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A Happy "Smiley" Birthday Cake




Sometimes I'm in a mood for some cleaning up. I know, it sounds crazy.....c'mon, I don't think anyone likes to do it. But, honestly.... once in a while..... I do get into the mood to clear away all the clutters and make room for some new things. So, it would be our wardrobes one time or another time it would be my kitchen. It's always a starting trouble....but when I do get it started...I go on a cleaning spree....and thankfully, Mr. Peter doesn't come in my way. And at the end of it.....when everything is done I feel so glad and content.

 So why am I speaking of my little madness here??? Well I had to clean up stuff from my computer, the other day.  With so much data stored up....the processor was slowing down.....all gizmo stuff! It was getting hard to work on it. So had put my mind to sort out a lot of things and organise and backup all of the data.......to erase the unnecessary and save the needed ones. And while in that process, l spotted some old snaps and I came across our little man's birthday celebration pictures of last year. It was his 3rd birthday. I had baked him a cake. It was a chocolate cake with a smiley face.

 We had a smiley ball...I'm sure many of us had or even have it even now. It's a yellow coloured ball.....a little bigger than a tennis ball....and it was kinda like a squeeze toy.  Our little man loved playing with it the whole time. He used to take it along with him when he went to sleep too. 

 So for his birthday I had made a chocolate cake with a yellow coloured butter cream frosting and used chocolate sprinkles to make the eyes and smile of his favourite smiley ball.

 So, here's the recipe:

 Recipe for Chocolate Cake

 Ingredients:
Flour – 2 ½ Cups
Unsweetened cocoa powder – 1/2 cup
Baking soda – 1 tsp
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp
Oil - 1 cup
Sugar – 1 1/2 cups
Eggs – 4 large
Whole milk – 1/2 cup
Curd - 1/2 cup
Pure vanilla extract – 1 tsp

 Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Slightly grease a 9 inch round baking tin with oil.
Sieve together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, keep aside.
Mix milk and sour cream in a small bowl and set aside.
Beat together oil and powdered sugar with a mixer along with eggs (add 1 at a time) until well combined. Add vanilla as well and mix.

 Fold in the flour mixture, alternating with milk mixture, ending with flour.
Spoon batter into greased and dusted  pan.
Bake at 180°C until a tester inserted in centre comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.

 Let cool in pan completely on a wire rack. Invert cake.

Recipe for Butter cream Frosting:

 Ingredients:
1/2 cup softened butter
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
3-5 tbsp milk
Yellow food colouring

 Method:
Add the butter in a mixing bowl. Best it from medium to high on a hand mixer for about 3 minutes till it becomes nice and fluffy. Now add the vanilla and milk and continue beating. Slowly pour in the powdered sugar and keep beating till all is well incorporated....about another 3 minutes. Add in the yellow food colour and mix well.
If the frosting is too thick add in milk 1 tsp at a time and beat until combined.

 Spread it on the cake and decorate with sprinkles.

 Well it was one yummy cake. Our little man was delighted to see his cake. I still remember how surprised he was when he first saw the cake. It's been a year since. And he'll be four soon....and I'm still wondering what I need to come up for this little guy this year. Gone are the days of smiley balls.....now it's all about cars.

 So wish me luck!!! 

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