Chocolate Guinness Cake

So this crudely decorated cake actually turned out to be ridiculously delicious.

My friend Chad had a recipe for a chocolate Guinness cake, and since he knows how much I love to bake, he asked me to make it for him (and he bought all the ingredients, so I couldn't say no).

Just trust me on this one. It's got beer in it, so you're probably thinking, this cake is going to be awful. At least, that's what I thought. But surprisingly enough, it turned out to be a really good cake. It was really rich and moist, like the recipe said it would be...  but I did make a couple of changes.

First of all, I didn't have a tube pan, so I baked the cake in two 9" round pans, and decreased the cooking time (I don't remember exactly how long, since I just estimated, but it definitely was not for an hour) until a toothpick stuck in the cake came out "mostly" clean (see step 3 in the recipe).

Second, I iced the entire cake, even though the recipe says to "to capture the essence and simplicity of a pint of Guinness"by only icing the top. But since I made a layer cake, and not a bundt-type cake, I just iced it like a layer cake should be iced. However, this cream cheese icing is not your average decorator's icing, so there was pretty much no way to make this look pretty in the traditional, smooth sense. What I'm saying is, I just slapped the icing on there. It worked though, and even the pros (if I can call myself that) get lazy. And since I was baking in Chad's kitchen, and didn't have any decorator's tools with me anyway, I wrote "THE GAME" on top of the cake with a knife.

The point is, it tasted good. And that frosting I was just complaining about? It had whipped cream and cream cheese in it, which is why the cake was hard to frost, but the combination was light and fluffy and honestly counterbalanced the rich chocolate flavor of the cake very nicely. Next time I'll just have to find myself a 10" angel food pan and make my cake as pretty as the one on Design*Sponge.  :-)

Think - {Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream}

Enjoying the damp, dark quiet of an unremarkable night, I'm walking alone on the sidewalk. It seems to move beneath my feet like a giant treadmill and I find myself feeling, although mobile, quite stationary. Lighted by street lamps and porch lights, the path ahead is clearly defined, empty, and normal; but somehow it seems as if my steps are being delivered at the sounding of my souls. I

Girly - {Maraschino Cherry Lamingtons}

I briefly considered opening this post with a paragraph-long deprecation of Valentine's Day, but I did something along those lines last year, so why do it again? Instead, this year, I'm going to talk about what I do like about this ingeniously marketed holiday.I'm sure it's rather straightforward and plain considering my interests and my gender. But not too simple; of course I like flowers and

The Game.

OK, so 10 nerd points to whomever recognizes this cake design.

Anyone?

Well, if you still haven't figured it out, here is my inspiration:

Ta-Da!

I realize that not everyone play Portal (for example: me) but feel free to check out the Wikipedia page if you'd like to brush up on your nerd culture references. Or just read this little Urban Dictionary explanation about the phrase "the cake is a lie:"

Roughly translates to "your promised reward is merely a fictitious motivator". Popularized by the game "Portal" (found on Half-Life 2's "Orange Box" game release for PC, X-Box 360, and PS3). During the game, an electronic voice encourages you to solve intricate puzzles using cake as a motivating perk. When you have "broken out" of the game's initial testing phase (from threat of death), you find scrawls on walls of the innards of the testing center warning you that "the cake is a lie".

So now you know. But my theory is that the cake (at least, my cake) is not a lie, but you can tell people that it is, in order not to share your delicious dessert.

In case you were wondering, the "cherries" on top of the cake are actually cherry-flavored candies I found at Publix. Basically, they are like Blow Pops, but without the stick. Joy and Haley and I wandered all over 2 groceries stores before we found them. (We could've used real cherries, but the juice would've gotten all over the cake and it was just very messy.)

And just so you know, the chocolate shavings on the outside of the cake? They are a labor of love. But I found out if you melt your Hershey's bars (just a little bit; don't over-melt) and then freeze them all together in a big lump, everything suddenly becomes a lot easier. Otherwise, the candy bar (which is really thin) just sorta falls apart in your hands and that makes a huge mess. Also, wrap the chocolate in wax paper because your hands will melt it otherwise. If you're interested in learning how to shave your own chocolate, here's an article. (I used 6 Hershey bars, the kind you can get in the checkout lane, for this cake.)

