Red Velvet Cupcakes

This has been a busy week of baking! I was asked to make a cake and cupcakes for a big meeting we had at work and this is what resulted! I think I am starting to get the hang of this whole cake decorating thing! These red velvet cupcakes were a hit!

---

Red Velvet Cupcakes 

(1 dozen cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup FLOUR
• 1/2 tsp BAKING SODA
• 1/2 tsp BAKING POWDER
• 1/2 tsp SALT
• 2 Tbs COCOA POWDER
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbs CANOLA OIL
• 1 cup SUGAR
• 1 EGG, large
• 1/2 cup BUTTERMILK, room temperature
• 1 tsp VANILLA
• 2/3 tsp RED FOOD COLORING PASTE or 1 oz. RED FOOD COLORING
• 1 tsp WHITE VINEGAR
• 1/4 cup BREWED HOT COFFEE

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Mix the oil, sugar, and egg using an electric mixer. 
3. Add the buttermilk, vanilla, and food coloring. Mix until everything is well combined.
4. Mix in the vinegar and coffee. 
5. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. 
6. Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in the bowl of the electric mixer. 
7. Once all of the ingredients are well combined, divide the batter equally into greased and floured cake pans. 
8. Bake the cakes for 7 minutes at 400 degrees F. Then lower the oven temperature to 320 degrees F and bake for another 13 minutes. 

---

Red Velvet Birthday Cake

I made this red velvet birthday present cake for a friend's birthday, but also as a test run for a wedding cake that I will be making later this year. I made one batch of the batter for each layer of the cake (essentially tripling the recipe) and it worked out beautifully! 

This cake turned out delicious! The crumb was perfect and it had a wonderful, rich, moist flavor! The cream cheese icing didn't hurt either. It was so good!

Since it was a birthday cake, I decided to decorate it with some fondant to make it look like present!

---

Red Velvet Cake 

Note: To make a 3 layer 10 inch square cake I tripled this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup FLOUR
• 1/2 tsp BAKING SODA
• 1/2 tsp BAKING POWDER
• 1/2 tsp SALT
• 2 Tbs COCOA POWDER
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbs CANOLA OIL
• 1 cup SUGAR
• 1 EGG, large
• 1/2 cup BUTTERMILK, room temperature
• 1 tsp VANILLA
• 2/3 tsp RED FOOD COLORING PASTE or 1 oz. RED FOOD COLORING
• 1 tsp WHITE VINEGAR
• 1/4 cup BREWED HOT COFFEE

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 320 degrees F.
2. Mix the oil, sugar, and egg using an electric mixer. 
3. Add the buttermilk, vanilla, and food coloring. Mix until everything is well combined.
4. Mix in the vinegar and coffee. 
5. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. 
6. Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in the bowl of the electric mixer. 
7. Once all of the ingredients are well combined, divide the batter equally into greased and floured cake pans. 
8. Bake the cakes for 20 to 25 minutes.

---

Cream Cheese Icing

NOTE: You will need to double this recipe if you make the full sized cake!

Ingredients:

• 1 sticks BUTTER, softened
• 3 & 3/4 cups POWDERED SUGAR, sifted
• 1 (8 oz.) package of CREAM CHEESE, sifted
• 2 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT

Directions:

1. Using an electric mixer cream the butter and cream cheese together using the paddle attachment. 
2. Once the mixture is smooth, turn the mixer down to a low speed and start adding the powdered sugar. 
3. After all of the powdered sugar has been mixed in, add the vanilla. 
4. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and continue mixing for about 3 minutes to make sure everything if fully incorporated. 

---

I found this red velvet cake on this website: http://vintagetrinkets.blogspot.sg/2013/08/red-velvet-cake-with-vanilla-cream.html

Fluffy Yellow Cake

This vanilla cake is fluffy and moist and delicious! I'm not sure if it's dense enough to support a wedding cake, but it is perfect on it's own!

To make a 2 layer 9 inch cake you will need: 

• 2 cups SUGAR
• 2 sticks BUTTER, room temperature
• 2 LARGE EGGS, separated, room temperature
• 1 Tbs VANILLA EXTRACT
• 2 cup CAKE FLOUR
• 1 Tbs BAKING POWDER
• 1 tsp SALT
• 1 cup BUTTERMILK, room temperature

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (330 degrees F Accokeek). Use the paddle attachment on a stand mixer to cream together the sugar and butter for 2 minutes. Add the egg yolks one at a time.

Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

Measure out the milk and the vanilla in a measuring cup. Alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients at a medium speed starting and ending with the dry ingredients.

Beat the egg whites until they are thick and foamy.

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter with a spatula.

Divide the batter evenly between two 9 inch cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

This batter measures about 6 cups in volume.

Cupcakes didn't work out too well...

---

Fluffy Yellow Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups SUGAR
• 2 sticks BUTTER, room temperature
• 2 LARGE EGGS, separated, room temperature
• 1 Tbs VANILLA EXTRACT
• 2 cup CAKE FLOUR
• 1 Tbs BAKING POWDER
• 1 tsp SALT
• 1 cup BUTTERMILK, room temperature

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. (330 degrees F Accokeek)
2. Use the paddle attachment on a stand mixer to cream together the sugar and butter for 2 minutes.
3. Add the egg yolks one at a time. 
4. Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Measure out the milk and the vanilla in a measuring cup.
6. Alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients at a medium speed starting and ending with the dry ingredients. 
7. Beat the egg whites until they are thick and foamy.
8. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter with a spatula.
9. Divide the batter evenly between two 9 inch cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes. 

---

I found this recipe on the following website: http://divascancook.com/moist-yellow-cake-recipe-old-fashioned/

Nancy's Vanilla Cake

I have been searching for a good vanilla cake recipe for about a year now and I have finally found one that I like! This cake has good flavor and has a fairly dense crumb.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Then use the paddle attachment on a stand mixer to cream together the sugar and butter for 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time.

Whisk together the cake flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Measure out the milk and the vanilla in a measuring cup.

Alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients at a medium speed starting and ending with the dry ingredients. 

This batter measured to be about 6 - 6 & 1/2 cups of batter. 

Divide the batter evenly between two 9 inch cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes. 

Here is a 6 inch cake...

Look at that crumb!

---

Nancy's Vanilla Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups SUGAR
• 2 sticks BUTTER, room temperature
• 4 LARGE EGGS, room temperature
• 1 & 1/2 cup CAKE FLOUR
• 1 & 1/4 cup ALL PURPOSE FLOUR
• 2 tsp BAKING POWDER
• 3/4 tsp SALT
• 1 cup WHOLE MILK, room temperature
• 1 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Use the paddle attachment on a stand mixer to cream together the sugar and butter for 2 minutes.
3. Add the eggs one at a time. 
4. Whisk together the cake flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Measure out the milk and the vanilla in a measuring cup.
6. Alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients at a medium speed starting and ending with the dry ingredients. 
7. Divide the batter evenly between two 9 inch cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes. 

---

I found this recipe on the following website: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nancy-fuller/vanilla-birthday-cake-with-chocolate-frosting.html

Mason Jar Cupcakes

I made these adorable mason jar cupcakes for my mom for her birthday. I made a half batches of my go to chocolate cake recipe, my chocolate ganache recipe, and a Swiss buttercream recipe. To make the cakes a little bit special I adapted the recipes to make a peppermint mocha cupcake. To do this, I used coffee instead of water in the cake, I added a teaspoon of instant coffee to the ganache, and I added about 1/8 tsp peppermint extract to the icing. They turned out delicious! Next time I think I will try adding some instant coffee to the cupcake batter as well.

After making the batter, I put 2-3 tablespoons of batter into each jar. 

Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees F until done.

After the cupcakes cooled, carve out the center of the cupcake using a teaspoon.

And fill it with the ganache!

Top with the icing, and them eat up!

Look how pretty they are!

I made peppermint mocha cupcakes, as well as chocolate with vanilla icing.

More pictures! I just couldn't resist!

---

Chocolate Coffee Cake 

  Ingredients:

• 2 cups SUGAR
• 1 & 3/4 cup FLOUR
• 3/4 cup COCOA POWDER
• 1 & 1/2 tsp BAKING POWDER
• 1 & 1/2 tsp BAKING SODA
• 1 tsp SALT
• 2 EGGS
• 1 cup MILK
• 1/2 cup VEGETABLE OIL
• 2 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
• 1 cup HOT STRONG COFFEE
• Optional: 1-3 tsp INSTANT COFFEE

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and coating three 8 inch baking dishes in nonstick cooking spray and then flour to make the cake easier to remove from the dish after baking. 
2. In an electric mixer combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
3. Add the eggs, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and the boiling water making sure each ingredient is incorporated before adding the next.
4. Divide the batter equally into the three baking dishes and bake for 30-35 minutes.  Bake until you can insert a toothpick and have it come out clean. Let the cakes cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from the baking dishes. 
5. Tip: If you aren't in a rush, wrap each layer of cake cling wrap and put it in the freezer over night (or at lest for a few hours). This makes the cake much easier to assemble!

