Tag: birthday

Anya’s 11th Birthday Cake: Orange Chocolate

This year, Anya wanted an orange cake decorated with pieces of orange … but she also wanted chocolate. So we made an orange chocolate cake with orange chocolate buttercream. Very tasty!

Chocolate Orange Cake

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • zest of two oranges
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup decaffeinated coffee, cooled
  • 4 medium eggs

Preheat oven to 325F. Butter and flour two 8″ cake pans.
Whisk all dry ingredients (including orange zest) together.
Whisk all wet ingredients together.
Slowly stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
Pour batter into pans and bake for 35-40 minutes.
Remove from oven, allow pans to cool for approx 15 minutes, then turn cakes onto cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Orange Buttercream Frosting

  • 2 cups unsalted butter
  • 1 Tbsp orange emulsion
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 5 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 10 oz dark chocolate chips

Whip the butter in the blender until light and fluffy. Add orange emulsion and salt.
Heat the whipping cream, remove from heat, and stir in chocolate chips to melt.
Slowly sift powdered sugar into butter while continuing to blend on lowest speed.
Once powdered sugar has been incorporated, add melted chocolate a scoop at a time and continue to blend on lowest speed until it has all been incorporated.

Anya’s 10th Birthday Cake: Strawberry Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin powder
  • 4 teaspoons water
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup strawberry reduction

Method:

  • Place water in a heat-proof container and sprinkle gelatin on top. Allow to sit for at least five minutes to hydrate. Place container into a pot of water (water should not come too close to the top of the container — we just need a little bit in the pot to make a water bath). Simmer until gelatin is clear and liquid. Remove from heat and allow to slightly cool.
  • Add maple syrup to whipped cream and beat until soft peaks form.
  • Slowly drizzle gelatin into whipped cream (beating as you pour).
  • Slowly add in strawberry reduction and continue to beat until firm peaks form.

Anya’s 10th Birthday Cake: Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Whipped Cream

Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Whipped Cream
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Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Whipped Cream

Recipe by LisaCourse: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Medium
Servings

12

servings
Prep time

1

hour 
Cooking time

40

minutes

Ingredients

  • 14 oz all-purpose Flour

  • 2 tsp baking powder

  • 1 tsp baking soda

  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 226 g unsalted butter, room temperature

  • 284 g sugar

  • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice

  • 170 g egg whites, room temperature

  • 125 g strawberry reduction, room temperature

  • 170 g heavy whipping cream

Method

  • Preheat oven to 350F. Flour three 8″ cake pans and set aside.
  • Whisk together the cream, strawberry reduction, and lemon juice.
  • In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the room temperature butter and beat until smooth and shiny.
  • Gradually add in the sugar, beating until the mixture is fluffy and light colored.
  • Add the egg whites, one at a time, and beat at a medium speed.
  • On a low speed, add about 1/3 of the dry ingredients followed by 1/3 of the wet ingredients, mixing until mostly incorporated into the batter. Repeat until all ingredients have been added.
  • Divide the batter evenly between the three pans.
  • Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes (a cake tester should come out clean).
  • Place pans on a wire rack to cool for ten minutes, then turn the cakes out onto the rack and allow to cool.
  • To assemble, place a cake on the cake plate. Cover with strawberry reduction, and top with a second cake. Cover with strawberry reduction, then top with the third cake. Coat liberally with strawberry whipped cream and serve.

Commentary

  • This year, Anya chose a strawberry cake. We looked through a lot of recipes online and merged a couple into what we hoped would be a very strawberry flavored cake. It was — the strawberry whipped cream was specially tasty. I think it could have used more strawberry reduction between the layers, though the cake was already very moist.

Scott’s Birthday Cake

Scott wanted oatmeal raisin cookies, so Anya and I found a cake made with oatmeal raisin cookie ingredients. It’s incredibly dense, but moist and delicious. I topped it with maple butterscotch, and Anya decorated it with raisins.

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Ingredients

  • 1 cup mixed nuts, chopped (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, almonds)

  • 1 1/3 c boiling water

  • 1 cup old fashioned oats

  • 1 1/2 cup flour (white whole wheat or all purpose)

  • 1 tsp baking soda

  • 1 Tbsp cinnamon

  • 1/2 tsp salt

  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg

  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

  • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt

  • 2/3 cup raisins

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Method

  • Preheat oven to 350 F
  • Whirl mixed nuts in food processor so some chunks remain.
  • Combine boiling water and oats and allow to sit for 20 minutes.
  • Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
  • In a large bowl, cream butter with sugars. Add vanilla.
  • Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well to combine.
  • Add in oatmeal, breaking up any chunks. Then add in yogurt and stir to combine.
  • Add flour mixture, a third at a time, and stir to combine.
  • Add nuts and raisins, then stir to combine.
  • Pour into a bundt pan. Bake for 50 minutes (add more time, in five minute intervals, if knife inserted into deepest part of cake pan does not come out clean). Allow to cool for 10 minutes and remove from pan. Cool before frosting.

Anya’s 6th Birthday Cake

This year, I made a really cool apple cake for Anya’s birthday. It’s about 80% apple — very thinly sliced.

It’s called Gateau Invisible

Ingredients

  • 1 pound Fuji apples
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 tablespoons melted butter
  • 3/4 cup flour

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F
  2. Peel and core apples. Slice into very thin slices. Soak in lemon water.
  3. Wisk eggs until they are frothy and add sugar.
  4. Add milk and melted butter.
  5. Sift the flour into liquid mixture.
  6. Add sliced apples and stir gently to coat apple slices in batter.
  7. Pour the batter into a parchment lined bread loaf pan.
  8. Bake for 40 minutes, cover with foil, then bake for another 10 minutes.
  9. Remove from pan and allow to cool
  10. Pour caramel sauce over cake and serve.

Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream

Method:

  1. Melt butter in a small pan.
  2. Add sugar and heat until sugar turns a medium brown.
  3. Add heavy cream and wisk to combine.

Anya’s 5th Birthday Cake

I made a cake with red beets for Anya’s birthday cake. I roasted the beets instead of boiling them. Then replaced the espresso with beet juice (mostly because I had it in the pan after roasting the beets). Finally I used 7 oz of carob chips along with three tablespoons of a triple cocoa powder blend. To make it a little fancier, I made a small layer cake with the mascarpone between the layers.

I covered the cake with a stabilized whipped cream flavoured with raspberry and added fresh raspberries to to the top. The cake what what I imagined a red velvet cake was before it became white cake with red dye – a deep reddish brown colour. Very moist and dense in spite of the whipped egg whites folded into it.

Raspberry Whip Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup fresh raspberry purée (seeds strained out)
1 packet unflavoured gelatin
2 tablespoons superfine sugar

Dissolve gelatin in the raspberry purée.

Begin whipping the cream in a stand mixer. Slowly add in the sugar. Leave the mixer run and heat up the gelatin per instructions. Allow to cool a bit but don’t let it set. Drizzle raspberry mixture into cream and continue whipping to the soft peak state.

Since I was using this as a cake ‘frosting’, I immediately applied it to the cake and allowed it to set on the cake. Before the gelatin set:

After gelatin has set:

Anya got to wear her new birthday party skirt too!