The cake itself was that ultra awesome amazing pound cake that I made for Maggie's birthday. It's still super awesome the second time around. :)

Finally, I made a variation of Wilton's chocolate buttercream. First of all, I doubled the recipe, because I had a lot of cake to cover. Secondly, I heated up the cocoa powder & melt over the stove, which means that I basically doubled the amount of milk the recipe called for, because otherwise there wasn't enough liquid to mix the powder with. Of course, adding more liquid did make the icing thinner, but because I was just using it to ice the cake, and not do any crazy piping, it worked out. The reason that I heated up the cocoa was because I read somewhere that it makes the flavor intensify, which I seriously believe to be true. There is one thing that I would do differently next time, is to let the cocoa/milk cool down before adding to the Crisco/butter, because it ended up all melted in my mixer, and you can't have fluffy icing if all your fat is melted. My solution? Just stick it in the freezer until it hardens back up, then keep mixing until everything is beautiful and incorporated! :)

So that's it for this week's baking adventures! Stay tuned next week for more! :-)

Tangerine Chiffon Cake

Ingredients:
6 eggs, separated
2 1/4 cups flour*
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup tangerine juice
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
zest of 2 tangerines

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, 1 1/4 cup of the sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Add the egg yolks, oil, tangerine juice and zest. Beat until smooth.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter using a spatula.

Pour the batter into the ungreased tube pan and bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Immediately invert the pan onto a bottle cake-side down over a rack or baking sheet. Let the cake cool completely. Run a thin knife or spreader along the edges of the pan on all sides to release the cake.


If desired, drizzle with a glaze of confectioners sugar whisked together with tangerine juice.

*Look for a fine flour like White Lily for best results.

My thoughts:

I love tangerines this time of year! They really are at their juicy peak. Normally I am a chocolate or vanilla person when it comes to dessert but I can make an exception for this brightly flavored cake.

Chiffon cakes are sort of old fashioned and I've found many people are not familiar with them. It is a shame because they have a wonderfully light texture without the "chew" of angel food or being spongy. The secret is in folding in the egg whites (easier than it sounds, I promise) and using oil instead of butter. They are especially well suited to citrus pairings because the juice provides a lot of flavor which helps compensate for the lack of buttery richness. Because of the oil, the cakes stay remarkably fresh for several days unrefrigerated or a few months if frozen.

Season - {Lemon and Almond Cake}

The concept of seasonality isn't something that occurred to me until just a few years ago as I spent an afternoon strolling the produce section of a local grocery store and considered the quality of their offerings. Certainly, my parents had explained to me the grand exchange of goods from far-off lands; instilling in me a brief understanding of the world economy to prime me for further

Pear & Yogurt Bundt Cake

Ingredients:
6 eggs, at room temperature
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 quart canned pears, drained and diced
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup pear cider
16 oz full fat Greek or Mediterranean style yogurt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla/rye/bourbon

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour one bundt pan. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the wet ingredients, stir to combine. In separate bowl, Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl until well combined. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until a uniform batter forms. Fold in pear. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 55 minutes or until a thin knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes on a wire rack, then remove from the pan. Cool completely.

My thoughts:

I've been on a quest to give you guys some recipes that use all of the stuff I've been canning. Of course, I benefit too! My canning cabinet is seriously full and while I am the kind of person who likes to hoard good ingredients, I know I have to use it up. If only to make room for the next stuff. Anyway, I canned these pears back in the beginning of their season and while pears are still pretty available, they are not as good as they were back then. When I was invited to a Southern themed party, I knew I had to use my sweet tea syrupy pears (although I am sure if would be just fine with any old good quality canned pear). I based the recipe off of an old fashioned sour cream cake my Aunt A used to make when I was little. It is a bit rich but a great way to use up eggs! The yogurt gives it some tang and the pear cider really drives home the pear flavor, which I find can be tricky to maintain in baked goods. It also makes for a very moist cake. It was a huge hit at the party, pretty much every slice was gone in just a few minutes!

Disaster!

I think the biggest disaster is that I always spell it "diaster."

Nah, not really. I think a volcano being attacked by a shark, giant octopus, wolf, The Cold, and an encroaching ocean is pretty disastrous. Oh! Don't forget the meteor and wrecked helicopter.

See, this is a cake that I was planning for Hillary's 19th birthday, and now it's 2 months past her 20th birthday, so to say this is belated is quite an understatement. Anyway, we love watching cheesy corny disaster movies together ("The Day After Tomorrow," "Absolute Zero," "Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus," "2012" for example) so this cake takes its inspiration from all of those movies and more.

The cake turned out a little more cartoonish--maybe it was the fondant octopus or the light blue icy lava-- than I was originally picturing in my head, but it turned out really great. The "lava" and ocean are made out of royal icing, which made cutting into the cake a little more difficult than originally planned, and the meteor, octopus, and shark fin are all made of out Wilton fondant (why Wilton? Because it's cheap and no one was going to eat the pieces anyway). The volcano is chocolate buttercream, and the cake is coffee flavored.

