Rainbow Cake Cups

 This weekend was my niece's 2nd birthday. I have been wanting to make this tie-dye cake for months and I just haven't had a good opportunity. So when this birthday came up I knew I had the opportunity!

Spoiler alert - this is a box mix! I used a box mix and boxed frosting and later we partially made whipped cream but then we ran out so we got canned whipped cream too. Of course you could make this all by scratch but why would you?

I found Duff's cake mix (you know Duff right?) at Target and was immediately interested. I bought the mix and one of his chocolate frosting tubs as well. Then as noted, I didn't use it for months. Still before the expiration date I finally had a chance.

 The cake mixing, color dying and baking is on issue. It's just white cake that you separate into six bowls and then add food coloring (some food coloring comes with the cake but I needed extra). If you can't find Duff's tie-dye mix you can just buy white cake mix and then add food coloring.

Red - 15 drops
Orange - 5 drops yellow, 2 drops red
Yellow - 8 drops yellow
Green - 9 drops yellow, 2 drops blue
Blue - 14 drops blue
Purple - 7 drops red, 2 drops blue

You are then supposed to take 6 MORE bowls and separate out the cake again. But that seemed like a lot of dirty bowls so I decided to just eyeball it. The result was that one cake was way smaller than the other, however, this really wasn't an issue. If you smartly weighed out the batter in the first place, this could've been way easy.  Anyway, pour about 1/4 C of the red batter into the center of a WELL GREASED and FLOURED and PARCHMENT PAPER LINED baking pan. Pour 1/4 C of the orange batter on top of that and let it spread out. Add the rest of the colors in rainbow order ending with purple.  Bake as directed.

In case you were wondering, our problem was that the pans were not well greased even though I seriously felt that I had well greased them. My cake got stuck to the bottom of the pan. The results were a very mangled cake. We first tried to frost it together but it just crumbled, it didn't work and we were frustrated. So I looked online to find out ways to fix a destroyed cake.  This is when I came up with Cake Cups. That's right, it's not cupcakes. It's cups filled with cake pieces and frosting and topped with either frosting or whipped cream.

These cake cups were actually pretty delicious. People thought they were fun and different. Even if you didn't accidentally ruin your cake, you could make these.

Directions
1. Break up cooked cake into bite sized pieces
2. Layer cake pieces and globs of frosting (this is white cake & chocolate frosting) in a small cup (if you aren't using rainbow cake feel free to use a non-see through cup)
3. Top cake pieces with whipped cream (or more frosting if you can pipe it on)
4. Use the tiny crumb crumbles as topping on your whipped cream or use sprinkles
5. Refrigerate until ready to serve. If you want to be really wild, you can top the whole thing with ice cream!

Classic Yellow Vanilla Birthday Cake with Vanilla Frosting

Yesterday was my niece Alice's 1st birthday.  I offered to make the cake and then through a series of events suddenly had a supreme lack of time and ended up having exactly 3 1/2 hours to make cake for 40 + from scratch.  In case you are wondering this IS possible but it makes for not much time for artistic possibilities. The end results were definitely a little messy at first and then after sitting in a room with the same 40+ people through dinner a little messier still (and a bit melty) but it worked out.  The cake was good but a tiny bit dry if you didn't have much frosting--which if you got a middle piece you didn't because we were a bit low on frosting.

If you make this recipe combination, you should consider making more frosting--maybe two batches for each 1 cake recipe.  If you are making this cake recipe, you should consider separating it into 3 9-inch cake pans and make 3 layers because these layers nearly overflowed.  If you are making cupcakes have another pan ready because this cake recipe makes 24 cupcakes + 16 minis with a little overflow!

I made Smitten Kitchen's Yellow Cake recipe.  The only thing I changed was that I used 1/2 C milk in place of 1/2 C of the buttermilk in the cupcakes because I ran out of buttermilk.  I loved how she noted that the batter would look curdled at one point because it sure did and that's not what you expect of cake batter!  This batter is so thick, much thicker than box mix cake batter.  Again, this made more cake than I expected and I think if you wanted thinner, flatter layers you could easily separate this among three cake pans.  This also made more than 24 cupcakes. This batter continued to overflow in every place even though I didn't feel like I was over-filling anything.  FYI cupcakes take about 20 minutes to bake. Mini cupcakes take about 5-9.

