Birthday Vanilla Cheesecake/Cake

My oldest daughter Jennifer is turning 34 this month! WHHAAATT? How did that happen?? She is my first born, and of course, it feels like only yesterday. I decided to surprise her with an “early birthday cake” today! I thought a vanilla cheesecake/cake would be perfect. I made an 8″ vanilla cake – my favorite is King Arthur Flour’s Golden Vanilla Cake mix. This makes 2 layers, so I froze one for another occasion. I had a 7″” Eli’s vanilla cheese cake in the freezer, so the combination of these two were obviously meant to be! I would trim the cake layer to the exact size of the cheesecake.

I chose a light teal blue color for the cream cheese buttercream frosting. I wanted this to be smooth, and simple in it’s decor.

You can certainly make your own favorite vanilla cake, as well as a home made cheesecake if you like. But buying a delicious prepared cheesecake, however, made the construction of this cake much quicker and easier! And the taste-testers pictured above found this cake to be simply delicious!

Mix a batch of butter cream cheese frosting.

1 – 8oz pkg cream cheese (room temp)
1 stick unsalted butter (room temp)
1 tsp vanilla

Whip using paddle attachment, until smooth. Add 4 cups confectioner’s sugar 1 cup at a time, blending well with each addition. Add food color of choice.

Begin with a completely cooled 8″ cake layer, and a 7″ or 8″ cheesecake. Trim the cake layer to the exact size of the cheesecake if necessary. Use a rotating cake stand. Place a small amount of frosting on a 8′ or 10′ cardboard cake circle – this will help secure the cheesecake to the board. Place the cheesecake over the frosting, centering on the board, and press down gently. Top with frosting, and spread to the edges.

Place the vanilla cake layer on top of the frosted cheesecake.

Frost with a “crumb coat”, and refrigerate for about 10 minutes. Then frost a second layer to completely cover the cake. Smooth using an off set spatula, or counter scraper. Refrigerate again for 10 min.

Use 2 piping bags, one with a large and one with a small open star tip. Decorate with rose swirls, and stars. Then garnish with sprinkles, and edible glitter.