Shout out to Sarah! For telling me how to make coffee cake, and to pass it on, I'll tell you now! (Because have you ever tried to google "coffee flavored cake recipe?" It doesn't work, I tell you!) OK, so you take your cake recipe (or box mix) and instead of putting water or whatever liquid, use double-brewed coffee instead. And my dad says there's some secret "thing" about double brewed coffee, like it will break the coffee maker or something...so I just asked him to brew the coffee for me.

So there you have it! The Disaster Cake. While not as epic as the end of the world, this cake was pretty grand, and according to Chris, the best tasting cake I've ever made!

Show - {Pumpkin Cupcakes}

I'm not particularly creative when it comes to Halloween costumes. To be completely honest, I am so bad at it that I don't even deserve the privilege of using the word "particularly" in that last sentence.True fact.I hardly remember any of my past costumes, which is probably due to the fact that the eve of October 31st is often bitterly cold and rainy in Michigan. Let me tell you something:

Riley's Cake

Riley is seriously the cutest little two-year-old I've ever met. He calls me Peaches (that's my nickname down in Florida... Since I'm from Georgia, y'all!) and he's got the sweetest little smile.

His birthday was also this past Wednesday (just like Joy) but his party was today. So since he's part of Joy's family, I made his birthday cake too!

The theme was Jeeps and I used this cake as an inspiration. Of course, it didn't matter how inspiring the picture is, if you can't find any toy Jeeps to put on top! I think we spent 10 minutes looking through the Hotwheel and Matchbox cars before we found the right cars.

As far as the decorations go, it really wasn't that hard. I made a 9x13" cake, and  9" and 6" rounds, then I just sorta cut up the round cakes and strategically placed them on the sheet cake so it looked like hills and valleys. And it didn't really matter that the cake crumbs (marbled yellow & chocolate) got in the icing, because it looked more like dirt.

The trees are just ice cream cones cut down to smaller sizes, then covered in a leaf tip (#67, I believe), and I used that same shade of green for the grass (grass tip, obviously). The thing about the grass, though, is you gotta make sure the icing isn't too thin, or the blades of grass will just look all droopy and such.

The mud hole is just chocolate icing and piping gel mixed together to look all dirty, with some Oreo crumbs sprinkled in. And the trail? Graham cracker and Oreo crumbs.

The river is white icing with blue-tinted piping gel smoothed on top so it looks all watery and such. Joy and I ran the little Matchbox cars all over the cake to give it "tire tracks" (although to be honest you really can't tell) but when Joy put cocoa powder on their tires, it looked awesome.

My favorite part, though? The candy rocks:

We got them at Wal-Mart. How amazing is that?! And they tasted delicious too, in addition to looking perfect.

So that was Riley's cake. I wasn't able to go deliver it with Joy, but she told me it arrived safely and everyone at the party (including the birthday boy) loved it.

The Five Hour Cake

Today is my roommate's birthday. She is, if you couldn't tell, 20 years old. And since I'm a baker (and I had no other gift ideas) I decided to surprise her with a cake.

Which is a lot harder than you might think, because I didn't know her favorite flavor (my guess was red velvet or strawberry) or what colors or design to make it. So I just sorta winged it (wung it?) and came up with this idea on the spot.

It helped that Joy had plans last night so I was able to go out to the store, buy ingredients, have time to bake the cake, make a gumpaste bow and frosting, cool the cake, and ice and decorate it, all while she was out.

The bow is my first attempt ever, and Joy and Sophie thought it looked really good, but (you know what a perfectionist I am) the unevenness and powdered sugar splots really bothered me. Plus, I think using a gumpaste/fondant mix might help instead of straight up gumpaste, because when I put the little bows on the cake, some of them cracked. So I'm definitely going to practice this skill a little more.

And speaking of practicing, this is the website where I got the tutorial, so if you need some gumpaste bow practicing tips as well, here you go!

I still can't believe that I started baking at 7pm and by midnight, it was done. I know if I had more time, I could've fixed thought little tiny imperfections that bothered me, like the bow, and smoothed out the buttercream a little more. (I probably would've used a from-scratch recipe instead of a doctored box mix too.)

If you live in an apartment, or even a house, with a small number of inhabitants, say two or three, and you don't go through a gallon of milk as fast as a household of seven would, then it might because a good idea to check the expiration date of aforementioned milk, just in case it's two weeks past the date, and before you start dumping the milk into recipes. Just a thought.

