Sam's New Chocolate Cake

Dry Ingredients

3 cups flour (431 g)
1 1/3 cups white sugar (284 g)
1/3 cup cocoa powder (35 g)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark chocolate chips (286 g)

West Ingredients

3 large eggs, beaten (159 g)
1 1/2 cups milk (370 g)
1 1/2 Tablespoons plain Greek yogurt (24 g)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (116 g)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Butter and flour two round cake pans.

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients, then add to dry ingredients.  Mix.

Pour into 2 round cake pans.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. Check for doneness--a toothpick in the center should come out clean.

After cooling in pans for 10 minutes, dump onto cooling rack.  Frost when cool, or sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Sam's New Chocolate Cake

Tamra's Creamy Chocolate Poke Cake

Bake a devil foods box cake as per directions.

 While warm out of the oven, poke holes with the handle of a wooden spoon about every 2". You want those holes big, not a skewer.

 Microwave a can of sweetened condensed milk and a can of dulce de leche in a bowl for 30 seconds and stir. Pour slowly over hot cake. Spoon around to hit the holes which will suck it up fast. Let cool. 

Frost with a tub of cool whip (or homemade sweetened whipped cream - 1 cup cream, 2-3 T sugar) and smash 2-3 Heath or Skor candy bars and sprinkle on top.

Basketball Birthday Cake

Sarah wanted a basketball cake for her birthday.  This one turned out to be pretty simple.  You will need:

2 boxes cake mix, baked according to directions in round cake pans
2 tubs vanilla frosting
1 tube orange gel food coloring
1 tub chocolate frosting
red and brown M&Ms
1 drinking straw
wax paper

Bake the cakes according to the package directions and let them cool completely (take them out of the pans 10 minutes after coming out of the oven).

Put half a tub of vanilla frosting in a sturdy zip-lock bag (or a piping bag fitting with appropriate tip).  Color the remaining 1 1/2 tubs of vanilla frosting a nice shade of orange.  I used the entire tube of Betty Crocker's Neon Gel Orange Food Coloring.

Glue (with a dab of frosting) first layer of cake (positioned upside down so that the level surface is on top) to a cake board or whatever you will be serving your cake on.   At this point, take time to place thick strips of wax or parchment paper under the edge of the cake.  This will keep your surface clean while you decorate the cake.

Frost the top of the first layer with orange frosting.  Refrigerate for 15 minutes (this firms up the frosting and keeps it from moving around while you decorate the rest of the cake).  Position the second layer of cake right side up and frost the top.  Refrigerate for 15 minutes.  Repeat for third and fourth layers (no need to frost the top of the fourth layer).

Carving the rounded shape is the hardest part of this cake.  All I can tell you is to use a good serrated knife, and look closely at the picture of the cut cake and try to match the angles shown.  Notice how steep the angle of the top layer is.  The bottom layer should not be carved at all, leaving a nice straight edge.  You will have a lot of leftover cake.  Make some kind of trifle with it, or throw it away without guilt (think of it as leftover craft supplies).

Now that you have a lot of cut cake to frost, you want to put on a crumb coat of frosting.  Put a thin layer of orange frosting all over the basketball part of the cake.  Don't worry about all the crumbs that work their way into the frosting.  They will all be covered up by the next layer of frosting.  You don't really need a crumb coat on the bottom layer, since it was not cut and should have a nice edge on it (if you really dumped it out of the pan 10 minutes after coming out of the oven).  But if you want to, you can do a crumb coat of chocolate frosting on the bottom layer.  Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes.  You want the frosting really firm.

Now for the final coat of frosting.  Spread it on nice and thick and do your best to keep a neat, straight line where the orange and chocolate frosting meet.  Keep the frosting smooth on top.

Cut a small corner of the zip lock baggie for the white frosting to come out.  Pipe on the "net" by essentially making large connected "X"s all around the bottom layer.  Cover the line where the orange and chocolate frosting meet with a row of red M&Ms to make the rim.  (I was in a hurry and if you take more time than I did it may look a little nicer).  Use brown M&Ms to make the lines on the basketball.  To make the texture on the basketball, refrigerate the cake for 15-30 minutes, then use the edge of the drinking straw to make little circle marks all over the ball.


Carefully remove the wax paper strips.  Keep the cake refrigerated until serving (just my personal preference--I think cakes taste better chilled and the decorations stay in place).

