One Cake – Three Ways

Ok, so a little late to the party, but I’m back!
I have some big news to break – but that’s another post for another day.

The first birthday cake of the year snuck up on me and I only had a few days to pull it together. I have always wanted to make a confetti cake, which is basically a plain white cake flecked with sprinkles! How delightful! I’ve seen them in boxed cake form and I thought I would take a stab at it. Why not ring in the first 2012 birthday cake with a festive confetti cake?

I cobbled together a cake (no recipe, ma!) and dumped in a jar of sprinkles.

Here’s the thing. I think there is a trick to confetti cake because the sprinkles essentially melted and instead of flecks of colour in the cake…I got blobs. It was pretty… “festive” looking. Delicious, but certainly not what I had expected. I poured the batter into a tube pan (ring-shaped pan) and after it was done I carved out a tunnel from the underside. I then filled the ‘cake trench’ with whipped cream that had been flavoured with some homemade strawberry jam. I took a thin layer of cake that I had carved out and patched up the trench, so essentially there was a tunnel of strawberry cream inside the cake. I then made a ganache and poured it on top and let it dribble down the sides.

That was the ‘first’ permutation of the cake.

Using the scraps of the cake, I built a small cup-sized trifle. I had a date coming over a few days later and wanted to serve this as a dessert. I layered the cream, cake, toasted hazelnuts, and ganache in a whiskey tumbler and added some slivered almonds as a garnish.

That was the ‘second’ permutation of the cake.

And for the third?

The rest of the scraps (plus some ganache added later) that I devoured after cleaning up!

Goes to show that one cake, can certainly go a long way.