Yes, It's A Cake!

Happy 2015!

I made our favorite chocolate cake for New Year's Eve Dinner.

I sent the close-up picture to someone who shall remain unnamed (Mother).
Her response:  Is that a cake?  Interesting!
So, yes, it's a cake.  No, it didn't turn out as I pictured in my head, but it's not too far off either.  It has nothing to do with Frozen, and a lot to do with the snowflake sprinkles I forgot to use for Christmas.   The important part......it tastes amazing!  I made the Hershey's Chocolate Cake that is my stand-by recipe and my favorite buttercream frosting.  (see prior posts)  I used sky blue and white food coloring gel for the frosting, silver disco dust, and tons of snowflake sprinkles.

I am working on my goals for 2015, but I am not going to resolve to blog more because I did that last year and it had the opposite affect! :)  In the Spring I lost a whole year's worth of photos, which was super disappointing and took away a lot of my potential blog post pictures.  I have accumulated a good library again now, so I am hoping to have a better blogging year.

Here's to a happy and healthy New Year, with lots of creativity and productivity!

Chocolate Cake with Wintery Blue Buttercream Frosting & Snowflake Sprinkles

Chocolate Cake with Wintery Blue Buttercream Frosting & Snowflake Sprinkles

Flourless Chocolate Cake with a Cloud of Cherries

This is one of those desserts that I got so excited about, and I am ready to make again.

I was trying to figure out what to make for Small Group a couple weeks ago.  I was talking on the phone to my mom and flipping through recipes when this idea formulated.   I saw a picture of cherry topped brownie bites and told my mom.  She asked if I remembered when she made the brownies topped with cream cheese and cherries.  That got me thinking!  I really wanted to do something Black Forrest like, I just didn't know what.  I was trying to figure out which brownie recipe might work well when I saw a Flourless Chocolate Cake recipe that I had saved from King Arthur Flour.   It all fell together from there and I was super excited.

The recipe was to be made in an 8" round pan lined with parchment paper.  My only 8" round pan that is deep enough is a spring-form pan.  I coated it really well with olive oil spray, but didn't use the parchment.  I will next time.  I didn't have any trouble with it sticking, but to ease the serving, I had loosened the bottom of the cake with a large offset spatula.  It would be a lot easier just to use the parchment lining and turn the cake out with ease.  I made the recipe pretty much as listed, except I only used 2 whole eggs and 1 egg white.  I did not make the ganache since I was making my own topping.

I baked the cake for 20 minutes and it was the recommended 200 degrees.  This was the first cake that I ever tested the interior temperature to see if it was done.

Once the cake was cool, I mixed a package of cream cheese with about a 1/2 cup of powdered sugar.  I spread that on the cake, and then topped with 3/4 of a can of cherry pie filling.

Recipe for the cake - King Arthur Flour
Cream Cheese Layer - 1 8oz package cream cheese softened, 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Cherry Pie Filling

So delicious!  This just has Valentine's Day written all over it!

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese and Cherries

Vanilla Frosting

Happy New Year!

The cake I baked yesterday morning.....I had not used my Christmas Tree pan in about 3 years, so I wanted to make a cake with it this year.  We had too many desserts already for Christmas Day, so I decided just to make it for New Years as a white sparkly cake!  The only hint of glistening snow we will get around here.

I used to always use a box cake mix (funfetti holiday) for this pan (gasp!), but no more of that!  I wanted chocolate cake so I used the Hershey's recipe that I have almost memorized.   With the tree pan it took somewhere around 50 minutes to bake - I lost track of how many times I set the timer for 5 more minutes after the 30 minutes I started with.

I started using this frosting recipe a few years ago with other flavorings, but made it strictly vanilla with the chocolate cake and was amazed by the flavor.  Little C had gotten straight A's so I made her a celebration layer cake (below) and wanted white icing as the background for the A+ decoration.  I cannot describe how it tastes with the chocolate cake - just dreamy!

After all my talk about the hand mixer and the chocolate frosting yesterday, I still used the stand mixer for this frosting.  I think I can get it a little smoother with the hand mixer (less air pockets).  I recently discovered that there is white food coloring!  I used about 30 drops to lighten up this butter icing, but I stopped there because I think it would have taken the whole little bottle to get it perfectly white.  The white food coloring looks like white-out, but it is neat to see it work.

I frosted the chocolate tree with the white vanilla frosting and decorated it with white pearls, silver foil stars and silver disco dust.  Delicious and pretty!

Vanilla Frosting

1 cup of unsalted butter (2 sticks, softened)

4 1/2 - 5 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3-4 tablespoons of milk

Cream butter in mixer, add half of the powdered sugar and mix until incorporated.  Add half the milk and mix; repeat with the remaining sugar and milk.  Add vanilla and coloring.  This frosting is great for piping or spreading.