70th Birthday Celebration

The entire J gang met in Lake Guntersville, AL on the third week of January for the matriach of the family, Aunt J's 70th birthday celebration. She is Mr. J's oldest aunt and his god mother.

I volunteered to bake the cake since I absolutely love the challenge and spent weeks planning what to make. Her favorite is red velvet and I had never made it before so after a lot of research (smittenkitchen.com was one of my favs!), I finally settled on the following;

Top layer - red velvet cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting

Red Velvet Cake
Adapted from “The Confetti Cakes Cookbook” by Elisa Strauss via the New York Times 2/14/07
Time: 90 minutes, plus cooling
Yield: 3 cake layers

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch process)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 cups canola oil
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) red food coloring or 1 teaspoon red gel food coloring dissolved in 6 tablespoons of water
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place teaspoon of butter in each of 3 round 9-inch layer cake pans and place pans in oven for a few minutes until butter melts. Remove pans from oven, brush interior bottom and sides of each with butter and line bottoms with parchment.
2. Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.
3. Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. (Take care: it may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.
4. Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.
5. Divide batter among pans, place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Then remove from pans, flip layers over and peel off parchment. Cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from several sources
Makes 6 cups

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter room temperature
3 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl. With a handheld electric mixer, beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and vanilla. Beat, on low speed to combine. If too soft, chill until slightly stiff, about 10 minutes, before using.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream
"The Cake Bible," by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

9 oz. white chocolate, melted, cooled to room temperature
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
6 oz. unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 T fresh squeezed lemon juice, or to taste
Beat cream cheese in mixing bowl until smooth. Gradually beat in the melted and cooled chocolate until incorporated. Add in the butter and lemon juice last, beating well until smooth.


Bottom layer - Chocolate Butter Cake with Brandied Chocolate Ganache layers and Swiss Buttercream frosting (I LOVE this frosting!)

Chocolate Butter Cake
Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes
Makes one 8-inch square, three layer cake

3 cups cake flour
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
3 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups freshly brewed coffee, cooled to room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter three 8-inch square cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.
2. In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend for about 30 seconds. Add the butter and buttermilk and blend on low until moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Whisk the eggs and coffee together, and add to the batter in 3 additions, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating only until blended after each addition. Divide the batter among the three prepared pans; each pan will take about 3 1/4 cups of batter.
4. Bake for 38 to 40 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Carefully turn them out onto wire racks and allow to cool completely. Remove the paper liners only when they are cool.

Bittersweet Brandied Ganache
16oz chocolate (1 lbs)
1 stick butter
8 oz cream (1 cup)
1.5oz brandy (3tbsp)

Swiss Buttercream

For a 9-inch cake (plus filling, or some to spare)
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
26 tablespoons butter, softened (3 sticks plus 2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a big metal bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk occasionally until you can’t feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers.

2. Transfer mixture into the mixer and whip until it turns white and about doubles in size. (Here’s a tip: when you transfer to the mixer, make sure you wipe the condensation off the bottom of the bowl so that no water gets into the egg whites. This can keep them from whipping up properly.)

3. Add the vanilla.

4. Finally, add the butter a stick at a time and whip, whip, whip.

This took 3 days to bake and freeze the layers, prepare icing and actually icing the cake on the day of the birthday. It was tiring but worth it because the birthday girl absolutely loved it.


Birthday gal with her cake


Don't ask me why I am flushing, it seems to be a normal occurance these days.


Cakes being baked. This is the chocolate cake layers.


Close up of the end project


Banana cream pie and apple pie. I made these in addition to the cakes as my dessert contribution. The banana cream pie was a sold out.


Shelbie and Drevan, our niece (Mr. J's sister's daughter) and nephew (Mr. J's cousin's son) , I think they love each other :)

All in all, it was a tiring but but weekend.

We're going back to the Lake this Friday to spend Valentine's Day at the new Lodge. I cannot wait to just to get away with Mr. J for some quiet R&R just by ourselves. I love the lazy, luxurious don't-have-to-be-anywhere-or-do-anything-if-we-wanted weekends away. Our last chance till baby comes, and then I can imagine that every outing would never be the same :) But how we look forward to it!