Saturday, May 22, 2010

Happy Birthday Joshua

Today is my older son Joshua's 7th birthday. He has been baking with me since he was 2, and lately we've been joined by little brother Owen in our cooking. Josh wants one of his Big Top Cupcakes for his birthday today, but I found those little slider cupcakes at Target yesterday and couldn't resist getting those either. They are just cupcakes cut in half with pudding for the 'burger' with green, yellow, and red frosting to decorate. They even had sesame seeds on top. Delicious!

Josh asked me to put up a recipe for the Big Top Cupcake pan - their version of Boston Cream Cake
2 packages yellow cake mix
1 package Vanilla Instant Pudding
Ganache (below)
Cherries and Whipped Cream for decorating
Bake cake mix in big top cupcake pan (or whatever pans you have, according to mix directions)
Scoop out some of bottom layer and fill with vanilla instant pudding.

Ganache:
8 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbs. unsalted butter
Place chocolate pieces in medium, stainless steel bowl.  Set aside.  Heat cream and butter over medium heat - bring to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream mixture over the chocolate and let stand for 5 minutes.  Stir with a whisk until smooth. Brush any loose crumbs from the cake and cover the top cake with 2 tablespoons of the Ganache. Refrigerate for 5 minutes.  Complete frosting the top cake with the remaining ganache. 

Everyone seems to be on the mend here which is good as J has a soccer game today and a friend party tomorrow at the local skating rink. We are even going to put skates on the 2 year old! Tomorrow we will have a guest blog post here from my friend writer Margot Justes. It is a delicious fudge recipe... 

3 comments:

Molly MacRae said...

Happy Birthday, Joshua! The slider cupcakes look absolutely delicious. I'd love to see a picture of your Big Top cupcakes, too. Have fun at the skating rink!

Amy said...

Hello Molly from Josh:
Those cupcakes were delicious. We did not take a picture of the cake before we ate it, but we will take a picture next time. (Note from Amy - we'll be posting Joshua's cooking adventures some Sundays this summer.) Thanks for writing!

Unknown said...

Josh is such a big boy now. The cupcakes look luscious.