Here's her cake recipe

For the frosting, I looked at 6 different recipes, one used simple syrup and egg whites. In the end though, due to lack of time to try something new, I used The Food Network's simple vanilla frosting. This is pretty much the first time I've successfully made frosting.  You know what the trick is?   Letting the mixer do all the work for ALL the minutes.  This recipe takes like 5 minutes total to make but the key is to actually let it mix for 3 whole minutes. It transforms the butter and sugar! It was amazing. And, shocker of shockers it tasted good too.

Here's the frosting recipe.

I also made this frosting 3 shades of purple and then pink and teal. I used gel food coloring. Gel food coloring is pretty easy to use and it makes these great vibrant colors. With gel food coloring definitely start with a little and add later.  To pipe two different colors of frosting, put one color on one side of the bag and one color on the other side of the bag and it makes a swirl.  To frost your cake in ombre style which we attempted, watch Sweetapolita do it and then try really hard to match it...it helps if it is not 80+ degrees and you have a turntable and maybe you already did a crumb coat. We had neither but it still looked nice until it started melting.  As you can see we topped our cake with pinwheels made by Jenny.

Super Moist Chocolate Cake

 Making cake from scratch is something I have only ever done one other time. Cake mixes are just so convenient! And once, my mom told me that cake from a mix is the same taste as cake from scratch. So I stuck with the basics.

However, Joey always says "it's just from a box, we can't serve it to people" so this time, in honor of Gavin's birthday I decided to bake from scratch.  I browsed the interwebs for weeks, then my browser restarted and I lost all my saved recipes.  So, I decided to make Smitten Kitchen's chocolate cake with caramel filling and vanilla frosting.

This cake is the moistest thing I have ever made. It calls for buttermilk, eggs, coffee and oil - how's that for lots of liquid to make a moist cake?
This makes a lot of cake. It really only makes two 10-inch rounds but who has 10-inch cake pans? I sure don't. I have two 9-inch cake pans, so I made those and also made a little pan of cake for two. This was a great idea because then Joey and I had the opportunity to taste the cake since when you make a cake round you can't taste it!


This cake is SUPER moist. It fills up your mixer so when she says large bowl really take her advice on that one!  As  you can see, while the cakes came out in rounds, the stack wasn't so successful...the cake demolished itself on the top layer and it took some pretty creative frosting to get it back together in one piece.  I also wasn't able to do that crumb cover frosting layer.  It turns out I'm not that good at frosting. But I think it turned out pretty well all things considering.

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

Head over to Smitten Kitchen to read the ingredients and instructions for the cake part. This makes the moistest cake ever.

For the caramel filling:

I made a half recipe of the frosting/filling for the Domestic Fits blog for the cake I made last time - I didn't actually read the instructions as well as I thought but it was still fine, except that it solidified FAST. This filling turns into a crunch almost toffee like filling. It wasn't what I was looking for but everyone really liked the added crunch. I wish it had been creamy and caramely--like in a milky way bar.

For the frosting:

I made the frosting sans sprinkles from Sweetopia's blog. This frosting spread super easily and it also piped alright from a ziploc bag.

This cake was pretty sweet, I thought the crunchy layer was a bit weird but it was well received by the diners.  The actual cake itself was amazing!  i really loved the moistness of it and honestly, I think I could eat it plain. Normally I don't see the point of plain cake, but this time I think I'd be into it!

Construction & Building Birthday Party

You know those blogs that show you these perfect birthday parties for kids? They rent furniture, they get a baker to bake something fancy and covered in fondant that shoots fireworks, they get a photographer and they go hog wild.  And then the kids look like they're having fun but they're not really paying attention to the decor?  Well this is not one of those birthday parties.

This is one of those birthday parties where kids & imagination reign.  It was a cardboard box city on a whole new level.  The idea was a construction/building party--it came together to be one of the most cost effective parties of all time and the kids loved it.

From the people who bring you Ignite Creative Learning Studio, a studio that embraces creativity and imagination in extracurricular academic classes, learn how to build the perfect construction party for your child's next party!

