October Roundup

Well, who knew! Such delicious goodies this month! Thanks so much Colleen for your amazing challenge and thank to everyone that participated.

Chocolate Carbonation Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Hi, I'm Kyleen and I'm the sixteen-year old girl behind sixteenbeans. This month, I made Chocolate Carbonation Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting.

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I’m a peanut-butterist. I’m that kind of girl who dips a spoon into the peanut butter jar and scrapes the sides of the jar in an attempt to get as much peanut butter on the spoon. It’s actually kind of strange that I’m not allergic to peanut butter, seeing as I’m allergic to walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts (I wish I could try Nutella...), and basically every other kind of nut. Maybe I’ve outgrown my allergies and I just don’t know because I haven’t tried any of those nuts in such a long time.

Either way, I count my blessings that I’m not allergic to peanuts. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to enjoy Boiled Peanuts with Chinese Five Spice or these scrumptious Chocolate Carbonation Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cupcakes (oh no, I just gave the surprise away) with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting.

I made these for the Have the Cake November challenge, which was to make a carbonation cake. After some research, I deduced that any box mix could be made into cake using pop instead of butter and eggs. I decided to use my chocolate cake recipe and just replace the liquid ingredients with soda water (who needs all that extra sugar from soda). Although I was skeptical, I have to admit that these cupcakes don’t taste half-bad, considering that they were made with just soda water and one egg. Butter is butter and it can’t be replaced, but these low-fat cupcakes were passable.

If you’re not into the whole no-butter or oil low-fat cupcake, then make these cupcakesand hide peanut butter cups in them. Of course, I think almost anything with peanut butter tastes good, so I’d give these cupcakes two sticky, peanut-buttery thumbs up.

Click below for the recipe.

Chocolate Carbonation Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cupcakes (oh no, I just gave the surprise away) with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from: Food & Wine, May 2008

Yield: 12 medium cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

• 1 can sparkling water (355 mL)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup granulated plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 package mini peanut butter cups

Frosting:

• 3 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons peanut butter, at room temperature
• 6 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted
• ½ cup heavy cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

For the cupcakes, preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. 

In a medium bowl, mix the sparkling water, egg, and vanilla extract until combined. 

In a large bowl, sift flour with sugar, cocoa powder, instant coffee granules, baking soda, and salt. Add the wet ingredients and beat until smooth, scraping the bottom and side of the bowl. The batter will be thin. Pour batter into lined muffin tins, filling them about three-quarters full. Drop a couple peanut butter cups into each cupcake. 

Bake cupcakes in the center of the oven for about 20-25 minutes, until springy and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool slightly, and then transfer them to a rack to cool completely before frosting. 

For the frosting, in a medium bowl beat cream cheese and peanut butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add the heavy cream and vanilla extract and continue to whip until thick and smooth, about 2 minutes. Using a palette or butter knife, frost the cupcakes as desired. Garnish with a mini peanut butter cup. 

Chocolate Framboise Bundt Cake

Posted by - Dorrie

A few years ago my homebrewing husband introduced me to a style of beer called "Lambic", which is a Belgian beer traditionally made with fruit added during the secondary fermentation. Lindeman's Framboise is such a Belgian lambic, which has been fermented with raspberries thus producing a rose-pink colored beer, with a slightly sour raspberry taste. After giving the baking challenge a little thought I decided to make a chocolate cake with Framboise since I love the combination of chocolate and raspberry.

Using a recipe that I found on Smitten Kitchen for a Chocolate Stout Cake that she turned into a bundt cake, I replaced the stout with Framboise and made the necessary adjustments for my above 6,000 foot altitude.

Chocolate Framboise Bundt Cake:

1 cup Framboise

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (reduced 1 1/2 sticks - 3/4 cups for high altitude)

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups all purpose flour (increased to 2 1/4 cups for high altitude)

2 cups sugar (reduced to 1 1/2 cups for high altitude)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or spray a bundt pan.

