Late Post : Carrot Cupcakes, Halloween Festivites, and My Betrothed's Birthday

I have been MIA as of late, and it's because I've found myself busier than usual! Between Halloween, a hurricane, and cake orders at home, my blog has fallen by the wayside. :(  But no more!

The weekend before Halloween, I threw a Halloween Monster Mash/ Birthday Bash (for Roger's birthday). It was much fun, the food was amazing, and the costumes were awesome! I DIYed my devil costume, and managed to look quite snazzy-- except my corset was KILLING me. I think it was actually shifting my organs around! Eek! My Betrothed was an indie hipster (complete with finger mustache!) Thrifting for his clothes was a lot of hard work!

Anyhoo, for the party, I made carrot cupcakes, which were requested by my Betrothed, the birthday boy! I didn't really like how mixes turned out, so I went with a scratch carrot cake recipe. I obtained it from Taste of Home and the recipe can be found here. It came out tasty, but I wanted it more moist, so I may keep searching for other recipes or try to tweak this one in the future.

I topped my cupcakes with my cream cheese buttercream and Halloween sprinkles and voila!

The party-goers loved them-- and so did my Betrothed. :)

The next day, I made his birthday cake, which was The Eye of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. He is a huge Tolkien fan-- so much so, that I'm pretty sure he's already getting in line for The Hobbit in theaters next month. I made my new trusty chocolate cake recipe and filled it with Dr. Oetker chocolate mousse. It was quite delicious and very moist. It was a hit with Roger and his family. :)

The writing is "Happy Birthday, Roger" in Elvish, I think

Slay that Eye! grrr

Ah, yes, this is my 100th post!!! It seemed like just yesterday that I started rambling about delicious sweet goodies. 2 years and 100 posts later, I am very proud that I've actually kept this up! (she said after a long hiatus)

Once Upon A Time Cake!

Evening, all!

So I am a new fan of the ABC series Once Upon A Time. It has all of the classic fairy tale characters-- plus a twist. I love it! So when I was commissioned to make a cake with this theme, I was all for it!

 I started with my now- trusty chocolate cake recipe (the cake was to be a 6" cake, so I used the rest of the batter to make 24 yummy mini cupcakes). Then I filled the layers with my trusty cream cheese buttercream recipe. I planned on using an edible image, so I iced the cake in regular white buttercream.

After a bit of thought, I went with a few key symbols from the show: The evil queen's mirror, her bowl of apples, Snow White's poisoned apple (complete with a little bite), the Mad Hatter's hat, and the fairy tale book that started it all called Once Upon A Time. I added some black swirls on the side (which my friend pointed out looked like the mayor's office), and voila!

I must add that my scrollwork has greatly improved. I feel like I've added much Caking XP to my repertoire-- perhaps enough to gain a level. :)

Side note: I'm, super excited about the second season that premiered this past Sunday. Can't wait to see how the story unfolds!

Oh, and look out for some delicious fall flavors soon! ;)

Made - from - scratch Chocolate Cheetah Cake

Hello, all! I've been on a bit of a hiatus as of late, but hopefully, I'll have a few more projects trickling in as the season goes on (it is that pumpkin time of year, after all!)

Today is my good friend, Leigh Ann's birthday. We had a celebration for her over the past weekend, and I'm very proud to share this cake for two reasons: 1) I made a successful, super-moist chocolate cake from scratch and 2) I made my first cheetah print cake!

The recipe is from Taste of Home and can be found here. The recipe is as follows:

• 2 c AP Flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda (don't get those two mixed up, like I usually do!)
• 3/4 c baking cocoa
• 2 c sugar
• 1 c canola oil (not a healthy cake, but moist!)
• 1 c brewed coffee
• 1 c milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat oven to 325 and grease 2 -8" pans.
2) Sift together the dry ingredients into your mixer's bowl and turn on low for a few seconds to combine. In a separate bowl, mix together the coffee, milk, and oil.
3) Add the coffee mixture into the dry mixture and mix at medium for 1 minute. Then add eggs and vanilla. Beat 2 more minutes. **The batter will be super thin-- just trust it!**
4) Pour batter into two 8" pans (the batter fits perfectly into these-- no boil over!) and bake for 25-30 minutes.
5) Cool cakes for 10 minutes in pans, then turn them out onto a cooling rack.

