Special occasions call for a celebration - a gathering of beloved friends and family. It may be a birthday, anniversary, wedding, engagement, or other special celebration; a cocktail party, a BBQ, a fancy sit-down dinner, or whatever takes your fancy, but a special cake is a must! Add candles for a birthday or anniversary, and you're set for a sparkling time.
Baking family birthday cakes used to be my job, I even baked my own, as I love playing in the kitchen. However, I never had time to learn the art of sugar craft. My children's cakes were assembled by cutting a square or round cake into segments to make themed cakes like Humpty Dumpty, Choo-choo Train, and so forth.
All this came to a halt when Mom fell ill, and soon thereafter hubby.
I've however been inspired to get back to playing in the kitchen. Food blogging was my passion when I first joined the blockchain over seven years ago, and I'm so glad to be back. My employees, and guests, have all been happy as well, as I cannot eat all the sweet treats I've been making of late, all by myself!
The awesome Plant Power Community is celebrating Third Anniversary with a Brand New PLANT BASED challenge: A Birthday Cake! (Third Anniversary) and I was inspired to bake a delicious Strawberry & Passionfruit Gateau - two layers of a vanilla sponge cake, with two fillings: lemon zest/vanilla cream and a passionfruit sauce, and topped with a slightly sweet vanilla mock-cream, garnished with plump red strawberries.
๐๐๐ฉ'๐จ ๐๐๐ฉ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐!
I will take you on a journey into my kitchen, so roll up your sleeves as we have a load of work to do!
I'm camera shy but have to follow the rules, so periodically called my employee Bonginkosi inside, and he managed to get a smile out of me;)
Fooling around a little
Ingredients required
๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ก๐ก๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ค๐ฃ๐๐
Pictorial steps - detailed steps on recipe card
Note I sifted the dry ingredients three times to incorporate as much air as possible
Be careful as the lemon juice froths up quickly when baking soda is added - stir and fold into batter
Pour into 2 round cake pans - note batter will have small bubbles, handle carefully
Bake as per recipe card
As you can see, I did not use springform pans, so had quite a juggling act with inverting onto a plate and back onto a wire rack
๐๐๐ก๐ก๐๐ฃ๐ & ๐๐ค๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฃ๐
Preparing Lemon Zest/ Vanilla Cream
Preparing passionfruit filling and dessert cream for the final assembly
๐ผ๐จ๐จ๐๐ข๐๐ก๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ช
Pictorial Instructions
Finally starting to look like a cake!
Place on a serving plate and cover the entire cake with fluffy dessert cream, score with the edge of a knife
Decorate with fresh Strawberries
๐๐๐ข๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐พ๐๐ก๐๐๐ง๐๐ฉ๐ ๐๐ก๐๐ฃ๐ฉ ๐๐ค๐ฌ๐๐ง'๐จ 3๐ง๐ ๐ฝ๐๐ง๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ฎ
Anyone for a slice?
๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฎ 3๐ง๐ ๐ฝ๐๐ง๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ฎ ๐๐ก๐๐ฃ๐ฉ ๐๐ค๐ฌ๐๐ง ๐พ๐ค๐ข๐ข๐ช๐ฃ๐๐ฉ๐ฎ!
Pssst. almost forgot, I need to invite a friend to enter, so...how about it @sunscape? I know you recently celebrated your 8th on the blockchain, let it be a double celebration.
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๐๐ค๐ง ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ช๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ฉ ๐๐๐๐ง๐ฉ
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Artwork by @artywink
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