Materials (it looks like a lot but it's not so bad):
1 for every 2 kids large appliance boxes (we had 5)
Lots of assorted smaller boxes of all sizes
Your recycling; egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, soap boxes, shoe boxes, paper towel rolls, plastic tubs from cookies and things
Sidewalk Chalk for little hands
Washable paint in several colors
Paint roller pans
Paint rollers and brushes (smaller rollers for kids)
Safety Scissors
An exacto knife for an adult
Washable markers
Wood working center with wood pieces and an adult handyman and some special tools
Ride-ons that don't require helmets (have kids bring their own!)
Gold coins or pennies
Favors (1 per kid): - Label them with their names so everyone is sure to get one of each thing
Toolbelts (cheaper at Home Depot than Loews and you may be able to get them for free)
cut pieces of wood
sand paper squares
plastic hard hats
screwdrivers
miniature tape measures
electrical tape
Food:
2 kinds of savory snacks like popcorn and veggie sticks
water, milk and or juice
cake

The Setup:
1. Cut doors and windows in the boxes with an exacto knife.  If you want, you can label some of them like General Store, Snack Shack, and Bank.  The Bank played a part in our story so we needed to make sure it was there.
2. Get all your supplies together and set them aside for easy access
3. Start collecting interesting pieces of recycling and store in a safe place
4. On the day of the party, draw lines on your driveway or sidewalk for the ride on drivers.  Put in crosswalks, two lanes and different signs like "dead end" for the end of the driveway and "one way." Kids can help with this!
5. Setup the large boxes around the yard or driveway, remember, kids will be painting on these boxes so if you are worried about paint on the driveway you may want to put old sheets under them or something or extra cardboard
6. Put the assorted boxes, recycling and markers in an accessible area and label it as Building Supplies
7. Put the screwdrivers, tape measures and electrical tape in one of the large boxes and call it the general store.  If you have a cash register set it up nearby--adults can run the store but only kids can fit inside--if you have some kind of side opening it works well for adults to crawl in and find the tools with their name
8. Setup paint trays and rollers next to the large boxes and fill with paint colors right before the kids arrive or as they do
9. In the back yard or a neighbors (get permission first!) setup a coin hunt.  Hide coins at kid height in both harder and easier places. Concoct a story for later about a bank robbery (Our story was that there was a bank robbery in town but when he ran away through the back yard there was a hole in his bags and he dropped coins all over--who could find them?)

The Arrival & The Party:
1. As kids arrive, have a grownup at the front welcoming them (as workers) and giving them their supplies along with five coins with which to buy their tools at the general store and snacks at the snack shack (tell them how to use their coins).  Tell them about the town and the rules (really there are no rules but you can give suggestions about driving around or painting the buildings. If they seem nervous and there's not a big crowd give them a tour.
2. Have another adult stationed at the General Store to help with the purchasing of their tools
3. Let the kids do their thing, if they seem like they don't know what to do offer suggestions.  Try to get the braver kids to the woodshop area if possible
3a. The adults should carry safety scissors and a few other special materials (in their toolbelts!) in case the kids need something extra
3b. Have paper and pens available in case kids have another idea of what they need to make their town perfect
4. Midway through the party open up the snack shack and put an adult there to "sell the snacks" 1 coin for each bowl--some savvy kids may buy more than two snacks by dipping into the cash register...
5. Later in the party, when you are seeing a lull or just before you want to break for cake & presents, announce the robbery (at our party, some kids were building a police station so we got them involved in the robbery and had them announce it).  While the kids run around looking for coins setup the cake and move on to that.
6. At the end kids can use coins they found in the hunt to buy other favors if you have any others that you'd like to.
7. Let the kids play in the town a bit more until they have to leave

Notes

• The Coin hunt was fun for us to work the story into the party but it was not necessary.  These kids did not bore of the cardboard box town and riding on the roads
• The paint was a huge hit, if we had more rollers and colors it might have been nice. People also wanted to paint their creations at the woodshop
• If you don't have a handyman in the family you could buy a few pre-made kits for woodworking and have those on hand to build or put together or you could skip this part altogether--although it was a big hit
• The trick is to be hands off but filled with ideas. If someone asks for help or looks bored you can point them in the right direction
• If someone wants new materials and you don't have them try to suggest something similar--or run in the house to find them

Dirt Cake

This year for Christopher's birthday party we decided on a construction/building theme.  We first thought that it would be more construction based and I begged Katie to let me make a dirt cake.  She wouldn't have it.

Finally after weeks of begging she decided that we could indeed have a dirt cake as long as there was also some regular cupcakes for people who might be scared to eat dirt, worms and ooey gooey pudding mixture.  Those people are missing out.

