A Birthday Cake for My Mum

Yesterday was a happy and tired day for me. Have been baking the whole night before yesterday, and frosting and decorating cakes the next morning. There were 2 birthday cakes to prepare and I'll like to do my best to make the cake look pretty. One was for my neighbour birthday girl, she has not much request on the deco anyway, but for a 4 years old girl, I think she likes something cute and colourful..heehee! I didn't load up the photo here because its the common chocolate cake I baked before and the decorations were quite simple with a pinky teddy bear on it.
The cake shown here was for my mum. Actually her birthday falls on the coming weekday but we had an early celebration for her last night. Well, it was a simple celebration which we had a cutting cake session for tea then a western dinner at a so-so restaurant nearby. By the way, there is no nice and classy restaurant found in my hometown....haha!

Walnut Mocha Cream Cake


To make it simple, I didn't bake my own sponge this time. So end up using the sponge mix I got from the bakery store. Not bad at all...:)
Recipe adapted from Kevin Chai

Recipe for the Sponge:
180g sponge mix
3 eggs
45ml fresh milk
100g walnut (chopped)
60g butter (melted)

Recipe for the Mocha Cream:
200g fresh cream (whipped)
20g mocha paste

Topping:
Some melted Valrhona Chocolate
Fresh Strawberries

Method:
~ To make the sponge, preheat oven at 180'C, line a bottom of a 7" round cake tin with greaseproof paper.
~ Beat sponge mix, eggs and milk with high speed until light and fluffy. (about 8-10 mins)
~ Fold in chopped walnuts and mix in melted butter until well blended.
~ Spread batter into prepared tin and bake for 30 mins. Remove from oven and cool completely, then sliced into 3 layers.
~ To make the mocha cream, just add in the mocha paste into the whipped cream and mix well.
~ Sandwich the sponge with the cream and coat the cake with remaining cream. Refrigerate for a while.
~ Melt some valrhona chocolate and pour over the cake. Refrigerate for a while. Then decorate with some fresh strawberries.

The texture of the cake was not those smooth ones because of the chopped walnuts added. But it tasted pretty good with the crisp of the nuts and the taste of the coffee cream. All my mum's favourite was in this cake....:) Well, except the strawberris...haha! All her grandchildren grabbed the fresh fruits instead.

Happy Birthday Mum!!