camouflage inspired polka dot birthday cake

I usually make my husband some sort of camouflage inspired cake for his birthday, and last year was no exception! I had seen a fondant polka dot cake on Sweet and Saucy's instagram account, and I thought it would be so cute in camouflage colors, but with the polka dots done with frosting instead of fondant!

I baked up four 6-inch layers of fluffy chiffon cake, which I let cool while I prepared the filling. My husband is from Hawaii and has fond memories of eating freshly picked lychee from his grandmother's tree, so I decided to make him a cake with lychee filling. Unfortunately, fresh lychee is hard to find over here, so I had to use canned lychee, which I let drain over a strainer while I whipped up some fresh whipped cream. Then I chopped up the lychee into little pieces.

Once all the components were ready, I assembled the cake. I filled each layer of chiffon cake with freshly whipped cream, which I smoothed out with a spatula, then chopped lychee, and then more whipped cream on top before adding the next cake layer.

For the frosting, I whipped up a quick batch of cream cheese buttercream, and frosted the top and sides of the cake with it. (I typically frost my cakes with a quick crumb coat, let it set in the fridge for 30 minutes, and then frost it with a final coat, with I smooth out with an offset spatula).

Then it was time to pipe my polka dots! I divided the remaining frosting into four small bowls and colored them black, brown, dark green, and light green. Then I used disposable pastry bags fitted with medium round tips, and started randomly piping different colored blobs of polka dots.

While it started out looking really ugly, I kept piping polka dots and eventually I wound up with a kinda cute cake!

I still think I like the petaled camo cake the best though! ;)

Stay tuned to see how this year's cake will turn out!

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!
 

mickey mouse face birthday cake

In addition to the kids Mickey Mouse cake with handmade fondant topper for Marni's 2nd birthday party, I also made this 10-inch cake with Micky's face piped on top! This time we decided on a coffee chiffon cake, since it would be for the adults!

Normally I would bake two 10-inch cakes and then cut them in half horizontally to create four layers of cake, but this time I was making chiffon cake, which is really light and airy and too delicate to cut in half horizontally for assembling. So instead I baked four separate not-as-tall cakes, which I then filled with espresso whipped cream.

I decided to also cover the cake with whipped cream as well, since I didn't think the chiffon cake could handle a heavy dose of buttercream.

After smoothing out the top and sides of the cake, I piped a simple beaded border around the top of the cake.

Then I was ready to pipe Mickey's face on top! I started by using a toothpick to outline Mickey's details, and then went back with black frosting and a small round tip to pipe over the outline. I also filled in his nose, eyeballs, and mouth with the black frosting and the same small round tip.

Then I used a star tip to fill in the rest of Mickey's details - black frosting for his ears and head, ivory frosting for his face, white frosting for the whites of his eyes, and red for his tongue.

And then it was done! Simple, clean, and cute - just the kind of cake I love to make!

I thought the two cakes looked great together on the cake table, and with the homemade oreos as well! And Helen did such a good job with the decorations!

Funny story, when it was time to cut the cake, Helen and I realized that neither of us had brought a cake knife!!! Or any knives for that matter, not even plastic knives! So (to my horror) I ended up cutting the cakes with wooden coffee stirrers. But while the slices were super messy, people still asked for seconding helpings, so (I think) at least it tasted great! And that makes me happy!

Happy birthday, Marni!

ombre ruffle coffee and cream cake

For my mom's birthday every year, I typically make some sort of coffee flavored cake, since I know that she loves coffee flavored desserts! In the past I've made her a Hello Kitty tiramisu cake, a mocha pocky layer cake, and a tiramisu layer cake. So this year I decided to continue the tradition by making her a coffee chiffon layer cake! (Boy, have I come a long way since my first coffee chiffon cake a few years ago!)

So I baked up three layers of coffee chiffon cake, and filled them with espresso-tinted whipped cream.

Since I wanted to do an ombre effect with piped ruffles along the sides of the cake, I covered the top with regular whipped cream, and the sides with espresso whipped cream. Then using a Wilton #104 petal tip, I piped three rows of ruffles with the espresso whipped cream, and then piped three rows with chocolate whipped cream (I basically just folded in melted and cooled bittersweet chocolate).