---

Mocha Ganache

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE CHIPS
• 2/3 cup HEAVY CREAM
• 2 Tbs UNSALTED BUTTER 
• Optional: 2 tsp INSTANT COFFEE

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, heat the heavy cream until it just starts to foam around the edges. Then add the chocolate chips and butter, let the pan sit for a minute. 
2. After a minute, stir until smooth. Now, stir in sifted instant coffee!
3. Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, carve out a small hole in the top of the cupcakes.
4. And fill the hole with ganache!

---

Peppermint Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 6 EGG WHITES
• 1 & 1/2 cups SUGAR
• 2 cups POWDERED SUGAR, sifted
• 3/4 cup VEGETABLE SHORTENING, room temperature
• 4 sticks BUTTER, room temperature
• 1 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp PEPPERMINT EXTRACT

Directions:

1. Start boiling a pot of water to use as a double boiler.
2. Then whisk together the egg whites and granulated sugar over the pot of boiling water. You are just trying to dissolve the sugar into the egg whites so you don't need to do this for very long. Once the mixture has reached 115 degrees F and/or the mixture no longer feels gritty when you rub it between your fingers, then remove the bowl from the heat!
3. It should look something like the picture below.
4. After taking the egg white and sugar mixture off of the heat, place it onto the stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whisk on high until stiff peaks form. You want firm, glossy, white peaks!
5. Once you have achieved stiff peaks, add the powdered sugar and continue whisking. (Start slow and increase speed so you don't end up with a face full of powdered sugar!)
6. Once the powdered sugar has incorporated, it is time to start adding in the butter and vegetable shortening. Cut the room temperature butter and vegetable shortening into chunks and add them into the mixer in 2 to 3 additions fairly quickly while the mixer is still whisking on medium to medium-high.
7. Once the ingredients are well incorporated, it should look something like this! Lastly, whisk in the extracts.
8. At this point the icing is pretty much done! I switched over to the paddle attachment for a few minutes to whip up the icing a little more to make it lighter in color as well as in texture.  Now it's time to ice the cake!

Note: This buttercream will keep for 4 days at room temperature, 2 weeks in the fridge, and 2 months in the freezer.

---

Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

I made these adorable mason jar cupcakes for my mom for her birthday. I used my go to chocolate cake recipe, a chocolate ganache recipe, and a Swiss buttercream recipe. To make the cakes a little bit special I adapted the recipes to make a peppermint mocha cupcake. To do this, I used coffee instead of water in the cake, I added a teaspoon of instant coffee to the ganache, and I added about 1/8 tsp peppermint extract to the icing. They turned out delicious! Next time I think I will try adding some instant coffee to the cupcake batter as well.

After making the batter, I put 2-3 tablespoons of batter into each jar. 

Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees F until done.

After the cupcakes cooled, carve out the center of the cupcake using a teaspoon.

And fill it with the ganache!

Top with the icing, and them eat up!

Look how pretty they are!

One more!

---

Mocha Cake 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups SUGAR
• 1 & 3/4 cup FLOUR
• 3/4 cup COCOA POWDER
• 1 & 1/2 tsp BAKING POWDER
• 1 & 1/2 tsp BAKING SODA
• 1 tsp SALT
• 2 EGGS
• 1 cup MILK
• 1/2 cup VEGETABLE OIL
• 2 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
• 1 cup HOT STRONG COFFEE
• Optional: 1-3 tsp INSTANT COFFEE

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and coating three 8 inch baking dishes in nonstick cooking spray and then flour to make the cake easier to remove from the dish after baking. 
2. In an electric mixer combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
3. Add the eggs, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and the boiling water making sure each ingredient is incorporated before adding the next.
4. Divide the batter equally into the three baking dishes and bake for 30-35 minutes.  Bake until you can insert a toothpick and have it come out clean. Let the cakes cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from the baking dishes. 
5. Tip: If you aren't in a rush, wrap each layer of cake cling wrap and put it in the freezer over night (or at lest for a few hours). This makes the cake much easier to assemble!

