Rainbow cake and more!

Ok, I'm finally making time to sit down and write out how I made that crazy rainbow cake that I made for my husband's birthday. I'll also add the recipe for the pulled pork I made as well. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of that. Really, it wasn't all that pretty anyways. Tasted good, but was nothing for looks when compared to the cake. And for kicks, I'll also add the recipe for the chai snickerdoodles I made to use up some of the millions of egg yolks I had left over.


So! Without further ado, how I made the rainbow cake!


First of all, I must give credit to Whisk Kid since it was her blog post that inspired me to make this cake. 


White cake:


• 1 c. butter (room temperature)
• 2⅓ c. sugar
• 5 egg whites (room temperature)
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3 c. flour
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1½ c. milk (room temperature)
• food colouring


Preheat the oven to 350°F.


Grease however many 9" pans that you have and set them aside. Remember, this cake has 6 layers of cake, so the more you can bake at one time, the better off you'll be. I only had 2, so it took 3 trips to the oven.


Sift all your dry ingredients together and set them aside. Cream together sugar and butter. Add the egg white and vanilla. Now, alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk, mixing well after each addition. 


Now this part is a bit tricky. You'll have to separate the batter evenly, 6 times. The lady that I got the recipe from sperated them by weight. Weighing the whole bowl and then dividing that number, making each little bowl weigh that much. However, I don't have a kitchen scale. I have a large spoon that is measure to ½ a cup. I used that to split the batter, eyeballing the last little bit that didn't fill the spoon. 


Put your desired colours in each bowl. Again, that lady who did the original recipe used coloured gel, but I got the colours just as vibrant just using regular liquid food colouring. For a traditional rainbow, the colours would be purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red. But there are no rules and you can make whatever colours you want. 


Once the batters are all coloured the colour you want them to be, pour each individual colour into one of the pre-greased baking tins and bake for 15 minutes each. 


Once they're done, set them aside and let them cool. I made each part of the cake one day and then assembled it the next day. If you can't wait a whole day, just make sure they are cooled off completely before you put on the filling and frosting, or you will have a disaster on your hands. 


Now for the frosting.


Swiss buttercream:


• 10 egg whites
• 2 c. sugar
• 2 c. butter (room temperature)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract


 I could absolutely not do it justice how Whisk Kid explained everything. I'll give you my amounts, but you should defiantly follow her directions here.


White chocolate mousse:


• 8 ounces (1 bag) white chocolate chips
• 1 ⅔ c. heavy cream (chilled)


Stir white chocolate and ⅔ cup cream in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until chocolate is melted. Transfer chocolate mixture to large bowl. Let stand until mixture is cool and just beginning to thicken, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Beat remaining 1 cup cream in medium bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold into cool chocolate mixture in 2 additions. Cover. Chill mousse at least 2 hours. 


Now to layer the cake. 


The order of which the colours *should* go are: purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and then red. But again, you don't have to do it that way if you don't want to. But if you want to stay true the the colour order of an actual rainbow, that's the way you should do it.

Put down a layer of cake. Spread a dollop of white chocolate mouse in the middle. Take a small spoon (or you could use a piping bag) and put some of the butter cream frosting around the mousse. This will help when icing the cake that you won't end up with mousse on the outside of the cake. Repeat this process for each layer. 

To frost the outside of the cake... well... I feel I didn't do a good enough job with my cake, but I'll tell you my technique anyways. I used a rubber spatula to ice around the edge of the cake, starting with a spatula full of icing and then pulling it up and turning the cake while doing this. The top of the cake I just started off with the back of a large knife, turning the cake and slowly smoothing out the icing on top. I then used that knife to smooth out the sides. 

Then viola! You're done! Make sure you refrigerate it if you're not going to eat it right away. It will get get hard in the fridge, so just take it out 15-20 minutes before you will serve it and the butter cream will soften again.

At this very moment, I seem to be having computer issues. I will post the cookie recipe and BBQ pulled pork recipe a little later. 


