An Old Fashioned Birthday Cake

My amazing hubby, Matt, turns 35 years old today! He's a hard working father, a caring husband and a wonderful best friend. And he makes mean cocktails. 

Some nights he will be working on making his own bitters and syrups, while I bake, and it's somehow become our "thing". We are having so much fun hanging out in the kitchen together.

So, for his birthday cake I wanted to surprise him by making a cake that resembles an Old Fashioned cocktail. A bourbon butter cake with an orange buttercream. I decorated this naked cake with fresh flowers, by inserting the stems (which I had first covered with florist tape) into straws, and then putting the straws in the cake. Hey, men deserve flowers too!

Happy Birthday, my love!

Hawaiian Birthday Cake

I recently had the great honor of making a surprise birthday cake for the Swedish Ambassador's Chef, Frida, whom I've become friends with through the Swedish community here. This is an incredibly talented woman who, before the age of 30, had already served her amazing dishes to both royalty and celebrities. No pressure, Eve!

Frida has always wanted to go to Hawaii, so her closest friends had planned a surprise Hawaii themed birthday party at Archipelago, a cool new tiki bar here in D.C. I was asked to make a cake to go with the theme, and the result was this coconut cake with a coconut and pineapple filling.

I had so much fun working with the design on this one, which included a few new "firsts" for me. The bottom tier is hand painted palm leaves on fondant. I used edible dusts that I mixed with vodka to create a watercolor consistency, and it definitely gave me an itch to try to paint more cakes. The second tier is a fondant cake that has been covered with confetti sprinkles, and then painted with a mixture of gold dust and vodka using a painting brush. Now, before you think "that's one boozy cake!", I should let you know that the alcohol evaporates and leaves no taste at all.

The Hibiscus flowers are made out of gum paste, which is a sturdier, more elastic and faster drying version of fondant. I  got a book by Alan Dunn, called Sugar Flower Skills, that has detailed step-by-step instructions. It is a little intimidating at first, but I can't wait to learn more!

Once again, Happy 30th Birthday, Frida!

Strawberry Champagne Birthday Cake

Yesterday was my birthday, and just as everyone suspected, I couldn't stay away from the kitchen! I know, who makes their own birthday cake, right?!

There has been a lot of cakes in the making recently, so I wanted keep it rustic and simple, while trying some new flavors (read: not spend hours working with fondant). I love the idea of a so called naked cake, where you cover the cake with a very thin layer of buttercream, but let the cake underneath show through. It has a romantic look to it, and was perfect for this Champagne cake with a strawberry buttercream.

This cake actually tastes like Champagne. It uses two whole cups in the batter, but it doesn't turn out boozy. That Champagne taste, together with fresh strawberries made into a syrup, is a perfect combination, and would make a great New Years Eve cake. 

If you are using real flowers as cake decorations, there are small white plastic tubes, flower cake spikes, you can use. You simply put the flower stem in the tube and stick it on the cake without the stem actually touching the cake. It's an easy and cheap way to make a cake look beautiful, without having to spend hours making sugar flowers that no one will eat anyway. Well, except that one three year old who eats anything.

This cake was a great way to start off my 31st year. Happy birthday to me!

Champagne Cake

by 10th Kitchen

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

6 egg whites

2 cups champagne

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees (175C). Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.
2. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar 3-5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add extract and beat in egg whites one at a time.
3. Beat in flour mixture and champagne in three alternating additions, starting and ending with flour to prevent curdling.  
4. Pour batter into pans and bake 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (Start checking cake for doneness around the 30-minute mark, and remove from oven as soon as the toothpick comes out clean.) Let cool for a few minutes, then invert onto wire rack to cool fully before frosting.

Strawberry syrup

1 cup strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
(1 tbsp of cornstarch if needed)

Bring the strawberries and sugar to a boil. Mash the strawberries with a fork and let simmer until tick. If you like it to be thicker, mix a little water with a tbsp of corn starch. Add to the strawberries and remove from heat when it has thickened.

For the buttercream, I use this vanilla buttercream and simply add the strawberry syrup.



Champagnetårta
från 10th Kitchen

375 g mjöl
3 tsk bakpulver
1/2 tsk salt
226 g osaltat smör
400 g socker
1 tsk vaniljextrakt
6 äggvitor
473 ml champagne