Chocolate Bunny Cake

This is similar to the white coconut version I make just about every year for Easter - but I made it chocolate this time and decorated with swirly buttercream frosting instead of the candy decorations I usually do. I love this version and think it's going to be my new standard bunny cake. We are going to be on the road this Easter, so I made this guy early - in time for you to make it for your Easter gathering.

Bake 2 9" round layer cakes using whatever flavor cake you want - I doctored a white cake mix with an extra egg, substituted milk and melted butter for the water and oil, dash of vanilla. Bake according to package directions and cool completely.

Meanwhile make chocolate buttercream frosting. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter then slowly add the other ingredients. Go easy adding the milk, monitoring how much you need to get the right  frosting consistency.

• 1 stick softened butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• pinch of salt
• approx. 3 tablespoons milk

Once the cakes are cool place one round on a large platter. Cut the second one into three pieces following this highly professional drawing (I should have taken a picture when I cut the cake, oops) and put the ears in place on top of the round head:

I didn't have a platter big enough to add his usual bowtie, but if you do then just fit the middle leftover piece of cake (after you cut out the ears) under his head and frost along with the rest of the cake. 

Frost the sides and top of the cake before adding the swirls - I didn't frost the top first and could see bare cake thru the swirls, easy fix by adding dots and smaller swirls of frosting in the blank spaces. If I had frosted the top first it wouldn't have been necessary to fill the gaps. I like how it turned out tho with the different swirly textures. Create the swirls by putting the frosting in a decorator bag fitted with a tip, I played around with a few different sized openings to get the multiple textures. It would also be pretty to just frost using a spoon to create swoops and swirls so don't let it scare you from making this if you don't have tips and all that!

 I finished it with a few colorful sprinkles around the edges of the ears and along the very bottom of the cake - totally not necessary I just don't know when to stop ;)

4.10.18: prosciutto-wrapped mozzarella sticks
4.10.17: how to make paper umbrellas
4.10.16: oven steamed salmon


Happy moment ~ yellow tulips

Noah's Chocolate Birthday Cake

Chocolate cake is not my favorite thing. Is it yours? I feel like it tends to be dry and just doesn't interest me. So when I asked Angela what flavor Noah would like for his birthday cake I cringed when she said "chocolate or strawberry". I would have normally gone with strawberry but he's 4 and likes firetrucks and I thought the pink cake would clash with the truck. So that leaves chocolate - sigh. I started by telling you that so you'd understand that when I tell you I ate an entire piece of this cake, it is seriously not a normal thing for me! This one turned out so moist (gross word but best cake texture), rich, chocolatey...and even though it weighed a ton (I think 'cuz of the cars on top!) the cake was very light - not easy to do with a chocolate cake. I'm pretty sure that, once again, the secret is filling it with stabilized whipped cream (are you tired of my mentioning stabilized whipped cream yet? HA!).

I made a doctored up boxed triple chocolate chip cake mix (extra egg, scoop of sour cream, dash of vanilla, small box of chocolate pudding) in 2 9"pans. Let them cool; meanwhile, make 2 cups of stabilized whipped cream (click here for the recipe) and buttercream frosting. Divide the buttercream so you can dye a small portion red for the name, leave enough white to frost just the top of the cake, then add cocoa powder to the rest to make chocolate frosting.

After they cooled completely, put one layer on a serving plate and tuck small pieces of parchment or waxed paper under the edges all the way around to keep the plate clean while decorating. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a big open tip with the chocolate buttercream frosting and pipe a fat circle on top of the cake layer around the top edge. This creates a dam to keep the whipped cream inside the cake. Then spread lots of whipped cream inside the frosting circle on top of the bottom cake layer. Top with second layer and frost the top with white frosting, and the sides with chocolate buttercream.

