Cakes From the Heart

Saturday, July 4, 2009

NieNie's Heavenly Chocolate Cake

Ok, so a few weeks ago, this genius of a woman created the perfect chocolate cake for Stephanie Nielsen of the NieNie Dialogues. I don't even know her name, but her website is called Conversations with a Cupcake so what is not to love?! Anyway, I was reading the recipe and my mouth was watering. I haven't tried to make a completely from scratch cake for years because mine never turn out. (I make what I call hybrid cakes--part mix, part homemade by doing my own things to the mix) Anyway, I decided to give this cake a try for a cook out that I was invited to for the 4th of July. All I can say is WOW! Mine didn't even turn out perfect but it was good enough to need a gallon of milk to wash it down. It was so rich and chocolaty that you just couldn't resist another bite.

Here is my journey with this cake. For the full recipe and story you can go HERE.

Melting some of that yummy Belgium bittersweet chocolate that was left over from the Easter Egg adventure, with oil for for the cake batter.

This is what it looked like after it was all melted.

After adding the eggs, sugars, cocoa, flour, buttermilk and other ingredients, I put them in the oven in pans dusted with cocoa instead of flour.

They smelled heavenly, but for some reason they sunk in the middle. They seemed more like a brownie than cake. I don't know what went wrong. I've contacted the recipe maker to see if she can guess.

So, I decided to mix something up to fill the holes in with. I wanted to make a no bake cheesecake mixture out of cream cheese and whipping cream, but I didn't have any cream cheese. Are you surprised? I had already been to the store twice to get items for this cake and I was not going back again. So, after learning that none of my neighbors had cream cheese either, I mixed up some vanilla yogurt, whipped cream and crushed oreos. Hey, I figured it was worth a try and somehow it all worked in the end! The only problem with this was that it didn't get firm enough to spread the Mascarpone Mousse over it, and there was enough mousse that I could have just filled it with that, but I didn't know.

Then I melted more bittersweet chocolate to mix with mascarpone cheese for a mousse to put under the Bittercream frosting still to come. I needed to put this in the fridge to cool before adding the butter and sugar. I don't think I quite left it long enough, but it was still spreadable.

Finally, more melting chocolate for the frosting. Everything was so yummy that I could totally see someone dieing of chocolate overload! yeah, this cake does not fit in with the "healthy living" part of my blog, but sometimes you just have to enjoy life!

Well, this is the bottom of the cake, so maybe not the best photo, but can you smell the chocolate?

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Topsy Turvy Learning Curve

I am going to make my youngest sister's wedding cake this coming Halloween. She wants a Topsy Turvy Masquerade cake. Well, that is new for me so I decided to practice. I called some friends and asked them to join me for a little party, because we all know that I don't need to eat all that cake!

Some things worked and some didn't, so I think it was a successful try. I loved the bottom layer with the circles. It will be a double layer on a wedding cake of course, but I just did a single layer because I was so caked out. So, as a double layer it will look even better! I also really like the second layer. I now know some new tools that I need to acquire before October...a good diamond press and a fondant roller cutter. That will make it easier and help keep everything uniform.

The second layer also looks good with the trimming that I did, but the top layer looks awful! As I was going to sleep I had my stripe ephifany. Now I know how to make it work, but I was too tired to discover that trick while I was actually doing it. The trimming is also off. I think it needs to be a steeper cut. This layer does not look topsy turvy as much as tipsy. It looks like it is just sagging right off! Oh, well, like I said it was a good practice run and it will go better next time.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

A Weekend of Cake

It has been a busy weekend. My son Adam had a birthday and so did one of my neighbors. I made both cakes. It was good to be baking again. It has been a long time. There were some...complications...along the way. I don't know if it was my cake recipe or the 24 hours of rain that affected things, but it all came out well in the end.

Friday--Adam's cake (the race car) is finished. The duck's were made as well as the pond.

Look how cute the little duckie is!

By 9pm he had lost his head! Oh, no!

Saturday--Duckie #2 is on the pond and duckie #3 is cooling.

My hands just couldn't take a fourth star job, so the toddlers cake is just "fluffy"

Close up of Adam's car. I made chocolate butter-cream for the black. Starting with chocolate made it easier to get a true black for the tires.

One more cake adventures coming up on Monday.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Ice Cream Cake

Here is a post that I put on my Food Blog and finally decided that I should stick it on here as well. This cake was easy and other than baking time, it only took 15 minutes to decorate.

My daughter wanted an ice cream cake for her birthday so I let her make one. I've never tried to do this before, but I wanted to try a new pan that my friend bought for me. She got it at a yard sale for $0.10 and it didn't come with instructions, so we made it up. It looks like it is the Betty Crocker BakenFill , but one piece is missing. It worked pretty good, but the inside bit did not seem to cook very well. It was still gooey when I gave up and tossed it. :)

I like to make what I call "hybrid" cakes. They are not homemade exactly because one of the ingredients is a boxed cake mix, but I don't follow the directions on the box. Years ago I found a book at the library called The Cake Mix Doctor and I've never looked back. Here is what I put into this cake:

3 eggs
1 melted stick of butter
1 cup of milk
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 devil's food cake mix

Mix it all up, put it in the pan and bake at 325 or 350 until done (depends on pan sizes, you can look at the box for idea of times. I like to do it at 325. It takes a little longer, but it bakes more evenly without rising as much in the middle).

No matter what kind of cake you make, it needs homemade frosting. My friends make fun of me for saying that, but it is sooo true. Case and point--I've been making cake and frosting for years for my family; a few weeks ago I made a cake but bought frosting to save time. Everyone kept telling me that it just wasn't as good as it looked and they kept pointing fingers at the cake. Two days later I made the EXACT same cake, but took the time to make the home made frosting and they loved it! Proof that it does make a difference. Here are my two favorites:

Buttercream Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) real sweet cream butter (I use salted)
1 cup crisco shortening (not butter flavor)
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons flavoring (vanilla and almond are my favorites)
1--2lb bag of powdered sugar.

Mix it all up for stiff consistancy (roses), add 2 tablespoons water to thin it out to frost a cake.

Chocolate Glaze
1 cup sugar (normal granulated sugar, not powdered)
1/3 cup butter (I've used real and margarine and both work)
1/3 cup milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Place the sugar, butter and milk in a small sauce pan over med-low heat and cook, stirring constantly until the mixture boils. Boil for one minute, while stirring constantly. Remove the pan from heat and stir in chips. When the chips are melted and smooth you can pour it over the cake. It will be thin while hot but will firm up when it cools. Cool for 20 minutes before cutting the cake.