Birthday Cake: Construction Zone

Hello everyone!

This week I got the privileged of creating a birthday cake for a little man turning 3...He had a construction themed party and here is the cake I created to go along with the theme!!! I'm also going to include the recipe for the cake! Hope you enjoy!







Chocolate Cake

3 sticks Butter @ Room Temp
2-1/4 c. Sugar
4 Eggs
4 tsp. Vanilla
3 c. Flour
1/2 c. Cocoa Powder
1/4 c. Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 c. Buttermilk
1 c. Hot Coffee {I use instant coffee mixed with hot water}

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare pans {I grease my pans and line them with parchment paper}
2. Mix dry ingredients together and set aside.
3. Cream Butter and Sugar for 3 minutes in a stand mixer using paddle attachment.
4. Add Eggs one at a time. Scrape sides down and add vanilla 1 tsp. at a time.
5. Slowly, add flour & buttermilk alternately {beginning and ending with flour}.
6. Slowly add hot coffee.
7. Pour into prepared pans and back for 25-45 minutes. {I say this because if you use a 6" pan, you bake for 25 min. If you use a 9" pan (filled with 2 c. batter), bake for 35 min. Etc...}
8. Allow to cool completely before assembling.

Chocolate Ganache

1/2 c. Heavy Cream
8 oz. Chocolate {I use Bittersweet}
4 Tlb. Butter, Cubed

1. Place chocolate into a bowl.
2. Heat Heavy Cream in a double boiler until steaming, not boiling.
3. Pour Cream over chocolate and let it sit for 30 seconds, then slowly mix until smooth.
4. Slowly add the butter and mix until smooth and creamy.
5. Use to your liking...in my case, this went between the inside layers of my cake...

Chocolate Ganache Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 c. Heavy Cream
10 oz. Chocolate {I use Bittersweet}
4 oz. Butter + 8 Tlb. Butter at Room Temp
8 oz. Cream Cheese at Room Temp
5 c. Powder Sugar
5 Tlb. Cocoa Powder

1. Using the first 3 ingredients, repeat the ganache process, allow to cool to Room Temp before adding to frosting...
2. In a stand mixer using whisk attachment, cream 8 Tlb. butter and cream cheese until pale and fluffy {5 minutes}
3. Slowly add Powdered Sugar and Cocoa Powder.
4. Once the ganache is cooled, slowly add to stand mixer, scraping sides of the bowl and mix until smooth {about 3 minutes}
5. Frost your cake!

Until next time...

Cake Wreck!!!

Hello everyone...

So this past weekend, I had a cake order for a rainbow birthday cake to help celebrate a little girl's 1st birthday. Everything that could go wrong with this cake, did go wrong with this cake. Fortunately for me, the customer was extremely gracious and understanding. I forgot to take a picture of the actual birthday cake {See, everything that can go wrong did go wrong! LOL} so I don't have anything of substance to show you, BUT...I can show you my 1st attempt at this cake and share with you the recipe! Even though it is a wreck, it is very tastey and I used the same recipe for round 2, so I'm sure it can be of use to at

least one person out here in cyber space!

Hope you get a laugh at my expense!

Vanilla Rainbow Layer Cake

{Adapted from Sweetopia birthday cake recipe}

Makes 6-9" thin layers or 3 thick layers

1.5 c. Whole Milk at Room Temp

7 Egg Whites at Room Temp

1 Large Egg at Room Temp

1 Tlbs Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp. Almond Extract

2-1/4 c. Sugar

3-3/4 c. All Purpose Flour {or 4 c. Cake Flour}

1-3/4 Tlbs Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

1-1/2 c. Butter at Room Temp

6 Tlbs Shortening

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare pans {I use parchment paper and baking spray to grease pans}.

2. Combine 1/2 c. Milk, Extracts, Egg Whites & Egg in a medium bowl and set aside.

3. Fluff flour in stand mixer using paddle attachment for 30 sec. Add remaining dry ingredients to include sugar. Mix for 30 seconds. Add butter & Shortening. Mix for 60 sec.

