Birthday Cake

I made a pretty! And I’m very excited about it!

I made a cake for my sister’s birthday, and it turned out pretty well.  

I used a recipe from here, and added pink and green food coloring instead of red.

I also used cream cheese frosting, but as little as possible while still covering the colors. My sister is very strange and doesn’t much like frosting.  

Buttermilk Cinnamon Almond Strawberry Shortcake

I made a cake yesterday.  

I wanted to make a white cake because I had a bunch of egg whites leftover from making ice cream.  But when I was ready to make the batter I didn’t have my computer with me.  

I decided to forge on anyway.  I used the mini whisk I have here and beat the eggs until they were foamy.  Then I added some sugar, cinnamon and almond extract.  Almond extract smells divine.  It only takes a drop to make the whole trailer stop smelling like dirty boys.

Next I melted some butter and added it slowly to the egg mixture.  Then a bit of buttermilk.  When it was nice and foamy I added some flour and baking powder.  After a touch more buttermilk and it had a consistency that I liked.  

So I spread it into 3 pans and let it cook for a while.  

The cakes are more dense than I’d hoped, but it worked well when I put the strawberry filling between the layers.

Lastly I spread a really thin layer of buttercream frosting over the whole thing, because I only had a little bit of powdered sugar.  

And voila!  My “Strawberry Thing”, as George calls it.

Red Velvet Layered Cake

I made a cake yesterday.  I am still experimenting and searching to find the perfect Red Velvet cake.  

So far the cookies are still better, but they don’t translate well into cake.  It makes me sad.  

The most recent on I tried was from Food Network.  

It turned out pretty well.  I have to try it again.  This attempt ended up slightly dry from overcooking.  It was only 5 minutes, but next time I need a timer.  

The Cream Cheese Frosting was not so sweet as the other recipes I’ve used.  It was very rich, though.  

I was rather proud of myself.  I frosted it with a butter knife.  It was pretty smooth for the utensil used.  

Caramel Brownie Sundae

I had leftover batter from the chocolate cupcakes, so I made a round cake. It ended up looking rather like a brownie.

Also I have 6 jars of caramel leftover from my caramel sauce trials. So I had to make a sundae. A Caramel Brownie Sundae. It was amazing.

Caramel Brownie Sundae

1 piece of Brownie or Cake

2 scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream

Caramel Sauce

Maraschino Cherry juice

Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

Today I made cupcakes. Chocolate ones. Birthday ones. But I don’t know anyone who had a birthday. I made them because it’s the best ever chocolate cake recipe. Hershey’s Hot Water Devil’s Food Cake. It has been THE birthday cake in our family since before I can remember.

I also made THE birthday frosting. Hershey’s One Bowl Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. But today I made it with vanilla, instead of orange.

But the star of today’s show was the caramel. I used the caramel sauce from Annie’s Eats. I filled the cupcakes with the sauce. Then I drizzled it over the top to garnish. They turned out very pretty. And I have lots of left-over caramel for ice cream sundaes.

I ended up with two types of caramel because I didn’t let the first batch cook long enough. But it is still very good. Tastes like English toffee. The second batch was darker and had more of a caramel flavor. It’s what I used for the cupcakes.

Caramel Sauce:
½ c Unsalted Butter
1 c Sugar
1 c Heavy Cream
¼ t Vanilla
A pinch of Salt

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar begins to foam and turn dark. It will look and smell like it’s on the verge of burning. Remove from the heat and add the heavy cream. Stir until the sauce is smooth (you may need to return it to the heat to smooth it out), then mix in the vanilla and salt. Let cool.

Source: Annie's Eats

Rolled Cake

The other day I experimented with cake layers. And some fondant. I made a little cake, Red Velvet, but I didn’t stack layers – I rolled them. It made a very interesting pattern when cut through the center. I got the idea from a lady in Austria. She makes amazing cakes, and all of them are rolled up instead of stacked up.

I decided at the last minute that a packet of cocoa would be my inspiration. Here’s what I came up with.

The center wasn’t quite the spiral it was supposed to be, but I thought it was ok for my first attempt.  Next time I’ll let the cake cool all the way before I start to mess with it.

Wreckage

I was browsing through some of the posts that show up on the blogs I follow and happened upon the most hilarious link ever:  Cake Wrecks

There are some beautiful cakes.  And lots of horrendous cakes.  And excellent humor.  I've been laughing non-stop for the past hour an a half.  I need to stop reading, but I'm hooked. 

P.S. It's been snowing, so I've had lots of time to bake.  Sadly my camera battery is dead and my phone doesn't take very good pictures.  I'll start posting again as soon as I get the charger back...

Novelty Cake, aka The Richest Cake Ever!

Obviously the novelty of having a blog is wearing off. My sister has to cajole and basically force me to add more posts now. That's kind of sad, it's only been a month and a half...

