Bird Themed Birthday Cake Recipes

As promised I am back with the two most amazing cake recipes EVER.

In my last post I shared the details of my daughter's bird themed first birthday party and a lot of freebies. In case you missed it, click here.

I baked two cakes for the event since I didn't want to get in to the hassle of making a tiered one. I knew how I wanted them to look, I just needed a cake recipe. 

I decided to use different recipes for both the cakes. For the fondant cake I followed Robyn Stone's "The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe {Ever}". I came across it on Facebook ( I don't remember who posted it, perhaps one of the food pages that I follow). Robyn shared this recipe a few years back on her blog and she is still receiving a lot of positive comments! 

I am SO GLAD I followed it. It is definitely my go to cake recipe from now. The cake turned out soft, moist and simply DELICIOUS. I LOVED it and so did all my guests who got to taste this cake.The compliments just kept on coming 😄😄😄 And so did requests for the recipes!

Since this was my first time working with a fondant, I decided to go with ready-to-roll fondant icing. I used it to cover the cake, for birds, lettering and bunting. As easy as it was to make the birds and rest of the decorations covering the cake with fondant was a pain. They make it seem so easy in tutorials. I covered the "faults" with fondant decorations :p 

For my Bird Nest cake, I followed Maham Alavi's Chocolate Malt Cake recipe. It tastes amazing once refrigerated and cold. I used Kellogg's all-bran original to create the nest. Simply melt some dark chocolate and add it to a cup and a half of cereal. Then working quickly form the chocolate cereal mixture into a nest. Keep it in fridge for a couple of hours to set. Once set fill the nest with Cadbury mini eggs :)

CLICK HERE for the Best Chocolate Cake recipe.

CLICK HERE for the Malt Cake recipe.

 xx

Chocolate Caramel Cake

When it is your husband's birthday make it count.

Take the time out to make something from scratch. It may be time consuming but it is all worth it in the end.

And nothing beats this yummy super delicious chocolate goodness! The cake has two layers with lots of gooey caramel sauce and rich chocolate ganache. Yum yum yummmm!

Let's start with the cake and it's ingredients.

Chocolate cake (adapted from Matt Lewis' Classic Chocolate Layer Cake)

1 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
11/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease two  8" round cake pans

In a bowl of boiling water dissolve your espresso powder. Add cocoa powder and whisk until smooth.

In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda.

In a small bowl whisk eggs, butter and vanilla extract. Pour this into the cocoa mixture.

Next add your liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth.

Divide the batter into two pans and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack

TIP: I saw this on Pinterest - place a bread slice on top to keep the cake moist and prevent it from cracking!

Caramel Sauce

1/2 cup water
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup thickened cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

Pour water in small/medium saucepan. Add sugar in the center of the pan and turn heat to medium. Let the mixture come to a boil. Do not stir - the sugar will dissolve on its own. Gently swirl the pan if needed.

Let it cook. But keep a close eye for caramel can burn quickly. Once the color turns from light amber to dark amber it is time to remove the pan from heat.

Immediately add in your cream,slowly and whisk continuously. Then cook for another 2 minutes till the mixture is smooth. Turn off the heat and add in salt, butter and vanilla extract and give it a final whisk.

Chocolate Ganache

1 cup semi sweet chocolate
1/2 tablespoon butter (optional)
1 cup cream

Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Since I was short on dark chocolate, I used a mix of dark chocolate and milk chocolate.

Bring cream to a boil in a sauce pan over medium high heat.

Remove from heat and pour it over the chocolate, Cover and let it sit for a few minutes.

Then mix the mixture until chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. Add butter and mix again.

Place in refrigerator for 5 minutes, give it a good stir and refrigerate again.

Now time to ASSEMBLE!

Coat one side of the cake with caramel sauce. Repeat with the second one.

Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes then add chocolate ganache on top of caramel sauce to one of the cakes.

Stack the two together such that the caramel and ganache goodness form a nice layer between the two cakes. Then coat the whole thing with a thick layer of chocolate ganache.

p.s: If you really want to indulge in this chocolate goodness you can divide each cake into half in order to have four layers with lots of caramel sauce and layers of rich chocolate ganache in between.

The cake turned out amazing and my husband loved it! Do give it a try and enjoy the taste of caramel and ganache in every bite. xx