Princess Cake for My Little Princess

It will be about another 10 days before elder child be free from exams. Although I know she is pretty much prepared for it, but I guess just like any parent, it is still some what worrying matter for me. All I can do now is support and help her every step of the way, and hope for the best! >.< As for my younger child, no exams since she is still at her first year of primary. But it is sort of a bummer that her birthday falls near exam period. To make it a little happier for her, I took up the request she wanted for her birthday cake. What is it? A full fondant princess cake (no barbie doll) that must be made from chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. *yes, she got that chocolate thing from me*. Although I knew I had little time (1.5 days), but I figured my daughter will still love whatever I made for her, even if it's not so fantastic.

Yeah, you see right. It was raining cats and dogs that day. In fondant "land", humidity is a threat...it will literally soften your moulding and give it it's "shine" on the surface which is No good for fondant. In places like Singapore, humidity is unavoidable...unless if you blast your air con, haha! Luckily my princess cake didn't "glisten" from the wetness from the rain. *phew*

Considering the amount of time I had, I'm pretty happy with the end result. *heehee* No no, I didn't stay up till 3am in the night...I went straight to bed at midnight, lol! Somehow everything just fall into place. *thank goodness* Got some pointers from my good friend S and straighten out some issues about the fondant moulding. From then on, it was all smooth "sailing". Even managed to complete the cake before 3pm that day. Comparing with the Smurfette cake I made last year and the Tinkle Bell cake made the year before last..this cake one was actually easier! I guess learning from experience does help!

I modified Mrs NgSK butter cake recipe from Wendy's blog to a chocolate flavored butter cake.  I actually baked and tasted it before using my modified chocolate version and felt it was good. So this time I decided to use it here for the fondant cake. I reduced the sugar and up the liquid level. The chocolate butter cake is soft and yet stable enough to hold up the fondant. The recipe below is portioned to the amount I needed to fill a 6 " bowl pan and a 6" round pan. Feel free to adjust on your own if you are interested to try this out.

Recipe for Chocolate Butter cake

Egg yolk batter

290g unsalted butter, room temperature

130g caster sugar 

5 egg yolks

50ml fresh milk

20g dark chocolate, melted

200g cake flour

45g cocoa powder (I used Valrohna)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Egg white batter

5 egg whites

80g caster sugar

• Heat up the milk till it almost blubbing on the side. Add the chopped chocolate and let the heat of the milk melt it slowly. Stir well and let cool.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter till creamy, add sugar and continue to beat till the mixture is fluffy. 
• Add the cooled chocolate milk mixture into the butter mixture and beat well till combined. Add vanilla extract, combine.
• Then sift in the cake flour and cocoa powder in. Mix well and make sure no visible lumps.Set aside.
• Preheat the oven to 170C and grease a 6 " bowl pan and a 6" round pan. I only lined the round cake pan. 
• Beat the egg white in a large mixing bowl till foamy. Then add the caster sugar (80g) gradually into the egg white and continue to beat till stiff peaks. 
• Gently fold in a third of the white to the egg yolk batter. Then in another 2 separate portions, fold in the rest of the whites. 
• Once everything is well combined,pour the batter into the 2 prepared cake pans and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or till the cake tester comes out clean.
• Once baked, remove from oven and let cool completely before removing  from pan.

After the cake has cooled, slice the cake into 2 equal discs and spread the chocolate buttercream between the layers. Then spread a thin layer of buttercream so that the fondant can adhere to the cake properly. As for the rest of the fondant moulding, I will hopefully show you on other posts next time.*heehee* I forgotten to take photos while doing the moulding. :P

Showing the back view of the cake...I love the ribbon, heehee. :D As much as my girl love this cake, she still have a little complain over it...she asked why I didn't make a tiara, she said that crown looks a king's crown?! Oh well...kids now a days are really hard to please. :P

 

A look at the sliced up cake...yes, we sliced up the princess. :P My girl has no problem with that I assure you. Somehow the urge to eat the chocolate cake inside is greater, haha! The cake was delicious, not too sweet, moist and holds it's shape well throughout the whole assembling. Success!!

On my last note, I just want to say this: If you choose to bake a cake for your child. Don't sweat it if the fondant is not mould to what it looks like in the picture. Or the cake was a little lop-sided. Or even if the taste of the cake was a little drier then expected. Don't worry! Just bare in mind that the most important thing is you made it with lots of love and care...just for that person. ;) That's all that matters! So enjoy the process and happy baking!!

Have a great Sunday everyone! Cheers!