Dinosaur Birthday Cake

I loved dinosaurs when I was little! For my 5th birthday I got a tape player and a bunch of tapes (those things that came before cds that came before Ipods). My favourites by far came with set of dinosaur books. The tapes told dinosaur stories and sang dinosaur songs and I thought they were the raddest thing ever. 

My inner five year old was very happy to be asked to make a dinosaur cake for a little boys 2nd birthday over the weekend. As long as it was green I was able to do what ever I liked, so I picked my favourite dinosaur (although its actually a tie between stegosaurus and triceratops) and had fun.

I ended up choosing to make a stegosaurus inspired cake because the plates would look really cool made out of fondant. The cake was made out of my favourite vanilla cake and frosted with vanilla buttercream. Steggy and parts of the base board were covered in fondant with the finishing touch of grass piped was on with left over buttercream.

Happy Birthday Dash!

Pink Ombre Vanilla Cake

This past weekend Butter Hearts Sugar turned 2!

Two years in I can't imagine not having this blog. Its my creative outlet, my recipe storage spot, a place to ramble, a place where I can talk cakes and cookies as much as I want without driving boyfriend nuts and sometimes its just my excuse to make yummy treats and not feel bad.

When I started this blog I had no idea anyone would actually read it, so thank you for all your visits, lovely comments and encouragement, you make me smile daily.

I've been making so many cakes for other peoples birthdays lately, sometimes resisting the urge to just cut a slice, sit down and enjoy it is pretty tough. I have never made myself a birthday cake, boyfriend's birthday is a few days before my own so I usually just make a cake for him. I decided my blogiversary was a great opportunity to make a cake just for me my blog. Nothing fancy just a fluffy vanilla cake with yummy airy vanilla buttercream exactly as I'd like it.

It might seem a little on the boring side, but I love vanilla cake. When that yummy vanilla cake is decorated with pretty pink ombre buttercream, well pretty sure you cant get any better than that. This recipe is very similar to the one I've mentioned in a number of recent posts (Lamington Vanilla Cake) with just a couple of changes to the ingredients. The main difference in ingredients is the changing from regular self raising to cake flour, I enjoy the texture cake flour gives and it takes it one step closer to a packet mix taste in a from scratch cake.

For the Vanilla Cake

3/4 cup milk 

5 egg whites 

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

2 3/4 cups cake flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

170 grams salt reduced butter (softened)

To make the cake- Grease and flour two 8 inch round cake pans and preheat oven to 180 degrees c.

Set aside 1/2 cup of the milk.

In a medium bowl combine the remaining 1/4 cup of milk, egg whites, vanilla extract and paste and set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the softened butter and the 1/4 cup of milk and mix on low to prevent flour going everywhere. When the ingredients come together increase speed to medium and mix until smooth, about a minute and a half.

Add the egg and milk mixture one third at a time, beating on medium for about 20 seconds between each addition. The mixture should be smooth and fluffy.

Divide the cake mix between the two prepared pans and smooth over the tops.

Place the cakes in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes keeping an eye on them toward the end to make sure they don't over cook. Test the middle of the cake with a metal skewer, if it comes out clean the cake is ready.

Allow cakes to cool in pans for about 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely. Cool top side up. While the cakes are cooling prepare the frosting.

Basic Vanilla Buttercream
200 grams salt reduced butter (softened)
6 cups icing sugar
pinch salt (optional)
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pink food colouring gel

To make the buttercream- Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer, beat on medium until fluffy and very pale, for around 3 minutes. Turn the mixer down to low so you don't fill you kitchen with clouds of icing sugar. Gradually add the icing sugar and milk along with the vanilla and salt and mix until combined. Add a little more milk or sugar if necessary to get your desired consistency. Turn the mixer speed up to medium and beat for another 2 minutes until fluffy.

Divide the frosting into four bowls and colour to the desired shades of pink. Spoon the buttercreams into four piping bags fitted with plain round tips with a 1cm opening.

Trim off the domed tops of the cakes and sandwich the two layers together with some buttercream. Before decorating the cake cover the whole thing with a thin coat of frosting. This will stop any crumbs showing up and ensure no naked bits of cake peek through the decorations.

Starting at the top pipe a straight line of dots vertically down the cake. Start with the lightest colour at the top and end with the darkest at the bottom.

Using a small offset spatula or round ended butter knife, press gently on each icing dot and spread horizontally in the one direction.

Pipe a second line of dots over the trails of icing, continue piping and spreading the icing around the rest of the cake.