Bring 1 cup Framboise and butter to simmer in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Remove from the heat and add the cocoa powder, whisking until it is smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to blend. Beat eggs and sour cream with hand-mixer or stand mixer to blend. Add the beer-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture and mix briefly on a low speed until blended and then fold the batter with a spatula until completely combined. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan.

Bake until toothpick comes out clean - about 45 minutes at high altitude and less for sea level - about 35 minutes. Allow cake to cool completely in the pan and then turn it out onto cake plate or rack. I drizzled mine with chocolate Ganache and finished it with fresh raspberries.

The chocolate cake with Framboise produced a wonderful cake with a raspberry taste that is not overpowering but seems to bring out the chocolateness of the cake. A real winner in our house!

Root Beer Chocolate Cake Cupcakes

Posted by - Vivian

I made some root beer cupcakes from the Prepared Pantry .  I don't know what went wrong but they rose beautifully and then flattened out making it impossible for me to remove them from the pan! I ended up cutting them out of the pan by removing the flat tops.  Ended up looking ugly but still edible! I topped with butter cream frosting and pop rocks.


Root Beer Chocolate Cake Recipe

3/4 cup shortening

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 tablespoon root beer flavor (or vanilla but will not have as deep of root beer flavor to the cake)

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 12-ounce can root beer, not sugar-free

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

 Cream the shortening and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat for five or six minutes so that the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the extract.

In another bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, salt, and soda together.

In three or four additions, alternately add the dry ingredients and the liquids to the creamed mixture starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix only until smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake a 9x13 inch pan for 35 to 40 minutes, cupcakes for 15 minutes, or until the cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool completely before frosting with the frosting of your choice.

Baker’s Note: When making a cake such as this, you are mixing oil (shortening) and water (soda pop and buttermilk)—which don’t mix. The egg yolks act as an emulsifier, a bonding agent between the oil and water molecules and the flour absorbs much of the water. That is why you start with the flour addition—so that the water doesn’t overload the fat mixture before the flour is there to start absorbing water. It’s also why you add the liquids in stages between the flour additions.

October - Dr. Pepper Chocolate Cake

Posted by - Jessica

Since the soda of choice in my house is Dr. Pepper I decided to see if I could find a recipe. I found a few different ones but settled on this one because it included Dr. Pepper in the cake and frosting. I would totally make the cake portion again but found the frosting a little a short on taste. The cake is super moist and delicious but I can't say I could tell there was Dr. Pepper in it.

Chocolate Stout Cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting

Posted by - Angela from Soap Mom's Kitchen

I was thrilled when Colleen posted her beer cake for the October Challenge on Have the Cake. I actually had found this recipe on a blog called, Closet Cooking that I love and had copied it down in the hopes of trying it out one day. The stout beer sounded so intriguing!  This recipe however, is very similar to the one Colleen posted, but I had to give it a try.  Well, here it is and I must say that the beer does add a little something different. I really think the Irish Cream Frosting really compliments this cake very well. I would definitely recommend this cake with a traditional Irish meal.

Chocolate Stout Cake (as posted on Closet Cooking)
(makes 1 cake, 6+ servings)
Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Directions:
1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan, remove from heat and let cool a bit.
2. Mix in the stout and cocoa powder.
3. Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
4. Mix the eggs and sour cream in another large bowl.
5. Mix the stout mixture into the egg mixture.
6. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet.
7. Pour the batter into one or two greased and parchment lined circular cake pan(s).
8. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean. If you bake it in a single pan then it should take about 40-50 minutes. If you bake it in two cake pans then it should take about 20-30 minutes. I baked my cake in a 8" pan and it took 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Bailey's Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
4 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
1 cup confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons of Bailey’s Irish cream

Directions:
1. Cream the cream cheese.
2. Slowly mix in the confectioners sugar.
3. Slowly mix in the Irish cream.

