend these edible images for their vibrant colors and excellent quality.

Every part of this cake from its silky buttercream to its fluffy layers, is amazing. It’s the guava, though, that brings life to this party. You can make this filling a day or two before baking and decorating. It’s very easy and only involves melting some guava paste with water and lemon juice. You can store it covered at room temperature until ready to use. Guava paste has gotten easier to find in grocery stores. In my local store, it’s found in the canned fruit aisle, but in some stores, it may be in the ethnic/Hispanic section. It’s also available (although a little pricier) on Amazon here. Alternatively, you can use guava preserves if you can find them or any other fruit preserves.

The cake part of this Vanilla Guava Celebration Cake is made using my favorite fluffy vanilla layer cake recipe. It’s light and springy with big vanilla flavor. It’s simple to make, although a bit different from other cake-making methods. Instead of creaming butter and sugar together to start, all the dry ingredients are combined in the mixer first. Then, cold butter pieces are added followed by the wet ingredients. I’m not sure what the science behind this method is, but I do know it makes one amazing cake.

The meringue buttercream is the same one I recently used in my Depressed Cake, except I experimented by adding guava nectar in place of the lemon juice in the original recipe. While still delicious, the guava flavor was very faint, so I might just stick with the lemon juice next time. The best thing about this frosting is how silky and creamy it is. However, feel free to substitute cream cheese frosting too. It would pair perfectly with the guava filling.

My family has been enjoying a slice of this colorful and heavenly cake every night since we cut into it. We’re in celebration mode all week here at Casablanca Cooks (pup included). Thanks so much for reading along. If you have any recipe requests, send them my way. I love hearing from you. Have a lovely day!

Cake adapted (slightly modified) from Sweetapolita.com

Meringue Buttercream  adapted (slightly modified) from Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake recipe