Saturday, October 1, 2011

Birthday cake for my mother

I seldom succeed in getting a homemade birthday cake ready on time for that special day of anyone... however this time, I delivered the cake to her on the day of my mother's birthday! I am so proud of myself. Haha.

This is a very simple all in recipe, so I gamely try it out as a birthday cake. The recipe asked that all the ingredients be thrown into a food processor and then just bake and decorate. Sounds so easy right? But I do not have food processor and I think the KA can do the job. The recipe is for a 4 layers cake and I half the recipe since I wanted to make a 2 layer one (* struggling to keep awake *).

Even though the butter is relatively soft, after some mixing, there are still cubes of butter not blended into the batter. I chose to leave it because I am worried about the gluten forming when flour is over beaten. But this recipe uses self raising flour .... does this applies to self raising flour too? I am also too lazy to lay the baking paper properly, so I just simply fold and tug to cover the 8 inch tray. I thought the batter would turn more "watery" and then will press out the folds but I was wrong.

The "naked" cake ended up looking like this.



Then I happily (dozed off for a while while writing!) prepare frosting. I did not use the recommended buttercream since I wanted to finish my whip cream in the freezer. I beat the whipping cream with my hands, so tired but I push myself and when finally done, I pour cooled melted chocolate into the cold whipped cream. I am sure all of you know what happens after that. This mistake is the 2nd time. The first time, I pour cool melted chocolate into the whipped cream when I served them ice cream like that of chocolate syrup... but the melted chocolate hardens upon touching the cold whipped cream. I can not imagine I can forget the mistake and made same one again. So in the end, the frosting was a whipped cream with bits of chocolate. Well, 另類 frosting then.

The cake was very sweet. I dare not reduce any sugar as I am afraid the cake will taste bitter if there was not enough sugar to compensate. The inside looked presentable but the cake is on the dry side and crumbly. However, it taste very good with the whipped cream. This is how my decorated cake looked like.


The recipe is taken from BBC Australian Good Food April 2011

Layered Easter Chocolate Cake 
Serves 12 Prep 20 mins plus cooling
Cook 35 mins 
Super Easy, Family favourite

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (225g) self raising flour
1 1/4 cups (275g) firmly packed brown sugar
250g unsalted butter, softened
75g dark chocolate, melted
1/2 cup (50g) cocoa 
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
16 mini Easter eggs, to decorate

Ganache icing
1/2 cup (80ml) cream
160g dark chocolate, chopped

buttercream filling
375g unsalted butter, softened
500g pure icing sugar
1/2 cup (80ml) milk

1. Preheat oven to 180C or 160C. Grease and line two 20cm round pans.

2. Place flour, sugar, butter, chocolate, cocoa, baking powder, vanilla, eggs and 2 tbsp water in a food processor and process until smooth. Spoon into pans, level surfaces and bake for 35 mins, until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. Stand for 5 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

3. Meanwhile, to make icing, heat cream in a small pan on medium. Bring to boil. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Stand for 2-3 mins, until chocolate is melted. Whisk until smooth. Stand for 20 mins. until cooled slightly and thickened. 

4. To make buttercream filling, use an electric mixer to beat butter until as white as possible. Alternately beat in sugar and milk, starting and finishing with a little sugar.

5. Using a bread knife, split each cake into two layers. Sandwich together all four layers with buttercream. Top with ganache and decorate with Easter eggs. Serve.

For those interested in the texture inside, I hope the picture can help a little.


Phew, I have finally managed an easy birthday cake on time for someone's birthday!

4 comments:

Happy Homebaker said...

Congrats on your successful attempt at making a birthday cake! I know how stressful it is, whenever I make cakes for my loved ones' birthdays, my hands will shake when I try to frost the cake ;)

Blessed Homemaker said...

Looks good! But I don't like heavy cake, else will try making this as it's the steps are so straight forward.

sherlyn said...

Thank you HHB. I made this one day ahead and I think the most stressful part is not able to taste it after it is being baked. You really not sure how did it go inside. hahaha. hmm .. frosting .. this time not so bad, cos no need to see smooth surface :)

Blessed Homemaker, thanks. Ya, this cake uses alot of oil, butter and sugar, even eggs. But I have to use it since I need it to be fail safe and easy and fast to do...

Unknown said...

I wanted a simple and inexpensive option for a cake. I definitely love your cake here and surely share this to catering service in manila

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