Wednesday 9 May 2012

Triple layered neopolitan strawberry cake. As you do.

So, my little girl turned one in April. It's a big deal. One year since she changed our lives forever by simply arriving. Her first ever birthday party. Her first ever candle.

You know how it is.

So, I decided to make a bit of an effort. I'd been thinking about doing a strawberry shaped cake, as we call her our strawberry girl, but then I started reading Sweetapolita's blog (www.sweetapolita.com), which is written by a truly talented creator of beautiful and delicious looking cakes. She got me thinking...hmm, maybe I could try a layer cake? Cut into a big strawberry and discover layers of...neopolitan!

So there we had it. I made three cakes: a chocolate, a strawberry and a vanilla (the chocolate I took from one of my old, worn cookbooks, the vanilla I found online and have now lost (it was a cake made with lots of egg whites and no egg yolks, so it was very pale white), and the strawberry I adapted from Sweetapolita (see http://sweetapolita.com/2011/01/neapolitan-5-layer-birthday-cake-with-strawberry-frosting/). I tried her strawberry cake recipe, but jelly crystals here must be different to the US version, as I had to use three packets to get to 3oz, and it tasted very chemically at the end. I made it again, this time adding strawberry essence and red food colouring instead of the jelly crystals.

Right, then, I cut the top off each cake, then cut each cake into two. I stuck them together with smooth strawberry jam (another Sweetapolita tip) and iced them. By the time I'd finished, I'd used up nearly a whole bottle of red food colouring. Not great for a kid's party, I realise...

 The strawberry seeds were made from rolled up bits of fondant icing (I was sick of the sight of them by the end), and the stem was made of marzipan, into which I kneaded some green food colouring.

All in all, given my usual disasters, I was rather pleased with this. It looked fairly impressive and tasted yum.

Now what on earth will I make for her second birthday party?









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