Happy Birthday—Baby Girl

In the past birthday parties for my little boy, I’ve made Japanese Cheesecake to celebrate.  You can check out the recipe and pictures here.  The Japanese Cheesecake was super easy to make, light, fluffy and anyone who’ve tried it would love it and ask for the recipe.

For baby girl’s birthday this year, I decided to make something new.  Something more girly for her. 



Plus, I’ve got an incentive to make a more girly cake.  It’s the lovely pink stand that you’re seeing in these pictures.  I purchased this cake stand from the Amazon gift card granted by the Fairy Hopmother.  Here’s the detail if you’ve missed that post.  How could I not create a girly cake to match this lovely cake stand?  Plus, my kids love strawberries and it’s the peak season to enjoy them.



This cake might sounds similar to the Meyer Lemon and Strawberry Mousse Cake that I’ve created before.  But in fact, they were quite different.  With my baby girl’s birthday cake, I used the Meyer Lemon Cake recipe here.  Baked it in an 8-inch round cake pan and split it in half to create 2 layers. The previous Meyer Lemon cake was a vanilla sponge cake.  Along with the fresh strawberries in between the lemon and strawberry mousse layers, I also added some Lemon syrup onto the top of the cake.  The Meyer lemon flavor was a lot more intense compared to the previous layered mousse cake that I've made.  However, the sponge cake portion of the earlier version was more soft and more fluffy.



Another difference is the mousse layer.  Instead of making the Lemon Mousse from scratch, I used the Meyer Lemon curd that I had on hand and folded in some whipped cream, and that was it.  Super simple.  Here’s the recipe for the Meyer Lemon Curd.  I managed to make extras for our guests to take home too. 



I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took the time to celebrate my baby girl’s birthday with us.  Thank you for all the wonderful gifts, warm wishes and precious memories.  Including all of you, who visited my blog today.  Thank you!

I wish my baby girl to be healthy, happy and beautiful as she always is.  Happy Birthday again, my sweetie!

Strawberry Lemon Shortcake Birthday Cake:  

Ingredients For the Cake:

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature 
1 cup granulated sugar
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature 
Zest of 3 Meyer Lemons
1 1/2 cups cake flour 
1/4 teaspoon baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream, at room temperature 
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

Ingredients For the Meyer Lemon Syrup:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup Meyer Lemon Juice

Ingredients for the Meyer Lemon Cream:
2 cups of freshly whipped cream
1/2 cup Meyer Lemon Curd

Ingredients for Filling and topping:
1 pound fresh California Strawberries, washed and hulled
1 cup slightly sweetened whipped cream, for garnish

To Prepare the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan.  Line the pan with parchment paper on the bottom.

Cream the butter sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, followed by the lemon zest. 

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. In another bowl, combine lemon juice, the heavy cream, and vanilla. Add the flour and cream mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Pour the batter into the cake pan, smooth the top, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester/toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in wiring rack.

To Prepare the Meyer Lemon Syrup:
In a small saucepan, combine sugar and Meyer lemon juice and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. 

When the cake is done, allow to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and set it on a rack until it’s completely cooled.  Carefully split the cake in half horizontally. Spoon the Meyer lemon syrup over on the cut sides of the cake. 

To Prepare the Meyer Lemon Cream:
In a medium bowl, gently fold the 2 ingredients together with a spatula until well combined.  Set aside.

To assemble the cake:

Place the bottom half of the cake in an 9-inch spring-form pan.  Cut 8 to 10 strawberries in half and line them on the side of the cake pan, cut sides facing outwards.  Cut the rest of the strawberries into slices.  Cover the inside of the cake with a layer of strawberry slices.

Carefully pour the Meyer Lemon cream on top of the strawberry slices.  Cover the Meyer Lemon Cream with the remaining half of the cake. 

Keep the cake refrigerate if not serving immediately.  When ready to serve, remove the cake from the spring-form pan.  Pipe freshly whipped cream on top of the cake along the edges (I used a star tip).  Arrange the remaining strawberry slices in the center of the cake and enjoy!

Zojirushi Rice Cooker--Product Review

We’ve been using this “new” rice cooker, almost every day, for more than 12 months now.  Before we purchased this new baby, we used an older model of Zojirushi rice cooker for more than a decade!  Yes, they do last that long!  That’s why I love Zojirushi’s products.  Luckily Unfortunately, the non-stick coating of the inner cooking pan of the old cooker started to come off.  That’s why we have to consider getting a new cooker.  Another option was to replace the inner cooking pan of the old one, which would only costs $35 to $40.  Why did we spend that extra $250 or so?  There are a few reasons, and I’m telling you, it’s worth every single penny! 

First of all, we’ve been eating brown rice for a few years now.  However, the texture of the brown rice varies quite a bit with different brands.  Some could be quite rough and chewy (especially true for the cheap brands).  This new rice cooker features 2 options for brown rice, a regular brown and GABA Brown (aka germinated brown rice).  It cooks the rice to a perfect consistency and texture every single time.  For the GABA Brown option, it takes a lot longer to cook though and here’s the explanation why.  If you’re interested to learn more about GABA rice’s health benefits, simply click here.
 





Another reason that convinced me to get this new cooker was because my daughter started to eat solid food, and this cooker has the porridge option!  Cooking porridge on the stove top is time consuming and needs a lots of attentions to prevent the rice from 'burning,' or to prevent the ingredients from sticking to the bottom of the pot.  With this rice cooker, making porridge is a breeze.  Simply chop and dump all the ingredient into the cooking pan, press a button, and you're all set!  It’s that simple! 










Also, this rice cooker comes with sushi rice, mixed rice and sweet rice cooking options.  There are quite a few recipes that come along with the user menu for reference as well. 

Last but not least, you’ll hear the twinkle twinkle little star melody when you press the “cooking” button!  Of course, I didn’t know about this feature until the first time I cook with it.  My kids just love the melody whenever I cook rice!  hahahaha….