Spumoni Birthday Cake

A few years ago we were invited out to dinner. 

We had never visited this restaurant before 

and I have to say I was

very disappointed with my menu selections.

For the main course I ordered

Broasted Chicken.

It made sense to me that Broasted 

should be a compound word

for "oven baked-roasted".

I was wrong.

And although the server offered to bring

me something else, he seemed rather frustrated
that everyone at the table agreed
I was served deep fried chicken.

I declined the offer.

I ordered it, so I ate it.

 Eventhough something deep-fried 

was the very thing I was trying to avoid.

Turns out "Broasted" is different than deep-fried

 in, as far as I can understand, that

deep-fried foods are cooked by floating

 on top of the oils, cooking one side at a time 

and requiring turning to cook both sides.

Broasted foods, on the other hand,

are pressure cooked in the oils so that all sides

are cooked evenly at the same time.

Okay, so I learned something I didn't know before.

For the dessert course

I settled on a Spumoni Cake.

Mmm, I thought, I'm already familiar

with Spumoni ice cream...

the Italian version of Neapolitan

with flavors of Chocolate, Cherry and Pistachio.

Love it.

I could envision the cake wondering

would these three flavors be a

bundt style cake where the flavors

were swirled all around?

Or, would it be a beautiful 

three (3) layer cake?

I was excited to try it and couldn't wait

for our server to bring it.

It would be the perfect end to a not so perfect

meal.

And when the server came

he set a bowl of ice cream in front of me!

Ice Cream?!?!?!?!? 

Really?

Did the menu description

say anything about ice cream?

NO,   it said, 

plainly in black and white,

Spumoni CAKE

ice cream is not cake, folks.

Well you can see how I've overcome

my dissappointment over the years. Ha

I can tell you this, I've learned to ask my 

restaurant servers alot of questions

about menu items, their ingredients and 

how they are prepared. 

So,

this week was my husband's birthday.

I haven't forgotten the beautiful

Spumoni Cake I'd envisioned that night.

For this birthday I departed

from the usual predictable decorated

birthday cake and made a 

Spumoni Cake.

I didn't follow a recipe but used

these cake mixes.

Each mix made two layers

so, after baked, I put one layer of each flavor

in the freezer for another time.

To the chocolate cake I piped Nutella into the

cake batter.  Being rather thick, it didn't want to break off so
became these little strips instead of little dollops.

To the Cherry Chip cake I added 

chopped maraschino cherries and a couple

drops of red food coloring.
It turned out a pretty pink but looks kinda
orange here.

To the white cake I added a 1/2 teaspoon

or so of almond extract and 4 drops of

green food coloring.

I wanted a light whippy "frosting".

And discovered a product called TruWhip which is 

an alternative to Cool Whip

that claims

all natural, non gmo certified, 

has no hydrogenated oils,

no high fructose corn syrup.

I stirred together

a small box of instant pistachio pudding mix

and 1/3 - 1/2 cup of milk

and folded it together with 1 container of TruWhip.


(This wasn't quite enough to finish the job
so I ended up making a second batch
of my pistachio pudding and TruWhip
whippy frosting and used
 most, or at least more than half, of the
second batch.)

I stacked the cakes with the 

chocolate on the bottom

cherry chip in the center

 and almond flavored white cake

tinted a pale minty green  on top.

Frosted all the sides and piped rosettes on the top

to hold the candles.

There....all done.

 Pistachios sprinkled around the top
or pressed onto the sides of this cake 
would have been more impressive,
but pistachios, being a softer nut, can get soggy

and need to go on immediately before serving.

 I opted not to add any to this cake.

Delicious!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Dear

Sharing at Jan's Daily Cup