Salted Caramel Soaked Chocolate Cake

It's probably not hard to tell, I love baking, especially with my friend Michelle. For girls' night a few weekends ago, she texted me a picture of this pin, asking if we should make it. Yeah, I am not really sure how I even could have said no to making this with her.

Photo Credit: Michelle Waters

If you didn't click the pin, I'll just tell you, it was a recipe from Martha Stewart. For whatever reason, Martha and I don't mesh well. I seem to find her recipes a little too elaborate and my attempt never turns out like her pictures, which actually is fine with me because I have loved what I end up creating.

Photo Credit: Michelle Waters

Since neither Michelle or I are opposed to devil's food cake mix, we didn't even attempt Martha's cake recipe and went the quicker route with a box mix. For the rest of the recipe, Michelle was in charge of the caramel part and I was responsible for the frosting. The only part of Martha's whole Salted Caramel 6 Layer Cake recipe (the original pin) we ended up making correctly - or so we think - was the frosting. And let me tell you, it is so insanely yummy. I will be using it for something else in the future, no doubt.


Darker Chocolate Frosting
Martha Stewart

1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp cocoa powder (Dutch-process recommended)
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp water, warm
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup powdered sugar
generous pinch coarse salt
1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped, melted and cooled

Whisk cocoa powder in water until dissolved. In a separate bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar and salt on medium until pale and fluffy. Slowly beat in melted chocolate and cocoa mixture until combined. This next part is important. Let stand for 30 minutes before using. It will not look very frosting like at this point and you must be patient to let it set. However, do not stick it in the refrigerator because it will solidify into the state of your original chocolate.

I learned this by putting leftover frosting in the fridge. Nope. Don't do it if you want to eat some more later. You do that too, right? Eat frosting plain, by itself? Whew. I knew we could be friends.

Photo Credit: Michelle Waters

At this point, Michelle was making the caramel and well, it didn't exactly get as thick as it looked in the picture and we figured it should have been by the time that had passed. Probably something to do with the temperature and needing a candy thermometer and whatnot. Just a little beyond us at midnight on girls' night, trying to assemble this cake, despite Michelle's awesome skills in caramel making. So here's what we did.

Yup, just poured our thinner caramel between each layer. Oh yeah. We also cut our layers down to 3 instead of 6. We ate some of the others because we were getting antsy to assemble and isn't that part of girls night? Eating layers of cake, prior to assembly? Well, it was for us.

The three cake layers pretty much became one and the frosting was just delightful to work with. It has really great consistency and spreads so easily. Plus, it looks so good just as is, in its rich, dark state.

Photo Credit: Michelle Waters

As I said, we were up past midnight making this and at one point I said, let's drizzle caramel on top and sprinkle a little salt. I said it, but definitely forgot to do it. So, just pretend the photos have a little caramel drizzle, sprinkled with sea salt.

Photo Credit: Michelle Waters

So, that is the story of how we arrived at the Salted Caramel Soaked Chocolate Cake. Very much like those "poke" cakes I've seen on pinterest, but I haven't tried making one of those. This however, I will make on purpose again. It is quite decadent. We even had it for breakfast the next morning because, well, that's how we roll.


This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page.

Purple Ombre Rosette Cake

I'm not sure if I mentioned this yet, but my friend Michelle and I are taking a calligraphy class. This is something we both have been talking about doing forever and is on my 25 Before 25 List. It is a 6 week class which means we get to spend 2 hours of class time together as well as a little time before and after as it works with my schedule. It has just been delightful. I can't wait until we live closer to one another.

The first day of calligraphy class at the local community college, we walked in and saw a familiar face, Megan, a girl who was in our cake decorating class (Wilton Decorating Basics) last summer at JoAnn's. Our instructor heard us talking about it and nonchalantly said she would love a cake with flowers for her birthday at the end of the month. Well, Michelle and I will jump at any chance to make a cake, so here's what we did.

