Pumpkin Smash Cake

 

My friends' daughter Charlie is turning 1 on October 31 and they asked me to make a smash cake for her birthday party.  (Smash cakes, a smaller cake just for the birthday child, are quite popular in the US.) The only request from the parents when it came to the cake was for one without eggs due to Charlie's food allergy.  "No problem," I said.  A quick search on the internet and I found this recipe for Chocolate Depression Cake, which came about during the Great Depression when staples such as eggs and butter were scarce.

Since Charlie is a Halloween baby I wanted to make a Pumpkin Smash Cake for her.  The cake recipe makes one small bundt cake (6-cup capacity) so I made it twice to get the shape I was after.  I had my doubts about the cake's taste, but I shouldn't have been concerned.  The chocolate cake was moist and tender and you could not tell it was missing eggs.  I will definitely use this recipe in the future.

 

When it came to decorating the smash cake I used an American style buttercream that was made with butter, heavy cream, vanilla extract, salt and powdered sugar.  Swiss meringue buttercream, my favorite frosting, wasn't an option since it's made with egg whites.  

 

Assembling the cake couldn't be simpler and requires no advanced skills.  You just sandwich the two bundt cakes together with some of the frosting and then coat the outside with orange colored buttercream.   To make the stem I mixed cake scraps with buttercream, similar to how you would make cake pops, and shaped the mixture into the stem.  

I hope Charlie enjoys her smash cake on her first birthday.  Happy Birthday Cha Cha!

Cake Pops & Surprise-Inside Heart Cupcakes

Since I made the Surprise-Inside Heart Cake in a 6-inch size rather than 8-inch I ended up with some extra cake batter and buttercream frosting.  I couldn't bring myself to bin them so I asked myself what could I do?   Immediately I thought of Cake Pops and Surprise-Inside Cupcakes!  I love how one dessert can produce two more.

The cupcakes are really simple to put together, trust me.  Since I only ended up using half of the baked pink cake I turned the rest in to little heart shaped cake bites with the help of a petit fours cutter.  To make the cupcakes I poured a spoonful of the white cake batter in to a paper lined muffin  pan and placed the heart cake bite standing upright.  I then spooned more cake batter over to cover it completely and baked like normal.  A swirl of the buttercream and a dusting of pink, red and white jimmies finished it off.  It's not until you slice the cupcake do you discover the surprise heart inside!

Cake pops were the perfect way to use the leftover cake trimmings and buttercream.   I recommend reading this post from Bakerella who is the queen of cake pops.  The technique couldn't be easier.  You just break up the cake in to crumbs and mix in some buttercream to create a Play-doh like dough.  Roll in to ping pong sized balls and refrigerate until firm.   Then you dip the cake balls in to melted candy melts (I got mine from Michaels) and decorate with sprinkles!

Surprise-Inside Heart Cake

This was my first attempt at making a surprise-inside cake and I think it turned out okay.  I preface that by saying I'm a perfectionist so I'm always going to be my worst critic.  But while the cake does look pretty cool I would have liked the heart shape to come out with more distinct and sharp lines.  I'll save that for my second attempt I guess!

I was inspired to make this cake after seeing an Instagram video post by Baking With Blondie.  Between you and me I think I probably watched the video at least twenty times to learn how she put the cake together.  The cake was too cute not to try and replicate and Valentine's Day was the perfect occasion to practice.

For the cake I used Stella Parks's White Mountain Layer Cake and frosted it with her American Buttercream.  Normally I would use my favorite Swiss meringue buttercream but I'd been meaning to try her take on the American classic.  I baked the white cake layers using three 6-inch pans and for the pink cake filling I used a quarter sheet pan.

A bonus to making this surprise-inside cake was that it produced two additional treats using the leftover cake and icing.  I'll post them shortly so stay tuned!