Birthday Bento and birthday cake

Finally got around to typing out the post for Z3’s birthday.

Spent most of my time on his cake, so this birthday pasta food art is not exactly how I wanted it to turn out. I was using a underwater themed cake as my inspiration for this pasta. There is angel hair pasta twirled up in the centre of the dish. I put in a baby octopus and starfish made of cheese, and a fish made of mashed potato. Some conchiglie was added as seashells, and there is a tomato based mushroom sauce all around the base. He had this with a small bowl of cream of mushroom soup (not pictured).

After I photographed it, I realized the bunting was a bit too high up, but by then Z3 was hungry and wanted to eat, so I did not change it.

Birthday pasta lunch

 

Here is his birthday cake, I put together his favourites – chocolate and construction vehicles. He LOVES all sorts of construction vehicles, and he adores chocolate cake. Here is a chocolate sponge cake covered with chocolate fudge which I decorated as a construction site.

I cut a chunk out of the side of the cake and covered it with Oreo crumbs and chunks, to represent the “dirt” of the construction site. The great thing about this cake (aside from it being so yummy) is that any uneven parts of the chocolate fudge covering the cake are hidden by the construction vehicles.

Construction themed birthday cake

Here is the recipe for the chocolate cake and chocolate fudge:

Ingredients for chocolate sponge cake (Original recipe here)

• 2550g cocoa powder

• 6 tbsp boiling water

• 2 large egg

• 4 tbsp milk

• 175g self-raising flour

• 1 rounded tsp baking powder

• 100g softened butter

• 300g caster sugar

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees and line 2 8-inch round tins with baking parchment.

2. Put the cocoa powder and boiling water into a large bowl and mix well to make a paste. Add the remaining ingredients and beat with a whisk until combined. Pour batter into the prepared tins and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Set on wire rack to cool.

Ingredients for chocolate fudge (original recipe here)

• 175 grams dark chocolate 
• 250 grams unsalted butter (softened)
• 275 grams icing sugar (sifted)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. To make the icing, melt the chocolate over a double boiler.
2. In another bowl beat the butter until it’s soft and creamy and then add the icing sugar. Beat until pale and fluffy. Then gently add the vanilla and chocolate and mix together until everything is glossy and smooth.

To assemble the cake:

1. Sandwich the middle of the cake with about a quarter of the chocolate fudge, and then spread the top and sides too using an angled spatula. Chill in the fridge for 2 hours.
2. Smooth out the surface as necessary. Cut out a chunk of the top layer of the cake and smooth some fudge over the cut portion. Sprinkle Oreo chunks and crumbs over it to achieve desired effect of a construction site. Add construction vehicles for decoration.