October Inspiration: Carbonation

Posted by -colleen

I have been looking for an excuse to make this Chocolate Guinness Beer Cake for a long, long time. Every review and variation on it seems to draw rave reviews. It's a super-moist but not too sweet chocolate cake balanced with the dark, stout beer and then a whipped up, frothy, foam-like frosting which should resemble the head on a glass of beer.
Then one day, a friend made a Chocolate Dr. Pepper Malt Cake for my birthday (a recipe she got from the amazing and personally highly recommended Dinosaur BBQ cookbook. This was the best chocolate cake I have ever tasted. EVER. So apparently, the richness, the moistness, the not-so-over the top chocolate goodness is greatly helped by carbonated beverage.
So, that is my challenge to all the bakers this month: bake yourself up some yummy goodness using some form of carbonated beverage. It can be a cake, cupcakes, I even saw a bunch of recipes for breads. There are a TON of recipes out there using Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite and the
previously mentioned beer and Dr. Pepper.
Can't wait to see what everyone does!
Enjoy!

October Roundup

Happy Halloween!
Thanks to everyone that participated in our October challenge. Thanks to Raquel for the pick. They all look delicious.

Chocolate Pumpkin Layer Cake

Posted by - piecesofme
originally posted here Let them Have Cake

Taken from Baking Bites

Pumpkin and Chocolate Layer Cake

Pumpkin Cake Layer
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable or olive oil
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Cake Layer
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable or olive oil
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-oz dark or bittersweet chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper and lightly grease the bottom and sides of both.
Set up two large mixing bowls so that the batter for both cakes can be prepared at the same time.

For the pumpkin cake:
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
In a large measuring cup, or a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, melted butter, pumpkin puree, milk and vanilla extract until all ingredients are well combined.
Pour pumpkin mixture into dry ingredients and stir until no streaks of flour remain visible. Pour into a prepared pan.

For the chocolate cake:
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Sift in cocoa powder and whisk to combine.
In a large measuring cup, or a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, melted butter, pumpkin puree, milk and vanilla extract until all ingredients are well combined. Whisk in melted chocolate.
Pour pumpkin mixture into dry ingredients and stir until no streaks of flour remain visible. Pour into a prepared pan.

Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the cake springs back when lightly pressed. The baking time is the same for one cake as it is for two cakes in the oven at the same time.

Turn cakes out of their pan and onto wire racks to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
2 8-oz packages cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 cups confectioners’ sugar

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat at high speed until smooth, gradually adding the confectioners’ sugar until a thick and spreadable consistency is reached. Additional confectioners sugar may need to be added to thicken frosting, especially if humidity is high in your area.

To assemble the cake, slice both the pumpkin cake and the chocolate cake in half horizontally. Place a chocolate round on a cake stand or serving platter, spread with a thin layer of cream cheese icing, and place a pumpkin layer on top. Make sure to spread the frosting all the way to the edges of the cake rounds. Spread the pumpkin layer with frosting and repeat with remaining chocolate and pumpkin layers.
Use remaining frosting to cover the top and sides of the cake.

Serves 12-16

I am late as usual in posting and not to mention, I did drop one layer on the floor, but in the end it turned out great, total hit!

Coconut Layer Cake

Posted by - Nancy

I know what your thinking, this was already a challenge on Have the Cake. And you would be correct, however, I was not a member yet when that challenge was issued so I never made the coconut cake. When I told my husband what this month's challenge was, we had just watched an episode of America's Test Kitchen where they made Coconut cake, and he casually mentioned how coconut cake was a layer cake. And let's just say that I know the way to my mans heart is with a slice of coconut cake.

So I printed the recipe from the website and I was intrigued since they suggest using coconut cream (Coco Lopez) to add a real coco-nutty flavor. Of course, I procrastinated and realized I had better bake my cake tonight in order to finish on time. So this afternoon I set out to bake up my cakes.



