If you're looking for a cake
that's pretty and playful and just says, Happy Birthday,
well, my confetti birthday cake will be your new go-to,
and it starts with a beautiful white cake
just speckled with sprinkles.
I start with two and two thirds cup
of cake and pastry flour.
Now, this style of cake is called a white velvet cake,
and it's tender and delicate and moist.
It's really the ideal birthday cake,
and you do want to use cake and pastry flour
for that tenderness.
At the same time as I start sifting the flour,
I'm going to add in two cups of granulated sugar.
Just work the two in at the same time.
You can do this in a large bowl
and use electric beaters if you wish.
The rest of the flour, the rest of the sugar.
And then for leavening,
I have a tablespoon of baking powder,
half a teaspoon of baking soda, and half a teaspoon of salt.
I've cut up three quarters of a cup of unsalted butter
and let it soften up to room temperature.
So I add this to the dry mix,
and on low speed work the butter in
until I no longer see any visible bits.
(quiet whirring)
All right, once you see a nice sandy texture,
then you know you're ready to add
half a cup of vegetable oil,
and I've measured out one
and one quarter cups of buttermilk,
and I'm going to pour in about three quarters of a cup
of that in with the oil,
and I'll blend this at the same time until evenly combined.
(quiet whirring)
Butter and oil together does two things.
The butter adds flavor,
the oil adds moisture and tenderness,
and that quantity of fat actually replaces the fact
that there are no whole eggs in this recipe.
I've got five large egg whites at room temperature.
So, no whole eggs.
That makes this white velvet cake so white,
so the color of your sprinkles pop right through.
Now, I'll add my remaining buttermilk
and a tablespoon of vanilla extract.
I just use a fork to loosen up the whites.
That way they work into the batter.
I add this all at once.
And now I'll mix on low speed until blended,
and then increase the speed to medium, medium high,
to really build some structure,
for about two to three minutes.
(quiet whirring)
There we go.
Just to look at that beautiful light color.
And right before you put the batter into your pans,
you wanna stir in your half a cup of sprinkles.
You wanna stir them in very quickly
just so the color doesn't start pulling into the batter.
There we go, done.
And I've got my three eight inch cake pans
greased and floured with the bottoms lined with parchment.
If your butter is colder,
you may find your batter is thicker,
in which case you need to spread it in the pan.
These go into a 350 oven for 40 minutes.
You check the doneness
by inserting the skewer in the center.
When it comes out clean of crumbs,
then you know your cakes are done.
While the cakes are baking,
I can prepare the base for the frosting,
and it too is a little something different.
It's sometimes called an ermine buttercream,
and it is so silky,
and it's because you cook flour and sugar into milk
as the base of the frosting,
and that makes it so silky once you add the butter.
I'll pour two cups of milk into my pot,
and I'll whisk in two-thirds of a cup of all purpose flour.
And now, while whisking,
I wanna bring this up to a full boil over medium high heat.
Now that I have some bubbles,
I keep the temperature the same, medium high,
and I add two cups of sugar and a half a teaspoon of salt,
and the sugar will melt into this mixture,
and that's what makes this boiled milk frosting so silky.
You don't have the grit of undissolved sugar.
Now I need to cook this out another three minutes,
there we go.
Now my mixture has started bubbling again.
I'll take it off the heat,
and I'll just pour this into a container to cool uncovered.
You don't have to put plastic wrap on the surface,
and I wanna cool this down to just above room temperature,
about 68 to 70 degrees.
So, let those cakes bake, let this cool,
and we'll be frosting and using some sprinkles
before you know it.
All right, I've got my cooled boiled milk base
and I have two cups of butter in my mixer.
The butter is just cooler than room temperature.
The idea when it comes to blending
the boiled milk with the butter
is that the temperatures should be
within a few degrees of each other.
If you find your frosting curdles,
that's usually a sign that your butter
or your filling are too cold,
in which case you just have to warm it up
over a water bath.
(loud whirring)
There we go.
My butter is nice and smooth.
So I add my boiled milk base in three additions,
a little at a time and beating well after each addition.
The reason I start with slightly cooled butter is
by the time I beat it to smooth it out and fluff it up,
it has warmed up to room temperature.
I'll add a few drops of purple coloring, and there we go.
I'll stir the rest in by hand.
All right, stir right to the bottom
to make sure my color's worked in,
and now it's time to assemble.
If you're assembling a birthday cake
and it's a hot summer day,
you can always chill your cake layers.
It helps the frosting stick on better,
and you'll get cleaner straighter lines.
So I'm just gonna pull each layer from the fridge.
You wanna spread the frosting from the inside out
and try not to break contact with the frosting
as you spread it too much.
The more you lift your palette knife away,
you might fall away crumbs with you.
But you'll notice, these cake layers
aren't crumbly at all.
Next layer.
Once you've got your crumb coat, your masking done,
you wanna give the cake a chance to chill
before you do the final decorating,
and of course the final coating on the outside.
Once you've let that base coat chill for a little bit,
it's easier to put on your piping detail.
A pie plate is best to hold the sprinkles,
that way it catches any that tumble off the cake.
Let's do some piping right on top.
Now that's a birthday cake.
I think a kid of any age would be thrilled
to have this on their birthday.
And just imagine if you get the kids involved
in decorating it,
just expect a carnival of sprinkles everywhere.
You can't have too many sprinkles.
But what you can have is a very special occasion
of your birthday, Happy Birthday.