To decorate I searched for a firetruck but of course couldn't find one...I did find this set of little trucks tho and one is a firetruck so I changed my plan a little. Using a smaller round cardboard circle to mask the top of the cake and keep it clean, I sprinkled crushed chocolate wafers around about 1.5" of the outer top edge - then lifted off the cardboard and piped his name in red frosting using a small pastry tip. To finish I piped big swirly stars in a pattern around the top and bottom (using them to hold the trucks from tipping off the cake - the cookie crumbs made it so the cars wouldn't stick!), then put thin oreos around the bottom (they reminded me of tires)...of course when Noah saw the cake the first thing he did was pull oreos off hahahah.



PS: I washed the trucks before putting them on the cake!

PPS: I added some seedless strawberry jam to the top of the bottom layer of cake before the whipped cream to tie in the second flavor he likes, but everyone said they couldn't taste it at all and wouldn't bother adding it next time. Did it help make the cake so moist? Maybe, but you really didn't notice it so...I'll leave it up to you if you want to add it!

Buttercream Frosting:

-1 stick soft unsalted butter

-4 cups confectioners sugar

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-pinch of coarse salt

-milk or cream (a couple tablespoons, add a little at

a time until you get the right consistency)

cream the butter until smooth, add the

remaining ingredients and beat until smooth

and fluffy. 

German Chocolate Cake

Today is LeDonna and my little sis's birthday (sis lives out of state tho so she doesn't get cake!) - last year I made L. German Chocolate Cupcakes (click here for that post) and when looking back at that post I don't think I explained it very well so decided to try to fix that today. I usually make her this 9" layer cake and all the ingredients are the same as for the cupcakes, but it's so much more impressive in layer cake form! I've made this many many times and like to think I've perfected it - Dave can't sample it because of the nuts so I can't get his vote, but everyone seems to love it. Warning - it's very very rich, serve in small slices!

for the cake:

• 1 german chocolate cake mix
• 1 package vanilla instant pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup miniature chocolate chips

*mix all together and bake according the mix instructions. Let cool completely then either split the 2 layers in half to make 4 layers or leave as 2 layers.

for the filling:

• 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 4 large egg yolks, slightly beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 package (7 oz.) sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

*place the evaporated milk, sugar, butter, egg yolks, and vanilla in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until thickened and golden brown in color, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the coconut and pecans. Cool the frosting to room temperature (about 20 minutes) before spreading between the layers. Note I do not put the filling on the top of the cake, just between the layers.

ganache for the top of the cake:

• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 8 oz. (1 1/3 cups) semisweet chocolate chips

*bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan. Meanwhile place the chocolate in a large mixing bowl, then pour the hot cream over the chocolate, stir until the chocolate has melted. Let it rest on the counter for about an hour uncovered and it will thicken up a bit. Then you have options - you can serve warm as a glaze or ice cream topping; chill it in the fridge for a filling or scoop out with a melon baller into truffles and roll them in unsweetened cocoa powder;  or whip on high speed with an electric mixer for a whipped ganache frosting. This is SO GOOD - any way you use it!

After it has cooled on the counter and thickened a bit I pour it over the top of the cake letting it drip down the sides. Put the cake in the fridge and let the glaze set up. Then whip the rest of the ganache until it is the consistency of frosting and spread that on top of the glaze, garnish or decorate with whole pecans. Seriously - this is so impressive and beautiful, rich and moist, and really good. Wicked good. I dare you to not eat whipped ganache with a spoon ;)

picture from 9/21/15 post - same cake made up into cupcakes,
put 2 T. batter in the cake liners and add some filling, then
top with more batter - so the filling bakes into the
middle of the cupcake. then top with glaze and nuts. 

Coconut Cream Filled Cupcakes

We had a joint birthday dinner for Dave and Ray and they both like different kinds of cake - so I had the thought to split one batch of cupcakes in half and do something different for each guy. I used a boxed white cake mix but replaced the water and oil with milk and melted butter, and added an additional egg - then I filled 12 lined cupcake tins with the batter for Ray's half and baked as directed. To the remaining batter I added a big handful of shredded coconut and a 1/2 teaspoon of coconut extract (I would have used more but that's all that was left in the bottle! After they baked I ran to the store for more so I could add to the frosting) then filled 12 lined cupcake tins and baked those as directed. Note: I usually bake them for less time than the box suggests, I pulled these out at 15 minutes and they were perfect.

