- Hey guys,
so I grew up in a home that favored homemade birthday cakes.
It's something my parents did for us as kids growing up
and I have such fond memories of these cakes.
They were never perfect,
always a little bit lopsided
but they were made with tons of love
and that's what made them really fun.
So for this episode,
I've partnered with the Inspired Home website,
where I'm a contributor,
to show you some of my favorite products
that will make homemade birthday cake baking a snap.
And after this video is done,
you can head to their website
and read my blog posts about homemade birthday cakes
and there you will see me as a child
with some of these very funny cakes.
I have to say,
my parents really had a thing for jelly beans,
go figure,
my birthday's in January.
Where they were getting the jelly beans
but that's what they chose to decorate with.
I'll leave you a link in the description to the blog post,
as well as all the products that I'm using here today.
Okay, so let me show you how to make
my perfectly imperfect birthday cake.
Now to make a birthday cake that's really impressive,
I say you gotta go three layers.
There's something about a three layer birthday cake
that just says celebration.
So we are gonna start with three nine inch cake pans.
I really like these pans by T-fal
because they have a nice nonstick surface
and they're also pretty affordable.
They'll also last the test of time.
So if you're into homemade birthday cakes,
you'll be able to use these for years to come.
And because the cake that we are going to make is
a rich dark chocolate cake,
it is pretty moist and fudgey.
So I do take some added insurance
and just spray them with some baking spray.
And then go in with a pastry brush
and make sure that, that spray is well distributed.
That way it's just a little added insurance.
Then in a large bowl we are going to add two ounces
of bittersweet chocolate.
You can go ahead and break it up,
just to make sure that it'll melt easily.
You'll see why in a minute.
And into that we're gonna add one cup
of unsweetened cocoa powder.
And into that we're gonna add one cup of hot boiling water.
And we want to do this in order to intensify all of that
chocolate flavor coming from the cocoa powder.
It'll also help melt the chocolate underneath.
And you'll see you'll have a really beautiful smooth finish.
And then we're gonna add two and one quarters cup of sugar.
And then we're gonna add one cup of vegetable oil.
Now, with the vegetable oil,
you want to be careful
and not dump the whole thing in
because you do need to do it slowly.
It's almost like making salad dressing.
You wanna make sure that, that oil gets nice
and emulsified into the chocolate.
And then we're gonna add four eggs.
One at a time.
Basically doing the same thing.
Making sure that each of those eggs
is getting emulsified with the chocolate
and everything is nicely incorporated.
And then to give it a little richer flavor,
we're also gonna add one tablespoon of vanilla extract.
And you can mix that up.
Then in a separate bowl
we're going to add our dry ingredients
and we're going to add one and one quarters cup of flour.
One and one half teaspoons of salt
and one teaspoon of baking soda.
Whisk that up until everything is nice and combined
and then we are going to add
the dry ingredients to our chocolate mixture,
just in thirds.
Whisking gently,
making sure that everything is nicely mixed.
Now our batter is done
and we are going to transfer it into our pans.
And basically what you wanna do is
fill each pan about a third of the way full.
Don't worry,
it may not look like much now
but this cake will actually rise up to
pretty much fill the whole pan.
Then the final step is just to take that pan
and give it a good whack on your counter top,
that will release any of the air bubbles
that might be forming on top.
And then we are going to pop these in a
350 degree Fahrenheit oven
and the best way to fit three pans in a standard size oven,
is to take one pan,
put it way in the back
and then two pans on the side.
Almost forming like a little triangle.
And then let them go for about 25 minutes.
They're done when a toothpick will come out clean.
Now before releasing these cakes,
you wanna make sure that you have your
cooling racks all ready to go.
And, because this cake is pretty moist and fudgey,
I do like to use a cooling rack that has a
nice nonstick surface to it.
That's why I like these racks by Baker's Secret
because once you flip that cake over,
you won't have to worry about it sticking on the side.