Caio for now!

Chai Cream Cake

First of all, I have to say it really helps if you hit "publish post". It really makes for you know, posting the entry that much more... postable.

So first of all, I was in Kingsway last night, wandering around waiting for my Mom to be finished at the dentist and I found a new kiosk there. They were right by the food court and it was all about cupcakes. There was a huuuge line up there and I was thinking "Why didn't I think of that?" I love to make cupcakes and stuff and the stuff they were selling wasn't even close to being as fancy as I make them and were crazy expensive. But people were lining up pretty far to get them. The mall wasn't even that busy and this place had a long line. Makes me think...

So anyways, I've promised people I'd post this recipe for a while now, so here it is!

Chai Cream Cake

Cake:

• 1 c. sugar
• 1½ c. flour
• ¼ c. cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 c. water
• 1 tbsp. vinegar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ginger
• 2 tsp. cardamom
• ½ tsp. all spice
• ½ tsp. white pepper


Mix all these ingredients as you would any cake. Very simple. Pour the batter evenly between two 8" round cake pans and bake for 20 minutes in the oven at 350°F. Make sure to test with a tooth pick a bit earlier if you're using a convection oven as they tend to bake stuff like this a bit faster. 


Filling:


• 1 pkg. instant vanilla pudding. 
• 1 c. milk
• ¼ chai liquor (I used Voyant)


Again, whisk everything together as you normally would and set aside in the fridge to set. 


Frosting:


• 4 tbsp. flour
• 1 c. milk
• 1 c. butter
• 1 c. powdered sugar

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 2 tsp. cinnamon

• 1 tsp. ginger

• 2 tsp. cardamom

• ½ tsp. all spice

• ½ tsp. white pepper

Put the flour and milk in a sauce pan and cook it until you get a very pasty like substance. It looks pretty yucky. If you think it looks like gross thickly gunk, it's probably ready. Cool it off completely. Stick it in the freezer for 5 minutes, stir it a bit and then leave it for 5 minutes more. While you're letting that cool off, whip together the icing sugar, butter and spices. Make sure you sift at least the spices as allot of these tend to clump and the last thing you want is to bite into a chunk of ginger. Take the mix out of the freezer and just take the electric mixer you were using and use it to fluff the flour and milk mixture. Beat it as is for a few minutes, then add the sugar and butter mixture. As I like to say, beat the crap out of it. It should be thick, smooth and stand on its own. 


Once everything has set and the cake has cooled, it's time to put it all together. When I put the cake together, I only ended up using half the pudding (if you put too much, there's a good chance it will squish out). Don't worry, the other half is never a waste... just put it in your tummy while your making it or do as I did and give it to your husband and it'll be gone in 30 seconds. There's really not much I can say about putting it together. No matter how many guides I've read or how much advice I've gotten for building cakes, it all comes from practice. It's just cake, pudding, cake, frosting and then creative details. It's been a long time since I've used an actual piping bag. I did all my decorations with a ziplock bag with the corner cut. You just need some imagination and a steady hand and that's really all it takes. 


Well, I hope this recipe is liked. 


Next thing I will post will likely be Bill's birthday cake. The party is on Saturday, so I'm going to try and have all the pieces done tonight and then build the cake tomorrow. I'm making a rainbow cake. Ooooh! Exciting! It'll have six layers and I've never done that many layers before. Wish me luck!

"Chai" for for now! 

I haven't had much time this last week to do much of anything. I am planning to make a birthday cake for my husband in the very near future. So since I haven't gotten to do anything interesting, I went and dug up some stuff I made in the past. 

I'm big on making cupcakes. I love them, there's so much you can do with them. 

These were a set of four different types of cupcakes that I made for my friend, Mark's, birthday. He was having a party and I wanted to do something special for him. 

These were just coloured vanilla cupcakes with plain white vanilla icing. I decorated them with coloured candy stars and coloured sugar. 

