Irish Cream Celebration Cake

Contributed by: Bree Hester
www.bakedbree.com 

Even though it hurt her feelings, she would buy me the store-bought cake because she wanted me to have exactly what I wanted on my birthday. It wasn’t until I became a mom that I understood why she was disappointed. Baking someone a cake is my way to show how much I love and care for them and to help make their birthday dreams come true. My heart broke the first time my daughter requested a bakery cake for her birthday, but I bought it anyway. And she loved it. That’s all that matters isn’t it?

When any of my friends and family are celebrating a birthday, it is my pleasure to bake them a cake. People have very specific requests for their birthday cake, and they should. It’s their special day. My husband cannot have a cake without chocolate and peanut butter. My sons want chocolate...and more chocolate. For me, I like something new every year. This year, I wanted an elegant cake with adult flavors. I thought the easiest way to do that was by adding alcohol. And lots of it.

My Irish Cream Celebration Cake is a chocolate layer cake with buttercream frosting, chocolate glaze and toasted almonds. As impressive as this cake looks, it was very simple to make. I started with a chocolate cake mix and added Irish cream to the batter. (I even added Irish cream to the frosting.) To raise the bar, I topped the cake with a chocolate glaze, which adds to the overall amazing appearance. Toasted almonds were just the thing to give a little crunch.

Here’s a foolproof way to frost a cake: To get a nice and clean layer of frosting, try using a crumb coat (sometimes called dirty ice) layer. Ice the cake with a very thin layer of frosting, so thin that you can see the cake through the icing. Chill for 30 minutes, and then frost as you normally would. The final product will be crumb-free and smooth!