Happy Birthday My Dearest Niece: Iris' First Birthday Cake, Strawberry dream cake

The time run so fast, I remember the time that my family was excited about our new member last year, it's a joy to think about all of that time and now she is 1 year old.

Well, the best thing that I can do for her is baking a birthday cake for her, ^^, it's my pleasure to do it.
Anyway because my niece still can't tell me what she want for her birthday, the one who made the decision is her mom (my sister), and she want a butter cake with a buttercream, it's her favorite, haha. 
For the cake even my sister want the butter cake, I didn't make it, because I don't want the cake to be too heavy, so I choose the sponge cake but not the basic sponge, it's a sponge with a lot of oil and butter so it's not dry like the low fat one. The sponge cake recipe  is base on the yellow sponge cake from: The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook: The Best Sweet and Savory Recipes for Every Occasion by John Barricelli, but I adapt it a bit, because I don't want the cake without the butter flavor, so I add the melted butter into the cake, and it's good, actually I want to fool my sister, but she knew about the cake just before I assembled it -*-, anyway because it's rich and delicious, so I'm safe, haha. 
Due to the decoration that my sister wanted to decorate the cake with the fresh berries, the inside of the cake had to complete the taste of the berry too. So, I choose the strawberry buttercream and fresh strawberry to be the filling, and if you like Strawberry flavored Pocky, my brother said that it has the same taste, haha. 
I divided my work into 2 days, the first day, I make the cake then filled and refrigerated it, then the next day I made the Italian meringue buttercream and decorated it. So, it's not hard for you to do the same, the most time consuming work is making a lot of roses from the buttercream, you will need about 50-55 of them (whites and pinks, I use 102 and 104 Rose Piping Nozzle), try to make them different in size and your cake will be more lovely ^^. The only trick that I use is making the buttercream roses on the baking paper, then freeze them until ready to decorate the cake, by this way you will be able to move it more freely and they are less fragile.
So, the last thing that I can say is I'm very happy with this cake, and "Happy Birthday Iris!"

Strawberry dream cake

make 1 cake 

(2tiers cake, 1-12cm and 1- 16cm)

Yellow sponge cake
85g .................................. Cake flour
60g .................................. Cornstarch
4 ...................................... Large eggs
4 ...................................... Egg yolks
130g ................................ Sugar
1tsp ................................. Coarse salt
1tbsp ............................... Vanilla extract
½cup .............................. Vegetable oil
½cup .............................. Melted butter (warm)

Strawberry Syrup

50g .................................. sugar 

50cc ................................. water
2tbsp ............................... Crème de fraise


Strawberry buttercream
150g ................................ Unsalted butter
140g ................................ Strawberry puree
35g .................................. Sugar


250g ............................... Strawberries
125g ................................ Raspberries


Preheat the oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Sift the flour and Cornstarch together, set aside.

Line 40x30 baking pan with baking paper.

Mix melted butter with vegetable oil.

Beat the eggs, egg yolks, sugar and salt until very thick and pale (thick ribbon).

Add the vanilla and beat to combine.

Pour the sifted flour into the egg mixture, fold to combine.

Pour the melted butter mixture (drizzling, if possible) into the batter and fold to combine.

Pour the mixture into prepared pan.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden and spring when touch lightly.
Remove the cake from the pan and let it cool on a wire rack.


Make Strawberry buttercream:

Beat all the ingredient together until combine.

Make the syrup:

Put the water and sugar into small saucepan and bring to boil, until all the sugar dissolved, take off the heat and let the syrup cool.

Mix Crème de fraise into the syrup.


Assemble :

Cut the cake into 4 rounds.
2-16 cm. and 2- 12 cm.
Note: when cut the cake, first cut 2 large rounds then cut the small rounds, one of the small round will made from 2 of half circle. 

Place 1 large round cake on the plate, sprinkle the syrup over the cake, spread the strawberry buttercream over the cake, place the slice strawberries over the buttercream. Spread the buttercream over the strawberries, cover with another round cake, sprinkle the syrup again, then cover with the plastic warp and refrigerate.

Do the same to the small rounds.

Italian Meringue Buttercream

115g	Egg Whites
210 g	Sugar
1/4 cup	Water
335 g	Unsalted butter a pinch of salt

To make the sugar syrup, place the candy thermometer in the saucepan and heat the water and 170 g of sugar over medium-high heat. Partially cover with a lid to capture the evaporating water this helps to moisten the sides of the saucepan to prevent sugar crystals from forming.

With the mixer on high speed, begin whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. When the peaks are stiff, with the mixer still running slowly pour the remaining sugar into the meringue.

Raise the heat under the sugar syrup to bring the syrup to 245°F, if it is not there already. When the syrup is at 245°F, remove the thermometer and slowly pour the syrup into the meringue.

After 1 to 2 minutes reduce the mixer speed to medium for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the meringue is cooled. Add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Increase the mixer speed to high for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the butter is fully incorporated, add a pinch of salt and beat to combine.

Cover both cake with buttercream and place the small one over the large one and decorate with buttercream roses and fresh berries.

Happy Birthday My Dearest Niece:

 Iris' First Birthday Cake
21 Nov 210