Happy Birthday Song Cake
This past week was Frank's birthday so I thought that I would share the cake I made for him last year.
I made a chocolate cake using the recipe for Beatty's Chocolate Cake and then made a chocolate ganache filling between the layers. To cover the cake I made rolled buttercream icing in chocolate and vanilla. I rolled out the vanilla, cut a strip of it and placed it across the middle of the cake. I then did the same for the chocolate and used it to cover the top and bottom. 
With a base of icing on the cake I set about decorating it. Using icing that I tinted black, I piped five parallel lines across the cake to make a music staff. I looked up the sheet music for the happy birthday song online and then piped the notes for the song onto the music staff, writing the words "Happy B-Day Dear Frank" under the corresponding notes.
To finish off the cake I added a little color by tinting some icing blue and using it to add a border above and below the music and then piped blue stars along the base.
Trying to use rolled buttercream to cover the cake instead of fondant was quite a challenge, and it wasn't as smooth as fondant, but it tasted really wonderful. The rolled buttercream is so soft that it really wasn't feasible to deal with very large sections and the only way I was able to manage it was doing in the three sections that I did. The taste made it worthwhile though, and it is definitely something that I'll have to try again.
Saturday, July 7, 2012 at 12:01PM | Posted by Lisa | 5 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article 
Reader Comments (5)
Lucky Frank. I am sure it was hard to top that cake this year - or did you? (lol). All those sweet delights of late, your berry pie, petite cupcakes & this birthday cake are so tempting :-) My guy does not like his birthday mentioned let alone celebrated so I make up with my own & there must be cake for where else can one put the wishing candles?
Mary-Lou- Thank you! I have been having fun in the kitchen despite the heat! How is the weather up in Ontario? Are you getting slammed by this heat wave, too? Personally, I think any reason for cake is a good one, but Frank isn't keen about celebrating his birthday (it's just not his thing) so being a nice girlfriend I didn't force one on him this year.
Hello Lisa - yes we have been slammed hard with the heat wave and no rain for over 40 days & nights, just east (Toronto) & to the southwest (London) of us has received some rain. As of Friday the 6th there is a county wide ban on all open air fires. We do not have air conditioning at home & last week the temperatures got to 36, about 45 with humidity (I have used Celsius for so long I forgot how to convert back). I spent a lot of time in the basement. :-) Today, Sunday is warm & sunny but very little humidity. My garden is holding up, barely, but I do expect a total watering ban to be happening very soon.
Do you have a recipe for rolled buttercream. That sounds like something i would like to try.
Jen- I do have a recipe for the rolled buttercream. I'm out of town on a work trip right now, but I'll make a blog post about when I get back.