Cake Time ’09

It’s time again to be thinking about cakes and, specifically, birthday cake number 3 for M’s birthday.

Number 1 was:

My favorite yellow cake (with white wine) from the New Basics.  It had an internal strawberry layer and cream cheese frosting.

Number 2 was:

Yellow cake (from Cook’s) with a pastry cream layer (Tartine) and a chocolate cream cheese frosting.  The decorative writing is in plain cream cheese frosting.

I also made dark chocolate cupcakes for her school (not picutred).  Each had a raspberry cooked into the center and cream cheese frosting and turbano sugar sprinkled on top.

If you’re wondcring about the extra candle on each cake, it’s for luck.

And since you can see, I’m use the cream cheese frosting a lot! I tend to like the taste better than a straight butter cream. Here’s my favorite recipe.   Yes, it has both lemon juice and vanilla.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Mix in a kitchen aid:

8 oz. cream cheese, room temp.

5 oz. butter, room temp.

Add:

approx 1-1 1/2 cup powdered sugar, pref. sifted (I do sugar to taste)

1/2 ts. vanilla

lemon juice, fresh

1 Tb. sour cream

Addendum:

So despite the fact that M originally said she wanted cherry cake, I made these chocolate graham cracker cupcakes with a milk chocolate frosting.

Someone said, “These are the best cupcakes I’ve ever had in my life.”  And I was very satisfied with that.  Will post the adapted recipe shortly. (It has a graham cracker bottom, a layer of melted chocolate and then the cupcake batter.)  The interior chocolate was Callebaut which I consistently like and the frosting chocolate (mixed into the above cream cheese frosting recipe) was 33 % Valrhona–also excellent.