To my little cousin, every cake is a “Happy Birthday” cake, that too her “Happy Birthday” cake :). She gets very confused if the cake is devoid of candles, and even more perplexed if she is restrained from making a wish or from singing Happy Birthday when the cake is cut. I’m always reminded of her when I see a birthday cake or even contemplate on baking a birthday cake!
Well, starting from the last week of July to all the way till the end of August is a busy month for us - there are occasions, festivities, and plenty of birthdays of near and dear ones. Every year, this is the time when I get into full-fledged baking mode, and then wear myself out so badly that I retreat into baking-hibernation and emerge only during Christmas. As I prepare for Anand’s birthday, making notes on what I did, what went well, what was a disaster, and what I should aim for this year, I reminisce on the memorable birthday cakes of the past years.
Death by Chocolate
When I first came to know of Anand’s love affair with chocolates, and heard him say in his most serious tone - “I love chocolates so much that I would consider myself lucky if I could die eating chocolates.”, I immediately set out to make a rich chocolate-orange cake for his birthday... how dutiful, right? ;)
My good friend, who is an expert baker, helped me all the way through with plenty of research and guidance on finding the perfect cake recipe. And since it was a surprise “party”, we had plenty of fun baking together and coming up with elaborate schemes to keep it all within wraps! I still have the chocolate cake recipe, but we put it together from numerous online sources (incorporating all the yummy bits from each source), so I’m not sure if I can write it down here! Well, can I argue that due to our “unique” mix and match, we ended up with our own “version”? ;) Anyway, those interested please email me and I’ll send the chocolate cake recipe!
We baked two layers of intensely rich chocolate cake, and sandwiched the layers between a thick coat of orange marmalade. We then “improvised” on this orange cream-cheese frosting by adding orange liqueur and orange marmalade and came up with a frosting so delicious, it was hard to keep our fingers away from the bowl! The frosting was melting a bit in the August heat, but we still managed to liberally coat (or bathe) the cake with the frosting.
In addition to loving chocolates, Anand loves The Simpsons. If he is tempted between a bowl of chocolates and watching The Simpsons, he wouldn’t be able to pick one - it will involve intense soul searching on his part to come to a decision. So, I wanted a Simpsons’ themed cake. I made the naive mistake of asking Anand what his favorite Simpson’s character was. Now, I am a person with a head-full of random, useless questions. More often than not, it is Anand who gets bombarded with all my questions. As a self-defense mechanism, he usually tunes me out the minute my voice hits an inflection that forebodes a question. His practised answers are - I don’t know, I don’t care, Yes, No, Maybe.... all in random order. So to my aforementioned question, he first said, “I don’t know.” After my persistent bugging, he uttered the first name that came to his mind - Lisa Simpson. Back then, I was blithely unaware of this random answer, and so, I took his word very seriously and decided to ice Lisa Simpson on the cake. Icing/drawing on a frosting that threatens to melt any time is not easy, that too attempting to draw someone like Lisa, without ever practising on pen and paper, is plain silly. But that’s what I did - and ended up with a scary looking cross between Daisy Duck and Lisa Simpson! But the rich taste of the cake more than made up for the poor icing!
Well, starting from the last week of July to all the way till the end of August is a busy month for us - there are occasions, festivities, and plenty of birthdays of near and dear ones. Every year, this is the time when I get into full-fledged baking mode, and then wear myself out so badly that I retreat into baking-hibernation and emerge only during Christmas. As I prepare for Anand’s birthday, making notes on what I did, what went well, what was a disaster, and what I should aim for this year, I reminisce on the memorable birthday cakes of the past years.
Death by Chocolate
When I first came to know of Anand’s love affair with chocolates, and heard him say in his most serious tone - “I love chocolates so much that I would consider myself lucky if I could die eating chocolates.”, I immediately set out to make a rich chocolate-orange cake for his birthday... how dutiful, right? ;)
My good friend, who is an expert baker, helped me all the way through with plenty of research and guidance on finding the perfect cake recipe. And since it was a surprise “party”, we had plenty of fun baking together and coming up with elaborate schemes to keep it all within wraps! I still have the chocolate cake recipe, but we put it together from numerous online sources (incorporating all the yummy bits from each source), so I’m not sure if I can write it down here! Well, can I argue that due to our “unique” mix and match, we ended up with our own “version”? ;) Anyway, those interested please email me and I’ll send the chocolate cake recipe!