I basically followed the recipe over on Baked Bree.  Aunt Kathy's traditional recipe calls for vanilla pudding but when I saw Bree incorporating chocolate pudding instead (indecently those pudding boxes from trader joe's are awesome looking) I knew that that was for me.  Bree also used real homemade whipped cream which, I think is probably a great idea! However, I took the escape route and went for good old Cool Whip.  12 oz of Cool Whip is the replacement.  I also chose to just fill up  a regular 9x13 (actually this pan is bigger for lasagna) dish instead of flowerpots cause this is a party for boys.  I got two types of gummy worms--the regular and the neon.  Personally, I think the neon ones are delicious but the regular ones look rather cool slithering through the dirt and you can hide them more like real worms.  I hope these kids aren't too grossed out to try it!

I'll be serving the cake in these small, clear "crystal" style plastic cups.  I bought forks to eat with although spoons probably would've been the better option...oh well forks it is.

Let's Eat Dirt!

Frosted Red Velvet Brownies

For his birthday, my brother-in-law requested cupcakes. I learned from my sister-in-law that red velvet would be a good choice. But my time was limited--so making anything from scratch was kind of impossible.

One of my friends told me about a recipe that makes cake mix really moist--you add a pint of ice cream to the mix and bake! So I looked it up online to see exactly what the recipe was. I found it on ABC.com but at that moment abc was having a little trouble with their advertisements and they were strobe-lighting across the side of the screen. I'm kinda into online advertising and distractedly left the site after trying to guess the problem with the ads.

So it is no surprise that when I went to the store and then later made the cupcakes that I didn't follow the directions at all and just mixed the ice cream and cake together--with nothing else. It was a really thick batter but it seemed fine. I baked them and they looked fine. I pulled them out of the oven and they deflated...a lot. So the end result was something kind of like brownies or really dense cupcakes. They were good--just not cupcakes.

Do you make ice cream? We do. So the thing is this recipe premium ice cream + cake mix totally made sense to me with no additional ingredients because premium ice cream has eggs, sugar, cream in it.

The REAL recipe calls for eggs in addition to the ice cream and cake mix. Apparently eggs are what make cakes rise. Who knew right? Well I want to make it another try at this cake because I think it really could be good--but probably I should've stuck with regular box mix this time since I was in such a rush.

The Real Recipe

1 box cake mix, any flavor

1 pint premium ice cream, any complimentary flavor, at room temperature

3 eggs

1. In an electric mixer, combine all the ingredients

2. Fill cupcake cups

3. Bake

4. Cool completely

5. Frost

*Ben & Jerry's Red Velvet ice cream is so delicious. I don't usually like ben & jerry's cause it's a little grainy and it always has so many strange combinations with so much stuff in them. But I was seriously regretting my decision to put that ice cream in the cake when I tasted it. If only I really had regretted it then I would've just made regular box mix cupcakes and this whole dense brownie red velvet cake mix wouldn't have happened. You live you learn. Try that ice cream!

Minnie's Caramel Cake - The Help

I was browsing Tastespotting a few months ago and came across this delicious looking rendition of Minnie's Caramel Cake - a recipe discussed in the very popular novel The Help. I showed it to my friends and we decided to have a Help party - see the movie and then eat cake together and discuss it. All of us have read the book so it should be a fun conversation.

After comparing our schedules we were dismayed to have to wait almost an entire month to see the movie together. But today the day has finally come and this is the cake that is in our future.

I was nominated to make the cake since I am the only one among us that has a dedicated to food blog and I also have cake pans. I was pretty confident with the recipe and was sure it would be easy to bake.

It turned out that it was easy to bake but the hard parts were things that always present difficulty to me when it comes to cake - getting the cakes out of the pan, stacking them, and getting the frosting consistency correct.

I followed the recipe exactly although I nearly omitted the 1/2 C of oil when I felt like the cake batter was already wet enough (I ended up putting a little less in) and since I haven't tasted the cake yet I'm not sure if it mattered.

My one tip for when you make the recipe, is that when you make the caramel frosting you must use it immediately. So have everything ready to move. You may want to have a helper at this time. If the caramel glaze starts to thicken it will be hard to pour and you will be moved to re-heat it on the stove. Don't do this! It will become slightly grainy. Just work quickly and you will not come across the issue. If you fear your ability to work quickly you may want to split the caramel recipe and make half of it first and half of it second so that it doesn't get thick.

