50th Anniversary Cake

I hope everyone had a Fabulous Thanksgiving!
We had a great time here at my house.
Living away from family, we usually spend our holidays with just us, but not this time.

I was determined to find another family that lives far away from their loved ones.
I didn't have to look far, a family from my son's kindergarten class is also from California.
I saw this great idea to make graham cracker houses with the kids.
It was a great idea until I placed candy and royal icing in front of 7 kids. I think there was more eating and licking then actually creating. It was fun though.

We had such a blessed time! Thankful for new Friendships!

I was able to squeeze in a non-Thanksgiving cake that I want to share with you.

50th Anniversary Cake!

50 years! That is something to celebrate. I just adore this couple, so I was thrilled to make this cake for them. I love how it turned out.

The cake is a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.
I have blogged about it before. I feel it is the best carrot cake EVER! I usually am not a fan either.
You can find the recipe here.

For the decorating inspiration I went to one of my favorite decorators, CorrieCakes.

I colored marshmallow fondant gold and then hand painted on some gold edible luster dust (you can find it at most Michael's etc) I will have to do a tutorial on the flowers soon, but I just googled ruffle flowers and found a decent tutorial.
I couldn't find gold pearls so I just luster dusted them with the gold.
Lots of hand lustering (yes, it's a word in my world) and love!

Happy Anniversary Mr. and Mrs. Ulmer!
Now on to Christmas baking!!


Baking from my heart to your kitchen,

Share

Tale of Two Chocolate Pumpkin Cakes

I'm starting to think my friends have caught on.

They must have figured it out.

They know....

I love to bake! I knew it would leak out. I only put it in neon lights in front of my house.

They have been sending me subtle clues. Emailing me recipes, asking me if I could make "this" or have I heard of "that". My favorite is when they bring me bits and pieces of sweets they recently had a restaurant. "How do you think they made that?"




Seriously friends, just come out and say it. 
"Will you make this for me sometime in the near future?" Or more specifically, next Thursday.

There, was that so hard. You all know I love you just as much as I love caking.

I have two such cakes for you.


I was asked to make a chocolate pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting found on
Lady Behind the Curtain.

Looked like a yummy cake, but I was also asked to make a birthday cake for our dear Pastors wife. I wanted to do something similar but with my own flare. Soo...
 
I made another Chocolate Pumpkin recipe with Caramel Buttercream.

Let me tell you about them both.....
Let's start with the taste tester cupcakes.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcake with Cream cheese frosting, topped with ganache.

I liked the LBtC cake the best, the pumpkin made it super moist. 





Chocolate Pumpkin Cake with Caramel buttercream frosting.


I liked the Caramel Buttercream the best of the two frostings.




Let me tell you why....

Cake: Amanda's cake tasted like a pumpkin pie cake, it was good, but maybe too much pumpkin flavor. It was still moist and delicious. LBtC's cake didn't really taste pumpkiny, but it was super moist. I suppose you will have to decide what flavor you are looking for.

Frosting: The Caramel Buttercream was made with my homemade caramel and I just really love it. I am not a huge fan of cream cheese frosting... I know.. .I'm weird.
I will say, I put Ganache in the layers of the cake with the frosting, you can never have too much chocolate.

Here are the Recipes......

First up, Pumpkin Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

adapted from Lady Behind the Curtain


1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (Dutch if you want a dark rich chocolate cake)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs

Directions

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line the bottoms of two 8-inch ( I used 3 8-inch because I wanted a taller cake) with parchment paper and lightly spray with a non stick cooking spray.
Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.
Stir the buttermilk, pumpkin, and vanilla extract together in a small bowl.
Beat the butter and sugars together until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Reduce mixer speed to low and alternately beat in the flour and buttermilk mixtures in thirds.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake until a tester, inserted in the center, come out clean–about 35 minutes. Cool layers completely before frosting.

Frosting Recipe

Ingredients

6 ounces cream cheese, softened
1-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2-1/4 teaspoons cocoa
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

1/2 teaspoon orange food coloring

Directions

Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add 1-1/2 cups confectioners sugar, 2-1/4 teaspoons cocoa, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat on low until well combined. Transfer to a larger bowl. Clean the mixing bowl. Beat the heavy cream, 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar and orange food coloring on medium high to soft peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until well combined. Spread 1 cup frosting between the two layers and use the remaining frosting to ice the top and sides of the cake. Chill 30 minutes and prepare chocolate glaze.


