I doctored a boxed white cake mix: replace the oil with melted butter, add an extra egg, and a dash of vanilla. I just read about a different technique I've never heard before, which is to lightly sprinkle sugar on top of the batter before you put it in the oven, they say it helps the cakes to not dome up too much - ok, I'll try it. Bake according to directions, I tend to pull them out a couple minutes before the suggested time. Run a knife around the edges, flip the cakes onto a cooling rack but leave the pans over top of them until they are totally cool. I feel like this helps keep them moist. Yep, the sugar on top of batter worked - cakes are pretty flat so I won't have to trim them down, yay! I poorly divided up the batter and got one cake bigger than the other (usually I measure better) so I cut the bigger one in half - it's now a 3 layer cake. If you get even layers it'd be fine to just do 2 layers - although more layers means more filling...just sayin'...
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| I tried a new thing - lightly sprinkle sugar on top of the batter before baking to help keep them from doming too much. |
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| run a knife around the edges, flip over onto cooling rack - leave the pans on top of cakes until completely cool. |
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| oops, didn't measure batter very good, got uneven layers so I cut the taller one in half - this is now a 3 layer cake. |
Now the really delicious part - filling and frosting!
-Filling is seedless raspberry jam and very lightly sweetened fresh whipped cream. I added a little scoop of the buttercream to the whipped cream but that made it break down a little, next time I will just do stiffly whipped cream.
-Raspberry Buttercream Frosting: Beat in a mixer 1cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), approx. 5 cups powdered sugar, 1 Tablespoon vanilla, 5 Tablespoons heavy cream for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in a couple tablespoons of the seedless raspberry jam, then add more cream or powdered sugar to make it the right spreading consistency.
To assemble:
Put down one layer on a cake plate or whatever you are serving it on, brush with 2 Tablespoons seedless raspberry jam. To help keep the whipped cream from squishing out I piped a circle of buttercream around the top edge of the layer (over the jam) and filled with whipped cream. Top with another cake layer; repeat brushing jam, making a frosting dam, and filling with whipped cream. Put the last layer on top, cut side down. Frost the entire cake with a thin crumb coat (essentially frost the whole cake with thinned down buttercream to make the cake have a smooth base and cover up loose crumbs), put in freezer for a few minutes to set up. To finish, I frosted the sides pretty smooth (I didn't do it super perfect) and made large swirly flowers with a large 1M frosting tip. It's a very easy thing to do - just hold the tip 90' (straight down) to the top of the cake and starting in the center of each flower squeeze out frosting while directing the tip in a spiral. It sort of looks like a wedding cake more than a birthday cake haha, but it's spring and for a womans birthday so I think it's fine. You can frost this using whatever technique you want, just smooth it on or swirl it with a spoon - it tastes so good it doesn't really matter if there are swirly flowers on top!
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| brush bottom 2 layers with jam, pipe an edge of buttercream on the top edge to help keep the whipped cream from squishing out. Don't overfill with the whipped cream. |
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| frost entire cake with a crumb coat, chill for a few minutes to set up. |
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| using a 1M tip swirl spirals of frosting on top to look like flowers. |
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| I tied balloons onto skewers to stick in the top of the birthday cake for decoration (and to help it look less like a wedding cake!). I made this for a friend who is having a dinner party so didn't want to stick the balloons in yet. |
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| I made a baby tester cake from the batter before baking - spoon out a little bit into a greased ramekin and bake along side the 9" cake layers. That way I could taste what this cake will be like! |
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