Mom (and Dad)'s Birthday Cakes

This Wednesday was my Mom's birthday and since we weren't able to celebrate my Dad's birthday in the summer we decided to celebrate both birthdays at once. So that required two cakes!

Mom asked for the same Turtle Cheesecake I had for my birthday so I was happy to oblige.

And for Dad I made his favourite cake, Black Forest.

Black Forest Cake

Cake
2 cups + 2 tbsp flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350, grease and flour two 9-inch pans. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix well. Add in eggs, milk oil and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into prepared pans. Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks and cool completely.

Filling
2 (20 oz) cans Sour Pitted Cherries in juice(I could only find 14 oz jars but it worked just fine)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
1 tsp vanilla (I think I forgot this but it didn't really matter)

Drain cherries. Reserve 1/2 cup of juice. Mix cherries, juice, sugar and corn starch in saucepan. Cook over low heat until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. COOL COMPLETELY! (I definitely did not do this, results described below)

Topping
3 cups whipping cream (unwhipped)
1/3 cup icing sugar
Combine cream and sugar in a chilled GLASS (Ceramic) or METAL bowl. With an electric mixer beat on high speed until stiff peaks form.

Construction

How the instructions said to do it:
Cut each of the two layers in half with a serrated knife or specialty cake layer cutter. Crumble one of the layers and set aside. Set first layer on cake tray. Spoon on some whipping cream. Spoon on cooled cherry goo. Top with second layer, repeat. Top with third layer. Cover the whole cake with the remaining whipped cream. Top cake with more cherry goo. Cover sides of cake with crumbled cake.

How I did it:
Make chocolate shavings: Take a bar of chocolate and a carrot peeler, "peel"(or shave) the chocolate as you would a carrot. Set the chocolate shavings aside. Place the bottom layer on the cake tray. Top with whipped cream. Cover with cherry goo. (Which was still warm because I was running out of time) The cherry goo will melt the whipped cream and goo will go everywhere. Top with second layer. Cover the rest of the cake in whipped cream. Cover the sides and top in chocolate shavings.

What I would recommend for next time:
Make chocolate shavings, as described above. Place bottom layer on cake tray. Top with (warm) cherry goo. Place second layer on top of the cherry goo. Cover the entire cake in whipped cream. Cool the rest of the cherry goo. Place more cherry goo on the top. Cover the sides in chocolate shavings. Serve with excess whipped cream or cherry goo.

Life's a Cake Walk

I made these for the cake walk at my church's pre-Halloween carnival a couple weeks ago but I was too busy at the time to post them.



Unfortunately I decorated this one the night before the rest, so it was wrapped and I didn't want to unwrap it to take the picture because we were running out of plastic wrap.


The first two are chocolate cake. The last two are rainbow cake.

Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

For my young adults group last week I decided to make cupcakes. Chocolate mint cupcakes to be exact. And I had several recipes I wanted to try out so I decided to just go for it and I realized that each recipe only made one dozen. I was expecting to have 10-15 people at the young adults group and young adults have a tendancy to like home baking so I figured I'd need at least two for each person. So I figured I needed at least two dozen cupcakes or possibly three dozen. And it turned out I had three chocolate mint cupcakes recipes that I wanted to try out. So I went for it.

Peppermint Patty Brownie Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup margarine (or butter)
1 cup white sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa
12 peppermint patties

Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 muffin cups. Melt together butter and chocolate chips. In another bowl mix sugar and salt, stir in melted chocolate. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in cocoa and flour. Spoon one spoonful of batter into each muffin cup. Place a peppermint patty on the batter and then top with more batter to cover the patty. Bake for about 35 minutes.

These were very tasty. Brownies, with peppermint patties in the middle. They were the favourites of the three types.

Chocolate Mint 'Vegan' Cupcakes

1 cup (soy) milk (I just used regular milk because I don't really care about the vegan factor)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (I used regular vinegar because it's what I had)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp peppermint extract
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 12 muffin cups. Mix milk and vinegar and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Mix together milk mixture, sugar, oil, vanilla and mint extract. In another bowl mix together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly mix into wet mixture. Beat well. Spoon into muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes.

These were surprisingly good. I was not expecting vegan cupcakes to taste this good. They weren't spectacular exactly but they were pretty tasty. They were the second best of the batch.

Chocolate Mint Cupcakes

NOTE: I really did not like these cupcakes. Personally I thought they were disgusting and that they tasted like bread. But I took them to young adults and everyone insisted they weren't that bad. So I'm posting the recipe and you can make your own decision, if you want to take the chance. (Personally I'd make the vegan ones again before I'd try these again)

6 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp butter (or margarine)
1/4 cup butter (or margarine), softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 cup chocolate milk (I would recommend using the bought stuff from the store, that stuff that's artificially thickened, rather than the stuff you make yourself with the chocolate powder or sauce)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (6 ounces) mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 12 muffin cups. Melt together cocoa powder and 2 tbsp butter. Cream together sugar and 1/4 cup butter. Stir in melted chocolate mixture. Add eggs, mint extract and chocolate milk. Beat well. Beat in flour and baking soda. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes.

For frosting on all of these cupcakes I just used my usual recipe with mint extract rather than vanilla.

Fudge

So I had to use up the rest of the evaporated milk after making the pumpkin pie. Stupid ingredients only coming in one size of can. So I made fudge.

1 1/2 cups white sugar
2/3 cup evaporated mik
2 tbsp butter (or margarine)
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 tsp vanilla.

Measure out all ingredients before you start. Line 8x8 pan with tin foil. In a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together sugar, milk, butter and salt. Bring to a rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly for another 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in marshmallows, chocolate chips, nuts and vanilla. Stirring until marshmallows are melted. Pour into 8x8 pan.

Pumpkin Pie

So I have to admit, I really don't like Pumpkin Pie. But it was Thanksgiving this weekend and so my mother insisted that I make some Pumpkin Pie. (I was originally planning on making apple or cherry) And so because I don't eat pumpkin pie I didn't really care about making the pie from scratch. So yes, I cheated.

Pumpkin Pie
1 can pumpkin pie filling
1 egg
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 pie shell

Preheat oven to 475 F. Beat egg. Add in pie filling and evaporated milk. Stir well. Pour into pie crust. Bake at 475 for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 and bake another 30-45 minutes.

I also made my Caramel Pecan Pie because I love it and I wanted something other than pumpkin.

Rainbow Cake!

On the outside, it just looks like a chocolate cake that an amateur decorator used to practice their piping skills.

But on the inside...


All the colours of the rainbow!

So for this recipe I just used my handy dandy works for everything cake recipe in it's basic form. Then I divided the batter into 7 bowls, dyed each bowl a different colour and then layered the batter into the cake pans. It turned out beautifully. Not to mention that no one was expecting what was inside!

Chocolate Walnut Bar Cookies

I made these cookies for a pizza night with some friends. They were easy, quick and tasty.

1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 375, mix together oil, white sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla. In another bowl mix together flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly mix the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Knead with hands when the dough becomes difficult to stir. Grease a cookie sheet (or line with parchment paper), roll, or stretch out the dough onto the cookie sheet, this works best if you grease your hands first. Once the dough is in a long sheet, sprinkle on the walnuts and chocolate chips and press down slightly. Bake 7-8 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes or so, then cut into strips and allow to cool completely.