Photo credit: Michelle Waters

It turned out so pretty, dontcha think?

Photo credit: Michelle Waters

Michelle made her vanilla speckled cake from scratch and I made the rosettes in Michelle's delicious buttercream frosting. Dye all of the frosting the lightest shade you desire. The filling and outside of the cake was frosted with the lightest shade of purple we used. Starting in the middle, working your way outwards with as many rows as you want. We did one rosette, circled once, before dying all of the batter the next shade, making one more circle. Repeat until you are finished. It is important not to try to split up the batter and dye different cups in case you need more because matching dyed frosting after the initial dye is very hard. Just dye it darker as you complete your ombre look.

Photo credit: Michelle Waters

I really love the purple. It's one of my favorite colors, but I'm sure pink or maybe even yellow would look wonderful, too!

Photo credit: Michelle Waters

I used a Wilton star tip to frost this cake. I can't recall if it was #18 or #20 but I wasn't as big as a 1M.

Photo credit: Michelle Waters

I really like how the rosettes hide some of the imperfections of my strokes because they are all so close together. Next time, I think I'll make sure the frosting is a little softer because the ends won't look so abrupt. I also plan on trying this out on a cake that is a little taller because then my bottom row of rosettes won't be so smashed.


This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page.

Rainbow Birthday Cake

My niece turned 4 years old a couple weeks ago and due to her Poppa Rod being out of town, her mom having her final finals of college and this and that, her birthday party was delayed a bit, but it was quite a fun time when it finally happened. Thankfully, 4 is still young enough to not be upset by such things. Technically, we celebrated her birthday for 10 days. Not a bad way to go.

Addison is slightly obsessed with My Little Pony. In fact, she has asked us numerous times on various occasions to call her Shutterfly Addison. When my Grauntie Les arrived from Boise and called her that, she was quite excited. (Yes, you read that right, Great + Auntie = Grauntie.)

Of course, I was so excited when it was decided that the birthday party theme would be My Little Pony because that meant I could make a rainbow cake like I've seen on pinterest! I topped it with Rainbow Dash and the white pony with purple hair...whichever celestial name that one is.

Blowing out her candles...

And ta-da!

Photo credit: Michelle Waters

I just LOVE how it looks on the inside! In case you were wondering, I used 3 boxes of white cake mix and colored the batter with food coloring, just like the multi-colored cupcakes. Baking the layers in a 9 inch pan, I used 1.5 cups batter. Next time, I will probably just use 1 cup of batter for each color because it was too tall to cover on my cake stand or in my cake transporter. If you do just 1 cup per layer, you can get away with 2 boxes of cake mix because I had plenty leftover...which I made into cake pops - I'll show ya later!

Then, I made the filling, which just happens to be the best in the world and my absolute favorite, vanilla cream. You have got to try it. Seriously. Finally, I covered the whole thing in buttercream frosting, based on Michelle's super yummy recipe.

This picture has not had any filter like the one above, which was filtered on Instagram.

Oh and we also had rainbow fruit kebobs. They turned out great and fit the rainbow theme nicely, while adding a bit of healthiness to the party.

I still can't believe she is 4. When we were driving away from the party and she was all buckled in her car seat, she said with a sigh, "I have everything I ever want." Word for word. I'm reminding her of that when she gets older. She is my favorite.


This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page. 

Olivia's [Hunger Games] Birthday Cake

I still can't believe baby Olivia, or as she is affectionaly called, Wia, Livia, Livvy, Liv, Livvy Loo, Esmooche Dos etc. is 1 year old!

