Brittany's Ombre Birthday Cake

Ombre Birthday Cake!

A few months ago I had a special request from a friend for an ombre birthday cake. Ombre is the kind of cake that goes from dark to light shades of the same color. The request was for a chocolate ombre cake and so my search began for recipes for cake that would not all appear dark brown. After many pinterest searches, I finally was able to find some ideas and recipes. The cake I ended up with is 3 unique layers of deliciousness, chocolate frosting filling between layers, and then a vanilla buttercream covering the cake. Of all the batter spoons I licked, the middle layer was my favorite!

 Base Layer - Vanilla White Cake

Ingredients:

·         1 cup sugar

·         ½ cup butter, softened

·         2 eggs

·         2 tsp vanilla

·         1 ½ cups flour

·         1 ¾ tsp baking powder

·         ½ cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.

2.      In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

3.      Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Middle Layer - Brown Sugar Cake

Ingredients:

·         1 cup flour

·         ½ tsp baking powder

·         1 tsp salt

·         ¾ tsp baking soda

·         1 cup light brown sugar

·         2 large eggs

·         ¼ cup vegetable oil

·         ½ cup buttermilk

·         ¼ cup sour cream

·         ½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 350°. Spray 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with baking spray with flour. Spray or butter pan generously.

2.       In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

3.       In a mixing bowl, beat brown sugar and eggs at medium-high speed with an electric mixer until smooth, approximately 3 minutes. Add oil and beat until combined. Set aside.

4.       In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, sour cream, and vanilla

5.       Add flour mixture to brown-sugar mixture, alternating with milk mixture

6.       Pour batter into pan and bake until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean, approximately 25-30minutes.

 

Top Layer - Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

·         ¾ cup cocoa powder

·         1 ½ cups flour

·         1 ½ cups sugar

·         ½ Tbsp baking soda

·         ¾ tsp baking powder

·         ¾ tsp salt

·         1 large egg

·         ¾ cup buttermilk

·         ½ cup vegetable oil

·         ¾ tsp vanilla

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter round or square cake pans, and line bottoms with parchment; butter parchment, and dust with cocoa.

2.      Into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, stir in eggs, 1 1/2 cups warm water, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla until smooth, about 3 minutes.

3.      Divide batter among prepared pans. Bake, rotating once, until tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes for 8-inch layers, depending on amount of batter.

4.      Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for 20 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely, right side up on rack.

Chocolate and Vanilla Buttercream

Instead of posting the full recipe and directions, I will direct you to the links for the chocolate buttercreamand my favorite and vanilla buttercream.

Cake Assembly

It is important to level all cake layers before assembling. I also had some "over baked" parts around the edges that I carefully cut off. When assembling, it is easiest to use a cake board. Gently center your base layer on the cake board, cover the layer with chocolate frosting, and then gently center your middle layer on the base. Do the same thing for the 3rd layer (and more if you are making a multi layer cake).

 

 

Frosting and Decorating

Frosting cakes is my least favorite part, mainly because I am not that good at it! It takes me a long time and I get easily frustrated. This is probably why I prefer cupcakes J but anything for my friend Brittany’s birthday! I frosted the cake with the vanilla buttercream and chocolate chips.  I surrounded the sides of the cake with mini chocolate chips, to bring in the chocolate theme that she had wanted.

 

I think used the left over vanilla buttercream I had and, using food coloring, I made it pink (very bright pink).  I was pretty happy with the way it turned out! I hope it is as good as it looks!



Valentine's Day Cupcakes!

 

Valentine’s Day Strawberry Cupcakes

What better way to show someone you care then baking them strawberry cupcakes just in time for Valentine’s Day?

These cupcakes have a delicious strawberry taste in both the cake and the frosting. Fresh strawberries and strawberry extract give them their flavor.  I modified a recipe I found on the Simply Sweet Bakeshop blog. This recipe makes 18 cupcakes, so you have a few extras to share!

Cake Ingredients

½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 egg whites
2 tsp strawberry extract
1 cup pureed fresh strawberries

¼ cup sour cream

1 ½ cups cake flour (or make your own 1 ½ cups of flour – 3 TBSPs + 3 TBSPS cornstarch)

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

Strawberry extract can be hard to find in stores but can be found online.

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 350

2.       In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Add egg whites one at a time

3.       Stir in strawberry extract, pureed strawberries, and sour cream

4.       In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

5.       Add the flour mixture to butter, beating until combined

6.       Pour batter into cupcake pans

7.        Bake for 15 – 20 minutes (mine were closer to 18)

8.       Let cool before frosting

 

 

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

¼ cup butter, softened

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened

2 tsp strawberry extract (I only used 1 because I wanted the frosting to have more of a cream cheese flavor)

6 cups of powdered sugar

Pink food coloring (I didn’t use food coloring because the strawberry extract was colored

Frosting Directions:

1.       In a bowl, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth

2.       Add strawberry extract

3.       Add food coloring until desired color (if needed)

4.       Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth

For frosting, I think no matter what the recipe calls for in terms of powdered sugar, you should add until the frosting is at the consistency you would like. Adding more will make a stiffer frosting, but it may taste sweeter then you would like.

Now it is time for the fun part – decorating! The cupcake wrappers I used are ones that don’t fade when you bake them. Often times, the wrappers color will change and won’t look as nice. These wrappers are lined in foil so there is no change. You can find them at any craft or baking supply store. I like using different frosting tips while I am decorating my cupcakes so there is a variety of textures. For these Valentine’s Day cupcakes, I used red and pink sugar and conversation hearts.

A great treat for anyone special in your life J

Superbowl Sunday!

I'm back!! It has been 8 months since I baked and blogged! 8 months too long. There was no better time than now to get back into it and starting with my Superbowl cupcakes. Even though my Steelers will not be competing :( I am still excited to watch the game (well maybe just the commercials). These cupcakes are perfect for any football Sunday, no matter what team you cheer for. My Superbowl Sunday cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, filled with colored vanilla, and topped with coconut grass and a football.

Chocolate Cupcakes

You start off this recipe with your favorite chocolate cupcakes. One of my go to recipes is Martha Stewart's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes. 

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons safflower oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

I leave out the safflower oil, and instead use vegetable oil. It still tastes great!

Mix all ingredients together. The batter for these cupcakes is very thin.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. While your cupcakes are baking, make your frosting.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

This chocolate buttercream is delicious, easy to make, and very versatile. I got this recipe from another blog here.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), softened (but not melted!)
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

You can add more or less heavy cream and powdered sugar, depending on the consistency you want.

Filling Cupcakes
Now that my cupcakes are cooled, I decided to fill them with colored vanilla frosting. I mixed purple food coloring for the Ravens and red food coloring for the 49ers into bowls of frosting. I cheated a little on this one, using store bough vanilla frosting. You could do this for whatever teams are playing.

To fill cupcakes, cut a circle into the center and pull out the part you cut, fill the cupcake with frosting and then replace the top.  

Center of the cupcake filled with frosting

Tops put back on to cover the frosting center

Frosting and Decoration

The final touch is the frosting and decoration on top. I piped on my chocolate buttercream into the center of the cupcake. I then sprinkled green coconut over the frosting to look like grass. You can color coconut by putting coconut and food coloring in a plastic bag and shaking it to coat the coconut.

I made my own cupcake toppers by printing out footballs and taping them to toothpicks.

These cupcakes look awesome when you cut or bite into them!

Even if your team doesn't win the big game, you can still enjoy these awesome treats all season long!  Now it's time to get the other Superbowl food ready for the game.

Go 49ers!