See? Two perfectly moist cakes. Yum!

To decorate, I mixed some golden yellow vanilla buttercream and frosted the cake. Then I pinched together different sized blobs of black and brown fondants to create cheetah spots.

I made sure that the black fondant peeked out around the edge of each spot.

Then I repeated until the whole cake was covered in spots.

Leigh Ann is a huge fan of pink, so of course I had to add some pink elements. I decided to add pink roses at the top and some pink white chocolate numbers.

Here's a bit of detail on the top...

Leigh Ann liked the cake and she was totally taken by surprise because she didn't know about it! :) And I must say, this chocolate cake recipe is definitely a keeper!

Happy birthday, Leigh Ann!!

Cake Bombs-- on a Stick!

Good evening, all! From tomorrow on, I will be quite busy with graduation and Father's Day cakes both at home and at work. It gives me a lot to share with you, but it also keeps me from doing much else! So perhaps there will be some combo entries this week!

I'll share some Cake Bombs that I made this past weekend for an event. I haven't found a good name yet, so Cake Bombs on a Stick work for now! I made two different kinds-- Almond Caramel and Chocolate Chocolate. For both, I started with a quarter sheet each of almond cake and chocolate cake.

Then after the cakes cooled, I used my hands to break the cakes into separate big bowls. I mixed in a can of chocolate frosting into the chocolate cake and a can of caramel frosting into the almond cake. This process was very messy, so I wasn't able to grab my camera and capture it! I rolled up the balls into little tablespoons and placed them on parchment-lined baking sheets. The sticks went in, then they chilled in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, I melted some semi-sweet chocolate (in a very appropriate mug, I might add).

I microwaved for about 30 seconds at a time.

Then I started dipping! I ran the bottoms off into the cup because they were going to rest on their bottoms.

After the Bombs were all dipped, I sprinkled chocolate jimmies over the Chocolate Chocolate Bombs, then I placed all of them into the fridge to set (about 15 minutes).

I drizzled some extra caramel sauce over the Almond Caramel Bombs, but this is optional, as long as the two types are distinguishable somehow.

I just had to dip one of each and try them. Quite tasty!!

 The Bombs on a Stick were apparently a hit at the event! Perhaps, I'll be getting some calls soon!

Oh, and help me find a better name, people! :)

Oven-Baked Beignets with Cafe au Lait Dip

Good evenin', y'all! I wanted to share my not-so-N'awlin's style beignets with you just in time for Fat Tuesday! These aren't traditional beignets because these are oven-baked instead of deep-fried. (I wanted to find a healthier alternative). The recipe is from Good Housekeeping, and it is delicious!

Beignets:

• 1/4 c warm water (105-110 degrees)
• 1 packet quick rising yeast
•  1/4c sugar
• 3 c all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 Tbsp cold butter, cut up
• 3/4 c low-fat buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 c confectioner's sugar

Cafe au Lait Dip

• 1/3 c sugar
• 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp instant espresso powder
• 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp corn starch
• 2 c whole milk
• 1 1/2 oz unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

Place warm water in a small bowl. Sprinkle with yeast and 1 tsp sugar (take the teaspoon out of the 1/4 cup).

Stir and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and remaining sugar.

With a pastry blender (or two knives, since I didn't have a fancy-pants pastry blender), cut the cold butter into the flour mixture until the mixture looks like crumbs. With a fork, stir in the egg and the buttermilk into the yeast mixture and blend well.