Courtesy of Michelle Waters from The One With The Cupcakes

Celebrating a little after her official 1 year mark to accommodate out of town family and friends in a very hectic month of March, her party was incredible thanks to her super talented and creative momma, Michelle. If you need some party planning ideas or just want to swoon over some food and decor for your next occasion, go check out Olivia's handmade birthday hat (tulle and glitter involved) she wore for 1.8 seconds, stunning flowers and decor, scrumptious food, including coconut mango wontons, cranberry chicken salad fillos, strawberry pretzel salad dessert cups and finally my personal favorite, homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Courtesy of Michelle Waters from The One With The Cupcakes

Michelle asked me to help her with the cake. She baked the chocolate cake, then I made the frosting (based on her yummy buttercream recipe) and decorated it. Michelle had more or less based the whole party's theme (sea green/blues and gold) on the fact that she wanted to recreate the cake described in Mockingjay, the third book in Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Peeta made a cake for Annie and Finnick's wedding that was covered in blue and green waves to commemorate their home district, which is known for fishing. Even though there are some incredible fondant wave cakes, we knew we wanted to use buttercream because it tastes so much better. I used Wilton star tip #18 and switched off, swirling colors of frosting in an upwards motion, starting at the bottom of the cake. The only thing I would do differently would be to frost the whole thing in blue or white before starting.

Courtesy of Michelle Waters from The One With The Cupcakes

Here it is, finished with the glittery gold 1 on top of it.

Courtesy of Michelle Waters from The One With The Cupcakes

In addition to the two tiered cake, we had cupcakes with little gold sprinkles as well.

What do you think all you Hunger Games fans?


This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page.

Boston Cream Pie

It's definitely a cake, so why is it called a pie? The wikipedia page has short and sweet history of this dessert, which was created by a French-American chef in 1856 in the Parker House Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. It has always been one of my favorite cakes, but I had never made one myself....until I was inspired by my favorite foodie blogger Christy at The Girl Who Ate Everything.

She posted this recipe that I tweaked slightly, as seen below. While the cake part is simply a golden yellow box mix - which for most people is tasty enough! - the filling is sooooooooo yummy. If my jean size could afford it, I would eat it by the bowl-ful. I will certainly be finding more excuses to use it in other cakes and desserts from now on.

Cake
1 yellow cake mix (and ingredients called for on the package)

Filling

1/2 cup cold milk

1/2 cup cold heavy cream

1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding

1 1/2 cups Cool Whip or homemade whipped cream (1 cup heavy whipping cream, 1/3 cup powdered sugar)

Chocolate Glaze

1 square unsweetened baking chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon butter

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk or heavy whipping cream

Follow the instructions on the bake of your cake mix in order to make two 9 inch round cakes.

While the cakes are baking, go ahead and make your filling. You need to decide whether you are making homemade whipped cream or using Cool Whip.

If you want a little more of a homemade taste and have the time, whip up some whipped cream by beating 1 cup heavy whipping cream with 1/3 cup powdered sugar. Add a dash or two of vanilla, if desired. For tips on achieving just the right consistency, read this post.

If you opt for the quick, easy Cool Whip route, you are ready to make the pudding mixture.

Mix the instant pudding with the milk and heavy cream. Christy's recipe just calls for mixing the instant pudding with one cup of milk. We drink fat free milk and were about out, so I figured adding 1/2 cup of fat free milk and 1/2 cup heavy cream would work. It did. Exceptionally well. But if you want to save yourself a few calories, just add 1 cup milk to the instant pudding mix. Beat for 2 minutes Then, slowly fold the whipped cream or Cool Whip into the pudding mixture. Allow to stand for at least 5 minutes before spreading onto the cake.

The filling can be placed in the refrigerator if you won't be assembling the cake right away. (This is a very dangerous option, as you will be extremely tempted to devour the bowl of filling.) Just make sure to remove the bowl from the refrigerator a little ahead of time so it isn't too stiff to spread.

After cakes are done baking, make sure they are completely cooled on a wire rack before assembling. Leveling the round tops off of at least the bottom layer is idea. Place the bottom layer on whatever plate you plan to serve the cake on. Spread the thick filling onto one cake layer. Top with the second layer.

Now, you are ready to make your chocolate topping. Melt chocolate and butter in the microwave, stirring until completely combined. Mix in powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons milk, or in my case heavy whipping cream because we were out of milk at this point, until smooth. Immediately spread over the cake. Allow to drip down the sides. However, it probably won't if you use heavy cream like I did as it becomes a little thicker. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.

