Killer chocolate cake & two frostings
I love making celebration cakes - and they don't have to be terribly difficult. This baby stroller cake idea came from Parenting.com and I made some tweaks to the design. Who wants to put doughnuts as the wheels, when you can just cut out pieces of this amazing chocolate cake instead? Plus my lovely friend and mommy-to-be Vera's theme was elephants so I just had to draw one on using gray-tinted royal icing. If you want to make the cake how I did, you'll need the recipes below (as is), 2 large marshmallows, two m&m's, some Charleston Chews, and some silver dragees for the elephant's "water spray". Fun!
Honestly, this is one of the easier "fancy" cakes I've made since all I had to do was make two 9" rounds, using one for the stroller itself and the other to cut out the wheels. Plus this way, you have extra cake bits for the men folk who weren't invited to the baby shower :) Or, you know, for yourself, as you taste test and frost the cake. Because seriously, you HAVE to make sure the cake is edible.
The cream cheese frosting is used for the white stroller and again for the yellow top. Chocolate frosting goes on the wheels - this way you can please those who like the chocolate-on-chocolate combo (not me) and those who like non-chocolate frosting, too. And this cake..where do I begin?! It's the BEST chocolate cake recipe hands down that I have ever had. Nice and moist, delicious flavors, and easy to make. The recipe below makes two 9" cake rounds so if you aren't making a baby shower cake (which I'm sure most of you aren't doing) you can either cut it all in half or make a double layer cake. Your choice of course, but really is there a choice? Double layer is always better.
Killer chocolate cake
Adapted from Add a Pinch
Level: Easy
Time: About 1 hour 15 minutes until you can frost
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
¾ cup Dutch process cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 heaping teaspoon espresso powder
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 cup boiling water
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 9" round cake pans, shaking out any excess flour.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, espresso powder, and cinnamon together until well combined. Add the milk, oil, eggs, vanilla extract and vanilla paste to the flour mixture and mix on medium speed until everything is combined well. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the batter (this splattered all over the place for me so you might want to turn it off entirely and add the water then mix). Beat on high for 1 minute to add air to the batter.
Spread the cake batter into the two pans and bang on the counter to make smooth and even. Bake until a tester inserted im the center comes out clean. This took 38 minutes for me; original recipe suggested 30-35. Rotate the pans halfway through for even cooking.
Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Chocolate buttercream frosting
Adapted from Add a Pinch
Level: Easy
Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
3 sticks of unsalted butter
1 cup Dutch process cocoa
5 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
Directions
Sift the cocoa into the bowl of an electric mixer. Melt the butter and add it to the cocoa powder; whisk to combine.
Add 1 cup of the sugar plus about 1 tablespoon of milk; turn the mixer up to high and beat for 1 minute. Repeat until all the sugar and milk has been added.
Add in the vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste and espresso powder and combine well. Check the consistency of the frosting and if it's too dry, add some more milk. Too wet? Add more confectionary sugar.
My cream cheese frosting
Level: Easy
Time: Less than 5 minutes
Ingredients
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese (I prefer Philadelphia, I really think it comes out better)
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
Directions
Place all ingredients into the bowl of an electric mixer; blend on medium to medium-high speed until the frosting is smooth and creamy.
Mangia!