The recipe went together easy enough. I was a bit surprised to see that basically you make a biscuit dough by beating the butter into the dry ingredients, then add the wet works. But it all came together and baked up. One thing I was not counting on though was that the oven in our still fairly new apartment is not level, so my cakes baked up a bit crooked. I was nervous about leveling them since I tried to do that before and it didn't turn out so well. However, I took a deep breath, went slow and came out with mostly level cakes. I was also a bit nervous about splitting my cakes, but watching Alton Brown do it many, many times and seeing them score them first on America's Test Kitchen paid off, and I had two beautifully split cakes, for four layers total.



Now it was time to frost. My husband requested a simple cream cheese frosting, so after a trip to the grocery store for some cream cheese, I threw together a basic frosting and was ready to frost. I was a bit worried about not having enough frosting, so I went thin on the inner layers. I had plenty though and after a coating of toasted coconut, I had a layer cake.



So how is it?



Delicious!

Chocolate Buttermilk Layer Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Posted by - Erin

Layer cake is (amazingly) something I know how to make, so I was pretty excited for this month! AND my little guy just turned one, so it was perfect to have an actual REASON to make a cake! My only requirement was cream cheese frosting. My older son wanted chocolate (who doesn't?), and the internet search yeilds... Chocolate Buttermilk Layer Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting from gracessweetlife.com.

The only caveat of this recipe? I don't know where this woman lives, but it isn't the USA! Darn metric measurements making me have to find a convertor on the internet--goodness! Once I got everything converted, it was a remarkably easy recipe! Since blogger won't let me copy and paste, you get my translation and not the fun metric-system-to-English-system-conversion. I also changed "bicarbonate of soda" to the less cool-sounding "baking soda."

for the cake:

1 cup water

5/8 cup unsalted butter, chopped
2 cups flour, sifted

1 tsp baking soda, sifted

2 cups superfine sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Grease and line two round cake pans

2. Combine water, butter, and cocoa in a small saucepan ove medium heat and stir until the butter has melted; set aside.

3. Using a fine-mesh sieve, sift the flour and baking soda into a large bowl. Add sugar and whisk to combine.

4. Add cocoa mixture to and whisk to combine.

5. Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla and whisk to combine.

6. Divide batter evenly into the two cake pans. Bake for 40-45 minutes at 325 or until a cake tester comes out clean.

7. Allow to cool completely in the pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn out onto rack to cool completely.

for the frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 pkgs (16 oz) cream cheese, softened

2 cups confectioner's sugar, sifted

1/2 cup cocoa, sifted

1. Place butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high for 6-8 minutes or until pale and creamy.

2. Using a fine-mesh sieve, sift confectioner's sugar and cocoa into a medium bowl. Repeat an additional two times.

3. Reduce stand mixer to low speed and gradually add the confectioner's sugar/cocoa mixture.

4. Increase speed to medium-high and continue to beat for a further 6-8 minutes or until light and fluffy.

to assemble:

1. Slice cooled cakes in half horizontally.

2. Place one cake layer on a plate and spread with one quarter of the frosting.

3. Repeat with remaining letters and frosting.

4. Add your own TERRIBLY WRITTEN birthday greeting. I mean, really, it looks like I must have Parkinson's, my hand shook so much!

I followed the recipe almost exactly--I didn't have superfine sugar so I used regular (which could explain why my cakes looked much more dense than hers; I also don't have a "fine-mesh sieve" so I kinda whacked the stuff through a big spoon with holes in it...For the cake mixing, I used my stand mixer with the whisk attachment, I figured that counted as whisking.

The cake was amazing, especially the frosting (I'm sure you will, but be SURE to lick the bowl CLEAN!)! I especially liked that it wasn't frosted all the way around, that tends to include a lot of swearing... I'd definitely make it again, though next time might think about adding a bit of coffee or espresso to give it a mocha-y flavor!

The birthday boy liked it, too!