Cake, no pictures

A few months ago I bookmarked this recipe and set a calendar reminder that read "Consider making complicated cake for Allison's birthday." That same reminder popped up Thursday afternoon. Having completely forgotten the recipe I looked it up. Wowzer, what a doozy! This recipe was three kinds of sweet.

So I baked it, using all the box mixes expecting the worst. Since it was round I couldn't taste it ahead of time. I brought it to work, I waited patiently until 3pm, and sung the awkward office rendition of Happy Birthday and watched as the cake advertised as my baked good was sliced and served. And it was a hit! You only need a tiny piece, but this cake...or perhaps you'd call it a Pacakie is over the top perfection for a birthday celebration.

What is this ooey gooey goodness you ask? The Pacakie is pie crust, filled with a layer of chocolate chip cookie, a layer of cake, and then frosted. It doesn't matter the quality of the ingredients, it is a quick creation that yields utmost deliciousness. I followed this recipe. I used frozen pie crust, Krusteaz Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, Pillsbury Funfetti Cake Mix and canned Whipped frosting (and a few sprinkles for decoration). Seriously, try this.

There's a lot of extra cake mix left and I also had some cookie dough left. So, I made cupcakes with chocolate chip cookie bottoms. You couldn't even tell from looking there were cookie bottoms, but there was a little crunch, those too were delicious. So even if you fear the Pacakie, try your hand at the cookie cupcake, your friends will love it!

Molten Chocolate Cake

I do have custard cups! And aren't they adorable? Back when I was making the wedding registry at Crate & Barrel I came up with all sorts of random kitchen items that I suddenly could not live without. I'm glad I did, I never knew how handy these little guys would be...until today. Today, I used them to make delicious and quick Molten Chocolate Cakes and I didn't even have to leave the house.

You heard me, molten chocolate cake. I've tried this before, and it is never the same deliciousness of the restaurant version. Until now. I whipped these babies up in about 10 minutes and they only take 13 minutes to cook. This is a perfect dessert if you have unexpected guests for dessert because it takes so few ingredients and turns out delicious. I cut the recipe in half from the original only making enough for two and it worked out just fine. I did not remove them from the cups to serve on a plate but they would've dropped out easily if I had. I also served them later and they weren't really warm anymore. That probably was a mistake actually. Joey's chocolate center wasn't as gooey as it should have been. So next time, I will serve them right out of the oven.

Molten Chocolate Cake for 2 (from Tasty Kitchen)
Ingredients:
* 2 pieces (squares) Semi-sweet Baking Chocolate
* ¼ cups Butter
* ½ cups Powdered Sugar
* 1 whole Egg
* 1 whole Egg Yolks
* 3 tablespoons Flour

Directions
-Preheat oven to 425. Grease 2 small ramekins or custard cups with cooking spray, set aside
-In a medium microwave safe bowl add butter and baking chocolate(broken into 4 pieces). Melt butter for 1 minute, chocolate will not be melted.
-Whisk together melted butter and chocolate until the chocolate is melted
-Add powdered sugar and stir until combined
-Add Egg and additional egg yolk and whisk until combined
-Add flour and stir until combined
-Pour batter between prepared custard cups
-Bake 13-14 minutes until edges are firm but middle is still gooey
-Serve immediately with whipped cream or ice cream

Buttermilk Raspberry Cake

Last week at the Farmer's Market they had a deal of 3 pints of raspberries for $5. I couldn't pass it up--but then I ended up with a lot of raspberries to eat. I browsed my favorite food blogs and discovered Smitten Kitchen's Buttermilk Raspberry Cake. This cake is just divine. It only takes about 30 minutes start to finish and yields a delightfully light and airy cake. Smitten suggests the use of other berries...but I wouldn't do anything too sour.

Buttermilk Raspberry Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 packet sugar in the raw for topping
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 large egg
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 cup fresh raspberries

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450. Butter and flour a 9 inch round cake pan.
2. In a small bowl whisk together first four ingredients
3. In another bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy (2 minutes)
4. Add vanilla and zest and beat some more
5. Add egg and beat until combined
6. Alternate flour and buttermilk, starting and ending with flour, until combined
7. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Scatter with raspberries (I did a nice circular thing but couldn't see them in the end.
8. Bake 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
9. Let cool in pan and then invert onto rack and let cool some more (this didn't work for me and my cake fell apart so wait long enough before inverting)
Serve warm (or cold it's good all the time..it would be great with whipped cream.)

