Favorite Friday Recipe: Mini tiered cakes

Super adorable and easy to make.  Just use your favorite cake and frosting!

Favorite Friday Recipe: Butter Cake

This is probably one of the most ambitious cakes I've ever attempted to bake (there was a whole separating egg whites and whipping them into peaks part).  It was delicious but I think next time I might just go with a Sara Lee frozen pound cake :)  Recipe here.

Wishlist Wednesday: Momofuku cake tasting package

Does this not look like the best thing ever you could get in the mail??

Favorite Friday Recipe: Strawberry cake

This delicious dessert recipe came to me via a fashionism friend--it's from Martha Stewart so you know it's got to be good!  The cake batter is easy to make and it's a great way to use up all the fruit that you have in the house.  BK is usually one to savor and eat his food slowly and he ate his piece of strawberry cake in record time--it gets a thumbs up from him!

Strawberry Cake

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pie plate
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

 Directions:

•  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.
•  Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, milk, and vanilla.
• Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to buttered pie plate. Arrange strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries. (I used Demetra sugar for that extra crunch)
• Bake cake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 1 hour. Let cool in pie plate on a wire rack. Cut into wedges. Cake can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, up to 2 days.

Merry Christmas!

Here's wishing you and yours a blessed Christmas!  We are happy to be spending this time with my family though we miss B's family this year.  For some reason, log cakes are really popular here for Christmas--each hotel and restaurant create their own versions.  I'll take cake in any shape or form! :o)

**images and a great write up here

Favorite Friday Recipe: Chocolate Fudge Bundt Cake

This little cake holder treasure was found in B's grandma's attic and a great excuse to make some cake! (not that I ever need a compelling reason to bake a cake)

I'm a huge fan of bundt cakes and am no stranger to box mixes (German chocolate being the most popular in this house).  This recipe from Tasty Kitchen featured add ins which resulted a nice heavy dense cake.  And of course I can never follow a recipe exactly so I did make a few substitutions.

 Chocolate Fudge Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

• 18-½ ounces Chocolate Cake Mix (I used German Chocolate)
• 3-½ ounces Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix ( I used sugar free)
• 2 cups Sour Cream (substituted this out for about a cup and a half of 2% Fage greek yogurt)
• 3 whole Eggs
• ⅓ cups Vegetable Oil (put in some applesauce for half the oil)
• ½ cups Water
• 2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (used Toll House minis--this is very important!)

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Grease a 10-inch bunt pan
• Beat all ingredients (except chocolate chips) until well blended
• Fold in chocolate chips
• Spoon batter (it will be thick) into prepared pan
• Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour
• Cool for 15 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely
• Dust with powdered sugar (I added this step!)  
  
  

The resulting cake is so moist and the little 

chocolate chips are spread out in each bite

A slice of goodness