An international staple…Birthday Cake!

A very good friend of mine asked me to make the birthday cake for her eight year old son. I was a bit nervous at first because I haven’t really decorated a cake all by myself before. I have always had some help in that department. Baking? BRING IT ON!!! Decorating? um… I am very critical of my own work even though people have told me that my creations are excellent (I make hand made cards too) so when I she told me that her son would love a Transformers themed cake I thought I had my work cut out for me…

Because it turned out ok I decided to add it to the blog so I can share it with the world. The lettering was a little crooked but other than that I was able to pull it off brilliantly. I made a vanilla cake, with some substitutions since I hate to give kids a very unhealthy treat, and decorated with buttercream, fondant and M&M’s… talk about a sugar high! I searched high and low for a cake that I thought I could make without having to use the Transformers cake mold that my local bakery supply store rents because, as usual, I like to keep things as home made as possible. (And, maybe, to complicate my life a little more! Lol!).

Recipe: Vanilla Cake
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 1/2c. flour (I used whole wheat myself)
1 cup milk (I used skim… ofcourse!)
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup apple sauce
2 1/4tsp. baking powder
1tsp. vanilla

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Prepare a 9×13-inch rectangular baking pan by either lining with parchment paper and then greasing the paper and the sides well OR using Wilton’s cake release directly on the pan.
In large mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs together for about a minute with an electric mixer until slightly thickened. Add the remaining ingredients and beat for another minute just until the batter is smooth and creamy. Don’t over beat! Pour batter into the prepared baking pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until tops are golden and a toothpick poked into the centre comes out clean. Losen the sides of the cake from the pan with a thin knife (if you used the cake release you will have no need to do that but I still suggest it just in case), then turn out onto a rack and peel off the paper if you used it. Let cool completely before decorating, if desired.

Notes: When I went looking for the ingredients, like the fondant, M&M’s, the cardboard “stand”, etc. The sales clerk told me about the Wilton’s cake release, always wanting to try new things and thinking that it sounded interesting, I decided to get some. It was a bit easier to grease the pan with it, (use a coffee filter to do that, think about it, those filters are meant to be used for something that you will ingest… paper towels are not so you’re not sure what kind of chemicals you may be transferring unto your food) and it came out of the pan like a charm! If you’re going to be making more than, let’s say, 2 cakes a year, I think it would be a good addition to your baking arsenal!
The recipe called for more oil but adding apple sauce instead will make it nice and moist too without the added fat. The icing is made from butter and sugar so trying to cut the fat out of the cake is a good idea, if you so wish. Also, because of the sugar in the icing I also cut back the sugar in the recipe to half. (originally it called for 2 cups.)
I coloured and rolled out the fondant and cut out the pieces of the mask with a very sharp paring knife. It was the best alternative that I could find, I’m not a professional so not sure what they use for intricate work but this seemed to work. I just printed a mask from the internet, cut it out and used it to trace the pieces out. Same with the lettering for the name. The only thing I was very critical off was the lettering for “Happy Eighth” but oh well… not much to be done there.

All in all I really enjoyed it, and practice does make perfect! So I will definitely keep making cakes! This was much fun! However, my priority is still going to be my international recipes… next stop…. Iraq! Stayed tuned!