Make a well in the flour mixture, pour the yeast mixture into the well, and mix until a soft dough forms.

On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough lightly a few times until the dough is smooth. Spray the same bowl with pan spray, place the dough in the bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Spray two large cookie sheets with pan spray. Punch down the dough. On a floured surface with a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough into a 9x9 square-ish shape.

With a chef knife dipped in flour, cut 36 squares (about 1 1/2" wide).

Transfer the beignets to the baking sheets, 1 1/2 inches apart. Spray sheets of plastic wrap and cover the beignets, sprayed side down. Let rise for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, time to make the dipping sauce! In a saucepan, whisk together the espresso powder, sugar, and corn starch.

The corn starch was kicking up some dust

Then whisk in the milk and heat over medium heat for 8 minutes or until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens.

Mmmm like coffee-flavored gravy

Meanwhile, I chopped up my chocolate...

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes, whisking. Then remove the pan from the heat and add the chopped chocolate. Whisk until blended.

This sauce thickened into an amazing coffee-chocolate pudding-y pot of magic. So good!
Preheat the oven to 400. Place the sheets in the oven (unwrapped, of course) and bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through.

While the beignets are hot, toss them in powdered sugar.

Serve these warm with the warm dip!

These turned out amazing! Unfortunately, my Betrothed has returned to school, so I am going to try to freeze them and the dip so he can enjoy them this weekend.

Have a safe and fun Mardi Gras, everyone! Laissez les bons temps roule!

White Chocolate Mud Cake with Raspberry Filling

Hello, all! Before I get on with the recipe, I must say that up until recently, I was an absolute white chocolate-hater. It kind of baffled me because it doesn't actually contain chocolate or cocoa solids. It's made of cocoa butter and milk solids. So in my mind, I did not consider it "real chocolate." It was an anomaly!

And I find that although it's questionable in flavor by itself, it actually tastes quite good once it's paired with other flavors. For instance, it works quite well with pumpkin and fall spices. But my favorite pairing is with raspberry. Somehow, raspberry and white chocolate combines in such a magical way, it has convinced me to actually give white chocolate a fair chance and bake with it!

Which brings me to finding a recipe for White Chocolate Mud Cake. I searched far and wide (well, I just Googled for a moment or two), and I found a recipe by Nigella Lawson. But in her English splendor, she uses metric measurements, which doesn't quite work for me, sooo I found the translated recipe at an awesome blog called Chocolate, Chocolate, and more. The recipe is as follows:

• 1 3/4 c white chocolate chips
• 14 Tbsp butter
• 1 c milk
• 3/4 c sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, slightly beaten
• 2/3 c self-rising flour
• 1 c all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 320. Grease 2 6" pans (the original recipe was for one 8" square pan) and line with parchment paper.

Place chocolate, butter, milk, and sugar in a saucepan over low heat (have patience; this part takes a while!)

Stir frequently until chocolate and butter are completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Allow this to cool for 15 minutes. Then add the vanilla and eggs.

Meanwhile, sift the flours together in a large mixing bowl.

Then pour in the chocolate mixture, 1 cup at a time, blending well after each addition.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes (My little cakes took 1 hour 10 minutes)

Remove from the oven and cover with a clean tea cloth or parchment paper, and allow the cakes to cool completely in the pans.

The recipe goes on to a white chocolate ganache but I decided to split my layers, fill them with raspberry, and ice the cake in vanilla buttercream.

Yum!

 Then, in order to satisfy my Betrothed, I poured a bit of "real chocolate" over the whole thing.

I wanted to experiment with the ombre style, so I decided to make a little heart that starts white and blends up into a deep red.

Then I added some light green leaves...

Then I added a bit of writing (which my Betrothed didn't think I could fit. Hmph!)

I think it turned out quite well! My Betrothed and I loved it! :)

I had him cut... I just couldn't!

What would have made this even tastier? Some vanilla bean ice cream (noted for next time).