Monday, October 20, 2008

the cake slice: Cappucino Chiffon Layer Cake



One fun thing about the bloging community is that you always have people who come up with fab new ideas. One of my fave bloggers, Gigi from GigiCakes paired up with one of her best blogging pals and created a new monthly blogging event called The Cake Slice.

I'm a Cupcake Maven, and I make a mean cupcake swirl, but I am a horrible cake maker. Actually let's rephrase that. My cakes taste darn good, but I am not so good at the cake assembling/frosting/decorating part, so I don't think they look very good. But it's also well known I am a crazy perfectionist, so who knows how skewed my reality is.

The purpose of The Cake Slice is to work on layer cakes. And since I love eating them, but need more practice making them, I was excited to join. We bake solely from one book, Sky High: Irresistable Triple-Layer Cakes, which is another good thing, because sometimes too much choice is NOT positive. I actually admit to needing some sort of structure when it comes to my baking. Left to my own devices and thinking about baking a layer cake, I will get easily distracted while researching online, and end up in the kitchen making brownies or cookies, and ... no layer cake.



So anyway, The Cake Slice. Our first cake was called Cappucino Chiffon Layer Cake and it combines all sorts of fun things like multiple steps, soaking the layers, liquor and whipped cream frosting...the latter of which many times for me is iffy at best. I have never frosted a cake with whipped cream frosting nor made a chiffon cake before.



Now I have. And I learned that little bit more from this experience so I am that much better of a baker and decorator now. I have a hard time getting sides straight when frosting, but the whipped cream was surprisingly easy to work with. I am really excited about this new event and cant wait to see what it brings us. This book has a lot of amazing sounding cakes..and I like unusual stuff, so onwards we go.



This recipe called for an espresso flavored chiffon layer cake, soaked with an espresso liquor mixture, then layered and coated in vanilla whipped cream. My only variations were using Vanilla Kahlua instead of Rum for my liquor; and in the whipped cream topping I put a little of regular Kahlua and 2 tsp of unsweetened Scharffen Berger cocoa for a little extra flavor.



It was fun to see everyone's variations on the cakes, and to see how the cut-up inside shot looked so similar on our cakes. So fun. Be sure to check out the other event bakers Cappucino Chiffon Layer Cakes over at the Cake Slice, enjoy!! Interested in the book? Amazon has it for a pretty good deal...buy it!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perfection!!

Bunny said...

Your cakeis beautiful!! It really is! I love the way you decorated it!

Rosie said...

Oh your cake is stunning with wonderful swirls of piping on top! Well done!!

Rosie x

Anonymous said...

Love the way your cake looks, beautiful. I wish I was having a slice right now.

Jodie said...

Gorgeous! I love your pics!

Lulu the Baker said...

If your cake looks THAT good and you're NOT a good cake decorator, I can't wait to see how they look when you get better. Nice job!

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks beautiful. It looks delicious as well. Great work!

Megan said...

Umm, vanilla Kahlua? Send a shot this way! I'll have to look for that!

I too was pleasantly surprised at how easy this was - and am looking forward to next months cake!!

Gigi said...

you did a great job at decorating your cake! totally professional looking! i can't wait to see your next cake!

Maria said...

Your cake turned out beautifully!! I wish I could have a taste!

Mary Ann said...

Mara, I think your cake is so beautiful! I love how you decorated the top and your sides look so smooth. The cocoa in the whipped cream makes it even more pretty. Great job- this is a fun group!

Katie said...

Your cake looks wonderful and so tall! Love the vanilla kahlua addition.

Caroline said...

Your cake looks delicious and really tall, very nice!

Jacque said...

I think it looks darn close to perfect! Nice work, I really like the decorations.

betty geek said...

Hey not bad at all! :) I hope you saved me a slice. I will have a bite and give the rest to Ryan. Diet time! xoxo!

Deborah said...

Your cake looks just perfect! I think you do just fine with layer cakes! :)

Ivy said...

Yep, this cake is to die for.
It's the one, the cake I would die for.
:) Haha
It looks so delicious and you did such a great job decorating it.

Anonymous said...

The frosting looks fluffy and delicious, but also smooth and elegant. My frosting doesn't usually come out this nice :)!