from Kris B.
Classic Birthday Cake
Despite the fact that we have had three family birthdays in the last month, we had no birthday cake! It seems a strange phenomenon with a family full of bakers. I guess it is because homemade baked goods are normal in our family. And, we often go out for birthday celebrations. My oldest daughter wanted pizza from our local pizza shop for her birthday dinner. By the time she had indulged in eggplant parmesan pizza there was no room for dessert. We celebrated my youngest daughter’s birthday at a Turkish restaurant and sampled their ethnic sweet treats after our main course. And for my birthday, our family celebration was over brunch (our favorite meal) so, I had pancakes rather than birthday cake. All was good. As I said, it just seems a bit strange to have all these birthdays and no cake!
As I was perusing the King Arthur Flour website on the first day of the new year, I found that they have declared this recipe, The Classic Birthday Cake as their recipe of the year for 2019. Honestly, I didn’t know that yellow cake with chocolate frosting was a “classic” birthday cake, but it is my favorite kind of iced cake. I’m not a huge fan of iced layer cakes in terms of making or eating them. They are often too sweet to eat. And when I try to frost multi-layer cakes, my kitchen often looks like a monkey was allowed to run amok with finger paint! Frosting ends up everywhere; I’m not even sure how that happens!
With all that said, however, since King Arthur Flour named this as their recipe of the year and since if I am going to eat a frosted layer cake this is the one I’d want to eat, I decided to give it a go, a bleated birthday cake for me, I suppose.
BATTER INGREDIENTS:
- King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour OR Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour
- salt
- baking powder
- eggs
- granulated sugar
- vanilla extract
- almond extract; optional
- milk (whole milk preferred)
- butter, cut into pats
- vegetable oil
As I said, I don’t make many cakes like this. I’d forgotten how simple cakes really are to mix up. The dry ingredients, minus the sugar, are mixed together in a small bowl. The eggs, sugar, vanilla, and extracts are then beat together in an electric mixer. Once these ingredients are thickened and become a light golden color, the dry ingredients are mixed in.
In a saucepan, the milk is heated just to a simmer. The oil and butter are stirred in. Once the butter has completed melted, this mixture is stirred, by hand, into the batter.
The batter is then divided evenly into two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans that have been greased and parchment lined. One of my biggest fears when making layer cakes is that the cake will stick. I sprayed my pans and cut circles of parchment from my pre-cut baking sheet liners. Unfortunately, it took two of these sheets for my two round pans. Another important thing when making a layer cake is having equal layers. I did fill my pans using a kitchen scale. The recipe suggests that each pan should contain 580 grams of batter. Mine were 584 grams each.
The size of your pan affects the baking time. The suggested baking time for 9 inch layers is 26-30 minutes. I ended up baking mine for 34 minutes before the inserted toothpick came out clean. Confession time: I don’t normally use a thermometer with baked good, though I did just order a fancy probe thermometer from King Arthur, which has not arrived yet. I’ll let you know how I like it once I’ve worked with it for a while.
Once the cake layers are baked, carefully loosen them from the sides of the pan. Mine pulled away so I had no issues here. Let them cool in the pans for 15 minutes before removing them and letting them cool completely, top side up, on cooling racks.
Then it’s time for painting on the frosting!
FROSTING INGREDIENTS
- natural cocoa powder
- confectioners’ sugar
- salt
- hot water
- vanilla extract
- butter, softened
All of the ingredients are mixed together and beat until the frosting becomes “Lightened in color and fluffy.” I beat my frosting for quite a while and it still seemed too stiff to me so I ended up added about three TBS of cream to fluff it up.
Then comes the assembly…
The key for me was to place the cake in the freezer between icing steps. I still ended up with a few wayward globs and smears of icing on my counter, but I felt like a had much more control of the process than I have in the past.
Here is how the assembly goes:
- Place one layer on your platter. Use about 1/2″ of frosting to top this layer. Carefully place the second layer on top, with the bottom up the layer up for a flat-topped cake. Place the cake in the freezer for 30 minutes. This sets the frosting and makes your layers less likely to slide around as you continue to frost.
- Create a Crumb Coat. A crumb coat is a light layer of frosting spread across the top and the sides of the cake. Some cake, and crumbs, will show through. Basically you are creating a surface to which the final layer of frosting will stick. Once you have added the crumb coat, again place the cake in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Add the final layer of frosting. The frosting will be about 1/2′ thick. Extra frosting can be used to pipe around the base of the cake if desired.
Here are my observations and suggestions:
- I wish my layers had been a little thicker. As I said, I used 9″ pans because that is what I have. I think 8″ might have been better. Also, I may have night beat my batter quite long enough. I suspect that these two things combined will yield a taller layer. I think the taller layers are important because the icing is quite rich, needing a “substantial” cake to support it.
- I substituted the King Arthur Princess Cake and Cookie Flavor for the almond extract.
- I added 2 TBS of King Arthur Cake Enhancer to my batter. This cake can be kept at room temperature for three days or refrigerated up to one week. The Cake Enhancer helps to keep it fresh and moist.
