Birthday Cakes

Last week I was busy with a couple special order birthday cakes.  I really do love baking and decorating cakes – each one is different from the next (even if the same flavors are at work!).

Pink Roses Birthday Cake

This is one of my favorite cakes:  Red Velvet Cake with a Cheesecake layer in the middle.  Cream Cheese Buttercream Roses are perfect for such a decadent combination.

Chocolate Mascarpone Birthday Cake

I had a new request for a birthday cake…the original request was for a Tiramisu Cake or something like a cannoli.  After a brief caucus, I offered an idea I’ve only tried once before…adding coffee to the chocolate cake.  This changes the flavor of the cake but still allows the chocolate to be the star. 

With a mascarpone filling, I hoped there would be enough flavor edginess to satisfy that cannoli need.

The filling was quite lovely, but I wanted to add whipped chocolate ganache into the remaining filling for the frosting.  Working with it to get it ‘just so’ took patience in order to arrive at the balance of workability, not too sweet, and still remain chocolate enough.  I do love the garnish if mini-chocolate chips (that was the request of the client and I’m super excited about the look).