Baby's First CakeA cake for baby's first birthday
Ingredients:
Cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
6 egg whites
1 1/2cups sugar, divided
3/4cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 1/2tsp. vanilla extract
1/4tsp. coconut extract
1cup milk, at room temperature
blue or red food coloring
Frosting:
1/2cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1tsp. vanilla extract
1/8tsp. coconut extract
3cups confectioners' sugar
3tbs. milk
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
Decorations:
Blue or red food coloring
1cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 blue or pink decorating gel (.68 oz.)
Directions:
1. heat oven to 350F. Grease three 8" round cake pans; line bottoms with waxed paper, grease again, and dust with flour.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, with electric mixer on medium, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/2 cup of sugar and beat on high until stiff peaks form; set aside.
3. In large bowl beat butter and remaining 1 cup sugar about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla and coconut extracts. Alternately add flour mixture and milk, beating on low until smooth. Add 1/3 of the egg whites, beating breifly on low speed. With rubber spatula, fold in remaining egg whites.
4. Transfer half of the batter to a medium bowl. Use about 6 drops of blue (or red)food coloring to tint the batter bright blue (or pink). Spoon batter into a 1-gallon heavy-duty plastic food storage bag with one corner cut to make a 1/2" opening. Spoon white batter into another bag, same as above.
5. Pipe a 1" band of white batter around outer edge of two cake pans. Pipe a 1" band of blue batter next to white band. Pipe a second band of white next to the blue, then fill the middle with blue. Repeat in third cake pan, but start with a blue band of batter around the outer edge.
6. Bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cakes in ans 10 minutes, then invert onto wire racks. Peel off waxed paper, invert again, and cool completely.
7. For frosting: With mixer on medium, beat butter until fluffy. Add vanilla and coconut extracts. Gradually add confectioners' sugar and milk; beat until fluffy. For filling transfer 1/2cup of frostingto a small bowl and add coconut.
8. Mix 6 drops of blue (or red) food coloring and 1/4 cup waterin a small bowl. Add coconut and mix well to tint evenly. Squeeze gently and transfer to paper towels.
9. Place one cake layer with white outer band on cake plate; spread with 1/2 of the coconut filling. Top with the reverse-design cake layer and spread with remaining coconut filling. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread sid and tom of cake with frosting. Press tinted coconut onto sides of cake.
10. To make checkerboad design on top of cake: With long knife lightly score parallel vertical lines 1" apart across surface of cake. Repeat in horizontal direction to create a square pattern. Using lines as guides, fill in every other square with blue (or pink) decorating gel.
Prep time: 40 minutes
12-16 servings
Brought to you by Chef Mom - www.ChefMom.com
Please print for personal use only. Copyright (c) 1999-2009 by SheKnows LLC/Atomic Online.Recipe submitted by: Cabizu - Family http://www.deletor.com/moon/