Bailey's Buttercream Frosting

Bailey's - or Irish cream liqueur - is some kind of magical. I don't know exactly what makes it so smooth, sweet, delicious, and easy to drink, but it must be some kind of good Irish witchcraft!
Bailey's is great as a shot alone, but it is most commonly used as an add-in to coffee, or in baked goods such as cheesecake or truffles. What I recently discovered is Bailey's makes an excellent addition to a regular buttercream frosting. It replaces the milk for thinning the frosting out and bringing it to consistency, and adds a deep, rich flavor. I think the fat and sugar in the frosting help to cut some of that alcohol, so you don't get that burning, raw alcohol flavor from the frosting either. The only potential drawback is the Bailey's colors the frosting quite a bit, so you won't end up with a white frosting in the end. The Bailey's flavors the frosting so well, I didn't even add vanilla or almond extract to this one!

Bailey's Buttercream Frosting
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 kg icing (confectioner's sugar)
Bailey's original Irish cream liqueur, as needed

Whip the butter until soft and pliable. Gradually sift in the icing sugar, beating until combined. Once the mixture starts to become thick and stiff, start gradually adding in some Bailey's as needed to reach desired consistency. 
Use to frost cake, cookies, cupcakes, brownies, or whatever else as needed. It is best to use the frosting right away, but the Bailey's does help to keep it softer than a regular buttercream. Just try not to sample too much during the process and get tipsy!!

Pouring Beer Stein Cake

The pub where I work recently celebrated their fifth birthday, from the day they first opened their doors. We had a big celebration during service that night  - a live shucking oyster bar, special appetizers and beer pairings, live music, and of course, cake. The owner asked me to make the cake, which they would be serving to customers late in the evening for free. She did not give me a lot of guidance for the cake - mostly left it up to me. Just said that the restaurant seats 60, and we expected a full house plus for the party. Because I wanted to make sure the cake met her approval, I did give her a few samples beforehand, but didn't share my design. I spend over a week planning the cake and was very happy with how it turned out in the end.

I made a chocolate stout cake using the stout beer we brew in house. Then I made a Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream frosting to go with it. The cake was my standard chocolate cake recipe with the substitution of stout for coffee. Then my signature buttercream frosting for filling, frosting, decorating and piping - except this time I used Bailey's Irish Cream instead of milk for the liquid, for a very rich (and alcoholic, in a good way). I also made some of my candy clay/modelling chocolate for the handle and stability in the hidden pipe (under the buttercream foam).

So my cake was designed to look like a beer stein - it's an eight inch round four layer cake frosted in 'beer colored' buttercream, a candy clay handle, and some white buttercream foam on top. Then I covered a pipe inserted into the center of the cake, at an angle, with candy clay and buttercream. This pipe supported the beer can making it look like the can was being poured into the cake. I finished off the cake with a little green inscription. The cake was very well received - in fact the 50 or so pieces I cut from it disappeared very quickly, and some people were amazed by how the beer can was 'levitating'.

Spring Flower Cupcakes

It has been a hard winter. You can say that again. Ok, so it has been a very testing and miserable winter. And unfortunately, spring hasn't even fully arrived yet. I still see snow on the ground, the sun has been much less prominent than needed, and I have yet to venture outside in shorts or a t-shirt. So I made some flower cupcakes. If we cannot have real flowers growing yet, at least we can enjoy some another way. I used bright spring colors - maybe this will help to welcome spring.

I used basic vanilla cupcakes as the base. Then I used a dollop of chocolate frosting for the center of each cupcake. Next, I made up a few different colors - yellow, lilac, and light blue. I used a basic open star tip to pipe six swirls as petals on each cupcake. 

Here is a neat trick, and also very convenient when you only have one piping bag and/or one tip on hand. It's not that it takes too much time to wash between changing colors, but the excess water on the piping bag often has an undesired effect on the icing. So when one color runs out, I just fill the bag with the next color. The first cupcake or two frosted after this will have streaks of each color, which I think is pretty and better reflects flowers in nature. 

