coffee chiffon cake with dark chocolate sail sculpture

I love to make birthday cakes for my friends, and at one point last year I became obsessed with making chocolate sculptures to decorate my birthday cakes with! I had seen it all over Instagram and fell in love with the way they added such artistry to cakes, in such a free-form and abstract way. 

The first of many chocolate sculpture cakes that I ended up making throughout the year, this one was for my friend Hsing, who I met at work years and years ago. At the time we were the only females on our team, and although we are no longer at the same company, we still make it a point to meet for lunches several times throughout the year.

I typically make chiffon cakes for Hsing, since she she likes the type of light and airy cake that you can commonly find at Asian bakeries. This time I decided to make a coffee chiffon cake, filled and frosted with espresso whipped cream.

I typically do a crumb coat of frosting, then let it chill in the fridge for at least a half our, before adding a second coat of frosting and smoothing it out completely with an offset spatula.

While the assembled and frosted cake chilled in the fridge, I got started on making the topper. In a double boiler, I melted dark chocolate with a bit of coconut oil, and then poured it out onto a baking sheet lined with a silicone liner. Then I positioned the silicone liner insde of a glass bowl, using binder clips to secure it in a way that would provide an interesting shape to the chocolate.

Once the chocolate had cooled, I removed the binder clips and carefully removed the silicone liner, giving me a chocolate sculpture!

I secured it to the top of the cake with a bit of the espresso whipped cream, and then it was done!

I love the simplicity of this type of decorative cake topper, plus it's edible!

Hope you had a Happy Birthday, Hsing!

succulent floral wreath cake

In continuing my obsession with making wreath cakes, I made a succulent version for my best friend Sue's birthday last March. And because when we were in high school, our favorite cake was always a mocha cake that my mom used to get for me, I decided to make her another coffee chiffon cake!

I started by baking my coffee chiffon in four 6-inch cake pans, and once they were cooled I filled them with espresso whipped cream. Then I covered the tops and sides of the cake with (non-espresso) whipped cream.

After smoothing it out with an offset spatula, I piped a ring on the top of the cake, as a way to prop up my pre-made buttercream succulent flowers. (You can read more on how I pipe my buttercream flowers here!)

Then I added the succulent flowers one by one, and filled in the gaps by piping buttercream leaves.

I thought it turned out rather pretty! Especially since I love succulents!

We celebrated her birthday by going out for hot pot, which was so much fun and so delicious!

Happy Birthday Sue!




Stay tuned to see what I ended up making for her this year!

pink and white floral wreath cake

It's been a while since my last post! Things have been super busy with work, and then summer with the kids at home, and then vacation, and then after vacation watching the kids while I worked from home until school started ... and now the kids are back in school! It's an exciting year because my oldest started middle school! And my youngest started Kindergarten! Time sure does fly by fast!

Anyhow, back to this cake! I made this for my friend Kim, for her birthday last March, at at time when I was absolutely obsessed with floral wreath cakes! (You'll see several more in the next few upcoming posts!) This one happened to be a coffee chiffon cake, filled with espresso whipped cream, and covered with vanilla whipped cream.

The coffee chiffon layers were baked in three 6-inch round cake pans. Usually I bake two cakes and then slice the in half horizontally to give me four layers, but since chiffon cake is so delicate, I find that they tend to collapse when sliced in half horizontally, so I do three uncut cake layers instead.

After smoothing out my whipped cream frosting as best as I could, I was ready to decorate with buttercream flowers. Unlike this mother's day floral wreath cake, where I piped rosette flowers directly onto the cake, I used this method instead, where I piped my buttercream flowers in advance using a flower nail and pieces of waxed paper. The buttercream flowers are then frozen until I'm ready to use them!

Rather than just adding my pre-piped buttercream flowers directly onto the top of the cake, I first piped a ring of whipped cream dollops on the top, so that I could nestle my flowers easily and position, also allowing them to stay on better. Then I just peeled each flower off of the waxed paper, and placed them in a wreath around the cake.

Once I was happy with my flower placement, I finished it off by piping green buttercream leaves in between and around the flowers.

I love this technique!

This technique allows you to use the best of all the dozens of piped buttercream flowers, and if you work quickly enough you can even move the flowers around before they start to melt.

I especially love the view from the top of the cake, where you can see the flowers in wreath formation.

Happy Birthday, Kim! Hope you enjoyed your cake!

Stay tuned to see more wreath cakes in the next few posts!

coffee chiffon rose cake

It's my mom's birthday next week, and I'll probably be making her another coffee chiffon cake! The past few years I've been making her some form of coffee-flavored cake, so I think I'll continue the tradition this year as well!

This was the cake that I made for her last year - light and fluffy coffee chiffon cake, filled with espresso whipped cream. I started by baking up three 8-inch layers of coffee chiffon, which I filled with freshly whipped cream that was flavored with an espresso paste (espresso powder mixed with a few tablespoons of hot water).

After the layers were filled, I covered the top and sides with the espresso whipped cream, smoothing it out with an offset spatula.

Then came the fun part - decorating it! I've done several piped rose cakes in the past, a method first pioneered by the talented I Am Baker, and since I had yet to make one for my mom, I thought this would be the perfect time.

The technique is so simple, yet comes out so pretty! I filled a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip, and piped large rosettes around the sides of the cake. Then I piped large rosettes on the top of the cake, starting from the outside, until the entire top was filled.

There were still some open spots afterwards, so I just used the same large star tip to fill the gaps in. And then it was done! So easy!

This is still one of my favorite ways to decorate a cake, not only because it's fast and easy, but also because the effect is always so pretty.

 

Stay tuned to see how this years cake will turn out!

 

 Happy Birthday, Mom!