Cake #15 Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

I actually made this cake after the #16 cake, which I will eventually post.  Not really relevant unless you are a historian and all. So this cake has been among the most anticipated of all the cakes in the list.  It hits on so many sweet spots.  It is covered in cream cheese frosting.  It is topped with butter fingers for heaven's sake!  I made it for my folks when they came to visit and for a belated birthday cake for my mom- for which we never sang (sorry Mom!  Happy Birthday!).  

And - what did we think of it?  YUM!  And OMG, just too darn big.  Really, I am going to throw in the towel on these triple decker cakes.  Come on!  I cannot slice them.  They are too big for my dessert plates.  I cannot store or transport them in any appealing fashion - which is a shame for my colleagues who look forward to the cake run-off.  This is very unfortunate since I was just in NYC and bought 1 more 8" and 1 more 9" round cake pans from Dean & Deluca so that I now have 3 of each. Purchased in part to satisfy my need to buy something from that store, a useful souvenir from the city, and so I would not have to rig up cake solutions.  But now, with all these cake pans here, I am really not interested in another 3 layer cake - even after I gave Mindy the business about not sticking to the recipes.  OH!  And I did not even mention my biggest reason:  the frosting ratio.  I had a very interesting conversation at a business dinner with a man who was shocked that my preferred frosting ratio to cake is about 1:1.  With the triple layer cakes, my frosting around the exterior has been so thin, the whole cake is just a disappointment to me.  This one was no exception.  

The crumb part of the cake was amazing:  moist, held together well for frosting.
The cream cheese frosting was maybe the best I have had.  I have a go-to recipe that is good, which I will stick to.  This one is great (a little on the slippery side), but it takes more effort since you have to make whipped cream and fold it in.  I'll use this one when we need to really impress.
The chocolate peanut butter middle layer was fantastic...and when I was frosting the cakes and accidentally got the cream cheese in the chocolate frosting, and licked it off the spoon, it was AMAZING.  I think this could be a hybrid frosting, just mix the two for a light chocolate brown color and use it like that. 


I was going to skip the Butterfingers in favor of peanut butter cups, but I am so glad I did not.  The butterfingers really crumbled into flakes, that could easily dissolve, so it was a great flavor combo and not the texture nightmare I thought it would be

So, this is what 1 LB of brown sugarr looks like before it goes into a cake.

So I thought I was a genius until I realized I needed to whip the cream all the way, so should not have put it in the measuring cup.  In my forever quest to minimize dishes (no laughing Ben), I was glad our 50s beater fit in the cup.  Then I needed it cold, so my cup fit right in the icy bowl - it worked out, but I should have used a bigger bowl.  

Did I mention the slippery?  This is not supposed to be a parallelogram.  The longer I let it rest there, the more it just slid over on its own.  And there was a frosting caution.  The middle chocolate layers are dark chocolatey colored and I pushed mine right to the edge - which was a problem when i had to apply a thin layer of white frosting to the exterior.  It resulted in a smeary chocolate/white exterior ... and the revelation that man the frosting combo was GOOD.  

Ok, so I threw some peanut butter cups on top too - but they were not needed.  Maybe 3 butterfingers instead of 2 would be better --- it still looked like less than the picture.

And see how thin the white frosting is around the outside?  Totally unacceptable for me.

I would make this again:  2 Layers and definitely stick with Butterfingers.

Cake #15 - Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cake with Cream Cheese and Butterfinger Frosting

Oh jeez. This cake is well worth the time it takes to make. Actually, the hands-on time is not that bad, it's just that you have to chill the filling overnight. So, it's not a cake to make on a whim. But, if you have time, if you like peanut butter and chocolate, well then get thee to this cake! Oh, and the yummiest cream cheese frosting that's light and airy. Oh my, why didn't I put some of this in the freezer for later eating? I could really go for a piece right now.

Don't be scared by the extensive ingredient list. It's all easy to find and much of it you might have in your cabinet (we actually had mini Butterfinger bars in our freezer leftover from Halloween! SCORE.).
The batter? Light, fluffy with a subtle peanut butter flavor.
Okay, so this is supposed to be a three-layer cake, but I only have two 9" pans. I had the choice of going for three 8" or two taller 9" cakes, and I went with the two 9" cakes. I had to increase my cooking time a bit (my notes are non-existent for this) - maybe an extra three minutes or so.
I made the cake for my brother's birthday, and with a house full of guests, I didn't want to take the time to chop the butterfingers for the top of the cake. Instead, I put them in a ziplock bag and smacked the hell out of them with a rolling pin to make Butterfinger crumbs. Oh, and I skipped the peanuts altogether (see time crunch), but I don't think we missed anything given the peanut flavor of the cake and filing.

