Birthday Cake

Yesterday I played the host for a birthday party! Of course, being the host and all, I had to provide the food, so I'm giving you 3 tries to guess what I made. "Cake, cake and cake" - you are correct! I wanted the cake to look like an old-fashioned, all-American birthday cake. The first things that pop into mind when I think of a birthday cake, are colorful sprinkles and glacé cherries. So I used just that. But the coolest part of the cake is that it's a double layer cake, with one vanilla and one chocolate layer. And I don't mean the top layer is vanilla and the bottom layer chocolate (or vice versa). Nope. Something much cooler! Scroll down to see!

Birthday Cake recipe: adapted from Martha Stewart - Baking Handbook & Nigella Lawson - Feast

Chocolate Cake recipe: Nigella Lawson - Feast >> Click Here

Yellow Cake recipe: adapted from Martha Stewart - Baking Handbook

Ingredients:
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup cake flour (not self-rising)
- ½ tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons milk

Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans. Into a medium bowl, sift together flours, baking powder and salt; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in two parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour.
- Make Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Cake recipe.
- Spoon tablespoons of the yellow cake batter into a prepared cake pan, making sure it only covers one half of the pan. Do the same with the prepared chocolate cake batter. Repeat this process with the other prepared pan.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the cake pulls away from the pan. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pan and let cool completely.
- Using a serrated knife, trim the tops of the cakes to make level. Place one layer on a cake plate, and spread top with 1 ½ cups Dark Chocolate Frosting. Place the other cake layer on top. Spread the entire cake with whipped cream.

Dark Chocolate Frosting recipe: adapted from Martha Stewart - Baking Handbook

Ingredients:
- 400 grams semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons boiling water
- ¾ cup (1 ½ stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¼ cup confectioners' sugar
- Pinch of salt

Instructions:
- Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water. Stir occasionally until chocolate has melted completely.
- Combine cocoa powder and boiling water; stir until cocoa is dissolved.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter, confectioners' sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add melted chocolate. Beat in the cocoa mixture.

Other ingredients for decorating:
- 2 cups cream, whipped
- 20 glacé cherries


Thankfully the cake batters weren't very runny, else I couldn't have done this.

The cakes baked, cooled and leveled.

Place on top of each other (crosswise) and having a yummy dark chocolate frosting in between!

And ta-da! A very happy and colorful birthday cake.

The first slice just happend to be where the cake colors combined, so you get a good view of the checkerboard.

Ow yeah :D!!!