Birthday Cake
The one thing that remains part of our birthday celebrations as we progress through life is a cake. And a homemade version is a special, personal, gift to the birthday person. Whether a simple American layer cake or an elaborate version such as the one here, it sends the same message of love.
This version features the wonderful taste and visual contrast of chocolate and vanilla cake layers. The chocolate element is provided by a Chocolate Chiffon cake and the vanilla by our Butter Sponge Cake. The cake is layered and covered with a bittersweet chocolate ganache, which retains its soft texture at room temperature. A thin layer of raspberry jam on the bottom adds an extra dimension of flavor.
The cake is a big undertaking but is easily broken down into stages. The two cakes can be baked up to three weeks ahead, wrapped well and frozen. The ganache is made the day before assembly. This leaves just the assembly and decorating for the day of.
This cake has received rave reviews from everyone who tasted it.
Note: while the cakes are baked in 8” cake pans they shrink slightly while cooling. For uniformity between all the layers, we trim both cake cakes to 7” prior to assembly.
Birthday Cake
| Yield: 1 7″ cake | # of Servings: 10 | Difficulty: Advanced |
Ingredients
1 recipe Chocolate Chiffon Cake
1 recipe Butter Sponge Cake
½ cup raspberry preserves
2 ¼ cup (18 fl oz) heavy cream
1 lb 2 oz chocolate, 61% to 64%, wafers or chopped
2 oz milk chocolate, wafers or chopped
Special tools and equipment required:
- Long metal cake spatula
- Large plastic pastry bag with star tip
- Cake turntable, optional
- 7” cardboard cake circle, optional
- 7” stainless cake circle, optional
- Parchment paper cone
Pre-recipe preparations:
- Bake one or both cakes the day before assembly
- Make ganache the day before assembly
Directions
The day prior to assembly:
- The Chocolate Chiffon and the Butter Sponge cakes may be made up to two weeks ahead, wrapped well in plastic wrap and frozen. Or bake at least one cake a day ahead, wrap well and leave at room temperature.
- Make the chocolate ganache by bringing the heavy cream to the simmer in a medium saucepan. Remove form the heat and add the chocolate pieces all at once. Cover and let stand for 3 minutes.
- Gently whisk the mixture until all the chocolate is dissolved. Strain into a shallow container. An 8” square Pyrex brownie pan works perfectly. Press plastic film against the chocolate and let it sit at room temperature overnight.
Assembly:
- If the cakes are frozen, take out of freezer about 1 hour before assembly. Cakes are easier to slice when slightly firm from the freezer.
- Using either a cake ring or a cardboard circle as a guide, trim the circumference of the cake to 7′. With a long-serrated cake knife, slice any top dome off the cake. Save tops for snacking. Slice each cake into two slices.
- Reserve 1 ½ cups of ganache for piping on the cake.
- Place a sponge cake layer on the cardboard cake circle, or a cake plate. Spread the raspberry jam over the cake layer. Spread a â…›” thick layer of ganache over the jam.
- Place a chocolate chiffon layer on the ganache, and press down lightly.
- Continue with another layer of sponge cake, ganache, and the final chocolate chiffon layer.
- Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of ganache and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Ice the top and sides of the cake with ganache. Pipe rosettes or stars along the edge. Set aside 2 hours at room temperature for ganache to set.
- Melt the milk chocolate and fill in a parchment paper cone. Write greeting on top of cake.
- Alternatively, use birthday greeting letters available in the supermarket cake decorating section.
