Ben’s birthday was in the end of March. I didn’t get around to making his cake in time for the birthday since I was sick the day before (boo) but I did get the cake done in the same week (yay). What I didn’t accomplish that week however was blogging about the cake.

Back in 2006 I went through a bit of a career crisis, I wasn’t happy with the job I had but I didn’t know what I wanted to do instead. One of my favorite shows was “Ace of Cakes” and it pretty much seemed like the most awesome job ever to make cool cake for a living, so I decided to take a class. I spent a lot of money on professional baking equipment and tools and taking classes to learn to become a professional baker/decorator. I must say it was a LOT more work than I ever imagined and even compared to being a photographer it was a LOT of time on your feet. I just wasn’t cut out for it. What I did discover was that I love baking as a hobby and I jump at every chance I get to whip up a fabulous cake. This time (since I have this new and sadly neglected blog longing for post content) I set out to write a long tutorial-esque post about how to make one of these cakes, taking photos all the way. What I realized in the process however is that #1 these are actually not my recipes to give away and the person who came up with them probably wouldn’t want me to share them (sorry) and #2 there are WAY to many steps and complicated nuances to making a cake like this that the blog post would be about a mile long by them time I was finished with it. That and your cake would probably still not come out just right because I’ve been practicing these ever since I learned them in class I’m *still* not 100% perfect at it.

So instead, here are a few pictures and a few of the reasons why I love baking …

Pretty much the first thing that everyone asks when I show up with one of these cakes is “how did you do it?” meaning how did you get the thin even layers with the filling in between. Well the secret is you actually bake the cake in thin layers in sheet trays and then cut the shape of the cake (I usually do circular cakes because they’re easier to ice since they don’t have corners) out afterward. The bonus about this method of baking is you end up with a big pile of extra cake scrap at the end that you can either eat (yum) or make into something else delicious like crumb biscotti

The second thing people say is “I don’t usually like icing but this is so good” – now if you know me in person and you like to eat my cakes you might want to close your eyes for a minute, because I’m about to disclose the secret to why it’s so good… and you might not want to know. Eyes closed? Good … the secret to the delicious icing is

AN ENTIRE POUND OF BUTTER

Well it is called buttercream, what did you expect? I love love love making buttercream. At first I was scared of it because it’s such a temperamental icing to make. If you get the temperature or speed wrong the whole thing turns to a curdled mess, but once you get the hang of it there is nothing more satisfying than a batch of perfectly made and fluffy delicious icing. The kind I make is called Italian meringue and it involves boiling sugar and pouring it over whipped egg whites, finished off with (of course) a hearty dose of delicious butter. YUM!!

For the filling this time I chopped fresh strawberries and boiled them down with a bit of sugar and water to make some tasty gooey goodness

Once all the components are ready you just stack up the cake, lining the edge of each layer with a thin ribbon of buttercream to hold in the filling, and then ice and *voila*… cake! Delicious.

Happy belated birthday Ben… I love you!