Sometimes the sweetest and most perfect birthday cake is actually a simple one. This cake was made for my friend Lesha. As is the case with all of my cake designs, this one was created just for her. It is bright, beautiful, and has a simple but elegant stencil design around the sides of the cake. It thought it suited her perfectly!

I made 3 – 8″ layers of my Mom’s no egg chocolate cake. See my prior post.

The filling was my chocolate whipped cream filling.

Recipe:

• 1 1/2 c heavy whipping cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 c powdered sugar
• 1/4 c unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (special dark cocoa powder will make a more “chocolatey” mixture)
• 8 oz mascarpone cheese

Whip the heavy cream and vanilla on high, til stiff peaks form. Slowly add the powdered sugar while mixing. Add cocoa powder slowly, and blend. Add mascarpone cheese by the spoonful, til well-incorporated. Mixture should be thick and creamy. Don’t over-mix.

The frosting was cream cheese buttercream, tinted a bright pink/purple with paste food coloring. See my prior post.

The stencil design was made with a simple flexible plastic stencil, and some sparkle gold gel icing in a tube – all from Hobby Lobby craft store.