75th Birthday Cake Idea

🧾Supplies Required

• Cake - The cake was baked in 6 inch round cake tins. I used my chocolate cake recipe for the cake, and used the measurements for 5 eggs. I baked a total of 3 layers of cakes.
• Chocolate ganache - The cake was filled and covered with ganache. I used a ratio of 2:1, the 2 parts being dark chocolate and the 1 part being the cream. 
• Dark chocolate buttons - I purchased these from a local cake decorating shop.
• Butterscotch chips - These were purchased from a local cake decorating supplies shop too.
• Fondant - I used a tiny bit of fondant here for the numbers 7 & 5. I used Satin Ice fondant in White and added Wilton ivory food color to it.
• Number cutters - These were used to cut out the numbers 7 & 5 for the cake.
• Icing scraper and spatula - These tools were for applying the ganache on the cake as well as for smoothing the icing.
• Strawberries

👩‍🍳How to Make

Step 1: Bake the Cake

I started by baking the cakes. You can refer to the instructions for mixing the cake batter in my chocolate pound cake recipe. I divided the batter into 3 cake tins and once the cake were baked, I cooled at room temperature for about 30 minutes and them wrapped them in cling wrap and refrigerated them to cool them down faster. 

The wrap helps the cakes from drying out in the refrigerator.

Step 2: Make the Ganache and Frost the Cake

While waiting for the cakes to cool down, I prepared the ganache. And again, since it needs time to thicken, I placed it in the fridge too, to fasten the cooling process.

Once the cakes have cooled down completely, I unwrapped them and leveled the tops. And then I sandwiched and covered the top and sides with ganache too. My ganache, at the ratio of 2 parts chocolate and 1 part cream was in a pipeable consistency and therefore still very soft. To help with smooth sides, I placed the cake in the fridge to chill a bit before giving it one last final smoothing. 

Step 3: Add the Chocolate Buttons and Butterscotch Chips

Once that was done, I attached the chocolate buttons and the butterscotch chips. I started with the bottom layer and added the dark compound buttons all around the cake before adding the butterscotch chips in between the buttons.

And when adding the chips, I poked the pointed ends into the frosting to make use of the flat bottoms. That way, I had nice flat round studs all around the cake.

Once the bottom was completed, I moved to the top edge. Again, I started with the dark buttons and then completed with the butterscotch chips.

Step 4: Add the Numbers 7 and 5 for the 75th Birthday Cake Design

And then I added the numbers 7 & 5 for the 75th birthday. There was not much space on the birthday cake for any other wordings. So I decided to go with just the numbers. Again, I placed the cake in the fridge to get the ganache to set a little.

Adding the fondant numbers onto a soft ganache cake is not a good idea especially if you don't get the cutouts placed correctly in the first attempt. So I choose to refrigerate the cake until the ganache has hardened and then attached the numbers. No special glue was necessary, the fondant stayed well in place on the ganache.

Step 5: Attach the Strawberries

Next to go on my dad's 75th birthday cake were the strawberries. I selected a total of 6 strawberries that were as similar as possible in size. I then cut each into half. To ensure the fruits were well spaced on the birthday cake top, I started by adding 2 exactly on the opposite of each other (in a 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock position).

Then I added another 2, in between the earlier 2 pieces (at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock position). At this point, I had 4 pieces on the cake, each in a quarter position on the cake. Next, I added 2 pieces of strawberries in between each quadrant. That way, it was easier for me to space the fruits evenly on the cake.

For the final touch on my dad's 75th birthday cake, I added one butterscotch chip each in between each strawberry half on the cake. And with that, the chocolate birthday cake was complete.