Do you celebrate golden birthdays at your homes? I sure do!
It was my mom who sold me to the idea by making sure my golden birthday was celebrated in style. I was born on July 9th so my golden birthday was when I turned 9 years old. A golden birthday is when you become the same age as your birthday. So, for example, if I was born on May 1st, my golden birthday would be celebrated when I was 1 year old and I probably wouldn’t remember much of that.
But anyway, this year is my first son’s golden birthday! And because the golden birthday is no ordinary birthday, it needs some extra touch. So I am putting up gold decorations for the backyard party we’re having for my son and his friends. I will wrap the gifts in golden wrapping paper and buy golden straws for the drinks (“gold” lemonade). I will leave chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil for the kids to search for as part of our little treasure hunt tradition.
But what I hope is going to be the most exciting is the golden cake I plan to bake for my son to blow the candles off! The golden cake is going to be a traditional yellow butter cake with some golden buttercream icing on top.
I prepared this cake last week, as a practice cake. It turned out so good that I just had to share the recipe with you. As usual, it’s made of homemade sprouting flour, nourishing grass-fed butter, organic eggs, and sweetened with raw honey and whole cane sugar. There is nothing artificial about this cake! It’s made from scratch to ensure that my son and his guest won’t be suffering from any digestion problems that would the fun they will be having.
Necessary equipment:
- measuring cups
- two large mixing bowls
- a wooden spoon OR a whisk
- a kitchen towel
- optional: a dehydrator
- a cake pan (or two pans)*
- parchment paper
- scissors
- pen OR pencil
- a hand mixer OR a stand mixer
- cooling racks
- a cake server OR a rotating cake plate for serving
*You can use one cake pan and pour all of the batter into it at once and then, once the cake is done, cut the cake into two even halves. I find that hard to do without specialized tools so I usually bake two separate cakes from half of the batter each.
Ingredients:
Yellow Buttermilk Cake
for soaking the night before:
- 4 cups of sprouted flour OR freshly ground flour (how to make sprouted flour)
- 2 cups of buttermilk (how to make buttermilk)
for next day:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) of grass-fed butter (how to make butter)
- 4 large eggs from pastured chickens
- 2 large egg yolks from pastured chickens
- 1 1/4 cup of raw honey
- 1/4 cup of whole cane sugar (best if it’s coconut sugar because the color won’t stand out in the batter)
- 2 t. of baking soda
- 2 t. of baking powder
- 1 T. of vanilla extract
- 1 t. of sea salt
all ingredients should be at room temperature so that the batter will come together with no lumps
Instructions:
- Combine the flour and the buttermilk in a large mixing bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and leave overnight in a warm place. I usually use a dehydrator but you can also just put the bowl in an oven with the light turned on.
- The next day, prepare your cake pans. Lay a piece of parchment on the circle bottom of the cake pan and use a pen or pencil to trace the shape of it. Cut out the circle using scissors but make sure you cut just below where the pen or pencil markings are so that you don’t get any of them in your cake. The cut out shape should be the perfect fit for your cake pan. Now butter the cake pan so that the parchment paper circle will stick to it. Butter the top side of the parchment paper as well. Your cake pan is now ready for action!
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In another large bowl, use a mixer to combine butter, raw honey, and whole cane sugar. Keep mixing until the mixture is fluffy and soft.
- Gradually add in the soaked flour with buttermilk and mix it in.
- Add in the baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Mix to combine.
- Add eggs, the two extra yolks, and vanilla extract. Mix to combine.
- Pour the batter into your prepared cake pans.
- Put the filled cake pans onto the counter sharply a few times. This way, you will get rid of any bubbles that might be in the batter.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. You will know your cake is ready when it turns golden brown and is set in the middle.
- Leave to cool completely on the cooling racks.
- Use a butter knife to loosen the cake from the sides of the pan. Carefully get the cake out of the pan.
Golden Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) of softened grass-fed butter (how to make butter)
- 3/4 cup of thick raw honey
- 2 t. of vanilla extract
- a pinch of sea salt
- optional: yellow food coloring
Instructions:
- Beat the butter and the honey together in a large bowl using a mixer with a whisk attachment.
- Add in the vanilla extract, sea salt, and optionally the yellow food coloring. Beat until the mixture turns fluffy.
- Use immediately to frost the cake. Set one cake layer on a cake plate and cover it with the buttercream frosting. Set the second layer on top.
- Cover all the sides of the cake with frosting. Smooth it down using a spatula or add some swirls here and there if you are feeling creative. Clean the sides of the cake plate with a towel.
- Put any decorations on the cake, like candles or edible flowers.
- Chill for at least half an hour before serving.
- Try to cut the cake while it’s still chilled so that the frosting won’t lose its shape.
Enjoy this delicious golden birthday cake!