Birthday cake for my undergrad
I thought I'd share this pictorial with my friends list, another cooking post, haven't done one in a while for you all, here it is. My undergrad is addicted to coffee, I took her to get coffee once and she ordered a large latte with an extra espresso shot to give you some idea of her fondness for this wonderful beverage. After making sure that the birthday girl liked all things coffee, I made a coffee themed birthday cake. It's just a basic dark chocolate cake with a cream cheese frosting that I flavored with espresso power.
I took some of the frosting and mixed it with 2 oz. unsweeted chocolate and make a sort of truffle filling, I spread this on the bottom layer.
I then added the second layer
Preliminary frosting, the frosting was a bit thin, I would have added more powdered sugar, but I was out.
I melted some 60% cocoa chips and tried to do a Jacques Pepin making a parchment pipe, it so didn't work as well as I'd hoped.
I took a skewer and drew lines to make it look like a spider web. (The birthday girl found a lot of spiders in her apartment over the summer and one became our lab pet.)
I tried stiffening up the frosting by chilling it further, then I piped it with a large star tip around the bottom. The frosting was still very soft, but it came out looking kind of cool.
I chilled the cake overnight and decorated with chocolate covered espresso beans the next morning.
Everyone is waiting with baited breath for her to arrive because they want to tear into it.
In flattening the cakes for frosting, I was left with some cake which I frosted and drizzled with chocolate for my hubby, since he won't be able to have any of the real cake.
I took some of the frosting and mixed it with 2 oz. unsweeted chocolate and make a sort of truffle filling, I spread this on the bottom layer.
I then added the second layer
Preliminary frosting, the frosting was a bit thin, I would have added more powdered sugar, but I was out.
I melted some 60% cocoa chips and tried to do a Jacques Pepin making a parchment pipe, it so didn't work as well as I'd hoped.
I took a skewer and drew lines to make it look like a spider web. (The birthday girl found a lot of spiders in her apartment over the summer and one became our lab pet.)
I tried stiffening up the frosting by chilling it further, then I piped it with a large star tip around the bottom. The frosting was still very soft, but it came out looking kind of cool.
I chilled the cake overnight and decorated with chocolate covered espresso beans the next morning.
Everyone is waiting with baited breath for her to arrive because they want to tear into it.
In flattening the cakes for frosting, I was left with some cake which I frosted and drizzled with chocolate for my hubby, since he won't be able to have any of the real cake.