Monday, January 17, 2011

The Birthday Cake

Whats the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of a birthday party? A grand birthday cake of course! The highlight of a birthday party is the cake - selecting it, admiring it and clicking pictures of it before the birthday kid gets to do the honour of cutting it ! The cake must not only taste good, it must look attractive too. You could get the standard cake in the square or circle pan with a cherry on top and have curly letters saying 'Happy birthday' but when you have so many more exciting options to choose from, why would you!


So here's a round up of your options when choosing a wonderful cake that will be remembered as much as enjoyed. To get you drooling take a look at this pic:


There are 3 things to think about to create the perfect cake for the big day. 1. the type of cake 2. the type of icing and 3. the presentation. In this post, I shall talk abt your options for the type of cake. 


So, here we go ! Types of cakes:


1. Traditional cakes
These are the cakes we've been cutting all our lives, they are basically cakes with layers of icining and topped off with frosting. You could choose from vanilla, chocolate or fruit flavors such as strawberry, mango or pineapple or get more adventurous with oreo cookie or ferroro rocher flavors, for kids, the richer the icing, the yummier the taste! But make sure you experiment with the icing and presentation to make the cake look more exciting.. Like this...
2. Cheesecake : 
For something hatke, serve a cheesecake. It is a sweet, cheese-based dessert, with a creamy filling in a pie shell or graham cracker crust. The filling is traditionally made with eggs, egg whites, sugar, cream, and a soft fat like cream cheese, but ricotta cheese or cottage cheese can also be used. Cheesecake can be plain or have some very creative flavorings added to dress it up a little; vanilla, white or dark chocolate, fruit, and various liquors make the dish even more indulgent. The crust is usually pastry, cookie, or graham cracker depending on the recipe, and some variations require a spring-form pan to keep the eggs from coagulating in the center. Most recipes are similar to a degree, but with slight variations in ingredients and cooking methods to create distinct tastes and textures. If you don't cook much, there's always the "no bake cheesecake". Just whip up the filling in a bowl, throw it in a pre-made crust, and let it set up in the fridge for a bit.


A  strawberry cheesecake in baby pink looks adorable for a girls 1st birthday party as well as older girls. They are also perfect for a baby shower.  
3. Ice-cream cake
Ice cream cakes are cakes composed either of hard serve ice cream or a combination of cake and ice cream. The overall appearance of any ice cream cake is similar to that of a layer cake or a sheet cake. In most versions of the ice cream cake, hard ice cream is used to create the layers of the cake. These layers can be used to create the entire body of the cake, or placed between layers of traditional cake that has been cooled sufficiently to not melt the ice cream. To cover the exterior of the ice cream cake, soft serve ice cream serves as the icing. Additional decorations can be made from traditional cake icing or formed using various types of soft serve ice cream. Guaranteed big hit at all kids parties and baby showers too! Experiment with unusual flavours like chocolate and mint. 
4. Healthy(ier) cakes such as  Carrot or Banana cake 
Great healthy option that are very popular among today's moms who want to serve as nutritious food as possible. In fact they can be matched to theme as well, like a Banana cake for a "Cheeky Monkey" theme and a carrot cake for a "Bunny Rabbit" or "Barnyard" theme.Disguise it well though, with lots of layers of icing and make it look wonderful. Examine this cake closely, look at all the goodies and hidden treasures in this slice of carrot cake. Do you see the raisins, pineapple and pecans….Mmmmmm and carrot of course.


5. Two or 3 tier cakes
Unparalleled in their ability to make you melt in delight and wonder.. Just one look at this cake and you'll know exactly what we mean... 
6. Swiss role cake
Soft, rich, decandent , Swiss roll cakes are a wonderful hatke choice for smaller parties..Choose from mint, raspberry, chocolate or strawberry...
7. Special cakes
Trains or butterflies , aeroplanes or dinosaurs, if you can dream it, you can probably make it. 
And the finale, try making the following Dino cake at home, it cudnt be easier... Let us know how it turned out! 





Happy Baking!