It's somebody's birthday, somewhere...

At my house, I kicked off November with a birthday cake!  

A 6-inch yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting...it makes me think: "Birthday"!

It's my husband's birthday later this month though that isn't exactly the reason for this cake (although celebrating early and often is a wonderful thing).  I'll be making him the chocolate-hazelnut meringue torte for his actual birthday, as per his request, but maybe I've got birthday on my mind or I'm just constantly looking for a reason to celebrate and make a cake (plus, try out a promising recipe) because I just thought to myself...you know, it's somebody's birthday, somewhere!  It doesn't have to be your actual birthday to pop a candle on it and celebrate!  

Are you with me...or am I crazy?  I think my family might think I'm a little nutty (my son sure gave me some funny looks when I kept insisting it was his birthday) but I hope you're with me, and I hope this inspires you to pop a candle or two on your next cake and let everyone around you make a wish before digging in.  Why not! 

For this "birthday cake", we're talking about a delicious yellow cake.  I haven't had a lot of experience with it but I can now officially say that I have a go-to recipe for moist, fluffy, tender, flavorful, homemade yellow cake.  And though I did not grow up eating yellow cake with chocolate frosting as my birthday cake (it was mainly ice cream cakes, then chestnut filled sponge cakes for me), I think of this combination as the quintessential American birthday cake.

This little 6-inch cake was very, very well received at my house.  My son polished off as much as I would give him and was surprised by how much he enjoyed it.  My husband seriously raved about it, which is a good thing since he is the upcoming birthday-boy.  He says it's unlike any other yellow cake he's had but I'd argue that it is like the very kind of box yellow cake that we've somehow elevated in our minds. This is the homemade form of how we remember (accurately or not) boxed yellow cake to be.  It's moist; it's dense yet light and fluffy, as well as flavorful with the taste of vanilla and rich eggs.  It makes for an excellent layer cake in both texture and flavor.

You probably won't be surprised that the credit for this great recipe goes to America's Test Kitchen via their Cooking for Two cookbook.  No matter if you make it for two or four, you'll probably just wish you had more of this cake and want to double this recipe next time.  That's because they've done the legwork and pinned down the right ratio of butter to oil, the ideal amount of buttermilk and eggs needed to give us a homemade yellow cake that has all the light texture of a box cake but with all-natural flavors.

For the chocolate frosting, I went with my son's favorite from Beatty's (or Ina's) chocolate cake.  I don't mean to doubt the folks at America's Test Kitchen at all but the chocolate frosting this yellow cake recipe was paired with called for double the amount of chocolate I used, as well as a lot more butter, and involved corn syrup.  I bet it's delicious but, believe me, the chocolate buttercream I use is tried and true in our house.  It is chocolaty and creamy. The beauty of pairing it with this yellow cake is that the contrast makes the chocolate frosting pop.  It's worth every calorie as you savor the strong chocolate flavor against the moist vanilla cake. It made me understand why this chocolate-yellow cake combination is such a classic for birthdays, which are like the most important days of our lives (not that I'm being dramatic or anything).  

Oreo mint-chocolate-chip ice cream cake...and a birthday shout-out

My son is officially *9*!  I'm a bit shocked just thinking about it! 

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY" to my little guy!!

(I think he's now officially earned big guy status!)

I think a birthday is the ultimate reason for celebration and all the more so when it's a child's special day.  So it's time for another ice cream cake!  I've gotten into the habit of making some sort of ice cream cake for my son's birthday in the last few years.  They're easy to make (I keep it simple), delicious (because we're talking ice cream so you just can't go wrong), and perfect for summer - or near-summer - birthday boys and girls.

Oreo cookie crust, plenty of mint chocolate chip gelato and whipped cream frosting

I stick to basic flavors my son enjoys.  This year's ice cream cake is made with an Oreo cookie base, topped with homemade mint chocolate chip gelato, and iced with whipped cream.  It may be just a 6-inch cake but I packed a good quart of gelato/ice cream in there!  My boy likes ice cream and plenty of it!

