The birthday cake of all birthday cakes

The cooking experience that inspired this blog was making a birthday cake for my brother's partner Holly's 30th birthday party. I remember having a birthday party around 10 or 11 years old and my friend's Nanna made me a heart-shaped cake with buttercream icing and marshmallow flowers. It was the ultimate cake to me at the time and I have never forgotten it, although I now remember only 2 of the friends who came to the party and have long forgotten any presents I received. My mother still talks about the cake that she got for my Dad's 40th birthday, a chocolate sponge with cream and I think strawberries, which one of their friends decided would make great food-fight ammunition, provoking an all-out war with everyone covered in cake and laughing til they cried. I know a lot of people have precious memories of certain cakes and I hoped to make something memorable for Holly's special day.


The party was to start in the afternoon and guests were mostly going to be Holly's family, most of whom I had not met, and their kids who range from almost 4 years old to (I thought) about 10 years old. I was told there would be about 25 people there but had no idea who liked what sort of food, how many kids with what kind of allergies (the dreaded spectre of peanut-allergy makes me want to take out insurance!). I also had no real clue as to what colours or flavours Holly herself liked.


So, I set about reading through my cookbooks and checking out ideas on the web, with the idea that I wanted to do cupcakes for the kids and a big cake for the adults. The best of both worlds, I thought, since I had images of sugar-crazed children falling into a chocolate coma if i fed them the kind of cake I wanted to make for adults. I drew some sketches of my ideas with different colour schemes and designs, and settled on a pink and green theme as its looks striking and not too gender-specific, plus I was fairly confident that I could easily get materials in these colours from the supermarket. I decided to make milk chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache icing for the kids, decorated with marshmallow flowers and leaves. the main cake was a double batch of my chocolate cream cheese swirl brownie recipe, with chocolate ganache icing, decorated with pink and green lotus candles. I thought I had seen the type of candles I wanted in a shop recently. I thought...


I couldn't find the candles anywhere, so I went to my local discount store and bought a bunch of bright pink fake flowers and some green flower candles. I pulled 3 of the fake flowers off their stems, cut out the plastic stamens in the middle and balanced the candles inside the flowers. Perfect! I wanted to present the big cake surrounded by the cupcakes, but did not have anything that was big enough and light enough to work well. In the end I used a wooden serving tray with handles, covered in foil, for the large cake, and transported the cupcakes in their muffin tins for stability. It was a warm day and I could not cover the cakes and was not sure what would happen if I refrigerated them, so I had to time it well so the icing would not sweat but I would have completed the cakes in time for the party.


The pictures I have posted attempt to show the different stages of production of the cakes. To make marshmallow flowers I bought good quality normal-sized marshmallows (I could only get pink and white together) and cut them in half horizontally using a large sharp knife in a smooth firm downwards motion. You need 4 halves for 1 flower. After this I pinched each piece together to make a leaf shape, pressing quite firmly on the corners so they stick together and strecthing it out a bit as I went. After pinching all the pieces into shape I dipped them cut-side down into strawberry jelly crystals (Black & Gold brand), pushing them gently into the crystals to ensure they stuck on. To assemble on the cooled, iced cupcakes I wet the back of a teaspoon with a little warm water and rubbed it gently over the set ganache to make a patch about the size of a 50 cent piece. Then I pushed the marshmallow petals firmly into the ganache. They are surprisingly resilient so I did not have to be too delicate. This made 6 flower cupcakes.

For the leaves I cut one half of each marshmallow slightly smaller than the other (about 1/3) to allow a better looking design. You need 1 half for each leaf, with 2 leaves on each cake. Then I pinched the pieces to make a leaf shape and dipped them cut-side down into lime jelly crystals (Black & Gold brand). I used the same method as for the flowers to secure the leaves on the cakes. This also made 6 cupcakes.


The main cake was fairly straightforward, although working with such large quantities of butter, cream cheese and chocolate left me with sore arms and a kitchen coated in yummy but waist-line threatening mess. I could not get the smell of chocolate out of my nostrils for about 6 hours after I'd made the cakes. The smartest thing I did was to cover the baking dish in foil (less mess) and line the bottom with baking paper to make sure the cake didn't stick as it has done in the past. I did use a wooden skewer to test if the cake was done as it really is a more accurate predictor than just touching the top or using a knife. Its really important to let the brownie mix cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes or you will end up with only half a cake on the wire cooling rack. I speak from experience here, being over-eager is a BAD idea. I put the cooked and slightly cooled cake straight into the freezer/fridge for about 1 hour, it seems to make it go really fudgy and dense. 

Cream cheese sugar and vanilla mix, before adding eggs.

Chocolate cream cheese cake batter, ready for the oven

The finished product!

I think wherever possible its best to use good quality DARK chocolate for cooking as it makes recipes taste more like chocolate and less like sugar. The cheap compound cooking chocolate is not worth it, it seizes more easily or burns, it doesn't melt evenly and it sweats more too. I use Nestle Plaistowe cooking chocolate, although I have had reasonable success in using the Woolworths Select brand.


I think the secret to my success was having music that I love playing really loud while I was cooking, having time and pleasure in my task and not being too attached to the result. I figured if it all went pear-shaped I would stop by the Cheesecake Shop and buy a cake on the way to the party and no-one would have minded either way. 


I guess it went down well as Holly's grandfather proposed to me, the cake disappeared in a flash and the kids demolished the cupcakes (although I think most of them only ate the marshallow decorations and the chocolate icing!). Can't wait for the next challenge!