Birthday Cake!

This weekend I had the opportunity to make a birthday cake for a little boy turning one years old!  It was a dinosaur cake!  For this cake I used a Wilton cake mold.  The cake and frosting were made completely from scratch.  The cake recipe was your standard 1-2-3-4 cake recipe and the frosting was butter-cream.  I've posted before about the butter-cream icing recipe I use here.
Cakes like this can be time consuming but careful preparation can drastically reduce the amount of work.  First,  carefully read through the instructions ENTIRELY before you begin.  This will help you plan ahead and decide how much cake and frosting you need as well as which colors and tips you need for decorating.  If you are using a specific cake mold and have the instruction booklet, it usually details this information for you.  I suggest making the frosting ahead of time.  The above butter-cream icing recipe can be stored for up to a week in the refrigerator in a sealed container.  If you are doing a cake that uses a lot of colors, be sure to make sure you have all the right colors before hand.  I also suggest purchasing disposable piping bags (you don't want to have to stop and wash out a piping bag when changing colors).  It's also helpful to tint your frosting ahead of time.  Divide out your frosting into the amounts you will need for the different colors (again the instruction booklet should spell this out) and tint them to the desired colors.  I suggest not tinting the frosting until about one day ahead of time.
Its a good idea to make the cake the day before, and allow it to set out over night so it can cool completely.  That way, the morning of "cake day," everything is done except to ice the cake.  This makes the whole process a lot easier.

A few more tips:

• Always a good idea to have some extra frosting on hand in case you mess up
• Be sure you thoroughly grease and flour the cake pan, or use a cake release spray
• Allow the cake to cool completely before attempting to ice
• If the icing becomes too runny and difficult to work with, stiffen it up by placing it in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes
• Do the outline of the cake before filling it in.  Also, try to work from the inside out.  Get the parts in the center of the cake before you move to the outside.  The sides should be the very last thing you do.

So these types of cakes be intimidating and seem like tons of work but if you break it out into steps and are methodical in your approach, it makes things a lot easier (especially for us domestically inept people).  If you can't bring yourself to tackle the challenge, pay a friend to do it for you =).

Angel Food Flop

Just when you thought the domestically inept housewife knew a thing or two about baking...

About a week ago my very dear friend Ashley had a birthday. Since I'm always looking for an excuse to get into the kitchen and lavish delectably good treats on my friends, I immediately promised her any cake her heart desired.  And Ashley, being the sensible girl she is, asked for an Angel Food Cake.  With all the holiday treats floating around, she desired something a little lighter and healthier.  Now I have made Angel Food Cake a few times before so I clicked my heels and said "no problem, your wish is my command!"

So it was settled, I was to bring the cake into work one evening.  I had the whole day to bake it.  I was so excited because I was going to try something really different to top the cake with.  My plan was to do a cranberry glaze, and top the cake off with some whipped cream (real stuff, not that crap in a can) and a dollop of chocolate ice cream on the side.  Why cranberries you ask?  Well cranberries are in season and red is Ashley's favorite color...and quite frankly, I just wanted to try it.

So, the morning of Ashley's birthday, I got up, went to my recipe book and pulled out Alton Brown's Angel Food Cake Recipe.  This is the same recipe I have used several times to make homemade Angel Food Cake.  So I had absolutely no doubt I could do it...I think I even yawned while mixing together the ingredients.  Needless to say, things did not go as planned.  My first cake came out of the oven, looked beautiful but upon cooling it completely collapsed!

Elinor's Coffee Cake

Little old ladies named Elinor make the best baked goods.  I got this recipe from a dear sweet lady I met a few years ago.  Hands down the BEST coffee cake you will ever have. 

Recipe

Ingredients:

• Group A
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 cups of flour
• 1/4 tsp coarse salt
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
• Group B
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 & 1/2 cups of buttermilk
• Group C (topping)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Step 1: Mix together the ingredients in group A, cutting the butter into the other ingredients with a pastry cutter

Step 2: Continue cutting the butter into the other ingredients until a coarse crumble forms and there are no more large chunks of butter left.  Remove one cupful of the mixture and set aside

Step 3: Meanwhile, mix together the ingredients in group B till nice and smooth

Step 4: Mix the B mixture into the A mixture and pour into a greased 13 x 9 baking dish

Step 5: Take the reserved cup from the Group A ingredient mixture and spread evenly on top of the batter

Step 6: Next, take the pecan, sugar and cinnamon mixture and spread evenly on top

Step 7: Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 45 minutes.  The cake is done when a fork or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

The Fastest, Easiest Way to Frost a Cupcake

Yummy Cupcake!

So easy...a domestically inept person could do it!  Well after many years of trying (and failing), I've finally stumbled across a great way to frost cupcakes.  Come on moms, we've all been there.  Its 11:00pm and you have to have about 2 dozen cupcakes ready for your kid's class tomorrow.  Well, no more late nights frosting!  No need for spatulas....all you need is a piping bag (a really big one) and a HUGE tip.  Below is a picture of an 18 inch canvas piping bag and a large star-shaped pastry tip, #826. 

18 inch canvas piping bag & #826 tip

 To give you an idea of how big this tip is compared to the usually sized tips, check out this picture below:

An Ateco #826 v. a Wilton #21 tip



All you have to do is put the tip in the piping bag, fill it with frosting, make a few swirls on top of the cupcake and you are done!  You can frost dozens of cupcakes in no time!  Below is one of the best recipes I've found for homemade buttercream frosting.  Better yet you can make it ahead of time and refrigerate it for a few days before you need it.

Homemade Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk

Instructions:



• Cream together the butter, shortening and vanilla using an electric mixer on medium speed
• Turning the mixer speed down to low, slowly add the powdered sugar
• Once all the powdered sugar is incorporated, add the milk
• If desired, add coloring

The above recipe will frost about a dozen cupcakes using the piping method describe above.