Another year has passed and the girl has just had another birthday. Where exactly does the time go? I know people say that all the time but I’m really feeling it at the moment. Seriously. I distinctly remember writing this post about her pink & sparkly birthday cake, and here I am again with another birthday (and cake) to write about, looking for fresh material!
A princess cake for my princess
The girl is 5 now, which seems very grown up. Cue mummy moment…
She seems to be getting taller by the minute and is in big school now. She’s learning letters and sounds, and is building models of the Eiffel Tower at school. And she is as fashion conscious as ever. She has eschewed the normal school uniform sweatshirt in favour of a plain red cardigan because she doesn’t feel the sweatshirts look as nice as a smart button-down cardigan. And of course choosing the right hairstyle/accessories on any given day takes consideration. On Halloween night it took an absolute age to get her costumed up, as she just couldn’t decide what to wear under the costume. Yes, under the costume. Apparently it mattered! I see the humour in it now; I didn’t see it quite so much then.
She is still the younger sister to a big brother and all that entails, but we now occasionally see her try to push his buttons. Out of the blue a few weeks ago, after the boy and man had been away for the weekend, she informed the boy that she and I had gone to Jamie Oliver’s Italian for lunch while they were away. We hadn’t gone there, you understand. Jamie’s Italian is one of our favourite family restaurants, but it’s not like we go there every day. We save it for special occasions, go there maybe once a year, and the kids (and adults) get quite excited about it. And my girl, knowing her brother would seriously object to us going there without him, used that knowledge to wind him up. You could see the wheels in his head turning as he processed the information and turned to me with an incredulous look, not quite knowing whether or not to believe her. And she had just the slightest grin on her face as he was doing this. I did my best to keep a straight face and let her have her moment of glory, despite desperately wanting to laugh. Go girl – you made your mother proud! And after the fact even the boy admitted that he was impressed.
Whereas the boy has very firm opinions about many things and is quite prescriptive about his birthday cakes and what they should entail, the girl tends to be much more laissez faire about them and more or less leaves it up to me. This year I decided to introduce a bit of my own childhood to hers. When I was her age (and probably every bit as fashion conscious as she is, although you wouldn’t know it now!) I loved those princess/Barbie cakes which were basically a Barbie stuck into a skirt made of cake. I thought they were so incredibly beautiful. I can’t actually remember if I ever had that sort of birthday cake, but I do remember admiring them.
I secretly fantasize about having a skirt made out of purple icing
So a princess cake with a gorgeous flowing skirt it would be. Quite fitting for my young diva. She is slowly coming out of her pink phase and will occasionally consider other colours now, so I took advantage of that and decided on a purple skirt. Plus I had purple food colour paste on hand, so wouldn’t have to make the effort of buying more!
Girlie on the outside; grown up cake on the inside
Once the basic form was determined, the cake itself needed to be considered. While it was likely more important to the girl that the cake look beautiful, it was more important to the man and I that it taste good! I absolutely hate sickly sweet birthday cakes that just end up getting thrown away once the kids have had a go at them. I’m still quite inspired by European style tortes made up of multiple layers of moist light cake and a creamy filling. So although this cake would be decidedly girlie and childlike on the outside, it would be much more of an adult, not-too sweet cake on the inside. A moist, chocolatey genoise filled with cherry cream.
The birthday party was a success. Costumes were mandatory, so in attendance were 3 princesses (Cinderella, Snow White & Rapunzel), 2 vampires (1 male, 1 female), and one big brother. Birthday girl had a few minor meltdowns, but hey, it was her party and I guess she could cry if she wanted to!
Princess Birthday Cake
Print recipe
| Serves | 12-16 |
| Prep time | 2 hours |
| Cook time | 1 hour, 15 minutes |
| Total time | 3 hours, 15 minutes |
| Dietary | Vegetarian |
| Meal type | Dessert |
| Misc | Child Friendly, Freezable, Pre-preparable |
| Occasion | Birthday Party |
| From book | The Cake Bible |
Ingredients
Cake
- 227g Bittersweet chocolate (60-70% cocoa solids are best)
- 250ml Boiling water
- 8 large Eggs (400 grams weighed without shells)
- 200g Caster Sugar
- 150g Plain Flour (Sifted)
Filling
- 500ml Double or whipping cream (Double cream, or cream with a fat content of at least 40%, is best)
- 1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
- 200g Cherry jam (You can also use seedless raspberry jam)
Icing
- 500g Unsalted butter (Butter must be soft)
- 400-500g Icing or powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons Milk
Decoration
- Candy hearts, balls, sprinkles, stars, flowers, etc. for decoration
Note
You will need an 8-inch/20cm springform pan or cake pan with removable bottom AND an 8-inch/20cm pyrex glass bowl. Both should be greased and fully lined (bottom and sides) with greaseproof paper.
