Birthday Cakes

[happylabs]

We have two birthdays this month. My son is turning 23 on Tuesday and my mom is turning 87 on Friday. My daughter and I made two cakes yesterday for a dual celebration. When I say "we" made the cakes, I mean I made icing and provided moral support. Rach is the baker and decorator. She is just learning how to make and use fondant. Wanted to share pics.

[Taz_Zoee]

Those are great!! I love the large stars (or whatever they're called) on your moms cake. And the couch potato cake is hilarious!!!
Good job!!

[Randi]

Yummm! A slice of that first one would go down well right about now! Looks real pro!

[3Catcondo]

What fun cakes!!
Great job on them....

Amy

[Cataholic]

Yummy! Great job on both cakes.

[Pawsitive Thinking]

Wow! great job on the cakes

[Lilith Cherry]

It is my husband's birthday tomorrow and I just made him a dark chocolate cake with coffee truffle and whipped cream filling - not bad in a toaster oven, LOL!

Yours look delightful and I just love the couch potato!

[happylabs]

It is my husband's birthday tomorrow and I just made him a dark chocolate cake with coffee truffle and whipped cream filling - not bad in a toaster oven, LOL!

Yours look delightful and I just love the couch potato!

OH that sounds delicious! Can I have the recipe? You are good if you can do that in a toaster oven girl.

Your hubby and my son have the same birthdate. Caleb will be 23...I feel old....

[lvpets2002]

WoW such neat cakes.. Now are you trying to tell your son he is a couch potato?? That cake is just too funny.. Good Job on both..

[happylabs]

WoW such neat cakes.. Now are you trying to tell your son he is a couch potato?? That cake is just too funny.. Good Job on both..

LOL...he isn't really a couch potato. He was when he was younger though, growing up. I was just surfing around getting ideas for a cake for my daughter to make for him and saw a similar one. Funny, when he came over Saturday he laughed and said "why am I a couch potato".

[Lilith Cherry]

Here is the recipe - sorry it is miles long but it is worth the effort!

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake with truffle and cream filling

Please note: Make the truffle filling at least one day previous to baking the cake as it must set overnight.

Cake

2 cups granulated sugar
1 & 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa (I use Van Houtens which is Dutch buy you may not find that so choose the darkest one you can find - I think Hershey’s make a dark variety)
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 cup boiling water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8-inch cake rounds or one 13×9x2-inch baking pan. (If, like me, you are using a tiny oven I use a deeper round pan and cook all at once - if you use two pans one cake is flatter as it stood too long waiting to bake.)

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the first six ingredients; mix together eggs, milk, oil and vanilla then add to the dryingredients; beat for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin); pour into prepared pan(s) and bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.


Truffle filling

I learned to make this when I worked as a dessert chef in a very posh restaurant in England but it is a Belgian recipe; delicious!

This will make a lot more than you need for the cake but you can make truffles with the rest of the mixture and store them in in your freezer for special occasions (or whenever you feel decadent!) You can flavour the truffle mixture with any liquor or flavouring you would enjoy before you put it into the fridge to set. I used very strong coffee this time but rum, brandy, peppermint will do equally well.

Ganache is simply a mixture of chocolate and cream. For the centers of these truffles, we'll make hard ganache - utilizing significantly more chocolate than cream. A ratio of about 2 to 1 of chocolate to cream by mass will yield a dense ganache appropriate for making truffles.

Whipped cream

Beat 2 cups of heavy cream with four teaspoonsful of sugar and two teaspoonsful of vanilla ot coffee essence( your choice)until it is standing in firm peaks.

If you made one large cake split it and fill the middle with the whipped cream, put the top layer on and cover with the truffle mixture ( You may need to warm it slightly to make it easier to spread over your cake. Enjoy ... but do not blame me when you weigh yourself later!
Obtain 1 pound (455 g) of dark chocolate and 1 cup (235 mL) heavy whipping cream. Be sure to select a chocolate that you enjoy the flavor of.

Cut the chocolate into pieces using a large serrated knife (like a sturdy bread knife). Cutting the chocolate into strips about 5 mm apart with the serrated knife will cause the chocolate to break into small pieces. Pieces of chocolate will fall all over the place, so I like to place the cutting board in a sheet pan to catch the chocolate shards.

After breaking down chocolate, you should have a bunch of similarly sized pieces. Small, uniformly sized pieces will make melting the chocolate evenly easier. Pour all the pieces into a medium heat proof bowl.

Bring the cup of heavy whipping cream just to a boil. (This is called scalding.)

Pour the scalded heavy cream onto the chocolate and allow it to sit for five minutes.

Stir the now melted chocolate with the cream. Chocolate and small amounts of aqueous solutions (liquids containing water) do not mix well - the chocolate clumps up in what is called seizing. However, when a substantial amount of liquid is added to the chocolate, we can make chocolate syrup. A ganache is simply a syrup of chocolate and cream that does not contain enough cream to be liquid at room temperature. Once this mixture cools, it will form a hard ganache that can be molded into shapes.

The melted ganache should be smooth in texture without lumps. If not all the chocolate has melted, you can heat the ganache gently over a hot pot of water. Stir until the chocolate melts and the ganache is smooth.

You can transfer the ganache into a smaller bowl to cool. When the ganache is solid, it may be easier for you to scoop out when working with a smaller bowl. Let the ganache cool down and chill for about an hour in the refrigerator to harden. Cold ganache is harder to scoop, but easier to form into a ball.

Using a melon baller or small ice cream scoop (such as a #70), scoop out balls of hard ganache and place on a cookie sheet lined with either parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. As the ganache gets warmer, it will have a tendency to stick to the scooping device. You might find it easier to work with after rechilling the ganache, dipping the utensil in ice water, or simply using your hands to form rough spheres.

After forming all the balls, chill the pan in the refrigerator for fifteen minutes to allow the ganache to harden back up and set into their shapes.

Scoop a little cocoa powder into a small bowl. Use a pair of spoons to pick up and roll each ganache ball in the cocoa powder to coat.


If you prefer a hard chocolate shell, then you'll need to melt and temper some chocolate (usually, a couple ounces will be more than enough to coat the truffles). Once the chocolate has been tempered, use a spatula to spread some onto the palm of one hand. Place the ball of ganache into the layer of chocolate and rotate, coating the ball. Place the truffle on a sheet of parchment paper or silicone baking mat or other nonstick surface for it to cool and set. Repeat the spreading of chocolate on the palm and coating for each truffle. The tempered chocolate will shrink slightly as it cools and clad itself to the ganache. Because of this shrinking action, if it cools too rapidly, the shell can crack, so don't immediately chill them in the refrigerator - allow the truffles to set in a cool room. The ganache should also be allowed to warm up a bit before you coat them. After the chocolate has hardened, chill for 15 minutes in the refrigerator and then remove and store at room temperature. The chocolate coated truffles should not be allowed to touch each other (touching the truffles together can mar the hard surface of the truffles) - so divide them with small paper cups or paper muffin liners.

The cocoa dusted truffles can be packed together without harm. These truffles can be stored at cool room temperature in an airtight container for at least a month - but good luck keeping them from being eaten for that long!

[happylabs]

Here is the recipe - sorry it is miles long but it is worth the effort!

Thanks! The cake recipe is the exact same cake I have been making for as long as I can remember. So moist and delicious, isn't it?

Trying to think of who has a birthday next that I can make this for. I may not be able to wait.

Thanks again!

[wombat2u2004]

Ooooooooo....very nice cakes....mmmmmmmmm.

[Lilith Cherry]

Happylabs, why not just make the truffle part and see if you have any left by the time you make the next chocolate cake...