Labor of Love
I call it a LABOR of LOVE because it truly is something I labor over...for good reason. It's our family birthday cake. Well, at least for the 3 kids.
Three times a year I make this cake and I think that is part of the reason why it tastes so darn good. That and the fact that its a 3-layer chocolate cake with fresh whipped cream filling and frosting that tastes and feels like a chocolate bar.
On Saturday I handed my hubby a list and sent him to the store while I worked my No. 299 store.
On Sunday I made the 3 cake layers. This baby requires the whole nine yards...cocoa powder and boiling water mixed and then cooled, room temp eggs and butter, parchment paper cut to fit the bottom of each 9-inch round pan, plus, butter and flour each pan.
Once the cakes were cooled I put each one in a gallon zip lock back and off they went to the downstairs fridge.
Then, one day before my daughters b-day, I got out the pedestal cake stand, and started the next stage. Chocolate and butter are melted together, cream is added, it's cooled slightly and then its whipped with lots of powdered sugar. Ridiculous, I know!?
Then heavy cream gets mixed with a bit more powdered sugar and a drop of vanilla and whipped. This is the magical filling layered between each of the 3 cakes.
The chocolate goodness then covers the entire thing. Here in our house that is how you say HEAVEN.
When I asked my daughter last week what kind of cake she wanted for her b-day she replied, "really mom, do you even have to ask".
A big thank you goes to my brother Tim who first served this to me for my birthday during a visit to him in Palo Alto, CA a month before I got married. The recipe has remained in my cookbook for 20-something years. (My family will tell you I have a long history of being called a choco-holic.)
I love making this cake because for me it says a lot of things....
tradition, home-made goodness, celebrations, family and of course chocolate.
Yesterday we wished our daughter a happy 18th birthday and
she shared this cake with 14 of her besties.
What's your family's favorite birthday cake?
Three times a year I make this cake and I think that is part of the reason why it tastes so darn good. That and the fact that its a 3-layer chocolate cake with fresh whipped cream filling and frosting that tastes and feels like a chocolate bar.
On Saturday I handed my hubby a list and sent him to the store while I worked my No. 299 store.
On Sunday I made the 3 cake layers. This baby requires the whole nine yards...cocoa powder and boiling water mixed and then cooled, room temp eggs and butter, parchment paper cut to fit the bottom of each 9-inch round pan, plus, butter and flour each pan.
Once the cakes were cooled I put each one in a gallon zip lock back and off they went to the downstairs fridge.
Then, one day before my daughters b-day, I got out the pedestal cake stand, and started the next stage. Chocolate and butter are melted together, cream is added, it's cooled slightly and then its whipped with lots of powdered sugar. Ridiculous, I know!?
Then heavy cream gets mixed with a bit more powdered sugar and a drop of vanilla and whipped. This is the magical filling layered between each of the 3 cakes.
The chocolate goodness then covers the entire thing. Here in our house that is how you say HEAVEN.
When I asked my daughter last week what kind of cake she wanted for her b-day she replied, "really mom, do you even have to ask".
A big thank you goes to my brother Tim who first served this to me for my birthday during a visit to him in Palo Alto, CA a month before I got married. The recipe has remained in my cookbook for 20-something years. (My family will tell you I have a long history of being called a choco-holic.)
I love making this cake because for me it says a lot of things....
tradition, home-made goodness, celebrations, family and of course chocolate.
Yesterday we wished our daughter a happy 18th birthday and
she shared this cake with 14 of her besties.
What's your family's favorite birthday cake?
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