Birthday Cake Details

18th August 2007

posted in Recipes, Food, How-To |

EmmaH asked for the details about my guy’s birthday cake , so here they are!

First, the recipes. This is the recipe I use to make chocolate cake. It is so fast, simple, and delicious that I’m not sure you’ll ever look to boxed cake mixes again for chocolate cake.

This is the recipe for the frosting. Mine tasted fabulous and fluffy in the bowl, but I think I had to play with it too much for the cake, and it got pretty dense again. Reading the reviews, I think it may work out better with a higher fat milk (we use 1%).

So, first I made the cakes and cooled them.

Then, I stuck them together with a bit of the frosting. It looked like a giant oreo. And I think that if you figured out a way to make a marshmallow-y frosting, you could just put all of it between two chocolate cakes and have an “oreo cake.” Mmm…

Now, I stink at frosting cakes. A LOT. Every time I see someone frosting a cake on TV I stop and watch, trying to get the secret that I just don’t know.
Alton Brown and Emeril (and probably everyone else in the world, really) do a “crumb coat” which is a thin coating of icing designed to be the ugly inner coat that has all the cake crumbs in it, so your outer coat of icing can be pristine and white. I tried it. And stuck it in the fridge to “set.”

(Note the sexy girl beer bottle behind the cake in the fridge. That’s “Coco Conception” beer brewed by my brother in law. It’s really tasty, with smooth chocolate undertones!)

Then, once the cake was totally cool and the frosting was somewhat not-sticky, I took it back out to hopefully do a pretty layer. I piled the rest of the frosting on the cake, and tried to spread it around. I think I had to mess with it too much though, and the air got pushed out, because it ended up pretty dense with a strong butter flavor… which isn’t ALL bad, but it’s not ideal.

Once I had it all spread out, I decorated the top with some sprinkles and decorating frosting I had on hand.

Can you give me some tips for cake-frosting? Or amazing no-fail frosting recipes? I think I may be hopeless when it comes to frosting cakes… maybe I should stick with piping icing onto cupcakes or something.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 18th, 2007 at 8:07 am and is filed under Recipes, Food, How-To. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On August 19th, 2007, EmmaH said:

Thanks!

I’m fairly new to baking, and I’ve never made frosting. When I get my camera repaired I’ll make this cake and attempt to frost it!

posted on August 19th, 2007 at 4:00 am

2 On August 19th, 2007, admin said:

Very cool. I hope it works out for you!

Also, I think I needed to let the cakes cool MORE than I did before trying to frost… I think it sort of melted the icing some. Maybe I’ll let them cool overnight next time.

posted on August 19th, 2007 at 6:42 am

3 On August 20th, 2007, Wendy said:

I wish I knew a secret to icing perfection but that is definitely an area where I do not excel. When (not if) you discover this secret will you pretty please tell me?

posted on August 20th, 2007 at 5:03 pm

4 On August 20th, 2007, admin said:

Wendy, if I discover the secret, I will tell the WORLD!

posted on August 20th, 2007 at 6:23 pm

5 On August 26th, 2007, Devilish Southern Belle said:

I suck at frosting cakes…no matter what I try. But that beer? Sounds delish! Does he sell it anywhere?

posted on August 26th, 2007 at 11:15 am

6 On August 26th, 2007, admin said:

DSB… he doesn’t sell it to the public. Just to us! haha. He’s a beginning beer brewer, and it’s sort of a hobby.

If you’re near Auburn University, maybe… haha.

posted on August 26th, 2007 at 11:44 am

7 On January 7th, 2008, NIecie said:

I know this is really old and you probably won’t even know I’m commenting but I just had to say… instead of putting all the icing on top and then smoothing it around you should scoop it out with your spatula (I use the rubbery things, but I’m not sure what they’re really called) and spread it like that and just keep scooping what you need when you need it. That might keep down the over working of the icing. I kinda think putting all of it right on top before icing it and spreading only works if you have one of those funny knife like metal things for icing cakes and a bionic wrist cuz noone with all human parts can do some of the stuff emeril does.

posted on January 7th, 2008 at 11:58 am

8 On January 7th, 2008, Joyful Abode said:

Niece, I think you’re right… I should get one of those metal icing spatulas. I used a knife with the last cake I made and it worked a LOT better than using the rubber spatula. I bet one of those flat metal ones would be the best.

posted on January 7th, 2008 at 4:36 pm

9 On January 9th, 2008, Niecie said:

I’ve been meaning to get one of those myself… I have dreams of decorating an awesome beautiful, professional looking cake everytime I bake one. And then I’m done and take a look and I think I overestimate my skills, lol.

posted on January 9th, 2008 at 3:35 pm

10 On February 18th, 2008, Shaky said:

I decorate cakes for all occasions, I mostly do fondant covered cakes though.Using one of those knives do wonders! when you are done frosting just submerge the knife in hot water and remove the excess of water and finish one last time frosting like that.
Definitely allow the cake to cool off completely before frosting.

posted on February 18th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

11 On August 3rd, 2008, Renée said:

I have this frosting, that just comes out smooth everytime I use it.
It’s a recipe that belongs together with a chocolate cake, but I’m to lazy right now to look up the recipe of the cake.
For the icing, you just need a same amount of dark chocolate and creme fraîche. Just melt the chocolate and add the creme fraîche.
Just make sure you let the cake cool down before you put on the icing, as the icing tends to melt and drip of the cake when it’s still hot.
The icing goes great together with my chocolate cake recipe, as the cake is very very sweet, because the icing has a bit of the biterness of the dark chocolate and some sourness (not sure if it’s with double s though :p) of the creme fraiche, if you know what I mean.
I spread the icing with a regular table spoon, don’t have a special tool for that.
Let me know when you tried it!

posted on August 3rd, 2008 at 12:59 pm