Homemade White Cake with Fluffy Frosting

We had another Birthday in our home last week. She turned 7! She requested a gumball cake so I thought a white cake with fluffy frosting (remember these cones?) would be great. The frosting is similar to marshmallow taste. I made these Valentine cupcakes using a white cake batter so I went with it again. This time I made two 8" rounds, the sort of puffed up at the end of baking, but once you cool them on the rack (and then upside down) they flatten out.
Let me be honest here, I found this cake to be a little on the dry side, even baking it at 25 minutes it was not done so another 5 it went. I'll probably keep looking for a homemade white cake recipe. The frosting recipe is best eaten the same day, since it kind of melts away after time.

Heavenly White Cake
adapted from Allrecipes

2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups milk (I used 1 C milk + 1/2 C heavy cream)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Measure sifted flour, baking powder, and salt; sift together three times.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add 1/2 cup sugar gradually, and continue beating only until meringue will hold up in soft peaks. Remove from mixer bowl, transfer to another bowl and set aside.
3.Cream butter in mixer. Gradually add remaining 1 cup sugar, and cream together until light and fluffy. Add sifted ingredients alternately with milk a small amount at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Add meringue, and fold thoroughly and gently into batter. Pour into prepared greased pans. (I made two 8" rounds)
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes. Cool cake in pan for 7 minutes, then remove from pan and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Fluffy Frosting
as seen at Allrecipes

1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

food coloring

1. In a saucepan, stir together the sugar, water and cream of tartar. Cook over medium-high heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is bubbly.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whip the egg whites and vanilla to soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar mixture and food coloring while whipping constantly until stiff peaks form, about 7 to 10 minutes. Frost the cake of your choice.

White cake & fluffy frosting with TWD chocolate ice cream!

enjoy,

Dark Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting

Our little boy just turned 3 and this is the cake I made for him. I knew I wanted to put Dinosaurs on top, but when I realized the ones I found would be too big for a 9" round cake, I had to rethink a little. I found 2 chocolate cake recipes, the other one only made 2 rounds, this recipe here makes 3 rounds (in the original recipe).

Well I wanted a good thick layer cake large enough for the Dinos, so I used a 9x13 pan, it really makes a full pan worth too! I also doubled the chocolate frosting recipe (4 C) so I would have plenty to pipe and frost with but ran out anyways, so I made some white buttercream frosting so I could color it also.

Going back to my bakery days in decorating style, I used crushed graham crackers for the dirt/sand and food colored writing gel for the water. Since I couldn't find trees that would look decent with the size of the Dinos (I didn't plan on using big ones), I found this stem of leaves in the faux floral dept. (Better Homes & Gardens) that would work.

This cake was great! It's a very rich moist chocolate cake, I think I'll keep this recipe!

click photo collage to see better

Dark Chocolate Cake
adapted from allrecipes

2 cups boiling water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
See more at "Mommy? I'm Hungry!" http://ldylvbgr.blogspot.com/
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F for darker pan (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13x2 pan, lined with parchment (for easy removal).
In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 58 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean), may have to cover with parchment to prevent darkening.
Allow to cool 10 minutes in pan, then flip cake out onto a cooling rack and let cool completely.
*TIP: Can freeze cake before using, makes slicing into layers easier (let thaw out for 20 minutes or so) and much easier to frost.

"Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting
found here

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. Allow to cool to thicken.
About 2 cups frosting. (I doubled this and it gave me enough to frost and fill a 9x13 size cake)

Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Recipe by Gale Gand

3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream (I used milk)
*food coloring if desired

In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency. Add food coloring if desired.

enjoy,

Tuesdays with Dorie: Swedish Visiting Cake with Orange

This week, Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs selected Swedish Visiting Cake for her TWD week. I'll be honest here, I saw this while flipping through recipes for my TWD pick, and thought how simple and non exciting it was, reminded me of a coffee cake. BUT after reading the P&Qs of it, I was very wrong! It was well received by other TWDers and being such a simple recipe (ingredients you probably already have!) how could I say no?



