My first video blog

This was my first ever video blog.  I discussed what I have done with this blog during the last four months, including my recipes, tips and tricks for fondant, and other blog sites that I follow.  I also discussed a little bit about my twitter page, followers and those I follow.  Next, I did a little demonstration on how to cover a cake with fondant.  Enjoy!! 🙂

Peppermint Red Velvet Cake

I absolutely love red velvet cake and I feel like December is a good time to start making fun, Christmas cakes. I found this recipe a few years ago that isn’t like your traditional red velvet cake, instead it’s like a marble-red velvet cake and it is scrumptious. Another twist that I’ve put on this cake is adding peppermint extract to the cream cheese frosting and crushing peppermint candies and using them as a garnish. The recipe is as follows:

•1 package white cake mix
•3 egg whites
•1 1/3 cups buttermilk
•2 tablespoons vegetable oil
•1 package yellow cake mix
•1/2 cup buttermilk
•1 large egg
•1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa
•1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•2 tablespoons liquid red food coloring
•1 teaspoon cider vinegar

•Beat first 4 ingredients according to cake mix package directions.
•Beat yellow cake mix and next 6 ingredients according to package directions
•Spoon red batter alternately with white batter into 3 prepared 9-inch round cakepans. Swirl batter gently with a knife.
•Bake at 350° for 22 to 25

Spread Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. (Cake may be chilled up to 2 days or frozen up to 1 month.) Garnish, if desired. Serve within 2 hours.

Enjoy!

Mint Chocolate Cake

One of my favorite kinds of ice cream is mint chocolate chip, so I did some searching for a mint chocolate chip cake recipe. Not only did I find a few different ones, but I found this one from the website cakerecipehouse that looks amazing. I’m pretty sure that I have to make this cake sooner than later because of how delicious it looks. Here is the recipe that they have put on their site:

Cake-
•4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
•1/2 cup butter, softened
•3/4 teaspoon baking soda
•3/4 cup milk
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•1-3/4 cups sugar
•1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•1/2 cup water
•1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
•3 eggs

Filling-
•3 to 4 drops green food coloring, optional
•3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
•1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract
•1 cup heavy whipping cream

Frosting-
•1-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
•1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•1 cup (6 ounces) semi sweet chocolate chips
•1/3 cup evaporated milk
•1/4 cup butter

-Using a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
-Add the eggs, one by one, beating well right after every addition.
-Beat in vanilla and chocolate. Mix milk and water. mix the flour, salt and baking soda; add in creamed mixture alternately together with milk mixture.
-Pour in to 2 8-or-9-inch greased pans. Bake at 350° for 24 to 28 min
-Let cool for 10 min before taking away from pans on to wire racks.

-For the filling, using a little bowl, beat the cream just until it starts to thicken.
-Add confectioners’ sugar along with extract; beat until finally stiff peaks form.
-Beat in food color if wanted. Put one cake layer over a serving plate; spread the filling. Close it with the second cake.

-For icing, using a microwave-safe bowl, melt chips and butter; stir until eventually smooth. Let it cool a bit.
-Beat in evaporated vanilla and milk . Little by little beat in confectioners’ sugar. Last, frost and decorate the mint chocolate cake. Chill for 2 hours before slicing.

Even though it is pretty much winter time and this is a chilled cake, I think it’s definitely still appropriate for the Christmasy season.

Enjoy!!

Oreo and Peanut Butter Brownie Cakes

One of my friends showed me this post and I couldn’t help but think that they sounded amazing. While I love Oreos just as much as the next guy, I think these might be better with one Oreo or maybe crushed Oreos, although it wouldn’t look the same.

This recipe was from a website called instructibles.com, which a friend of mine sent to me. People post recipes and follow each other which is pretty cool. So I’ve started looking at some of these people’s recipes closely.

These definitely looked way too good to not share with everyone. I’ll be sure to try this recipe soon. the following is the recipe from the website:

•1 box brownie mix
•24 Oreo Cookies
•1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

-Preheat oven to 350° and line a 12 muffin cup baker with paper liners.

-Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. For each cupcake cup spread 1 teaspoon of peanut butter over 2 Oreo cookies and stack them on top of each other. -Place oreo stacks into the cupcake lined muffin cups. Spoon 2 tablespoons of brownie batter over each stacked oreos and let it run down the sides of the cookies. If you have left over brownie batter, bake separately in a separate baker or muffin tin.
-Bake cookies and brownies for 18 to 20 minutes, until brownies are cooked through. Let cool completely then serve.

Good luck and I’ll be sure to post more from instructibles.com

Pecan Pie Cake

One of my favorite pies is pecan pie, especially around thanksgiving time. I was extremely excited when I found a pecan pie cake recipe.

It’s a pretty simple recipe but it is really delicious. There are two layers to the cake

•1/2 cup butter, softened
•1 cup packed brown sugar
•1 package butter pecan cake mix
•2 tablespoons water
•2 cups chopped pecans
•2 eggs

•1/2 cup butter, softened
•2 eggs
•1 cup milk
•1 cup white sugar
•1 cup light corn syrup

Directions:
-Preheat the oven to 325°

-Reserve 3/4 cup cake mix for second layer. Set aside.

-For the first layer: In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup butter, brown sugar, cake mix (minus 3/4 cup), water, pecans and 2 eggs. Mix well.

-Spread batter into greased pan and bake for 20 minutes.

-For the second layer: In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup butter or margarine, 2 eggs, milk, sugar, corn syrup and reserved 3/4 cup cake mix. Mix well and pour over first layer.

-Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Cake

One of my favorite fruits ever is a banana, and not just because it rhymes with my name. And when I think of what goes good with banana, I think of chocolate. So I came up with a chocolate cake and incorporated bananas into it to replicate a chocolate banana.

Ingredients:

•2 cups sugar
•1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
•3/4 cup cocoa powder
•1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
•1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•2 eggs
•1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 medium sized bananas)
•1 cup warm water
•1/2 cup milk
•1/2 cup canola oil
•1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:
-Preheat oven to 350°

-In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

-In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, mashed bananas, water, milk, oil, and vanilla extract.

-Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until combined. You will notice that the batter is quite thin.

-Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes

-Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. When completely cooled, frost with a chocolate ganache or frosting

You can also add sliced bananas on the top for decoration or make it pretty with chocolate shavings. Have fun and enjoy!

Cake Pops

The newest craze in the cake world is cake cops – basically cake on a stick. I found a tweet last week about these delicious little bites and was instantly intrigued. So I looked further into how to make these and discovered that it’s actually pretty easy, if you do it right. Since it’s still November, and it’s my favorite, I decided to make more pumpkin spice cake along with cream cheese frosting, of course.

The first step is to bake the cake as normal. Once the cake has cooled, crumble into a big bowl. Next, stir in half of the frosting and mix with had until thick.

Next, start rolling mixture into 1″ balls and place on a cookie sheet. Cover sheet with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or overnight. Do not freeze because the candy coating might crack.

Melt colored candy chips or chocolate using microwave directions. Dip the tip of the lollipop stick in a little of the melted candy and insert into the flat side of the cake balls, so that the top is still round. Insert sticks about halfway.

Carefully insert the cake ball into the candy coating by holding the stick and rotating until covered. Once covered, remove and softly tap off excess candy. Immediately cover with sprinkles before the candy sets, and insert into a styrofoam block to harden.

After making these once, I have definitely discovered some ways to make them better next time, like make the cake balls smaller- about golf ball sized. And to leave them in the fridge overnight rather than an hour or two

Snickerdoodle Cake

I recently discovered an awesome recipe for a snickerdoodle cake. And who doest like snickerdoodle? This cake is delicious. While it is not exactly like the snickerdoodle cookie, it is very close. Delicious with cinnamon buttercream!

Cake:
•1 box white cake mix
•1 cup whole milk
•1/2 cup melted butter
•3 eggs
•1 tsp vanilla extract
•2 tsp ground cinnamon

Cinnamon Buttercream:
•1 stick butter, room temperature
•3 3/4 cup powdered sugar
•3-4 tbsp milk

-Preheat oven to 350°
-In a bowl, combine cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon. Mix 2-3 minutes until well blended. Divide between prepared pans.
-Bake 27-30 min.

-When cool fill and ice with cinnamon buttercream

To make cinnamon buttercream:
Beat butter until fluffy. Add cinnamon, vanilla, and 3 T of milk, and slowly add powdered sugar. After all powdered sugar is added, increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy. Add additional milk as necessary to get desired consistency. Enjoy!

A Few Faves – Part 2

A few weeks ago I showcased a couple of my favorite cakes that I’ve made so I’ve decided to show a couple more. I do think that it’s kind of hard to choose favorites since I really do like all the cakes that I make.

The first cake I want to highlight is one I made for my friend Jeremy’s mom. She is a huge fan of The Beatles, so he had asked me to make her a cake replicating them crossing Abbey Road. I decided to make it colorful with the yellow and purple and even included a red stripe around the bottom part of the cake. This has become a popular cake among my friends and other people that I’ve shown my cakes to.

Another favorite is always the Transformers cake. This was for my friend Kristy’s nephew. The small Bumblebee transformer cake went with this one. This was actually the second Transformers cake that I have made, except I included the lettering on this one and since I had practice once, I think it looks a little better than the first.

The last cake I wanted to show was one that I made for my friend Alicia’s birthday. I knew easily that this cake would have the Coors light logo on it, she is such a fan of Coors light, she has the mountains tattooed on her foot. I had to make the grey color using black food coloring. And it actually took me two tries before getting the ‘Coors’ part to look right. This cake has also become pretty popular among my friends.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Train Cake

My friend Jeremy bought me this awesome cake pan last year for Christmas that has 9 little cake parts in it that are shaped like 9 different train cars. Naturally, I was inspired to make a train cake when I opened it. So I decided to branch out and make a chocolate and peanut butter cake with peanut butter frosting. The following is this delicious recipe:

•1 cup butter (room temp)
•3/4 cup light brown sugar
•3/4 cup sugar
•1 tbsp vanilla
•4 eggs
•2 1/2 cup flour
•1/2 cup cocoa powder
•1 tsp baking soda
•1/4 tsp baking powder
•1 tsp salt
•1cup buttermilk
•12 oz peanut butter chips

-Preheat oven to 350° and prepare pan by greasing it

-In a bowl, cream butter, vanilla, and both sugars until very fluffy-about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time just until mixed

-In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt

-Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter. Be sure to begin and end with the flour mixture. Add peanut butter chips until evenly distributed

-Spoon into pan and bake 50-55 minutes

FROSTING:
•1 tbsp melted butter
•2 tbsp peanut butter
•2/3 cup powdered sugar
•3 tbsp milk

-Whisk butter and peanut butter. Whisk in powdered sugar and 2 tbsp milk. Whisk
Until smooth and add remaining milk as needed

This cake was really fun to make, and I think that I might have to make another train cake with a lighter colored cake and darker frosting and maybe sone candy decorations. I found that with the chocolate cake, it was slightly harder to see the detail of the train without the frosting. Of course I think this cake would work a little better as a bigger cake rather than little ones like this. Good luck an enjoy!