The Three Amigos. Lemon Curd Cake with Marshmallow Frosting, Strawberries and Cream and Coconut Crumble

I had my Saturday Birthday Dinner at Big Boy BBQ in Caulfield South, a place where H and I frequent when we want to just be absolutely silly and indulgent and have lots of BBQ sauce. We ordered a massive platter of meat (sorry Vegos & Vegans!) and three jumbo sides (includes chips).

After dinner, we all gathered by at H & L's HQ (our place) and I brought out the cakes to share. There were birthday sparklers involved, card games and a bit of cake tasting. 

WINNER! - Coconut Crumble cake with Coconut Cream

The cake that emerged to be the favourite out of the three was the Coconut Crumble Cake with Coconut Cream. It was refreshing, crunchy and delicious. It would seem I have avoided making something with chocolate yet again... that and there was left over coconut. (just wish I could have afford to buy fresh coconut instead of shaved/dessicated... there will come a day!)

One excellent thing that came out of this whole mini layer cake experiment/marathon adventure was the discovery of coconut crumble and how it goes with EVERYTHING. I mean, really - everything. I even sprinkled crumble on my lemon curd cake (super amazing!). The crumble was such a hit that both my sister's husband and my friend, Miko took some crumble home. Miko was incredibly excited (she actually gasped with excitement!) about the idea of adding the crumble into a milkshake! I am totally up for a vanilla milk shake with coconut crumble. Yum yum!

Now onto the cakes.... 

Excellent cake cutting.... Not!. [Photo by H.]

The Winner of the Three Amigos Cake Challenge. [Photo by H.]

That Yackadandah Lemon Curd is pretty good if you don't want to make your own curd.

The cake recipe I used was actually just a basic vanilla cake recipe (one batch for a normal sized cake - divided into 6 mini cakes) and whilst everyone knows how to put together strawberries and cream, I used my favourite Lemon Curd by Yackadandah and the marshmallow frosting recipe that I used on my vanilla coconut cream cake. 

The delicious coconut crumble was from this recipe and I reduced the portions to make just enough crumble for the cake. No matter how much you try to reduce the crumble recipe, you WILL have left over crumble.

mmmmm..... coconut crumble....

However, do not despair! You will not be wasting this delicious crumble as you can put the left over delicious crumble to good use in a variety of different ways. i.e pop a whole lot into a milkshake, jazz up your breakfast by sprinkling some crumble in your cereal, make a breakfast crumble yogurt pot or my favourite, give it a quick heat up in the microwave and pour it over left over cake. :D

Oh -- I have also been 'experimenting' with a different photo processing technique. :) Just trying to find my groove with my photos, whilst the darker processing style lends to a more 'dramatic' feel,  think I am still sticking to my bright and happy style. What do you think of the photo below?

A darker more moody style of processing. What do you think of this?

What is your go to birthday cake? If you are a baker, do you often bake your own birthday cakes, or is that just too much pressure?

Leftovers for a long weekend.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful long weekend in Australia and weekends across the globe!

x Lynnette