And my final word of advice for anyone looking for cake decorating tips and tricks: don't burn your thumb on the lighter when lighting birthday candles. Actually, you probably shouldn't use a lighter at all when you're blood sugar is low and you're exhausted at 12am. But aside from the charred mark on my nail (what the heck?!), I survived that incident too.

Happy Birthday, Joy!

Sip - {Pecan Praline Cake}

After carefully checking it for lingering traces of peanut butter, I plunge the blunt-end of a butter knife into my tall thermos. A simple twirl creates a brief and sophisticated tie-dye, eventually settling into a comfortable brown with a glossy finish. As I stare blankly into the stilled thermos, I am reminded of a time when I truly appreciated black coffee. A time when I would scoff at the

Shop - {Filled Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes}

Selecting a cart is the first of my troubles. It happens all too often that I grab the handle of one in a row, confidently tug it in my direction and consequently find myself reeling backward with neither my balance nor dignity. Or the cart.Then, if I am to victoriously retrieve a cart from its resting place, I always find it difficult to excuse myself from the surrounding environment. Amongst

Captain Rex on Deck!

The cake I made for my little brother's 7 birthday was definitely a labor of love. I think the amount of time that I put into it more than makes up for the cake I didn't make for him last year.

He wanted a Captain Rex cake, and I've known for years it was only a matter of time before he asked for a Star Wars themed cake. This kid knows more about Star Wars in his 7 years of life than I do in my 19 years, 1 month, and 2 days of living. Thankfully, though, he didn't say anything about the realistic-ness of the gumpaste Lego figure on top. James, however, was not so kind. But hey, I think it looks a lot like this photo, soooo whatevs.

One big problem with the cake was the humidity. The fondant was so sticky and so hard to work with, and the gumpaste never dried properly (as you'll be able to see in the following photos). Plus, I ran out of powdered sugar half way through decorating, I didn't have a turn table or toothpicks (but I definitely bought some of those), and then there was that awful crater in the center of the top tier. You can't see it because I filled it up with another cupcake!

 I did the lettering out of a gumpaste/fondant mix. It took an hour to cut them all out, using a pattern I printed off the computer (I downloaded a free Star Wars font, and cut the letters out individually). A word to the wise, don't roll out the letters too thin or they will tear.

Do you see the trouble this cake gave me?! I didn't even notice that the "Birthday" was drooping down the side of the cake. You can't tell in this picture, but the H also cracked and tore a lot. It was a sad moment . :( I thought about re-doing it, but the cake was due in 20 minutes, and I figured no one was going to notice, except self-deprecating lil ol' me. (And now all of y'all because I pointed it out to you.)

And here we have another photo of the headless Rex Lego dude. The little black thing next to the cake is his blaster, which, if properly dried and hardened, would've been in Rex's hand, pointed down like a #7. You won't see the blaster in any other photo because Adam ate it.

 But we got a nice sparkly #7 candle at the ghetto Walmart, and the star candles, because they didn't have any birthday candles.


It was my mom's idea to prop Rex up against the cake. She's brilliant. However, she did think the pattern was margarita glasses, and not Rex's helmet, so.... yeah.

This is the other present I got Adam (the cake being the first). It's a Toy Story mixing bowl set with a spatula and cookie cutters. He can't wait to make cookies with me! :)

Despite the many, many problems this cake gave me over the last 24 hours, it was totally worth it to present it to Adam and to be able to see him (and my entire crazy, lovable family) on his birthday!

Babble - {Grapefruit Cupcakes with Honeyed Italian Meringue Buttercream}

One thing that I really like about college is that, for the most part and in the best way possible, no one knows anyone else. No one knows who you were in third grade, and no one cares. No one cares about the once infamous "popular kids" or all "popular things" they used to do. No one cares if you're "cool" or not because, as far as I can tell, that concept doesn't really exist in college.

19 Years and Counting

Happy birthday to me!

Yup, it's official, guys. I'm 19. (even though I've totally been telling people I'm 19 for weeks, it's just true now!)

And to celebrate, I made myself a cake. Well, a cake and cupcakes.

But I have this weird quirk that I had to overcome first: I hate starting a cake. Once I get going, I'm fine, but the beginning is rough. Which is probably why I end up decorating cakes at four in the morning the day before they're due. I am a true procrastinator, and it's an awful trait, but at least I have a good answer when job interviewers ask, "What's one of your weaknesses?" (Because "Tayor Lautner" probably isn't a very professional answer.)

Right. So it's 5:00pm Sunday and I still haven't started yet. Instead I'm half-heartedly looking through photos on Flickr trying to figure out how I'm going to tie my black/white/pink/girly/swirly/flower themed cupcakes into the cake topper, instead of making buttercream and covering my cake in delicious Duff fondant.