Spice Cake with Sea foam Frosting

Posted by - Vivian

Please forgive me!  I'm a bit off of my game since I returned from China.  I managed to take pictures of the spice cake while I was making it, but when I took it out of the oven, frosted and served.... well, I totally forgot those parts!  Which explains the lack of a finished product photograph.

I'm hoping that with just sharing this lovely recipe will help me to get some forgiveness.  This cake recipe is one my husband's grandmother made and was passed down to me through his mother.  It is my husband's favorite frosted cake recipe.  Enjoy!

Spice Cake

3/4 shortening

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

2 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

3 eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour two 9-inch pans or one 9x13-inch pan.

Cream together in large bowl, shortening, brown sugar, granulated sugar and eggs.

Add remaining ingredients and mix together until smooth.

Pour into one 9x13-inch pan or divide mix equally between two 9-inch pans.

Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool in pans ten minutes before removing.  Frost with sea foam frosting.

Sea Foam Frosting

2 egg whites

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Wash all utinsels and pans thoroughly - all items should be free from any oil.
Stir the unbeaten egg whites, sugar and water together in the top of a double boiler. Over briskly boiling water, using a mixer, beat for 7 minutes or until frosting looks fluffy and holds a soft, gentle shape.

Remove from boiling water, add vanilla extract and continue beating until frosting has stiff peaks.

Spread between layers of cake and then frost the sides and top.

Halloween Doberge Cake

Posted by - Louanne

So when I learned the theme for October was layer cake, I knew exactly what I would make - a Doberge Cake.  If you grew up in the Metropolitan New Orleans area, chances are that at some point in your life, you had a Doberge cake for either your birthday or someone else's celebration. Additionally, it's quite likely the cake came from Gambino's or Haydel's bakery. My family always used Gambino's, and I suspect the reason was based solely on location, as Gambino's was closer. So, what's so special about the Doberge cake? Here's the history. In my family, depending upon who was eating cake, you either got the Chocolate Doberge or the 1/2 & 1/2. What's the 1/2 & 1/2? One side is chocolate and the other side is lemon. If a grandparent was in attendance, you got the 1/2 & 1/2. If it was just kids at the party, you got the chocolate. I prefer the chocolate, of course; my husband, the non-chocoholic, prefers the lemon. The son - well, he takes after his mama and is a chocolate lover, too. So, today I offer you the chocolate version. Keep in mind, however, that I have never seen a Doberge cake with green and orange cake layers, that is entirely Andrew's creation. When I began researching a recipe for the Doberge, I came across a cookbook entitled Let's Bake with Beulah Ledner: a legendary New Orleans Lady by Maxine Wolchansky. Maxine is Beulah's daughter. The cookbook is out of print, but I was able to borrown the cookbook from the State Library of Louisiana, via inter-library loan.
Typically, a Doberge has both buttercream and a poured fondant, but I chose to stop at the buttercream.

Halloween Doberge Cake
For the cake
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
3 teaspoons baking powder
3 1/2 cups cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Scant teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
Orange and green gel food color.
6 8" disposable cake pans, buttered and lined with parchment rounds or buttered and floured

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla.
Add eggs, one at a time.
Beat in lemon juice.
In a small bowl, use a fork to mix the flour, baking powder and salt together.
Alternately add flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture.
Remove half of the batter to another bowl.
To one half, add orange food color until desired depth of color is reached; to the other half, add green food color.
Divide the orange batter amongst 3 of the prepared pans; repeat with the green batter.
Bake for 13-14 minutes and allow to cool before filling with custard.

Chocolate Custard
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons corn starch
4 tablespoons cocoa
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 quart milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 1-oz squares of unsweetened chocolate
2 1-oz squares of semi-sweet chocolate

In a saucepan over medium-low heat, melt together the unsweetened chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate and butter until smooth; stir in the vanilla and set aside.
In a bowl, whisk together the sugar, salt, flour, cornstarch, and cocoa.
Beat the eggs and milk into the sugar mixture.
Pour the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick.
Pour custard into a shallow dish, cover with plastic wrap, and chill.