This cake doesn't last more than 2 days...so eat it immediately and be sure to finish the whole thing in one sitting!

Applesauce Cake

I don't like those little individual servings of applesauce. I don't like them because they are so watery. So when I'm jonsing for some applesauce, I have to buy the big jar. Then I eat a little of it and that's enough and I don't know what to do with the rest.

I read somewhere that you could use applesauce in place of oil in any cake. But how often do you make cake? Then I had it, autumn is eminent, why not make an applesauce cake? I used Google Blog Search to find a recipe and came up with a golden ticket. As luck would have it, I had some extra buttermilk lying around too!

Unfortunately, I made an error in cooking time..or perhaps there is a misprint in the recipe? Either way, this is what happened. I cooked th cake in an 8x8 glass cake pan for the listed time, I tested it with a toothpick and it came out clean. I let the cake cool. Late into the evening--around 11, I decided to cut the cake into squares so that I could bring it to work and not eat it all myself. The edges were done, but unfortunately, the middle was not. It was completely raw, but it had been cooling for so long. I salvaged the edges and the bottom and threw the remainder away.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. allspice
½ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. ground cloves
½ tsp. salt
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
½ tsp. vanilla
1 cup applesauce
¼ cup buttermilk

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour the bottom of an 8x8 pan (next time I will use 2 regular circle pans)
2. Sift together the first seven ingredients
3. Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and applesauce.
5. The mixture at this point is very wet. Alternate flour mixture and buttermilk with the mixer at very low speed. Be sure to start and end with flour.
6. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

This was a big hit at the office. Thanks for the recipe, Kristen!

Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake - Dr. Suess Style

Back when Tastespotting was still around, I saw this delicious looking recipe for the icebox cake that is made with those Nabisco Chocolate Wafers. I passed it around to some of my friends and coworkers, and Allison insisted that I make it for her birthday in July, several months later.

Allison's birthday is on Sunday, so I decided to celebrate on Wednesday, since I had a little extra time to cook the night before.

I followed the recipe from Shutterbean's blog exactly--but I was a little nervous when I compared the whipped cream recipe with the one in my Betty Crocker cookbook. Shutterbean's big batch of whipped cream called for 4 cups of heavy whipping cream, 3 TB of Sugar, and 1 TB of Vanilla. Betty called for only 2 cups of cream and the same proportions of everything else. The bottom of the Nabisco wafer box called for 3 cups of cream and the same proportions of everything else. It was too late to call any of my usual power bakers, so I decided to stick with Shutterbean.

I made a good decision, after whipping the cream, I found it to be delightfully vanilla-y, not too sweet and a perfect compliment to the chocolate cookies. I did learn one thing while whipping the cream though, if one wafer in a box is broken, and the box is sitting on the table with the vibrating mixer, all the cookies will break.

Broken cookies, lend to a not-so-perfect cake. With images of Shutterbean's and then Smitten Kitchen's perfect cakes dancing in my head, mine just didn't quite stack up (pun intended).

Here are some do's and don'ts to keep in mind when you make this dessert, and I say when because you will want to rush out and get those $4 wafer boxes immediately and make this cake.

1. Do whip the cream enough for soft peaks
2. Do refrigerate the cream, and possibly even the cake every once in a while if your kitchen is over 75 degrees
3. Do select boxes of cookies that are not broken
4. Do not leave cookies anywhere they could get damaged
5. Do put a dollop of whipped cream under the first layer of cookies to hold them still
6. Do not press down on the layers when you spread whipped cream--this will cause the cookies to push out and unbalance the cake
7. In the event of broken cookies, do use them, but try to make a cookie layer as complete as possible
8. Do turn the cake around 180 degrees halfway to avoid leaning

The Recipe as Shown on Shutterbean's blog:

Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake
Ingredients:
4 Cups heavy whipping cream
2 intact boxes of Nabisco chocolate wafer cookies
3T sugar
1T vanilla extract

Directions:
Combine cream, sugar and vanilla in a chilled mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer until soft peaks form. (I wasn't sure what soft peaks were, but basically it becomes thick and spreadable with a surprising fluffy lightness)
Find a flat plate--flate is VERY important, I used my cake carrying case.
Put a dollup of cream on the bottom of seven cookies and arrange them in a circle with one in the middle.
Use a rubber scoop spatula to spread a scoopfull of whipped cream onto the layer of cookies
Continue layering cookies and whipped cream, be sure to end with whipped cream.
Crush leftover cookies between fingers (I rolled broken waffers between my hands and let the crumbs slip through my fingers to decorate the top
Chill for 4-6 hours until cookies are more cakey OR cover with plastic wrap or cake cover and freeze overnight, move to fridge at least 1 hour before serving.