Without a doubt, I would make this cake again. Impressive, not too difficult, super tasty. And really, just as the commercial used to say, peanut and chocolate are two great things that go great together!

Mindy's Cake #13: Confessions of a Lazy Cake Baker

I love cake. I love the idea of this cake project. But, I am lazy. And, I am behind. So when it came time for me to FINALLY catch up with the Ice-Cream-Cone cake, I took a few shortcuts. Like, um..., yeah, not even including the ice cream cones!

In my defense:
1. Trader Joe's did not have any ice cream cones and I didn't want to go to a second store.
2. Sherie had to increase the icing recipe to have enough for the cake and the cones. I just did not want to make more frosting. Especially since, as I have noted here before, my family is not so big on butter cream frosting.

Anyway, I made the cake for Charlie's 5 and a half birthday....which was March 7. So, what can I say about this cake nearly TWO MONTHS after baking it? Uh...it tasted awesome? It did, it really did. And, if I recall correctly it was pretty easy and basic.

Ugh, I'm such a slacker. Here are the pictures. I will now go flog myself for being so lazy both in cake execution and blog-posting.

Off-Topic: April Fools 2010 - Fried Chicken Style

Okay, so this is not one of the 30 cakes.  It is a cupcake recipe from Hello, Cupcake.  For April Fools Day I made the "cupcakes" on the left and served the savory "t.v. dinner" (thanks to KFC) on the right.  The lemonade is fake too.  It is jell-o with a straw.  April Fools is becoming a big holiday at my house.  Special K coats my chicken, starburst are my butter pats, and the peas & carrots are laffy taffy rolled & cut.  

  And it runs in the family.  You should see the "sushi" my mom made!  With Rice Krispies as the rice and fruit leather seaweed.  I guess you won't be surprised when I make that next year.  

Cake #14 - Semi-sweet Chocolate Layer Cake with Vanilla Cream Filling

Good gravy - what do I remember about making this Semi-Sweet Chocolate Layer Cake with Vanilla Cream Filling?  I made it for Valentine's Day weekend.  Inspired by the hearts on it.   I made it for a pot luck where I didn't tell that I was also making a dessert.  So I felt guilty that two other families brought cupcakes and I brought this...and then I felt glad that there were cupcakes so all the kiddos were suckered into eating them while the adults got this bad boy all to ourselves. 

This is the second cake I made where I read all the comments in the recipe before baking - so I can say with confidence I expected the cakes to cave in completely like a stadium with no roof - and they did.  So, I promptly filled in the stadium bowl with frosting to level it out. 

The chocolate cake was nothing special.  In fact it was so deflated and delicate it was annoying.  The vanilla cream filling however was amazing.  Like a Suzy Q filling without the fake taste and sooo much better.  Definitely worth making again and using in other cakes. 

Once again, I realize that ganache is such an easy, yummy and pretty frosting - it seems like a cheat.  Th gloppiness pictured here is mostly due to me filling in with frosting to make the cake more cake-looking.


Finally, for my hearts in confection sugar - I probably should have waited a little while before putting the papers down on the cake (so it was more cool/less sticky), but people were about to arrive so I had to move - and in the process peeled away some frosting with it. 

Everyone loved this cake despite it being a little goopy and caved in.  Make it again, with a different chocolate cake and it would be delish! 

Above, the cakes were just out of the oven, cooling, and not TOO deflated.  After 10 minutes though, see below.  The one in back is actually 2 cakes and the top one is almost see-through in the middle (where it looks cracked).  They really fell.  Even the front one, which fell a little less b/c the batter sat on the counter waiting for my other 8" cake pan to come out of the oven.  I only have 2 and needed 3 again - so I made 2 and saved the batter for the 3rd until the others were out.  This one turned out best.  Huh!  Who would have guessed?

Cake #13 Ice Cream Cone Cake

I love this cake.  This is a HAPPY cake.  It is happy to make.  It is happy to see.  It is happy happy fun fun.    Who cares how it tastes (good, excessive, rich, too much!) - it is just plain fun.  Especially fun since it was made for Samantha's 2nd birthday.

You make cupcakes in ice cream cones!
The middle layer of frosting is cookies and cream!
There is chocolate AND vanilla!

