Triple Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

For Valentine's Day, I made my first cake to put on my cake dome. I got the cake dome 7 years ago as a wedding gift so it was the perfect time for its maiden voyage. Sadly, My cake making skills were lacking and the cake kinda fell apart and there wasn't enough frosting to seal it all together. It still tasted great though! Ok, the point is, I needed to redeem myself so I took my friend, Ari's, birthday as the perfect time to do so. Ari's favorite cake is chocolate with peanut butter frosting. I went for it!

I used a doctored chocolate cake mix recipe and an AMAZING peanut butter cream cheese frosting recipe. SO GOOD! I was licking the bowl. 

Here is the happy birthday girl

The cake was a hit and I'm grateful my dome has finally housed a very, very good cake.

Mini Ice Box Wafer Cakes with Strawberry Whipped Cream

I just helped with a friend's baby shower. We had a lovely blue velvet cake made by the other co-host and I was in charge of another dessert. I chose to make mini ice box cakes because they are easy, cute and delicious! I'd made them once before using chocolate chip cookies and they were very good. This time I found the perfect cookie to use, Marias. They are a Mexican cookie and were next to the Digestives (European cookie). At 50 cents a sleeve, the price was right. Ice box cakes can get rich but these cookies are mild and perfect for the recipe. Any mild cookie would work. I realized why this combo works so well together, it's basically a strawberry shortcake!

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2/3 cup of sugar plus a teaspoon

Splash of vanilla extract

1/2 cup strawberries, washed and stems removed (you can use fresh or frozen) plus more for garnish

4 packs of wafer cookies (about 160 cookies)

1. Place strawberries and teaspoon of sugar in blender or food processor and process until it makes a thick, seedy liquid. Set aside

2. In a stand mixer, add cream and beat until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla. Don't overbeat, the cream should be floppy and light. 

3. While with the mixer on, pour in strawberry mixture slowly until completely incorporated. Put whipped cream into a pastry bag or large gallon bag. 

4. Place wafer on a cookie sheet. Squirt about 1 teaspoon of strawberry whipped cream onto wafer and repeat until you have a wafer tower of 4 cookies with a dollop of whipped cream on top. Repeat until you have as many wafer cakes as you desire. 

5. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours but preferably overnight. When ready to serve, top with a sliced strawberry.

Yields: about 40 mini ice box cakes

I think I ate the most. I may have squirted some of the whipped cream in my mouth after I was done too. Don't judge

Recipe adapted from The Kitchn and The Cupcake Project

Red velvet gooey butter cake bars

Last year, I discovered ooey gooey butter cake bars. Um, yes. I knew immediately I wanted to experiment with these babies, and I finally got the chance when I needed to bring a dessert to an activity a few weeks later. After I made them, I realized these red velvet ooey gooey butter cake bars are perfect for Valentine's day!

That's love.

Red Velvet Ooey Gooey Butter Cake Bars
(Wayward Method)

Crust layer:
1 red velvet cake mix
1 stick of butter, melted
1 egg


Filling layer:
8 oz cream cheese
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 lb powdered sugar (~3 3/4 c) (or eyeball half a 2 lb bag....)


Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 9x13 baking dish with parchment paper. Mix the melted butter, cake mix and egg to form a dough. Press

into prepared baking dish.

Beat the cream cheese. Add eggs, vanilla and powdered sugar. Pour over cake layer in pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until set. The top layer will look crispy crackly, a bit like a brownie's (though it's thicker in practice).

Allow to cool before cutting. (If you don't, the ooey gooey part really will come true, with the filling flowing into the pan. Still tasty ;)

Straight from the oven

The verdict? I actually liked my original, thicker ooey gooey cake bars a little better, but these were still a great treat! (You know it's good when someone asks you for the recipe!)

You can use cookie cutters or a knife and a steady hand to cut them into cute shapes.

Enjoy!

What are your Valentine's baking plans?

