BAKING WITH AMELIA: BIRTHDAY CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE

TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!

I MADE MY OWN CAKE!

This was actually a really long process. I had to make the cake first, let it sit overnight, and then decorate it today. Then I had a photoshoot with it, as you can tell.

The cake I made is a twist on a japanese-style strawberry shortcake. I was planning to make a normal strawberry shortcake, but I saw a tart at a bakery on Monday with jell-o on top, and I got ALL THE IDEAS! I couldn’t help myself. I’m really proud of how it came out :)

I don’t know how I can explain every part of the cake in one post without it being at least 4000 pages, so I’m going to do the cake in two parts: the cake and the decoration. 

CAKE!

Ingredients

4 eggs

120g of cake flour

120g of sugar (I did about 100g sugar, 20g powdered sugar)

20g oil

20g melted butter (or 20g more of oil)

Cake pan(s)-You can use one 8-inch and then cut it in half afterwards. I did two seperate cake pans (why? idk)

Directions

1. Line the cake pan(s) with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 340F.

2.Beat the eggs with an electric mixer while slowly adding all the sugar until it turns white and 3-4 times its original size. Because you’re beating the whole egg, not just the egg whites, it will not get stiff and fluffy, so don’t keep beating it expecting it to turn into a meringue.

3. Sift the flour into the eggs a bit at a time. Whisk the flour into the eggs by hand. 

4. Add the oil and butter. You can use just 40g of butter, which will make it…well, buttery, and less moist. If you use 40g of oil, it will be moister. I just went with 20g of both because I didn’t want my cake to be too moist.

5. Using a spatula, fold the oil/butter into the mixture. do not stir, or you will pop the bubbles in the egg and subsequently flatten the mixture, leading to a thick and brick-like cake. 

6. Pour the batter into the cake pan, and bake it for about 25 minutes.

7. After it’s done baking, leave it in the cake pan. Cover the cake pan with foil and leave it overnight.

TOMORROW…DECORATION! (and what to do with the leftovers)