birthday cake

July 13, 2020

It has not been an easy transition from Motherhood to Mother/Teacherhood during the pandemic. My roles have been constantly shifting, redefined regularly since March 12, 2020. Scurrying from the dining room to the kitchen to my office and back in erratic circles, helping one kid log into one online platform and then double checking the other’s password, all while updating software on a third laptop to get to a meeting on time. I knew at once that I could handle the stress of the push and pull of my new job requirements if I could find something to relieve stress. Baking – creating a whole from parts – has always helped soften the noise of everyday stresses.

It is not just baking, though I have done my fair share of chocolate chip banana bread, homemade cookies and pizza dough. The process of creating something from an idea that someone has in their heads, that they have not seen before and making it come to life --- that is what’s fulfilling. Creating birthday cakes is my true love. This year, I am calling them Covid Cakes.

When I was younger, my birthday parties were filled with both friends and family members and the gift from my mother was always a detailed, complicated, themed cake. For my third birthday, I wanted a cookie monster cake. My mother bought one for $35 and vowed never to spend that much on a cake ever again. So she took a cake decorating class. Back in the 1980s, these types of classes were not as prevalent and accessible as today. One year it was a Care Bear cake, filled with bright bears sitting on whipped marshmallow cloud frosting. Another year it was Strawberry Shortcake sitting up holding a strawberry. It smelled like strawberries. In middle school, I had a Barbie safari birthday!

I have tried to pass that tradition along to my children, as it has held such a strong warm and loving memory of simple fun. This year would be different for my kids, turning 6 and 9 during stay at home orders. While there would be no party with friends, there could still be a cake made with love (and sweat and some breath-holding) of a theme of their choice.

My son, without hesitation, chose an aircraft carrier. My eyes grew big at the thought of this and I said, “that is going to be a lot of cake!” Of course, he was thrilled. He immediately got to the details of how many towers needed to be on the top, if there was radar and satellite antennae on the towers, and whether or not the fighter jets would need to be parked or in the process of landing, hooking on the arresting wire -- and what that would be made out of at the top of the cake.

What have I gotten myself into?

Creating these Covid Cakes was more about planning, building, sculpting and sticking together than actual baking. Baking was the easy part. However, we had all the time in the world to create, alter and re-create.

My daughter, after much deliberation, finally decided on a chocolate cake with a pink cat on top. I asked if I could just buy a plastic cat to put on top and she insisted that everything be 100% edible. Again, the baking was the easy part. Her simple design of a two-layer round was quickly done in one morning, with help from her sibling, because making the frosting is the best part because of the taste testing!

Interestingly, my daughter got her inspiration from a book called The Magical Land of Birthdays, written by Amirah Kassem, who also happens to have a cookbook called The Power of Sprinkles, which, you guessed it, is a baking cookbook about the use of abundant sprinkles in cakes. The fictional story describes a young girl who travels, on her birthday, to a magical land of birthday-themed adventures. I was instructed to please allow my daughter to add a surprise in the middle of her cake- that surprise would be thousands of sprinkles that spilled out when you cut it open.

After sprinkles, we moved to frosting. Her brother put the wrong shade of pink in the frosting, which started off the declaration of a ruined birthday! Drama diffused when mom came to the rescue by adding more white frosting to create a lighter shade of pink. Moving on from that moment, we began coloring fondant, using food coloring and kneading repeatedly like playdough. Once the color was uniform, we began rolling to cut out red strawberries and purple and pink flowers.

Molding and shaping the fondant cat was much like using polymer clay or tough playdough, but it was surprisingly easy to attach cat limbs and tails. Finishing touches for the cat were stripes and eyes, again, using edible markers. After sharing photos with a few friends, who commented that the cat looked a bit sultry, I was ready to show my effort to my daughter.

It is with such a sense of fulfillment that I step back and admire what I have created. Yes, I spent countless hours fiddling with white chocolate fighter jets, chocolate chips, fondant cat limbs and flowers. it is more than worth it, and we have had plenty of time to spend getting these Covid Cakes kid-approved. In these trying times there is nothing like my children’s smiles to remind me that we are resilient, and we are in this together.

Chocolate Cake

¾ cups butter

3 eggs

2 cups flour

¾ cups cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 ½ cups milk

Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature.

Grease two 8-inch round cake pans.

Mix butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and milk alternating. Mix until homogeneous.

Pour half the batter in each cake pan.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Test center with toothpick.

Vanilla/Yellow Cake

¾ cups butter

3 eggs

2 ¼ cups flour

2 ½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 ¾ cups granulated sugar

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

1 ¼ cups milk

Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature.

Grease cake pan of choice – for an aircraft carrier, a large sheet cake pan.

Mix butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and milk alternating. Mix until homogeneous.

Bake at 350 for 32 minutes. Test center with toothpick.

Buttercream Frosting

1 cup butter, softened

7 ½ cups confectioner sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

½ cup milk

Mix butter and sugar together. Add vanilla. Mix in milk. May want to add more milk depending on consistency for frosting. Separate and add colors.

Decorations

Fondant, sprinkles, white chocolate chips, chocolate chips, m&ms

Chocolate mold (fighter jets)

Bbq skewers to help cut out fondant

Edible markers

Rolling pin