Ooey Gooey Butter Cake Bars

For the last couple Novembers, my husband's work does an Iron Man challenge, where employees have six weeks to complete the requirements of an Iron Man triathlon. This is a great time to exercise, eat healthy and lose weight. For him.

Naturally, on November 1, I wake up totally ready to support him by eating all the Halloween candy . . . and baking lots of new treats.

Let me tell you straight up: don't bother hunting for "butter" flavored cake. This doesn't exist. They have other flavors of cake made with butter. After much research, it seemed that French Vanilla was the right flavor of cake. Especially since I had a mix sitting in my pantry.

Paula Deen, Butter Queen, will tell you to use a whole stick of butter in the filling and the crust. I didn't think this was necessary. The first recipe I started with called for an 8x8 pan. The result was really thick--thick enough that a 9x13 makes much more sense. (The recipe also called for "1 butter," so, uh . . . yeah.)

Ooey Gooey Butter Cake Bars
(Wayward Method--combining 3 different recipes)

Crust layer:
1 French Vanilla cake mix
1 stick of butter, melted
1 egg


Filling layer:
8 oz cream cheese
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 lb powdered sugar (~3 3/4 c) (or eyeball half a 2 lb bag....)


Preheat oven to 350. Line 9x13 baking dish with parchment paper. Mix the melted butter, cake mix and egg to form a dough. Press into prepared baking dish.

Beat the cream cheese. Add eggs, vanilla and powdered sugar. Pour over cake layer in pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until set. The top layer will look crispy crackly, a bit like a brownie's (though it's thicker in practice).

Allow to cool before cutting. (If you don't, the ooey gooey part really will come true, with the filling flowing into the pan. Still tasty ;)

Results?
Aside from the crazy recipe confusion as I was making this, it was super easy and quick to make. Baking seemed to take a long time, probably a function of how thick the recipe made it.

Once it was done and we let it cool just a little, we couldn't resist any longer. This. Was. Amazing. The flavor hit vanilla, butter, and cheesecake notes, with plenty of caramel undertones. Sweet, chewy, with a crackly top layer like a thin meringue. It reminded me a lot of everything I liked about chess or buttermilk pie.

I can't wait to make this again! My husband, on the other hand . . . he'd like me to defer until December.

Variations I've got to try:

• Fruit pie filling (apple, blueberry) between the crust and filling layers
• Thanksgiving-y: add pumpkin pie filling to the cheesecake layer
• Chocolate chips. 'Nuff said.

Have you tried ooey gooey butter cake bars? Is fall baking time for you?

Crepe Cake and My Easter Bonnet

First of all, Happy Birthday Jordan!! My mom is visiting Jordan right now and I hope they have a great day all together---wish I could be there!!

Yes, I used the same picture from last year. It still works!

Last year I decided I wanted to make some type of headpiece for Easter but ran out of time when it came down to it. I made a tiny hair bow instead. This year I went BIG!

Dress: JC Penney, Head Piece: DIY by me, Shoes: DSW (I wore heels to church)

Crappy cell phone close up!

I used this tutorial, but instead of using real silk organza, which would have been lighter and fluffier, I used some " special occasion" fabric. Still cute, but wish I would have gone for the organza!

Another thing I conquered was a crepe cake! I saw a crepe cake on a cooking show years ago and was intrigued. I came across sever pins on Pinterest, including Martha Stewart's version. I decided to use this recipe. 

The first crepe!

The cake, assembled! 

Sliced! Look at those layers!

Topped with strawberries, a perfect combination

The crepe cake was impressive and delicious but total prep time was over 3 hours, starting the night before (heating and cooling milk, browning butter, ice baths...) and then making 20 perfect crepes (that took an hour alone) and finally assembling the cake (the fun part!). I'm not sure when or if I'll make it again, but it won't be any time soon =) Although I feel pretty expert in making crepes!

How was your Easter?

Kitty Litter Cake and My Halloween Costume

I'm finally ready for Halloween! At work there is a competition for the ickiest food on a big meeting on the 31st. I'm planning on recreating this masterpiece I've made before:

Recipe here

And if you are wondering what I felt about it:

My Halloween costume =)

Happy Halloween! And happy birthday to my husband today! Love you!

