My 31st Birthday Cake
<cake ft. sheet pan I had to bring to restauraunt>
This year, I decided that I wanted to bake my own birthday cake. It was my 31st birthday in April and wanted to give a small gift to myself. I had baked a couple of cakes for special occasions and friends so why not do one for me. We had a dim sum lunch booked with family so my goal was to bake the cake (sponge, cream, filling component) before then. I settled on a vanilla sheet cake using, whipped cream frosting (my Asian parents can’t have anything but) and lime curd + strawberry jam as the fillings inside the layers.
<mini cake on a plate i made!>
It was my first time baking a sheet pan cake and it was very doable! I lined my cake pan with acetate to get the cake height I wanted and after cutting out the cake layers, had a whole container of cake scraps I snacked on for a week after. I chose a Vanilla Sheet Cake Recipe that used cake flour instead of AP because I wanted a lighter crumb, and ended up decreasing the sugar content (from 395g→347g of sugar) in the original recipe. The lime curd recipe I used was the easiest curd I have ever made, and really liked that I did not have to separate or waste the egg whites. I used this Lime Curd Recipe. I really like tart/sour things so it was perfect for me and thought that it complemented the sweetness of the cake well. I decided to use dairy free whipping cream and thought my cake was ruined because the heavy cream did not really whip. I had only bought 1 at the market thinking everything would be fine, but the whip cream was not as fluffy as I expected it to be. I stored the finished cake in the fridge for ~12 hours and that did help the cream set.
My cake layers were:
Layer 1: sponge | tomato vanilla syrup | lime curd | cream
Layer 2: sponge | tomato vanilla syrup | strawberry jam | cream
Layer 3: sponge | tomato vanilla syrup | lime curd | cream + blueberries on top
Everyone was full from dim sum so not much cake was eaten, but my parents did take it back home. I hope I make a better cake fo rmyself next year!
