Kid Birthday Cake

I got my second cake order (!) for a children's birthday.  Two boys one turning 13 the other 1.  The only specifications were that it was a rectangle cake, bright colors and that she liked a cake I did a while back that was decorated with many circles. 

Okay, no problem.  This one was actually a lot of fun to make, and I had zero melt downs and no major disasters.

I made a 4 layer chocolate and vanilla cake, using the best yellow cake recipe ever, and chocolate and vanilla buttercream.  This could be boring but the cake was super moist and delicious and the vanilla frosting is my favorite, I could just eat the whole bowl with a spoon, mmmmmm. I'll post the recipes for the yellow and vanilla frosting 'cause they are my favorite and you'll never need to find another.  I have yet to find my favorite chocolate recipe, if you have a great one I'd love to try it. 

Getting a square cake is a bit harder to level and make the edges strait and clean.  I chilled it for a while before attempting to cut it, and of course had my boyfriend help me.  I still need a lot of practice, but it came out all right for my first try.

YELLOW CAKE

2 1/2 cups cake flour

2 tea baking powder

1/2 tea salt

8 oz unsalted butter, room temp

3 large eggs, slightly beaten

3 large egg yolks

1 cup whole milk

2 tea pure vanilla extract

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  Center rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350 degrees
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  Coat two 9" rounds or three 8" rounds, or one large rectangle pan with butter or shortning then flour and tap out extra.
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  Have all ingredients at room temp
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  Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.
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  Using stand mixer with paddle attachment beat butter at medium speed until light, smooth, and creamy, about 45 seconds.
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  Add sugar in steady stream, then stop mixing and scrape sides of bowl.
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  Continue to beat on medium speed until very light in color about 4-5 minutes. Scrape sides occasionally
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  Medium speed: add the beaten whole eggs 3-4 tablespoons at a time beating after each addition until incorporated.  Scrape sides occasionally.
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  Add egg yolks one at a time, beating after each until incorporated.  This should take about 3-4 minutes and batter should be fluffy and have increased in volume.
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  On lowest speed, add flour mixture in 4 additions, alternating with the milk in 3 additions, beginning and ending with flour.  Beating well after each addition until incorporated.  Scrape sides often. 
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  Add vanilla during last moments or mixing.
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  Spread batter evenly between pans, spreading the batter from the center outward, creating a slightly raised edge around the outside rim.
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  bake until tops spring back when lightly touched and edges start to come away from the edges of the pan. 35-40 min
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  cool in pan 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack

BEST EVER VANILLA BUTTERCREAM

1 1/2-3 cups powdered sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp

2 tea vanilla + 1 vanilla bean, or 2 tea vanilla bean paste

1-2 tablespoons heavy cream

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  Whip butter first, then add rest of ingredients.  I've found that if you slowly add the powdered sugar it takes less to thicken the frosting.  I don't like my frosting that sweet so I usually use a lot less then what most recipes call for, but taste and add to your heart's content.
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  Using real a vanilla bean is what makes this frosting so amazing, it tastes like vanilla ice cream, soooo good! 

Burger Cupcakes

I have made these several times in the past year or so.  I made them for a company picnic, my friend's birthday that has a thing for cheeseburger anything, and for Super Bowl Sunday, might even make them again this year for Father's Day.
They are so easy and delicious!  All you need is:

• basic yellow cupcakes cut in half
• brownies, cut in to patty shape using a biscuit cutter or anything handy
• green, red, and yellow frosting.  The red and yellow frosting I just smeared onto cupcake bun and patty for the mustard and ketchup.  I used a leaf tip on a pastry bag for the green, but a sandwich baggy with the corner snipped works just fine.
• sesame seeds
• little bit of water to wet the tops of bun to make the seeds stick
• tooth picks to hold all together and give authentic look

See, so easy and major crowd pleaser.  I think I will make them again soon, but this time add 'fries' on the side out of sugar cookies. 

Peppermint Cupcakes

I had leftover candy canes from Xmas (this was back in January), and thought they would be a cute garnish for a cupcake.

These are chocolate cupcakes that I baked with mint chocolate pieces in the middle.  The frosting is spiked with Rumplemintz, I have a thing for liqueur flavored frosting, that gave it a nice minty flavor and just the tiniest drop of red food coloring. And topped of course with crushed candy canes.

Happy Mother's Day

I work for the Elks Club in Kodiak and this year they asked me to make a cake for Mother's Day that they could raffle off and the proceeds would go to charity.  Who could say no to that, especially me with ulterior motives knowing this would be a great opportunity to get my name out there and what I could do. 
So the pressure was on.  I started the project with grand ideas, but after about 17 meltdowns and 5 seconds away from scrapping the whole thing, I decided to just keep it simple and just finish the damn thing.  I was actually pretty happy with how it turned out.

Happy Mother's Day Mom, I love you!  Thanks for inspiring me and teaching me how to make cakes.

A Very Manly Cake

Last year for my Boyfriend's birthday I was trying to figure out what kind of birthday cake I should make him.  The year before I made him a Pabst Blue Ribbon cake because that was what he used to drink (he has since matured to Coors).  I wanted to make him a manly cake, maybe in the shape of a steak?  I was playing around on the Internet trying to get some ideas and I came across the greatest idea ever- a meatloaf cake.

Since he loves meatloaf I thought great this can be dinner and the birthday cake.  I pulled it out as we were getting ready to eat dinner, and everyone was wondering why we were having dessert before the meal.  Surprise, surprise this was in fact a meatloaf.

It is actually a very easy thing to do.  Bake the meatloaf in 3 9" pans.  You want it to be pretty dense so it holds it's shape when you stack them.  The meat will shrink up and be oddly shaped after it is cooked, don't worry you can smooth it out when you frost it.

Stack the 3 pattys putting a layer of ketchup or glaze of your choice in between each.  Use instant mashed potatoes for the frosting (instant works better in this case because it is smoother)  Put a thin layer on first to smooth the cake out and stick all the crumbs to the 'cake'.  Let that cool and harden then put a much thicker layer of potato frosting on.  Work quickly when it cools it is harder to spread smoothly.  I piped the edges to make it look more like a cake, then put a layer of chopped bacon on top because bacon makes everything better, It almost looked like chopped nuts, but even bacon on a regular cake might be kinda awesome.

Back to Basics

Decided to go back to the basics today and make very simple cupcakes, which of course ended up being anything but. After driving around town trying to find vanilla beans (you would think this would be simple but living on an Alaskan island this is no small feat), filling my kitchen with smoke from over filling my cake pans, and using every dish in my kitchen twice, all while trying to control my one year old, I finally managed to make the most perfectly 'simple' vanilla, chocolate and strawberry cupcakes.

I found a great recipe for strawberry cupcakes using strawberry gelatin and real pureed strawberries, I topped it with a strawberry whip cream frosting, using fresh organic strawberries my Mother in-law gave me.

For the chocolate cupcakes I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe, that is actually a very easy, one bowl recipe with dark chocolate Ghiradelli chips and a rich chocolate buttercream frosting.

Finally classic white cupcakes with the most delicious vanilla buttercream frosting that is anything but boring. It tastes like melted vanilla ice cream. Using real vanilla beans makes all the difference in the world.