100th post! And a very special cake for my favorite 3 year old

Happy 100th to me!  Phew, I'm beat...and a bit chubbier too (well to give myself some credit I've had two kids since I've started this blog so I'm claiming baby-weight...for now).  And after all this baking, man have I accumulated a serious collection of baking equipment...and useless sprinkles...and cake frosting tips that I have no idea do what....and pie weights that I've never used...oh and two rolling pins...you know in case you need one for each hand.

And the absolute best part about my 100th post is I get to share my son's 3rd birthday cake.  He's my champ, my beloved taste-tester, and the reason I get up every morning...at 6am that is...and well, sometimes 5am too. 

Now, if you're a follower of the blog, you may have noticed that I am NOT a 'let's make a cake shaped like a purse or Disney character' kind of girl.  No, I like my food to taste what it looks like.  Not that I'm knockin cake decorating, fondant design/sculpture, or sugar craft.  The artisans who can create cakes that look like shoes are no doubt in a league of their own, one that I could never be drafted into.  I'm an old school baker.  I like to swirl my frosting and end it there.  Just means you get to cut the cake that much faster.

However, with that said.  I still do have a 3 year old.  And although I'm pretty sure he'd be happy with any cake I'd put in front of him so long as it had a candle smushed in it, it was still his third birthday.  And since 3 is a pretty big deal, I figured he deserved a cake worthy of his awesomeness.

And since my cake decorating skills are not expert level 5...a dirt cake seemed do-able.  And the best part?  If you've got a corner that looks iffy, just plow it over, crumble some Oreo's on top and stick a truck next to it.  Boom, looks like you did that on purpose.  Yeh this was my kind of cake...one that is forgivable.

Here's what you'll need:

Two 9x13 chocolate cakes
Half a batch of Marshmallow Butter Cream Frosting
Chocolate Buttercream
Oreo crumbles (I used about 10-12 cookies)
Chocolate covered nuts/fruit (that look like boulders/rocks)
3-5 toy trucks
Fondant (if you want to add your child's name) including yellow and black gel food coloring

Getting Started:

First, bake and cool both of your cakes.  These can be made a couple of days ahead of time.  Simply cool the cake, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and tin foil and refrigerate until ready to assemble.  Actually, I would recommend refrigerating the cakes even if baking them the same day you are planning to assemble the cake.  When chilled, they're easier to frost.

Assembly:

As you can see in the photo below I have one entire 9x13 cake in the background.  I cut up the second cake to make the ramps and raised levels.

I suggest you stack your upper layer and upper ramp prior to frosting the middle layer (the yellow buttercream) so you can eyeball it's location.  I had a photo of this but it was terribly blurry...sorry.  Once you have the second layer and upper ramp in its temporary position, frost around the front of it with the chocolate buttercream (as shown below). 

Remove the upper layer and upper ramp and frost the section behind the chocolate frosting you just placed with the yellow buttercream. 

 

Now you can place the upper layer and Ramp 2 back in it's place permanently:

 

Crumb coat this beast like there is no tomorrow.  Black Joe Cake is super soft and moist, and crumbs like crazy.  It's okay, the crumbs will show in the crumb layer, but that is the point!  Now refrigerate until the crumb layer is slightly firm, about 30 minutes.

 

Cover entire cake with another layer of frosting.  Not going to lie, I swirled and swirled and swirled some more.  All those corners can drive you mad.  I remember once watching Martha Stewart frost a cake.  You know she's Ultimate Mrs. Perfection, right?  She kept swirling and spinning the cake around and finally said 'at some point you must just stop.' And she's right.  It's almost impossible to perfect this with buttercream.  Just try to get it as smooth and even as possible.  If you have a corner you're just not happy with, don't worry.  Look what happens next.....

 

Oreo crumbs fix everything!  I found the best way to pull off the corners to make them look 'under construction' was to take a fork and gently pull at the cake.  Remove the cake you scrapped and cover with Oreo crumbles.  You can't screw this part up.  The messier it gets, the more realistic it looks.  And what kid doesn't want a mess for his birthday?

