An Impressive (But Easy) Birthday Cake!

How many times have you needed to come up with a quick dessert for a birthday or a party and didn't know what to make?  You wanted it to look nice, taste good, but not take you all night make.  Well, this cake just might be your answer.  I recently came across this idea on Pinterest - and it really stuck in my mind: what a stunning cake and yet, seems so simple to make!  You just need a cake and some candy - not much simpler than that!

Well last month, I was in the position of needing a quick cake idea for a co-worker's birthday.  And this cake came to mind.  I decided that part of the quickness for this cake was going to be using the help of a box mix and store-bought frosting (yes...even I take shortcuts sometimes!)  So I baked up the cake, cooled it and frosted it - all in about 90 minutes.  

Then I took some Kit Kat bars and stuck them to the side of the frosted cake.  I ended up using about 6 packages of regular Kit Kat bars, but they were a little too tall for my two-layer cake.  Since I was up late, I didn't have time to make a third cake layer, so decided to just trim the height of each Kit Kat bar.  You'll want the Kit Kats to stick up about a 1/2 inch above the cake to help keep all the M&Ms in place (you could also use the fun size - I think they're the right height for a 2-layer cake).  After getting all the Kit Kats in place, I took a piece of ribbon and tied it around the cake to help keep them in place and not falling off during transit.  For the M&Ms, I used the "medium" sized bag of plain M&Ms to pour on top of the cake, reserving a few to "glue" onto the base of each Kit Kat segment with a little chocolate frosting.  

When it's all done, this cake is just the happiest little thing you've ever seen!  It's just so colorful and cheery - and brings a smile to all who see...and eat it!

My Mama's Ex-Boyfriend's Mother's Carrot Cake

Happy Easter everyone!!  Hope you celebrated this special day with friends and family.  I hosted a group of lovely ladies for an Easter tea & dessert and wanted to make something special.  And I knew exactly which recipe to go to.  There was no need for a Pinterest or Allrecipes.com search this time around.  No evaluating one recipe against another to find the best one.  All I had to do was go to my personal recipe book - and pull up the recipe for the most perfect carrot cake.

As the title of this blog post suggests, this is my mama's ex-boyfriend's mother's recipe.  Did you follow all that?  No joke!  I have my mom's high school boyfriend's family to thank for this recipe (thank you Miss Patsy!)  It all started on a night that my mom went over to her boyfriend, Larry's, house for dinner. (I think for Baton Rouge in 1966, that was a common date night activity?)  After dinner, his mom said that they were having carrot cake for dessert.  My mom had never heard of such a thing - who would put carrots in their cake? How gross!  But being the polite, Southern, young lady that she was (and still is), she graciously took a piece and took a bite... And it was the most amazing cake my mom had ever had!.  So amazing, that she immediately requested the recipe and made it her signature birthday cake every year after that!

So growing up, this was the only carrot cake I knew.  To me, it was perfection. Moist and tender, full of cinnamon and pecans, and just the right amount of cream cheese frosting.  For me and my mom, this was the gold standard (or 14 carrot gold standard?) of carrot cakes.  There would be no raisins nor pineapple, no coconut nor walnuts (pecans only, please!) EVER, in our carrot cake.  We say, give us a carrot cake with just that and some pecans for good measure.  Any other additions are just not welcome.  (We really take our carrot cake seriously!)  But once you try this recipe, you'll understand why.  Check out the recipe below and try it for yourself!

MY MAMA'S EX-BOYFRIEND'S MOTHER'S CARROT CAKE

• 1 1/2 cups Wesson oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup pecans, toasted & chopped, divided
• 3 cups carrots, grated (about 5-6 whole carrots)
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 8oz bar of cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1-2 Tbsp milk

1. First, preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour, two round cake pans, set aside.
2. In the bowl of stand mixer, mix sugar and oil together.  Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, sift (or whisk) together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add 1 cup of pecans to the flour mixture and then slowly add to the liquid mixture.  Mix until fully combined.
4. Add grated carrots, a small amount at a time.  Mix just until combined.
5. Divide batter between the two cake pans.  Bake for 28-32 minutes, or until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Let cool completely before frosting and assembly.
6. For the frosting, beat butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar and vanilla.  Add enough milk to get your desired consistency.
7. To assemble, level tops of each cake, as necessary.  Place one cake on a platter and scoop about 2/3 cup of frosting.  Spread over the top of this first layer.  Add the top layer of the cake and use remaining frosting to cover the top and side of the cake.  Top the cake with the remaining 1/2 cup of toasted pecans.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

It's the fall season - my favorite time of  year - and that also means it's pumpkin season, too! From PSL to pumpkin pie, you really can't escape this hallmark flavor of fall.  So what better way to embrace the trend than with some pumpkin spice cupcakes!

