birthday cake for the birthday girl

I love birthdays. It doesn't have to be my own, any birthday will do, as I'm not picky in the least. Birthdays equal fun times, friends, family, laughter and best of all, cake. Presents are nice too, but cake, well, you can't beat cake. Today is my birthday and you better believe that I've baked myself a nice cake. It may look a little crufty around the edges but a nice soft blob of whipping cream will hide the dark cruft nicely. When dinnertime rolls around, you can bet that I'll be cutting myself a nice fat slice. After reading Molly's book, A Homemade Life, I knew that her Winning Hearts & Minds cake would make it to my birthday table. I'm not going to post the recipe here since you can read it on Orangette, or better yet, get yourself a copy of her book. Judging by scent alone, this cake is going to be great!

But I don't want you to leave this post empty handed. I want to give you all a nice bit of cake, so I am posting a recipe I made for my mother-in-law's birthday a couple of weeks ago. It looks a bit rustic, but don't let that stop you from taking a second helping. The original recipe called for an 11 inch cake tin but all I had was an 8 inch one. I poured as much batter that would fit into the tin & then made one muffin (a tester!). I was worried about a spill over with all that batter packed into such a small tin, but despite some over-zealous bubbling, things turned out well.

This cake is perfect for a casual celebration. It's quick to whip up and it's utterly unfussy in the best way. This cake is bursting with strawberries (but you could easily sub in raspberries, blackberries or blueberries) and there is a sprinkle of raw sugar and a kiss of salt over top for a surprise crunch. It's not too sweet so that you can easily convince yourself that this makes the most ideal breakfast in the world....even when especially when topped with whipping cream and homemade strawberry sauce. As for the salt, I couldn't really taste it at all, so it's up to you to bump up the salt, or leave it out entirely. So celebrate your birthday or someone else's with cake, it's easy to find a reason to celebrate.

salt-kissed strawberry cake
(adapted from 101 Cookbooks)
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 c brown sugar
zest of 1 large orange
1/2 t salt
2 eggs
1 c yogurt
1/4 c butter, melted and cooled a bit
1 c of strawberries, roughly chopped (more if you like)
3 T large grain raw sugar
1 t kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Butter and flour an 11 inch cake tin.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and zest and set aside. In another bowl, beat together the eggs and then stir in the yogurt and butter. Add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix lightly until combined.

3. Pour* batter into prepared tin and drop strawberries into the cake. Smush them a bit to let the juices run if you wish. Sprinkle the tops with the raw sugar and a light dusting of the salt. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden. Serve with whipping cream and strawberry sauce. Or eat plain.

* Batter will not be runny by any means. Pour is more like "plop".

life is better with cake & beer: red ale & chocolate cake

When I first spotted Nigella's recipe for Guinness cake I was excited. Surely this would be the cake to rival all cakes. But I kept putting it aside since I'm an IPA drinker and my husband will drink whatever is cheap (ie. pils). We just never have Guinness in the house. But then after a Boxing Day gathering, someone left a Chocolate Stout in our fridge. It was then I decided that I'd give that Nigella recipe a whirl as Cornelius' birthday cake. But then, that stout was taken to a friend's house for New Years and it was out of our life for good. So when yesterday rolled around, the illustrious day of my husband's birth, all I had in my fridge was some deep red Maple Cream Ale from a local brewer. Maple Cream had to do and I whipped up the cake lickety-split!

This recipe makes a lovely cake because it's tasty and it's one of those one-pot wonders. Dump everything into a pot and it turns out awesome. Yes, the cake is super delicious, uber-moist (I think Nigella sighs over the word "damp") and looked so frothy topped with a sturdy cream cheese-whipped cream head.

I've never really followed a Nigella Lawson recipe too closely. I've made her eggplant Involtini and a couple salad recipes, but I've never tackled a baking recipe. All of those grams and millilitres frighten even my metric ass! But I did purchase a kitchen scale last summer and decided to put it to use yesterday. Measuring out the ingredients was very satisfying and made me feel like the pro I'm not. The only thing that was a bit vague in her recipe was her directions for frosting. I don't think she mentions to whip the cream, but I did. I wanted to be sure that the frosting that topped this showpiece would stand proud and after a stiff beating, it did. I had achieved frosting perfection.


Some modifications, of course. Besides the beer switcheroo, I used yogurt instead of sour cream. I also didn't use the measurements for the frosting listed below. I used what I had....a 250 g tub of cream cheese, half of a large container of heavy cream and enough sugar to make it sweet but not too sweet. I also threw in some vanilla just to add a bit more flavour. For the cake pan, Nigella doesn't specify what size, but I used 1 kind of small and 1 medium sized spring form pan. They filled up nicely and having 2 different sizes is great because, Cornelius and I can share the small one and the larger one can be transported to a friend's house for a celebration there! 2 cakes for the price of 1!


red ale & chocolate cake
250 ml maple cream ale (or Guinness or another stout or deep coloured ale)
250 g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
75 g cocoa
400 g white sugar
142 ml yogurt
2 eggs
1 T vanilla extract
275 g flour
2 1/2 t baking soda

Frosting:
300 g cream cheese
150 g icing sugar
1 t vanilla
125 ml heavy cream

1. In a large pot, melt the butter in the beer. When it's all good and melted, add in the sugar and sift in the cocoa. Remove from head and let cool for a couple of minutes. In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt and eggs and vanilla and then dump into beer pot. Mix. Add in flour and baking soda, whisking well until combined.

2. Butter and flour a round spring form pan and pour in batter. Place in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes or so. The size of pan you use will determine the baking time. Let cake cool for a bit before removing the spring form pan. Cool completely on a wire rack.

3. Combine cream cheese, vanilla, and icing sugar in one bowl. In a separate bowl, whip cream until stiff. Gently add the whipped cream to the cream cheese mixture and whip lightly until combined. Gob on frosting to the top of the cake. It should look like beer head so don't get fancy. Stick a candle in it, raise a glass and sing a song!

birthday cake

Well, birthday week 2007 has just about come to an end, I think. But I'm okay with that because I've got cake in the fridge to last for a few days more (maybe) and a bountiful supply of fresh lemon curd and a delicious dark chocolate ganache to keep those birthday memories kickin'. The cake I made was outstanding. As planned, I followed the Martha Stewart yellow cake recipe to the letter. It turned out wonderfully moist and flavourful and I'd make it again in a heartbeat. I did make a lemon curd filling, but decided not to use Martha's recipe because I prefer recipes using whole eggs rather than just yolks. Instead, I found this version which not only met my whole egg requirement, but it was sweet, sweet perfection. Tart, lemony and way too easy to eat up with a spoon! And for the rich chocolate topping, I halved the Martha recipe, subbed in my favorite Dark Ritter Sport bars for the chocolate chips, and even after topping the cake, still had enough ganache to last a long, long while.



If you are putting this together, you can make everything 1 day in advance...just make sure everything is tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated. Just don't put everything together until the next day.