Knowing that I'm not exactly deft at cake decorating, I was a little concerned about frosting the ice cream cake.  I used stabilized whipped cream, or whipped cream with some bloomed gelatin added, to make sure it would hold up and not separate.  I managed the stabilized whipped cream and I got through the frosting.  No one will say my homemade cakes don't look homemade!  The main thing is the birthday boy approved!  He took a look at my concoction after school and wanted to dig into it right away because "it looked so good" (yay!).  In fact, we actually did slice into this homemade birthday cake a bit early.  Since dad has to work late on the actual big day, we started the cake-eating early.

To be honest, it feels like we've been in birthday celebration mode for a while.  I think children's birthday celebrations always seem to stretch at least a week or more!  This year's celebration included an early birthday party two weekends ago with a group of buddies.  This year, my son opted for a noise-infused gathering: think bumper cars, arcade style games, capped off with pizza and ice cream cake.  Having a party outside of the house sure makes for easy clean-up!  The party venue doesn't allow you to bring any food except for a cake or cupcakes.  My son wanted the ice cream cake they serve there but I couldn't resist bringing a little something extra, even if it was totally unnecessary. I thought I'd bring mini cupcakes, and the birthday boy settled on yellow cupcakes with his favorite chocolate frosting.  I was surprised by his yellow cake selection but I suspect the cake was secondary to the frosting!  Here are some of those cupcakes...the one with the gold stars was special for the birthday boy:

Meanwhile, I think June rivals December for "busiest month of the year" status.  It's been a crazy month or so and I'm sure many of you can relate!  The school year wraps up very soon and I'm looking forward to a slower pace.  

Three-layer brownie mint-ice cream cake

Time to talk cake - ice cream cake!  I love that my son's birthday falls in June - it's perfect ice cream season.

Brownie, mint chocolate-chip ice cream, and peppermint ganache topped with crushed Thin Mint cookies

Ice cream cake was always my favorite kind of birthday cake growing up.  It makes sense since my birthday's in August but given how much I love ice cream, I'd have wanted ice cream cake for my birthday even if it happened to be in January!  My now 8-year old is an equal fanatic when it comes to ice cream and this is the third year in a row that I've made some kind of ice cream cake concoction to celebrate his big day.

Two years ago, I simply stacked 3 layers of ice cream together in a loaf pan and topped it with some melted chocolate and sprinkles.  Last year, I got a tad more adventurous and made a 3-layer coffee ice cream cake for the birthday boy.  The child is a big fan of coffee ice cream, cookies, and such!  That cake had a base layer of dark, dense chocolate cake, followed by coffee ice cream, and another layer of chocolate ganache.  It was scrumptious and I used that framework for this year's ice cream cake.

The difference is I went with a brownie base this time instead of the cake.  While the fudgy chocolate cake was possibly the best part of that ice cream cake for me last year, it was very difficult to cut.  I got to thinking of making a thin brownie layer instead; I mean, you just can't go wrong with brownies and ice cream, right?  Right!

As you can probably tell just by looking it, the cake is simple to put together but I'll tell you all about it anyway because I could talk about food all day long...

I started with half a recipe of this brownie cake, which is just the Smitten Kitchen brownie recipe baked in the round.  (Incidentally, I think it just might be my favorite brownie recipe and that's saying a lot because I love them all!)  Half a recipe makes a nice thin layer at the bottom of this ice cream cake (after all, it's about the ice cream).  You just need to take care not to over-bake the brownie.  It takes only about 10 minutes in the oven to bake this thin portion in a 9-inch springform pan.  And the brownie bottom did turn out much easier to slice.

In an ideal world, I'd fill this cake with homemade ice cream but in reality, this is a crazy time of year and I'm grateful to use some good store-bought stuff.  If I went homemade, I'd have to make more than one batch to fill this cake since you need at least 3 pints of ice cream for the cake.  This year, we decided to go with mint chocolate-chip ice cream.  It's another one of the birthday boy's favorite (and mine, too).  We talked about maybe going with vanilla next year for a classic spin.

The crushed Thin Mint cookie topping was a big hit with the birthday boy!

To finish this cake, I added a top layer of dark chocolate peppermint ganache.  I think a ganache topping is great not only because it is rich and delicious but because it stays so soft and easy to cut through and eat.  I thought about making a mint brownie base but decided not to so I thought a touch of peppermint flavor to the ganache would be nice.  Knowing I was going to make this cake for my son's birthday, I saved a few Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies to crush up and decorate this cake with.  Some colorful sprinkles always make a birthday cake better, too.