Next time, I'm going to make cute little Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes. Michelle made these and I've seen other versions on pinterest, but will definitely be using this recipe, adapted into cupcake form!


This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page.

Chocolate Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling

I completely spaced getting the January Crazy Cooking Challenge of chicken noodle soup, but I wasn't about to pass up February's. Why is that? Oh, only because it is chocolate cake! I just can't wait to see the delicious recipes linked up below!

I knew my favorite food blogger, The Girl Who Ate Everything wouldn't let me down when it came to needing a chocolate cake recipe for this challenge. She posted this recipe which was originally from Kevin and Amanda. I am sure I won't be the only one who posts this particular recipe. I saw it on many of blogs, but there is a reason for that. It is deeeeeelicious, moist and just the right density.

1 box devil’s food cake mix

1 small box Jello instant chocolate pudding mix (not the sugar or fat free kind)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips (I left these out just because I wasn't feeling them)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix everything together, except the chocolate chips. The batter will be thick like pudding. Stir chocolate chips in, if you wish. This will make at least 24 cupcakes. Bake for about 10 minutes longer than whatever the box indicates for whichever pan you use. Stick a toothpick in to check when it's done.

I wanted to have a fun filling so I made  this Browned Butter Cinnamon Cream Cheese frosting from myrecipes, originally from Southern Living. One review said it will taste good on anything, even gym socks. I agree. Well, okay, maybe not quite off gym socks, but really, it would complement pretty much any sort of cake, chocolate, vanilla, carrot, pumpkin, banana, red velvet (like the original recipe shows). I will definitely be using it more.

1/4 cup butter
8 oz cream cheese, softened (make sure you soften it or it will be very hard to mix)
16 oz (2 lbs) powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1 teaspoon vanilla

Brown butter in saucepan over medium heat, constantly stirring for 6-8 minutes. Keep a close eye on it and as soon as it starts to golden, remove from heat and pour into a bowl. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for about a hour, or until the butter begins to solidify. Beat the cream cheese and butter on medium speed until creamy. Slowly, add powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Stir in cinnamon and vanilla.

I scorched my first attempt at browning butter, even though I browned butter just right for these Brown Butter Dark Chocolate Chunk Toffee Cookies and the Brown Butter Frosting. Just be careful that as soon as the butter starts to brown, you remove it from the heat. There should be no flakes of brown. This means it is starting to burn.

This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page. Go check them out for more inspiration! And of course, check out all the links below for more chocolate cake recipes. Mine's number 35!

The Not So Pretty, Too Polka Dotty, Still Tasty Cake

I debated titling this Cake Flop #1, but that might be a little too dramatic, considering some of the catastrophic cake flops you see if you google those words. I feel though, it would also have been realistic in that, starting to number my cake flops almost inevitably means there will be more. I do appreciate when people blog about their blunders in creating, so I figured why not? I did mention in yesterday's post, the Death By Chocolate Cupcakes, I would show the 6 inch cake, so here we go.

Yes, my dots on the top might as well be the equivalent of too much glitter ruining any project. Or you know, the idea of less is more really should have been applied here. Once you start frosting, you can't really "undo" very easily. So what do you do, keep going, knowing it tastes good regardless since it wasn't for any particular special event. I did pull off this triple dot concept on the edges of this cake, it just doesn't quite go over well covering the entire top. Now I know.

On a positive note, I'm pleased with the color of the frosting. I used Wilton's Teal Icing Color. The filling inside that you can't see between the two layers of Death By Chocolate Cake, is chocolate buttercream. The white and turquoise buttercream frosting recipe is as follows:

2 cups solid vegetable shortening
2 lbs. powdered sugar (about 8 cups)
2 T meringue powder
1-2 t clear vanilla (or almond or a mix)
1/2 t salt, dissolved in flavoring
6-8 oz. heavy whipping cream

In a large bowl, cream shortening and flavoring until light and fluffy. Add meringue powder to sugar. On low speed, add sugar and cream, alternately in 3 additions. When all ingredients are blended, increase speed to high and beat for 3-4 minutes. It's ready when the consistency is like stiffly beaten whipped cream. Yield: 7 1/2 cups.