 

I also sprinkled green dusting sugar around the edges to have the appearance of grass.  If I were to do this again, I might instead dye flaked coconut green for a more realistic look. 

 

Don't forget to fill your little dump trucks with candy that look like 'boulders'.  We chopped some into pieces to look even more messy.  Did I mention my husband helped me with the whole cake?  Besides the engineering (ramps) he was in charge of making our sons name out of the fondant including coloring it with the yellow and black food coloring gel, rolling/cutting out the circles and letters.  He was in man heaven.

 

 

 

Recipes

 

Black Joe Cake (you will need two for the construction cake; the recipe below is for one 9 x 13 cake)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream (remove from fridge about 20 minutes prior to baking)

1/2 cup canola oil

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup strong, brewed coffee (cooled to room temperature

 

Directions:

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease and flour a 9x13 cake pan.  Set aside.

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, and salt.  Whisk to combine.

In the bowl of a stand up mixer (or using a hand mixer) combine the sour cream, oil, eggs, vanilla, and coffee.  Beat on medium until well combined. 

Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 3 additions, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes.  Remove from oven and place pan on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes.  Run a butter knife around the edges of the cake and place plate on top of pan and invert.  The cake SHOULD come out...if it doesn't slightly tap on the bottom of the pan with your knuckles while inverted.  If it still doesn't come out, invert back and run a knife around the edges again, making sure all sides are loose.

Once removed from pan, allow cake to cool completely on a wire rack.  Wrap first with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil and refrigerate until ready to assemble.

 

 

 

Marshmallow Buttercream (you will only need about half to 3/4 of this frosting for the Construction Cake.  The remainder can be refrigerated for up to a week, or frozen for 2 months)

 

Ingredients:

8 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature

1 (7 ounce) jar Marshmallow Creme

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Directions:

 

Cream butter until it's light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.  Add the marshmallow creme and beat until well combined, about 2 minutes.  Add powdered sugar and beat for another 2 minutes.  Add vanilla extract and beat until combined.

 

 

 

Chocolate Buttercream

 

Ingredients:

1 pound unsalted butter, room temperature

3 tablespoons milk

12 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled to lukewarm

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

 

Directions:

 

In the bowl of a stand up mixer (or hand mixer using a large bowl) beat the butter until creamy, about 3 minutes.  Add the milk and carefully beat until smooth.  Add the melted chocolate and beat well, about 2 minutes.  Add the vanilla and beat for 3 minutes.  Gradually add the sugar and beat on low until creamy.

 

 

 

cake concept from virgie and hats

Marshmallow Buttercream courtesy of Baked Bree

Chocolate Buttercream courtesy of More from Magnolia: Recipes from the World-Famous bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen

Birthday Cake & White Chocolate Sprinkle Cookies

I decided I better jump on the sprinkle-mobbed-birthday-cake bandwagon before it leaves town and a new trend creeps up on our thighs.  Anyway, I would hardly hope that sprinkles are a mere trend.  Any treat with sprinkles screams par-tay.  I bet I could shake some rainbow sprinkles on canned sardines and my kid would eat them.  They just make everything happy.  And along with sprinkles, what is this new found obsession with birthday cake flavor?  It's great, don't get me wrong (I just had a birthday cake blizzard from DQ, hello where have you been all my life) but hasn't this has been around for ages?!

As a kid, nothing made me happier in school than when someones mom made funfetti cupcakes for their birthday.  Forget the cake, all that mattered was the canned frosting with rainbow sprinkles mixed in.  Diabetic bliss that stuff is.

One piece of advice when it comes to baking and sprinkles: less is NEVER more.  Eva.  That's not my gluttonous side speaking either.  With these cookies I used 3/4 of a cup of sprinkles, and they could have easily handled 1 cup total.  There is nothing worse that a sparse-sprinkle-cookie.  I mean they are pretty affordable to begin with. So go big and heavy handed. 

