Here we are in 2022 and 3 years into celebrating Kobe's heavenly birthday. Kobe would be celebrating his 44th birthday this year. It still amazes me how much he accomplished in his short period on this earth. I strive daily to be the best version of myself and continue Kobe's Mamba Mentality legacy.
As I expressed in my previous Kobe Day post, I have been celebrating August 24th as Kobe Day since 1996. I honestly celebrate daily by living my best life and striving to leave my own legacy. After Kobe's death, I have been doing some deep self reflecting and trying to discover and implant my own legacy. I have been striving to be the best version of myself daily and have learned that the only way I feel accomplished is through love and creativity. My Mamba Mentality is to encourage others to love themselves first as well as others. Also my legacy is to strive to incite all forms of creativity in others. I believe that we are created to create and make this planet somehow better than we arrived.
I made this delicious Pineapple Right-Side up Cake for Kobe's birthday cake. This four layer pineapple cake is filled with a delicious fresh pineapple filling and frosted with a tangy yet sweet cream cheese filling. I decorated this cake in stars representing every year that Kobe shined on this planet. The yellow stars serve as the first half, '#8' of Mamba's career. The purple stars of course serve as the second half of Kobe's career, '#24.' The five sparkly balls on top of the cake covered in Kaleidoscope Sprinkles Cosmic Shimmers, embody Kobe's championships. I then covered the remaining top of the cake in Black Mamba Sprinkle Mix.
This Kobe Day I ask that you consider how do you love and how do you create to inspire? Also examine what do you want your legacy to be? Kobe has shown us that life is way too short to not live our daily legacies. Happy KOBE Day!
Complete recipe and decorating video below.
Make two 8 or 9" cakes, four 6" cakes or 24 cupcakes.
Ingredients
Pineapple Cake:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 cup of butter, unsalted
1 cup of granulated sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup pineapple juice
Pineapple Filling:
20 oz. crushed pineapples with juice
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground ginger
Cream Cheese Frosting:
12 oz. of reduced fat cream cheese
½ cup of butter
3 1/2- 4 cups of confectioners sugar
2 tsp of vanilla extract
Fondant, for decorating (optional)
Food gel from Deco Pac for colors (optional)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F
Grease and flour cake pans.
In a medium sized mixing bowl mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
In a large bowl or using a stand mixer cream butter and sugar together. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time to the mixture. Add vanilla extract. Slowly add the flour mixture one third at a time, alternating with pineapple juice. After each addition, be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl. Mix batter until fully combined but be careful not to over mix.
Transfer batter to the cake pans and smooth batter evenly in the pans. Bake cakes for approximately 20-22 minutes until toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Place cakes onto cake rack and allow to cool completely to room temperature.
While cake is baking make the pineapple filling and cream cheese frosting.
For pineapple filling: Add crushed pineapple and juice into a large saucepan. Add brown sugar, salt and ginger. Stir everything together and allow mixture to simmer on low-medium heat. Cook filling down until reduced by half and juice can coat back of spoon. Allow filling to cool to room temperature. Use hand mixer or food processor to blend mixture into smooth/ slightly chunky spreadable mixture. Set aside.
For cream cheese frosting. In a large bowl, or stand mixer, whisk together cream cheese and butter. Slowly add confectioner’s sugar using mixer on low speed until frosting is smooth. Add vanilla extract. Whisk frosting on medium-high speed until vanilla extract combined and frosting is light and fluffy.
Frost cakes with cream frosting. Decorate with fondant and Sprinkles.
Devour and Enjoy!