This icing is similar to bakery icing and is ideal for icing a cake or for borders. It is probably too thin for any other decorations.

Thanks for laughing along at my silly cake decorating blunder. More to come. I promise.

Tiny Watermelon Obsession

And by tiny, I mean ginormous. And instead of obsession, I'll opt for inspiration. For some reason, I can't get enough of the super cute watermelon creativity all over.

You may recall the post where I made these mini cupcakes. Check out this flickr pic of so many more insanely cute watermelon cupcakes. Oh, the possibilities!

I considered making cookies in the same fashion, but decided dying dough green and more frosting pink would probably be an overdose on my ingestion quota of the super healthy food color dyes. ;)

Instead, I made these watermelon cake pops. First cake pop try ever!

I saw awesome watermelon waffles from Kelli at Random Thoughts of a Supermom. And had to make my own (for dinner of course) while my friend Jo was visiting!

And for a little more inspiration from around the web...

Wilton never disappoints, with this "less frosting is more" version of a watermelon cake.

And, a twist on the idea of watermelon cupcakes, except that they are not cake, but actual watermelon in cupcake liners, courtesy of Alexis from Jaco'lyn Murphy.

Photo credit: Alexis at Jaco'lyn Murphy

Super adorable summer time treat: sherbert stuffed limes made by Katie at This Chick Cooks.

Photo credit: Kaite at This Chick Cooks

Oh geez. I'll stop soon. Promise. But first, check out this watermelon lemonade from one of my favorite bloggers, Alison at Oopsy Daisy! I wish I had super cute stemware to make it look awesomely watermelony. Mmmm!

Photo credit: Allison at Oopsey Daisy

 
If you simply can't wait to carve pumpkins, try this: watermelon carving! Rachel shows you how to step by step on her blog, Sun Scholars. I can only imagine what a hit this would be at your next potluck. Doesn't look too hard either.

Photo credit: Rachel at Sun Scholars

And stepping away from food, look at this adorable watermelon wreath from Mel at The Crafty Scientist! I absolutely love her blog. It is so helpful and super well organized. Plus, she started her blog about the same time I did and is a PhD student. She's quite amazing!

Photo credit: Mel at The Crafty Scientist

I can't believe how uhhhhdorable this watermelon skirt is! She posted a tutorial, too! Yippee! (The photo below has pins in the seeds still. It was the only one that didn't have her little girl in it. Go check it out to see the full skirt in action on her cute little model!)

Photo credit: Rachel at Sun Scholars

Too cute! Okay, I'll be done. Go ahead and share a link in a comment if you have watermelon inspiration to share! I want to see!

Scentsy Cake Party

Yes, you read that right. My awesome friend Michelle was gracious enough to host a Scentsy party for me. We thought what a great excuse the Scentsy party would be for a spread of homemade cakes. We're always looking for any excuse to bake. Here's her rundown of the day.

Michelle made a super yummy Lemon Blueberry Cake (from Sweetapolita) with Lemon Curd Filling and Lemon Frosting. I loved the addition of sliced lemons on the border of the cake. Yellow is such a happy color.

I was really rushed taking these pictures and they are all so dark. I'll link up Michelle's post when it happens, which will certainly have better photos to oogle over!

She also made a Pink Almond Cake, seen in the foreground of the photo below. Incredibly tasty.

And my favorite, as a finale, her fantastic creation of a Chocolate Mousse Cake. Yes, a chocolate cake, frosted and filled with chocolate mousse. It was soooooo tasty.

