- [Mimo Ahmed] Tender, sweet and best of all, festive,
this birthday cake is our go-to
and we have a few tricks to make it perfect.
Maybe, you've made this from the box before,
but today if you wanna up your game,
you have come to the right place.
And after many tests and tons of sprinkles,
oh my gosh, so many sprinkles,
we've come up with the "Ultimate Birthday Cake".
(giddy music)
For this recipe, (merry music)
we wanna bring all our ingredients
up to room temperature to ensure we get a uniform batter.
Skipping this part can cause your batter to break.
You could also end up with gummy spots
and holes in your cake.
Yikes!
If you're pressed for time,
you can speed up this process with a couple of tricks.
Cover the eggs with lukewarm water,
make sure the water is not hot, we do not wanna cook them.
For milk, you can microwave it for 30 seconds
and for the butter, you can fill a heatproof glass
with hot water, pour it out
and place the glass over the butter.
We do not recommend you to microwave your butter.
While our ingredients come to room temperature,
we can prep our baking pans.
The most accurate way to do this,
is to place an eight inch cake pan on a parchment paper,
trace circles, then cut it out.
You can also do the folding method
featured in our chocolate cake video,
check out the link in the description.
It's really whatever you prefer.
Then spray your pan with cooking spray,
add the parchment circles and spray again.
This is going to ensure your cake
comes out in one perfect piece.
Our pans are ready, so let's make the batter.
We tested so many versions of this recipe
and figured out three secrets
to get our amazing birthday cake.
Our first trick is, choose the right fat.
We landed on a combination of whole milk,
butter and sour cream.
This dynamite combo gives us a perfectly balanced,
tender, rich and moist cake.
We'll add our sour cream, eggs and egg whites into a bowl.
Mix these, then add vanilla extract and the milk.
A lot of white cake recipes only use egg whites,
but we're using whole eggs
to add an extra layer of richness.
Our second trick was, choosing the right flour.
We tested both all-purpose flour and cake flour.
All-purpose flour definitely works,
but we like cake flour best,
because of its lighter and finer texture,
which gives us a more tender crumb.
And our last trick is, the reverse-creaming method.
We will add sugar to a bowl,
then sift in our flour with the remaining dry ingredients.
This is important, because it breaks up lumps of flour
and adds air.
Always sift your flour and your leaveners together.
Place this on a stand mixer with a paddle attachment
and give them a quick mix.
Slowly add cubes of butter with the mixer running on low.
Typically, recipes will have you
cream your butter and sugar together,
before adding other ingredients,
but we like this method because it helps us
prevent gluten from forming,
which ensures we get the tender crumb we want.
We'll do this until it resembles a dry coarse sand,
like this.
Now, we'll add in our wet ingredients, slowly.
It's gonna take a bit of time, but don't rush it.
And finally, it's time for sprinkles.
There are so many sizes, shapes and colors to choose from,
but when making a birthday cake,
you gotta go with rainbow sprinkles.
Gently fold in your sprinkles.
We like to do this by hand,
so we don't over mix our batter.
It's so beautiful, it's like a party in your batter!
Pour the batter in your prepared baking pans
and bake at 350 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes,
or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Next, we're gonna set the cakes on a wire rack
and let them cool completely.
It usually takes about an hour.
It has to be completely cool before frosting,
or you'll have a melty mess on your hands.
While our cakes are cooling, let's make our frosting.
We tested cream cheese, but felt it was overpowering.
We also tested Swiss meringue buttercream,
but found it to be too heavy.
Our favorite by far, was the American buttercream.
It's light, so it's easy to spread
and it doesn't overpower the flavor of the cake.
With buttercream frosting, it's really important
to have your butter at room temperature.
Whip your butter until it turns creamy,
then slowly add your powdered sugar,
so it doesn't go everywhere.
It might get messy here.
I like to add a about a cup of powdered sugar at a time.
Once that's fully incorporated,
add in your cream, vanilla extract,
salt and continue whipping.
This is called, "Whipped Buttercream".
Heavy cream makes the frosting lighter and fluffier
than the traditional buttercream, salt enhances the flavor.
Our buttercream looks so delicious!
Now, we can assemble our cake.
We slice off the domed tops
to make our cakes ready for stacking,
it's best to use a serrated knife here.
Now, for the icing on the cake,
we'll add the icing on the cake.
First, add a thin layer of frosting onto the cake board
to stabilize the first layer of the cake.
You can skip the cake board,
we just like it for an easier transportation.
Now, we'll add the first layer of cake
and two scoops of frosting on top.
We like to use an ice cream scoop
for an even layer of frosting.
And when in doubt, add more frosting than you think,
it doesn't have to be perfect.
We're also using a cake wheel.
These are great, because they spin
and make your life so much easier when decorating a cake.
We wanna get a really smooth surface on the top,
so we like to place the third layer upside down.
Once the top layer is placed, we apply a crumb coat,
which is basically a thin layer of icing
that goes on top and around the side of the cake
to seal in any crumbs.
This just primes the cake
for an easier and cleaner decoration.
Let your cake chill in the fridge for 15 minutes
and then we'll move on to my favorite part, decorating.
When it comes to frosting a cake,
we like to start at the top
and work our way down to the sides,
an offset spatula is your best friend here.
This is how you're going to set yourself up for success.
If decorating is not your strong suit,
you can give your cake a ribboned edge.
Use the tip of an offset spatula
to run it up the side of the cake
while spinning the cake wheel.
Do the same thing on the top.
Yeah, this works, this looks nice,
but we're not doing that, we really want a smooth edge.
A tip for this, is dipping your spatula in hot water,
then drying it with a towel and running it around your cake.
This helps melt the buttercream a little bit,
which helps create a smooth finish.
If you're fancy and have a bench scraper, even better,
use it to finish smoothing the edges, just like this.
Getting a perfectly smooth cake takes time and patience,
just keep practicing.
And if you're extra, like us,
just pipe more frosting on the top,
'cause you can never have enough.
You can really customize it however you want,
this is your work of art.
We like to keep the festivities going,
so we're adding some more sprinkles on the outside,
on the sides and on the top.
Now, it's time to party and eat.
If you want a perfect slice,
we recommend heating your knife,
or dipping it in hot water before slicing your cake.
We like to think this recipe takes the cake.
My birthday is July 5th,
in case anybody wants to make me a cake.
You can find this recipe and many more on tasty.go.
- [Male Voiceover] Oh yes!
(merry music)