Lastly, if you are looking for the ultimate uber sprinkle punch, I'd say roll these cookies in sprinkles (additional) before baking.  I wish I would have done that to give these a bit more sparkle.  It's like going to all the trouble to apply your makeup and then not wearing lipstick.    These were so close to perfection but I think an additional douse of rainbow would have given them one last pow of wow.

Birthday Cake & White Chocolate Sprinkle Cookies
makes about 5 dozen
printable version

Ingredients:

1 (15.25 ounce) box White Cake mix

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

zest of one lemon

1 cup rainbow sprinkles

1 cup white chocolate chips

additional rainbow sprinkles to roll cookies in (optional)

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

 

In a large bowl add the cake mix, flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine.

 

In a medium sized bowl combine the eggs, oil, vanilla, and lemon zest. Mix well.

 

Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well to combine. The batter will seem difficult to combine but keep mixing using a rubber spatula and it will get there. It will feel rather glutenous.

 

Mix in the white chocolate chips and sprinkles.

 

Roll into 1.5 inch balls. If desired, roll balls in additional rainbow sprinkles, coating evenly. Place balls on an ungreased cookies sheet two inches apart and bake for 10 minutes.

 

Remove from oven and allow to cool on the pan for 5 minutes. Using a spatula, remove cookies from pan and allow to finish cooling on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

 

Enjoy!

Cakey Snickerdoodles

 

For all the baking I've done over the years this is the first time I've made Snickerdoodles.   I think the whole sugar-cinnamon combo threw me off initially.  I mean, it's so...vanilla (my way of describing something somewhat dull in the flavor department, lackluster, blah, been there, done that).  In a world of salted caramel, espresso buttercream, trifles-galore, why spend your energy on baking something who's main ingredients are cinnamon and sugar.  Snore City....at least this is what I thought before.  And now, I'm a born-again sugar/cinna snob. These are spectacular.  I simply cannot say that word without thinking of this scene from Seinfeld, am I right?

I'm usually not a simplicity-is-key kind of girl when it comes to my desserts, but this one really takes the cake.  Or, the cookie for that matter.  Typically Snickerdoodles are slightly dense and chewy, but this version is soft and pillowy.  They've got a cake-like texture inside and a sugary-crisp outside, truly a winner all around.  And how easy are they?  Oh let me tell ya you can throw these together in a snap.  I had them prepared AND baked in just over an hour. 

Cakey Snickerdoodles
makes about 6 dozen
printable version

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup butter-flavored Crisco

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons colored sugar (can be divided equally if you want two different colors)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Combine1 1⁄2 cups sugar, Crisco, eggs, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended.

Whisk the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in medium bowl. Add gradually to shortening mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.

Combine the 3 tablespoons granulated sugar with the 3 tablespoons colored sugar and mix until well combined (I used two colors and simply halved the quantities). Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake 7 to 8 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheets. Place on cooling racks to cool completely.

 

Recipe courtesy of Crisco

White Chocolate & Lemon Layer Cake with Raspberry Buttercream

 

 

Meet the best (non-chocolate) cake I've ever made.  That's a quite a statement, I know but seriously, this cake went way beyond my expectations.  The melted white chocolate added to the batter gave it a super moist and slightly dense texture, almost similar to pound cake.  I don't know about you but when it comes to cakes, I prefer them on the heavier side.  Lighter, airy cakes usually remind me of ones that come from a box.  And even worse I find they are less filling meaning I always eat more.  Sneaky cake calories trying to front.

 

 

And ohh that raspberry buttercream...it's sooo ridiculously intense.  I cooked down a bag of frozen berries and brown sugar until it reduced and became thick and syrupy, thus condensing all that tart, sweet flavor which I then added to a standard buttercream.  It's a little extra work but I'm telling you the added effort truly pays off.  And honestly no need to spend a fortune on fresh raspberries for this frosting.  Frozen is totally fine.  Frozen fruits and vegetables are almost always frozen at their peak of freshness, and besides the berries will be cooked down anyway so it won't make a difference.