To finish it off, I sprinkled a few gold and silver dragees and white sugar pearls along the perimeter of the cake.

I think I could have even gone with a fourth layer of cake, just to give the final cake more height. But I still thought it looked cute.

Here's a quick shot I took (with my camera phone) of the inside of the cake. Love the striped look of the layers!

Happy Happy Birthday, Mom! Hope you enjoyed the cake and dinner party! :)

matcha green tea rose cake with whipped cream frosting

Two years ago I made my coworker Kim this matcha green tea Hello Kitty tiramisu cake (I didn't have a chance to make her a cake last year, since I was on maternity leave with my third baby at the time!), and since I know she loves anything green tea, I decided to make her another green tea cake this year!

This time I decided on a green tea chiffon cake that I've made in the past (see here and here), except that I wanted to decorate it with piped roses. This is one of my favorite ways to frost cakes, and I've done it many times (purple, purple ombre, white red velvet cheesecake, orange pumpkin spice, pink ombre), but the orirginal tutorial can be found here at I Am Baker. :)

For the chiffon cake, I began by separating my eggs and whipping the egg whites until stiff peaks formed.

Then in a separate bowl, I mixed the egg yolks, oil, and sugar, before adding cake flour, matcha green tea powder, baking powder, and salt.

Finally I gently folded in my whipped egg whites, for a fluffy green tea batter. Then I divided the batter between two 8-inch pans (ungreased, and simply lined with parchment paper).

I baked them at 350F for 20 minutes, and let them cool (with the pans upside down, in order to help keep the volume of the chiffon cake).

While they were cooling, I made a batch of freshly whipped cream, lightly sweetened with confectioner's sugar, and then added a paste of green tea powder mixed with hot water. I used this to fill and frost my cooled cake layers.

After smoothing out the top and sides of the cake with an offset spatula, I was ready to pipe my roses using a Wilton 1M tip.

I had intended on piping roses on the top of the cake as well, but I ran out of the whipped cream mixture! So roses on only the sides would have to do!

I brought the cake to work the next day, and we scheduled a "fake meeting" so that we could surprise Kim with the birthday cake!

Happy Birthday, Kim! Hope you enjoyed the cake!

coffee chiffon charlotte with homemade lady fingers

I've been dying to make a charlotte cake for some time now, especially after being fueled by pictures like this and this.  And this one too.  So when my birthday recently arrived, I decided to make my own cake (is it weird to make your own birthday cake?).

Of course I had to make my own ladyfingers from scratch.  My first batch looked horrible though (I won't be posting pictures of them or including a link to that recipe) - the batter was way too thin and the ladyfingers came out very flat and rectangle-shaped.  (Luckily, my kids loved them - they ate most of those and they didn't go to waste!)  So I made a second batch using a different recipe, which came out much better.

I love anything and everything coffee-flavored, so I decided to fill my charlotte with alternating layers of coffee chiffon cake and espresso mousse.  (I used the same recipe that I used for coffee chiffon cake and coffee chiffon mini cupcakes).

After lining the perimeter of a cake ring with my homemade ladyfingers, I sliced my coffee chiffon cake in half horizontally, and used half of the cake as the bottom layer to my charlotte.  Then I topped it with a layer of espresso mousse (which was just heavy whipping cream, whipped with confectioner's sugar, espresso powder, and gelatin which had been bloomed).  Next came the other half of the sliced cake, and then another layer of the mousse.

After dusting the top with cocoa powder, I decorated the cake with fresh raspberries.  Then I let it chill in the fridge for a few hours before unmolding it and adding the finishing touch - a nice red ribbon tied around the outside.

For some reason, I didn't like the look of the wide satin ribbon - it seemd to overpower the look of the cake.  So I changed it to thinner gauzy ribbon instead.

The resulting cake was light and airy.  It had just the perfect amount of coffee flavor.  And I actually ended up with three birthday cakes that day!  My best friend Sue made me a decadent and moist chocolate cake (thank you, Sue!), and my Mom bought me a mocha cake from an Asian bakery (thanks Mom!).  I guess it's no secret that I love cake!!!