11/99: White Velvet Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Ganache and 12/99 Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake

For graduation this weekend, I got hired to make the cake and cupcakes for a friend for her graduation party!

First, I made the hats and diplomas from gum paste. They were pretty easy. For the diplomas, you just roll out the gum paste, cut them into slivers and then roll them up. Once they dried, I tied some gold ribbon around them to have a nice little effect. For the hats, I dyed them blue, cut long rectangles and then pushed the ends together to make them stand up. Then I cut out squares and once they dried, I attached them to the circles using some blue icing. They turned out kind of cute.

For the Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake:



First of all, the recipe for the strawberry mousseline called for strawberry butter and I could not find that anywhere so I made my own.  I basically added pureed strawberries, lots of butter, powdered sugar, and a little vanilla in a food processor.   I ended up making a bit extra and it turned out great.  We put it on some ginger snaps and bagels and it was delicious. 

The cake turned out really nicely.   The batter was delicious and really fluffy and silky with 8 oz of melted white chocolate in it.

Once the cake was baked, I evened out the tops and torted it.  You put a layer of strawberry mousseline on top of each cake layer and then cover that with the left over strawberry butter- yum!  Once it's ready to go, you pour Miss Irene Thompson's Dark Chocolate Frosting on top.  I loved this chocolate recipe.  It poured so smoothly and then thickened to the perfect consistency after about an hour.

In the end, I even had some leftover chocolate icing, white chocolate, and strawberries so I got to make a little happy for my housemates!

And for the White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache-

These didn't take long at all! I got to use up all my egg whites from the La Bomba and they tasted great too.  The milk chocolate ganache was good but I wanted it to be a little fluffier and thicker so I added some powdered sugar.

Topped with the hats and diplomas, they turned out kind of cute!

Overall they went over pretty well.  I wasn't at the party where they were served but I heard that everyone enjoyed them.  My friend saved me a slice of cake and a cupcake (that was the deal) and I thought they were definitely up to par with all of Rose's other cakes. The strawberry mousseline was really light and was great in addition to the chocolate. It's definitely worth making again.


White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache
Batter- page 17
Milk Chocolate Ganache- page 18

Chocolate- Covered Strawberry Cake
Batter- page 91
Strawberry Mousseline- page 93
Miss Irine Thompson's Dark Chocolate Frosting- page 95