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–+ servings
Jellycat birthday cake with a lit candle sitting on a plate.

Jellycat Birthday Cake

Author: Gail Ng
Your favourite jellycat birthday cake in edible cake form! Vanilla cake layers with strawberry jam, whipped cream, and fresh strawberries.
4.50 from 22 votes
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Prep Time 50 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Cooling Time 1 hour
Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes
Yield 8 servings
Category Dessert
Cuisine American

Equipment

Ingredients
  

Cake Layers

  • 225 g all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 225 g granulated sugar
  • 85 g unsalted butter
  • 190 g milk, dairy or non-dairy
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Filling

  • 300 g whipping cream or heavy cream, cold
  • 30 g powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1-2 teaspoons cocoa powder
  • 4 tablespoons strawberry jam, store-bought or homemade

Decoration

  • 2-3 fresh strawberries, halved
  • 1 birthday candle, with white and red stripes if possible
  • 20 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Instructions
 

Cake Layers

  • Prep: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 6" round cake pans with a round of parchment paper on the bottom of each pan. Set aside.
  • Dry mixture: In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
    Left to right: dry ingredients in a bowl, stirring dry ingredients together with a spoon.
  • Hot milk mixture: In a small pot or microwave-safe bowl, add the butter, milk, oil, and vanilla extract. Heat it on the stovetop or in the microwave until the butter has melted. Don't let it boil. Remove it from the heat and cover to keep it warm while you start making the batter.
    Left to right: milk and butter in a pan, melted butter and milk in a pan on a stovetop.
  • Beat eggs and sugar: In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar. Use an electric hand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment to beat the mixture for a full 6 minutes at medium speed or until the mixture has tripled in size and becomes very pale (almost white) in colour.
    Left to right: beating eggs and sugar with a hand mixer, eggs and sugar doubled in volume.
  • Combine dry and wet mixtures: Add half of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just barely combined. Add the rest of the flour and mix until mostly combined. Some flour patches are fine because you'll continue mixing some more in the next step and we don't want to overmix.
    Left to right: flour added to a bowl of batter, mixing flour into batter with a hand mixer.
  • Add hot milk mixture: With the mixer on low speed, slowly stream in the hot milk mixture until you have a smooth and fluid batter.
    Left to right: pouring hot milk into batter while mixing, mixing cake batter with a hand mixer.
  • Fill pans: Divide the batter into your lined cake pans until about halfway full.
    Left to right: pouring cake batter into a cake pan on a scale, two cake pans filled with cake batter.
  • Bake: Bake cakes for about 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean with a few crumbs.
  • Let cool: Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 15 minutes before running an offset spatula around the edges of the pan. Release the cakes onto a wire rack to cool completely.
    Left to right: running an offset spatula around a cake in a pan, hand peeling parchment paper off a cake layer.

Filling

  • Whip cream: In a large mixing bowl, add the whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Use an electric hand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment to beat the cream until it becomes soft peaks. Scoop out a small amount of whipped cream into a small bowl and set aside. Finish beating the cream to firm peaks.
    Left to right: whipping cream and sugar in a mixing bowl, whipped cream in a bowl.
  • Chocolate whipped cream: To the portion of cream you scooped out, add the cocoa powder and mix until the cream is tinted brown. Transfer this cream to a small piping bag and snip off the tip. Set aside.
    Left to right: whipped cream and cocoa powder in a bowl, chocolate whipped cream in a bowl.
  • Fill piping bags: Transfer both the whipped cream and the chocolate whipped cream to separate piping bags and cut the tips off.

Assemble and decorate the cake

  • Pipe cream: On a large serving plate or cake board, place down the first cake layer. Pipe dollops of whipped cream along the edge of the cake, ending towards the middle of the cake. Use a spatula to smear the tail ends of the dollops towards the middle of the cake.
    Left to right: piping whipped cream on top of a cake layer, smoothing whipped cream on top of cake layer with a spatula.
  • Add strawberry jam: To the middle of the cake, add the strawberry jam. Smooth it into an even layer with an offset spatula without disturbing the whipped cream.
    Left to right: a dollop of strawberry jam on top of a cake layer, smoothing jam onto cake layer with a spatula.
  • Decorate the top: Place the second cake layer on top. Pipe more dollops of whipped cream on top of the cake. Arrange halved strawberries on top of the cream. Insert a candle in the middle.
    Left to right: piping whipped cream dollops on top of cake, hand placing a strawberry on top of cake.
  • Pipe legs: With the brown whipped cream, pipe little legs on top of the plate, extending out from the bottom cake layer.
    Left to right: chocolate whipped cream piped into legs on cake, piping feet with whipped cream.
  • Draw the face: Melt the chopped dark chocolate in the microwave or on the stovetop, transfer the melted chocolate to a small piping bag, and snip the tip off. Pipe eyes and a smile on the bottom cake layer in between the legs.
    Left to right: piping a smile with melted chocolate onto a cake, piping eyes with melted chocolate onto a cake.

Nutrition

Calories: 530kcal | Carbohydrates: 63g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 0.4g | Cholesterol: 129mg | Sodium: 273mg | Potassium: 142mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 39g | Vitamin A: 945IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 117mg | Iron: 2mg
Keywords jellycat birthday cake, strawberry shortcake
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