I froze the cake overnight, drove it to work in 70 degree weather, and then popped it in the fridge for the rest of the day. This cake was so delicious. It was creamy and cakey. It was a HUGE hit in the office and the 12 people on my team devoured the cake before they had a chance to share with any of the other 70 people in our immediate area. If you are going somewhere with a crowd of big eaters, you may consider making two cakes.

Orange Cake

I like reading food blogs. I like to see what other people are making and imagine myself making those same things. At one time last year, I read this recipe on Foodbeam and knew it was perfect for me. The yogurt cake needs nothing but one bowl and a wooden spoon (limited dishes) and just a few simple ingredients to make a delicious cake.

When I made the cake the first time I stuck to grapefruit and while it didn't look nearly as wonderful as Fanny's, it tasted delicious. This weekend, I decided to make the cake again but deviate from the grapefruit and use orange. I also thought that since it was the 4th of July, I should make two cakes--one chocolate and one white with a common theme of orange throughout. That way, it would be criss-crossed along a red plate and look sort of patriotic.

I cheated on the chocolate cake. I used the box mix, I think it was Betty Crocker. I almost replaced the oil with applesauce, and I almost used the super secret ingredient. But in the end, I just went with the basic box recipe with the addition of orange zest for a refreshing twist. When I was taking the orange out of the refrigerator, I saw the chocolate chips, so I thought, this too!

It turns out that chocolate chips sink to the bottom when baked in a chocolate cake. However, this ended up being a good thing and the cake had a light fudgey bottom layer.

I followed Fanny of Foodbeam's recipe for the yogurt cake exactly except I replaced the grapefruit zest with orange zest and I didn't use the juice glaze on the top.. I also made the cake in an 8x8 square glass pan. (I have made it in a regular circular cake pan before and I like it better because the cake is thinner.

For the glaze, I used the Betty Crocker Cookbook recipe for Vanilla Glaze and replaced the vanilla with orange zest. The recipe doesn't specifically say to leave the pan on the heat the whole time, but that seemed to be the only way it worked. I poured the same glaze on both cakes and had a little bit leftover--but the resulting look was a little messy.

Chocolate Orange Cake with Orange Glaze
Ingredients:
For Cake:
1 box chocolate cake mix (and whatever it needs to make it)
zest of 1 Med. Orange
1 Tb zest (add.)
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
For Glaze:
5 1/3 TB butter
2 C. powdered sugar
1-2 TB fresh squeezed orange juice
1 TB orange zest

Directions:
1. Make cake batter as suggested
2. In the last 30 seconds of the 2 minute mix, add orange zest and chocolate chips.
3. Bake as directed, cool completely.
4. Meanwhile, melt butter in a 1 1/2 qt. saucepan over low heat
5. When butter is melted, slowly add powdered sugar until dissolved.
6. Add orange zest to mixture
7. Add a little bit of orange juice until thickened and mixture is pourable
8. Drizzle mixture over cake for desired effect, glaze thickens as it dries.

Circus Train Cake

In a moment of weakness, I offered to bake a special cake for my nephew's first birthday party. I knew he wouldn't remember the cake, but I, being the youngest in the family remember very little about first birthday parties except that there are lots of pictures of the cake and the baby with the cake smeared on my face. So, I decided a neat cake was important.

Initially, I wanted to make a gear cake. The idea was to take some gear templates and cut circular cakes into gear shapes, frost them brightly, and position them with touching teeth as though they were turning together. I think it would look awesome, however, when I brought up this idea to my sounding board they said likely nobody would know what it was and I should do something more recognizable.

With dashed dreams, I decided to move on and make a Train Cake. I wasn't interested in any cake molds, I wanted a 3-D train cake. Later, as I scoured the internet for information about how to make a train cake, I decided that the perfect train, would be a circus train.

