Zebra Cake aka the cutest cake I've ever made!

Yesterday my best friend turned 26, and today we're having her big birthday bash! She asked me to make the cake (I'd already been planning to do so!) and mentioned she liked purple fondant. This was the first thing that popped into my head:




I LOVE how it turned out. I'm seriously proud of this cake and I hope she loves it!



Inside is black magic cake with chocolate ganache filling and this buttercream, which is my new favorite buttercream recipe!

I know that pedestal looks bad, but the cake wont be served on that :) It was just for decorating purposes!

Two Tier Cake

This is the first thing I get to cross off of my 25 before 25 list! and, I can safely say that I am not good at this, and have no desire to attempt it again, and this is good to know!

The top smaller cake is lemon cake, using this recipe. (just the cake, not the ganache) I put a layer of plain chocolate ganache in the middle and on the top of the cake and frosted it with my favorite chocolate mousse frosting (which is a BAD idea for a cake you're going to cover with fondant! The frosting slipped out the bottom of the fondant and made it lumpy and wrinkly).

The bottom layer is my black magic cake, also with a layer of ganache in the middle and on top and with the chocolate mousse frosting. It was divine! It was moist and rich and so delicious. I was happy with that.

I also didn't flatten the top of my bottom tier, so when I stacked the smaller tier on top there was a big fat gap between the two cakes! That's why my pink "ribbon" is folded around the middle of the cake.

So my first (and most likely ONLY) two tier cake was a little lumpy and lopsided, but it was tasty and a good experience. One I will NOT be attempting again!


Chocolate Ganache (adapted from several recipes)
1 c. heavy cream
12 oz bag semi sweet chocolate chips
2 tbs unsalted butter

Bring cream and butter to a boil, remove from heat, pour in chocolate chips and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth and cool to room temperature. So easy!

Birthday...cake!

I am so so very proud of this cake! It was my first time using fondant to cover cake and I had no idea what the heck to do with the corners (so I made a weird little fold) but I loved it so. And more importantly, my mom loved it.
And I took way too many photos of it, but that's okay because I want to remember my first attempt at fondant for ever and ever :)Also, I cut tons of fondant cutters, a cake decorating book, and a gift card that I used to get my own set of tips for my birthday...so I'm going to need to find more reasons to make cake! It's too much fun.

Black Magic Cake

I had been planning on making strawberry cupcakes for Mother's Day dinner, but my brother (who was pretty adorable in trying to plan the perfect mother's day dinner) thought everyone would like Chocolate better. So I turned to my trusty favorite allrecipes.com at the eleventh hour and found a chocolate cake recipe that used ingredients that I already had on hand.
It came together quickly and easily, and was pretty darn tasty! The chocolate flavor was really light, so next time I make this cake I plan to toss some mini chocolate chips into the batter before cooking to add some more chocolatelyness.

Black Magic Cake

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup strong brewed coffee
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans or one 9x13 inch pan.
2. In large bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center.
3. Add eggs, coffee, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. Batter will be thin. Pour into prepared pans.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and finish cooling on a wire rack. Fill and frost as desired.

Amazing Carrot Cake

Last Saturday was Dimples' birthday, and as is tradition, I needed to make an awesome cake. Last year, much to my dismay, he requested funfetti (what adult wants a funfetti cake for their birthday?!). This year he requested carrot cake.

I was a little nervous because I've never made a carrot cake before, but I knew Dimples' aunt had an awesome recipe, so I emailed her to request it.



I multiplied the recipe 1.5 so I could have three layers of deliciousness. I didn't quite have enough frosting, so I had to make do. a This really is the best carrot cake I've ever had!



Cake



2 cups sugar

1 cup corn oil

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup canned drained unsweetened crushed pineapple

3 cups packed grated peeled carrots

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup shredded sweetened coconut.



Preheat oven to 350 degrees. butter 2 9 inch cake pans with 2 inch high sides. Line pans with waxed paper. Beat sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Sift flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt into sugar mixture. Beat to blend. Puree pineapple in processor until smooth. Add to batter. Stir in carrots, walnut and coconut. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Transfer to racks. Cool 15 minutes. Cut around sides of pan to loosen cakes. Turn cakes out onto racks. Remove waxed paper. Cool cakes completely.



Cream Cheese Frosting



2- 8 ounce packages of cream cheese

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract



Beat cream cheese and butter in medium bowl until smooth. Sift powdered sugar into mixture. Beat until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread 3/4 cup frosting over top. Top with second cake layer. Spread remaining frosting in swirls over top and sides of cake. Chill until firm, about 1 hour. Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover, chill. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before serving.



So, happy birthday hun! I'm looking forward to making you many more birthday cakes :)

Pina Colada Cake

Awhile back I came across a recipe for a pina colada cake on a cooking board, but foolishly didn't save the link. When it came time to think of a dessert for Easter this was the first thing that popped into my head. I tried googling for a recipe, but everything I found called for creme of coconut (what IS that?!) or Rum, neither of which was on the original recipe that I saw. So I came up with my own.

Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
8 oz can of crushed pineapple
1/2 C. shredded coconut

Prepare cake mix according to instructions on box, mix in crushed pineapple (I drained most of the juice and saved it for later) and coconut. Bake according to directions on Box. After removing from oven pour reserved pineapple juice over cake and let soak in. Cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting I made a combination whipped cream/cream cheese frosting, and I was so happy with how it turned out. It was delicious!

Frosting (recipe modified from Allrecipes.com)
1 box cream cheese
1.5 cups whipped cream (I made the real stuff-no cool whip :)
1/2 c. coconut
1/8 teas salt
1 teas vanilla extract
1 c. white sugar (I used granulated and it wasn't gritty at all)
2 oz. crushed pineapple

Use a mixer to cream together cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add in vanilla, salt, coconut and crushed pineapple and mixed well. Fold in whipped cream.

garnish (optional)
Lots of shredded coconut (all said I used an entire bag for this cake), some toasted.
maraschino cherries

I almost didn't want to add the coconut after I frosted it because I thought it looked pretty enough already, but it had to survive an hour and a half trip in the car so I'm glad I added it, it helped it stand up to the foil wrapped around it and we got there with only minor damage :)

Best Chocolate Frosting EVER

For his birthday, Dimples requested that I make him a funfetti cake with chocolate frosting. Well, i don't know about you, but I can't make funfetti from Scratch. So, to make up for my funfetti failure, I went to allrecipes.com to try and find the most decadent chocolate frosting possible. I think I found it.

Chocolate Cream Frosting

2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup heavy cream, whipped


DIRECTIONS
Blend the melted chocolate and milk. Gradually mix in the water, vanilla, and pudding mix, and whisk until smooth. Fold in the heavy cream. Frost the cake immediately, and chill at least 30 minutes before serving.

OMG! It's seriously the easiest, bestest frosting in the world. It's very close to a mousse in both texture and flavor (I seriously could not keep my face out of the kitchenaid bowl, that's how delicious this frosting is). I was eating by the spoonful. It made way more than necessary to generously frost the cake.

Make it. You wont be sorry.