Chocolate-coffee (or any flavor) ice cream cake

I have a thing for ice cream.  Maybe because I was born in August, I think I've always wanted ice cream parties for my birthday as a kid.  This could be why I keep finding myself making ice cream cakes for my son for his birthday in June (I worked in an ice cream theme party favor for the little one's party this year too). 

I recently made this cake for the little man's 7th birthday.  It starts with a base layer of dark chocolate cake that's roughly half-baked since we're going after a fudgy effect.  My cake came out a bit more well done than I wanted even baking it a couple of minutes less than the suggested time so I need to pay more attention to that next time.  I can't tell you how great the house smelled while this very chocolaty cake was baking.  It was delicious (think: chocolate bar, brownie, fudgy intense chocolate) but I have to warn you - it hardens quite a bit after freezing so it takes some muscle to slice through.  Next time, I'm going to bake it for even less time and see if that helps keep it softer.

Over the cake, spread on the ice cream flavor of your choice.  The little guy picked coffee ice cream - he likes coffee flavored desserts more than I do and one of his favorite sweets is coffee macarons!  But use any flavor ice cream you love.  The original recipe uses raspberry ice cream.  For me, I might've gone with vanilla here or mint would be delicious. 

Finally - to really take things over the top - add a layer of luscious dark chocolate ganache over the ice cream.  The ganache firms up but remains relatively soft and smooth even after freezing.  The overall effect is fudgy ganache, icy cold ice cream, and fudgy, almost-chewy dark chocolate cake.

This cake certainly makes a great summer birthday cake.  It's also great for a nice crowd after a barbecue or any summer gathering.

June is for Jalen

I mentioned that June is a busy month for us (and probably for you too), and that's mainly because we celebrate the little guy's birthday this month.  So because of that - for us - "June is for Jalen".  He just turned 7 so he's not quite so little anymore...

The birthday boy's Chocolate-Coffee Ice Cream Cake - recipe to follow in upcoming post

You know the saying, "The days are long but the years are short"?  I feel the truth of that as my son marks each birthday at what feels like warp speed sometimes.  So here we are at another year, with another milestone to celebrate.  I thought I'd post some highlights here, starting with this birthday cake I made him. 

I have a thing for ice cream and conveniently, so does my son.  His birthday falling in June really makes me think ice cream cake so I made another one this year for us to enjoy at home.  This ice cream cake (recipe to come in another post) is based on a layer of fudgy dark chocolate cake, coffee ice cream, and topped with a final layer of dark chocolate ganache.  I added some chocolate curls that I picked up from Buon Italia at the last minute.

The coffee ice cream was the birthday boy's choosing!  You could certainly use any flavor ice cream you like.  Happily, the cake was a big hit with the star of the day, who requested 2 slices in one seating.

The little guy's birthday coincided with Father's Day this year so we had his party the evening before.  It was again, as requested, a party at the bowling alley.  Even though you're having your child's party outside the house, there still seems to be a million details to attend to before the actual event.  But it was well worth it in the end to see the enjoyment on the birthday boy's face and to watch the kids have a great time together.  As they get older, the connections and friendships seem to grow tighter. 

Lightening McQueen was the star of the show at the bowling alley.  Little one once again rejected my overtures to make a cake or cupcakes for him at his party and requested another colorful supermarket creation in the form of the Cars characters this year.  I think I'm secretly relieved he wants one of these store bought cakes at his party; it's a lot of pressure providing and transporting the birthday cake for a big group of kids.

Not happy leaving well enough alone, I did make some cookies for the party.  Last year, I made sugar cookies (you'll see I made some ice cream cone ones) and this time, I went with butter cookies, or sables.  They're actually the recipe for Poilane Bakery's punitions®, or "punishment" cookies.  I know it's funny I choose to serve the children "punishments" but they're really quite tasty and a nice non-chocolate treat to go with the chocolate/chocolate pudding Cars cake.

Poilane Bakery's recipe for their punition® cookies - more details in a little post as well 

And I wasn't kidding when I say I've always got ice cream on my mind around this time.  June is a great month to celebrate a birthday - with summer's arrival, you think long days, vacations, barbecues, lemonade, and cold desserts.  I worked ice cream into the party favor theme.  The ice cream "shooters" were a big hit with the kids!

That's a wrap for this birthday...