Category Archives: Cakes

Perfectly Chocolate Cake

Perfectly Chocolate Cake

Normally when I’m making birthday cakes I use the boxed cake mixes but I love dense, rich, moist, cakes and this recipe from Allrecipes hit the spot! I’m guessing that to make a yellow cake you could just omit the cocoa powder, but I haven’t tried it so don’t quote me on that! I was perfectly pleased with how this cake turned out. And topped with Grandma Esther’s Chocolate Truffle Frosting, this cake turned out to be quite divine! Although, it is rich so remember to buy some vanilla ice cream or at least have a gallon of milk on hand!

Ingredients

2 cups white 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 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Frost with Grandma Esther’s Chocolate Truffle Frosting

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2. 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 into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Frosting.

Variations:
One Pan Cake: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350 F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

Three Layer Cake: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350 F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

Bundt Cake: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350 F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost

Cupcakes: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350 F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

Christmas Cake: Crush several candy canes or peppermint candies in a ziplock bag until they are in about 1/4 in pieces. Sprinkle over top of frosted cake, press broken bits on the sides as well. Tip-don’t add the candy until shortly before event, when I did it the night before the candies absorbed moisture from the frosting and got all gooey but it was still delicious, and a beautiful cake!

Flower and Car Birthday Cupcakes

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This past March we had 4 birthdays to celebrate, three of our kids and one nephew, so we had one big birthday bash and I decided that cupcakes were in order!

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For the girls, I had purchased a flower shaped cupcake pan. I decorated them with pink frosting and very girlie sprinkles and then wrote out their names, one letter on each cupcake, on top of the cupcakes. I had them displayed on a pretty plate and the girls, and boys loved them! Very simple and of course it will be fun to reuse the cupcake pan some day.

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For the boys, I chose blue frosting to hold on the decorative candies. And the cupcake pan? Was a birthday present from my mother in law, I love it! I’ve also used it for muffins and corn bread and it works really well. The decorating was easy, just time consuming but those sweet boys in my life, they are worth it! I have not done many cupcakes so I thought this would be fun for a change, the kids seemed to really enjoy all the sweets! And I guess I just love seeing the looks on their faces when they see my birthday creations, maybe that is what spurs me on to be more creative.

Pirate Ship Birthday Cake

Eamon's Pirate Ship Birthday cake-lots of fun and he loved it!

Just doing some catching up. As you can see, this is Eamon’s 2nd birthday cake and we are getting ready to celebrate his 4th birthday this year! Yikes! This was a really fun and easy cake to make. I thought I would share a little pictorial of how I made it.

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“Cars” Birthday Cake

This past March, my son, Aidan turned four. I love birthdays. I love the planning, and making the day special. One of my favorite parts of the planning is figuring out what kind of birthday cake I am going to make for the birthday kid. But, I was 9 months pregnant with our fourth child, and knew I could actually deliver any day so I better be creative, and plan to stay off my feet as much as possible!

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