Okay, so now for the frosting.
Now when it comes to frosting,
I don't know,
birthday cake frosting can be so sweet.
So I like to do things that are a little bit lighter,
especially because this cake is so rich and chocolatey.
So I really like a whipped cream frosting
and it's so easy to put together.
So what we're gonna do,
is in a large mixer,
we're going to add two cups of heavy cream.
One cup of powdered sugar.
A half a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder.
And one and half teaspoons of vanilla extract.
You can go ahead
and whip that up until you start to get
really nice stiff peaks.
And then at this stage,
I do like to thin it out a little bit
and add about a quarter cup to a half a cup of milk.
You kinda have to eyeball it.
Just depending on how thick you like it.
So I start with a quarter cup
and if I feel it needs more,
I might add a little bit more.
And that's it,
your frosting is done.
Okay, so now for the moment we've all been waiting for,
let's assemble this beautiful birthday cake.
Now, I have recently discovered the cake lifter by Wilton,
I love this product.
It is like a big spatula
and what you do is,
you gently lift your little cake layer,
slide it underneath
and then you can lift these cake layers
without having to worry about them crumbling.
So you're gonna go ahead
and move your first layer to your cake stand.
And then you're gonna take two big dollops of the frosting.
And then the other product that I really love,
also from Wilton,
is a offset spatula.
These are really great for spreading out frosting.
They're also really good for spreading out batter too.
So they're just a good investment to have in
your baking tool arsenal.
And then you're gonna go ahead
and spread out that frosting,
just so that it starts to kind of
peak over the side a little bit.
We are basically going to create
what is known as a naked cake,
which means that we're not gonna frost the sides of it
and I find that for a beginner baker
or for someone who hasn't made a lot of cakes,
this is the way to go.
Because it's still gonna look beautiful and rustic
but you're not gonna have to mess around
with trying to get all the sides.
I think there's something really beautiful about having it
simple and rustic like this.
So once you've got that frosting
all spread out on that first layer,
we're gonna go back with our little handy dandy cake lifter
and we're gonna lift the second layer.
And we're gonna pop that on top.
And then we're gonna do the same thing.
We're gonna take two dollops of frosting
and then spread it out with our spatula.
Making sure that we're kind of going
a little bit over the edge,
just so we can see it.
That's part of the beauty I think of this cake,
is being able to see the frosting in between the layers.
And then we're gonna take the final layer
and we're gonna place that on top.
And then we're gonna add the remaining frosting on top
and then this is where we wanna give it
a nice decorative finish.
Just take your spatula
and give it kind of like switch back swirls
or really whatever you wanna do,
you can get creative.
And then for a little finishing touch,
I do like to add some of these gold sprinkles.
These are also by Wilton
and I think that they add a nice celebratory touch
to a birthday cake.
It almost looks like little gold fairy dust in some way.
Which I think is a nice way to
celebrate somebody's birthday.
And there you have it,
your homemade birthday cake is ready to go.
Now if you're not serving this right away,
you can refrigerate it.
This is the other nice thing about
the whipped cream frosting,
is that it doesn't get too hard on you
the way buttercream will.
So it's a great one to make if you had to do it
a few hours in advance.
And then you'll see when you cut into it,
you will notice those dark chocolate moist
layers of the cake
and then you have that sweet cream in between
and of course the crunch of those little
gold sprinkles on top.
It is a real winner
and definitely a great way to celebrate anybody's birthday.
I hope you guys give this one a try
and let me know what you think
and I also hope that head on over to
the Inspired Home website,
read my blog post about homemade birthday cakes
and I hope that it inspires you
to make birthday cakes for your kids,
friends, family or whoever is important in your life.
Everybody deserves a homemade birthday cake.
Alright you guys,
I'll see you back here next time
for another delicious recipe,
until then,
bye.
(upbeat instrumental music)
♫ More to life than just survival ♫