So for my cake I used orange zest, fresh from our tree, and upped the vanilla extract leaving out the almond extract. I baked it in my 9" Pampered Chef Deep Dish Pie Stoneware (that I found NEW at the swap meet for $3!).



It needed a longer bake time than suggested since my dish is a thick ceramic. Once it was done, it reminded me of a sugar cookie! Mr. commented on liking the crust, I loved the chewiness of the cake as well as the flavor. We all loved this so much it was gone fast! The orange was wonderful in it. I considered making another just so we can have another piece. This goes my Fave Dorie list!

Head over to Nancy's blog where you can get the recipe yourself, and see how wonderful this cake is!



enjoy,

Tuesdays with Dorie: Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake

Erin of When in Doubt…Leave it at 350 chose Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake for this week's TWD recipe. I ran out of butter so after a run to the store I had to hurry and make this today before I lost my lighting for photos.
Because this is a coffee dessert, I chose to use decaf coffee in mine (but the espresso probably canceled that out, lol), so hopefully my kids won't get a jolt of caffeine.

I baked mine for 55 minutes and it was done. I'm surprised my marbling effect came out decent, I thought for sure I messed it up trying ti hurry things along. I just stirred it with a knife.



I made Dorie's Chocolate Ganache Glaze (pg. 455) and poured it over the bundt then garnished with candied nuts.
I hurried and tasted a bite while it was still warm and all I could think of was warm chocolate pancakes! haha. We'll eat some in a bit, it'll be more room temp then.

I also made candied walnuts to garnish with. Dorie's recipe on pg. 469 is super easy! I also added a splash of vanilla to mine at the end.



Head over to Erin's blog for the recipe! *Update: we're eating some now... 6 yr old does not like it, she can taste the coffee (I think she'd rather just eat ice cream for dessert though, heehee). I can't though. My 12 yr old does not care for it either, so I guess this is more of an adult cake. I thought the coffee flavor would be more powerful. I do like it though. I'm not a walnut fan, but I will eat them toasted and chopped up in baked things, so this is perfect. Also, my swirls look better sliced at room temp.

enjoy,

Tuesdays with Dorie: Coconut Tea Cake

Carmen of Carmen Cooks picked Coconut Tea Cake for her TWD week. This almost didn't happen for me, we had family stay the weekend and it's the start of race season where both our girls race their Mini Dwarf & Jr. Sprint cars (It's a daddy doing). Well, I made it happen at the very last minute, that's why this is an afternoon post.


This recipe has coconut milk and coconut in it and smells wonderful baking! I could not wait, I sliced us up a slice of warm coconut tea cake and it was just wonderful! I baked mine at 345' (dark bundt pan) for only 50 minutes and it was perfect to me.
Other TWDers said theirs was dry and didn't taste much of the coconut flavor. Sure the shredded coconut you add to the batter pretty much disappears once baked, but I thought it had a nice flavor. (I also omitted the rum.)

I would say this is safe for non coconut lovers, there's nothing textural about it and the flavor is mild.



I also made a simple icing with coconut milk, powdered sugar and vanilla and sprinkled some coconut on top of the icing. Man was that stuff good! It sure boosted the coconut flavor.


I think this may go on the 'Dorie's make again list'! This would be perfect to have for Easter this weekend, even cuter with pastel colored coconut on top! Head over to Carmen's blog for the recipe.




enjoy,

Recap: Christmas Time Goodies!

Since I am still without my computer (all my stuff is on that, and it's not online so I can't get to it from the laptop) ...I will repost a Holiday post to get you in the Christmas spirit.

These are some goodies I made last year, and will probably make again with maybe some new recipes. Click the titles below to see the recipes!

Candy Cane Cookies



Mexican Wedding Cookies



Candy Cane Chocolate Crackle Cookies



Gingerbread Men Cookies



Cherry Blinks



Gingerbread Cake


enjoy,

A Rainbow Birthday Cake

From Mommy I'm Hungry

click photos for full view

Earlier this month we celebrated a Birthday in our family. Brooke from Conversations With A Cupcake blogged about her colorful fruity cake, and I knew I had to make one for my little girl who's now 6! How fun is this cake?

