Enchanted Castle Cake

sadaf
Yesterday was Eid Ul Adha and alhamdolillah (all praises to Allah) we had a great day. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did. It was also Sofia’s fifth birthday yesterday. In my family we usually don’t celebrate birthdays (it’s not a part of Islamic culture) but Sofia had been asking me to make a special cake for her for a long time.  I decided to give in to her wishes and made this Enchanted Castle Cake for her since she loves everything to do with princesses.Since Eid day is a really busy one I made it a day before and took it to Sofia’s best friend’s house on Eid day where everyone enjoyed it .


 Actually, I wanted to make a 3 D Castle Cake using Wilton’s Romantic Castle Cake Set but that would have been a huge cake . So, I decided against it and instead opted for Wilton’s Enchanted Cake Pan instead which uses just enough batter for two 8inch/9 inch layers.

Princess Castle cake using Wilton Enchanted Castle cake pan



Sofia refuses to even taste any cake other than chocolate so I didn’t have any option as far as the flavor was concerned. I chose Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake recipe which is perhaps one of the quickest cake recipes that I have ever come across. It is what some people call a one bowl cake. Basically, you just whisk all the dry ingredients together, then add all the liquid ingredients and beat on medium speed for just two minutes and off it goes to the oven. It turns out incredibly moist and yummy. I didn’t torte or fill the cake since none of the adults in my family are frosting fans.


Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake



Ingredients

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup Hershey’s Cocoa or any natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch Processed cocoa)
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs (at room temperature)
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil 
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup boiling water

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease the Enchanted Castle Cake pan with a pastry brush and solid vegetable shortening (do not use butter, margarine or liquid vegetable oil).Spread the shortening so that all indentations are covered. Sprinkle about 2 Tablespoons flour inside pan and shake so that flour covers all greased surfaces. Turn pan upside down and tap lightly to remove excess flour.If any shiny spots remain, touch up with more shortening and flour to prevent cake from sticking. My biggest fear was that the cake would stick to the pan but by using this method it came out perfectly. I was contemplating the idea of using parchment paper but then decided that it’s not a good idea for such pans.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pan. 

3. Bake 45 – 50 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to wire racks. Cool completely.(You can make this cake in two 8 or 9 inch pans or one 13*9*2 inch pan. If baking in two 8 or 9 inch pans it takes about 30 – 35 minutes.In one 13*9*2 inch pan it takes about 35-40 minutes.)

4. Carefully slice off the raised center portion of the cake using a cake leveler or a long serrated knife.. This allows the cake to sit more level and helps prevent cracking. Brush loose crumbs off cake.To transfer cake to serving board, hold a cake board against cake and turn both cake and rack over. Lift off rack. Hold another board against bottom of cake and turn cake over. Be sure to hold cake, rack and board close together while turning. At the last moment I realized that my 10 inch round cake board was just a wee bit small for this cake so I had to come up with a tacky cake board made of some cardboard which I was just about to trash. I didn’t even have any wrapping paper so I simply covered it with aluminium foil.

Enchanted Castle Cake made using Wilton Enchanted Castle Cake Pan

I used about 4 cups of vanilla flavored Buttercream Frosting for decorating the cake. If you decide to torte and fill the cake too, you will require more frosting. I didn’t have time to crumb coat it , so I simply added some sprinkles to hide the imperfections on the sides of the cake. . Overall, the design was not very difficult but it was definitely very time consuming. The most time consuming part was filling the castle and towers with stars.However, Princess Sofia’s beaming face when she saw the cake made every bit of effort worthwhile.


This has been linked to Decorating Challenge



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13 comments on “Enchanted Castle Cake”

  5. Such a pretty cake..I miss baking cakes for little girls.. with a house full of boys, there is always a war in some part of my home…Eid Mubarak to you and loved ones and God bless your Princess!!
    Love Ash.

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