Happy Birthday/Easter!

This weekend was not only Easter but also Chris' Mom's 50th birthday. On Friday Chris' sister and her boyfriend came over to color Easter eggs with us and to decide what kind of cake to make for Mom's birthday. Here are the rules: NO buttercream, fruit filling, pudding filling, or too much chocolate. I was left to make the final decisions with Chris' help. We decided on a black and white layer cake with a cookie filling. I made the same Chocolate Guinness cake that I have made previously and a white cake. Then I layered a chocolate layer in between two white layers. I ended up crushing Oreo cookies in my blender and using them for the filling. Then I topped it all with a chocolate ganache, fondant flowers and of course 'Happy 50th Birthday Mom".

She absolutely love it. I was worried that with no wet filling it might be too dry but the cakes were perfectly moist and the chocolate ganache on top was just perfect. I had meant to buy dark chocolate for the ganache but instead accidently bought bittersweet chocolate, so I had to add the sugar separately to the ganache and I was SO worried that it would not come out well. But it really was just the right sweetness for the cake.

Unfortunately, we were so pressed for time to get to the party that I didn't have time to take pictures AND I left my camera at home. So once we get the pictures from Chris' sister, I will post them.

Because I only used one chocolate layer and two white layers, I had TONS of batter left over. Hmmm, what to do with it? Make cupcakes of course!
The purple was my favorite:
The pics came out a little fuzzy because the flash kept reflecting off the pan they were on, so I had to turn it off.

This was my first time working with fondant of any kind. It is surprisingly easy. I ordered a few cutters and a veiner today that I hope to get before next weekend. Chris' sister's birthday is next weekend and she requested a red velvet cake. If I get my order in time for that shipment it would be perfect.

Happy caking!

Chocolate Guinness Cake

On Friday, we had two of our friends over for dinner since they helped us move into our new apartment in February. Chris was doing all the cooking (yes, I am a lucky girl, aren't I?) so I decided to make Chocolate Guinness Cake.

I first heard of this from Cupcakes Take The Cake. Immediately I knew that Chris and our friends would love it so I went in search of a recipe. I used the one I found on epicurious.com. The only changes I made were that we only had Guinness Draught in the house and not stout so I used that instead and my local grocery store did not have dutch-process cocoa so I used the old standyby Hershey's Cocoa Powder since I was on a schedule and didn't have time to travel to a different store.

Just out of the pan:

The cake came out fantastic. Moist and rich with a good balance of chocolate and a certain 'breadiness' as Chris put it, which I take to mean that even though the cake was quite dense the texture and taste is that of a much lighter cake. It was creamy on the tongue but not in such a way that it stuck to your mouth in an uncomfortable manner. It sliced beautifully and each slice held together very nicely, which I was a little surprised at considering the texture of the filing.

I did attempt the chocolate 'icing' that the recipe called for, but it did not turn out very well. This may have been because of my brain lapsing during my shopping trip and only buying 12oz of chocolate instead of 16oz, but I also think that the cream to chocolate ratio (2 cups cream to 16oz chocolate) would have been off anyway. The 'icing' did not harden in the refrigerator even though I had it in there for about 4 hours. It ended up being a lumpy mess. So I filled the cake with the chocolate mixture and dusted the outside with powdered sugar instead (I also did not level the top layer because it looked too delicious the way it was perfectly rounded).

I am so glad I decided to do this. The chocolate mixture was definitely too sweet to have iced the whole cake with. It was good for the filling in a very thin layer (because of the runnyness of it) but would have overpowered the cake if it had been all over.


The first slice:

Our friends each requested to take an extra slice home with them.

Next time I think I will try it again with this recipe I found on The Cupcakery for Bailey's Buttercream. I still don't think I will ice the whole cake, I will probably just serve each slice with a nice pipped dollop of the buttercream next to it on the plate.

Overall: a delicious cake that I will definitely be making again in the future.