This was a HUGE hit! She didn't know about it being rainbow until I cut into it! I shared a preview of this on Facebook, and everyone loved it. It was the tallest cake I have ever made! So tall I had to remove shelves in my fridge! Even though the layers aren't a full layer size, the cake still equals out to being 4 regular layers tall, each cut in half, get it?
Each layer has it's own wonderful fruity flavor! *I used a 16 oz bag of frozen berry medley which had the berries I needed.
I used a double batch of frosting, and it wasn't enough. As you can see it's pretty much plain, I didn't have enough for piping and such. So make a triple batch if you want to decorate all out.

*Here's a cake support tip: stick a cake dowel rod in the middle of the whole cake to keep it in place!

(I just noticed, you can see how tall it is, sitting next to a gallon of milk in the fridge!)

From Mommy I'm Hungry

Double batch of boxed white cake mix -2 boxes (or homemade batches if you prefer minus the egg, water, oil below)
6 eggs
1 c. water
2/3 c. vegetable oil
Zest of 1 orange + 2 T. juice
Zest of 1 lemon + 2 T. juice
Zest of 1 lime + 2 T. juice
1/2 c. fresh or frozen raspberries, mashed
1/2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries, mashed
1/2 c. fresh or frozen blackberries, mashed
Wilton's gel icing colors in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple

6 bowls
6 disposable round 8" foil cake pans (square pans would be fun too, check the $1 store!)

Make the batter for the cake as directed using the eggs, water and oil. Scoop 1 Cup of cake batter in each of the 6 bowls.

In the first bowl, mix raspberries and 1/4 tsp. red coloring in the batter.
In the second bowl, mix orange zest and juice, and 1/2 tsp. orange coloring.
In the third bowl, mix lemon zest and juice and 1/4 tsp. yellow coloring.
In the fourth bowl, mix lime zest and juice and 1/4 tsp. green coloring.
In the fifth bowl, mix blueberries and 1/4 tsp. blue coloring.
In the sixth bowl, mix blackberries and 1/4 tsp. purple coloring.

Prepare six 8 inch cake pans by greasing and flouring each generously. Using a spatula, spoon and spread each color of batter into its own cake pan. Bake in an oven, preheated to 350 degrees for 17-20 minutes, or until tops spring back when touched lightly. Allow to cool completely. Frost.


Cream Cheese Icing (For this cake, I doubled it -to the right)
1/2 c. butter (softened) -1C.
8 oz. pkg cream cheese (softened) -16 oz.
4 c. (1 lb) confectioner's sugar -8 C. (2 lb)
1 tsp Vanilla or lemon extract

Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and extract. Beat on high speed until smooth, light and fluffy. Frost cake.

From Mommy I'm Hungry

I am sharing a piece with Tina @



enjoy,

Chocolate Oreo Cake

When I saw this cake posted, I knew I wanted to make it for Father's Day. It was a huge hit! You have to make this for your next big event!
Yes it's taken me that long to blog about it, but I was remembering it today and hurried to post about it.

Chocolate Oreo Cake found here

For cake:
2 c. sugar
1-3/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. Hershey's Cocoa
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 c. milk
1/2 c. vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c. boiling water
10-15 oreos twisted to separate cookies and reveal cream center
15 oreos, chopped directly in half through cookie

For icing:
1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted
2/3 c. Hershey's Cocoa
3 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

For filling:
1/3 c. whipping cream
2 tsp powdered sugar
small dash vanilla extract
1/8 c. oreo cookie crumbs, made from reserved oreo sides

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two 9-inch round baking pans, lining with parchment. -On one layer of cake, place cookie halves that have been separated into the bottom of one pan, cream side up. Repeat for second layer.
-Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
-Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes.
-Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).
-Pour batter very carefully into prepared pans.
-Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
-Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans and place onto wire racks.
-Remove parchment and cool completely.