My Tips for a Great Chocolate Double Layer Cake

- Betty Crocker Butter Recipe Chocolate Cake Mix* made according to package directions.
- Use real butter.
- Use extra large eggs, lightly beaten.
- Butter and flour the pans (Kristen tells me coconut oil is an excellent replacement for butter).
- Mix the batter by hand.  Do not over mix.
- Bang and spin the pans.**
- Cool baked cakes in pans on a cooling rack for exactly 10 minutes, then turn pans upside down onto rack to remove the cakes from the pans and let them cool completely.
- Frost with 2 entire cans of Duncan Hines Creamy Home-Style Classic Chocolate Frosting.
- Put about a teaspoon of frosting on the serving platter to act as glue.
- Place the first layer of cake on the serving platter right side up.
- Put a thick layer of frosting on the top of the cake, not quite to the edge.  Put the cake in the fridge for awhile to let the frosting set.  This makes it so the frosting won't ooze out when you put the second layer on top.
- Put the second layer of cake on upside down (the curved top down and the flat bottom on top).
- Put a thin layer of frosting over the entire cake, making sure to fill in any space between the two layers.  Refrigerate for about 15 minutes.
- Use the remaining frosting to cover the cake.
- and most importantly ...  SERVE COLD!  Store the cake in the refrigerator until serving  (at least one hour).

*Sometimes I can't find this cake mix, so I just use any chocolate cake mix, but substitute the vegetable oil for fresh, extra-light olive oil.

**Lift the pans about an inch off the counter and drop.  You will see bubbles rise and pop.  Do this several times.  Spinning creates a hollow in the center of the cake.  These techniques give the cake a nicely rounded, rather than humped and sometimes cracked, top.

I also found Pilsbury's Secrets to Successful Cakes.  If you are still having troubles with your cakes, try browsing their ideas.

Strawberry-filled Marble Bundt Cake

Simple and delicious, this is just a marble cake (using extra light olive oil instead of vegetable oil), baked in a bundt pan, drizzled with ganache (8 oz. chocolate chips and 1/2 cup heavy cream melted and stirred over a double boiler), and filled with fresh strawberries.  Nothing could be finer.  :)

Carrot Cake

2 cups flour

2 cups minus 2 Tablespoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups finely grated carrot

1 cup extra light olive oil

5 eggs

Cream Cheese Frosting

Grease and flour two round cake pans.  To guarantee a clean removal of cake from the pans, also line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a mixing bowl combine the first 6 ingredients, stir well.  Add the next 3 ingredients, beat on low until combined.  Beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes.  Pour batter into pans.  Bake for 40-45 minutes.  The cake is done if a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack, removing layers from pans after 10 minutes.  Peel parchment paper off the cakes and allow to cool completely.  Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

For a 13x9x2 cake, bake for 50-60 minutes.

Birthday Cake - repeating stars in M&Ms

This cake is pretty self-explanatory.  Just make a star in the center (lightly pressing a star-shaped cookie cutter works well), in the M&M color of your choice, and then repeat over and over.  I've done this cake a few times.  It looks best if the outlining M&Ms are close together--especially that second and third level.  So don't worry about even numbers or anything--just keep them almost touching.  You can keep all the outlines solid, but the girls really like how this one kind of drapes down the sides.

Birthday Cake - number and heart M&M's, Kit Kats, Whoppers

This cake is simple and easy to make, but has a big wow factor.  I like that.  All you do is make a two-layer cake and frost it (both layers are upside down so that the top is flat).  Lay down a row of Whoppers.  Press on Kit Kat sections (use a knife to cut the sections apart--you'll have neater edges).  This cake used nine Kit Kat bars.  We like how they look like exclamation points, but I don't sweat making sure the Whoppers and Kit Kat sections line up.  Then create the number and heart, and then the outlines, all in M&Ms.  And there you have it!

Hollilyn's Chocolate Pudding Cake

1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix

1 large box Chocolate pudding (cook and serve)
3 cups milk (whole milk of possible)

Chocolate Chips (about 1 cup)

Prepare pudding as directed on the box (Only Cook and Serve works). Mix pudding with cake mix until well blended. Put in a greased 9x13 pan. Top with chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. The top will be shiny, but as long as the toothpick comes out clean, it is done.

Thanks Hollilyn!

Lemon Pound Cake

Anna Lou Hutchings' recipe

Cake
1 pkg yellow cake
1 3-oz pkg lemon jello
4 eggs
3/4 cup oil
1 cup water

Glaze
3 cups powdered sugar
9 Tablespoons lemon juice (always fresh)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 9x13 pan with Pam.*  Combine all cake ingredients and mix well.  Pour into pan and bake for 40 minutes.  Mix glaze ingredients until smooth.  Prick cake with fork and pour half of glaze on cake.**  To serve, pour a puddle of glaze on plate, then place cake slice on puddle.

*This is Pam.  Lovely, isn't she.  I butter and flour the pan.  Alone.  :)

**I let the cake cool completely before pouring on the glaze.