Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

The little man of our house turned one last month. Most of the time, I try to pick cakes that have white frosting so that I can color it for decorating. I finally got to do a chocolate cake! I had almost as much fun eating it as I did decorating it…almost.

 

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 pkg chocolate cake mix with pudding

1 cup sour cream

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

3 large eggs

Grease and dust two 9″ round cake pans. *Tip* Dust with cake mix instead of flour – you don’t get stuck with the white residue on the edges of your cake. Set pans aside.

Combine cake mix, sour cream, water, oil, vanilla, and eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat until all ingredients are incorporated. Divide the cake batter evenly between the 2 prepared cake pans. Place pans in the oven, side by side, and bake at 350^F for 28-32 minutes, until they spring back when lightly pressed with a finger. Let cool for 5 minutes, then remove cakes from the pans and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

8 Tbsp butter, at room temperature

4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

1/3 cup cocoa powder

3 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add cocoa powder and powdered sugar, a bit at a time, beating until well incorporated. Add vanilla and beat until frosting is fluffy.

 

Bakery Cake from a Boxed Mix

We had a birthday this month! Five years old and I wasn’t a bit surprised when she asked for a ‘Frozen’ cake! It was a mad scramble to find Anna and Elsa dolls, let me tell you! Everyone and their dog is sold out of pretty much everything ‘Frozen.’ But, a gazillion stores later, we got a hold of them both! Because the skirts are the actual cake, I couldn’t do anything too fancy with the cake flavors – no filling or good stuff like that. But I had seen a recipe floating around: “Make any boxed cake mix taste just like it came from the bakery.” So, we gave it a go! The first cake got scrapped because we discovered after the first ‘skirt,’ that the pan needed two cake mixes – it doesn’t work well if the cake only makes it to the dolls’ knees. 🙂 The second run was better, but then my mom remembered that the pan came with a metal dowel that you are supposed to put in the middle to help it cook, so we plugged that into the third. Yeah…the cake overflowed a little. And when I say a little, I really mean a lot! And a huge sink hole deflated the middle. But, I figured that just made it easier to get the doll’s legs in. 🙂 We cut off any burnt parts of the lava cake, and had to improvise a little with fondant (scary! I’ve decided I need to take a class because after my first attempt I’ve concluded that, frankly, I stink at fondant) to make it all the way up to Elsa’s waist since the cake shrunk a little, what with 1/3 of it over flowing. My mom said that now she remembers why she was so happy when all us kids grew out of dolly cakes.

All in all, I’m kind of ridiculously proud of how my cakes turned out! Even Olaf, who fell over a couple of times and required major cake rehab, turned out pretty cute. You can’t tell from the pictures too well, but Elsa’s dress has edible glitter on her skirt, so she sparkled – Olaf got a little pinch on him too. I had to close my eyes and make my husband cut into them at the party. So much work, just to hack them to pieces! But it was worth it. My daughter loved it – she told me, “Mom, I just love my cake. I’m crying!” Can you tell what I do when I’m super happy? 🙂 And it tasted great too! I liked the chocolate more than the white, but that may be because I just like chocolate cake better anyways!

 

Ingredients:

Step 1: Look at the directions on the cake mix.
Step 2: Add one more egg (or add 2 if you want it to be very rich).
Step 3: Use melted butter instead of oil and double the amount.
Step 4: Instead of water, use whole milk.
Step 5: Mix well and bake for the time recommended on the box.

 

Frosted with Buttercream Frosting

Pumpkin Bread

I made pumpkin cookies a little while ago. They turned out ok, but they were just like regular chocolate chip cookies! Pumpkin cookies should be fluffy and soft, not flat with crispy edges. 😦 That recipe did not make the blog cut. Anyone have a really awesome pumpkin cookie recipe they’d like to share?

To make up for one pumpkin-fail, I had to redeem myself with a recipe that I knew would end up good. This is my grandma’s pumpkin bread and it is fabulous! It’s really unlike any other pumpkin bread I’ve ever had (secret ingredient being coconut!). Her recipe calls for raisins too but my family is anti-raisins unfortunately, so I typically leave them out.

Ingredients:

5 cups flour

4 cups sugar

3 cups pumpkin

2 eggs

1 cup oil

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp nutmeg

4 tsp baking soda

2 cups raisins

1 cup chopped nuts

1 cup grated coconut

Mix all dry ingredients and sift together. Add pumpkin, eggs, and oil and mix well. Stir in raisins, nuts, and coconut. Pour into 3 greased loaf pans. Bake at 350^F for 1 hour or until toothpick test comes out clean.