Barney & Thomas the Train Cake

This post is way long overdue. We celebrated the kids' birthday couple of months back; K-girl hit the big ONE, while K-boy turned 3. Nothing too fancy, just an intimate celebration with the family & the cake with their favourite on it.

Initially I wanted to bake K-girl a birthday cake but I didn't have the time as it was just few days after my business trip to Europe. So we ended up with a Barney jelly cake, which we ordered from our favourite supplier in Taman Desa. The jelly cake was homemade, fresh, not overly coloured with food colouring, and it's not too sweet. And of course the little girl was really happy to see it.

As for K-boy, I promised him I will make him a Thomas the train cake. However, I didn't attempt a 3D cake for him. Just googled for some ideas and came up with a 2D design & with the help of a die-cast Thomas train. It was after this session, I understood how tedious 3D cake/figurine modelling could be as I was going dizzy with just 2D design and it took me a good 10 hours to complete the cake from baking to decorating it.

The result of 10 hours labour of love



And we have a very happy birthday boy!

The cake was a moist chocolate cake, layered with whipped vanilla frosting adapted from sweetapolita.com

Whipped Vanilla Frosting Recipe:

 

What You'll Need:

 

2-1/2 cups (5 sticks)(575 grams) unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes

5-1/4 cups (600 grams) confectioners’ sugar, sifted

4-1/2 tablespoons (70 mL) milk

1-1/2 tablespoons (23 mL) pure vanilla extract

pinch or two of salt

How To:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter for about 8 minutes on medium speed. Butter will become very pale & creamy.
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix on low-speed for 1 minute, then on medium speed for 6 minutes. Frosting will be very light, creamy, and fluffy.
3. Best used right away (for ideal spreading consistency), but keeps well once frosted.

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Devil's Food Cake: A Moist Chocolate Cake

A search for a moist chocolate cake recipe is definitely not easy, especially when you have to bake it and test it out for yourself if the moistness claimed is as per what you are expecting it to be. What more, when hubby suggested to have chocolate cake as my mother in law's birthday cake. Pressure is on, and the frantic search began. Tried two recipes but they ended up in a disaster.

I was at the verge of giving up till I was browsing through this book, The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri. I was pretty impressed by the way he put the book together - writing his experiences in baking along the way and filled with detailed instructions which are hard to come by these days which is one reason why I seldom buy recipes books from the bookstore anymore. However, this book is an exceptional, and I'm so going to keep this book.

So, I was looking at other recipes initially, till this title and photo caught my eyes

Pretty isn't it? Too bad, my dressing skills are not that good yet, so I dressed it with fondant. 

And this is how my cake looks like... nowhere near the professional done-up cake. :p

Anyway, this is the recipe:

Devil's Food Cake

Makes one 9-inch (23-cm) 2-layer cake, about 12 servings

CAKE BATTER

• 1¾ cups all-purpose flour (spoon flour into a dry-measure cup and level off)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 ¼ cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 3 ounces (75 grams) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• ¾ cup milk or buttermilk
• Two 9-inch (23-cm) round cake pans, 2 inches (5 cm) deep, buttered and the bottoms lined with disks of parchment or buttered wax paper cut to fit

Author's Note:

"This is an American classic, and this is about the best recipe I’ve ever come up with for it.

A devil’s food cake should be very chocolatey and also very moist, two qualities that don’t often coincide in this type of cake. Using brown sugar here makes all the difference—it makes the cake super moist and also boosts the chocolate flavor."

How To: 

1. Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350°F (180°C).

2. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and stir well to mix.

3. Combine the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat with the paddle on medium speed until lightened in color and texture, 3 to 4 minutes.

4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in the cooled chocolate.

5. Decrease the mixer speed to lowest and add 1⁄3 of the flour mixture. Stop and scrape down the bowl and paddle.

6. Beat in half the milk and stop and scrape the bowl and beater.

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 adding half of the flour and the remaining milk. Stop and scrape. Beat in the remaining flour mixture.

8. Increase the speed to medium and beat the batter continuously for 3 minutes.

9. Divide the batter equally between the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake the layers until they are well risen and feel firm when pressed in the centre with a fingertip, 25 to 30 minutes.

10. Cool in the pans on racks for 5 minutes, then unmold, turn right side up again and cool completely on racks.

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Double Chocolate Cake Loaf

This recipe was adapted from BBC Good Food, my "official" favourite recipe site (ever since I found the yummy New York Cheese Cake recipe from them) as they have loads of yummy tested recipes! Even my hubby commented that this cake is some great stuff!

Double Chocolate Cake Loaf

Now, here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS
* 175g softened butter , plus extra for greasing
* 155g caster sugar
* 3 eggs
* 140g self-raising flour
* 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 100ml milk
* 4 tbsp cocoa powder
* 50g plain chocolate chips or chunks

Method

Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Grease and line a 2lb/900g loaf tin with a long strip of baking parchment. To make the loaf cake batter, beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, flour, baking powder, milk and cocoa until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips, then scrape into the tin. Bake for 45-50 mins until golden, risen and a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.

For full original recipe, click here.

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