These cupcakes were orange, lemon cupcakes. I mixed the lemon flavoured batter with yellow food colouring and orange flavoured batter with orange food colouring and then swirled them together in the cupcake tins. I did the same with the icing. 

These were the second best of the batch. These were neapolitan cupcakes. As the lemon-orange ones, I separated the batter and flavoured and coloured them to taste and look like strawberry, vanilla and chocolate ice cream. I topped them with fluffy vanilla icing, a fresh strawberry half and then drizzled with chocolate.

These were the hit of the night. These were pina colada cupcakes. I flavoured them with both real coconut and pineapple. I decorated them with fluffy icing and rolled them in dried coconut. I put a sour cherry candy on top and used coloured licorice to look like straws. They were so moist and tasty, and not to mention look really cool. 

These were from a different night. I made these with real apple and then tried to make them look like the apples that I used to make them. I used tissue and tooth picks to make the leaves, unfortunately and inedible garnish. 

These were the very first rainbow cupcakes that I ever made. They are pretty much the same as the ones I made for Mark's party. But since they were the first I made, they deserved to be shown too. 

So that's all I have for now. I have pictures for previous recipes that I've posted, but haven't pulled them from the camera yet. I'll do that soon. Maybe next post, I'll update the old ones with the pictures I have. 

But for now, ciao!

Banana Bread

I have known this recipe all my life. But you know something? I don't know if this recipe came from my late Oma or from my Mom. They both made it all the time, but I don't know who's recipe it was. Either way, I have always loved it!

In later years, one of my Mom's friends told her to try making it with chocolate chips. It was like the recipe was reborn into something even more fantastic! I never did like it when nuts were added (that was my Mom's favourite), but chocolate chips! Oh my god! I fell in love all over again.

Now my Mom hasn't done much for baking in recent years and the torch has been passed to me to do the baking for the family. I still make this whenever I have old bananas in the house that are too black to eat.

I've heard of people throwing the bananas in the freezer to blacken them, but I prefer to use bananas that have been left out to the point of turning completely black. I have no idea why it tastes better and why you don't die from eating rotten bananas, I just know that unless they are black, the banana bread just doesn't taste as good.

Now on to the recipe!

You will need:

• ⅓ c. shortening
• ⅔ c. sugar
• 2 well beaten eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 c. mashed blackened bananas 
• 1 ¾ c. flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 c. chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1 c. [milk]chocolate chips (optional)


• bread tin or muffin/cupcake tin


Preheat the oven to 350°F.


Cream together the shortening and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and blend together well. Set aside. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, alternating with the mashed banana. 


Grease a bread tin with shortening. You can also grease the muffin/cupcake tin. I don't like using papers for banana bread. But if you're looking to making cleaning easier, use the papers. Fill what ever type of baking tin you have approximately half full with the batter. Bake for 50-55 minutes of until a tooth pick comes out clean. 


This recipe doesn't turn out that dark. If the tops of the bread turns brown, you've baked it for too long and it will be dry. If you dried it out, it can be salvaged if you put it in the microwave for about a minute with a glass of water. I recommend only doing this with the portion you will eat and just wrap up the rest for later. 


This recipe also freezes very well. I often make banana cupcakes and throw them in the freezer for my husband to take to lunch with him. He usually just takes one out of the freezer on his way to work, leaves it on his desk and by lunch , it's defrosted and good to eat. 


I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I have over the years.

Graham Cracker Almond Cookies

This past Saturday I threw a surprise birthday party for my Mother in Law's 60th birthday. I made it to be a pot luck BBQ. Not everyone brought something and not everyone who brought something made it themselves. Though one super great big hit was this peanut brittle type stuff that Bill's Auntie Roberta brought. Everyone asked who made it and can they have the recipe and just yesterday, she sent me an email with it. It's surprisingly easy considering how good it is! So, today I am trying it out. 


You will need:

• 1 cup butter (do not use margarine!)
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• graham crackers
• 3½ oz. sliced almonds 


• glass jelly roll pan
• tin foil

Before I go on, I have to say that I mixed things up a bit and decided to use pecans instead of almonds. I like to save my almonds for an awesome coffee short bread recipe I have. 


