I Tried Making A Taro Birthday Cake On A $5 Budget - Delish.com

In the latest installment of my budget adventures, I decided to tackle birthdays in quarantine. The task: Could I make a birthday cake for under $5? Considering most birthday cakes run anywhere from $15 and up, I thought this would be a fun way to force myself to celebrate my own birthday.

It should be noted: I'm not a big fan of birthdays. They remind me of the unstoppable passage of time, the inconsequence of existence, the arbitrary numerical markers mankind has set up for society to run on—and to what end? And before you say that it must be because I'm a grouchy, jaded adult to think this way, I'll have you know I turned into this current form at the ripe old age of 12, when suddenly being a teenager meant I was no longer privy to children's discounts at buffets and museums. (Also, depression.)

I digress. Julia, our beloved chain restaurant queen, stipulated these rules: (1) The budget is $5. (2) The cake must be edible. (3) The cake must be presentable and must not look horrid.

My budget

Knowing that dairy products are all relatively expensive compared to flour, sugar, and eggs, I set my sights on making a sponge cake. Because baking ingredients often come in bulk packaging and I decided to make only one cake, I calculated the price of this cake by getting unit prices per gram of each ingredient and then multiplying that by the amount of the ingredients that I actually use—not the total purchasing price of each item.

My inspiration

Growing up, my parents always celebrated my birthday by lighting a candle or two on a generic Chinese bakery birthday cake and calling it a day. That's right—I've never had a birthday party in my life. And that's a good thing, because these cakes were so good, I would've hated to have to share them with anyone else.

What is a Chinese bakery birthday cake? Imagine: light, soft layers of sponge cake, lightly eggy, lightly sweet, sandwiched with the lightest, smoothest, silkiest whipped cream frosting, topped with random fruits. The fruit I could take or leave, but the cake and the cream and their marriage together in one bite is [ethereal happiness for which words do not suffice].

My favorite version of the Chinese bakery birthday cake is one in which there is creamy taro filling in between the cake layers. Taro, if you've never had it before, is an amazing starchy corm (a plant stem that grows underground and functions as energy storage) that cooks to a pretty lavender purple color. Once fully steamed or boiled, it can be mashed like a potato.

This is how much I love taro.

June Xie

My attempt

Sponge cake needs only eggs, sugar, and flour. Everything else is secondary. Given my limited budget, this ingredients list of low-maintenance products was perfect.

Granted, I'd never made a sponge cake before, and this version turned out a bit dry. However, that may have worked to my advantage because it easily and cleanly sliced into three layers. Paired with the taro cream and my runny semi-failure of a meringue frosting, it got pretty close to the taro birthday cake of my dreams.

Ugly-beautiful is the name of the game.

June Xie

For the sponge cake

Cooking spray
6 medium eggs
⅔ c. granulated sugar (139 g.)
1 c. all-purpose flour (128 g.)
1 tbsp. cornstarch (10 g.)
¾ tsp. kosher salt (4 g.)
1 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled (14 g.)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a 8” or 9" round cake pan with cooking spray and line bottom with parchment. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch, and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add 3 whole eggs and 3 yolks into stand mixer and whip until thick and lightened in color, about 2 to 3 minutes. Gradually add in ½ cup sugar, whipping at medium speed until fluffy and ribbony, 8 to 10 minutes more.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl using a hand mixer on medium-high speed, whip 3 remaining egg whites until foamy. Continue to whip, gradually adding in remaining sugar, until medium-stiff peaks form, 3 to 4 minutes more.
Gently fold flour into whole egg mixture in two batches, until well combined, then gently fold in meringue in two batches. Add melted butter and fold to combine. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
Bake on the middle rack for 15 minutes, then lower oven to 325°. Continue baking until top is smooth, rounded, and golden and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, about 15 minutes more.

For the blueberry reduction

1 ½ c. blueberries
Pinch kosher salt
¼ c. granulated sugar (55 g.)
2 tbsp. water

In a small pot over medium heat, bring blueberries, sugar, and water to a boil. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking until blueberries burst and mixture thickens to a syrupy consistency, 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and strain, reserving both fruit pulp and syrup separately. Let cool completely.

For the taro cream filling

1 lb. taro, peeled, cut into ½” cubes
Pinch kosher salt
⅔ c. granulated sugar (139 g.)
¼ c. coconut cream (55 g.)
2 tbsp. blueberry reduction

In a large pot over medium heat, add taro and just barely cover with water (about 1 ¼ cup). Add a pinch of salt and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and continue cooking until taro is completely tender and creamy when mashed with a fork, about 20 minutes.
Mash taro until completely smooth, then stir in sugar and coconut cream while hot. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved and mixture is thick like peanut butter, returning to a medium-low heat to thicken if necessary. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

For the meringue "frosting"

5 medium egg whites (151 g.)
Pinch kosher salt
1 ¼ c. granulated sugar (255 g.)
½ c. water (118g)
½ tbsp. butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract

In a small pot over medium heat, bring sugar and water to a boil. Continue cooking until syrup reaches 245°, about 8 minutes.
Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip egg whites until completely foamy and opaque.
Increase mixer speed to medium-high and slowly and carefully stream in hot syrup. Increase mixer speed to high and let whip until mixture is fluffy and cooled to lukewarm to the touch, about 10 minutes. Add in butter and vanilla and whip until fully incorporated.
Optionally, divide frosting into two batches. Into one batch, stir in blueberry reduction 1 tablespoon at a time until desired color is reached. Transfer frosting to a piping bag and frost cake as desired.

June Xie

Because I used only nine ingredients and spent a grand total of $4.27, my taro birthday cake may not have been the best cake the world has ever seen. But maybe this year is the year we embrace that sometimes being good-not-perfect is perfectly good enough? That said, just in case you want your cake day to be perfect, Makinze's got your back: Her marshmallow cake has a meringue frosting that is actually fluffy and perfect.

June Xie Test Kitchen Manager After working in numerous restaurant kitchens throughout NYC, June Xie joined the Delish team as Test Kitchen Assistant and chief baking expert with a passion for bread dough, peanut butter, whipped cream, and gluten free cookies.

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