This recipe comes from the cupcake sisters at Georgetown Cupcakes and I think it comes pretty close to the ones you'd find in their shops.

I brought these to work and to a church function and to show just how crazy people are for pumpkin, their reactions went a little something like this:

"These are little morsels of happiness. I think these are my favorite thing you've made."

"Oh my goodness...I love you.  Like, I loved you before this, but now I really love you and will follow you anywhere."

"These taste just like these pumpkin squares I have my mom make every year for my birthday...so good!  It brings me right back!"

So what are you waiting for?  Let's get baking!

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PUMPKIN SPICE CUPCAKES

adapted from FoxNews Magazine 

Cake Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree (pure pumpkin not pie filling)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/3 cup hot water

Frosting Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 12 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 8 cups (roughly 2 pounds) powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup apple cider

Preheat oven to 350.  Line two 12-count muffin tins with paper liners.  

Whisk together flour, baking powder, spices and salt in a bowl.  Set aside.

In a large bowl or bowl of your mixer, beat butter and sugar until light yellow and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time until well incorporated.  Beat in pumpkin puree and honey.

On low speed, slowly add a third of the flour mixture followed by a third of the hot water.  Repeat until all the flour and water have been incorporated, scraping down the bowl as needed.  Do not overmix.

Use an ice-cream scoop or spoon to fill muffin tins two-thirds of the way full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before frosting.

Note: this recipe makes for a lot of batter - so I was able to get 2 dozen full-size cupcakes plus a dozen or so mini cupcakes (what is pictured above).

For the frosting:

In a large bowl or bowl of your mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until well combined.  Add vanilla.  Add about half of the powdered sugar and mix on low speed.  Add about half of the apple cider (you can also use milk or maple syrup for extra flavor) and mix well.  Add the remaining powdered sugar and enough of the apple cider to reach your desired consistency (should be soft enough to pipe and frost but not too runny that it doesn't hold it's shape).

To assemble, fill a piping bag fitted with a wide tip (or a ziploc bag with a corner snipped off) with frosting.  Starting in the middle of the cupcake, make a swirl motion around the cupcake using constant pressure. As you make your way back to the middle, gently push down with an extra burst of pressure and release.  If you can't visualize, check out this video (the swirling demonstration happens around the 3:00 mark).

Top with sprinkles or a fondant shape or just leave plain - they'll taste delicious either way!

My Signature Birthday Cake

I think I've finally done it.  No, I haven't figured out time travel or found mates for all my pairs of socks.  I've done something far, far greater: I've found my signature birthday cake.  The one recipe I will go to each year to be the holder of an ever-increasing amount of candles.

It all started on a trip to New York several years ago where I visited Milk Bar - the dessert outpost from Momofuku.  It was created by Christina Tosi - a young chef in New York - who had been creating desserts for several of the Momofuku restaurants before given the opportunity to open a store based on her dessert recipes.  She's inventive, fearless, and never met a raw cookie dough or cake batter she didn't like (my kind of girl!).  

So on this particular visit to Milk Bar, they had pistachio lime cake truffles on the menu - and I was intrigued.  I purchased a package (along with their claims-to-fame: the compost cookie and crack pie) and was blown away by the unique flavor of these cake truffles.  I nibbled at them, trying to dissect the ingredients and how it was all put together.  Long after my trip, I kept thinking about them - wanting to replicate them somehow - but who had ever really heard of a pistachio cake before? Much less cake truffles.  Little did I know that the next year, Christina Tosi would put out a Milk Bar cookbook, and a friend would get it for me, and that it would have a recipe for...pistachio cake!

Now, to my initial disappointment, there wasn't an exact recipe for how to make the pistachio cake truffles - but I had a recipe for the cake and instructions for how to make cake truffles using another cake flavor.  So I cobbled them together and did my best to recreate those original cake truffles.  And they were delicious - but I was soon to find out that the instructions for the full pistachio layer cake (filling, frosting and all) would quickly transcend the cake truffles and become one of my favorite recipes in the whole book. 

