Toy Story Cake

This is a special cake for a special little boy.  My nephew, PJ, turned 2 years old this week!

The theme of the little guy’s birthday party was Toy Story.  PJ is a big fan of Buzz Lightyear and I hope this cake really helped to make his birthday party perfect!

Now, Wilton has a cake pan with Buzz on it.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had a whole lot of luck with those figure pans looking the way they should.  So, I figured that to ensure that this would look good, I should make a layer cake and put the little figures around it.

In order to make the most people happy, I went with a vanilla cake with plain vanilla buttercream (you can find both recipes here).  Simple, but so good!  On top is a single chocolate chip cupcake – just for the birthday boy – complete with Buzz and candles.

Special thanks to my awesome hubby for helping with the army men decorations (I promise not to tell the birthday boy that you kept a few).  LOL!

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Coffee and Donuts Cake

This weekend we celebrated my wonderful sister’s 29th birthday – and of course I was commissioned to make a cake.

The birthday meal was supposed to be a brunch (which was later changed, and I wasn’t informed…but that’s another matter) and I figured this coffee and donuts cake would make the perfect finish to a birthday brunch.  Even though the meal changed, the dessert was still just as awesome!  Absolutely delicious!

I didn’t have time this week to make the donuts by hand, so I bought plain chocolate ones and drizzled them with melted semi-sweet chocolate and topped them with birthday sprinkles.

For the cake, I used this chocolate cake recipe – it’s my favorite and is SOOOO good!

The coffee swiss buttercream recipe is from Sprinkles Bakes.  Check her blog out if you want to see the donut recipe.  Even if you don’t want the donut recipe, you should check her out anyway…Sprinkles Bakes is a very cute blog!

INGREDIENTS
Coffee Buttercream
1C. Sugar
1/3C. Water
1t. Vanilla extract
2 Large eggs
3 Sticks unsalted butter, softened (or vegan margarine if you’re going dairy-free)
2T. Instant espresso powder dissolved in 1T. hot water

DIRECTIONS
In a small heavy saucepan set over medium heat, dissolve the sugar in the water.  Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.  Continue to cook until it registers 240°F on a candy thermometer.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs until they are frothy.  While mixer is running, add the sugar syrup in a thin stream, carefully tempering the syrup into the eggs without cooking them.  Beat until it is cool. Change to the paddle attachment and add the softened butter, 1 tablespoon at a time.  Add the espresso mixture, and beat until it is light and fluffy.

After the cake cools completely, frost with buttercream and decorate with chocolate donuts.  Enjoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEEEESTER!!

Husband Rating – 4.5 out of 5 – “Delicious!  I loved every bit of this cake!”

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Double Chocolate Coconut Cake

Yesterday was my wonderful husband’s 29th birthday (Happy Birthday Homey!).  For his birthday dessert he requested a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and coconut.

I’ve heard wonderful things about the Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake and Frosting recipe but haven’t had the chance to try it until now.  I’m so glad I did…it’s amazing!  Super-chocolatey and pretty simple.

The coconut is my addition – so feel free to leave it out if you don’t like or don’t want coconut in your cake.

My only suggestion would be to make one and a half batches of frosting.  One wasn’t enough to put in between the layers and cover the cake completely, but I didn’t end up using the whole second batch.  One and a half would be perfect.

INGREDIENTS
Cake
2C. Sugar
1 3/4C. All-purpose flour
3/4C. Hershey’s Cocoa
1 1/2t. Baking powder
1 1/2t. Baking soda
1t. Salt
2 Eggs
1C. Milk
1/2C. Vegetable oil
2t. Vanilla extract
1C. Boiling water

Frosting
1/2C. Butter or margarine
2/3C. Hershey’s Cocoa
3C. Powdered sugar
1/3C. Milk
1t. Vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
For the cake
Heat oven to 350°F.  Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.  Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes.  Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).  Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks.  Cool completely.

For the frosting
Melt butter.  Stir in cocoa.  Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.  Add small amount additional milk, if needed.  Stir in vanilla.

To assemble
Place one layer of cake on a plate.  Top with a layer of frosting.  Sprinkle coconut on top.  Hold other layer in your hand (I put saran wrap in between my hand and the cake so it didn’t stick) and frost the bottom.  Gently stack on top of the first layer.  Frost entire cake with remaining frosting.  Over the sink or a large cutting board (for easy clean up) tap extra coconut onto the sides of the cake for decoration.  Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Husband Rating – 5 out of 5 – “The best cake my wife has ever made!”

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Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ever since my co-worker, Meher, brought this cake to a work function a few months ago I’ve been wanting to make it at home.  She was nice enough to bring the recipe in for me last week so I got right to work.

This cake is very easy to put together (I already had all of the ingredients on hand)…and the taste, oh my goodness is it good!  Super fudgy and deliciously chocolatey.

Christopher was very excited to try this because he hasn’t had anything resembling a cheesecake in a long time and this was rich enough to fill that void well.

INGREDIENTS
1C. Sugar
10oz. Semi-sweet chocolate, chips or cut up from a bar
2 1oz. Squares unsweetened chocolate, cut up
2 Sticks butter
5 Eggs
1/3C. Water

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine 3/4C. sugar with water in a large bowl.  Microwave on high – 1 to 2 minutes or until boiling.

Stir in both chocolates and butter until well blended (I needed to re-microwave for about 30 seconds to get everything to melt completely).

In another bowl, beat eggs and remaining 1/4C. sugar with electric mixer on high until almost doubled in volume (3-4 minutes).

Stir egg mixture into chocolate and mix until well combined.

Pour into greased 9″ springform pan.  Set springform pan into a large rectangle baking dish.  add enough water to the baking dish to reach 1″ up on the side of the pan.

Bake 40-45 minutes (mine took the full 45 minutes) or until cake is set.  Let cool and refrigerate at least 6 hours, or overnight if possible.  Enjoy!

Husband Rating – 4.5 out of 5 – “I love chocolate, this is awesome!”

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Orange Creamsicle Cake

My first cake that wasn’t frosted with frosting out of a can!  Yay!

Might not seem like much of an accomplishment to you fabulous bakers out there, but this is a big deal for me.  I’m a terrible baker.  The only thing I’m good at is brownies out of a box.  So, even though this cake mix came from a box, I’m still considering it a win because the frosting wasn’t the overly-sweet canned stuff.

And, the cake actually tasted good!  In my book, that’s huge!

I’ll definitely be making this recipe again…I think lemon/lime or strawberry would be awesome.

INGREDIENTS:
1 Box cake mix (I couldn’t find the orange cake recommended by the original recipe, so I used lemon)
1 3oz. Box orange Jell-o
1C. Boiling water
1 3.5oz. Box instant vanilla pudding
1C. Milk
1t. Vanilla extract
1t. Orange extract
1 8oz. Container Cool Whip
Orange candy segments to decorate

DIRECTIONS:
Set out Cool Whip to thaw.

Prepare cake mix according to package directions for a 9×13 pan.

Once the cake is done, poke with multiple holes (I used the thick end of chopsticks).

Prepare orange jell-o with boiling water, stir until completely dissolved and pour over cake.

Allow cake to cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together pudding and milk.  Stir in extracts and mix well.

Fold in Cool Whip and spread over the cake.  Allow to chill for at least 3 hours before serving.

Decorate however you please and serve.

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