The birthday cake is a classic to celebrate a birthday in beauty and taste. The base is a soft sponge cake filled with the creams we like the most. The characteristic of the birthday cake is the softness it offers even after baking. The sponge cake to be perfect requires a mixing with whisks for several minutes, at least 15, to achieve the so-called “ribbon” consistency. As for the filling, you can get creative as you prefer. In my cake recipe, I made a delicious custard and a luscious mascarpone and hazelnut cream all filled with a luscious whipped cream.
Let’s prepare the birthday cake together!
See also: Pine Nut Cake Apple Cake with Limoncello without Butter Simple Ring Cake with Amaretti – Traditional and Bimby Recipe Soft Ring Cake with Candied Orange and Dark Chocolate Pieces

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Medium
Preparation time: 20 Minutes
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: All seasons

402.63 Kcal

calories per serving

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Energy 402.63 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 32.67 (g) of which sugars 23.93 (g)
Proteins 6.17 (g)
Fat 28.42 (g) of which saturated 7.71 (g)of which unsaturated 2.18 (g)
Fibers 0.73 (g)
Sodium 35.23 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 199 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA^* and FoodData Central^** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.

^* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ^** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Birthday Cake Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
eggs (6 medium)
vanillin (1 packet)
egg yolks (6)
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 1/8 cups milk
lemon zest
2 1/8 cups mascarpone
Nutella® (5 tablespoons)
powdered sugar (2 scant tablespoons)
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 oz liqueur (rum, cointreau, or strega)
whipping cream (1 quart)

Tools

Stand Mixer or electric whisk
Springform Pan 9.5 inch
Spatula
Sieve
Pot
Bowl
Whisk
Spatula
Plastic Wrap
Bowl
Spatula
Pot
Spatula
Food-grade Marker for spreading
Piping Bag
Tray wide and low 11 inches
Stand Mixer for whipping cream

Sponge Cake Preparation

Note: for preparing this sponge cake the use of a stand mixer or a mixer with beaters is essential
Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 10-inch springform pan. Preheat the oven to 356°F.
Place the sugar and whole eggs in the stand mixer or a bowl and work for at least 15 minutes until they are light and fluffy, this is the most important phase of the entire preparation, the mixture must incorporate a lot of air which will swell the sponge without using yeast. You need to get a mixture that falls in ribbons when lifting the whisk.
Now leave the beaters and continue with a spatula. Add the flour mixed with the vanillin by sifting, little by little, and stir the mixture with a spatula from top to bottom, gently, to avoid deflating the mixture.
Place in the oven at a temperature of 356°F for about 40 minutes, never open the oven before 20 minutes of baking, or the sponge may deflate irreparably!
Check the cooking with a wooden skewer, which must come out of the cake dry. Let the sponge cake warm up and unmold it onto a wire rack.
In a pot, place the milk with the lemon zest and bring it almost to a boil, turn off and let it cool. Separately in another bowl, whip the egg yolks with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour and mix with a whisk.
In the same bowl, pour a little hot milk and mix.
Transfer everything into a pot and start cooking the cream over low heat (always stirring). When it begins to simmer, continue cooking for 5 minutes on low heat.
After about 5 minutes, while still stirring, the cream solidifies (always stir vigorously to avoid lumps).
Remove the lemon zest and pour the cream into a wide bowl and cover it in contact with food-safe plastic wrap and let it cool.
In a bowl, mix the mascarpone, Nutella, and powdered sugar with a spatula. Stir well until you get a homogeneous mixture.
Pour the water and sugar into a saucepan and mix.
When the syrup has reached a boil, lower the heat and let it simmer for a few minutes.
After the indicated time, remove from the heat and pour in the liqueur.
Let it cool completely out of the fridge.
Once the cream and syrup have cooled, you can fill the cake.
Cut the sponge cake into three discs and soak each disc with the syrup
On the first layer, fill with mascarpone and Nutella cream.
On the second layer, fill with custard.
Place the third disc, soak with the syrup, and put the filled cake in the fridge to rest for 4 or 5 hours.
Whip the cream stiff and put it in a piping bag with a star tip
Start decorating the cake with the whipped cream. Cover the entire sponge cake with cream dollops.
We have thus created our white birthday cake. We can place decorations on top of the cream as we like.
Let it rest in the fridge for at least three hours before serving.