 

Ok yes the color does scream hearts and butterflies and won't you be my Valentine...I was tempted to add some purple food coloring to deepen the tint, but the frosting was just so lovely and delicious, what if I added too much and it turned grey or egglplanty-brown?  Out of fear of screwing with the color and having to make a second batch (with two kids under the age of 3 in the house my baking happy-time is limited to after their bedtime aka my Zombie hour), so au natural it stayed.

 

White Chocolate & Lemon Layer Cake with Raspberry Buttercream

printable version

makes one 2 layer 8-inch cake

 

Ingredients

 

For the Cake:

8 ounces white chocolate, chopped

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

10 (5 ounces) tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/3 cups sugar

4 large eggs, room temperature

Zest of one large lemon

2-3 teaspoons lemon extract (depending on the strength of your extract, mine was pretty weak I probably could have used 4)

1 1/4 cups whole milk

 

For the Buttercream:

One 400 gram bag frozen raspberries

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter

4 cups powdered sugar

 

Directions

 

To prepare the cake, preheat oven to 350F.   Grease two 8-inch round cake pans.  I use a sandwich baggie as a glove to make this step easy. 



 

 

Cut out two 8-inch circles made from baking paper and line bottoms of pan; grease paper.  Add about a tablespoon of flour to each pan and shake thoroughly to coat. Knock out excess and set aside.

 

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl.

 

Place chocolate in a heat safe bowl and microwave for one minute.  

 

Remove from oven and stir. Heat again for 30 seconds.

 

Stir chocolate until no lumps remain.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.  Scrape down sides of the bowl.

 

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

 

Add lemon zest and lemon extract and mix to combine.

 

 Alternatively add the dry ingredients with milk in 3 additions:

 

*here's a little tip I like to share often.  Cover the top of your mixer with a kitchen towel to stop the flour from flying everywhere.  A clean kitchen is a sober mother.

 

Add the warm white chocolate and mix until just combined. 

 

 

Equally divide the batter into the two prepared pans.  You can see here I've used Wilton's Bake Even Strips.  These help to keep the cake layers flat (meaning less waste having to cut the top even prior to assembly) creating a straight, non-bulgy cake.

 

 

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean.  Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes on a wire rack.  Remove cakes from pan and discard baking paper.  Allow cakes to cool completely on wire racks.

 

To prepare the frosting, cook the frozen berries and brown sugar over medium heat.

 

Bring to a gentle simmer, reduce heat and cook for 10 minutes until the mixture has reduced and become thick and syrupy, stirring often.

 

Place mixture over a fine strainer to remove seeds (sorry the picture I had of this was very blurry). Allow to cool to room temperature.

 

 Place butter in the bowl of a mixer. Beat for about one minute.

 

Sift in powdered sugar one cup at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

 

*It's very important to sift the powdered sugar otherwise you will end up with lump like these in your frosting.

 

Add raspberry mixture and beat until combined.

 

 

To assemble the cake, place a cake board on top of your cake platter (this makes transferring/storing the cake easier). Add one cake layer on top of the board. If the top of your cake isn't level (or has domed), use a bread knife to even it out. I used Wilton's Cake Leveler because I like unnecessary gadgets hoarding up my kitchen. But honestly it's a great tool, always guarantees a level top. I've tried leveling with a knife and they still come out crooked. Just depends on how steady your hand is.

 

Add about 1 cup of frosting to the first layer and spread evenly with an offset spatula. 

 

Top with second layer of trimmed cake and continue to frost the top and sides using a metal spatula to evenly distribute the frosting.

 

Keep cake refrigerated but it is best served at room temperature to allow the buttercream to soften.

 

Enjoy!

 

cake recipe adapted from Epicurious