Monday, July 19, 2010

The Second Birthday Cake

My aforementioned niece Maggie turned two this month.  This fact is shocking because a. she is so fricken big, I have no idea when that happened, and b. she already has a little sister, who is already six months old (i.e. family events are a bit chaotic).

Here's a shot from the fourth of me with the two girls, Maggie and Zivah: 

Maggie had two birthday celebrations this year, one on her actual birthday at her house with her big brother, little sister, parents and grandparents (on her mom's side) and one at Grammy's Cape house with my parents (her grandparents on her dad's side) and me a few days later.  Note the pun in the post title: this was both her second birthday cake because she turned two, and the second birthday cake she had to celebrate.  (I crack me up).

Unfortunately, I only have slightly yellow pictures I took with my phone.  There might be more later if my father can find the cord that connects his camera to the computer.  I made a vanilla cake with strawberries and whipped cream because when asked what kind of birthday cake she wanted the week before, Maggie replied, "a white cake with strawberries," and well, we already knew she liked whipped cream.

The coolest part about the cake though, was that I cooked it on the grill.  It was way too hot to turn on the oven in house (a fact I learned the hard way when making my father's birthday cake a few weeks earlier - there is no post because I have no pictures and forgot about it until just now). We have a cookbook called Weber's Real Grilling, which is awesome.  I had made an apple cake from it on the grill in the past, and this time followed a recipe for a vanilla cake.    It was super easy, didn't heat up the house and was incredibly moist and delicious.

I made the single layer and let it cook and then cut it in half horizontally, filled it with whipped cream and strawberries, the decorated the top with the same and it was done.  I think it's one of the prettiest cakes I've ever made and was certainly one of the simplest as well.

One note: the recipe called for a 2" high cake pan.  The one I used was about 1.5" and it was OK, but was definitely pushing it.  I'll be picking up a higher one for when I do it again.  Also, if you make the apple cake (which I recommend), make the batter in a mixer, not a food processor.  I did it both ways and in the food processor the batter turned out too thin and it didn't come out as well.

My father found his camera cord!  Here are some more pics:

2 comments:

  1. Looks yummy! I can't believe you made that on the grill - I've never heard of such craziness.

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  2. No doubt about it, that's grilling skill. Very nice.

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