---

Mocha Ganache

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE CHIPS
• 2/3 cup HEAVY CREAM
• 2 Tbs UNSALTED BUTTER 
• Optional: 2 tsp INSTANT COFFEE

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, heat the heavy cream until it just starts to foam around the edges. Then add the chocolate chips and butter, let the pan sit for a minute. 
2. After a minute, stir until smooth. Now, stir in sifted instant coffee!
3. Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, carve out a small hole in the top of the cupcakes.
4. And fill the hole with ganache!

---

Peppermint Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 6 EGG WHITES
• 1 & 1/2 cups SUGAR
• 2 cups POWDERED SUGAR, sifted
• 3/4 cup VEGETABLE SHORTENING, room temperature
• 4 sticks BUTTER, room temperature
• 1 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp PEPPERMINT EXTRACT

Directions:

1. Start boiling a pot of water to use as a double boiler.
2. Then whisk together the egg whites and granulated sugar over the pot of boiling water. You are just trying to dissolve the sugar into the egg whites so you don't need to do this for very long. Once the mixture has reached 115 degrees F and/or the mixture no longer feels gritty when you rub it between your fingers, then remove the bowl from the heat!
3. It should look something like the picture below.
4. After taking the egg white and sugar mixture off of the heat, place it onto the stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whisk on high until stiff peaks form. You want firm, glossy, white peaks!
5. Once you have achieved stiff peaks, add the powdered sugar and continue whisking. (Start slow and increase speed so you don't end up with a face full of powdered sugar!)
6. Once the powdered sugar has incorporated, it is time to start adding in the butter and vegetable shortening. Cut the room temperature butter and vegetable shortening into chunks and add them into the mixer in 2 to 3 additions fairly quickly while the mixer is still whisking on medium to medium-high.
7. Once the ingredients are well incorporated, it should look something like this! Lastly, whisk in the extracts.
8. At this point the icing is pretty much done! I switched over to the paddle attachment for a few minutes to whip up the icing a little more to make it lighter in color as well as in texture.  Now it's time to ice the cake!

Note: This buttercream will keep for 4 days at room temperature, 2 weeks in the fridge, and 2 months in the freezer.

---

Despicable Me: Minion Cake!

My husband's birthday was yesterday and I wanted to surprise him with a really cool birthday cake. He loves the Despicable Me movies (but who doesn't love those movies?! They are so cute!) so I decided to attempt to make him a minion cake! Everything was going according to plan, I bought all of the materials, and baked the cakes. Then, my husband came home from work on Thursday and said that he took Friday off for his birthday! This would have been fine if I hadn't been planning on building the cake on Friday! His birthday wasn't actually until Saturday so I decided to just make it work! 

"Making it work" ended up meaning that I stayed up all night on Friday after he went to bed and built the minion in the middle of the night! I didn't get to bed until about 6:00 am!! The minion didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped, partly due to my decreased desire for perfection and willingness to go back and re-do things since it was so late, but I think it turned out alright in the end! ...as long as you ignore the fact that he doesn't have any arms...oops! I think he's still pretty cute though!

I started off by preparing the base. I used a 12 in. x 12 in. x 0.5 in. piece of wood and 3/16 in. wooden dowel rods. 

My husband's favorite cake is Betty Crocker's yellow cake with chocolate icing, so that's what I made!

I used 2 boxes of the cake mix to make the minion.

I baked the cakes in 6 in. round pans, using 1 & 3/4 cup of batter for each layer.

I baked the cakes for 35-40 minutes at 325 degrees F. I ended up with 5 layers.

After the layers are cool, cut off the tops to make them level if needed.

I stacked the layers after they had been leveled and they came to about 10 inches tall.

Once I was ready to build the minion, I covered the board first in foil....

...then in a layer of fondant, and then covered the fondant in cling wrap. Make sure that the holes are not covered though! The cling wrap will be removed after it has been decorated. They stick the dowels into the holes.

Then start putting the layers on and spreading on the icing!

Once all of the layers are on, make sure that the dowel rods are not poking out the top and shape the cake to be rounded on top.

Once the cake is shaped properly, cover the outside of the cake in more icing!

Then decorate the cake using fondant to look like a minion. This video shows how best to go about decorating the cake: http://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/despicable-me-2-3d-minion-cake-decorating-tutorial/

Once you have finished decorating the minion, remove the cling wrap, and admire your work!

This shows the best way I could see to cut into the cake when we were ready to eat him!

Betty Crocker Mix Guide:
http://www.bettycrocker.com/~/media/Files/PDF/SupermoistCakeMix/BettyCrocker_WeddingCakes.pdf

Minion Tutorial:
http://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/despicable-me-2-3d-minion-cake-decorating-tutorial/