Anyway I made this amazing cake. It was my first attempt at a layer cake. I followed the Bakerella instructions for her 14 for 14 cake, but I used the cake mix from my Hot Water Devil's Food Cake. I used the frosting that her instructions had, and man it was amazing. This is so impossibly rich! Chocolate cake, rich on its own, with chocolate glaze and chocolate cream cheese frosting. Whew! But man, it went fast! I did this recipe once with 9 layers and once with 10, I wasn't too careful about the batter measurements. This is what it looked like!

I baked the cake in 8" rounds three at a time for 11-12 minutes.

When the last one was cooking I started the Icing for between the layers. This is from a link on the Bakerella site.

Icing

1 c Butter, cut up

1 can Evaporated Milk

1/2 c Cocoa

3 c Sugar

1 T Vanilla

Mix sugar and cocoa in a sauce pan. Add butter and milk and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and continue cooking until the icing thickens. Remove from heat and let sit for 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix.

Place 1 layer of the cake on a cake board (I used cardboard wrapped in foil) on a rack over a jelly-roll pan to catch the icing. Scoop about 1/4-1/3 c icing on to the layer and spread it over the layer. Add another layer of cake and continue the process until all the layers have been used. Pour the remaining icing over the top of the cake and let it drip down.

You can spread the icing as it drips so that it covers the whole cake. Then let the icing set until firm. You can also serve it warm and be done at this point.

I continued and put Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting over the top. I got this recipe from Bakerella.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 c Butter, softened

8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 c Cocoa

1 lb Powdered Sugar

1 t Vanilla

1-3 T Milk

Cream the butter and cream cheese. Add the cocoa and mix. Add the powdered sugar in batches, mixing between each addition. Add the vanilla and as much milk as needed for desired consistency.

I then slathered this over the outside of the beautiful cake:

I thought it looked so amazing! Especially for my first one!

Of course we had to have it for dinner so that I could see what it looked like on the inside!

YUM!!!

Testing Out The New Toys: Sherry Bundt Cake & Mexican Chocolte Cake

I just had to try out my new toy, the mini bundt pan that I mentioned earlier. I can't believe it took me this long to use it!



So I made some cakes last night, and some more today, maybe I'll test out another recipe tomorrow...Anyway they're beautiful! And I love them! And I think these are my new favorite things to make.

First I made the good ole Sherry Bundt Cake that we've made in my family for as long as I can remember. This recipe is one of the easiest and yummiest that I know.

Sherry Bundt Cake

1 Cake Mix

1 T All-purpose Flour

1 Small Instant Pudding

4 Eggs

1/4 c Oil

1/2 c Sherry (water if you're boring)

Sift the cake mix, flour, and pudding mix together. Beat the eggs and oil together and add to the dry mix. Add the sherry and mix until moistened. Pour (spread) into a greased bundt pan (or mini) and bake for 25 minutes at 350*F (I did about 15-20 for my minis).

Remove cake from oven, flip it onto a rack or serving plate and remove the pan. Dust with powdered sugar and serve warm.

**I don't have a picture of these, because I made them at a friend's house, but as soon as I get the ones he took I'll post them.**

I tried one of the recipes that came with my pan today with Eli and Cavan. They turned out amazing, and the recipe made about 12 mini cakes!

Mexican Chocolate Cake

4 (1 oz.) Squares Unsweetened Chocolate

3/4 c Finely Chopped Walnuts (I left these out)

2 t Cinnamon

1/4 c Butter, Softened

2 Eggs

1/2 c Brown Sugar

1/2 c Granulated Sugar

2 c Sifted Flour

2 t Baking Powder

1/2 t Baking Soda

1/2 t Salt

1 c Buttermilk

1 t Vanilla

Grate chocolate and chop nuts finely; add the cinnamon. Set aside. In large bowl, cream butter and eggs; add brown and granulated sugar. Beat until smooth. Add chocolate mixture and blend. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda and salt; add alternately with buttermilk to creamed mixture, add vanilla. Bake in greased and floured bundt pan at 325*F for 40-45 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool in pan 10-15 minutes; turn out on wire rack or serving plate to complete cooling.

I cooked my minis for about 20 minutes and tested them by making sure they bounced back when I touched the top. I also turned them onto a rack immediately.

Mexican Chocolate Glaze

1/2 c Chocolate Chips

1/4 c Boiling Water

1/2 t Cinnamon

1 c Powdered Sugar

Combine chocolate chips and water and mix well (this didn't fully melt the chips for me so I put it in the microwave for 20 seconds). Add cinnamon and powdered sugar and blend until smooth. Drizzle over cake. The glaze set really fast for me, so I had to glop it on the last few cakes. But it tastes amazing. You can also refrigerate it to get the consistency you want.

¡Buen apetito!