Diary of a Wimpy Kid Birthday Cake

This is what my boy loving the most ...

Diary of a Wimpy Kid!!!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Birthday Cake

My boy is five now!!! His transition from four to five has been simply amazing... He has moved from tossing angry birds in our house to a lot more reading now. And, these are his current favourite books...

He had finished reading the first 4 books and requests for the rest of the series.

I love baking birthday cakes... For my boy, I do it extra willingly!!! To bake a Diary of a Wimpy Kid cake, I tried to be meticulously crafty and all I can think of is Martha Stewart...

Please don't get me wrong that I'm not aspiring to be like Martha Stewart. I like Martha Stewart, her recipes but don't like myself to be overly precise and distant like Martha. For this cake, I have browsed through Martha Stewart website and found this whisk-and-bake chocolate sheet cake recipe. Baking this plain and simple chocolate cake is super easy as all that it requires is the basic chemistry of buttermilk and baking soda. It is a light cake as the entire 9 x 13 inch cake contains only 3 tablespoons of oil. Low fat!!! I know... I know... what you are thinking! It is a low fat cake but I wouldn't recommend anyone to eat this cake on its own because it is really too plain. Plain!? Well, this is the beauty of this cake! Being not sweet or overly rich in flavours, it is actually very nice and balanced when it is well-complemented with butter cream and fondant. You will see what I mean...

Instead of making straightforward all-butter buttercream that I usually do, I have made this buttercream with meringue powder simply for my curiosity and its extra holding power. It is true that the meringue powder does help giving buttercream a firmer texture and it is extremely helpful for decorating cakes that need buttercream to hold its shapes and also stay in good shapes in warmer temperatures. However, the disadvantage is that the buttercream wouldn't stay soft, smooth and creamy, developing crusty finishes if it is uncovered at room temperature. In term of holding power and texture, I reckon Italian meringue buttercream and Swiss meringue buttercream are the best. These meringue buttercream are always flawless, white, smooth, creamy and can stay in good shapes. I like to make these fanciful buttercream but not for this bake because I need to allocate more time for cake decorating. Considering all options, advantages, disadvantages and limitations, I would say that this easy buttercream with meringue powder from King Arthur Flour still works the best for this bake.

This is how I baked this cake...

This cake requires the chemistry of buttermilk and baking soda so please do not substitute these.

All I need to do is whisk...

... sift, mix ... 

... and bake!

This buttercream looks and tastes like the buttercream that I usually made but with extra "holding" power.

This is my plan to construct this cake...

This is what I need and did to trace the title of the book on the cake.

Cover the trimmed cake with rolled fondant

I used the edible pens to trace the title and did some drawings on the cake.

Here... This is my Diary of a Wimpy Kid birthday cake.

This light chocolate cake with fondant is just right in its sweetness! Exactly the taste that I'm after :)

My boy is very excited and happy seeing his Diary of a Wimpy Kid birthday cake. I'm very happy too knowing that he likes this cake!

Happy Birthday, Sweetie! Wish that your life is colourful, fun, fulfilling and adventurous like all the books that you have read - Love, mummy.

Here are the recipes:

Chocolate Sheet Cakes mostly adapted from Martha Stewart

Makes one 9 x 13 inches cake

225g all-purpose flour
75g unsweetened cocoa powder
200g sugar - please do reduce this amount further as the sweetness for this cake is just right.
1/2 tbsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup warm water
3 tbsp rice bran oil or any neutral tasting oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F or 160°C fan forced.. Line baking pan with baking paper, leaving an overhang on long sides.

Combine eggs, buttermilk, water, oil, and vanilla and whisk the mixture until smooth. Combine cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt and sift them together into the egg mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread its surface evenly. Bake for 25 mins or until skewer inserted comes out clean. Let cool completely, then lift cakes from pans using the overhanging baking paper. Remove baking paper.

Note: This recipe produced a large 9 x 13" inches cake which is more than half of the amount that I need to make this book cake but I made it in this size just in case of any silly mistakes. In actual fact, I didn't have to bake such a large cake. Excess cake? No worries at all! We love eating them with chocolate sauce or ganache.

Quick buttercream made with meringue mostly adapted from King Arthur Flour

Makes 1 cup, enough to decorate this cake
60g unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
1/2 tbsp meringue powder, optional, for "holding power"
150g icing sugar
2 tbsp milk, slightly warmed

Beat butter until fluffy. Beat in the salt, meringue powder, and the vanilla. Add the confectioners' or glazing sugar, 2 tablespoons of the milk, and beat well.

Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Adjust the consistency of the frosting as needed by adding more confectioners' sugar or milk. If you're not going to use the frosting right away, keep it at room temperature, covered, to prevent it from developing a dry crust.

Royal Icing

1 egg white
1 1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp lemon
colouring gels

Lightly whisk egg white in a bowl. Gradually add 3/4 amount of icing sugar, whisking until smooth and combined. Stir in lemon juice and colouring. Keep adding the rest of icing sugar until you get your desired consistency. Store icing in a covered container until ready to use.

To assemble the cake:

Start by cutting the cake accordingly to the size of the book, 13 cm x 20 cm.

Roll a layer of red-coloured fondant and trim it to 14 cm x 21 cm and place on the serving broad first. Then, place the cake on top of the fondant. With the cake facing you, align both the left sides of the cake and fondant. This leaves a border of fondant at the top, bottom and its right side.

Spread buttercream on the top and all sides of the cake.

Roll three strips of white fondant and trim to two 13 cm x 4 cm and one 20 cm x 4 cm. Briefly roll lines on these strips so the lines look like pages of the book.

Place the longer strip at the right side of the cake and the other two strips on the top and bottom of the cake.

Roll another layer of red-coloured fondant and trim it to 20 cm x 20 cm. Place the rolled fondant from the left side of the cake being side of the book and slowly lay it over on the rest of the cake forming the cover of the book. Trim off any excess fondant after leveling the fondant surface on the cake.

Using a baking paper and pencil, trace the title and wimpy kid picture of the book in two separated baking paper. Using an edible pen, trace the title first on the back of the traced paper and place the traced markings on the position of the cake where the title is. Gently press the pen marking on the fondant surface. Using yellow-coloured, blue-coloured and white royal icing, trace the marking on the fondant to replicate the titles on the cake.

Roll a thin layer of white fondant about 12 x 12 cm. Using a blue edible pen, draw blue lines on it. Using a black edible pen, trace the wimpy kid picture on the back of the traced paper and place the traced markings on the white fondant. Gently press the pen marking on the fondant. Using a black edible pen, trace the marking on the fondant to replicate the wimpy kid picture on the fondant. Tear the edges of the fondant to create rough paper edges and place the fondant below the title.

Roll a red strip of red fondant, 3 x 20 cm and place it on the left side being the spine of the book. Using a black edible pen, write thick stripes like the shapes of a book spine.

Roll out two thin strips of blue fondant and place them next the wimpy kid picture. Using black edible pen, write the words "International Bestseller" on them. Finally, use a blue edible pen and write "a novel in cartoons" and "Jeff Kinney" on the pictures to finish.

Here, you have a Diary of a Wimpy Kid cake!

Happy Baking and Happy Birthday!

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