Again, I am writing about this a month after the fact.  Here are the notes I wanted to share with Mindy before she made hers:

I read all the comments of the other bakers and increased the amount of frosting to a batch that is 1.5 times bigger:

THIS FROSTING ALONE HAD 12 EGG YOLKS AND 8 STICKS OF BUTTER.  And, Ben said it was the best buttercream he's ever had.   I don't think I have ever said this before:   it was too much butter for me.

But that middle layer, where I crushed chocolate wafers into it was AWESOME.  I would definitely do this trick again.  Made for a very interesting texture bites.

You fill the ice cream cones with the cake batter & bake in muffin tins.  Totally fun trick.  Would definitely do this again even with a box cake mix just for the fun of sending these to school for my girls.

Here the cone cakes are cooling - before they totally collapsed.  Those chocolate wafers must be made specifically for recipes that call for "chocolate wafers" - sold near the 'Nilla Wafers.  I thought it would be hard to slice the cones in half, but it was a breeze with the serrated knife.  The cones lost their crispness while baking and were kind of stale/soggy/chewy and easy to cut.  I won't lie, their only function was visual, bc they did not add much in the flavor department.

This cake is 2 measley layers that you have to slice in half to frost between, so it comes out to 4 layers.  But, even at 4 layers, it was not very tall.  In fact, I would not agree that this serves 20 people as the recipe suggests.  I do think there are enough calories in there for 40 people, but to cut an 8 inch round cake into 20 slices would test even the best Cutco gear.

Yay for only 2 cake pans!  This was a very delicate /crumbly hard-for-me-to-handle cake.  I almost did not cut it in half.  I did make them the night before and put them in the fridge, so that likely helped.

OH!  But it was taller than the ice cream cones that you have to stick to the sides.  This poses a challenge:  to align the cones with the bottom of the cake plate or to align them with the top of the cake and not have them touch the bottom.  I chose the latter and piped icing around the bottom to not look like they were just floating there - mostly b.c I couldn't imagine how I would frost "ice cream cones" if the cones were not on the top of the cake.

My cones, hovering above the plate, stuck to the side of the frosting on the cake.

Ahhh, the frostings.  There are 3 of them, made from the same base.  Vanilla butter cream on the left.  Then you add chocolate for the chocolate frosting.  You add chocolate wafers for the middle layers.   Oh!  what is the 4th bowl peeking on the right?  Not frosting.  It's matzoh ball mix.   Ben whipped up a homemade matzoh ball soup while we were caking.  

Chocolate on - there were an odd # of cones, so I had to double up and not go every other cone with vanilla and chocolate.  In retrospect, I might do the entire cone part in chocolate - all the kids and adults wanted the chocolate cones when I was cutting - plus there is enough vanilla frosting in/on the cake, that you'd still get to taste it if you had a chocolate cone.

My 2 year old "helper" in her jammies on her birthday.

Mmmmm, cake.  We cut each cone into 2 pieces of cake.  It was pretty easy to do. 

Is the cake a hit if half the room is in awe and the other half (who asked what is in it) was kind of grossed out by gluttony?  I think so.  We'll be seeing versions of this cake again.

Cake #12 Fresh Coconut Layer Cake

Fresh Coconut!  Oh fun!  I picked this cake.  For my birthday.  This will be the only year I volunteer to make my own birthday cake - okay, maybe it won't be, I do like to bake cakes.  This cake looks fresh and white and elegantly festive.  Plus, we got to buy fresh coconuts and learn how to crack them open.

I scoffed at Mindy when she said she was sick of 3 layer cakes.  Well, truth is, she was just 2 cakes ahead of me in coming to this realization.  None of my tupperware supports 3 layer cake pieces so the leftover pieces I transport are big globs of mush.

So many lessons from this cake.  #1, If I make it again, I do not need to use fresh coconut.  Grating it is cumbersome - even though I cheated and used the Cuisinart - I like fresh bagged store bought coconut and I think the consistency would be better.  If I had hand grated it, it might have been finer, but it would have also contained nicks and knuckle parts.

#2 the frosting was glop - too gooey.  Very marshmallowy, but did not hold shape.  Could be fun to use again.

#3 the cake was the whitest I have ever made.  That seemed cool.  It looked like a wedding cake.  That could be worth making again.

#4 I should not try to write about cakes a month after I made them.

This smashed mess below is why I chose to use the Cuisinart to shred the coconut.  I did skip the step about baking the coconuts first...I wonder if that would have had an impact...

Oh right, my middle layer is 8" and the upper and lower are 9".  I thought I would just make up for it with frosting, and I did.   The cake was heavier than the frosting, so the middle layers basically just absorbed the frosting after this first piece was cut.