Jellycat Birthday Cake

🧂 Ingredients

• 225 g all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs

  room temperature
• 225 g granulated sugar
• 85 g unsalted butter
• 190 g milk

  dairy or non-dairy
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 300 g whipping cream or heavy cream

  cold
• 30 g powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 4 tablespoons strawberry jam

  store-bought or homemade
• 2-3 fresh strawberries

  halved
• 1 birthday candle

  with white and red stripes if possible
• 20 g dark chocolate

  roughly chopped

Instructions

• 1 Prep: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 6" round cake pans with a round of
  parchment paper on the bottom of each pan. Set aside.
• 2 Dry mixture: In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set
  aside.
• 3 Hot milk mixture: In a small pot or microwave-safe bowl, add the butter, milk,
  oil, and vanilla extract. Heat it on the stovetop or in the microwave until the
  butter has melted. Don't let it boil. Remove it from the heat and cover to keep
  it warm while you start making the batter.
• 4 Beat eggs and sugar: In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar. Use an
  electric hand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment to beat the mixture for a
  full 6 minutes at medium speed or until the mixture has tripled in size and
  becomes very pale (almost white) in colour.
• 5 Combine dry and wet mixtures: Add half of the flour mixture and mix on low speed
  until just barely combined. Add the rest of the flour and mix until mostly
  combined. Some flour patches are fine because you'll continue mixing some more
  in the next step and we don't want to overmix.
• 6 Add hot milk mixture: With the mixer on low speed, slowly stream in the hot milk
  mixture until you have a smooth and fluid batter.
• 7 Fill pans: Divide the batter into your lined cake pans until about halfway full.
• 8 Bake: Bake cakes for about 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the
  middle comes out mostly clean with a few crumbs.
• 9 Let cool: Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 15 minutes before running an
  offset spatula around the edges of the pan. Release the cakes onto a wire rack
  to cool completely.
• 10 Whip cream: In a large mixing bowl, add the whipping cream, powdered sugar, and
  vanilla extract. Use an electric hand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment to
  beat the cream until it becomes soft peaks. Scoop out a small amount of whipped
  cream into a small bowl and set aside. Finish beating the cream to firm peaks.
• 11 Chocolate whipped cream: To the portion of cream you scooped out, add the cocoa
  powder and mix until the cream is tinted brown. Transfer this cream to a small
  piping bag and snip off the tip. Set aside.
• 12 Fill piping bags: Transfer both the whipped cream and the chocolate whipped
  cream to separate piping bags and cut the tips off.
• 13 Pipe cream: On a large serving plate or cake board, place down the first cake
  layer. Pipe dollops of whipped cream along the edge of the cake, ending towards
  the middle of the cake. Use a spatula to smear the tail ends of the dollops
  towards the middle of the cake.
• 14 Add strawberry jam: To the middle of the cake, add the strawberry jam. Smooth it
  into an even layer with an offset spatula without disturbing the whipped cream.
• 15 Decorate the top: Place the second cake layer on top. Pipe more dollops of
  whipped cream on top of the cake. Arrange halved strawberries on top of the
  cream. Insert a candle in the middle.
• 16 Pipe legs: With the brown whipped cream, pipe little legs on top of the plate,
  extending out from the bottom cake layer.
• 17 Draw the face: Melt the chopped dark chocolate in the microwave or on the
  stovetop, transfer the melted chocolate to a small piping bag, and snip the tip
  off. Pipe eyes and a smile on the bottom cake layer in between the legs.

Nutrition Info