And that now brings us to the current cake at hand.  The basic elements are as follows: a pistachio flavored spongecake, layered with lemon curd, milk crumbs and pistachio frosting.  Put them all together and you've got a little slice of heaven.

This cake isn't difficult in terms of technique or assembly; but it does require some unique (and somewhat expensive) ingredients and a little bit of extra time compared to your traditional cake. But it's totally worth it - time. money and calories! 

First up to make are the milk crumbs.  This is a signature element of many of Milk Bar's desserts.  Many of the recipes in their cookbook utilizes powdered milk - a terrible substitute for drinking actual milk - but a wonderful and surprisingly flavorful addition to your baking. (Seriously, try some in your cookies or cakes next time!).  When mixed with some flour, sugar and butter - you get a crumbly little mixture and spread on a baking sheet. Bake in a low temperature oven (250) for about 20 minutes or as the cookbook says, "your kitchen should smell like buttery heaven." Believe me, you'll know when it's ready.  Once you've let the crumbs cool, you pour melted white chocolate over it all and toss it until the chocolate sets.  Set it aside...if you can (trust me, you're gonna want to shove a spoonful of this stuff in your mouth).

Next, move on to making the pistachio cake.  Bump up your oven temperature to 350.  The cake calls for a few unique ingredients: pistachio paste, pistachio oil and glucose.  I've been able to find pistachio paste online at King Arthur Flour.  The pistachio oil I've found in stores at Williams-Sonoma but you can find it much cheaper on Amazon.  Glucose is an ingredient Christina uses in many of her recipes - she claims it's worth it - but I've yet to purchase a container.  Instead, I've used light corn syrup as a substitute (which she has said is OK, though not ideal), since it's an ingredient I always have on hand in my pantry.

OK, enough talk - let's get to the baking!  In a large bowl (or bowl of your stand mixer), beat the pistachio paste and glucose together. It may be a little crumbly - but that's OK. (Sorry - one more bit of talk regarding the pistachio paste.  I've found that the size of the pistachio paste container I get doesn't have quite enough paste to make the cake and frosting, according to the recipe.  So as to not have to buy a second container, I've slightly reduced the amounts for both the cake and frosting - essentially giving half the can to the cake and the other half to the frosting.  I think the result is pretty much similar to what you would get had you used the full amount. Also, it's likely your paste will have separated a bit - this is normal - just mix it all thoroughly before using.)

Then you add your egg whites, one at a time, until you have a "snotty green soup in your mixing bowl."  Yup - that looks pretty snotty to me!  I think we're right on track!

Next we add the powdered sugar and the almond flour.  Mix for a few minutes until it all thickens.  Don't forget to scrape the sides of the bowl after each step to ensure everything gets mixed in properly!

Then we stream in the pistachio oil and the heavy cream and mix for about a minute until fully incorporated.

The last additions are the flour - just 1 cup (remember we put in the almond flour earlier) - and the baking powder and salt. The recipe called for 1 1/2 teaspoons - but I would go for just a teaspoon or a teaspoon and a quarter.  Mix the last of the ingredients until the batter is shiny, smooth and "slightly more viscous than your average box cake mix."

Spray a jelly roll or half sheet pan with Pam and line it with parchment paper and spray again. You can also use a Silpat.  Pour the batter into the pan and spread it out evenly.  Bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes.  It will be ready when the edges of the cake start to pull away from the sides and the cake bounces back when pressed lightly with your finger (like a sponge!).  If it doesn't do either of these things - cook for an additional minute or so until it does.  Let the cake cool completely before beginning assembly.

The last thing we need to prepare is the pistachio frosting, which comes together quite easily while your cake is baking!

in a medium bowl, beat butter and powdered sugar until pale yellow and fluffy. Then add the last half of the pistachio paste and a bit of salt (use less if you used salted butter - which I pretty much use exclusively). Beat on high for a few minutes until the frosting is a uniform pale, green color.  You can use the frosting right away - or if you're going to wait to assemble your cake, place it in an airtight container in the fridge.

The only thing I haven't covered is the lemon curd.  I've found that the store-bought variety in a jar is just as good (and maybe better) than making it from scratch (I've always had troubles with the right consistency).  But if you're a make-it-from-scratch lemon curd purist - by all means, use your favorite recipe and use it during final assembly.