-Meanwhile, make frosting:
-Stir melted butter into cocoa.
-Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.
-Add small amount additional milk, if needed. -Stir in vanilla. (About 2 cups frosting.)

-Meanwhile, make filling:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff.
-Gently fold in the cookie crumbs.
-Scoop the mixture into a piping bag (or gallon sized ziploc bag).
-When cake is completely cooled, make icing dam around the top edge of the layer of cake that has oreos baked into it.
-Fill icing dam with a layer of cream filling.
-Place other cake layer on top, and frost with chocolate frosting.
-Place oreo halves around bottom edge and top of cake.
-Serve or store in refrigerator.






saving a piece for:



enjoy,

Tuesdays with Dorie: Classic Banana Bundt Cake

Mary of The Food Librarian chose Classic Banana Bundt Cake for this weeks TWD. This was really good! It's a nice simple recipe and what I liked best about it, was there were no spices, nuts or raisins in it! I like my quick breads like that. This did fill my bundt pan, causing it to overflow in the oven (so you might want to either put a sheet pan under it, or use 2 loaf pans). I used 1 1/2 Cups of mashed bananas which was 4 bananas, I think? It had a lot of banana flavor, but I would've used 2 Cups if I had more. I also used 3/4 Cup plain yogurt and 1/4 Cup sour cream. During the last half hour of baking, I covered it with parchment, because I don't like my baked good to get too dark.



As Dorie suggested, it really is even better and even more moist the next day. The kids ate it right up! I served it plain, but the lemony glaze sounds good too, as Dorie mentioned.

Please stop by The Food Librarian and grab the recipe and make some of this! It's a bread to snack on any time of day!

*there are no photos of the whole bundt, it was that good that I had to hurry and get some photos of the last 1/3 of the bundt before it was gone.



enjoy,

I'm a Finalist! Please Vote For Me!

Whoo hoo!!!
Vote Now! Who Makes the Best Summer Dessert? Well I do, right? ;) My Recipes is having a contest, and I have been chosen as a Finalist with my Grandmother's Angel Food Cake recipe. Remember this?

So please please please, loyal "Mommy? I'm Hungry!" readers and fans, Do I get your vote? Vote now until Thursday July 23rd!

thanks for voting!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Perfect Party Cake

Carol of mix, mix… stir, stir wanted Perfect Party Cake this week. This is one recipe that always caught my eye when flipping through Dorie's book. I was so excited to get to make it! You can find the recipe on Carol's blog.

I went with the flavors Dorie wrote, lemon, raspberry and coconut shavings. This took a little bit of time to prepare, you had to mix for so many minutes (and please note, it does not say beat at full speed for 3 minutes! ha! I read it wrong and had my mixer almost dancing away, when I realized it said Medium speed for a full 3 minutes!) It was ok, I caught it after 1 minute. My cake baked beautifully for 30 minutes. When done it was only 1" tall though.

Next came the meringue butter cream frosting. 3 sticks of butter!! This took some cooking time, and about 10 minutes mixing time also. Well I am embarrassed to admit this, but maybe someone can learn from my mishap. My mixer dripped some greasy substance into the frosting while mixing! I got what I could out, and was so worried about eating it. I tasted it and all I could taste was the lemon. I decided to use a whipped cream for the filling as Dorie suggested, and the buttercream for the outside layers. Plus that way I would have plenty to frost with. Well I had lots leftover. I added some shaved coconut to finish it off.

Because I used whipped cream, I had to store it in the fridge. When it came time to slice it, the frosting had hardened and pretty much peeled right off the cake. Well I guess that was some relief to my worry of eating it. I did taste it, and it was velvety smooth, like a stick of butter! Was not my Fave. Then I wasn't crazy about the jam in it. The cake part was excellent though! Plus, Mr. ate some, and he's not a coconut fan. It went over well with them, just not me. I was so bummed I ended up not liking it all together. I would love to try the cake part another time with some fresh fruit and a light frosting perhaps.

Do you like our new TWD logos? Pretty spiffy huh!




enjoy,