Who says you can't have your cake and eat it too?

"You can't have your cake and eat it too." I understand the saying, and yeah I've experienced it plenty of times, like most people. But as a baker? Nope, doesn't happen. Well, except for the occassional failed recipe. But usually I can have my cake and eat it too. Just not too much or I'll have an expanding waistline, which I do NOT want. If you are a chocolate lover like me and looking for a great chocolate cake you might want to give my go-to chocolate cake recipe a try. I searched high and low for what would become my "tried and true" chocolate cake recipe and wouldn't you know it was under my nose all along? On the back of the Hershey's Dutch Proccessed Cocoa container I found euphoria in the form of cake. Want the ultimate sinfully delicious cake? Definitely top the cake off with my "tried and true" chocolate frosting - Fantastic Double Fudge Frosting. Hershey's "Especially Dark" Chocolate Cake 2 c. sugar 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour 3/4 c. Hershey's Special Dark cocoa 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. salt 2 eggs 1 c. milk 1/2 c. vegetable oil 2 tsp. vanilla extract 1 c. boiling water Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost. Makes 10 to 12 servings. Fantastic Double Fudge Frosting 1 1/4 c. sugar 1 c. heavy cream 5 (1 oz each) squares unsweetened chocolate 1 stick unsalted butter 1 tsp. vanilla extract Bring sugar and heavy cream to boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring so that it doesn't boil over. Remove pan from heat and add unsweetened chocolate, stir until completely dissolved. Add butter and stir until melted, then add vanilla, stir to combine. Refrigerate. When icing is cold, beat with an electric mixer or wooden spoon. Frost cake. Frosts 1 2 layer cake or single layer medium size sheet cake. *All credit goes to Ayun Halliday author of Dirty Sugar Cookies for original frosting recipe. Oh, and if you're wondering if "Merfday" is some unusual little known holiday yet undiscovered by you, the answer is no. Well, sorta. I made the cake to celebrate my long-time friend Meredith's recent birthday. Together we're two very silly girls, always coming up with goofy nicknames for our friends and family, and for as long as I can remember we've all known her as Merf. Me? Well, I'll just leave y'all to wonder about my alias...

Rachael Ray's Gigi's Apple Cake

Ok, I'm reaching into my archives with this one. I made this so long ago I can't even remember when, but for some reason I kept it a secret, never taking time enough to share it with y'all. Most people who know me know I'm not a Rachael Ray fan. I'm not a Rach-hater, I'm just not a Rach-lover. I do however really like her talkshow, and I love, love, triple lover her magazine, Everyday with Rachael Ray. I don't make too many of the recipes from the magazine, and I have yet to make a recipe from any of her shows, but I really dig the style of the magazine and Rach's talkshow. The recipes in the Sweet Spot section of the magazine always catch my eye and if I'm going to make one of the recipes from Everyday with Rachael Ray, that's 9 times out of 10 going to be the recipe. I found the recipe for Gigi's Apple Cake in the August/September issue. I have no idea who Gigi is, but the cake was gorgeous and sounded absolutely delicious. I love apples and the cake turned out great, nice and moist from the apples. My cake didn't turn out to look like the one in the magazine, but I'm sure it tasted just as good. Gigi's Apple Cake 1 cup canola oil, plus more for greasing 2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting 2 teaspoons baking powder 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon 6 Granny Smith apples (about 1¼ pounds)-peeled, cored and thinly sliced 2¼ cups granulated sugar 4 large eggs 1/3 cup orange juice 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt or tube pan. In a medium bowl, combine the 2½ cups of flour with the baking powder and 2 teaspoons of the cinnamon. In a large bowl, toss the apples with ¼ cup of the sugar and the remaining 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and set aside. In a standing mixed fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the 1 cup of oil with the eggs, orange juice, vanilla and the remaining 2 cups of sugar on medium speed for 1 minute. Add the flour in 3 batches, mixing until just combined. Add the apples and stir to combine. Transfer to the pan, leaving about an inch at the top, and bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 1½ hours. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 30 minutes before unmolding it onto a rack to cool completely.

Sweet, Sweet Babies!

Wow, I've truly been gone far too long! I'm sure I've said it before and meant it, but I'll say it anyway, I hope to be back for good and on a REGULAR basis now. I greatly appreciate all the encouragement and well wishes I've received from y'all. I've been in and out of the hospital a few more times since my last post, but I'm doing much much better. Life is very different these days from how it was a year ago. I'm still not where I want to be with my health, but I've come a long way and I refuse to give up and think I'll never reach the level of health I desire and pray for. In some ways I'm pretty healthy again, I'm doing well, I wake up everyday feeling great and I'm loving life. There's one thing I can say for sure, the crisis I (and the rest of my loving family) have dealth with this year has truly changed my life. I've learned so much about myself and the love and support of my family. As strange as it sounds, sometimes amid tragedy you discover there are blessings in there somewhere. So, with that said, who wants to talk about some food? I do! My Big, Bad Dad does pretty much all the cooking these days. What can I say? I love his cooking! I haven't been doing a great deal of baking, but I am getting back into the groove. I recently got a chance to preview Christmas with Southern Living 2007 and decided to try out a recipe for Baby Pound Cakes that looked pretty promising. The result was a sweet and buttery moist cake. Although not really what I would call a typical pound cake these little babies were definitely worth baking. Overall a pretty simple recipe and definitely got good reviews from my taste testers. Baby Pound Cakes 1 1/2 c. butter, softened 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened 3 c. sugar 6 large eggs 3 c. all-purpose flour 1/4 tsp. salt 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract 1/2 tsp. almond extract Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed using an electric mixter for about 2 minutes or until cream. Gradually add sugar, beating well for 5 to 7 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears. Combine flour and salt. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended; stir in vanilla and almond extracts. Spoon batter into paper-lined muffin tins (standard size), filling three-fourths full. Bakeat 350 degress for 22 to 25 minutesor until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes; remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks. Yields approx. 2 1/2 dozen. Alternatively, pound cakes can be made in fluted mini pound cake pans: size varies according to brand. Pans should be greased and floured. Fill pans three-fourths full and bake at 350 degrees. Length of time will vary according to pan size. Cakes can also be baked in mini-muffin tins following same instructions baking for 16 to 18 minutes. Yields approx. 9 dozen.

