Our little princess turned two! We didn’t have a big party but, I defiantly made a big cake! The theme of the party was Tinkerbell and I decided to make a big number two covered with green frosting and decorated it with small red flowers, figures of Tinkerbell and her girlfriends.
It was important for me to bake a cake that’s not to sweet. I decided to go with an applesauce cake recipe with mascarpone frosting. I’ve made three layers and the recipe of each layer slightly changed.
First layer made with cacao powder which gives a nice chocolate taste and color. Second layer made with the classic recipe of applesauce cake which is rich with cinnamon taste. Third layer I wanted to be with vanilla flavor, so instead of spices I put some vanilla extract.
As a result, I got a tall and colorful cake with an interesting combination of flavors and a very delicate frosting.
Ingredients for the first layer:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons cacao powder
1 ½ cups applesauce (no sugar added)
½ cup water
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
Ingredients for the second layer:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 ½ cups applesauce (no sugar added)
½ cup apple juice
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
Ingredients for the third layer:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups applesauce (no sugar added)
½ cup water
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
Ingredients for the frosting:
16 oz. (450 g) Mascarpone cheese at room temperature
½ cup (7 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
3 1/3 cups (750 ml.) heavy cream
2/3 cup (100 g) powdered sugar
¼ cup cacao powder
Food colors
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and layer the pan (9×13 inches) with parchment paper.
Step 2
In a big bowl mix together all the dry ingredients for the first layer, besides the sugar. In a mixer bowl mix together all the wet ingredients including the sugar.
Step 3
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Transfer the dough to the baking pan and bake for 25 minutes. Cool completely when it’s ready.
Step 4
Repeat the process with the two other layers. PAY ATTENTION to the changes in the ingredients.
Step 5
In the meantime, make the frosting. In a mixer bowl mix together the Mascarpone cheese and the sweetened condensed milk.
Step 6
Add heavy cream and powdered sugar to the mixture and mix until it’s thick. Divide the mixture in two, transfer half of the frosting to a clean dish and save in the refrigerator for decorating. Add cacao powder to the frosting in the mixer and mix until combined well.
Step 7
When all layers of the cake have cooled down, take a big knife and cutoff the top layer of each cake layer.
Step 8
On a prepared surface for the cake (I took a big cutting board and wrapped it with foil, having fastened on the backside with an adhesive tape), write down number two with small amount of frosting for gluing the first chocolate layer to the surface. Put down the chocolate layer and frost the top with 1/5 of the chocolate frosting. Repeat the process with second and third cake layers, but don’t cover the third cake layer with frosting.
Step 9
From paper, cut out a template of the number two (you can find it here). Place the template on the cake and trim the cake following the pattern.
Step 10
Cover the cake with leftover chocolate frosting. Take out the saved mascarpone frosting and color with the color of your choice (add enough color to get the color you like).
Step 11
Transfer the colored frosting to the decorating bag with a grass tip and start decorating the cake. To get imitation grass, squeeze out the cream with a small push on the bag, with a quick hand movement pull out the cream. (I recommend start decorating the places that are hard to frost with the decorating bag. For this, take a spatula and a small amount of frosting and cover the problem zone).
Notes:
Use your imagination to decorate the top of the cake. I made a half a cup of cream cheese frosting and colored it with red to make small flowers. I bought figures of Tinkerbell and her girlfriends and put them on top.
You can also use ready edible flower decorations.
Save the ready cake in the refrigerator, but be very careful to not destroy the frosting.
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons cacao powder
- 1 ½ cups applesauce (no sugar added)
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon cloves
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 ½ cups applesauce (no sugar added)
- ½ cup apple juice
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups applesauce (no sugar added)
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 16 oz. (450 g) Mascarpone cheese at room temperature
- ½ cup (7 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
- 3 1/3 cups (750 ml.) heavy cream
- 2/3 cup (100 g) powdered sugar
- ¼ cup cacao powder
- Food colors
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and layer the pan (9x13 inches) with parchment paper.
- In a big bowl mix together all the dry ingredients for the first layer, besides the sugar. In a mixer bowl mix together all the wet ingredients including the sugar.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Transfer the dough to the baking pan and bake for 25 minutes. Cool completely when it’s ready.
- Repeat the process with the two other layers. PAY ATTENTION to the changes in the ingredients.
- In the meantime, make the frosting. In a mixer bowl mix together the Mascarpone cheese and the sweetened condensed milk.
- Add heavy cream and powdered sugar to the mixture and mix until it’s thick. Divide the mixture in two, transfer half of the frosting to a clean dish and save in the refrigerator for decorating. Add cacao powder to the frosting in the mixer and mix until combined well.
- When all layers of the cake have cooled down, take a big knife and cutoff the top layer of each cake layer.
- On a prepared surface for the cake (I took a big cutting board and wrapped it with foil, having fastened on the backside with an adhesive tape), write down number two with small amount of frosting for gluing the first chocolate layer to the surface. Put down the chocolate layer and frost the top with 1/5 of the chocolate frosting. Repeat the process with second and third cake layers, but don’t cover the third cake layer with frosting.
- From paper, cut out a template of the number two (you can find it here). Place the template on the cake and trim the cake following the pattern.
- Cover the cake with leftover chocolate frosting. Take out the saved mascarpone frosting and color with the color of your choice (add enough color to get the color you like).
- Transfer the colored frosting to the decorating bag with a grass tip and start decorating the cake. To get imitation grass, squeeze out the cream with a small push on the bag, with a quick hand movement pull out the cream. (I recommend start decorating the places that are hard to frost with the decorating bag. For this, take a spatula and a small amount of frosting and cover the problem zone).
- Use your imagination to decorate the top of the cake. I made a half a cup of cream cheese frosting and colored it with red to make small flowers. I bought figures of Tinkerbell and her girlfriends and put them on top.
- You can also use ready eatable flower decorations.
- Save the ready cake in the refrigerator, but be very careful to not destroy the frosting.
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