Easter Egg Cake

I like to bake and decorate a cake every year for Easter. And of course, I always like to change it up. I've done plenty of bunny head cakes in the past, as well as a full bunny cake, a chick cake, a basket cake, cupcakes, and a cake with a bunny and a chick. I've done chocolate, carrot, pineapple, spice, red velvet, and hummingbird cakes. This year I decided to make a lemon Easter egg cake with vanilla buttercream filling and chocolate ganache. 

To make the egg cake, I baked my lemon cake in two eight inch round pans. Once cool, I cut both cakes in two pieces, slightly off the center. I frosted the bottom of both larger pieces with vanilla buttercream and sandwiched them together, cut portions down, on a platter. Then I frosted one side of each of the smaller pieces and stuck them on either side of the large pieces. Then I trimmed the cake so it was level and more egg-shaped. Next, I covered the entire cake with chocolate ganache. Then I colored the buttercream purple, yellow, and green to decorate the cake. I used different tips - a grass tip to decorate the tray around the cake, a flower tip to make purple flowers, a yellow tip to make stars and decorations. I also wrote Happy Easter in the middle of the cake.

When constructing this cake, it helps to briefly freeze the layers before cutting and decorating to make them firmer and less crumbly. In an upcoming post I will share the lemon cake recipe.

Almond Buttercream

For most cakes I decorate, as seen on this blog, I tend to use my signature vanilla buttercream. Buttercream is the perfect icing for piping, spreading, decorating, and coloring. It is also simple and quick to make and, in my opinion, the tastiest! 

However, I wanted the same texture, but a slightly different flavor to go with my cocoa butter pecan tank cake. I wanted something a little nutty to go with the pecans. So on a whim, I used a good amount of almond extract in place of the usual vanilla extract. I wish there was a such thing as pecan extract, because that would have matched the flavor of the cake perfectly. I'm sure pecan extract does exist, it just definitely isn't as common and I did not have any on hand. 

The result? Almond extract certainly did add a nutty flavor, and made the icing's taste reminiscent of marzipan - a sweet almond paste candy or coating. If you like marzipan (I do), then that's definitely a good thing. Also my icing was colored with a small amount of cocoa powder, so the nutty chocolate flavor of the icing matched the nutty chocolate flavor of the cake. I am not going to use almond extract for every batch of buttercream I make from now on, but I certainly will when I desire a slightly different flavor or if it pairs better with the cake (or I am craving marzipan). 

Tank Cake

Here is the birthday cake I made for my wonderful boyfriend this year. Each year I like to make him a themed birthday cake that has to do with something he likes. I have never asked him what design he would like on his cake, as I prefer it to be a surprise. Although this year I did ask what flavor cake he would like, and he decided on something different than the typical chocolate – butter pecan, with a hint of chocolate. I also asked, just for fun, what design he would like, telling him I had already decided and planned it, and that his answer wouldn’t change anything. Ironically (or not, because I guess I do know him pretty well) he said a tank cake, as he is an avid collector of model tanks. He gave me an exact model type too, but I know a lot less about tanks and didn’t think I could pull off that much detail.

 I suppose I kind of broke tradition with his cake this year, because for the past three years I have made a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream in the design of a video game character using an eight bit pixel design with the main colors of the cake being green. This cake is not exclusively chocolate or vanilla buttercream, is not divided into squares, contains no characters, and has no green. But it is not totally breaking tradition because this cake is themed to my boyfriend’s tastes and was made and decorated with love.

Shaping a cake like a tank is actually pretty simple – all you need is three standard-sized pans: a 9x13-inch rectangular pan, a 9x5-inch loaf pan, and a round ramekin. Filling these three cake pans requires slightly more batter than provided by a standard two layer cake mix; I used a recipe designed to fill three 9-inch round layer pans. Use your favorite flavor, bake as usual, cool, then trim off any uneven edges and rounded tops. You will also need to cut out a small rectangle, approximately four inches long and one and a half inches wide, two inches from either end of the cake, on one short side of the 9x13 –inch rectangular cake. Cut this piece in half horizontally. One half will be used for the barrel, the other half is to test the quality of your cake (eat it). Frost each layer individually, then stack as pictured, adding and smoothing frosting around the edges. You will need a support for the barrel – I used a chocolate kiss, but a mound of icing or other chocolate would do the trick as well.