Melt butter and sugar together over medium heat, bringing to a gentle boil for 5 minutes. Careful to stir enough to not let it burn (butter and sugar can and will burn really quickly). When it's a syrupy consistency, it's ready. 


While melting the butter and brown sugar, I lined my pan with tin foil and greased it well with butter. Then I lined the bottom with whole graham crackers and used halfies for the end row. 


I used my food processor to lightly chop the nuts. Then sprinkle them as even as possible over top the graham crackers. 


When the butter and sugar mixture is ready, pour it very gently over the the top of the graham crackers and nuts. If you pour too fast, all the nuts will end up at the edges of the pan. 


Bake the whole thing at 375°F for 10 minutes. 


When it's done, be very careful with the pan. The liquid is very hot and will burn very badly if you get it on your skin. 


Let it cool to room temperature before breaking it up into cookie sized pieces. 


And then eat them up like there's no tomorrow because they're just that good!


Hope you like it!

Black bottom cupcakes!

I got this recipe a few years ago from my friend, Jenn. I begged her for it after she brought these over for a party one time. Over the years, I have played around allot with the recipe. Everything from simply putting food colouring into the cream cheese mixture to make black and orange cup cakes for Halloween, to changing the flavours from chocolate to something else.


I will share the original recipe for those who like to stick to the basics, as well as a few of my tried and tested variations that turned out super good!


Original recipe:

1 - 8 oz. package of creamcheese
1 egg, slightly beaten
⅓ c. sugar
1 - 6 oz. package of chocolate chips

Blend all ingredients together and set aside. 

1 cup sugar
1½ cups flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup water
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F. Blend all ingredients together. Fill lined muffin tins about ½ full of the cake batter. Drop large spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture on top of the batter. Bake 20-25 minutes.

My variations:

First of all, I have all sorts of shapes and sizes of small cake tins. I have plain ones, I have mini ones, I have fairy cake tins, large and small, and I even have an odd tall and skinny shaped win from Ikea that I don't know what the style is called. Each different tin that I have used, it takes a different time to bake. It has taken as little as 15 minutes, but never longer than 25 minutes to bake. 

I also beat the crap out of the cream cheese mixture with an electric mixer until the volume of the mix pretty much doubles. I find it makes the cream cheese mixture go alot further without making it taste less. I prefer the cheesecake part of the cup cakes over the chocolate cake part, so if it seems like there's more of it, I think it tastes better.

When I make the chocolate cream cheese version, I always double the amount of cocoa powder in the cake mixture and I always use milk chocolate chips. In my opinion that tastes best, and it must, since they usually don't last long enough to even cool down when I make them.

The coconut variation that I make, I add the same amount of unsweetened coconut to the mixtures as would be for chocolate chips in the cream cheese and cocoa powder in the batter. I also add coconut extract instead of vanilla. 

The white chocolate raspberry ones I make, I put in ½ cup of unsweetened raspberry jam (usually the no sugar added Smuckers stuff), cherry extract instead of vanilla and a few drops of red food colouring in the batter. If I don't add the food colouring, the colour they turn out looks putrid. Tastes good, but looks awful. In the cream cheese mixture, I don't add the sugar or chocolate chips, but instead put ½ cup of white hot chocolate powder. The brand I use is from Second Cup. 

When I make them "backwards", I leave the cake mixture just as vanilla flavoured. I sometimes sneak some real vanilla bean in there, but only if I have it on hand. It's not dire and tastes fine without, just tastes better with. I put the ½ cup of cocoa I would normally put in the batter, into the cream cheese mixture and put white chocolate chips in, instead of milk chocolate chips. 

So there's my novel on one simple recipe, lol! 

New to Blogger.

I look forward to writing about all my silly adventures in the kitchen. I love cooking and baking and I make up things or modify recipes all the time. Why not share and get even more ideas? That's what the internet is so great for!