We baked two layers of intensely rich chocolate cake, and sandwiched the layers between a thick coat of orange marmalade. We then “improvised” on this orange cream-cheese frosting by adding orange liqueur and orange marmalade and came up with a frosting so delicious, it was hard to keep our fingers away from the bowl! The frosting was melting a bit in the August heat, but we still managed to liberally coat (or bathe) the cake with the frosting.
In addition to loving chocolates, Anand loves The Simpsons. If he is tempted between a bowl of chocolates and watching The Simpsons, he wouldn’t be able to pick one - it will involve intense soul searching on his part to come to a decision. So, I wanted a Simpsons’ themed cake. I made the naive mistake of asking Anand what his favorite Simpson’s character was. Now, I am a person with a head-full of random, useless questions. More often than not, it is Anand who gets bombarded with all my questions. As a self-defense mechanism, he usually tunes me out the minute my voice hits an inflection that forebodes a question. His practised answers are - I don’t know, I don’t care, Yes, No, Maybe.... all in random order. So to my aforementioned question, he first said, “I don’t know.” After my persistent bugging, he uttered the first name that came to his mind - Lisa Simpson. Back then, I was blithely unaware of this random answer, and so, I took his word very seriously and decided to ice Lisa Simpson on the cake. Icing/drawing on a frosting that threatens to melt any time is not easy, that too attempting to draw someone like Lisa, without ever practising on pen and paper, is plain silly. But that’s what I did - and ended up with a scary looking cross between Daisy Duck and Lisa Simpson! But the rich taste of the cake more than made up for the poor icing!
Lemon Cake
Anand and his family have a soft corner for intensely tart, citrus flavors. They are ardent fans of Starbucks’ Lemon Cake. So, last year, I was obsessed with trying to make the perfect Starbucks’ cake at home - to no avail, of course. But I haven’t given up - the quest continues! Anyway, I adapted from this recipe to make two layers of poppy-seed lemon cake, greased with an easy lemon icing (1/2 cup butter whipped with 3 cups of confectioners’ sugar, 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract). I changed the lemon cake recipe to add yogurt and flax seed instead of eggs. Although the cake tasted alright, it still didn’t have enough zing and flair to promote the citrus. It wasn’t “lemony” enough!
Almond-Chocolate Cake
And finally, here is one other birthday cake that I both enjoyed baking (and eating!). This cake turned out to be one of the most lightest, airiest, fluffiest cake I have ever made/eaten. It was also the first time I whipped egg whites - it always excites me to whip egg whites into frothy, fluffy, lathery goodness! And the combination of almond with chocolate was just beyond delectable! I followed every step of this recipe to make a single layer of almond cake. I then iced the cake with the Whipped Bittersweet frosting mentioned in the post. It was a very simple, very tasty, no-mess-easy-to-apply icing. And since I used low-fat cream, I felt a bit better ;). I was really glad I could serve a properly executed cake to this master-baker friend of mine :).
Now, keep your fingers crossed for a successful season of baking and Happy Birthday cake!
This post brought back SO many memories!!! Especially of that first chocolate cake and all those frantic attempts at icing it.. :). And you're definitely a better and more experienced baker than your friend ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah J, good times! :). And no, I still have a long way to go to catch up with my friend ;)
ReplyDeletethe above content you are posted is very nice.i am very grateful to read this.
ReplyDeleteYummy cake
ReplyDeleteHey, all of these birthday cakes are looking very delicious!! That chocolate one is the prettiest among all. Anyways dear, I have been looking for Mickey Mouse inspired cakes for my twin’s birthday party that is going to be held at one of the best LA venues. Could you help regarding that?
ReplyDelete