Ann Reardon

Sarsaparilla Root Beer Birthday Cake

birthday cake surprise

 

The best kind of birthday cakes are ones that are fully customized to the birthday boy/girl. My kids can dream up whatever they’d like in a birthday cake. This year Matthew came up with an interesting combination of flavors and amazingly it all worked together. As one teen at the party described it ‘this is like heaven on a plate’.

To make this birthday cake you will need:

Vanilla Cake baked in two round 9″ cake tins
I am still on the hunt to find a firm vanilla cake that I love. I feel like I have tested so many recipes, this one is OK. I like my sponge cake recipe better but if you need something with a bit more structure to it then use this one.

3 cups or 650g (22.93 ounces) Sugar
6 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 1/2 cups or 720g (25.4 ounces) flour
3 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup or 250mL (8.45 fluid ounces) milk
1 cup or 250mL (8.45 fluid ounces) oil

Preheat oven to 180C (356 degrees Fahrenheit).
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
In a seperate bowl whisk together the oil and milk.
Using an electric beater whisk together the sugar, eggs and vanilla until they are pale and fluffy.
Add 1/3 of the flour, 1/2 of the milk, 1/3 of the flour, the rest of the milk, then the rest of the flour allowing it to mix in after each addition.
Pour into lined baking tins and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Invert and cool on a wire rack.

Meringue
2 1/2 cups or 540g (19.05 ounces) sugar
8 egg whites
Whip together the egg whites and sugar until you get stiff peaks. Pipe three 8″ round discs and the rest as individual meringues. Bake in a slow oven, 120C (248 degrees Fahrenheit) for approximately 1 hour or until crisp on the outside.

Sarsaparilla jelly

500mL (16.91 fluid ounces) Sarsaparilla (root beer)
3 tsp gelatin
1/4 cup or 50g (1.76 ounces) sugar

sarsaparilla syrup
150mL (5.07 fluid ounces) sarsaparilla
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon or 60g (2.12 ounces) sugar

Combine and heat until the sugar dissolves. Leave to cool

Strawberry Cream
600mL (20.29 fluid ounces) cream
300g (10.58 ounces) strawberries
Whip together until thick (do not over whip).

Buttercream
2 quantities of basic vanilla buttercream

Fizzy Chocolate
600g (21.16 ounces) White compound chocolate
75g (2.65 ounces) sherbet
125g (4.41 ounces) poprocks

Melt the chocolate and stir through the sherbet and pop rocks. Spread onto some baking paper and as it is starting to set cut into shards. Leave to set fully before using.

more strawberries for on top

ann reardon how to cook that
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My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

21 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 4.5

    re: sherbet/fizzy fructose sugar
    What would be a US equivalent?
    Would citric acid would work?
    (If yes, same amount? Add anything else?)
    Or extra Poprocks?
    I can’t find or think of anything else & when I googled “fizzy fructose sugar”?
    Carbonated liquids came up but nothing in powder form?
    Thanks so much!
    Only recently discovered your channel & have done a bit of binge watching ?
    Your Newest Favorite Fan ?
    ???

    • Hi Grams, to make sherbet you mix 3 tablespoons icing sugar with 1tsp citric acid and 1/4 tsp bicarb soda ?

  2. Hi Anne
    i made your vanille cake for 20 cm . But if i want to make bigger size pans or even smaller size how much batter i need ? how can i measure the materials?
    Thanks

    • Hi Homa you will need to calculate the volume of your cake tins. volume of a cylinder is V= 3.14 x radius x radius x height or V=πr2h

  3. Rating: 5

    HI I LOVE YOUR CAKES MY FAVOURITE THHING YOU DID IS YOUR SASPERELLA CAKE

    I`VE SUBSCRIBED !!!!!!!!

    • Thanks Helen.

  4. Rating: 5

    Hi, Anne. I have a request.. please please make a cake with kittens in a basket or something like that! i loooove animals and would love it.

  5. Rating: 4.5

    Hi Ann I love ur videos can you make a dragon ball z cake or any kinda of manga cake

  6. Rating: 5

    I love your recipes they are awesome and also I have a Request for you too, Can you make a dinosaur cake?
    Thank you

    • Hi Giselle, Thanks for the feedback. Check out Ann’s dragon cake, it could be easily adjusted to make a dinosaur.

  7. Rating: 5

    Happy Bday Matthew! why do you like Sasparilla?
    Also I have a Request for you Ann Reardon…
    Can you make a cake that looks like The Entire Solar System
    and it has all the planets, the sun and moon! plz accept the dessert request

  8. Rating: 4

    Excellent presentation and yummy recipe

  9. Rating: 4.5

    Hi, I also build cakes to meet birthday requests. I have used both the Lego batman and the fire truck from your site, among others, and am now in search of a T rex. Any chance you have made a dinosaur that turned out well?

  10. Rating: 4

    I’m with Anne, in the US sherbet is like ice cream. Happy Birthday Matt! My daughter’s favorite cake for her birthday is St Honore with chocolate dipped strawberries and marzipan hearts.

    • Yum!

  11. Hi Ann,
    I have a request for a cake which has some medical decoration on it.

  12. Rating: 5

    Happy Birthday, Matthew!
    Every year each of my daughters gets a birthday cake to her liking, too. Many times the “order” is a chocolate cake with non-buttery filling. One daughter loves fondant decoration, the other one loves naked cakes, like yours. So, I guess, your Mum spends the night before your birthday in the kitchen like I do. I love this kind of work, because it gives me time to remember the birth of my “baby” while putting together the cake of her choice.
    Can you guess what time of the year one of my daughters has her birthday when looking at her last birthday cake (we are living in Europe)?
    I loved watching this family video, thank you!

    • Hi Corinna, what a beautiful cake. We love the little skates!

  13. Rating: 5

    What is the “sherbert” used in the fizzy chocolate?

    • Hi Anne Smith, In Australia, sherbet is a fizzy fructose sugar that bubbles in your mouth.

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