half naked layer cake with fresh blueberries and lemon whipped cream

Last year I made this macaron baby shower cake for my friend Irene, and while I was at the baby shower I met her good friend Sharon. Almost a year later later, Sharon's friend Jennie contacted me about making a cake for her husband's surprise 50th birthday party! It's always so exciting for me to hear that friends of friends like my work, so I of course was super excited to make this cake!

Jennie and I went back and forth with several cake designs, and in the end we chose to do a rustic naked cake decorated with fresh lemon slices, inspired by a cake made by Knead To Make. To continue with the lemon theme on the inside of the cake, we decided to go with a vanilla cake filled with lemon whipped cream and fresh blueberries.

For the vanilla cake, I made two batches of my favorite vanilla batter (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!) and baked it in two 10-inch round cake pan. Once cooled, I sliced each cake in half horizontally, giving me four layers. Then I whipped up a large batch of whipped cream, which I lightly sweetened with powdered sugar, and flavored it with fresh lemon juice and lemon zest to give a nice lemony tang. Each cake layer was then filled with a heavy dose of lemon whipped cream and a layer of fresh blueberries.

Once the cake was assembled, I whipped up a batch of vanilla buttercream frosting and covered the top and sides of the cake with it.

I did my best at smoothing out the frosting while still keeping the "naked cake" effect, allowing some of the cake layers to peek out from the frosting. 

I let the cake chill in the fridge overnight, and the next morning I started prepping my fresh lemon slices. Since I wanted the prettiest, biggest lemon slices (cut from only the middle of the lemon), I ended up using seven lemons while looking for the perfect slice! I blotted each slice with paper towel, and then dusted each one with powdered sugar to help keep them looking glossy.

The frosting had set nicely by now, so I piped a bit of frosting on the back of each lemon slice to attach them to the cake.

The final touch was a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, which I secured with toothpicks.

I loved the end result! The combination of the vibrant colors, graphic shapes, and "striped" effect of the naked cake was just what we were going for!

Jennie ended up topping the cake with lots of candles and sparklers, and while I don't have a picture of it or the inside of the cake, she informed me that the cake was a hit, and even people who normally don't like cake came back for a second slice! That just made my day.

Happy Birthday, Jennie's husband! :) 

rainbow fruits layer cake with freshly whipped cream and heart cookie topper

Out of my three kids, my youngest baby is the best eater. Besides rice and pasta, he especially loves to eat all kinds of fruits. So for his second birthday this past February, I decided to make him a rainbow fruits layer cake, inspired by this rainbow fruits cookie cake I found on Pinterest!

I wanted to make a really light cake so that the fruits could stand out, so I chose to use the same cake recipe as the strawberry cream cake that I made a few years ago. It had been very light and airy, and really let the filling stand out. So I baked three 8-inch cakes, each of which I sliced in half horizontally to give me six layers (although I only ended up using five of the layers).

For the rainbow of fruits, I chose to use red strawberries, orange/yellow nectarines, green kiwis, and blue/violet blueberries. Each cake layer got a healthy dose of whipped cream, then fruit, then more whipped cream on top, before adding the next cake layer on top of that.

I ended up making A LOT of freshly whipped cream for this cake - one big batch to fill all of the layers, and one big batch to cover the entire cake. I flavored my whipped cream with vanilla extract, but I think a bit of almond extract would go nicely with the cake and fruits as well.

After I added the first three layers of fruit and whipped cream, it had gotten pretty late in the night, so I covered the whole thing with a big cake dome and placed it in the fridge overnight. Then the next morning, I got back to work caking.

That meant my last layer of whipped cream and fruits, and my final cake layer on top.

I think I could have almost left it like this, for the naked cake effect! But I decided to go ahead with my initial plan to frost the whole thing with freshly whipped cream.

So I covered the entire top and sides of the cake with whipped cream, in what I call a "messy coat".

And then smoothed the whole thing out with an offset spatula and rotating cake stand.

Since the cake turned out so tall, I wanted a really simple frosting design, so I did a quick swirl effect with an offset spatula.

Since Micah is a Valentine's baby (born the day after Valentine's Day), I added heart cookie pop as the cake topper. And to make it more festive, I sprinkled a bit of edible gold glitter stars around the perimeter of the cake.

And then it was done!

While I loved the look of the edible glitter stars, after sitting on the cake for a few hours they melted into little puddles of gold! (Not pictured). So right before the birthday dinner I sprinkled a few more stars on, just to hide the melted ones.

Here's a shot of the inside of the cake. All that fresh fruit!!!

I just wish I could have cut a cleaner slice! But with the softness of the cake, plus the height and all the soft whipped cream and chunks of fresh fruit, that combination just didn't allow me to cut a clean slice!

I really wanted the colors of the fruit to stand out more than this, but this will have to do. Maybe next time I would cut thicker slices of fruit.

Happy second birthday, my little Micah! Even though you are a toddler now, you will always be my baby!

naked funfetti layer cake

My good friend Helen asked me to make two cakes for her daughter's birthday this year - one was a Qiaohu tiger cake for her preschool class, and then second was for her birthday party! For the second cake, she had a specific look in mind. She wanted a naked layer cake, and she wanted it to look like Momofuku Milk Bar's birthday cake, except with my own vanilla cake recipe, filled with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, and minus the birthday cake crumbles. So cute!

For the funfetti cake I used the vanilla cake recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book, and folded in 2/3 cup of rainbow sprinkles at the end. (I also sprinkled on a few on top before baking, for good measure). I made two batches of cake batter to give me four 8-inch cake layers, although I only ended up using three of the layers.

I normally split my cake layers horizontally into two, but this time I wanted thicker layers - since it was going to be a naked cake and was not going to have frosting on the outside, I wanted the cake layers to really stand out. So I just cut the tops off of each layer, and then cut off the sides of the cake to expose the funfetti sprinkles inside. (Otherwise, you would just see brown cake layers with drippy funfetti - see this post to get an idea of what it looks like without the sides cut off).

I filled each funfetti cake layer with a good dose of freshly whipped cream and sliced fresh strawberries, and then used an offset spatula to go around the cake and smooth out the filling layers.

After I stacked and filled all three layers, I covered the top with cream cheese frosting, and used an offset spatula to create a rustic swirly design on the top of the cake.

Since Helen was going to have 60 people at the party, I also baked up a second cake, this time covered in frosting and with the number "2" outlined in sprinkles.

At the party, we added two long pink candles for the birthday girl to blow out.

Here's a shot of the inside of the cake, and also the Pink Panther cookies and rainbow cookies that I made for the party as well! (Posts to come for those cookies!)

Hope you enjoyed your cake and cookies, sweet Marni! You are TOO CUTE!