Next comes the fun part – decorating. I think the cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies really make excellent wheels (are they called wheels on a tank?), but alternately molded chocolate or piped frosting could be used instead. I piped star borders in a slightly darker shade of frosting all around the edges of the tank for some character, and piped “Happy Birthday Julian” on the top. If your frosting job isn’t perfect, just call them ‘battle scars’ and move on. I have seen several tank cakes covered in fondant, but as mentioned numerous times before, I prefer working with and eating buttercream. I didn’t want to make the cake tank grey, as I didn’t think that looked as edible, nor did I want to go with camouflage or tank green, for reasons based on appearance, taste, and authenticity. I almost went with hot pink (an inside joke), but settled on a beige/light brown color. There are tanks of this color and that allowed me to use cocoa to color the icing – much better tasting and much better for you than food dyes.

Happy Birthday Julian! :)

Italian Meringue Buttercream

Normally when I make cakes and need to decorate them, I almost ALWAYS make buttercream icing. I like buttercream icing for it's versatility - easy to spread, pipe, and color. It is really easy to make, you can whip up as much or as little as you need, and it always turns out. It keeps well refrigerated or frozen, works well as a filling, and can be flavored as desired. I also love the taste of buttercream - fresh pure butter and sweet, soft icing sugar - need I say more?

Other frosting types I have tried include fudge, ganache, flat, royal, and whipped cream. Of course fudge frosting and ganache are awesome as well, but you cannot use chocolate frosting for everything. For this puzzle cake, I decided to try a new type of frosting - Italian meringue buttercream. Now I have made meringues before (though never Italian) and I have made buttercream before, so I had the basics down.

Italian meringue is a meringue (mixture of egg whites and sugar) that is fully cooked by beating hot sugar syrup into the whipped egg whites until the mixture cools and stiff peaks are formed. To make Italian buttercream, small pieces of softened butter is then beaten into the Italian meringue. Italian meringue is not difficult to make, but does take some time to do. First, the sugar syrup must be prepared to just the right temperature without crystallizing. Next, the whites need to be beaten to soft peaks. Then, the sugar syrup must be beaten into the whites, ensuring the hot syrup touches neither the bowl nor the beaters. It is then beaten until cool, at least ten minutes for a good batch. So this icing requires a lot of beating, and a standmixer certainly would help!

I really liked the Italian meringue, as it was glossy and smooth, but too thin to use as a frosting. Once I added the butter, it was the proper consistency but I didn't like the flavor as much. Italian buttercream is light, fluffy, white, and smooth, and has a delicate texture yet a rich flavor. It isn't great for piping but ideal for delicate cakes that cannot be spread with a heavy frosting. 

Puzzling Instructions

So here is a little tutorial on how to make the puzzle cake from yesterday's post. It would make much more sense if I had taken a picture at every stage throughout the process, but unfortunately I did not so I will just try my best in explaining it. It was actually difficult to find many easy tutorials on the internet for this type of cake. I will explain how to duplicate the cake I made, but of course the procedure will differ slightly if more cake layers or different colors are used.

1. Begin by baking two different flavors of cake, differing in color. You will need three layers of each, so either make three thin layers or slice one cake into three layers. Here I have made a vanilla and a chocolate angel food cake.
2. You will also need a frosting or icing. For this delicate cake, it is easiest to use a fluffy, whipped frosting instead of a stiff frosting which may tear the cake. You will also need quite a bit of icing for a good layer between each cake layer and coating the outside of the cake. I made three pounds of Italian buttercream.
   
3. Begin assembling the cake: one chocolate layer, buttercream, one vanilla layer, buttercream, second chocolate layer, buttercream, second vanilla layer, buttercream, and the third chocolate layer. Reserve the third vanilla layer.
4. Here comes the tricky and crucial step. Use a bowl, plate, or cut-out circle as a guide. Place it on top of the cake, you should have one to two inches of cake still showing around the entire diameter. Using a long, serrated knife, cut around the guide, holding the knife at a 45 degree angle. Cut all the way around the cake, you are essentially cutting a cone out of the cake. This step is much easier if you freeze the cake for 30-60 minutes before cutting for a cleaner cut.
5. Place a plate or cake board on top of the cake and flip it upside down. Very gently and carefully remove the outside of the cake, which will be a hollow circle of cake now. Place this hollowed-out cake, flip it back over, and set it on another plate. You should now have the cone, with the tip pointing upwards, on one plate; and the hollowed-out cake, with the smaller hole (from where the tip of the cone was cut) facing upwards.
6. Gently press the top chocolate cake layer in to fill the small hole. Frost the entire inside of this cake with frosting. Gently press the reserved vanilla cake layer into this, then frost again.
7. Carefully place the cone (tip pointing downwards) into this cake opening. You may find it doesn't fit exactly, well it's not really supposed to. Just press it in gently until the top of the cake is level.
   
8. Now comes the easy part - frost the outside of the cake and decorate as desired. Here I have made a chocolate collar for the outside with chocolate drizzle and filigree on top.
9. Chill the cake before serving so slicing will be cleaner. Use a hot, sharp knife. Watch the puzzled looks on your guest's faces when they receive their piece.
   

Don't despair if this doesn't work out perfectly the first time - you can tell from my photo that this isn't as perfect as some of the puzzle cake pictures in books and on the internet. But I know my next try will be even better, now that I know how this process works. Even if it doesn't work out, you should come out with some interesting layers or in the very least, a perfectly edible marble cake.

Mom's French Chocolate Birthday Cake

This is the birthday cake I made for my mother this year. This time I wanted to do something a little different rather than the typical birthday celebration cake, since my mother isn't always a fan of heavy cakes and lots of icing or fondant. I still wanted to make a cake, just not a "decorated" cake, not that this cake contains no garnishes either. Since we all like chocolate, we settled on a flourless chocolate cake. I am not sure why the word "flourless" paired with chocolate cake sounds so appealing, but it does. Flourless chocolate cakes are known to be deep, dense, rich, and for a bonus, gluten-free if that's a concern for you (though it certainly isn't in this household). Many flourless chocolate cake recipe make use of ground nuts, most commonly almonds, to replace the flour in the recipe. However, French chocolate cakes are different. They rely on a lot of chocolate, usually melted chocolate and not cocoa, and several eggs to give them volume. The egg whites and yolks are always beaten separately, and the peaked egg whites provide the lift to the cake. Some recipes also call for a cup of whipping cream for extra richness and volume. This creates a soufflé-like cake texture - light and fluffy, but still rich and chocolaty. It is important not to overbake, or the cake will dry out and not be moist and rich. Garnishes should be kept fairly simple - a dusting of icing sugar, a dollop of whipped cream, some fresh fruit, toasted nuts, or a drizzle of chocolate sauce. And for the best quality and flavor, better quality chocolate should be used, since that is what composes the bulk of the cake. 

This "flourless" chocolate cake actually does contain a small amount of flour, but it is optional. I have included it just for stability purposes, but the cake will be fine without it. Alternately, an equal amount of a gluten-free flour or ground nut may be substituted as well.

To decorate my mother's birthday cake, I had to include piping to say Happy Birthday, as it is a cake for a birthday occasion after all. I simply used a small batch of my vanilla buttercream to pipe this, then I piped eight swirls around the outside of the cake. I took some fancy waffle cookies I had on hand, cut them into irregularly shaped pieces, and dipped the edges into some additional melted bittersweet chocolate, and stuck them in the swirls to garnish. I then added a few buttercream flowers and a buttercream border around the bottom. 
Happy Birthday Mom! 

Heart-Shaped Anniversary Cake

Here is a more comprehensive explanation of the sixtieth anniversary cake I featured yesterday. 

First of all I made one batch my signature marble cake recipe and baked it in my heart-shaped cake pan. The marble cake recipe I used is {Basic Marble Cake}. This marble cake doesn't look swirled on top, but becomes sort of layered inside as it bakes, which is because it is a thinner cake batter, leading to a moister cake. I also use a slightly different technique when marbelling my cakes. Instead of putting spoonfuls of alternating batters in, I pour in all the white batter, then pour the chocolate batter over top in streaks. This is similar in technique to making zebra cake (see {Zebra Cake}). If you do not own a heart-shaped cake pan, it isn't necessary, but one shape that can easily be made using standard cake pans. Just use an 8 or 9 inch round and square pan, place the square as a diamond, cut the round in half, and place the straight end of each half along adjacent sides of the diamond.

