i baked my son’s birthday cake for our family’s dinner. i used a recipe sent by a listener (thanks dawn!) for a coconut cake. i just used the cake layers from the recipe because they were vanilla and had no coconut but i bet this whole cake is delicious. and the drama i had over icing. yikes.
here are the ingredients for the cake- which is very involved. i had to make vanilla pudding and whip some whipping cream to be added to the batter before baking. and i ended up using ready made buttermilk instead of the powder which look curdled when added with water. (and that’s because i shouldn’t have added it to water!)
homemade pudding.
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batter oven ready.
trying to level the cake!
working on the italian meringue (which then with added butter turns to buttercream).
thinking i’ve succeeded!
until i added the butter. ewwww.
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so then i started again and made buttercream frosting which turned out great.
so i frosted the layers but ran out of icing.
guess who came to the rescue.
and here is finished (finally) birthday cake! of course i had to decorate it.
and i packed up 3 pieces of the cake for alexis, chrissy and paulie.
i baked hazelnut biscotti for alexis.
and about to go into the oven for first bake.
and after second bake. (they are done!)
also took a hip hop dance class yesterday…who’s the loser who showed up first (and early)?!
xxx
jennifer
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The cake looks good. Wonder how it would taste with the combination of frostings. I always wanted to take a hip-hop class, but I think at 37 I would be laughed at.
Hip hop?
When making an italian Meringue, you have to add the butter really slowly, and if it starts to look lumpy, just keep whipping it. It will smooth out. I make a Nutella buttercream that does exactly the same thing your’s did and after about 8 minutes, it smoothed out again. Persevere!
Yeah, you could have saved that first buttercream. Sometimes it also curdles like that if the butter is too cold–you can pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time and then beat until it becomes smooth.
I think the buttercream would’ve been fine if you just kept whipping it. I think that happened because the butter wasn’t the right temp. Does your family like any other flavors? You seem to make a lot of vanilla cakes. The biscotti sound yummy.
The cake looks great and your cookies too! I am glad to see you back in the kitchen and baking for your family 🙂 You are so brave to even do a hip hop dance class I would look like a fool! Happy annieversary! To many more.
The cake looks great. Remember to try one of Martha’s creamcheese frosting receipes in the future for the cupcakes. The one with butter is a favorite at my office. Extra uses for the leftover frosting. Frost some graham crackers and make sandwich cookies, plain or cinnamon sugar. YUMMY! I like Alexis’ idea too with a toasted bagel, use it as a smear. YUMMY! You can prepare the frosting a head of time and leep it in the fridge. Just pull it onto the counter to warm up before frosting. Keeps for weeks in the fridge.
Yay! It worked! Looks good and the biscotti looks wonderful. Happy Birthday, Jacob. Hope you enjoy your Hip Hop class, sounds like fun.
two things on the buttercream
make sure your egg/sugar mixture and butter are at the same temperature when you incorporate them and you shouldn’t have the curdling problem….but if you do, I’ve put the curdled mixture bowl over a saucepan with simmering water and heated it up a bit, then back to the mixer to beat the crap out of it…..you may need to refrigerate after it’s incorporated, but it should smooth out!
I am laughing over your drama with the frosting. It’s just too funny. My god.
I agree with everyone about your buttercream being
salvageable. I do think you could have beaten your
meringue to a more medium peak, instead of the soft peak yours was at.
Looks like you are keeping very busy! Loved the post!
I had the same problem with my buttercream this week!. I was folowing a recipe from Perfect Ckaes by Nick Malgieri. He warned that the buttercream would look like it had curdled, but to keep beating it for another 5 minutes. It totally came back together!
I had made a batch earlier in the day which I thought was ruined. I put it in the fridge because I felt bad wasting all that butter. I decided to put it back in the mixer just to see what would happen and it totally came out great!
what is “Arabic Hip Hop” anyway? Just curious…
Jennifer you are great. Enjoying your blog all the baking stories. Don’t ya just love the kids. What a joy they are and they grow-up so FAST. Enjoy every minute with them.
Hey Jennifer. GO check out this youtube video. Shows you how to make the frosting you are trying to make. Hope it helps you!!
Jennifer if you kept beating the Italian Meringue it would have come together. Either that or your butter was too cold when you added it. Next time try Swiss Meringue buttercream from Martha’s Baking Book. And if it looks curdled either keep beating or place the bowl over simmering water for a few minutes, then mix.
Jennifer,
I find it better to frost the sides of the cake first and then the top. Never seem to run out of frosting that way. Also, do not be too generous with the middle layer…..:)
Happy Baking!!
I see you use DH. I know you’re trying to bake/cook more from scratch, but if you ever need a cake in a pinch or want to WOW the kids . . . bake a DH devils food choc cake, use the DH whipped fluffy white between layers & frost the sides & top w/whipped choc. Use leftover white for embelishments (like on Jacobs cake). This is BETTER than a Ho-ho! Cut small pieces though, it’s very very rich. Oh, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t go w/WW. :o)