cake questions

[simpsongal]

Tagging redheadbaker for your expertise!  (brain dump ahead.....)

I think recall you mentioning you're a fan of rose levy berenbaum. I bought 3 of her books recently in a quest to improve my cake skills. I'm planning on doing a basic but hopefully well-executed birthday cake for my 3 yr old daughter. I was thinking of just doing a downy yellow butter cake w/vanilla flavored frosting & filling. 

I have a go-to swiss merengue buttercream that I love, it's very rich. I noticed when I was looking through Rose's books that my SMB recipe is actually closer to a mousseline recipe in her book, b/c her SMB recipe contains eggs whites and yolks (my SMB doesn't have yolks).

Anyhow, I was still planning on going w/my preferred SMB recipe, though I'm having trouble deciding on a filling.  I figured Rose's SMB was probably similar enough to my preferred recipe that it doesn't make sense to fill the cake w/it.  I was a little underwhelmed at the selection of fillings in her Cake Bible - lots of flavors but I was looking for something texturally different from flavored buttercream.  I don't want to do a whipped cream and a lot of the pastry cream type recipes seemed too loose for a cake filling.

Do you have a preferred filling recipe/type for a basic vanilla cake?  I love the SMB/mousseline frosting, but I like to break it up in the layers (maybe laying SMB w/custard or something similar).  Maybe a vanilla mousse? 

ETA: feel free to tell me her whipped cream recipes are fantastic.  For some reason I'm just scared of "stabilized" whip cream and things that require gelatin.  i suppose it reminds me of my great aunt's jelly mold.....

 

[redheadbaker]

Yes, I'm a big fan of Rose and her books!

My favorite filling from her Cake Bible book is the cloud cream. Light like whipped cream, very flavorful, and pretty easy to make. I've filled cakes with it before, and it holds up well, and contrasts nicely with SMB.