Friday, August 19, 2011

Rosie Makes A Birthday Cake For Daughter Hawthorne.

The Hawthorne family has 3/5 of their birthdays in August. Youngest Hawthorne's is the 7th, Daughter Hawthorne's is the 11th, and Mr. Hawthorne's is the 31st. Middle Hawthorne and Rosie are winter babies.
Daughter H. was out of town on her birthday, but I had this cake ready for her when she got home.
It's what she requested - lemon and chocolate together. I decided to make a lemon layer with chocolate frosting and a chocolate layer with lemon frosting.
This was quite well-received.
First, the lemon cake layer. 1 stick butter, room temperature 1 cup sugar 4 eggs 1 cup flour 2 TB lemon juice zest of 2 lemons Combine butter, sugar, and lemon zest. Mix until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Sift 1 cup of flour and fold it into the mixture. Stir in lemon juice. Pour batter into a 9-inch round cake pan lined and greased with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.
Cream butter and sugar.
Add in zest.
Add in eggs, one at a time.
Beat after each addition.
Beat until smooth.
Fold in sifted flour.
Add in lemon juice.
Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes. Cool on wire rack about 10 minutes.
Next I'm making a lemon syrup to pour over top to give the cake even more lemon flavor, more moisture, and a shiny crust. Combine 2/3 cup sugar with the juice of 2 lemons. Nuke and stir to dissolve.
I pricked my cake with a skewer.
You want the sugar and lemon mixture clear, so I nuked it to dissolve the sugar better.
Pour lemon mixture over top of cake.
What a pretty lemon cake. Next, I'm making the chocolate layer.
Chocolate Cake 1 1/2 cups flour 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 5 TB unsalted butter, melted 1 cup warm water 1 TB lemon juice 1 TB vanilla extract Mix first six ingredients, then add in the melted butter, water, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Pour into ungreased 9-inch round pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
Sugar going into flour.
Sifted cocoa powder into mixture.
Baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the mix.
Whisk to combine.
Melted butter in. And this is where it starts smelling really good.
Water in.
Lemon juice in.
Vanilla extract.
Mix well.
Pour into ungreased cake pan. Bake 30-35 minutes. Cool on rack.
Cakes are cooling.
I needed to trim the chocolate layer to even it out a bit. While the cake layers were cooling, I started on the icings.
I'm making a Lemon and Cream Cheese Frosting for the chocolate layer. 1/2 package cream cheese (4 oz.), room temperature 3 TB butter, softened Juice and zest of 1 lemon 1 TB vanilla extract 2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar Beat cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, zest, and vanilla until smooth. Add in confectioners sugar, beating until smooth and creamy.
Mix together the butter, cream cheese, and lemon zest.
Add in vanilla.
Keep beating.
Add in confectioners sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
Ingredients for Chocolate Frosting in foreground. 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips 3/4 cup heavy cream 1 TB unsalted butter, room temperature For the frosting, put chocolate chips in a bowl. Heat cream and butter in saucepan over medium heat, bringing just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate chips and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth. Let ganache sit at room temperature for about one hour, until slightly firm. Beat ganache until creamy, smooth, and light.
Boiling cream over chocolate chips.
After five minutes, start stirring.
Here's the beautiful chocolate frosting after sitting an hour and then being beaten.
Next, assembly.
I'm putting the yellow cake layer first, since that will have the chocolate ganache icing. I thought the chocolate on the bottom would look better than chocolate on the top. Chocolate on the top layer would appear top-heavy and you wouldn't really see the pretty lemon icing if it were on the bottom. At least that's my reasoning.
Frost the lemon cake with the chocolate ganache.
It's hard to see in the pictures, but I set the cake on 4 pieces of wax paper so after frosting, I can simply pull the wax paper out and have a clean serving plate.
Next, I set the chocolate cake on top.
Tidy up the ganache on the bottom layer.
Next, I poured the lemon/cream cheese frosting over top.
Very nice crumb on both layers.
Good choice, Daughter Hawthorne.
I love the chocolate and lemon flavors together.
I left the finished cake in the refrigerator in my utility room since there was no room in the fridge in my kitchen. Daughter Hawthorne came home late that night and her brothers told her about the cake. They ate about a third of it that night.
Another Hawthorne success!

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