Once the cake was cooled, I placed it on a platter, placed strips of waxed paper around the edges of the cake to keep the platter clean, and covered the cake in ganache. It took exactly one recipe of {Cocoa Ganache Glaze} for the perfect thickness of ganache. I briefly refrigerated the cake to set the ganache, then carefully peeled away the waxed paper strips. The excess ganache that dripped onto the waxed paper can be easily scraped off with a butter knife and reused at another time reheated as ganache, or for another purpose (dipping, frosting, fondue, spread, truffles, etc.)

Once the ganache was set and my buttercream was made, I moved on to decorating. I first did the top border using a closed star tip, then the bottom border using an open star tip, the lettering using a plain small open round tip, the roses using a rose petal tip and a flower nail, and the leaves using a leaf tip. It took five decorating tips, but not a lot of time, and only one color of icing to complete this cake! 

60th Anniversary Cake

This is the sixtieth wedding anniversary cake I made recently. It is my new signature cake recipe - marble. I baked it in my heart-shaped pan, since anniversaries are all about love after all. Then I covered the cake in one of my favorite frosting options - glossy chocolate ganache. Then I whipped up a small batch of my signature vanilla buttercream icing for the borders, piping, and decorations. On the bottom I did a simple shell border, and around the top I did an alternating shell border. I really like this top border, it gives an almost lace-like appearance, and looks neat and old-fashioned. I then piped "Happy 60th Anniversary" in cursive writing in the middle (free-hand!) and added three buttercream roses at the bottom and a few leaves in between. 

I decided to keep this cake simple and classic - old-school like many wedding cakes were sixty years ago. I chose the simple color scheme of chocolate and white to keep it clean-looking and simple. Also, it is difficult to match the traditional sixtieth anniversary color - diamond. I wanted to stick with the old-fashioned buttercream and not too much piping, instead of the modern fondant and sugar flower covered cakes, to make it appear more like the wedding cake, not that I was trying to replicate that either. I like the simplicity of this cake, and I am quite happy with the piping as well. 
Sixty years is a long time, and this cake is truly deserved. 

My 2014 Birthday Cake

This is my birthday cake for this year. If you want to see reasons and debate with regards to why I cannot make my own birthday cake, see posts around June 4th from 2013 and 2012. Anyway, this was the cake my parents decided to make for me this year, which was a complete surprise that had been planned for months that I didn't really get any say in.

This is a chocolate pound cake baked in a bundt pan from one of my (many) chocolate recipe books. It then has the typical chocolate ganache glaze I have recently been turning to more and more lately, as it is so quick, easy, and delicious. Then the top is decorated with some light purple buttercream (my favorite color) and the piping "Happy Birthday Rebecca" in white buttercream. 
Honestly, this is a quite large cake. I didn't realize it was pound cake until my mother told me though - it isn't really heavy and dense. And the crumbs I got to try from the pan yesterday were fluffy, chocolaty and delicious. You can never go wrong with some chocolate ganache, and I appreciate the use of real butter in the buttercream frosting. Buttercream and chocolate ganache are something I could eat by the spoonful. My only slight criticism is perhaps the cake is a little dry due to the fact that is was not completely covered in frosting or ganache - but that's not typical for bundt cakes anyway. And I suppose it allows you to eat a larger slice of cake without being overoaded with sweetness (not that that would be too much frosting for me - there is never too much frosting for me).

Thanks Mom and Dad for another great birthday cake! It wouldn't have bothered me at all to make my own cake, but I suppose sometimes it is nice to sit and relax and have someone else cater to you. It is delicious and definitely gives a nice dose of chocolate (a necessity to suit my tastes). 

Lobster Season Cake

What to do with cake pieces cut out of a rectangular cake in order to make it cross shaped? Especially when you made several cuts and didn't just cut four simple rectangles? Well, the first option would be to frost the cake whole, and then cut out pieces to make it cross shaped. I know my parents did that for my first birthday cake, where they cut out pieces so the cake would resemble the number "1" then served those pieces and still had a one-shaped cake as a center piece. The only problem with this idea, is if you are presenting only the cut cake, the sides will not be frosted and decorated. So I cut the cake pieces first, decorated the cross cake, then decided to somehow place the individual pieces together and then decorate those with the leftover frosting.

