Two birthday cakes for two unique twins!

I can't believe it's already been another year with my twins. It has been an adventurous year of them developing their own personalities and discovering new things through their kindergarten. It's amazing to see how two people who are so close are so different at the same time, which led me this year to make two different themes to honour the tastes of each one. Here are the recipes I used for each cake:

For my boy, who is into firetrucks above anything else lately, I decided to go with a devil's food cake with chocolate mousse.

DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE:

Water 225 c.c.

Sugar 500 grams.

Cocoa 180 grams

Vanilla essence c/n

Flour 340 Grams

Eggs 750 grams

Melted butter 180 Grams

Beat eggs and sugar in a mixer with a balloon until frothy.

Add vanilla essence and melted butter and work gently.

In a bowl, mix cocoa and water to form a chocolate cream.

Mix the two mixtures together until homogeneous.

Add flour with a sieve, integrate, and spread into 3 buttered 20 cm molds with greaseproof paper on the sides.

Bake at 180° C for 20 minutes.

For my little girl, she loves Anna from Frozen, so I decided to go for a Frozen-like cake and made a Yellow Butter Cake with Dulce de Leche.

YELLOW BUTTER CAKE:

325 g (2 ½ cups) wheat flour, loosely ground

35 g (2 ½ tablespoons) fine corn flour (Maizena type)

3 ½ teaspoons baking powder (Royal type)

½ teaspoon salt

225 g (1 cup) unsalted butter

300 g (1 ½ cups) white sugar

8 egg yolks (L), about 145 g (approx. 145 g)

2 teaspoons (2 tsp) pure vanilla extract

240 ml (1 cup) milk

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and place the oven rack at medium height.

Carefully grease a round layer cake tin, 18 cm (7") in diameter.

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt up to 3 times. Set aside.

In the bowl of our electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a separate large bowl using a silicone spatula or wooden spoon), beat the butter on medium speed for 1-2 minutes until creamy.

Then add the sugar and continue beating on medium-high speed for another 3-5 minutes until the mixture becomes fluffy and paler in color.

Then add the egg yolks in two batches, beating gently until fully incorporated between batches. Using a silicone spatula, remove the batter from the bowl and the paddle and beat a little more until smooth.

Now add the vanilla extract and mix until a uniform texture is achieved.

Next, add the dry ingredients mixture (point 3) and the milk, alternating them as follows: We start with ⅓ of the dry ingredients and mix gently until they are more or less integrated, follow with ½ of the milk and mix just enough again until combined, continue with the next ⅓ of dry ingredients, the other ½ of the milk and the last ⅓ of dry ingredients, mixing after each addition slowly until we get a more or less uniform dough. It is important not to overbeat in this last step, or you will end up with a dense and not at all spongy crumb.

Finally, divide the mixture into 2 equal parts between the prepared molds (for this task, it is very useful to have a kitchen scale, making sure that the 2 cakes are the same size) and smooth the surface with a small angled spatula or the back of a spoon.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer or cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean of crumbs.

Both cakes were a success, and most importantly, my twins were happy, enjoyed their birthday, and we gave thanks for another year of blessings in our lives.

What is your favorite birthday cake?

See you next time!