A Birthday Cake and Cake Pops for Crystal

En Español
Last Thursday my oldest daughter turned 22! I cannot believe how fast time has gone by. Crystal is a wonderful daughter, and I thank God each day for that. I am very proud of her. May God continue to bless her, guide her and help her in her in med school so that she can graduate on time and become the best she can be in that field.

At home we always say we are skipping the birthday cake or that we want something light, but I always end up baking something. There is always room for cake, especially a delicious chocolate cake! Diets can start some other day, right? This time I made a cake and strawberry cake pops decorated with purple details.

Since Crystal loves sprinkles and glitter in baked goods, I decorated some of the cake pops with lilac and also rainbow color disco dust. Apply the disco dust to the chocolate while it is still a bit wet with a soft brush smeared with a tiny bit of dust and gently  flick it to drop the glitter over the cake pops.

For the inside of the cake pops I mixed the strawberry cake with light blue buttercream to make it light purple to match the fondant flowers.

The chocolate cake, is covered with Italian meringue and filled with strawberry jam. This cake recipe is delectable and it is one of the recipes included in my eBook Holiday Cakes.

How-to's of decorating the cake:
I frosted the cake as usual making it as even as possible. Use a flat spatula to press gently the sides of the cake from the bottom up and as straight as possible. Keep doing this until the technique is applied throughout all the sides of the cake.

Even out any protruding edge of meringue on the top edge by using a flat spatula or scrapper and leveling it towards the center. Use a pastry bag with tip  #855 or #1M to make the small swirls on the top edge. Apply fondant flowers and voila!

In the previous posts, this one and this one I mentioned that Crystal favors chocolate chip cookies; therefore, something with chocolate chips had to be present and that is why her sisters gave her chocolate chip cookies and chocolates. They also made her handmade cards! I loved that fact that they took time for details in a busy school day, especially for the handmade cards in these days where everything is made electronically lacking the personal effort in creating something nice from scratch.

Before making the swirls, I sprinkled some cocoa powder on top. I loved how it looked in addition to the flavor it added. These were a few of my baking projects this week, I hope you like and share it as usual. 




Have a blessed week!

Young people can live a clean life by obeying your word. I worship you with all my heart. Don’t let me walk away from your commands. - Psalm 119:9-10