Beary Birthday Cake

Well, it's not the prize-winner, but Prancer loved it.

One should never stay up until nearly 2am when one has a 1 year old.  I know this from first-hand experience time and time again, but it seems that thing just come up.  I told you about the icing turning out purple instead of blue, as intended.  I got half-way through making the icing - at 11something'o'clock - and realized I didn't have enough powdered sugar.  Dr. Google let me know, however, that all was not lost, and I made my own.  It came out just a touch grainier than the store-bought, but I'd do it again just for the magic-potion-making visuals.  It really was a lot of fun doing that part.  But, as I say, I panicked a little

when I learned that the color of the icing would be light purple.  I had in my head a true-blue tone that was just
slightly lighter than the future blueberry eye of the bear.  No such luck. Lavender it is.  Once the cake cooled, I took it out of freezer and shaped it.  I used a bear crossing sign I found on Amazon, and overall,

 I feel like the shape was ok, but I was really tired and the dimensions seemed skewed, so I added length to the legs, which I probably should have left alone... I then sliced it in two to make a fruit center and finally added the crumb coat before falling into bed and having some beary stressful dreams regarding cake disasters and bears. I still had to put a second layer of icing on, and solve the Lavender problem, which really is odd that I thought it a problem at all as Prancer has asked for pink cakes in the past, but hey, it's not what I had anticipated, so therein lies the problem.

So the pre-dawn hours came and I was up again with the Boy, and thankfully the Wife let me go back and get an hour and a half more sleep before facing this bear of a project again.  At some point in dreamland, I came up with the idea of condensing the remaining two cups of pie filling (previous made for fruit layer and to color icing) and to pureed it, making a glaze and cover the icing with it completely, thus making a black bear cake. I had mixed feelings on this, so I consulted with Cake Master.  She thought perhaps a design/details with the glaze would work better than a full-on cover.  So before the Boy got picked up by Mme. Child and Goose for a couple hours while we took Prancer out for a birthday lunch and movie, I reheated the pie filling and added two more tablespoons of cornstarch to thicken it further, blended it all to a smooth puree, and put it into the fridge for cooling, put on a properly thick layer of icing, and ran around like a, ahem, bat outta hell to get the house in order, presents wrapped, and me showered.

Whew. With the Boy on his way, we took Prancer out, just the three of us, for the first time since before the Boy was born.  Chinese food, including Tangerine Chicken, his all time favorite, a pu pu platter - and oh, but the pu pu platter does make for some fine jokes for a newly seven year old - and orange juice with an umbrella, "like those fancy drinks," and shortly he was, "just too stuffed to eat another bite."  Then off to Ice Age 4, where he got popcorn as he was, "so starving I could eat up a house,"  and a Madagascar poster - all because it was his birthday (really popcorn is just the tradition and they were just giving them away, but it's all about the birthday, isn't it?).

Back home, I made a separate little cake for Prancer to decorate while I drew the design on the cake for sharing.  He was please with the outcome - of both my work and his own.  So, while I am not as pleased as I'd like to be with the outcome, I call it a success.

The Recipe

After looking at many recipes, I adapted one from Joy of Baking.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3 cups blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease 2 9″ cake pans with butter or cooking spray. Line with parchment paper, then grease again. Set aside.  (this is the first time I've ever used parchment paper, um, wow - so easy to get out of the pan afterwards!)
3. Take half the blueberries and put them a sauce pan on low, keep coming back to these and stir occasionally until most are soft and popped, making a solid deep blue - I did this while I mixed the other ingredients together and still had a bit of stir-time before mixing in.
4. In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.
5. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the butter until light and creamy.
6. Slowly add the sugar, mix/cream until light and fluffy.
7. Add the eggs one at a time, being sure to mix each egg in completely before adding the next.
8. Add the vanilla and mix fully.
9. Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the addition of buttermilk (c. flour/ 1/2 c. buttermilk/ c. flour/ 1/2 c. buttermilk/ c. flour)
10. Add the blueberry sauce and mix fully.
11. Divide the batter between the 2 cake pans. Bake for 30–35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
12. Place directly into freezer, for about 45 min. or until completely cool, before frosting. Not only does this step quicken the cooling process, it also seals in the moisture, making for a more moist cake - I will do this always.

• For the fruit filling I used Mom's Most Wonderful Blueberry Pie Ever.  Use half of the pie filling as your fruit layer.  Reserve the 2nd half in the saucepan.
• For the cream cheese icing I used the same as for the Owl Cake.
• For the glaze, reheat the pie filling and add 2 Tbsp of cornstarch mixed in a small amount (4 Tbsp?) water. Stir until fully incorporated and it becomes thick.  Transfer to blender and blend until a smooth puree without any pieces of blueberry skin noticeable. Then transfer to a bowl to refrigerate until cool.  Ensure that the glaze is FULLY cooled before using to color icing or decorate cake.  Also, if decorating atop the icing, keep cool as long as possible as it will tend to run when warmed.
• Finally, if you are looking for a true-blue cake and/or icing, you will need to use food coloring (I always try to avoid).  The blueberry-colored icing is lavender or purple, and the cake will end up being more steely blue-gray.