I can see why King Arthur Flour has chosen this as their Recipe of the Year for 2019. This is indeed a fabulous, classic cake. When you read all of the steps to the recipe, it sounds a little more cumbersome and labor intensive than it really is. The cake comes together easily.
I will say that a small piece goes a long way; it is very rich.
Give this recipe a practice run so that you are prepared for the next birthday cake that you are called upon to make! You won’t be disappointed! Practice makes perfect…and perhaps a little bigger around the middle. 🙂
from Tracey G.
Sanders Bumpy Cake from King Arthur Flour
I recently bought the stuff to make this cake, for fun, to see if I could remedy the mistakes I made last time I tried it, which was for this post: Food Friday – Cake Confessions. So, when cakes came around again, I asked Kris if she thought it would be ok for me to revisit this recipe since I was all set to make it anyway! We decided I should go for it! The first time around, I had issues with my fudge frosting, and ended up making another batch to see if I could fix the first mistake and it sort of backfired, and I made it WAY too thick. Oh well, live and learn and hope to make it right the next time you try right? I think I completed my mission by at least 90%, and discovered some things I think to make it work even better next time I make it – because there will be a next time, it’s really yummy!
The ingredients are simple:
CAKE
- Dutch-process cocoa
- hot brewed coffee or water
- vegetable oil
- buttermilk
- baking soda
- salt
- vanilla extract
- large eggs
- granulated sugar
- King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
BUTTERCREAM
- unsalted butter, at room temperature
- salt
- confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- vanilla extract
- milk or half & half, as needed
FUDGE FROSTING
- buttermilk
- dark corn syrup
- (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
- Dutch-process cocoa
- salt
- confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- vanilla extract
The first time I made this, back in February 2018, I bought the Bensdorp Dutch Process Cocoa (as in linked in the ingredients list!), and I liked it so much that I keep it on hand now for making cakes etc. But I am confident any Dutch process cocoa powder would be just fine!
The cake comes together super easy, you start by combining the hot brewed coffee or hot water with the cocoa powder and mix until smooth. Add the buttermilk and oil, mix until combined. Then the salt and baking soda is added, mixed for 30 seconds, then the eggs and vanilla are put in and it all mixed until smooth. The very last things to go in are the sugar and flour, and mixed for 2 minutes. In the oven it goes at 350°F for 33-35 minutes. Cool on rack at least 30 minutes, then into the freezer it goes for about an hour.
While it’s chilling in the freezer, mix up the buttercream. That’s fairly straightforward, whip the butter, add the vanilla and powdered sugar and mix until fluffy. Add in a bit of milk until it’s a nice smooth consistency. This will get piped on the cake after it’s been chilled, in 7 stripes, from the short side of the pan (the 9 inch side, not lengthwise), that are spaced about 1″ apart. After you do this, it’s back into the freezer for about 30 minutes.
When time is almost up, it’s time to get the fudge frosting going. This is really easy, and this go around I got the timing right. You combine in a heavy-bottomed saucepan the butter, buttermilk, salt, cocoa and dark corn syrup. Over medium heat bring it to a boil, and boil for 2-3 minutes until the bubble make a snapping sound as they pop.
Now, this is where I messed up the last time – I brought it to a boil too slow last time and it ended up way too thick. This time I brought it up fast, and it worked really well. After you get it to that snapping point, you reduce the heat and whisk in the sugar until it melts and it’s smooth and glossy. Remove from heat and add your vanilla. And I must confess here that in my anxiety to get it at the right pouring consistency, I got it right into my measure cup as directed to cool slightly before pouring on the cake – well, I forgot to add the vanilla. I am here to say though that it is just fine without it!
My house was really cool, so I did have some issues with it pouring nicely, and therefore I did have to pop the measuring cup into the microwave for a couple quick warm-ups so it would stay pourable. I also didn’t pour it as they direct – you’re directed to pour half over the buttercream stripes, then tilt the cake to cover the top. It then gets back in the freezer for a few minutes to set, and you bring it out and pour the rest of the frosting over it. Well, I just did it all in one step. I did go over the buttercream bumps first, got them covered then filled in where needed. It worked out ok, and likely would’ve been smoother had I not had cooling issues that were thickening up my fudge frosting!
But, in the end it turned out pretty well – I am happy with it, and it looks MUCH better than the first attempt! I know it seems complicated, but it’s really not, there’s just a few steps that have to be done in stages. But they all come together really easily, so it takes a bit of time to bring them all together. It’s definitely one I wouldn’t make on the day it’s needed, I would likely do it the day before!
It’s a really fun treat, it’s different – with the fudge icing/frosting and the strips of buttercream, it’s not too sweet, but definitely sweet enough! And I must also say it goes really well with coffee or a nice glass of cold milk! (Jeremy can attest to the milk companionship since I would not drink a glass of milk! LOL)
I am super happy I have made it again, and now that I have it pretty well under control and some experience behind me, it will be a fun special-occasion cake!!! And on that note, I think I’ll go grab a cup of coffee and piece of Bumpy Cake!