Lemon cake: 3 minutes, 100 calories!

A couple weeks ago, my four-year-old decided it was my "betend buwtday." To celebrate, she served me "betend wemon sauce cake."

And then I wanted real lemon sauce cake. But I knew I didn't want a whole lemon cake in my house, so I tracked down a microwave lemon cake recipe. The original recipe called for 3Tbsp of oil, and one commenter had trouble with the cake turning out oily. So I cut calories and fat by replacing half that oil with applesauce.

The recipe:

3 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (I squeezed 1/3 of a medium lemon)
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
splash of vanilla (oops, I forgot this!)

Mix the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients. The lemon juice will probably react with the baking soda and begin bubbling, resulting in a fluffy pancake-like batter.

Divide the batter between two ramekins and microwave. The original recipe suggested 45 seconds and that a full minute was too much. However, even after a minute, the edges of my cake were totally liquid. I ended up microwaving for 1:30.

The original recipe used a lemon juice + 2Tbsp confectioners' sugar glaze, but I used some leftover blackberry syrup. I'd also wanted to use this beautiful jar of lemon curd I have, but after the results, I decided it wasn't worth opening the jar.

The result was a little gummy at first and didn't release from my bowls well (even though they were greased and floured)--hence the :S on the plate.

However, after it had a few minutes to set, it tasted pretty darn good! I let my four-year-old try a bite and she insisted I share my cake with her. The bright flavor of lemon—and the word "deewicious!" from my daughter—totally brightened my day.

Each cake is 95 calories. Woot!

Have you tried microwave cakes?

Tea Party Birthday

My good friend, Anne, threw an amazing party for her daughter's first birthday. The theme was Marie Antoinette "Let Them Eat Cake" tea party. I got to help a little with the decorations and food. 

Here are all the photos

Huge balloons greeted the guests

Inside, they had their choice of lace crowns (tutorial here)

Here's part of the spread. Food included: Cucumber sandwiches,  croissants, cheese and crackers, mini chocolate shells filled with chocolate mousse, cookies, deviled eggs, quiese, fruit and vanilla sauce, veggies, candy, tea, meringue with lemon curd, prosciutto wrapped dates, and quiche. 

Vintage silver tea set. Inside the pot there was milk and the small pitcher had strawberry syrup. I had some in a tea cup; YUM!

The hanging pom ball/balloon/lantern display above the food table. Huge impact for really cheap!

Here's the birthday girl, enjoying the mousse I made. Isn't her ensemble amazing?

These are the individual smash cakes for each child, topped with a marzipan fruit. The frosting was so tasty!

The table in the backyard, perfect place to smash your cake and make a mess. More huge balloons too!

Isn't this a great picture of Anne and the birthday girl? This is right after we sang to her. 

These were the dainty favors for each of the guests. Inside were cookies. 

I can't wait for the next party!

Fondant Cake

Fondant is like play dough but it's edible and for cake. It's frosting! Ok it doesn't taste all that great but it's fun to cake decorate with. In our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) we have an organization just for adult women called Relief Society. It was founded in March of 1842. So in March we had a birthday party for the Relief Society in our local congregations. We had some really good speakers and lots and lots of cake. And of course I volunteered to make a cake because I'm crazy.

Ok now for the cake. I bought some already made fondant at Wal-Mart. It was pretty inexpensive and a time saver. Plus it was dyed as well. First make the cakes (no brainer right?) Now this is called dirty frosting. Just frost the cake. No need to do it nicely, this is what will hold the fondant to the cake.

Roll out the fondant evenly and not too thin. It should be about 1/4" or less but make sure you roll the fondant out the same every time. Once you've rolled it out, you can put the whole thing on the the cake by transferring it with a rolling pin. I did checkers so I used a small tupperware container and cut out rectangles. I then cut the rectangles in half. Cookie cutters come in handy here but I don't have any at school hence the tupperware.