When you get to the last gap between the icing, finish with a line of  dots.

For the top of the cake use the same technique but work in circles, starting at the edge complete one circle at a time.

Once again work through the colours from light to dark.

Continue until the entire cake is covered.

 Yum!!

Tricycle Birthday Cake

Last weekend I had such a great time making this tricycle cake for a little boys 2nd birthday. The inspiration for the cake came from these cute tricycle invitations and cupcake toppers from Esty shop The Green Grass Grows.

Sadly it rained non-stop the day of the Birthday so the original party plan of all the kids bringing their tricycles/ bikes to the local park to play didn't work out. It sounds like the birthday boy still had a great day and the cake was a real hit.

The cake was my favorite vanilla cake, double the recipe was enough to make the two layer 8 inch cake, the 6 inch cake and 8 cupcakes to match. Both the cake and cupcakes were frosted in yummy vanilla buttercream and covered with fondant. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Rocco!!

Pretty Teal Ombre Cake

While I have done a number of rainbow cakes I have been dying to do a tall ombre Cake for a long time. When I was asked to do a teal ombre cake for a birthday recently I was over the moon, especially because teal is one of my favorite colours.

I couldn't be happier with the way the colours turned out, starting with one drop of Americolour turquoise colouring for the first layer and adding 2 extra drops to each following cake layer I was able to get a great colour gradation.

I used the same vanilla cake from my Lamington Cake back in January, double the mixture was a prefect amount to make five decent sized layers and took very well to the colouring. The cake was filled and frosted with white chocolate buttercream in light to dark teal mirroring the inside of the cake.

The beautiful setup was another from the talented girls at Enchanted Empire, a very big thanks to them for letting me use some of their photos.

Photos by: Enchanted Empire

Lamington Cake

The plan was I'd share this cake and say 'hey you should totally make this for your Australia Day barbecue' except it has been raining non stop since Sunday! So no barbecues but maybe you need something for your rainy movie day, a lamington inspired cake works for that too.

The cake itself is not really the kind of cake usually used to make lamingtons, but it is a really yummy alternative . I have been craving vanilla cake all week (my real reason for making this) and this cake didn't let me down, it was nice and fluffy with a strong vanilla flavour.

Just one little warning, icing the cake and covering it with coconut gets pretty messy. I had to press the coconut onto the sides to get an even coat, so glad I put paper down because coconut went everywhere!

For the Vanilla Cake

3/4 cup milk (full fat, room temp)

5 egg whites (room temp)

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

2 1/4 cups self raising flour

1/4 cup cornflour

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

170 grams butter (room temp)

To make the cake- Grease and flour two 8 inch round cake pans and preheat oven to 180 degrees c.

Set aside 1/2 cup of the milk.

In a medium bowl combine the remaining 1/4 cup of milk, egg whites, vanilla extract and paste and set aside.

Sift the flours, sugar and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the softened butter and the 1/2 cup of milk and mix on low to prevent flour going everywhere, as soon as the ingredients come together increase speed to medium and mix until smooth, about a minute and a half.

Add the egg and milk mixture one third at a time, beating on medium for about 20 seconds between each addition. The mixture should be smooth and fluffy.

Divide the cake mix between the two prepared pans and smooth over the tops.

Place the cakes in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes keeping an eye on them toward the end to make sure they don't over cook. Test the middle of the cake with a metal skewer, if it comes out clean the cake is ready.

Allow cakes to cool in pans for about 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely. Cool top side up.

For the Icing

2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups shredded coconut (approx.)

To make the icing- sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder into a heatproof bowl, add the melted butter and milk.

Stand the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stir until the icing is smooth and shiny. Once glossy remove from heat.

For the filling

300 mls Thickened cream

1 tablespoon icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

raspberry jam

To make the filling- Beat together cream, sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form.

Assembling the cake- Place one layer of cake flat side up onto a wire rack, place a tray or baking paper underneath to catch any drips. Spread 2/3 of the chocolate frosting over the top and sides of the cake. While the icing is still wet cover with coconut.

Place the second layer of cake on the wire rack flat side up and spread the chocolate icing around the sides only. Press on the remaining coconut while still wet.

Spread a layer of raspberry jam onto the top of the second cake layer.

Spread the whipped cream over the raspberry jam.

Gently place on the top cake layer.

(If you can resist) Place the cake in the refrigerator for a short while before cutting, giving the cream a little time to set.