Jack's Cake

I baked the cake for Jack's 90th birthday celebration yesterday and today I decorated it. Jack served in WWII as a navigator on a B-29 so his wife Mary asked me to decorate a cake with his plane "Goin' Jessie."

I knew I wanted to decorate the cake completely with vanilla buttercream since nothing beats it for taste. Using another medium like fondant, sugar paste or modeling chocolate would have been easier but in my opinion not so tasty and a 90th birthday celebration deserves a great tasting cake.

Mary loaned me a book with a photo of "Goin' Jessie," and I found lots of helpful information on the Internet as well.

When it came time to draw the plane design for the cake, I admit I cheated a bit by recruiting the help of my husband Joe who is great at drawing. So with my husband's help, this is how I decorated Jack's cake.

I researched Jack's plane. In the photo, he's in the top row, second from right.

My artistic husband helped me by drawing this plane made to fit on my 12 x 18 - inch sheet cake.

I baked three recipes of "The Greatest and Easiest Chocolate Cake" and spread dark chocolate ganache between the layers.

I iced the cake with two batches of vanilla buttercream and made an additional batch for decoration. My sweet niece Maya was a wonderful support. Look how big that cake is!

I got all my icing colors mixed and ready to go. My kind sister loaned me her kitchen for the big baking project since mine is still undergoing a remodel.

I cut out the B-29 my husband drew.

I set the cutout on top of the cake and used a skewer to draw around it.

Here's what the outline looked like.

Then, I just followed the lines.

And, I filled in the lines. I piped icing on the inside and used an offset spatula to spread it to the edges.

Then, I started adding details.

And, more details.

Finally, I added "Happy Birthday Jack" and used my favorite trick of using a skewer to draw the letters onto the cake before adding the icing. If you make a mistake, just smooth out the icing and start again until you get it right. I hope Jack likes it.

Big Birthday Cake

We celebrated two volunteer birthdays at the Wednesday Community Meal today — Happy Birthday Jay and Suzanne!

When it comes to making one cake for a large group this buttermilk chocolate cake with Swiss meringue buttercream is the perfect choice.

Just look at that big stack of plates and forks!

The cake recipe is one I've featured before. It's the "Greatest and Easiest Chocolate Cake" recipe featured on the box of Trader Joe's cocoa powder and it is indeed great and easy.

The Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe is from Julie Richardson of Baker & Spice Bakery here in Portland (6330 Southwest Capitol Highway). This buttercream is lightly sweet and spreads like a dream.

"Greatest and Easiest Chocolate Cake"

3 1/3 cups flour

1 1/3 cups cocoa powder

3 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 teaspoons salt

12 ounces butter 

3 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla 

5 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. (Note: For my cake, I used 2 round 8-inch pans that were 4 inches deep.)

Place all ingredients in electric mixer bowl and beat on high speed for 3 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl once during mixing. Pour into prepared pans. Bake cakes for about 55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream
6 large egg whites
1 1/4  cups granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon of fine sea salt
1 tablespoon espresso powder, dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water.

Place the whites in a clean mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar and cream of tartar.

Place bowl over a double boiler on medium heat, stir frequently until the mixture is very hot (120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit).

Move to mixer and whip whites on high for 2 to 3 minutes; turn down to medium low until cool (use the bowl as your guide).

In a separate bowl with a wooden spoon, stir butter to soften.

With mixer on medium/high speed, add the butter one tablespoon at a time, adding the next tablespoon just as the previous one is blended in. Once all the butter incorporated, add in vanilla, salt and coffee and whip on high speed until fluffy.