Assembly

When cake layers and custard is cool, assemble cake, alternating orange and green layers with custard filling.
Chill cake for 30-45 minutes before applying the buttercream frosting. Store cake in refrigerator.

Chocolate Buttercream
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup cocoa
1 box powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk, +additional if needed
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer, cream together butter and cocoa. Mix in vanilla. Add powdered sugar, milk, and salt and slowly cream together until fluffy. If necessary, add additional milk if too thick or more powdered sugar if too thin.

Cake and custard recipes from Let's Bake with Beulah Ledner: a legendary New Orleans Lady
Chocolate buttercream is a Louanne's Kitchen original.

Hot Mess Layer Cake

Posted by - Rena (and Michelle)

It's a miracle this cake came together. Fellow HTC baker Michelle and I were spending the weekend together, selling our jewelry at Michelle's loft. We had agreed to make a red velvet layer cake with cream cheese frosting. We had all our ingredients which had been purchased earlier in the week. We figured there would be some downtime throughout the day and we'd bake the cake.

Like I said, it's a miracle it came together. We threw it all together in a matter of minutes. Michelle did all the hard work including dealing with the food coloring which is always a hot mess. Something went wrong along the way because the cake was super dense and a little spongy or rubbery. Not sure what we did wrong. Perhaps throwing a cake together in 5 minutes was the problem. It was still edible and wound up being quite tasty with the addition of the frosting.

We didn't have cake pans so we borrowed two square corning dishes from a neighbor. Our cake was very small yet very tall. We used the recipe I used for my red velvet cupcakes.

The frosting was a simple recipe I found online:

• 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 8 oz of Philly cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
• 2 - 3 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Mocha Espresso Layer Cake

Posted by -Soap Mom's Kitchen

For Coffee Lovers Only!

Now this is one of those recipes that is passed along from friend to friend. I can't tell you where it originated from, but I got it from a good friend of mine, so that is good enough for me. I had mentioned to her that I had to make a layer cake.  She told me she had one that she wanted to try, and thought it might be a good one for me to do for Have the Cake's, October challenge.

I decided to do a decorative scalloped edging on sides with a large star tip and some chocolate drizzle decorations and a little sifted cocoa. It is one of my favorite ways to decorate a cake. It is very forgiving if you are one of those people who can't seem to get a smooth cake. I fit the bill on that one! It is quite impressive and would make a wonderful Birthday Cake for a friend.

The cake base is a yellow, sour cream cake, drenched in sweet, espresso coffee syrup, mascarpone cheese and a whole egg, butter cream filling with mascarpone cheese, more coffee and chocolate. This is a sophisticated cake and meant for an adult pallet. I have to say it reminds me of cakes I had in Europe, and I am sure that is where it originated from. Very Italian indeed!

A wonderful ending for an Italian dinner party. 

This cake must be served at Room Temperature to really enjoy the full flavors of the coffee syrup and real buttercream frosting. Before serving, let it sit out for about 4 hours at room temperature. Tasted better the next Day!

Recipe: 2  ( 6 inch cake rounds) sliced into 4 layers total

1 1/2 cups unsalted room temperature butter

1 cup sugar
3 eggs room temperature

1/2 cup sour cream room temperature

1/4 cup mascarpone cheese room temperature

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch salt

1 vanilla bean split and seeded

Cream the butter with the sugar until fluffy, add room temperature eggs and beat, add mascarpone cheese, vanilla seeds and continue to beat until eggs are very well creamed and incorporated. Add room temperature sour cream and continue to beat. Sift flour with salt and baking powder and add to batter. Beat until incorporated. Butter and flour 2 (6 inch )cake pans. The recipe says to bake for 35 minutes, I had to bake for 45 minutes. Do the toothpick test to determine doneness.