Guests arrived, smelled as many Scentsy scents as they could, sipped on pink lemonade and iced tea (thanks Allison!), chatted, decided to start a book club [hopefully more on that soon!] and after placing a few Scentsy orders, tried all three cakes. You really couldn't go wrong, except consequently regretting to wear stretchier pants, thanks to the cake trifecta. Talk about sensory overload. Guests even got to take home cake in adorable boxes, thanks again, to Allison. Let's do it again!

Special thanks to all the ladies who came! I really enjoyed your company!

Too Many Cakes, Still Not Enough Practice

I'm feeling fairly burnt out on cake baking and decorating after completing four weeks of Wilton's Decorating Basics Course. I do love it, but also need a bit of a break from making frosting and the entire storage/clean up process of making/decorating cakes at home. (Frosting bags really are the pits to clean out.) However, since I had frosting leftover from my final cake class last night, I figured I should not waste it and get a little more practice in. I also had left over batter from baking my final cake, so I baked a 6 inch cake with the what was left.

My sister, Hailey, said that the roses (particularly the color) remind her of the roses in Beauty and the Beast.

I used my cake leveler (that I love!) to split the little thing in half before building the dam around the edges with just a coupler in the icing bag, as shown below.

Since this cake was such a hit with its fresh blueberries in the vanilla pudding filling, I used blueberries again, but in a blueberry pudding. Pretty good, but I'm going to stick with vanilla pudding and whole fresh blueberries from now on.

Here's a tip: don't beat your cake mix for any longer than stated on the back of the box. Or else your cake will be hole-y. See.

Yesterday in my final class of Wilton's Decorating Basics Course, we learned how to make a Wilton Ribbon Rose. Pretty frustrating, so today I made 18 before getting 10 I liked being sick of not quite getting it.

They're not awful, I just wish the top edges weren't so frazzled looking. The two inside ribbon twirls don't look bad, but as the flower became bigger, I can't quite figure out what happens...If you know, give me some insight!

I had yellow and purple frosting left so I used a larger star tip to pipe a simple border. Then, using Wilton Tip #3 again, I made three dots around the side of the cake. It is by far my favorite part!

In addition to all the great techniques I learned, I also now know I wouldn't last a week in a high volume bakery. I am looking forward to getting back into sewing and hopefully some scrapbooking!

Happy Cake Day!

Wednesday night quickly became Cake Day at my friend Michelle's house, as our friends knew if they showed up, there would be cake to be had after class. So of course, for the fourth and final week of Wilton's Decorating Basics Course, my cake class finale payed tribute to that:

For our last class, we learned how to make a Wilton Ribbon Rose using Wilton Tip #12 for the base and Tip #104 for the petals. Talk about frustrating! It is definitely going to take some practice. Good thing I have plenty of frosting leftover that I should put to use.

Probably my best looking one.

We also learned how to pipe letters using Wilton Tip #3. Printing was much harder than cursive. I did the top of my cake in such as rush, as we were crunched for time when we finally got to decorate our cakes, which means I didn't practice. Oh well. Still tasted good!

I also missed the memo that we didn't need to tort both 8 inch cakes we baked, which means instead of matching everyone else's double layer with one filling, mine was a 4 layer cake! My first! Not too shabby, and the chocolate frosting filling was quite yummy and complementary to the yellow cake.

After frustration had mounted to the point of being done trying to make better roses, I rewarded myself with making my favorite flower as a border: rosettes. Unfortunately, I was not quite on top of my game in remembering that stiff consistency icing is used to make roses, so when I switched the tip in order to make the rosettes, the stiff consistency frosting didn't make the prettiest of rosettes. Medium consistency frosting would have made them smoother. Again, we were crunched for time.

I also (obviously) need to work on smoothing my sides better. In my defense, this cake did travel in rush hour traffic for 1.5 hours before decorating though, so I had to redo the sides when I finally arrived.

Well, that's that. The past four weeks have gone by so fast and I am so happy with everything I learned in Wilton's Decorating Basics Course!