Princess Cake for my niece Sofie's Birthday

I had not have time to update the blog recently as I just finished my exam on Tuesday. I made the Princess Cake for my niece Sofie's Birthday on last Sunday. I promised Sofie that I would make the princess birthday cake for her and this was my first time doing princess cake. I already found the stable birthday cake ingredient ratio and method. The cake texture is close to the cake shop here based on feedback from people who had them. My sister-in-law likes yam so I decided to make the yam cake based.

Last week, we want to friend's child birthday and the birthday cake was yam cake filled with mix of wet young coconut flake and whipped cream. It was very yummy so I was thinking of doing that combination for my niece birthday. I have two yam chiffon recipes found from internet. One from auntyyochana and another from Jo's Deli & Bakery. The differences are ingredient ratios and Jo's Deli use the evaporated milk and auntyyochana use coconut milk. I found that yam and coconut combination is great and most people like it. I don't want too much eggs as nowadays people care about cholesterol. So, I  chose Jo's Deli & Bakery's recipe, but replace coconut milk with evaporated milk.

I have been looking around princess cake decoration for months. I wanted to choose something beautiful and simple so that I could do it. When my niece came to my house for lunch last two week, I showed her a number of princess cake design I found on interent. She chose this princess design from youtube as she wanted princess on heart shape. So, I decided to do this princess design.

I baked all the cakes one day advance, cooled down, wrapped well and placed in the fridge. I baked 4 cakes, 8x3 inches chiffon mould, 8x3 inches round baking tin, 7x3 inches round baking tin, 5 1/2x3 inches bowl, for princess cake. I used two and half recipes for all princess cakes and total cakes' height was 6 inches. I poured one recipe batter in chiffon mould that came out 2 inches cake. Another one and half recipe batter, I divided and poured into 8 inces, 7 inches and 5 1/2 inches tin respectively that came out 8x1 inch cake, 7x1 1/2 inches cake and 51/2 x 1 1/2 inches cake. After I inserted the barbie doll, the height was not enough. I added more cream on top to reach barbie's wasit. My fillings  between cakes were very thin. Maybe I should add more fillings  between the cakes to make up the height.

Probably, you don't want to eat the cake after seeing initial stage of decoration. It was a bit messy.

I baked 2 thin cakes, 11x3 inches round baking tin for heart shaped cake. I used one recipe batter for heart shape and the cake was not thick enough. I should use one and half or two recipes instead. I did not manage to place princess on the heart as the heart shaped cake was small. So, I decided to place the princess in front of the heart.

I reduced the amount of sugar as I think original amount is too sweet for us. As I mentioned, combination of oconut flavor and yam is great, so I used coconut milk instead. I did not have purple color, so I mix equal amount of red and blue food coloring to make purple color. This recipe yields one 8 inches chiffon cake.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (150g) Sifted Cake flour
• 1/4 cup Sugar {original: 1/2 cup Castor sugar}
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon  Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon  Vanilla Essence
• 1/2 cup  Coconut Milk {original: Evaporated Milk (diluted)}
• 1/2 teaspoon  Purple Food Colour
• 1/2 cup  Yam,steamed and finely mashed
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup Corn Oil

• 4 large egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon Cream of tartar
• 70g cup Sugar {original: 1/2 cup Castor sugar}

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C.
2. Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Add vanilla essence and purple food colour into the coconut milk {original: diluted Evaporated milk}, stir well.
4. Put mashed Yam into a bowl and gradually stir in sugar and coconut milk {original: evaporated milk},mix till smooth and add in the egg yolks,corn oil and flour.Mix until it become a smooth batter.
5. In a large clean bowl whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy then add in the sugar and continue to whisk until stiff.
6. Pour the Yam mixture to egg whites mixture and stir slowly till well mix.
7. Pour mixture into a ungreased chiffon cake mould and bake for about 40-45 minutes or till cooked. Invert the tin and cool.

For the filling, I mixed thin slices of wet young coconuts, whipped cream and sugar. We can add more  sugar if we like the sweetness. The amount of filling depends on the size of the cake. We can use dairy whipping cream for fillings. Here, I used the non-dairy whipping cream for fillings.

As usual, I used the non-dairy whipping cream, Pastry Pride, for the decoration. I added 2 teaspoons of Wilton Meringue Powder to 4 cup of whipping cream to stabilize further. you can read the difference between non-dairy whipping cream and dairy whipping cream here. For spreading cream on cake, Wilton Meringue Powder might not be needed as it is easier to spread the frosting on the cake.

I frosted the heart shaped cake first, then  smoothed the princess cake. I smoothed the cake the gown by paper, method found in this youtube video. It really worked out well. I got the idea of sprinkle snow flake on the gown from the same youtube video. First, I am thinking of making two color gown like in original planned youtube video. Later, I realized it was not easy job so I decided the one color gown. I used the Wilton Open Star Tip #16 to decorate the gown border and used the same tip to make star on the gown border.
 
After adding the border, it was 11:30 am and I didn't have enough time to add more design on princess cake gown like in the video. So I just sprinkled snow flakes on the gown.

I planned to decorate the same heart shape cake as this video but end up like below. First, I just wanted to add one or two roses only. But I placed first two roses at wrong place so end up three roses. I used the Wilton Open Star Tip #16 for cake border,  Wilton Rose Petal Tip #124 for roses and Wilton Leaf Tip #352 for leaves. 

After finish decorating princess cake then I wrote the letter on the heart shaped cake using decorating paper piping cone or we can use Wilton Round Tip #3. Because princess was blocking my way, I could not write the letter freely and my hand was shaking nonstop. Moreover, I did not have enough space to write full "Happy Birthday" so my hubby suggested me to write "B.Day". Lucky, I was able to squeeze "Day".

The final product was not that bad, simple and elegant. My hubby told me that I have been watching many princess video so many times on youtube and my princess cake was like that only. But my niece and guests at birthday party seemed like it. It was worthwhile to do for her.