You will also need a standard Barbie or similar doll to act as the princess. I suggest wrapping her in clingfilm from the waist down.
Directions
| 1 | Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Farenheit. |
| 2 | In a heavy saucepan bring the chocolate and water to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Simmer, stirring for 5 minutes or until the chocolate thickens to a pudding like consistency. When dropped from a spoon it should pool slightly before disappearing. Cool completely. |
| 3 | In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer (you cannot do this step with a wooden spoon and a lot of energy!) beat the eggs and sugar with the whisk beater on high speed for 5 minutes or until triple in volume. If using an electric hand held mixer the beating time will be closer to 10 minutes. |
| 4 | Sift 1/2 of the flour over the egg mixture and fold it in gently but rapidly with a slotted skimmer or large rubber spatula until some of the flour has disappeared. Repeat with the remaining flour until all flour has disappeared. Fold in the chocolate mixture until completely incorporated. |
| 5 | Pour immediately into the prepared pans and bake for 60-70 minutes or until a tester inserted into the centre enters as easily as it does when inserted closer to the sides. When cooked, the centre of the cake will spring back when gently pressed. Avoid opening the oven before about 50 minutes have elapsed or the cakes could fall. Loosen the sides of the cakes with a small metal spatula and unmold at once onto lightly greased racks. Reinvert and remove the baking paper from the sides of the cake. Cool completely. Once cool, wrap cakes well and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. The slightly firmer refrigerated cakes will be easier to cut into layers when the cake is to be assembled. The cooled cake can also be frozen for up to 2 months. If using frozen cakes, it's best to cut them into layers when still slightly frozen. |
| 6 | To make the filling, whip the cream and almond extract in a cold bowl on high speed until beater marks just begin to show in the cream. Add the jam and continue beating at high speed until stiff. Refrigerate until ready to use. |
| 7 | To make the buttercream icing whip the butter until soft and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar gradually and continue beating until soft, fluffy, and very light in colour. It will take 5-10 minutes and should be almost white. Add the milk and mix until combined. Colour with food colour paste for the best results, or leave white. Do not refrigerate. Buttercream must be soft when cake is being iced. |
| 8 | To assemble the cake, the first step is to cut the cake into layers. I used the "dental floss" method described here http://www.5amfoodie.com/2010/04/on-making-a-grown-up-cake-030410/ . Use a flexible cutting board or cardboard cake round to remove each layer. I got 5 layers out of the 2 cakes: 2 layers from the cake made in the springform pan, and 3 layers from the cake made in the bowl. In the middle of each layer cut a small hole about 3-4 cm in diameter for the barbie's legs. |
| 9 |
 On your serving platter, place 4 strips of greaseproof paper where the edges of the cake will be. Place the bottom layer from the cake made in the springform/cake pan on top of the strips. Put 1/4 of the filling on this layer. Place the top layer from the cake made in the springform/cake pan on top and gently press down to distribute the filling. Repeat with the first layer from the cake baked in the bowl (the widest layer formed from the top of the bowl), then the middle layer from the bowl, then the layer from the bottom of the bowl. You should now have a basic long skirt shaped cake. Smooth out any filling that's leaked out the sides so you have a nice smooth skirt. Refrigerate for 30-60 minutes. |
| 10 | Now it's time to put the the "crumb coat" on the cake. Completely cover the filled, chilled cake with a thin layer of buttercream. Smooth it out with a palette knife or spatula and refrigerate for 1 hour. |
| 11 | Put another, thicker layer of buttercream on top of the refrigerated cake with crumb coat. Insert the Barbie doll into the hole in the skirt. From here it's up to you as to how you style and decorate it. I used a palette knife to make a swirly pattern all over the dress. I then did some simple piping around the base of the skirt and at the waist, where barbie meets cake. The decorations were simple silver candied balls and wafer flowers. You could also save some of the uncoloured buttercream and colour it a contrasting colour to the dress colour and then pipe a pattern (flounces, flowers, etc.) in that colour. Candy stars, flowers, smarties... anything suitably girly and colourful would work. Refrigerate completed cake. Remove from fridge 2 hours before serving to allow the buttercream to soften. Leftover cake lasts up to 3 days. It also freezes well. |
It might be girly, but I still want a slice!
Michele! Sorry it’s been such a long time between drinks, so to speak, but glad to see you are as fabulously creative as ever. I always wanted one of these cakes but my mother would never acquiesce. Hope your daughter realises how lucky she is! Now I will have to go back over LOTS of your old posts… Lucy
Wow that’s a memory cake that is. She’ll be talking about that cake when she’s old and grey Just fabulous! She must have been one happy child : )
Like Barbie herself, I have wondered what the appeal of these cakes are, they do remind me of those knitted Loo roll ladies you used to see in bathrooms!! But at the end of the day, cake is cake and it does look a lot of fun to make. I might try one with my Sindy (stashed away somewhere!)