Blue Birthday Marble Cake

I have done many birthday cakes as well as cakes to befit different occasions so far.

Previously when I started to make cakes on a regular basis, I did not write down or took pictures of my cakes. In the last 3 years I have started to write and take pictures at the same time for the sake of my family, friends and readers of my blog.

When I was a teenager, one of the best cakes that I have eaten was from a hotel at Orchard Road. It was for my nephew’s first birthday which was shaped as a Concord plane. It looked so real that my father wanted to pick it up and give it to my nephew to play. When the cake was being cut, my father’s finger prints were at the sides of the cake which was the body of the plane. A cake that I would have loved to replicate of course but which I never did.

I have never spent alot for my childrens’ birthdays because I always thought it was a waste of effort and money as very very young children may not know what the fuss is about.

But I agree that any occasion to bring the family and extended family and even friends is reason enough to celebrate an occasion.

I remember doing simple birthday parties for my 2 daughters when they were in kindergarten and primary schools. Yes there will be cake and food and games in my house. And because they are a little older than babies or toddlers, they are able to see the cakes and enjoy them as well. One of my favourite cake was the Humpty Dumpty Cake. I used an empty eggshell for the face of Humpty and drew his face and let him sit on a brick wall cake. These are just memories because as I said earlier no photos were taken.

But now I take pictures and write down everything about the cake so as to improve or to bake the cake again when it turns out so delicious.

One such cake is this Blue Birthday Marble Cake made specially for a senior friend of mine who loves the colour, Blue! She does not like sponge cakes or chocolate cakes and definitely not too much frosting!  So I did a marble butter cake frosted  with fresh blue whipped cream icing and blue m&m chocolate buttons.

The cake was so tasty that it finished even though we had taken a full sumptious dinner earlier!

Anyone can make this cake – I have made this cake umpteen times just for the deliciousness and each time I had received many accolades. Simple and tasty and can be decorated elegantly to suit any occasion.

BLUE MARBLE BUTTER CAKE

INGREDIENTS

330 g self raising flour

200 g caster sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup milk

250 g butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Blue colouring – I used blue pea flower natural colouring.

Blue M&Ms and blueberries

METHOD

Preheat oven at 180C.

Cream butter with sugar till light and fluffy.

Add 1 egg at a time and continue whisking.

Add the vanilla extract and combine well.

Fold in sifted self raising flour , alternate with milk at the same time till you get a nice consistency of cake batter.

Divide the cake batter into 2,   one leave it plain but the other colour with a permitted blue colour or use blue pea flower colouring.

Drop 1 ladle of white and blue cake batter alternatively onto the prepared cake tin. Once all cake batter is finished, use a knife to run through the cake batter a few times. This will give a marble effect once baked.

Bake for 40 mins or until cake has risen and has a beautiful golden colour.

INGREDIENTS FOR ICING

125 g butter

250 g icing sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp sherry or rum (optional)

1 cup whipped cream

METHOD

Cream butter till fluffy, add the rest of the ingredients till you get a smooth and stiff icing . Fold in the whipped cream to form a stiff frosting.

GETTING THE ACT TOGETHER TO FORM THE BLUE MARBLE BIRTHDAY CAKE

Let the cake cool.

Spread icing on top of cake and the sides. Use a scraper to form  decorative wavy lines throughout the cake.  Decorate with blue berries and m&ms.  Or you may cut the cake  into 2 layers. Spread icing on one layer and place the other layer on top. Brush off any excess crumbs. Spread icing on top using a metal spatula. Even out the sides and decorate with the M&Ms and blue berries according to your creativity!

NOTES:

You can purchase dried blue pea flowers to do your own natural colouring.

Its easy to grow, if it is available.

You can use other colour combinations, pink will be a sweet colour, either use beetroot or red dragon fruit to get the colour.

This is a go to recipe for butter cake. Not too rich but still very moist.   It is already good without any frosting.

Reduce the sugar further if necessary.

Whip the cream and keep in the freezer and use it when you want to frost the cake.

Alternatively, you can also whip the cream with vanilla extract and use it as it is as frosting instead.