I hardly ever get the chance to make a big cake and I offered to make a birthday cake for my friend. Her little princess just turned 1 and I offered to make her a Princess Cake! I'm really pleased with how it came out. There were a few bumps along the way but I got it right in the end!
The cake itself is made from a cupcake mold from William-Sonoma
I decided to make a devil's food cake and the bottom frosted with chocolate and the top vanilla.
Moist Devil's Food Cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart (this makes A LOT of batter for a regular cake cut it in half)
Ingredients
3 cups (6 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for pans
1 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder, plus more for pans
1 cup boiling water
4 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
8 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 cups sifted cake flour, not self-rising
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cup milk
1. Heat oven to 350 F/180 C degrees. Grease and flour cupcake cake pan. Sift cocoa into a medium bowl, and whisk in 1 cup boiling water. Set aside to cool.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on low speed until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat in sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down sides twice. Beat in vanilla. Drizzle in eggs, a little at a time, beating between each addition until the batter is no longer slick, scraping down the sides twice.
3. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk milk into reserved cocoa mixture.
There was so much batter that before I added the chocolate and the flour I transferred the butter mixture to my big soup pot.
4. Divide batter evenly among the 2 sections of cake mold. Leave some space at the top.
After they cool down the bottoms should be trimmed if necessary so the two pieces fit together nicely. I put them in the freezer after this and made the icing the next day.
Dark Chocolate Frosting
from Martha Stewart Cupcakes (I halved the recipe)
Ingredients
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon boiling water
1 1/8 cups (4 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/8 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/8 teaspoon salt
340g best-quality semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
Combine cocoa and the boiling water, stirring until cocoa has dissolved. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add melted and cooled chocolate, beating until combined and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in the cocoa mixture.
It's about 10pm and I don't realize until the next morning that this is actually upside down
Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream
from Martha Stewart Cupcakes
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
1 pounds icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pink gel food coloring
1. With an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium-high until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.
2. Reduce speed to medium. Add the icing sugar ½ cup at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed; after every two additions, raise speed to high and beat 10 seconds to aerate the frosting, then return to medium. This should take about 5 minutes. Frosting will be pale and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla and beat until frosting is smooth, add small amount of pink gel food coloring to achieve the shade of pink desired, and beat until color shows through.
I chose a star tip to decorate the top part
I got this cute little E for Elle online
This is the finished cake at around 11pm and I thought it looked a little funny like a Christmas tree more than a cupcake. I woke up the next morning to an email from my know it all sister saying it was wrong. I'd sent her a photo before I'd gone to bed. Luckily, I had enough time to very carefully remove the top with a cake spatula, flip the bottom over, touch up the chocolate and touch up the stars on the bottom when I put the top back on.
The completed cake the next morning! The cake also survived a trip on the DLR in the morning. Little Elle had her party today. I hope she enjoyed it!
