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. 

Robert Redford Cake

In addition to the requested Buckeyes for my sissy's birthday (click here for that post) I also made this cake in case people didn't want just Buckeyes for dessert. A friend from work gave me this recipe like 20 years ago - it's definitely an oldie but goodie!

Ingredients:

1 package oreos
1 stick butter, melted
1 16oz container cool whip
2 large packages cream cheese
1 T. sugar
1 large box instant chocolate pudding
2 cups milk

Directions:

1. Crush cookies in a large bowl, reserve one cup and mix the rest of the cookie crumbs with the melted butter. Put in bottom of 13x9 pan and press down to form the crust.
2. Mix pudding with 2 cups milk and spread on top of the crust. Refrigerate.
3. Mix cool whip with cream cheese and sugar until it's a creamy consistency. Layer on top of pudding.
4. Sprinkle with remains 1 cup of cookie crumbs and refrigerate. 

This looks suspiciously like the S'more pie I made a couple weeks ago, doesn't it? No marshmallows in this one tho!

one year ago today: tip for repotting plants using a coffee filter for drainage.

Brownie, Oreo, and Reese's Ice Cream Cake

I asked Brooke if she wanted me to make or buy her a dessert for her birthday dinner last night (that's usually my assignment - yay!), she texted back "MAKE". I replied "did you just yell that at me?" and she said "no, I screamed it at you"! Ok then, I guess I'm making it hahaha. I laughed. Her request? Ice cream cake, any flavor as long as it has peanut butter please.

First I baked the brownie crust (using 1/2 of a boxed mix) in the bottom of a 8.5" springform pan, then put the other layers on top. Note * I will do this differently next time and bake the brownie in a different 8.5" pan, then put it in the springform pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and lined with plastic wrap...the brownie baked in the bottom made the cake SO hard to get out this way! The pan really needs to be sprayed and lined before assembling the cake. Fair warning people. Other than that this is a super easy dessert to make - really you just wing it, whatever flavors you like and use your imagination for toppings and candy.

first layer of fudge, cookies and
peanut butter cups

For this one I put on a layer of chocolate ice cream (let it stand on the counter for a few minutes to soften up, then mix it well so it's smooth but not melted), put in the freezer until it's hardened up. Warm a jar of hot fudge until it's spreadable and put a layer of that on top of the ice cream followed by chopped up oreo cookies and chopped mini reese's peanut butter cups. Freeze again. Then add a layer of peanut butter ice cream (I just put vanilla ice cream in a bowl and using my electric mixer beat in a big spoonful of peanut butter - voila, peanut butter ice cream), freeze. To finish I spread a thin layer of cool whip on top, drizzled with additional warmed hot fudge (I put it in a ziplock baggie and cut off the tip to control the drizzling), topped with more chopped oreos and reese's. Freeze until ready to serve.

finished peanut butter cake

Now here's a funny thing - since not everyone at the party could eat peanut butter (Dave), I thought I'd be nice and make a second ice cream cake using the other half of the brownie mix, topped with chocolate ice cream, hot fudge and chopped oreos, topped with banana split ice cream, finished with cool whip and chocolate drizzle. Everyone except my sister ate the banana split one! Even Brooke - after she specifically asked for peanut butter. Good grief. I left both of the cakes with my sister, hopefully someone helps her eat the peanut butter one - there was a ton left!

banana split cake

top of banana split cake before the
drizzle froze to the aluminum
foil I wrapped the cake in, and then
 pulled off when unwrapping. ugh.
note to self - wrap these in plastic!