I didn't have any white buttercream left, so I piped on pink to one piece (piping is easier than trying to spread on individual pieces) and blue on the other piece. I liked how the blue piping resembled waves, which gave me inspiration to make it into some kind of ocean theme. Realizing lobster season had just started, I decided to use this idea. Some simple green letter and piped fish, and I was finished. Can't wait to enjoy some fresh lobster! 

Confirmation Cross Cake

This is a cake order I made for two people celebrating their confirmation. I appropriately made a cross-shaped cake. To do this, I simply baked the cake in a 9x13 inch rectangular pan, then cut some rectangles out to make it into the shape of a cross. 

To decorate this cake, I frosted it completely with my signature white vanilla buttercream. I used an open round tip for the top border and an open star tip for the bottom border. Then I tinted the remaining buttercream green, blue, and pink. I wanted to use blue and pink because the cake is a shared cake for a brother and sister, and I used green as an accent color. I piped on "God Bless David & Breanna" using all three colors. I made some buttercream roses and other flowers in pink and blue, then added some green leaves and accent petals. 
I wanted to keep the decorations relatively simply, as the cross shape already gives the cake some depth. I also used white for the borders, though I usually use colors, to keep it simpler and not too hectic. 

Mini Flower Cake

This is a quick "cupcake" I made using some leftover cake pieces from another cake. It was really quick and simple to put together, but looks quite pretty and I am sure it brightened someone's day. To make this, I attached two triangular pieces of cake with some chocolate ganache, then spread the outside with chocolate ganahce. After chilling the cake and scraping the excess ganache from the (colorful) paper plate, I piped on a simple flower using a swirl tip and blue buttercream. I added a green center, some green polka dots, and a simple blue border. I also piped Happy Birthday on the plate. This just goes to show that you should never throw out any "scrap" cake pieces or a little extra frosting, and how a little cake and a little imagination can go a long way!

Nautical Cupcakes

These are some nautical themed cupcakes I made the other day. These cupcakes were an order and I decorated them based on special request. I used nautical-themed cupcake paper liners and decorative toothpicks and decorated the cupcakes to match this theme. My ocean-themed cupcakes included fish, whales, starfish, sailboats, submarines, anchors, seashells, and lifebuoys. I used both white and chocolate cupcakes (half of each kind) and decorated them with my signature vanilla buttercream. I decided to pipe blue swirls for he base of the decorations to make it look like blue waves. Then I used red and yellow buttercream to pipe some different shapes onto the cupcakes. I chose six different shapes: yellow seashells, yellow starfish, yellow fish, yellow and red submarines, red sailboats, red anchors, and red lifebuoys. This only required two basic decorating tips, a plain round open tip and an open star tip. The shapes were also fairly basic and easy, but with a little imagination, I think I created some great nautical-themed cupcakes! 

Horse Cupcakes

This is the creation I made with the six extra cupcakes that were made with the batter from my dark chocolate cake featured in yesterday's post. I covered the cupcakes in the same chocolate ganache used in my Luigi cake. Then I thought of decorating ideas. It was nearing the birthday of one of my friends, and I know she really likes horses. That reminded me of the idea for decorating horse cupcakes I had seen in my cupcake decorating cookbook. They were absolutely adorable, and the three-dimensional horse idea really seems much cuter, more elaborate, special, and realistic than simply piping a horse face or body onto a cupcake. The only problem was, I did not have the necessary ingredients required for this design. I needed a chocolate wafer cookie coated in chocolate melting wafers for the neck, a peanut cookie for the head, and a pretzel piece for the tail, none of which I had. That's when I got creative and began to improvise. Searching the cupboards, I found materials that would serve as suitable stand-ins for the missing ingredients. I used half of a miniature Kit-Kat bar for the neck, and attached a Hershey's chocolate kiss to this using some chocolate buttercream. I used the top, curved part of a miniature candy cane for the tail. To complete the cupcakes, I piped on some eyes and a mane using chocolate buttercream and a grass tip. To three of the six horses, I added cutie marks, which are simple little symbols placed near the horses tail, that are sometimes seen on ponies. They may not look quite as polished as the original idea, but I do think they are quite cute and definitely look like horses. 

