4-Layer Birthday Cake

Both of my boys celebrate their birthdays in March – just nine days apart. And each year they get to pick what kind of birthday cake they want.

In the past we've done the traditional chocolate cake with chocolate frosting or yellow cake with chocolate frosting. One year lemon cake topped with fruit was the highlight.

This year, my oldest (now age 11) spotted a video on social media of a four-layer chocolate cake filled with caramel and chocolate, covered with a chocolate glaze and drizzled with white chocolate.

He showed it to me once, but apparently watched it himself multiple times. When we couldn't find the video a few weeks later to make sure we knew how to make his chosen birthday dessert, he was able to describe every step in full detail.

For me, the best part about this dessert was the fun of making it with my boys and my brother, who was in town for a visit.

When my youngest's birthday rolled around a week later, we made the cake again, with a few variations to suit his tastes. He (now age 8) wanted a yellow butter cake – with Nutella as the filling between every layer. I don't even want to imagine the calorie count!

We tried a mirror glaze on the first cake, but it required lots of ingredients and didn't thicken on its own, so we ended up adding chocolate spread to it. The second time around we went with a simpler chocolate topping that was much easier to work with.

If you try this out, let us know what you use for the filling between your cake layers.

Mangia! Mangia!
Andrea

4-Layer Birthday Cake

1 box of your favorite cake mix or your favorite recipe for two-layer cake
Caramel spread and chocolate spread
or
Nutella hazelnut chocolate spread
Chocolate glaze (see recipe below)
Chocolate shavings
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
Optional: Raspberries

Prepare cake according to package directions, using 2, 8-inch pans. Bake cake per instructions. Let cool, then turn out onto wire racks and cool completely.

Once cake layers are fully cool, carefully slice each one in half lengthwise, using a serrated knife. You will end up with four cake layers.

Set one cake layer on a cutting board.

Alternatively, you can use an angel food cake pan with the center piece removed to build your cake and hold it in place. (We tried this the first time around, but the layers slide around inside the pan. If you use this method, top the cake pan with a cutting board and invert so allow layered cake to slide out before glazing.)

Putting the cake together on a cutting board allowed us to gently move layers into place if they started to slip.

Also, if you have a cake lifter, life will be easier as you assemble and glaze the cake. You can also use a cutting board to help move and lift the cake layers.

Using a flexible spatula, gently spread filling on the bottom layer of cake. Top with second cake layer and spread on the second filling. Place third cake layer and spread the top of it with your third filling choice. Top with final piece of cake.

Transfer the cutting board with cake to try refrigerator so that it can firm up a little while you make the chocolate glaze.

Chocolate Glaze

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Pinch salt

Place chocolate chips and salt in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil, then remove from heat and pour over the chocolate chips. Whisk until smooth. Let cool until mixture becomes slightly thickened.

Now it's time to glaze the cake. It helps to have a second set of hands for the glazing.

Set a large bowl on the counter and place a wire rack on top of the bowl. Carefully transfer the cake from the cutting board to the center of the wire rack. Slowly pour glaze over the cake, ensuring that glaze covers all sides.

You might want to repeat the process to make sure every centimeter of the cake is thoroughly coated in chocolate.

If you do, carefully lift wire rack with cake and set the wire rack on the cutting board. Pour excess glaze from large bowl back into small bowl. Replace wire rack and cake on top of large bowl and slowly pour glaze over cake again.

(My boys did close inspections of each cake we made. It took three pours of glaze to get their seal of approval!)

Let glaze drip off cake. Carefully transfer cake to a cake plate. Dust with chocolate shavings. Return cake to refrigerator to allow glaze to harden.

Place white chocolate chips in a small bowl and melt in microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and heat another 30 seconds if needed. Transfer melted chocolate to a small plastic sandwich bag and seal. Gently squeeze melted chocolate into one corner of bag. Snip a tiny hole in the corner.

Drizzle top of cake with white chocolate. Top with raspberries if desired.

This is the butter yellow cake filled wth Nutella. Luckily, I took a photo before we ate it all!