Yay! We've now made all the elements of our cake - now for the final assembly!  This step is where I differ a bit from the Milk Bar style.  They use cake molds and acetate rings to form their cakes.  The result is a beautiful, rustic looking cake - but I don't have that special equipment (nor I suspect, do you).  So I've modified this just a bit to make it a bit easier - but still have an impressive dessert.

Grab your cooled sheet cake and grab onto an edge of the parchment paper and gently slide the cake out of the pan onto a flat surface.  Be careful in this step as to not break the cake. With a large knife, carefully trim about 1/4-1/2 inch off the sides (this can be your nibbles before serving the cake!).  Then cut your cake into thirds along the long edge of the cake.  

Find your serving platter and carefully transfer one of the thirds to the platter.  Using a pastry brush, apply a generous lather of pistachio oil to the top of the bottom cake later and let it soak in. Next, spread half a jar of lemon curd over the bottom layer. Then pull out those scrumptious milk crumbs and spread 1/3 of them over the lemon curd and lightly press them into the curd.  Then carefully spread pistachio frosting over the milk crumbs (use a little less than a third of the frosting). Repeat these steps again: transfer middle cake layer on top of the first. Layer lemon curd, milk crumb and frosting.  Place the top layer of cake and cover the top with the remaining frosting.  Sprinkle the rest of the milk crumbs generously over the top of the cake and around the base of the cake on the platter.  The sides will not be frosted so as to show off the layers.

Now before we start slicing into the cake - it's recommended that you place it in the freezer for at least a few hours or overnight to let all the layers set.  Pull out a few hours before you're ready to serve...and enjoy!  Hopefully this well help you on your journey to find your signature birthday cake!

Here's the full recipe:

PISTACHIO LAYER CAKE

(Adapted from Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi)

Milk Crumbs

• 1/2 cup milk powder
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 Tbsp cornstarch
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 4 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1/4 cup milk powder
• 3 oz white chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Combine 1/2 cup milk powder, flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt in a bowl.  Add melted butter and toss until mixture comes together and forms small clusters. Spread clusters on parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet - bake for 20 minutes. Cool completely.  Transfer clusters to a bowl, add 1/4 cup milk powder and mix. Pour melted white chocolate over crumbs and toss until all crumbs are coated and chocolate is set.

Pistachio Cake

• 1/2 cup pistachio paste (about half an 11 oz can)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp light corn syrup
• 6 egg whites
• 1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 1/4 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup pistachio oil
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, beat pistachio paste and corn syrup for 2-3 minutes. On low speed, add egg whites, one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl every other egg.  You should have a "snotty green soup in your bowl." Add powdered sugar and almond flour and mix for a few minutes until mixture thickens. Scrape sides of bowl. Stream in oil and cream and mix on low speed for about a minute. Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix until batter is smooth, shiny and viscous. Pour into a jelly roll or half sheet pan, Pam-sprayed and lined with parchment.  Bake for 20 minutes or until cake comes away from edges of pan and springs back when lightly touched with your finger.  Bake for 1-2 more minutes until it does.  Let cake cool completely before assembly.

Pistachio Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup pistachio paste (the other half of your can)
• 1/2 tsp salt

Beat butter and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy. Add pistachio paste and salt and mix on high until a uniform, pale green color.  Remember to scrape down sides periodically. Set aside.

Assembly

• Milk Crumbs
• Pistachio Cake
• Pistachio Frosting
• 1 jar Lemon Curd 
• 1/3 cup pistachio oil

Cut cake into thirds along the long end.  Place one layer on bottom of platter and brush half of pistachio oil over the top of layer - let it soak in. Spread half of the lemon curd over the cake.  Sprinkle 1/3 of the milk crumbs, pressing down lightly into the lemon curd. Carefully, spread 1/3 of pistachio frosting over the crumbles, as evenly as you can (it'll be a little tricky). Add the middle layer and repeat steps: pistachio oil, lemon curd, milk crumbs, frosting. Top off with the final cake layer and spread the remaining frosting over the top only (leave the sides unfrosted).  Sprinkle the rest of the milk crumbs over the top of the cake and around the base on the platter. Transfer cake to the freezer and freeze overnight to let the cake and filling set.  Pull out of freezer a few hours before serving.  Slice and enjoy!

