little mermaid chocolate birthday cake

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The Little Mermaid cake

It's that time of the year again, Birthday time!

This time around I tried a different chocolate cake recipe than the one from last year. I received a new cookbook from a friend for my birthday and I've been eager to try out some of the recipes.  This cake came out very moist.  I added a thin layer of raspberries and buttercream in the middle to give it extra shot of flavor.

I doubled the below recipe to give two 9x13 sheet cakes and one loaf cake pan, which I cut into the castle part on top.  I used buttercream to make the "waves" (used wilton tip 32) and a mixture of brown sugar & graham crumbs for the beach.  The castle tops are inverted mini ice cream cones that were iced with icing, sprinkles put on the outside to glitter it up and held up with lollipop sticks.   

She's totally into anything princess, especially the Little Mermaid.  The Disney store is fantastic for reasonable price figurines.  It really makes the cake look wonderfully decorated.


I had two parties for her.  This is cake one.  The other cake (I used the same recipe), will be up on friday.

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chocolate cake
makes one 9-inch layer cake

4 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup boiling water
2.5 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
0.5 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, separated, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature


Pour boiling water over the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Stir to melt. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar and mix on medium high until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in egg yolks, vanilla and melted chocolate.

Fold in one third of the dry sifted ingredients (flour, soda and salt) with a spatula. Fold in one-half of the buttermilk. Alternate folding in another one-third of the dry ingredients, buttermilk and final dry ingredients.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until medium peaks form.

Fold the egg whites into the cake batter.

Prepare two 9-inch round pans with parchment paper . Butter the paper and dust with flour. Pour the batter into both pans. Bake cake layers in a 350F oven, until toothpick comes out clean, approximately 30-35 minutes.

Recipe from: Classic Chocolate Cake, Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Baking.

buttercream
yields 1.5 cups

1/2 cup margarine or butter
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tbsp milk

Cream margarine. Add sugar gradually beating on medium speed. Icing should appear dry. Add milk and beat until fluffy. Color your icing by mixing in food coloring of your choice.

Buttercream adapted from Wilton's Decorating Guide Yearbook


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