Zoes First Birthday Cake
Zoe’s First BirthdayCake is here and it’s made of a delightful soft sponge cake with chocolate and vanilla pastry cream, covered in sprinkles and cream.
Ingredients
Funfetti Sponge Cake
- 2 cups (300 g) cake flour (see notes)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 8 large eggs
- 1 1/3 cups (280 g) caster sugar superfine sugar
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter melted and cooled to room temperature.
- 3 tbsp rainbow sprinkles
Mock Cream Recipe
- 2 cups (500 ml) heavy cream
- 1/2 cup (80 g) powdered sugar
- 3 tsp powdered gelatine
- 4 tbsp cold water
- 1 cup (250 g) mascarpone cheese
Frosting
- 1/2 batch vanilla pastry cream
- 1/2 batch chocolate pastry cream (see notes)
Decorations
- 1 cup (100 g) rainbow sprinkles
- 8 maraschino cherries or glacé cherries
- 1/4 cup (50 g) Nutella room temperature
Instructions
Funfetti Sponge Cake
- Preheat a fan forced oven to 150C / 300F. Spray the bottom of three 8-inch (20cm) cake tins with oil (only the bottom, not the sides) and line with baking paper. Set aside.
- Add the cake flour and salt to a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- To a separate large mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar and whip using an electric hand mixer (or stand mixer with whisk attachment) on high speed until thick and glossy, about 8 minutes.
- Run the dry ingredients through a sieve into the sugar egg mixture. Use a spatula to gently fold through until no dry ingredients are showing.
- Add the butter around the sides of the bowl and fold through, making sure you scrape from the bottom.
- Distribute the batter evenly amongst the cake tins and sprinkle with about 1 tbsp of sprinkles. Very gently use the end of a knife to mix into the batter taking care not to deflate it. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.
- Once baked and cooled, use a cake leveller or serrated knife to trim the cakes in half. If making this cake ahead of time (no more than 1 day ahead of time otherwise it will dry out) wrap tightly in plastic and trim on the day you put the cake together.
Mock Cream Recipe
- Add gelatine and water to a small bowl and stir using a fork. Place in the microwave and microwave for 10 second burst or until the gelatine has melted completely. Allow to cool at room temperature until barely warm. Do not allow it to set.
- Whip the cream, sugar and vanilla extract using an electric hand mixer until you reach soft peaks. Add the gelatine mixture to the cream while whipping on high speed. Once it’s in there, stop the mixer and add the mascarpone cheese and continue whipping until you reach stiff peaks. Place in the fridge until ready to use.
Let’s put it together!
- Place the springform pan or adjustable cake ring on a serving plate. Place the acetate (3 inches (7.5cm) high and 25 inches (63.4cm) wide.
- Place the first layer of cake in the prepared tin. Tighten the tin around the cake and tape the two ends of the acetate together.
- Add 6 tbsp of vanilla or chocolate pastry cream. Spread around evenly. Add the next layer of cake and repeat, alternating between the pastry cream flavours until you’ve used up the cake.
- Place in the fridge to set for 2 hours, up to 6 hours. Once chilled, release the cake from the tin and carefully peel away the acetate.
- Cover the cake in the mock cream and use an offset spatula to smoothen out the sides and top. Using a cake turn table to decorate the cake makes this much easier.
- Cover the sides of the cake with sprinkles. I did this by throwing the sprinkles to the sides of the cake. Place a baking tray under the cake when adding the sprinkles to catch the sprinkles and avoid making a sprinkle mess!
- Pipe some more cream around the bottom of the cake and top. Use a piping bag filled with room temperature nutella, fitted with a small round or star tip to pipe a birthday message (take your time doing this). Add maraschino cherries right before serving.
Video
Notes
Cake Flour - Cake flour is a low protein flour that is used to make desserts light and moist. You can use store bought which has a much finer flour consistency, or simply make your own with my simple recipe. Click here to get the recipe and learn all the tips and tricks.
Pastry Cream - the pastry cream used in this recipe is my Vanilla Pastry Cream recipe and Chocolate Pastry Cream recipe. You only need to make 1/2 batch of each recipe. Meaning, you need to halve the recipe ingredients. You can make the pastry cream up to three days in advance before using and store in the fridge, in an airtight container.
Storage - This cake can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days.
Nutrition - is based on per slice
A note on measurements - all ingredients in this recipe are offered in Australian cup measurements and weight measurements. Weight measurements are created by me, in my kitchen here in Melbourne Australia. The best way to get recipe success is to measure ingredients by weight, using kitchen scales. To access weight measurements, click on the ‘metric’ button in the recipe card located under the list of ingredients.
Gelatin - for this recipe you want to use powdered gelatin. It needs to be gently heated. For this reason, gelatin sheets will not work in this recipe. Gently heat the water and gelatin in the microwave or over the stove on a very low heat until the gelatin is melted. Once melted, let it cool to room temperature without setting. Too warm and the gelatin mixture will melt your cream, preventing it from shipping. Too set and it will cause your cream to become lumpy.
Putting the cake together
To put this cake together you will need two things.
- Acetate - this can be purchased from cake supply stores or on amazon and is used to keep your cake together as it chills and sets.
- An 8-inch (20cm) springform pan (without the bottom) or an adjustable cake ring. Either one will work.
Nutrition
Calories:557kcal | Carbohydrates:45g | Protein:10g | Fat:31g | Saturated Fat:20g | Polyunsaturated Fat:1g | Monounsaturated Fat:5g | Trans Fat:0.1g | Cholesterol:180mg | Sodium:168mg | Potassium:161mg | Fiber:1g | Sugar:28g | Vitamin A:1094IU | Vitamin C:0.2mg | Calcium:85mg | Iron:1mg
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