After cutting out all the squares, start in the middle of the cake and lay out the fondant pieces. Continue covering the whole cake.

When you get to the edges, cut off the excess before you apply the pieces to the cake. Since this was a round cake I held the piece up to the spot where it was supposed to go and kind of eyed how much I should cut off.

I left some pieces rectangular for the side of the cake. I had to cut off a little bit to be the right height but all worked out well. The pattern didn't go all the way around so that became the back of the cake!

Next I made an R and an S out of the extra fondant I had and stuck those on top with a little bit of water. When attaching fondant to fondant, water is an excellent glue.

Use a sharper knife to get through the fondant when cutting the cake. And now it's all ready to eat.
(If you want to make fondant Click Here to see the last time I made it!)

Grownup Swiss Cake Roll (Okay, Okay, Yule Log)

I know, I know, my tastes should have matured, but I think most people have a soft spot in their hearts for the junk food of their childhoods—and Little Debbie's Swiss Cake Rolls are one of those foods for me. So when I was looking through an old Martha Stewart Holiday Magazine and saw the Yule Log, that's what I thought of. But it's not just bigger—the recipe appeals to a grownup palette, too.

The cake layer was easy to make—it's almost like an angel food cake, except that you also beat the egg yolks and use them, too. But it calls for very little dry ingredients, and in a large jelly roll pan, it bakes quickly.

I've seen a few other people (like Nicole of Thrifty Decorating) do cake rolls recently, and they recommend rolling the cake up while it cools. So here's my cooling cake.

Once the cake was cool, I made the white chocolate mousse filling. I don't like white chocolate, but I followed the recipe. (WAYWARD ALERT: READ ON BEFORE YOU RUSH OFF TO MAKE THIS!)

Maybe I didn't let it set up enough, but the disaster came right after I spread the cooled white chocolate mousse on the cooled, unrolled cake. The mousse layer was at least as thick as (and probably thicker than) my cake. And it was a lot less solid.

I had done my best and followed the directions (and I know from experience, I forget things in the fridge at critical moments, so I couldn't just leave it there and hope to get back to it at the right time). So I started to roll it up.

And instead of rolling up along with the cake as a layer of tasty goodness, the mousse just slid down the cake.

I tried to roll it faster, and the cake flopped all over. It unrolled what I'd done, and deposited all the mousse in the middle of the cake.

I rolled it even faster, and I heard this odd "slop plop lop" sound, but I couldn't stop what I was doing when I was so close to making progress. The roll was less of a spiral roll and more of a tube by the time I gave up.

And then I discovered the source of the sound effects:

You can also see how sad and flat and rolled-like-a-scroll my yule log was. I decided I'd already put so much effort into it, I had to see it through. So I squeezed it as tight as I could, embracing the slop, and secured it inside the parchment paper and a kitchen towel. I let it chill in the fridge until I was ready to face it again.

This time, instead of Martha's white frosting, I decided to go with a dark chocolate glaze (yum!). I sawed off the ends of the log and made up this glaze from How to Cook Everything (this recipe has been halved):

• 1/4 c + 2 Tbsp powdered baking cocoa
• 3 Tbsp butter, cut into bits
• 1/4 c cream
• 1/4 c + 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
• teeny pinch salt
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract (I skipped this)

Combine the ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over low heat. (I recommend using a heat-safe spatula for stirring.) As the butter melts, it goes from a powder with chunks to an almost buttercream consistency to a smooth glaze. Pour it over the chilled cake and it's beautiful!

I think you'd be safe with halving the white chocolate mousse recipe. (Deliciously Noted, whose links helped me find the recipe online, agrees that the filling is too much.) Also, the print version of my recipe had an error the instructions 1 1/4 c cream whipped in step 4, instead of 1 3/4), but honestly, I don't think that made the difference. And knowing that reducing it by 20% still didn't help—yeah, halve it.

What kind of yule logs or cake rolls do you make?