Back at some point in late 2009, when Olivia wasn't yet two, and certainly wasn't eating cake (oh, that I could say the same for Sadie...), I pulled a number of cake decorating ideas out of a Today's Parent magazine and stuck them in my recipe collection for some day. The first one I made in 2012, for her fourth birthday:
It was supposed to look like a bear's face, and it certainly wasn't as good as the one in the magazine, but it was my first-ever attempt at making a decorated cake, the three year olds attending the party were impressed, and of course, more important than anything else, it tasted fabulous.
Last year, for her fifth birthday, I made her chirp cake.
This year, I returned to the Today's Parent magazine for inspiration. They had three decoration ideas for flat cakes (my favourite!): Princess Castle, A Day at the Zoo, and Edible Aquarium. I let Olivia choose the one she wanted, and to my surprise, she chose Edible Aquarium over Princess Castle. She decided to call it the "underwater cake," so that's what it has become. We made the cake base together on Saturday, and she wanted to help decorate it, but it was still warm at bedtime, so we made the blue icing together and she went to bed and later, I iced and decorated it myself. It had to be done Saturday night, because her birthday party was 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning, and we are not early risers. FATAL MISTAKE. I should have planned ahead so that she could help me decorate, because if I had perhaps she wouldn't have been SO BLOODY CRITICAL. I was excited to show it to her Sunday morning and she was all, "I think these were straight up in the picture. You forgot white rocks. Well, it wasn't quite like this blah blah blah blah blah..." Hurt my feelings. :(
Anyway, she got over it. Partly because Greg tore a strip off her. And here's the end result:
Both the bear cake and the underwater cake had the same base, my favourite chocolate cake recipe, from Epicurious. Here's my version:
Chocolate Cake
3 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli)
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee (I used instant)3 cups sugar2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)2 teaspoons baking soda3/4 teaspoon baking powder1 1/4 teaspoons salt3 large eggs3/4 cup vegetable oil1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk3/4 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 300°F and grease 2 10-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with rounds of parchment paper.
Combine chocolate and hot coffee in a medium bowl. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Set aside.
Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In another large bowl with an electric mixer, beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon-coloured (about 3 minutes with a stand mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer). Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well. Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove parchment paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.
I adapted an icing recipe from The Joy of Cooking:
Icing
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 lb icing sugar
5 to 6 tablespoons milk or cream
Beat butter until smooth and creamy. Beat in vanilla. Alternately beat in icing sugar and milk, adding milk a few tablespoons at a time until desired consistency reached.
I beat in blue food colouring until Olivia and I liked the colour. We made several trips: to the grocery store, Candy Mountain, and Bulk Barn to find all the best fishy toppings: graham crumbs for sand, "edible sparkles" (for effect?), Jelly Belly beans for rocks, fruit roll ups, twisted, for seaweed, candy strings for coral, fish, shark, whale, plus gummies for an octopus.
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