Birthday Cake!

I have managed to become the birthday cake person with the Boy's family, I'm not sure how but I have.  Two years ago a cupcake or cookies was all I could manage and now I'm pulling off multi-layer cakes, it's beyond stressful but has it's moments where it's fun.

A few months ago I bookmarked I recipe I came too via my fave food porn site, Tastespotting.  It was a gorgeous photo of a special looking cake from Sweetopolita, it immediately went into the file of things that I always mean to make and rarely find the time to get to.  When I was asked to make a birthday cake for the Easter potluck dessert, I knew that this was just thing.  Special enough for the person whose birthday it was, just a bit festive, with the strawberry layers for Easter, had chocolate for the birthday boy and would utilize some of my homemade jams.

German Chocolate Cake

As many of you know, this past weekend we had some house guests here in the T dot.  My sis surprised her boyfriend, DD, with a trip to Toronto for the weekend.  Now quite a few people I spoke with as the day approached asked, "does he WANT to come to Toronto?"  Because let's be honest Toronto in February is not the most appealing place, it's generally grey and cold and the snow is all dirty and gross.   Luckily though he had been wanting to come up here, nether he nor my sis have ever been to Toronto or Canada for that matter AND a good friend of DD's from New Zealand just moved up here.  Seeing a new place and old friends makes for a good surprise trip as far as I'm concerned and luckily DD agreed.  When she got home from work on Thursday night she handed him a card telling him to pack a bag and plan for cold weather.   Then at the airport she handed him his passport as they got into the Virgin America international line to check-in.  He was so confused and thrown by the surprise, but also excited.

So why am I telling you all of this?  What does any of this have to do with why you visit my little blog?  Well, my tag line is "food made with love for the people I love" and a birthday can't sneak by without me making a cake, cupcakes or pie. A few weeks ago as my sis was planning the trip I asked about Dave's favorite cake.  She insisted that I didn't need to do anything, but you can't stay at my house on your birthday and not get a homemade treat and I go out of my way to make sure it's your fave.  She told me that German Chocolate is his favorite.  German Chocolate Cake has never been my favorite, but I was pretty excited to make since I've never made it before and I figured that making it might change my thoughts on it. And once I found an amazing sounding recipe on David Lebovitz's site. I knew this was the one I had to make, so as last Thursday rolled around I set to work on all of the components.

Strawberry Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

Strawberry Rhubarb is one of my favorite pie flavors. I've always loved it and yet when rhubarb season came around this year I decided I wanted to try something different. I decided on an upside down cake, because I think they are perfect for warmer weather because they aren't very time intensive and you get a deliciously perfect cake all in one step and one pan. Also I think I ever saw a strawberry rhubarb upside-down cake, making it just a bit different. This cake utilized the fruit I got from Mama Earth, my organic veggie delivery which I think made the flavors all the better!

Strawberry Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
Makes 1 8" cake

1 1/2 cups of rhubarb - cut into 1/4" pieces
1/2 cup of strawberries - sliced
2 Tbsp demera sugar
7 Tbsp unsalted butter - separated and at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg at room temperature
1 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.2 tsp coarse salt
1/2 cup buttermilk - at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Wash a cut rhubarb and strawberries, keep them in separate bowls. Using 1 Tbsp of butter butter an 8" nonstick round cake pan. Sprinkle the bottom with demera sugar. Place strawberry slices in a nice pattern on the sugar leaving room between each slice for the rhubarb to show. Evenly spread the rhubarb on top of the strawberries, making sure to fill and holes. It's ok if the rhubarb is on top of some strawberries. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together remaining 6 Tbsps of butter and granulated sugar. Once combined and fluffy mix in egg. In a medium bowl mix together dry ingredients and in a small bowl mix together the buttermilk and vanilla. Add dry and wet ingredients into butter mixture in three additions, starting and ending with the dry. Mix batter until just combined
3. Pour batter into cake pan, carefully spreading evenly. Place into heated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool completey before flipping out of the pan onto a plate.

I am so very happy with how this cake turned out. The cake itself was moist, with a nice crumb and the sweet tart fruit topping went perfectly. I brought my first attempt at this cake to the office, because I thought it was shy on fruit and even though some people confirmed that they all said the flavors were great, the recipe here is adjusted for more fruit. I really enjoyed this cake and look forward to trying it with many different fruits this summer.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my guest post on Domestic Divas, it's a delicious and easy summer dessert. Enjoy!

A Sweet for My Sweetie

With Valentine's Day quickly approaching I thought it was time to make something inspired by the day to help give you, my dear readers, some inspiration for your own Valentine's Day treats. For me Valentine's Day is about making or doing something for my sweetie that I wouldn't normally. Now if we are talking about food and all things culinary, that translates to a cake. I like cake, but don't LOVE it the way I do other sweets, most specifically pies, thus I rarely make cake. Sure, I make cupcakes occasionally but usually for work or some event I'm hosting or attending, but not much besides that. This past weekend I decided to make a two-layer cake. I figured if I was going to tackle this, I might as well do it right. And so my White Chocolate Berry Cake was born.



White Chocolate Berry Cake

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
5 oz good quality white chocolate
1 Tbsp butter (this is the amount I used, on the recipe card it says butter the size of the walnut)
2 tsps salt
2 tsps vanilla
2 cups boiling water
2 cups sliced strawberries (or berry of your choosing)
1/2 cup Forest Berry jam (or any type of mixed berry jam)
Meringue icing (recipe below)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Over a double boiler melt the white chocolate and butter. Once melted remove from heat and add in all other ingredients. Mix until just combined.

2. Butter and flour 2 round 8 inch cake pans. Bake in preheated oven for 25-35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

3. Let cool completely before icing. Even out the tops of each cake so they will rest flat on either side. Be sure to eat what you cut off just to make sure the cake is tasty :).

4. Place bottom layer on serving plate. Spread the jam on the bottom layer. On top of the jam, place a nice layer of strawberries. Then carefully spread a generous layer of icing. Carefully place the second layer on top and ice the entire cake. Decorating the tops and sided with sliced strawberries.

Meringue Icing

1 cup granulated sugar
2 egg whites
½ cup boiling water
¼ tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla

1. Beat first 4 ingredients together in a small mixing bowl for 5-8 minutes. Add vanilla when mixture begins to thicken. Beat until stiff peaks form.

First off I am so happy with how this turned out. For my first multilayer cake I think it's quite pretty and with the red and white it's the perfect Valentine. We sampled it soon after it was assembled and the flavors worked really well together too. Overall it was a winner, which is good since the boy claimed he wasn't a fan of white chocolate. Now to be honest I'm not either. But rather than do a dark chocolate Valentine's Day treat I wanted to a try something different with the white. Boy was it worth it! You got the nice buttery flavor of white chocolate without it being sicky sweet. This is a dense cake that was offset nicely by the light and fluffy icing and fresh berries. The berry jam upped the tasty berry flavor and was a last minute addition as I was assembling the cake.

My only complaint is that the icing doesn't hold up for a long period of time. I assembled and tasted it in the afternoon and after dinner it just didn't look as good. So be sure to assemble this close to when you plan on serving. I think fresh whipped cream would also go very well and may hold up a bit better. Enjoy!