White Trash Wedding Cake

I'm ashamed, so very ashamed. I've been gone for too long, and I've missed my blog so much. So much has been going on I wouldn't even know where to begin so I'll skip it all. But with all the busy-ness & goings on as of late, I'm happy to report that life is fine - great actually, just extremely busy. Just know that I've missed y'all terribly and I hope to be back to blogging on a much more regular basis. My shame isn't that I've been gone for so long, it's that I consumed an entire cake all on my own, minus a few bites that crossed the lips of my Big Bad Dad. A while back the thought crossed my mind of this cake my Nana used to make when I was younger, it was actually more like a cobbler than a cake - a layer of cherry pie filling, a layer of crushed pineapple then a sprinkling of yellow cake mix. So I brought out my treasured cookbook filled with all her handwritten notes and trusted recipes to find her recipe for "Dump Cake". Yes, I said it- Dump Cake. I was craving something called Dump Cake, can you believe it? Nana was anything, but white trash, but that's certainly what this recipe screams to me, so I've renamed it "White Trash Wedding Cake" because I simply can't bear to eat something called "Dump Cake". And I have to admit, I enjoyed every calorie-filled morsel of that cake, I won't deny that. I did an internet search because I thought I remembered pecans and coconut in the cake, but wasn't sure. Well I found umpteen different slight variations of the recipe, I even saw a chocolate version. Stay tuned, I might have to give that a try soon! White Trash Wedding Cake aka: Dump Cake 1 stick butter/margarine, melted 1 package yellow cake mix 1 (21 oz) can cherry pie filling 1 (15 oz) can crushed pineapple, undrained Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour cherry pie filling and crushed pineapple into 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over fruit mixture. Pour melted butter/margarine over cake mix. If desired sprinkle 1 cup coconut and/or 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts on top. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until golden browned and bubbly.

Wilton Course 2 Finale

I did it!! I have mastered the art of basketweave and royal icing flowers. Well, atleast according to the Wilton Course II outline..lol There are many many other flowers I have yet to learn. I missed class 3 of 4 for the course, so I was a bit nervous about how my flowers & cake would turn out, but I must say I'm very pleased. I had to teach myself how to do some of the flowers, but I'm pretty happy with how they came out. And the basketweave..well, that was an experience..I was able to get into a rhythm & it wasn't too long before I made my way around the entire cake..my hand was telling me it wasn't a moment too soon you can believe that..lol

Par-Tee Time

I present to you my latest creation!! I worked long & hard to come up with what I felt was just the PERFECT idea for this cake. First let me set the scenario for you... My neighbor knows about my interest & efforts to start my own homebased bakery as she is often my guinea pig when I make breakfast muffins. Well, she was hosting a golf tournament over the weekend & asked if I would do a cake because one of the players was celebrating his 60th birthday - as you can see. So of course I jumped at the chance, as it's a great opportunity to get my name out to other people & a chance to pad my portofolio just a little bit more..lol Of course it doesn't hurt that it gave me a pretty good bit of decorating practice right? After much work & standing over the cake for probably a good hour just staring, trying to decide if it was actually done or not..I was beaming from ear to ear with pride. As I always am when trying out a new recipe, which carelessly this was I was a bit nervous that maybe it didn't turn out right or that it just wouldn't suit the taste of my customer. Unfortunately this time I had reason to be nervous - come to find out the cake was very DRY!! I was crushed..absolutely crushed. I definitely should have tried the recipe before hand..but I made a cupcake out of the batter & sampled it. The flavor was pretty good, but yes it was a bit dry..but I figured once I iced the cake it would be fine. I finished the cake up about 24 hours before the party, so I figured it would be fine..shouldn't dry out too much before then right?? Well I guess with this cake that wasn't the case..Either that or maybe the cake dried out more than the cupcake. Regardless I'm terribly disappointed & will NEVER use the Barefoot Contessa recipe she featured on her show for the "birthday cake with pink frosting". The recipe was called exactly that..well something close. The cake was really cute when she made it on the show & normally I really like her recipes so I felt pretty confident the cake would be atleast satisfactory, but in this case I was wrong. Maybe she just doesn't do good birthday cakes? lol Anyway I'm pretty bummed about that. I don't expect all my recipes to be great..you just have to test & toss sometimes..lol But the fact that I made something for someone else..especially because they were using it for a party & they were going to pay me for it..that makes it bother me even more. Bleh..maybe I'll be able to write a much more redeeming blog SOON!! lol