Birthday Cake Recipe

So I promised here the recipe of my traditional birthday cake. It is quite simple and it can be adapted very easily. I have been making this cake for 10 years now and it was always a big hit. If you do have any questions, just leave a comment. So, let's start with my standard ingredients:

You will need:

• 2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of backing powder
• 3 tablespoons of jam (I used raspberry, but you can any flavor you like) you can also replace the jam with my fruit you like such as tinned cherries or pineaple
• 150g of butter
• a small pinch of salt
• if you like: a bit of aroma like rum or amaretto or lemon

After collecting all the ingredients, I start to separate the eggs, I add the salt to the egg whites and beat until stiff. In another bowl, I add the sugar to the egg yolk, butter at room temperature and some amaretto. When you beat it until well mixed and creamy.

 When I have sieved the flour into an extra bowl and added the baking powder and mixed it with a spoon. Afterwards I added the flour piece by piece to the egg-sugar-butter mix. Finally I used the hand mixer, so everything comes well together. If you want to add chocolate chips you would have to add it now.

After everything is well mixed, I added the stiff egg white and carefully incorporated into the pastry. Please do this really slow so the pastry becomes very fluffy. ;)

 
So now the pastry is ready and we come to the birthday part. First you need a baking dish which you need to butter very well. I also always add some breadcrumbs so the pastry won't sick to the dish and I like this extra bit of crunch to the outside of the cake. =) When I fill half of the pastry in the dish and I put some chocolate powder on the top. Now it is time for the jam which is screaming for another layer of chocolate powder. ;) On top of this I've added the remaining pastry.

So now most of the work is done! I put the cake into the NOT preheated oven and put it to 180°C and leave it in for about one hour. You can test it with a wooden skewer. You insert into the cake and remove it. If it is free of cake, butter or similar, the cake is ready. Et voliá:

Once the cake is completely cold down, you can add chocolate topping and some colorful pearls.