Birthday Robot Cake

Birthday Cake: 19-Mar-2011

Made this cake as a special request from a friend, Karen for her son, Seth... Enjoyed baking & creating it... Blessed 8th Birthday Seth!


Robot cake idea was copied from here: http://www.kulturblog.com/2009/07/robot-cake/

Karen's blurb:

Karen, the cake was a BIG hit! The kids went crazy over the lollies and icing (of course!), the adults really liked the strawberries and the vanilla sponge.  We all had seconds! :) I still hv the robot's head in my fridge and slowly savouring it! Absolutely delicious!  Sponge cake was just right, not too dry.  Even tho strawberries were a little sour, I thot it went well with the icing.  Personally, icing was a little too sweet for my liking tho.


A HUGE thank you for doing this.  Seth loved it!  We weren't allowed to eat its head! but a few days' time, he'll soon realise its gone! ha! You did very well with decorating the cake.  Its exactly what I wanted..colour, lollies deco and the mashmallows...all turned out well, even the last minute chopping board! :P  Overall a fantastic job well done.  

Cake & Filling Recipe: 
The cake was made using the recipe I blogged about just before, the japanese strawberry shortcake. I doubled the recipe & baked it in 2 tins, a 7" & an 8" square tin, lining just the bottom of the tin with baking paper & sprayed some oil onto it. When cake has cooled completely, cut cake horizontally twice, so that you end up with 3 layers of cake.


The filling was also the same recipe as in the japanese strawberry shortcake recipe complete with fresh cream & strawberries! :-)


Coloured Frosting Recipe:
The colored icing on the outside was made using Martha Stewart's Sprinkles Strawberry Frosting.


I made 2 lots of frosting using 500g unsalted butter & put 4 tbsp strawberry puree instead (as I did not want it too pink) & 6 cups of pure icing sugar. After frosting was prepared, I measured out about 1 cup of frosting & added about 1/4 tsp of color that I needed (except for the black, where I used 1/8 tsp - as I want grey not charcoal! LOL!). 


The blue required about 3 - 4 cups of frosting, whilst the green & grey only required 1 cup of frosting each.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup strawberries, cut small & blended into puree (you will need 4 - 6 tbsp of this strawberry puree)
500g unsalted butter
2 pinches of sea salt
6 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla essence


Method:
1. Process strawberries using a barmix or blender until pureed.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter & salt on medium to high speed until light & fluffy (butter changes to a lighter color & lighter consistency).
3. Reduce speed & slowly add icing sugar. Beat until well combined.
4. Add vanilla & strawberry puree (save any remaining strawberry puree for another use). Mix until just blended. 
5. Do not over mix or frosting will incorporate too much air. Frosting consistency should be dense & creamy, like ice-cream. (Although I like my frosting to be a little lighter so I actually beat it mine a little more).

Assembly of cake: 
I used the smaller cake (7") for the body & cut up the 8" cake for the head, saving the off cuts for the hands & feet. I then used Pascall's White Mega Mallows (I have to find out where to buy this from, as Karen had them in her pantry & passed them to me... and I've not seen pure white marshmallows in Safeway or Coles for the longest ever time...) for the arms & legs, neck, ears & eyes. Additional lollies for decoration.

Birthday Robot Cake

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

Dessert: 6-Mar-2011

Made a really light & yummylicious cake to celebrate the birthday of the best brother in the whole wide world!!  :-D It was huge & fed about 24 people (incl kids)

Recipe was adapted from Aunty Yochana's recipe, found here: http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2007/03/japanese-strawberry-shortcake.html


Choc disc from Michel's Patisserie,
I added my brother's name & dots...





Ingredients:
Cake:
180 gm. cake flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
75 gm. sugar
75 gm. melted butter 
75 gm. vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
6 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla essence
6 egg white

1/2 tsp cream of tartar
100 gm. castor sugar

Decoration:
600 ml thickened cream (full cream as less fat cream will not whip)
1/2 cup confection sugar
12 Tbsp. Kirsch
2 punnets strawberries - diced (for filling)
1 punnet strawberries - thinly slice (for deco)
2 Tbsp. Strawberry jam + 2 Tbsp. hot water + 1/2 tsp powdered gelatine - for glazing fruit


Note: each punnet is about 250g.

Method:
1. For cake: Sieve cake flour, baking powder and 75 gm. of sugar into a bowl and mix thoroughly.
2. Mix egg yolk, vanilla essence, butter and oil together and then pour into flour mixture and stir till smooth.


3. Whisk egg white till slightly frothy, then pour in 100 gm. sugar & cream of tartar gradually and whisk till stiff & glossy.
4. Fold egg white with egg yolk mixture slowly and then pour into a 24cm round springform cake tin.

  

Cake anyone?? Yummylicious!



5. Bake in preheated oven at 150C for about 60-80 mins. or till cooked.
6. Cool cake completely in cake tin upside down then remove & slice cake into 3 slices.
7. Brush each layer of cake with the 4 tbsp kirsch in each layer.
8. Whip up the whipping cream. Mix approximately 1/2 of cream with diced strawberries and then spread whipped cream & strawberry mixture onto each layer. Repeat till the last layer of sponge cake. 

9. Spread the cake on sides & top with remaining whipped cream. Arrange sliced strawberries on top overlapping one another.
(8) Boil strawberry gel with water then brush it over the sliced strawberries.
(9) Chill before slicing and serve.

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake