Anyone looking through the recipes I have posted here in the past may notice that I have a bit of a sweet tooth. I also like things to be easily accessible. Enter this awesome mug cake, introduced to me by some of my coworkers.
To make this at home you will need:
1 box Angel Food cake mix
1 box any other flavor cake mix (I used spice cake)
1 microwave safe mug
To start out, you will mix together your 2 boxes of cake mix. I usually put mine in a large freezer bag (you can store it in the bag for a short period of time, I usually put mine in a small Tupperware container.
I've seen this recipe on some other sites called 3-2-1 cake. The reason for this is that once your cake mixture is created to make your cake you use 3 Tablespoons of the mix, 2 Tablespoons water and microwave your cake in a mug for 1 minute on high. I let mine sit in the microwave an additional minute or 2 to cool.
I have tried several cake flavors, and I have to say that you will probably be disappointed with any kind of chocolate cake. It just doesn't have the chocolatey flavor when mixed with the angel food cake. My favorites have been carrot cake and spice cake. Fruit cake mixes (lemon and strawberry) have also been tasty. You can also add frosting or whipped cream to your final cake--I like strawberries sliced onto the lemon cake MMMM.
This is a great option if you like dessert but don't necessarily want a whole cake sitting on your counter tempting you. It makes about 24 servings of cake and each serving is around 100 calories (without frosting added). Also, since you mix it with water only there is no added fat or oil-- you can feel a little less guilty. :)
I love Cherry season, and while usually the cherries don't make their way into anything but my mouth, I decided to take extra care to make an actual recipe with some this year. What better than an upside down cake? This is super yummy, and could easily be made in muffin form if slicing cake and slightly messy cleanup isn't your thing.
To make this yummy cake you will need:
1-1½ cups of Bing Cherries, pitted
½ cup brown sugar, packed
2 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
½ teaspoon lemon or lime juice
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 8"x8" cake pan (a 9" circle would also work great, or you can line muffin tins and make muffins!) I always use softened butter, spray would be fine I'm sure.
I start by pitting my cherries and adding in some lime juice (I don't use any fancy cherry pitter, I savagely take out the pits by hand and look like quite a barbarian by the time I'm finished). Stir this together and set aside.
After your pan has been greased, evenly spread your 1/2 cup of brown sugar over the bottom. Spread on your layer of cherries, then dot with 2 Tablespoons of butter.
Next, make your batter. Combine flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 2 cup measuring cup; add the egg, milk and vanilla. Mix this together and add to the flour mixture. *This makes a very thick batter that bakes up surprisingly light, you've been warned.
Pour the cake batter over your cherries and spread evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes in a 400 degree oven, then remove to a cooling rack to cool. When ready to remove, slide a knife around the edges of your pan and invert onto a plate. Enjoy all the yummy cherries and sugar seeping into that cakey goodness. MMM.
As promised, here are the cupcakes I made for the beloved husband's birthday this year. They were super yum!
To make some for the special people in your life you will need:
* 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 cups sugar
* 3/4 cups good cocoa powder
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 cup buttermilk, shaken (if you don't have buttermilk, you can pour 2 tablespoons of vinegar into a liquid cup measure and fill it the rest of the way with milk, let sit 10 minutes)
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (if you don't have coffee you can just use 1 cup of boiling water)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cupcake pans with liners, or grease well and flour (really though, go with liners).
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 20 to 23 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. I made some mini cupcakes as well, and they baked for about 18 minutes.
*Note: this makes a very runny batter, don't be alarmed.
Top them with some of my yummy Peppermint Buttercream and you have a great little snack :)
If you are like me, you own a bundt pan for some reason and often find yourself wondering why. It is to make this cake, trust me on that. If you are into pound cake, this is definitely the recipe for you. It is seriously yummy, and since it is a pound cake, has very few ingredients and is pretty easy to make. I got the recipe from Elizabeth's Edible Experience, and only tweaked one little thing(aside from topping mine with Marionberry Syrup)...as you will see later.
To make this delicious pound cake you will need:
One 8oz. package of cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups butter, softened (3 sticks)
6 eggs, at room temp
3 cups flour
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar*
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
*The original recipe calls for 3 cups sugar, if you want to do that, go for it. I ran out of sugar (who, me?), so I used 1/2 cup brown sugar with no adverse side effects as far as I could tell. In fact, the bottom (top when baking) of the cake turned out almost like a little crust of shortbread on the bottom of my cake. It was joyous and I recommend it.
