Author: Charis

This year I had a small birthday bbq for my 19th birthday. I’m still not 19, a few more weeks and I will have completed my 19th year of life, but I wanted to have some friends over early to celebrate and eat cake. It’s not often that everyone is around on my birthday, especially because it is exactly in the middle of summer when everyone goes on holiday so I guess I get 2 celebrations, one with friends and one with my family on my actual birthday.

I was so excited to make the same cake as I had for my brother’s wedding because I think it may have become my favourite type of cake. I did cheat and use box cake mix but its oh so worth it, plus it cuts down some of the time it takes to make the cake, especially since there are extra steps. I made a white chocolate cake with fresh whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

Tip: I like to make the cake decorations at least 2 days before assembling the cake and bake the cakes one day before assembling. That way the cakes will be 100% cooled and there will be no chance of the frosting melting!

Scroll down to see some pictures and to get the recipe for the cake and the frosting!

Ingredients for the cake (makes 4 layers)

1 stick of butter cut into slices about 1 tbsp each

6oz of white chocolate chips

1 box of white cake mix (the

1 cup whole milk

3 large eggs

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F convection bake.

2. Place the butter and white chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water (bain-marie) and stir until both have melted. then set aside.

3. In a large bowl add the cake mix, the milk, the eggs, and then add the melted chocolate mixture.

4. With an electric mixer mix the cake batter on medium until smooth. It will have thickened and may have tiny lumps but that’s okay.

5. Divide the batter between 2 greased and lined cake pans and bake for 20-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

6. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for about 5 minutes and then turn them out to cool on a wire rack.

7. Trim the domes off the cake and wrap in clingfilm (saran wrap) before popping them into the freezer for at least 2 hours.

8. Cut each cake in half to make 2 layers of cake from each one (you will now have 4 layers total).

Ingredients for the stabilized whipped cream filling

2 tsp unflavoured gelatin

8 tsp cold water

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 packages of strawberries washed and cut into half (this is for the assembly)

Steps

1. In a small bowl sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and set aside.

2. Whip the cream and the confectioner’s sugar until it begins to thicken.

3. Microwave the gelatin mixture for about 10 seconds or until liquidy.

4. While mixing on high, slowly drizzle the gelatin into the whipped cream.

5. Whip until stiff peaks and then store in the fridge in an airtight container.

Ingredients for the swiss meringue buttercream

6 egg large whites at room temperature

1 1/3 cups white sugar

4 sticks salted butter at room temperature

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Steps:

1. Over a bain-marie, combine the egg whites and sugar and mix until the mixture reaches 140°F (if you don’t have a thermometer this will be when the sugar is completely dissolved and it will be pretty hot to the touch, be very careful not to cook the egg whites).

2. Remove the egg white mixture from the bain-marie and with an electric mixer on high, whip until stiff peaks.

3. Once the egg whites and sugar have reached stiff peaks (the bowl should be able to be turned over and the meringue will not move or fall out).

4. With the mixture on medium, slowly add the butter 1 tbsp at a time. Whip for about a minute after adding the last piece of butter.

5. If the mixture looks like it has separated at the end of mixing, the butter may have been too cold, so to fix this, return the frosting to the bain-marie until it begins to look a little melted around the bowl. Remove from the heat and whip until stiff peaks.

Assembling the cake

1. On the cake stand put 1 layer of cake.

2. spread about a cup of the whipped cream all the way to the edges of the cake layer. The whipped cream filling should be about 1 cm thick.

3. Press the strawberry halves into the cream filling.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 for all the layers.

5. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes.

7. Frost the crumb coat (a very thin layer of frosting on the cake to stick all the crumbs to the cake).

8. Let the crumb coat set in the fridge for 10 minutes.

9. Apply the final layer of frosting (I tinted half of the remaining frosting a very very pale blue and the other half a slightly darker blue and put the darker blue on the bottom and turned the cake standing while holding my frosting knife still to blend the colours. I also piped a geometric design on the bottom of the cake using royal icing.)

10. Finish with the decorations and serve!

I love baking cakes, and usually plan to bake the cake before the day it is being served and decorating on the day.