You can see all the vanilla seeds in the batter, YUM!

Syrup
1 cup strong espresso
1/2 cup sugar
3 T. Kahlua

Bring coffee, sugar and Kahlua to a quick boil to dissolve sugar and remove from heat.

Second Crumb coating!

Piped with an oversize star tip and pastry bag.

Butter Cream Frosting

3 whole eggs room temperature

1/2 cup water

2 cups sugar

5 sticks softened unsalted butter
1 cup powder sugar
1/4 cup melted semi sweet chocolate
1 T. instant espresso dissolved in 2 tsp water
2 T. Kahlua

Bring sugar and water to a boil in sauce pot and wash down sides of sauce pot with pastry brush and water to retard crystallization of sugar. Whip eggs in stand mixer until lighter in color. Continue to beat while sugar water is boiling. Bring to soft stage using a candy thermometer. When the sugar is just right slowly pour into the eggs being whipped with the mixer on. Please be careful, you can get burned. You must pay attention. No children should be in the area at this time. After all the sugar water is incorporated into egg mixture, you must continue to beat for about 15 minutes until the egg sugar mixture is completely cool. Add soften butter, melted chocolate, dissolved instant espresso coffee and Kahlua. You can stabilize this butter cream by adding 1 cup powder sugar. Whip until incorporated.

For the Filling take 1 1/2 cups Butter Cream add 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese to filling and beat until incorporated with whisk.

Assembly: Yes, this is a time consuming cake to make. Cut each layer into 2 layers. Drench each layer with Coffee syrup, add cheese butter cream on each layer. Do a crumb coat and refrigerate for one hour. Continue frosting another layer of butter cream around the cake. Refrigerate for another hour. Do your piping, doing one column at a time of star tip decoration. Sift cocoa and add chocolate decorations!

A nice finale' for a dinner party!

Fall Layer Cake

So, when this month's challenge was posted I was in the midst of a 3-day juice cleanse. No caffeine, no alcohol, no anything but raw fruits and vegetables. Why? Something about detoxifying. Anyway, when you can't eat you find yourself fantasizing about eating, cooking, baking and everything but choking down yet another icy cold all-fruit smoothie or a shot of gag-inducing wheat grass.
Then I see it; layer cake. Mmmmmm...cake. I spent my weekend searching endless amounts of cake recipes trying to decide what the greatest, most delicious, decadent yummi-ness I could set myself to the task of making. Here is what I decided on: A three-layer Pumpkin Spice Cake frosted with caramel frosting AND cream cheese frosting between each layer. I combined three different recipes to come up with what I hoped to be the world's greatest cake ever.
The pumpkin cake recipe is from Country Living and can be found here. I was making this to bring to a family gathering and got a request to leave out the nutmeg. I substituted by adding a little more cinnamon. I also used Splenda Sugar instead of real sugar. Other than that, I stuck with what was written.The recipe was easy and the cake came together beautifully. I was a little nervous that the layers seemed awfully thin but once they were loaded down with cream cheese and caramel it was fine.
For the cream cheese frosting I used this recipe from AllRecipes. Some of the others just used way too many ingredients (heavy cream, rum, etc) and I wanted something more plain since I was also adding caramel. Delicious and it covered the giant crack in my first layer just beautifully!

For the caramel frosting, I kind of improvised. It basically involved about 1/2 c. butter, 1 c. brown sugar, 1/4 c. milk, 1 t. vanilla and maybe 2 c/ of confectionery sugar. Melt everything on the stove together-add confectionery sugar until it's a good thickness for spreading. I poured caramel between each layer and then put the rest on the top of the cake.

End result? Love. The caramel made it a little over the top but it was delicious.
The only problem? I made the cake on Thursday and then the frosting on Friday night and didn't serve the cake until Saturday so it did dry out a little. That's my fault, though. The recipe made a really moist cake but I didn't have a proper cake container to store it so air got to it.
Posted by -colleen