My son turned three this year and I was puzzled with what theme to use for his cake! He just kept on asking about "Birthday Cake" and couldn't make up his mind himself so I decided to make a cake that resembles the top tier of my "Familiar Red Monster from a Street" lol cake and theme it around whimsical things I consider to be just yummy and classic for cakes and deliciousness.

I used a FABULOUS recipe from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum called Sour Cream Butter Cake, and after all this time making dozens of cakes I'd have to say this is the holy grail moment, the cake I will always make and never look for another to try when it comes to yellow cakes. It was easy to torte (I used four torted layers) baked up on time and perfectly without over-browning or sinking/shrinking, and most wonderfully of all, tasted like a dream. It uses all egg yolks and Rose's special mixing method to create it's exceptionally soft and tender crumb. I even carved the sides so they were perfectly level and even and didn't have a problem crumb coating it. Just a DREAM to work with guys. I think every serious baker should own this book and all of Rose's books for that matter. Go out and get "The Cake Bible" and you'll never be the same. I sprinkled the torted layers top and bottoms with homemade rum syrup too for freshness/moisture retention. The flavours married up beautifully!

So, I used milk chocolate ganache for this cake, made it out of European chocolate (Galaxy Bars) since I am currently overseas. It soaked into the layers a bit because I didn't chill it before assembling (was in a hurry as usual) but it didn't matter because it was out of this world incredible. I also used Indydebi's buttercream frosting recipe, with the addition of Princess Cake and Cookie Emulsion/Extract for the Frosting and a smaller less noticeable amount for the fondant (Rhonda's Ultimate MMF Recipe).

Everything is fondant and handmade except for the toothpicks I used as sticks for the "lollipops" and the "cherry" stem which was a toothpick painted green with food colouring. I wanted to make a fondant stem but once again, no time for drying ;) What a fun cake!

Thanks for looking and sharing in my fun! Happy Birthday Baby!