Pot of Gold Kids Birthday Cake

Susie’s Scrumptious Sweets Tel: 954-476-0476

Supplies and recipes :

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

6 ounces semisweet chocolate

1/2-cup butter

4 egg yolks

2/3-cup sugar

1 cup sifted cake flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2-teaspoon baking soda

1/4-teaspoon salt

1/2-cup buttermilk

1-teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 egg whites

Method

In a saucepan melt chocolate and butter over medium heat and then cool. In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolks until thick and yellow, gradually beat in 1/3-cup sugar. Continue beating until very thick.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture alternately with the buttermilk; beat until smooth. Add chocolate mixture and vanilla.

Beat egg whites until stiff; gradually beat remaining 1/3-cup sugar into egg whites. Fold egg white mixture into batter. Pour batter into two greased and floured 8-inch round layer cake pans. Bake chocolate cake at 375° for about 25 minutes, or until chocolate cake springs back when lightly touched with finger. Cool on racks then spread chocolate cake with frosting.

Apricot glaze for a 10" cake

Ingredients:

1 cup Apricot preserves

Method:

Heat preserves to boiling, strain. Brush on cake while still hot. Let dry. Glaze will dry to a hard finish in 15 minutes or less.

Chocolate Poured Fondant Icing

Poured Fondant Icing dries to a shiny, smooth finish on your cake. Yield 4 cups sufficient to cover a 10" x 4" high cake

Ingredients

6 cups sifted confectioners’ (powdered) sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1-teaspoon almond extract

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate

Icing Colors (optional)

Method

Combine water and corn syrup. Place in saucepan with confectioners’ sugar. Stir until mixed thoroughly. Continue to stir over low heat until heated to 92°F. The mixture should be thin enough to be poured on the cake, but thick enough so it will not run off the cake. Stir in 3 ounces of melted, unsweetened chocolate. Stir almond extract and add icing colors. Cover the cake with an apricot glaze, and then pour on the chocolate fondant by placing the cake on a cooling rack over a bowl to catch the excess fondant.

Ingredients

2 x chocolate cakes baked in a pudding basin.

Apricot glaze

Chocolate Poured Fondant Icing

Caramel Icing between the layers and to write the message

Gold coins for decorating

Red shoestring licorice pieces or other 12-inch of bendable candy sweet for the rainbow.

Stiff icing to adhere the licorice pieces together to form a "rainbow"

Satin icing

To bake and assemble the cakes

The normal method of baking round cakes is to use a glass or china bowl shaped roughly as in the example below.

Place the chocolate cakes on a cooling rack. Cut a ¼ of an inch of cake away from both cakes at the bottom of the bowl. Take a little of the caramel icing and reserve it to write the message on the cake. Smear the caramel icing between the two layers and the widest point so that a pot shape is made, and sandwich the top layer of cake onto the first.

Where the gold coins will be placed cut out a whole in the cake to accommodate the coins. Cover the whole cake with the apricot glaze and let dry. Place the two cut pieces of the cake around the bottom of the cake as a base for the pot. Pour over the chocolate fondant icing and let dry for half an hour. Pipe the message with a small straight icing tip on the sides of the cake.

Place a piece of kitchen parchment on the countertop. Color some “stiff icing” the colors of the rainbow, and coat a licorice piece, and lay in a curve on the paper. Color the next piece and shape next to the first piece. Repeat with more layer, leave for half an hour to dry. The finished arc should resemble the diagram below. When the layers are dry carefully separate from the parchment and adhere to the cake with more stiff icing.

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