When I was discussing with Matt what type of birthday cake he would like he told me his mom's allergic to chocolate. What is it with everyone and chocolate? It really is, at least in my opinion, one of the GREATEST substances on Earth. If I was allergic to chocolate... I would probably die. Because I would eat chocolate anyway, and in large quantities. But anyway! After I finally came to terms with the fact that working without chocolate would not completely stifle any sense of creativity, Matt informed me that a number of types of fruit cakes sounded good, and cream cheese frosting wasn't a bad idea either.
So I set out looking for a fruity cake that sounded appealing, and all the ones I like had chocolate frosting :(. So I ditched the fruit. Sorry Matt! What I did adopt, however, was a cake that I've been wanting to make for quite some time: Italian Cream Wedding Cake! Most of my baking endeavors end up being taste tested by Taylor who is not a fan of coconut or nuts. Both of which are utilized in this lovely cake from A Passion for Baking. I put it on the back burner numerous times, opting for something that would be more pleasing to the anti-coconut and anti-pecan crowd, but I decided to cross my fingers and hope it would be ok for Matt.
Taylor actually helped me make this cake, basically a moist vanilla cake with citrus notes added and a big handful of toasted pecans and coconut. I cut the two cake layers I baked off in half to make a four layer cake. In between the cake layers were generous amounts of pastry cream (kind of a thick vanilla custard that I'll go into more detail about in my next post) and then the whole thing was covered in a thick layer of cream cheese frosting.
I had some fun piping... so fun, in fact, that I ordered a piping set off Amazon that should be here in about a week :D Now I'm going to need another birthday (or some other awesome occasion) to make a big cake for!!! Let me know if you have any suggestions!
Ummm my half birthday is going to be coming up soon if you would like to make a cake for that? Since I'm reading in reverse order I know that you already received your piping set and need a cake to try it out on. My half birthday I think would be a great occasion on which to do so. Don't you think? I'm very jealous that Matt got a cake for his birthday and my birthday was lacking in a Molly made creation. Maybe you should start your own bakery? To heck with college, just start baking full time and making tons of money?
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