Watermelon Birthday Cake

This post is going to be short and sweet...sort of like this watermelon cake!  It was a co-worker's birthday today and I wanted to make something that was healthy but still felt special and birthday worthy.  Like me, I'm sure many of you have seen similar cakes on Pinterest - so I just took that as my guide to create this watermelon cake!

From the outside, it looks like a traditional cake that you might get from a French bakery or Whole Foods.  But it's not until you cut it open that you see it's actually a whole watermelon on the inside!

This was actually pretty easy to put together...you just need a big knife and hand mixer (for the whipped cream).

So get yourself a big ol' watermelon, cut off the top and bottom.  Lay it on the counter, cut side down and with your big knife, start cutting around the inside edge of the rind.  You may have to flip the watermelon over and cut around the inside edge again to make sure you cut through all the way.  The outside rind should then slide right up and you're left with a column of watermelon!  Trim the sides and even out the top as necessary - but don't worry about making it too perfect.  You can hide any imperfections with the whipped cream!

Next, you need a bowl (preferably metal and chilled to help keep the cream cold while whipping) and a pint (2 cups) of heavy whipping cream. With a hand-held mixer with the whisk attachment, start whipping the heavy cream until soft peaks form.  Sprinkle 3-4 Tbsp of powdered sugar (or more/less to your taste) and continue whipping until stiff peaks form.

Cover your watermelon with the whipped cream.  I recommend doing this just before serving since watermelon is, well, quite watery, and you want the whipped cream to stay on for as long as possible.  I also recommend patting dry the outside surface of the watermelon with a paper towel.  Once covered, decorate the top and sides with fruit, nuts or whatever else you prefer.  I chose blackberries, blueberries, strawberries and kiwi (for a little pop of green).

And that's it!  This makes for a refreshing summer treat that's not only pretty to look at but also pretty good for you!

Mustache Cake

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, this past weekend was full of baking.  One of the other projects I worked on was a birthday cake for a colleague of mine.  He sports a mustache as part of his signature look and thought it only fitting that his birthday cake feature a mustache (or two or seven!).

I've decorated many a cakes in my day - mainly using the Wilton method for piping out hundreds of little stars to make the design.  This past fall, I took a Wilton cake decorating course in fondant and gum paste and enjoyed using fondant and creating really cool layered and dimensional designs.  My final project was a fall leaf cake (check out the picture in the gallery!) which I was really pleased with.  I realized that I hadn't decorated with fondant since October, so I was WAY overdue for making another cake!

So here we go.  First, I made two chocolate cakes (I cheated and used a box mix).

Then cut off the tops to level them out for even stacking.

So when I made that peanut butter frosting for the homemade nutter butters, I knew that I wanted to use it for this cake as well.  So I made a double batch and spread a nice thick layer on the bottom cake.  Then topped it off with chopped up Reese's peanut butter cups. Yum.

Then added the top layer of cake and covered the whole thing in a thin "crumb coat" of frosting. Even though I am going to cover the whole cake in fondant, it's important to add a thin layer of frosting to the entire surface area of your cake - it acts like a "glue" to keep your fondant in place.  I've also read that you can add a "normal" amount of frosting as if you weren't covering in fondant.  I would just make sure that you let it set and/or chill the cake so that the fondant goes on smoothly and doesn't slide around.

Now we cover the whole thing in fondant.  Make sure you take into account the height of your cake (times two!) in addition to the diameter and then add on another inch or two to make sure the amount of fondant you're rolling out is big enough to cover the entire cake. 

And now the fun part - cutting out the decorative pieces to add to the cake!  I found an image of a mustache clipart online that I liked and used that as my template.  I just laid the template directly on my rolled out chocolate fondant, and using a small knife, cut out the shape. I then used a scaled down size of the mustache for the smaller ones that decorated the side.  For the letters, I used an alphabet cookie cutter set that I've had for years and finally got to use for the first time.  They worked so beautifully with the fondant - really easy to cut out and affix to the cake.  Speaking of which, all you need to get these decorative pieces to stick is a paint brush and a little bit of water.  Just lightly brush on a bit of water to each piece and it will act like a glue, keeping the decorations on the cake!

I really love working with fondant now - you can make a really impressive looking cake in a short period of time.  This took me a little over an hour to fully decorate (baking & cooling time not included). Now to think of my next excuse for a cake... Any suggestions?