Luigi Cake

Here is a Luigi birthday cake I made for my boyfriend. Luigi is a character from the popular Mario video games, and I chose Luigi over Mario for two reasons; firstly because Mario wears red, and it takes a lot of food dye to make a deep red icing, otherwise it looks pink. Secondly, I had to continue the traditions of the birthday cakes from the past two years: a chocolate 9x13-inch rectangular cake with the design of a video game character mapped out on squares in an eight-bit pixel design - with the main color of the cake being green. That's right, coincidentally the past two cakes and characters have been primarily green. If it worked, why should I change it? 

I began with a new chocolate cake recipe I had not yet tried - a dark chocolate cake. I poured over my favorite new glaze to cover the cake in a shiny base on which to build the design (see Cocoa Glaze). Then I mapped out a pattern of 1/2 inch squares (12 across and 16 down) in the top center of the cake. Following an online sprite image I had printed out, I filled in the small squares with an upside-down basket weave tip using tan, chocoalte, green, and blue vanilla buttercream. At the end, I added a blue wave border around the top of the cake, a swirl green border around the bottom, and piped "Happy Birthday Julian!" in green. Then I heated a little extra ganache and recovered the top of the cake, to hide the lines of the grid I had mapped out that were not covered in buttercream. That is another advantage to ganache - you can always add another layer, and it sets just as evenly and nicely as the first.

I think last year's cake did turn out better - my buttercream was more cooperative, the design was bigger, and I just preferred it, but this one did tun out great as well. To check out the past cakes, follow these links (a link to Link, haha!). There is last year's {Link Cake}. and a little explanation on the designs and how I do it {8-Bit Pixel Design}. And this is the {Minecraft Cake} from two years ago.

Kite Cake

This is a cake I made meant to be shaped like a kite. I know it isn't exactly a kite replica, but that's fine. Kites do come in all shapes and sizes. I made this cake after reading the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, which is why that is written on the kite. This cake is my signature chocolate cake recipe baked into a 9x13 inch rectangle. I then cut four triangles off each corner to make somewhat of a kite shape. I frosted the top with my signature white buttercream. I didn't bother attempting to frost the sides - sides are difficult enough as it is, especially with a moist cake. However, I cut pieces off, so instead of frosting the edges I would really be frosting the inside of the cake - not a eeat feat. So I saved some icing, cake, time, effort, and a major headache by not frosting the sides. This wouldn't work with every cake design, but it looks fine with this cake, and is less messy as well. Then I used red and green (why not make it Christmas colors) to make a rope border on the top of the cake. I made a simple shell border on the bottom, alternating red and green with each side. I added the "sticks" in the middle of the kite along with the lettering, and added a few stars for decoration. If I had used a bigger platter and wanted to go more elaborate and realistic, I could have used the extra cake triangles to make some bows, and attached them to the kite with licorice for the ribbon. Overall though, this design was pretty simple and was very fast to make.

Chocolate Buttercream Prinzregenten Frosting

I wish I could give you an exact recipe for this frosting, because when I made it for this torte, it turned out amazing. Very rich, very chocolaty, and the perfect frosting for this torte if I do say so myself. I am not even sure is even I could duplicate this frosting, as I simply eyeballed amounts. However, I will try to give some guidelines to follow. It is nothing fancy or special, just simply delicious.

Ingredients
soft margarine
unsweetened cocoa powder
icing sugar
2% milk
vanilla

Put a little margarine in a small bowl, and mix in some cocoa. I used quite a bit of cocoa, because I really like chocolate. Use about a tablespoon or two of margarine, and as much cocoa as you can while still being able to stir the mixture. Stir in some icing sugar alternately with some milk, until you reach your desired amount or desired "shade" of icing. For example, for a darker chocolate flavor like I did, use a greater proportion of cocoa and less icing sugar. Stir in a splash of vanilla.

To assemble the torte: One cake layer, spread gently with a layer of frosting, repeat for all four layers. Pipe borders or rosettes around and on top of the cake if you wish. Heat a little additional frosting in the microwave briefly to warm it and thin it, then drizzle it over the cake.