Jephanie's Birthday Cake(s)

One of my very best friends Stephanie and her hubby Jeff (also a great friend) celebrated both of their birthdays last week. When asked what type of cake that they wanted Steph said she liked chocolate and Jeff wanted something fruity. I decided to make them each their own birthday cake. I baked the cakes last Wednesday and froze them to decorate yesterday. Have a look....

Here is my mess of a kitchen while baking and making lemon curd. The batter for Jeff's cake was a vanilla cake with lemon zest. It is then layered with lemon curd, berries and then whipped cream.


Here is the inside of one of the layers of Jeff's cake...


And here are some pictures of the finished product...


Now Steph's cake was a dense chocolaty Devil's Food cake iced with a Nutella Swiss Meringue Buttercream! SO GOOD!

Here is a picture of me incorporating butter into the meringue...


Instead of leaving the top of the cake plain I melted some chocolate, spread it in a glass dish, let it chill, and then used an offset spatula to create curls...


Here is the finished cake. I am so glad that I have been able to apply the knowledge that Connie has taught me at my internship to make my own cakes look delicious.