This week we had two birthdays at home, this means two evenings with birthday cakes and one common party with two birthday cakes: a child one and an adult one!
I have always until now managed not to prepare my own birthday cake, but this year I did one of them (the one for the party). I think I prefer the surprise of a cake I have not made.
Week days birthday cakes
The birthday cakes during the week were chosen for their low to average level of technical skills and ease to make (i.e. not too much time), they were also chosen so that we did not have two heavy desserts one after the other one or not two chocolate cake one after the other one. In the end, none of those two cakes were chocolate based, this is quite something for us!
This little cake is a treasure of my creation, I made it for the first time a couple years ago. It is a chestnut pudding It is normally cooked in a closed pudding bowl in a bain marie. The texture is very moist. The cake very light which is a surprise when you do not know it. It was served with a strawberry coulis, a creme anglaise also works well. In this version (photo), the tin was not completely close and the texture became gradual with a more caky structure at the top (here the bottom), that is exposed when baking. It remained delicious!
The second birthday cake needed a short preparation time (work day night). You may have recognised it, it is a classic sticky date pudding. It was served with whipped cream, a child’s favorite!
Party Birthday Cakes
One birthday cake was for a seven years old with the request of being a puppy dog cake, the other was an adult one with a requirement to be made relatively rapidly to allow for the other party preparation.
Birthday cakes for children are always a challenge. First there is the shape, then the question on how, technically, decorate it, and finally the taste and timing. I have created a page for kids birthday cakes if you want to come back to those later without having to find the post.
The cake itself consists of a chocolate marble cake. I used two different size bowls (straight sides in the upper part) and four single serve cake rims for the paws. This is a plain cake topped with white and brown icing. The collar was made of marzipan (homemade in little quantity). During the birthday party, a two year old child could resist no longer and grabbed one of the paws!
The other cake, mine, I made based on a recipe from Pierre Hermé from his book Le Larousse du Chocolat. I was offered that book a few years ago by my siblings who thought that I could do with it and make some of the wonders in it. I have done a few. This one is the Mozart. I choose this one because of the mix of apple, cinnamon and chocolate and the fact that I had previously done it. It is not a difficult cake. The cake consists of three thin and very friable circles of sweet cinnamon shortcrust pastry with layers of chocolate mousse and cooked apples. This is a great cake!
Need some help with your birthday cakes?
Our next birthday at home is not before the end of the year, quite in a while, so if you need some help, I am happy to help in person in Sydney or over the net otherwise!
