Basket cake

To prepare the basket cake, start with the sponge cake: in the bowl of a stand mixer, pour in the room temperature eggs; add the sugar 1 and start whisking: they should become frothy. Then, in a separate small bowl, sift the flour 2 and potato starch 3.

Then add the powders to the well-whipped egg and sugar mixture 4 and mix with a spatula to combine them. Butter and line with parchment paper a 9-inch diameter cake pan and pour the batter inside 5. Once finished and leveled 6, bake in a preheated static oven at 340°F for 35 minutes (300°F for 25 minutes if using a fan oven, checking that it's done with a toothpick test before removing it from the oven).

When it's cooked, remove it from the oven and let it cool slightly, then turn it out and let it cool completely on a wire rack 7. While the sponge cake cools, prepare the buttercream: in a mixing bowl, pour in the egg whites (with the yolks you could make a custard) and half the granulated sugar 8. Place everything over a double boiler to cook the egg whites: it is important that the water does not touch the bottom of the pot containing the egg whites to ensure controlled, low-temperature cooking. Stir with a hand whisk 9 and when they become frothy, remove them from the heat (you can measure the temperature with a food thermometer; it should be 149°F).

Sift the powdered sugar 10; then pour the egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer 11, add the other half of the granulated sugar gradually 12, and the powdered sugar;

also add the vanilla bean seeds 13 and continue to work with the whisk. Replace the whisk of the stand mixer with the paddle, then cut the softened butter into pieces 14 and gradually add it to the sugar and egg white mixture and continue mixing with the stand mixer 15.

When all the butter is incorporated, transfer the cream to a bowl 16, then add the red food coloring 17 and add the yellow one 18 to achieve a bright yellow color.

Once colored, transfer one-third of the cream to a piping bag with a plain nozzle, one-third to a piping bag with a Wilton 26 nozzle (flat and serrated), and leave one-third of the cream in the bowl. Then cut the now-cold sponge cake into two discs 20 and with the piping bag with the plain nozzle, create a border of cream on the base of the sponge cake 21.

Then fill the inside with apricot jam 22 and cover with the other sponge cake disc 23. Spread the surface and the edges with the cream kept aside in the bowl 24.

Proceed to decorate with the piping bag with a Wilton 26 nozzle: create a vertical strip, then three horizontal ones of the same length, and continue this way around the entire circumference of the cake to recreate the weave pattern of a wicker basket. Then replace the Wilton nozzle with a star one and decorate the edge of the surface 27.

To complete the decoration, take the colored sugar balls and distribute them to create an inner border 28. Then take the sugar paste flowers: we chose small roses 29 and distribute them over the surface of the cake 30.