Start off by creaming together your butter and cream cheese. Add in your sugar (I did this while my stand mixer was at a slow speed and I poured it in slowly until it was all incorporated).
Next, add in your eggs one at a time, stirring after each until incorporated. I crack my eggs into a small bowl before adding them to the batter. When you are using this many eggs, you want to make sure one bad one doesn't spoil the whole cake. You also want to avoid any egg shells.
Next, add in your salt and vanilla. Then, slowly add in your flour and mix until it comes together, but do not over mix. Scrape your sides to make sure no lumps remain and pour your dough into a greased and floured bundt pan, spread the top out evenly. I'm sure you could use some other kind of pan if you don't happen to have a bundt pan lying around, but I like that Mad Men feel of doing things all 60's like. Back then, they rocked the bundt cake. I may or may not have tasted some batter at this point, purely for scientific purposes. I almost forgot to bake my cake at that point, I'm a batter fiend...
Heat your oven to 300 degrees, and bake this yummy little guy for 1 hour 40 minutes. Yeah, you read that right, this cake takes 1 hour and 40 minutes to bake, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean (mine actually needed an EXTRA 5 minutes). Your patience will be rewarded.
Cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 15-20 minutes, then remove from pan and finish cooling. Eat this plain, with fresh fruit, fruit syrup (like me), or be really decadent and top this bad boy with hot fudge or caramel sauce. Not that I would ever encourage that sort of behavior...
Today is my 30th birthday! I sure don't know where all the time went since the above picture was taken, but I know I am jealous of that Bert and Ernie birthday cake. What happened to those days where a pretty cake with your favorite tv characters on it was all you needed to have a great day? Shockingly enough, this year I don't have a cake. I know, I know, me with all of my sweet and tasty food crafts and no cake? I'm ashamed.
I'll be having a celebratory giveaway this weekend, stay tuned and check back with all the info on the fabulous prize(s) and how to enter!
Food craft time! This week's food craft is Red Velvet Cake, and I apologize for the pictures being not all that great, it really is delicious. So delicious in fact, I could not bother to wait until I had decent lighting to eat my yummy cake. I am sure we will all still have a good life despite my photographic shortcomings on this post. This is a yummy classic, and I have seen several variations, but this is the recipe I have come to use whenever I want a velvet cake.
To make your own delicious Red Velvet Cake at home you will need:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar
2 Tablespoons Red food coloring
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
To start, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and prepare your cake pan(s). Two 9 inch pans is generally the standard*. Butter and flour them so you final cake doesn't stick. Set these aside.
Cream together your butter and sugar, set this aside. In one bowl, mix together all of your dry ingredients. In a second bowl, mix together all of the wet ingredients (I generally beat my eggs a little first before adding everything else).
Once you have your wet and dry bowls of ingredients start adding them to your butter and sugar in several alternating additions. First add 1/3 of your dry ingredients, then 1/3 of your wet. Mix your batter slowly and as soon as it is incorporated do you next addition until everything is mixed together.
Pour batter into your pans (you may need to smooth the top out evenly, this is a fairly thick batter).
Place into oven on center rack and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.
*Baking time will vary depending on size of your pans, if you use 8 inch round pans it will likely be closer to 25-30 minutes, a sheet pan will be closer to 20 minutes. Be sure to check with a toothpick or knife to make sure it is done before removing from the oven.
Cool in the pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and allow to fully cool. Frost and enjoy!
Beat together butter, cream cheese and vanilla flavoring until smooth. Sift your powdered sugar and mix well until incorporated. Refrigerate for 5-10 minutes before frosting cake to firm up frosting (you could also add a little extra confectioner's sugar if you prefer).
Today is my husband's birthday, so it is a special birthday themed food craft today. This is the one and only cake that my dearest love ever wants to eat, it is super moist, full of chocolatey flavor and absolutely delicious. I got the recipe from Barefoot Contessa on Food Network. If you decide to try your hand at the recipe (and I think you really should) keep in mind that the cake batter should come out very thin (or runny).
You will need:
* Butter, for greasing the pans
* 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
* 2 cups sugar
* 3/4 cups good cocoa powder
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 cup buttermilk, shaken (if you don't have buttermilk, you can add 2 tablespoons of vinegar - i typically add apple cider vinegar - to 1 cup of milk and let it sit for 10 minutes. Don't just use regular milk, you need the acidity to interact with your leavening agents)
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.
Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting (also from Barefoot Contessa)
6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (this time I actually used a dark chocolate, not a semi-sweet. Use whatever you like best.)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.