But fast-forward a few hours, and I have a fondant-covered cake (that smells amazing), and a handful of fondant daisies. And finally around midnight, I've finished the cake.... well, except for the 19 on top. That was done last-minute as party guests started arriving. And instead of the gumpaste 19 I wanted to do, it's made of fondant & cardboard & toothpicks & electrical tape. And it didn't fall apart until after we served the cake!

So this post is getting extremely long. I guess with age comes a verboseness I wasn't expecting. So how 'bout another picture?

It's not a perfect cake. I'm spoiled because at Bliss there's a fondant sheeter and ribbon cutters that I can use. I had to improvise here. :) I also couldn't get the pink buttercream quite the right color, so I did end up at Bliss this afternoon & bought some Fuschia Americolor gel. But really, other than that, the decorating and construction went smoothly. I was going to put a 3D daisy on top (next to the 19) but it didn't look as good as I thought it would, so Sarah ate it. :)

And the two flavors-- cookies and cream (the pink cupcakes & the top cake), and the mint chocolate (white cupcakes; the b/c was mint too!) tasted amazing! I'm so proud of this cake!

Now that the party's over, I'm going to enjoy the rest of my birthday by watching A Very Potter Sequel and recovering from my sugar-induced coma (which is a metaphor and not an actual diabetes-related medical issue, so no worries there!)

Assist - {S'mores Cupcakes}

I double check for traffic, holding myself flat against my car and opening the door just wide enough to make a quick and subtle exit. Calmed by the road's emptiness, I cautiously tip-toe from the vehicle and attempt a stealthy approach toward my target, but my plan is immediately thwarted. Rickety and protesting in idle, the exhaust and associated pipes make my car rumble indecently; immature

Yes, I DO Make My Own Birthday Cakes

Flashback time!

People are always surprised when I say that I make my own birthday cakes. My mother gets annoyed, though, because she thinks that, the way I tell it, it sounds like she just quit making my cakes and left me stranded in the kitchen.

When that is sooo not how it happened.

See, I wanted to make my own birthday cakes. I still do. I wanted to pour through Family Fun magazine, and make a Teddy Grahm pool cake, or stick my pink Power Rangers Barbie doll in a tiered cake and cover it in sprinkles and call it a "dress." I think my mom had a pretty hard time getting me out of the kitchen when she was baking. And as the years went on, I pretty much kicked her out.

So when I proudly say that I make my own birthday cakes (and yes, I write "Happy Birthday Kelsie" on them, because why would I write "Happy Birthday Me" anyway?!), it is not because my mom has subpar baking skills or hated making her children's birthday cakes, because neither of those are true. It's because I love to bake. I always have, and I always will!

Two more days until I'm 19!

Oh, Crumbs

My first ever Harry Potter cake. (This is the second. And these are the cupcakes.) I've taken it out of the secret vault of Kelsie's Cakes of the Past to share with you all today. But after this, it's going back into the vault. Because this cake was... crumby.

I think it's also my first carved cake too. With canned icing, dyed "Golden Snitch yellow" with...liquid food coloring. I know, I know. But I've said it before (and you're probably really tired of me saying this): I've come a long way.

This box mix chocolate cake did not have the luxury of a crumb coat of decorator's buttercream, and there was no gold luster (lustre?) dust on wings. Heck, I didn't even know such a thing existed when I was 14! But if I were to make this cake today, it would probably be a three-dimensional orb with gumpaste golden wings.

Oh, that's my sister Maggie by the way. I keep talking about her because her birthday was Sunday. But this is the last Maggie-centric post for a while, because MY birthday is next week. Then you get to hear me talk about myself for a few days. Won't that be fun?! :P

Roses for Maggie

Flashback time!

Today is my youngest sister's 15th birthday. Last weekend was her birthday party, when I made that Sword in the Stone cake.

Three years ago, I made this little number. Nothing too fancy; it's got three pretty hot pink roses (I. Hate. Roses. But these look so nice! How did I do that? And why can't I do that now??) and a classy basketweave border (an old favorite of mine). I remember when I made it, my dad wanted me to go around to all the bakeries in town and see who wanted to hire me. But considering that I was 15 at the time, I was too timid.

Seriously, though, this is a cute little cake. And you can see underneath it is the ever-present green tray that I use for pretty much everything. We still have it, and I'm pretty sure it's one of those things that we'll have forever. Not that I'm complaining. It's cute AND a good way to transport cupcakes!

Happy Birthday, Maggie! I love you!