Birthday Cake

Yesterday was my birthday! What better way to celebrate my summer birthday than by making Jamie's "Cheat's Sponge Cake with Summer Berries and Cream" on page 340 of Food Revolution. The recipe looked really simple since its just assembling some ready made ingredients into a sort of strawberry shortcake layer cake. The cake he calls for is panettone, the Italian bread that comes in the pretty box. I was pretty sure I could find one of these at a local Italian specialty store and if worst came to worst, I'd drive to Trader Joe's in the next town over since I know I've seen them there. So the day before my birthday, while out running errands with the kids, I stopped at the aforementioned Italian specialty store 3 minutes up the road from me. The shelves were very bare but I asked anyway and she said "No, we usually just have panettone around the holidays." I decided before dragging the kids around I'd make some calls during naptime. So, later that afternoon I started by calling our local, favorite Italian specialty store (the one with everything you'd ever need) and the lady said, "Oh no, we only have that at the holidays." It wasn't looking good but I kept searching and called two grocery stores, three more Italian specialty stores, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. I got the same answer from everyone. When I told the nice lady at Whole Foods that I needed it for a recipe she said I should try Challah since it has a similar consistency and she knew they had that. Phew! What a relief! I had the rest of the ingredients on hand: sweet dessert wine, strawberries, raspberries, sugar, vanilla extract and some sliced almonds so all I really needed was heavy cream and this panettone. Since, I had a busy night I decided these main ingredients could wait until the next day, my birthday. I woke up to torrential rain outside and weathermen warning that there was no end in sight. If you didn't need to go out, don't, they said. Well, I couldn't risk the lives of my two kids for my birthday cake so I waited until late afternoon when husband got home and the rain had subsided to head to Whole Foods. I picked up the heavy cream I needed and a Dagoba chocolate bar (garnish for the top) and headed to the Bakery. Now, the directions and photos show Jamie cutting a round cake-bread thing and then layering the homemade whipped cream and strawberries in between. The only Challah that the Bakery had was the twisty kind…not going to work! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!? I tried to remain calm but the truth was that I really wanted to yell. "I CAME OUT IN THIS AWFUL WEATHER….ITS MY BIRTHDAY AND THIS IS NOT, I REPEAT, NOT WHAT I WANTED. AS FOR YOU JAMIE OLIVER, WHY THE H--- ARE YOU MAKING A SUMMER BERRY CAKE WITH A STUPID BREAD THAT ONLY COMES OUT AT CHRISTMAS!"
Then, remembering it was my birthday and I was suppose to be another year older and wiser, I pulled it together, grabbed a ready made angel food cake and headed for the Express Check out.
After dinner, my sweet family worked together to assemble my yummy birthday cake, sang happy birthday and it turned out to be one of the best birthday cakes I've ever had. And I'm sure one I'll never forget.

Cheat’s Sponge Cake with Summer Berries and Cream

from “Jamie’s Food Revolution” by Jamie Oliver
What you’ll need:
(serves 10-12)

1 cup sliced almonds

Vin Santo or sweet dessert wine

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 tbsp superfine sugar

1 vanilla bean OR 1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 x 16oz container of strawberries

1 medium or large panettone

1 x 6oz container of raspberries

1 x 4oz bar of good quality dark chocolate
To prepare your cake:

Put a small dry frying pan on a low heat and add the almonds. Shake the pan around every now and then to toast the nuts, making sure they don’t burn. Once they start to turn darker, take the pan off the heat and put them aside to cool. Pour about 1/3 cup of Vin Santo or sweet dessert wine into a wineglass. Pour the cream into a mixing bowl and add the sugar. If using the vanilla bean, halve it lengthways and drag the blade of your knife along the inside of the bean to scrape all the vanilla seeds out. Add the seeds or the vanilla extract to the bowl, and whisk until the cream is thick and forms peaks. Slice the strawberries, removing any stalks.
To make your cake:

Peel any paper off your panettone and carefully cut it across into 3 round slices, each about 3/4 inch thick. Put a slice on a serving plate and spoon a few tbsp of the Vin Santo or sweet dessert wine over it (there’s no need to soak the panettone: you just need enough to flavor it). Spoon a good dollop of the cream on to the panettone slice and smooth it out to the edges, using a metal spatula or similar. Lay over half your sliced strawberries and top with a second slice of panettone. Repeat the wine, cream and berry steps until you get to the top layer. Pat this down gently, spoon over the remaining wine, and top it off with the rest of the cream, smoothing it over the top and sides of the cake so it’s completely covered – don’t worry about getting it all perfect, as it c an look messy and still taste delicious! Squeeze a handful of your toasted nuts to crumble them up, then gently pat them against the side of the cake until all the sides are covered.
To serve your cake:

Pile the raspberries on top of the cake and sprinkle with some chocolate shavings (simply use a vegetable peeler or a knife and drag it across the bar of the chocolate)

Recipes cooked: 47
Recipes left: 126
Days left: 199