Friday, August 2, 2013

Birthday CakeS



Things I did on July 20:

  • Turned 44 (not ashamed to admit my age). 
  • Made my own birthday cakeS (it's okay) (no, really, I WANTED to) (in fact, I might do it every year from now on).
I made this one and this one. I frosted the Angel Food with this buttercream recipe (which I LOVE) and added to it a little more than a cup of chopped fresh cherries and about 1/2 tsp cherry extract.

The Campfire Delight I made because I thought the marshmallow filling sounded incredible. Which it is. I was also really surprised and pleased with the cake. It stayed moist, even though it spent a couple of days in my fridge waiting to be finished. And it didn't sink. It didn't puff up either, which I guess is something I aspire to because then I know I could lop off the top and have completely even layers. But let's face it--I will probably never have perfectly even layers. Just not in my wheel-house apparently.


I'm also just now noticing that Sweetpolita only used the marshmallow filling for three of the filling layers, instead of all 5 like I did. That would also explain the amount of chocolate frosting I had leftover. Will fix that NEXT TIME. I will also weigh my fillings so I know I'm using the same amount between each layer because (look above again) that's pretty uneven. Nevertheless, this was unbelievably delicious. Rich, but not too rich. Textured. The toasted marshmallows left some crunchy bits in the filling that I thought were really lovely. Complex. The malted chocolate frosting is SO GOOD. So good. mr. says it's the best cake I've ever made and he's not even much of a marshmallow fan. So, yes, there will be a NEXT TIME.


The Angel Food cake I made because it was always my cake of choice when I was a kid. With cherry frosting. The last time I made Angel Food it didn't turn out as nicely as I'd hoped. So, when a food blogger who lives in my area code posted a recipe I thought maybe she had found the secret to Angel Food At Altitude, and I figured her recipe would be worth trying. It was. See? 


Just right. Light and fluffy. Not spongy in that bouncy way that Angel Food cake sometimes is. And with the cherry frosting it tasted pretty much exactly like the cake from my childhood. As it turns out though, my tastes have changed. The false and oversweet cherry flavor from the extract was...not pleasant. Somehow not the kind of cherry flavor that I wanted to taste. It was still a delicious combination of cake and frosting, but probably not one I'll make again. The cherry buttercream, however, THAT I know I can improve on and use in other ways. I'm going to start by making my own cherry extract. 

This picture contains some of my favorite things in the world. More on that in another post.

TGIP Rating: Campfire Delight Cake--KEEPER. Next time I'll pay attention and do the fillings right.
Angel Food Cake--KEEPER. It's perfect.
Cherry Buttercream--TO BE IMPROVED. I know just how.

Next up: More cherries. This time in a more rustic but still summery application. Sweet Cherry and Hazelnut Galette.

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