Ganache recipe at end of post

Next......

Chocolate Pumpkin cake with Caramel buttercream topped with Ganache

cake inspired by Amanda's Cookin


2 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter softened
1 cup pumpkin
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 oz semi sweet chocolate, chopped fine

Line your pans with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, spice and cocoa. Set aside.
Cream together butter and sugars in a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add pumpkin and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gradually add flour mixture until combined.
Toss chocolate chips with a Tbls of flour and fold in to the mixture.
Pour into pans and bake 30-35 minutes. 
Cool for about 5 minutes and turn cakes out.

Caramel Buttercream
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup shortening
6 cups powdered sugar
1/2-1 cup caramel sauce (depends on your taste, I used about 3/4 cup)
1 Tbs heavy whipping cream (you could use milk too)

In the bowl of mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and shortening until fluffy.
Sift in 3 cups of the powdered sugar until combined
Add caramel sauce
Sift in the remaining 3 cups of powdered sugar
Beat until smooth add more caramel sauce if needed
Add the heavy cream and beat until smooth and fluffy adding more if needed

I usually beat on med-high speed for about 3-5 minutes to get it good and fluffy.

Ganache to use for both cakes

3 tablespoons corn syrup
6 ounces heavy cream
12 ounces dark chocolate, I use Ghirardelli choc. chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small saucepan combine the corn syrup and heavy cream.
Bring the contents of saucepan to a simmer and add the chocolate. Stir until smooth
Stir in vanilla

I do hope this was helpful in decidng which Pumpkin Chocolate Cake you want to make... or eat.


Baking from my heart to your kitchen,

Share

Little Pumpkin 1st Birthday Cake with Caramel Buttercream

This last weekend I had the honor to make this little man's birthday cake.
He has a special place in my heart and it was such a joy making this one.



We were looking through some of my favorite cake decorators for inspiration and came across Corrie Cakes "little monkey" birthday cake. I thought perfect and my friend said what about "little pumpkin". Even better! It was a fall themed birthday party after all.









The pumpkin, letters and leaves are all marshmallow fondant. For the leaves I just rolled together some fall colors and used cookie cutters. They were so fun to make, I couldn't stop making them.







My bestie was very specific about what flavors she wanted. Let me just tell you, she had major surgery when she had this precious boy and couldn't eat for 9 months. Yeah, you heard me, 9 months! It was quite a story and miracle.

Needless to say, she wanted chocolate with caramel.

I made my favorite Chocolate Cake, which is an adaption from the Hershey's Chocolate Cake. I topped it with Caramel Buttercream, made with homemade caramel sauce.

First thing you want to do is make the caramel. You can buy the caramel ice cream topping, but the homemade stuff is liquid gold.

Homemade Caramel Sauce
for full directions with pictures go here caramel sauce

3 cups granulated sugar, divided (2 1/2 cups + 1/2 cup)
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon salt

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine 2 1/2 cups sugar, corn syrup, and milk. Stir continuously until the sugar dissolves and no longer has a granular feeling. Keep warm over low heat.
In a separate deep, heavy saucepan, add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and spread evenly over the bottom. Cook over medium heat without stirring until the sugar dissolves and begins to turn an amber color. You may “swirl” your pan if necessary to re-distribute sugar while cooking.
As soon as the sugar turns colors, carefully add the warm milk mixture into the heavy saucepan. It will bubble up vigorously and sizzle and the caramel on the bottom will harden.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the caramel dissolves and the liquid turns caramel color. Then cook without stirring until the mixture reaches soft-ball stage (235°F) on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat. Stir in the butter until melted. Let cool

Caramel Buttercream

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup shortening
6 cups powdered sugar
1/2-1 cup caramel sauce (depends on your taste, I used about 3/4 cup)
1 Tbs heavy whipping cream (you could use milk too)

In the bowl of mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and shortening until fluffy.
Sift in 3 cups of the powdered sugar until combined
Add caramel sauce
Sift in the remaining 3 cups of powdered sugar
Beat until smooth add more caramel sauce if needed
Add the heavy cream and beat until smooth and fluffy adding more if needed

I usually beat on med-high speed for about 3-5 minutes to get it good and fluffy.

Hope you enjoyed little pumpkin Reed's cake....

I know he sure did!

Happy 1st Birthday Reed!










Baking from my heart to your kitchen,

Share