The Birthday Cakes

My little girl turned two last month and she had two parties and three cakes and a bunch of cupcakes!! Anushka loves farm animals and she has been making their sounds forever, so I was pretty set on having a farm themed cake. Ofcourse I changed the design a million times and the cake was nothing like what I had planned. But I loved the way it turned out!

I had so much fun making the animals, the cupcake toppers and all the other tiny details. But I have to say this, if you plan to do something like this, do it well in advance, as they take a long time or you'll end up going crazy trying to get it done on time! The cake was my favorite chocolate cake with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and it was awesome! The flavors were amazing and I love swiss buttercream, I just cannot praise it enough! The cupcakes were vanilla with the same frosting and decorated with the animal cupcake toppers. They were super fun to make.

The second party was a last moment decision and so were the cakes. With absolutely no design in mind I just made a lot of flowers the previous day using all the cutters I could find and a hello kitty figurine for the small eggless cake. The hello kitty cake was an eggless chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. The cake did turn out great, but I found the frosting to be too sweet, but there's not much choice if you want to go eggless!

The big flower cake was a neopolitan cake, one I've been wanting to bake for a long time. It was a huge 10" cake, so you can imagine the work involved, especially since I don't have a stand mixer. I baked the cakes in advance and they all turned out great. I honestly had no idea how much frosting I would be needing and making swiss buttercream is not easy, you have to whip and whip endlessly (it's totally worth the effort though). So after two batches I had no energy or time left. I filled the cakes but I did not have enough to frost it completely, so I used regular vanilla buttercream. I wish I hadn't!! Again I found it too sweet, and I was honestly disappointed with the big cake. I'll definitely be making this one again, with my favorite buttercream. 

Here are the the recipes I used..

Chocolate Cake : Recipe here.

Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

(Recipe from here)

Ingredients: 

2 egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

12 tbs butter, softened but cool

1/2 tsp vanilla
4 oz strawberries, rinsed, hulled and pureed

                   

     

Method:

Make sure your bowl, whisk and all other tools you use to make the meringue are completely free of any grease. Take the egg whites and sugar in a big metal bowl and place the bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk gently but constantly until the mixture reaches a temperature of 140 degrees F on a candy thermometer, or until the egg whites are hot and you cannot feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers. 

Remove from heat and whip the hot mixture, until it turns thick and glossy and white and and about doubles in volume. The bowl will be neutral and not hot at this point.

Then add the butter, a few tablespoons at a time, beating continuously until it has a silky smooth texture. The mixture may look curdled at some time, but just keep mixing and it will come together soon!
Mix in the vanilla and the strawberry puree and whip till smooth and creamy. It may look curdled again, but will come together soon.

Eggless Chocolate Cake : Recipe here.

Classic Vanilla Buttercream

Recipe from here

Ingredients:

1 cup/ 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but not melted

3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbs vanilla extract

upto 4 tbs milk or heavy cream

Method:

Beat butter on medium speed for for a few minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add 3 cups of sifted confectioners sugar. Once the sugar has been incorporated increase the speed to medium and add the salt, vanilla and 2 tbs milk/ cream. Beat for 3 minutes. If you want a more stiff frosting add the remaining sugar. For a thinner consistency add the remaining milk/ cream. Frost as desired.