4. Slowly add remaining 1 cup of milk and mix until moist {About 30 sec.}

5. Add milk mixture in batches of 3 and mix for 3 sec. {Scrap sides of bowl after each addition}

6. Pour 2 cups of batter into pan and bake for 20 min. If more time is needed, bake 2 min. longer.

Vanilla Birthday Cake Whipped Frosting

Yields 3 cups

5 Sticks of Salted Butter

5 c. Powder Sugar, more if needed

4-1/2 Tlb. Heavy Cream

1-1/2 Tlb. Vanilla Extract

1. Cream butter in a stand mixer for 8 minutes (will turn white)

2. Add remaining ingredients and mix on low for 30 sec. Increase speed and mix for 6 minutes.

3. Frost the layers and cake, chill in fridge for 30 min. and frost again. Decorate with remaining frosting!

*Notes* If baking a rainbow cake, pour 1 cup of batter into 6 different bowls and mix with desired food coloring. Then pour colored batter into prepared baking pan. Bake for 12 min. Allow to cool completely before layering and frosting.

**You can also skip a couple steps and just do 2 colors per layer, just be sure that each color uses 1 cup of batter...

Until Next time...

Cars Birthday Cakes

Hey everyone!

Happy Monday! Hope you all enjoyed a great weekend! I was able to go tubing Sunday with my 5 year old, a friend and her 5 year old. We had an absolute blast and hope before the end of the season, we can do a family day with my hubby and my 2 year old!

Anyways, just wanted to share with you 2 cakes I made for 2 little boys wanting Cars themed birthday party...One was a 2 tiered cake and one was a sheet cake, I think both turned out super super cute!!

Danza's Birthday Cake!

Hey everyone! I haven't been keeping up with my blogging. Sorry, the fall is just a busy time for us here in Minnesota! Hunting Season was upon us, with no luck. Then it seemed to be the ickies sickies season here at the Rolin house. We are doing much better now, but now the Holiday Season is upon us once more and we are getting ready to celebrate with our families.

Even though I'm busy busy, I've made a resolution to keep up with my blogging in 2012! Crazy that that is the year already! Wasn't I just in high school? Instead I turned the big 30 a couple of weeks ago! Just absolutely craziness!

Anyways, what I would like to share with you all today is a Chocolate Marble Cake I made for a friend of mine who's daughter is turning 4 years old today! She showed me a picture of what her little girl wanted and it was a pretty busy cake, and she required the color purple as that is her favorite color. I didn't have the picture to reference, but I had a good idea of what she would like, and here was what I created for her! I carved her initial out of cake using a cardboard stencil I made, frosted it and then covered with fondant and border.

Here's a really great recipe I found for Marble Cake...so moist and delicious!

Marble Cake {Adapted from Martha Stewart}

Makes one 9-inch Layer, {Triple Recipe for 3 layers}

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ¾ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature
¼ cup milk
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa powder
¼ cup hot water

Cake Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 9" cake pan with parchment paper and spray with baking PAM; set aside.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
3. In a stand mixer, {fitted with the paddle attachment} beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined, scrap down the sides of the bowl, beat another minute. Add vanilla.
4. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour. Add ¼ cup of milk at the end. Set aside 1/3 of the batter.
5. In a bowl, mix cocoa and 1/4 cup plus 2 TLB. hot water until smooth. Add the cocoa mixture to the reserved cake batter; stir until well combined.
6. Pour white mix into bottom of cake pan in one layer, and pour the cocoa mix on top for the 2nd layer. To create marbling, run a table knife through the batters in a swirling motion.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack to cool 10 minutes. Turn out cake from pan and cool completely on the rack.

Anyways...I'm off to go deliver the cake! Have a great weekend!

Hugs,
Heather R.

Swirly Cakes!

Good morning everyone! Hope you all are enjoying a gorgeous day!

One of my new found loves is baking, and I'd like to share that with you all today. I started baking for my children's birthday's. Then I was asked to make a cake for something or other, then I was asked by a stranger, and that is how things escalated. I didn't really start getting into the baking thing until December 2010. But after I found I really enjoyed it, I just couldn't stop!

I even took some classes this past summer to learn some different flower techniques. The classes were spendy (you had to buy a certain brand no matter if you had the product already)...So I stopped doing the classes and found YouTube! They have absolutely everything to do with baking on tutorial, and I've learned quite a bit from them...

I won't share all the cakes I've made since I started, but here is my most recent order. I constructed a carousel cake using rice crispy treats, dowels, cake, buttercream and Amaretto mousse for the inside. I painted a wood base to match the theme of this baby shower cake. I made sugar cookies and piped royal icing to match the invitations of the party. The order also included 30 cupcakes-half lemon with lemon buttercream and half Neapolitan {white cake, chocolate filling and strawberry buttercream}...



Chat with you all soon!