Let's Celebrate!!

It's my friend's son's 2nd birthday, and I'm so glad that I have the chance to bake him some cakes!

I actually have this opportunity to bake him birthday cakes since he was born..how lucky I am!!Yes...I've baked him 3 times birthday cakes and I admit only the 2nd and the last one were nice...;p

Here's the 1st one....a Chocolate Hazelnut Butter Cake. A not so nice cake which is alittle dry and the piping...oh dear...it was so ugly! When I was doing this I was so frustrated and feel like throwing the cake away...LOL!! Since it was not that nice, so I'm not posting the recipe here.

Anyway the cream was wonderful! I've made this Swiss Meringue Buttercream for the piping which was strongly recomended by dear Wendy (table for 2). Thanks Wendy!!

 Have a look at the cake...it was rough and dry..:(
I'll make some changes when I bake this again, and I'll definitely with share the recipe if it's good.

 The 2nd one...some Valrhona Chocolate cupcakes for him to celebrate with his school mates.
Not much decorations, just some fondant animals cut out from my cookie cutters..:)

 These were well received by his teachers and friends!! I'm glad with that..^^

 The 3rd...this was GOOD!! This was made for his actual birthday which we celebrated at his house. Everybody likes it so much and I'm so happy with all the compliments.
It's a Valrhona Chocolate sponge + Plain yogurt sponge cake sandwiched with fresh strawberry cream and a very very simple decoration!

 For the sponges recipe, please refer to my old sponge cakes recipes. I just twist and turn the recipe and added different kind of flavours in it.
I've blended some fresh strawberries and added into the dairy whipping cream for the cake. Then covered the whole cake with the plain whipped cream.

 It was 5 layers and alittle too tall...haha! So the cake was brought to his house without any boxes...;p
Soft sponges with not so sweet texture...yummy!!

 Have a look inside the cake, don't it look soft and fluffy?.....^^
I'll make this again for my daughter coming birthday, hope she won't complain why there's no castle or princess on the cake this year...hehehe!

 I actually wanted to make a nice fondant cake for his 3rd celebration, but my friend said she prefered a simple sponge cake instead. So this cake were made by her request.

Happy Birthday Royden!!