After they cooled I frosted Ray's with fluffy chocolate buttercream frosting and sprinkles. Dave's were a little more complicated but not difficult. I removed a little cake from the cupcakes creating a hole, then squeezed in the filling (see below). Smooth the tops, spread with frosting, then pat coconut all over the tops covering completely. I actually got a "best ever" thumbs up from Dave and everyone else at the table (except the ones that don't like coconut, they don't count haha).

The waitress looked at both containers of cupcakes and asked where I bought them - awwwww, that was nice - I was holding the chocolate ones and asked if she'd like one, she said "are the other ones coconut? Because coconut is my favorite" hahaha, so we gave her one of each :). Cute.

Coconut Cream Filled Cupcakes Directions:

-Add shredded coconut and extract to the batter before baking.
-Make filling: mix together 1 box of coconut cream pudding and 3/4 cup whole milk, whisk for a couple minutes and refrigerate until set.
-Whip a small container of whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Add half to the pudding.
-Put the filling in a quart sized baggie and snip one corner.
-Remove some cake from the top of each cupcake, squeeze filling into each hole. Smooth the top.
-Frost with buttercream frosting and then cover the tops with shredded coconut. Refrigerate.

Coconut Buttercream Frosting:
-1 stick soft unsalted butter
-4 cups confectioners sugar
-1 teaspoon coconut extract
-pinch of coarse salt
-milk (a couple tablespoons, add a little at
a time until you get the right consistency)

cream the butter until smooth, add the
remaining ingredients and beat until smooth
and fluffy. For this cake I added a big scoop
of cool whip, gently folding to combine
with the frosting. 

note: to make chocolate buttercream frosting replace the coconut extract with vanilla and add 2/3 cup cocoa powder

Rolo Cupcakes

My niece Mickey requested cupcakes for her graduation party and sent me what seemed like hundreds of Pinterest ideas for what she would like. I decided to make 2 different flavors -'Rolo' which is a dark chocolate cake with caramel, and 'cookie dough' yellow cake with a ball of cookie dough in the batter ... she was thrilled.

The Rolo cupcakes are filled with homemade caramel, when I first looked at the recipe I was thinking that sounded like a lot of work and I wasn't crazy about that haha, but it was very easy to do and I'm going to be using this caramel recipe for lots of different things in addition to the cupcake filling. Don't let that part scare you off of making these! I followed the recipe exactly even though while I was waiting for the sugar to melt in a dry pan I was second guessing the instructions for sure! You put granulated sugar in a pan over medium heat and stir, and wait, and stir, and wait - it took quite a while before it started to melt and then it got weirdly chunky before it did indeed finally melt. Don't let it cook too long or the sugar will burn.

this is what the sugar did before melting completely. 

I'll admit I cheated on the cake part of the recipe; I planned to make the cake from scratch as instructed but then saw that I had a devils food cake mix in the cupboard and decided to use that as a short cut. I did add a big scoop of sour cream and a handful of mini chocolate chips to the batter to jazz it up a little.

After the cupcakes are baked and cool, scoop out some of the top (I cut a circle with a sharp knife and then scooped it out with a small spoon saving the cake I removed) and fill with a little less than a tablespoon of cooled caramel sauce, replace the piece of cake you removed, then frost with chocolate buttercream and drizzle with a little more caramel. Top with an unwrapped Rolo.

These turned out super good, the only negative I heard was that they are almost too moist - I think the caramel soaks into the cake quite a bit so it gives it a very moist texture, you almost want to eat them with a fork. But really, if the only downside is chocolate cake that is too moist (instead of dry!) then I'm good with that.