My sister just turned 20! She loves to do make up, so I thought – why not make a birthday cake with a Sephora makeup theme – her favorite! It wasn’t a total surprise for her as she came back from college much sooner than I thought. Thankfully I hadn’t put on the decorations yet and it was just a cake covered in marshmallow fondant that I thought looked really ugly. I ended up tearing off the fondant, and giving it a new coat of chocolate buttercream frosting. The second round look was much better!

Serves 15 inch-thick slices

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon instant coffee granules
2 large eggs at room temperature
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup of boiling water

To make the decorations:

Make black marshmallow fondant by following a marshmallow fondant recipe. When the marshmallows are melted add cocoa powder, 1/4 cup at a time, until it is a dark brown colour, then add black food colouring, and begin adding the powdered sugar, then continue to follow the recipe.

To bake the cake:

Tip: START 1 DAY AHEAD

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF convection bake

2. Grease and flour 4, 9-inch cake pans with a removable base (you can use one cake pan like I did, but you just have to wait for each cake to bake, then remove from the oven, cool slightly, and then re-grease and flour the pan)

3. In a large bowl mix together the cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and instant coffee granules

4. Add the eggs, vanilla and vegetable oil and mix until the batter is smooth

5. While mixing, slowly add in the boiling water, about 1/8th cup (2 tablespoons) at a time

6. Divide the batter into 4 and pour each portion into the prepared pans

7. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake, comes out clean

8. Allow the cakes to cool, then level them and brush a simple syrup (1/2 cup water + 1/2 cup sugar brought to a boil) over each of the layers on the cut side

9. Wrap the cakes in clingfilm (plastic wrap) and freeze over night

To assemble the cake:

1. Put 1 tablespoon of the chocolate buttercream onto the cake board and put the first layer of cake on it (this is to hold the cake in place)

2. Spread a 1 cm thick layer of buttercream then put another layer of cake on it, repeat with the rest of the layers

3. Spread the buttercream over the whole cake

4. Add the decorations

5. Enjoy!

I really like the fluffiness of this cake and also I made it with my favorite Madagascar vanilla extract.

In my opinion, I think Madagascar vanilla tastes the best. However, you can use any type of vanilla – I don’t think it matters too much. I ended up making a birthday cake to send 1000 miles away to Nashville, TN, to my older sister in college. We needed something to put the cake in so we combed the supermarket aisle for a plastic tub but all the tubs we found were either too big or too small. Also, the way the flat rate postage system works, if we went for the larger container it meant we would have to pay around $45 to mail the little cake  – which I admit was far too expensive. So, the only option left was to get a smaller tub and sadly I had to re-bake the cake! In the end, the postage came up to only $16 and there was even room to fit a small packet of chocolate chip cookies!

I guess the moral of the story is – don’t put the cart before the horse!

Anyway, in the end my sister got the cake in the mail. It took two days to arrive and she said it tasted great. I’m glad it didn’t go stale as I had no idea what room temperature or condition the cake was stored during shipment. 

Makes 24 cupcakes, 36 mini cupcakes or a large 16 inch tin cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (2 sticks) butter, softened
3 cups granulated sugar
5 eggs, room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup whole milk
½ cup buttermilk (1/2 whole milk plus 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice, stirred and set aside)
2 teaspoons Madagascar vanilla extract

To make the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF convection bake

2. In a large bowl cream the butter whilst gradually adding the sugar

3. Add the eggs in one at a time and mix thoroughly before adding the next egg

4. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients

5. In another bowl combine the milks and vanilla extract

6. Add 1/3 of the milk mixture to the butter, sugar and egg mixture and mix well

7. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix well

8. Add the next 1/3 of the milk and mix well, occasionally scraping down the side of the bowl

9. Add the next 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix well

10. Mix in the last 1/3 of the milk mixture

11. Mix in the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients

12. Pour into a greased pan about 11×9 inch pan

13. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes

Decorating The Birthday Cake

I baked the cake in a rectangular tin

Then cut equal size round cakes with a sharp knife and paper templates I made

I then stacked the cake rounds with chocolate buttercream to stick the layers together

I used my favourite chocolate buttercream for the icing but you can use Nutella chocolate for that

I covered the cake with a thin layer of chocolate frosting

I made white modelling chocolate but you can buy ready made modelling chocolate

I wrapped the entire cake with white modelling chocolate

Decorating the cake was really fun! I didn’t plan anything on paper but it did have an idea of what I wanted it to look like!

Ready for shipping