Birthday Cake in Lethbridge!

My niece turned one this week.  By far, this was my favourite cake that I've had the opportunity to make for someone.  Lucie's mom is half Moroccan and has a sweet spot for orange blossom, so I made an orange blossom chiffon cake filled with orange cream and citrus fruits.  The cake was an especial hit with my niece.  She even refused her lunch and demanded a taste of the tester cake.  It's nice to have an appreciative audience.

It was pretty fun making this cake.  I had very little equipment, so I had to improvise a bit.  I built a cake frame out of a shoebox and instead of lining the box with acetate, I used plain old saran wrap.  The frame came off easily, but the sides of the cake looked a bit messy.  I ended up masking them with the cream.

About the whip cream:  Baking Illustrated by Cook's Illustrated has a great recipe for super stabilized whip cream.   I used it when I made my Mom and Dad's black forest cake for their retirement.  The recipe is simple.

For one litre of whipped cream:

In a small saucepan:
mix 1 Tablespoon cornstarch and 2 Tablespoons of sugar with 1 cup of the heavy cream.  Make sure there are no lumps.  Then cook the mixture on medium heat until it thickens into a pudding like consistency.  Cool the mix thoroughly.

When it is time for the cream, in a big bowl or a stand mixer, add the cream to the pudding mix.  Again make sure there are no lumps.  Then whip it all up per usual.  Add sugar and flavours to taste.

This cream is so stable that it can sit at room temp for a couple hours with no weeping or melting.  Also, it pipes like a dream!

I made one more cake this season.

My Mom and her twin sister turned 60!  I made a special two in one twin themed cake that consisted of a spiced cheesecake sandwiched by fat layers of carrot cake.  I covered the whole thing in white chocolate cream cheese frosting.  The cake was monster sized and super delicious.  Here is a picture of the birthday girls on their special day.