Hi everyone, and welcome to my blog. This is my first official post! I recently signed up for a cake decorating class and it’s going great, however I have discovered I am NOT a fan of the buttercream frosting we are required to make using the ingredient… dare I type it… Crisco! Yuck, I don’t like it one teeny bit, and neither do my co-workers who politely eat the cake underneath and then politely discard the horrible tasting frosting.
I know Crisco has a higher melting point than butter, so it makes sense to use when you can’t refrigerate your cake or it will be sitting out for a long period of time BUT it does not taste good. From now on I will be frosting my cakes with this delicious buttercream frosting recipe courtesy of __ (recipe to come soon) and only make the cake decorations using the Crisco recipe.
Here are some pictures of my first two cakes.
This is my very first cake decorating class project, we made a bikini cake. The um… boobs chest on top is made of two cupcakes, who would have thought?!
Under all of this frosting is a moist and delicious strawberry earthquake cake
Strawberry earthquake cake (recipe courtesy of mom!mom!.com)
Ingredients:
1 box Duncan Hinz yellow cake mix (I replaced the oil with chunky applesauce and it turned out perfect!)
1 cup fresh strawberries, washed and mashed
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 box white cake mix
1 cup shredded coconut
8 oz cream cheese
Preheat oven to 350°. Mix the cake mix according to package directions.
Grease and flour a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish or pan. Layer the
shredded coconut on the bottom of the baking dish pan. Pour 1/2 of
the prepared cake batter over the coconut. Cream together the cream
cheese, powdered sugar, and mashed fresh strawberries. Drop the cream
cheese mixture in large dollops over the cake mix. Pour the remaining
cake batter over the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 28 to 30
minutes. Let cake cool in pan. Flip onto large cardboard covered in foil when ready to frost.
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This next cake is a Chocolate peanut butter Clown Cake!
Ingredients:
1 box Duncan Hinz devil’s food chocolate cake mix
½ bag Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips
Chunky apple sauce (as needed in place of oil for cake, ratio is 1 to 1)
Easy Chocolate Mousse
10 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
2 cups cup heavy whipping cream
Peanut Butter frosting
½ cup creamy peanut butter
4 oz cream cheese
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
Directions for cake
Prepare cake as directed on back of box, but make sure to replace the oil for chunky applesauce. Just replace it with the exact amount it calls for the oil. Once the batter is mixed, fold in the dark/ bittersweet (same thing) chocolate chips, next pour the batter into two 8×8 or 9×9 round pans and bake as directed on back of box.
Allow cakes to cool in pans for 10 min on baking rack, then flip out of the pans and allow cake to finish cooling- about 1 hour. While cakes are baking, and cooling, prepare the chocolate mousse and PB frosting.
Directions for chocolate mousse
Pour 1 cup heavy cream into mixing bowl and whip until soft peaks form, set in refrigerator (no need to add sugar). Next, pour the chocolate chips in a bowl, heat the other cup of heavy cream on a stove or in the microwave (I used a microwave for about 1 min- 1 min 30 sec) and once it is bubbling, add it to the chocolate chip bowl and mix with a whisk. Let this cool. Once it is cool, fold in the whipped cream gently. This makes a rich very chocolaty mousse. Store in the refrigerator until you are ready to fill the cake.
Directions for peanut butter frosting
Blend cream cheese and peanut butter until combined, the stir in powdered sugar. Store in the refrigerator until you are ready to fill the cake. (easy huh!?)
Assembling the cake
Cut each cake layer in half diagonally so you end up with 4 layers of cake. Place one of the bottom cake layers down; top it with a good think amount of the chocolate mousse. Add another cake layer on top, and on that add a generous amount of the peanut butter frosting (more than you think you’ll need on it). Top again with another layer of cake and top that with more chocolate mousse. Finally top with last piece of cake. I frosted this cake using the class buttercream frosting I despise so much because I’m still new to this decorating stuff and wanted to do it right. But feel free to frost with the peanut butter frosting you have left, chocolate frosting, or anything really. It is soo good. My boyfriend had me store two pieces of this in the freezer before I took the rest to work.
I don’t have pictures of this cake, but I will definitely make this again, probably in a week or two, it was so good!
*Note- the chocolate chips will sink to the bottom of the cakes when in the oven. Do not be concerned with this, the cakes come out fabulous and the chips make it just that much better!
kj in the kitchen 