Strawberry cake for Rishab's second birthday

I modified the recipe below only slightly for Rishab's second birthday, which turned out really superb. I used just frozen (German-) strawberries instead of peaches and raspberries for the cake and a box of fresh strawberries for the decoration. It was a snowman cake (See the marshmello snowman below). I used butter instead of margerine. I don't mind using Rama or similar types of margerines, but NO hydrogenated fats (trans fatty acids) for me.
Sorry! It's in German right now:

Blechkuchen Pfirsich Melba
(Source: Marions Kochbuch)

Zutaten:

250 g Margarine
200g Zucker (Sugar)
1 Pkt. Vanillezucker (vanilla sugar)
1 TL Zitronenschale (grated lemon peel, I use readymade ones)
Salz (Salt)
250 g Mehl (raising flour)
75 g Speisestärke (cornflour)
1/2 Pkt Backpulver (Baking powder)
75 g Mandeln, gerieben (grated almonds)
4 Eier (eggs)
3 Dose Pfirsiche (peaches)
350 g Himbeeren (raspberries)
500 g Schmand (a type of German heavy cream or sour cream)
4 Pkt Vanillezucker (Vanilla sugar)
600 g Sahne (heavy cream)
2 Pkt Sahnesteif (whip-it)
1 Vanilleschote (A vanilla bean)

25 Portionen - 356 Kcal pro Portion
**** - 30 min Zub. - 60 min Ges.

Für den Blechkuchen Pfirsich Melba

1. Margarine mit Zucker, 1 Pkt. Vanillezucker, abgeriebener Zitronenschale einer unbehandelten Zitrone und Salz schaumig schlagen.
2. Mehl mit Speisestärke, Backpulver und gemahlenen Mandeln mischen und im Wechsel mit den Eiern unter die Margarine rühren.
3. Backblech fetten und Rührteig auf das Blech streichen.
4. Pfirsiche in ein Sieb gießen und gut abtropfen lassen. Pfirsiche in Spalten schneiden.
5. 1/3 der Pfirsiche mit genügend Abstand auf dem Blech verteilen.
6. 150 g der Himbeeren zwischen den Pfirsichen verteilen. Ofen auf 175° vorheizen und Blechkuchen auf der mittleren Schiene ca. 35 Min. backen.
7. Blechkucnen aus dem Ofen nehmen und abkühlen lassen.
8. Schmand mit 4 Pkt. Vanillezucker glatt verrühren. Sahne mit Sahnesteif schlagen und das Mark einer ausgekratzten Vanilleschote unterheben. Sahne unter die Schmandcreme heben.

Wenn man weiß, daß der Kuchen an einem Tag aufgegessen wird, kann man die Schmandcreme auf den Kuchen streichen und die restlichen Pfirsichspalten darauf verteilen. 100 g Himbeeren zur Dekoration verwenden. Restliche Himbeeren pürieren (evtl. noch zuckern) und über den Blechkuchen Pfirsich Melba träufeln. Wenn man den Kuchen über mehrere Tage essen möchte, ist es besser, den Kuchen aufzuschneiden und die Zutaten in kleinen Schüsseln extra zu servieren. Dann kann jeder seinen Kuchen selber dekorieren und der Kuchen hält sich so besser, da er nicht so durchweicht. Die Schüsseln können abgedeckt im Kühlschrank 2-3 Tage aufbewahrt werden.

Chocolate Cake for Rishab's third birthday

Rishab's Birthday Cake

Rishab loves chocolate and anything made with chocolate, so I was sure what kind of cake I'll be making from him. A chocolate cake. I spent quite a lot of time to find a good recipe for a cake with a lot of chocolate (: D)! And I found one which I felt would just be the right thing.
And since we were going to celebrate his birthday two days later, on a Saturday, Rishab was home on the Friday, when we both made the cake together. He loves helping me with baking cakes and muffins. It was not a very relaxing activity for me, but I wanted to make sure that Rishab had his share of fun. After all, the party was for him. And the cake turned out really good. I had to use more frosting than given in the recipe, which I have basically copy pasted from the source (cacaoweb.net). I used a slightly simplified version of the cake (two layers instead of four).- I had too many guests for that. To be exact, I had invited ten children (with parents and siblings) of which nine actually came. Since Rishab had just started going to the kindergarten, I had invited all of his friends (or going-to-be-friends).

Chocolate Layer Cake
Ingredients

1 ½ cup (340 g) butter, softened
1 2/3 cup (340 g) sugar
6 eggs
2 2/3 cup (340 g) all-purpose flour
ca. 3/4 cup (120 g) finely ground almonds
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup boiling water

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180° C (Gas mark 4 or 350° F).
2. Line two 9 inch (23 cm) cake tins with greaseproof or other non-stick paper and grease the tins.
3. Beat the softened butter with sugar.
4. Add one egg at a time, mix well between each egg.
5. Mix with flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, vanilla extract, and finely ground almonds.
6. Add ½ cup of boiling water and mix well.
7. Transfer to two separate cake tins and bake at 180°C just until set in the middle, approximately 30-45 minutes. A wooden pick inserted in centre should come out with just a few moist crumbs on it. Do not over-bake!
8. Cool the cakes and cut each in half, horizontally. They are easier to cut if they are kept in a refrigerator for a few hours before cutting.

How I made the cake: I took the recipe as it is but, instead of taking two baking tins made it simply on a baking try of an (European-) oven, which was almost the same size as the two tins together. And instead of making four layers, I just made two layers. So, I cut the cake once horizontally. Now, I first cut the cake once in the middle to prevent the layers from breaking, and separated the two layers. Once I had poured enough chocolate frosting over the lower layer(s), I put back the upper layer(s) back and poured the rest of the frosting. Before the frosting hardend, I started placing gummy bears and fruits over the cake together with Rishab.

Frosting
Method with heavy cream:

1 cup (240 ml) heavy cream or whipping cream
14 oz (400 g) sweet dark chocolate/ milk chcolate (or a mixture of both)

1. Heat the heavy cream or whipping cream in a sauce pan.
2. Remove from heat, add finely chopped sweet dark or milk chocolate, and stir until smooth.
3. To test it, transfer a tablespoon of the frosting into a chilled cup and place in the fridge for 15 minutes. If it is too thin, add some more melted chocolate. If it is too thick, add a few tablespoons of cream, stir until smooth, and test it again.