The first piece of this project was to find some circus animals. Finding plastic animals that were not too heavy and more circus-like than jungle-like proved to be very difficult, and a little more expensive than I had initially planned. Not having kids myself, I wasn't really in tune with kids culture. I learned that there is a Nick Jr show called the Backyardigans who have a circus and have circus toys. I purchased some of these at Target but was sad they were so expensive, once I got home, I realized they were also a little too heavy, so the search continued. Finally, in one last vain attempt to find circus animals, I went to Toys R Us and found that the TV show Go Diego Go has a safari set of animals. While I was going for the circus, the jungle sets had a lioness, an elephant, a giraffe and a zebra, all animals I wouldn't be surprised to see at a circus, and the price was right. Thanks Diego!

Once I had my animals, the real planning began. I already knew that I had to make the same kind of cake that we always make for birthday parties--Betty Crocker Pudding in the Mix chocolate cake (made with super secret special ingredient for extra moistness) with homemade butter cream frosting and coconut shavings. Knowing the cake was half the battle, getting the cake to not fall apart and be the right shape was the next.

Two weeks before the real baking, I did some test baking. I baked a couple of cakes in a variety of pans trying to find the perfect shape. I made a cake in an 8x8 pan, but it cracked in the middle and was too thin. I made a cake in a large loaf pan, and I made three LEGO brick cakes from a silicon LEGO pan. The LEGO looked like they would be a little too hard to frost. I decided the loaf pan was my best option. I had already read on other sites that the loaf pan was what to use--but I think all the other sites used miniature loaf pans, probably one train car for each child. Since this party was for adults instead of children, I decided to use the big loaf pans--I thought this would also help me to make less cake. Boy, was I wrong about that.

I think I ended up making eight loaf pans of cake. I just wanted to make sure I had enough and didn't come up short. I made all the cakes early in the morning so they would have time to cool before frosting.

For the frosting, I purchased at a craft store some gel style food coloring. I read that this would give me the best bright colors. I didn't read that if you use too much of this stuff it leaves a tiny bit of a bitter taste. Apparently though if you aren't taste testing spoonfulls after spoonfulls of frosting and you are just eating the cake, the bitterness is not noticeable. The internet was right though, the colors were pretty bright. I made red, yellow, green and blue frostings.

I know for sure I had a lot of leftover frosting. I just kept baking and making because I was worried about it.

I read on the back of the shredded sweetened coconut bag that you could make colored coconut by mixing coconut, a little water, and food coloring (the regular bottled kind) in a zip-top bag. Originally, I planned on making several colors of coconut, but in the end I decided on yellow only to pose as hay for the animals. I also planned on making cages for the animals but the little stirring straws didn't look right so I decided against it at the last minute.

The assembly proved to be the hardest part of the entire project. I already had the vision, all I had to do was build it. I wouldn't have been able to do it myself, so I elected my wonderful fiance to help out. For the caboose and engine we cut an extra cake in half and put it on top. We used toothpicks to hold the cake together. We thought it would be a good idea to cut off the corners and the top to make the cakes flat, but actually, cutting them made it a little crumbly and actually harder to frost. It was very difficult to keep the crumbs from darkening the frosting. My fiance was an excellent froster as it turned out.

We put each finished frosted cake into carrying pans because we had to cake the 80 miles for the party and we were worried about it staying together in the car and not melting or anything in the November heat.

Upon arrival, we set out a large piece of thick posterboard that I had purchased at the craft store. We positioned the cakes along the board in a half moon shape. On either end of the train I placed Lego train tracks that I had on hand--you could use any kind of tracks you have available but these worked out great. We took a tube of pre-made frosting and glued white M&Ms onto the Oreos to make hubcaps for the wheels. Then we used the same tube frosting to glue the cookies to the sides of the cakes. We put other M&Ms as decoration on other parts of the train including lights. Then we spread the coconut on all the other cars and placed the animals. The end result was a cake to remember. I bet I'll be making cakes for future birthdays after this marvelous performance!

Ingredients:
Oreos
M&Ms
Candle that looks like smoke stack
Plastic Circus Animals
Disposable Loaf Pans
2 train tracks
Thick posterboard or piece of cardboard covered in foil
Coconut
Food Coloring - gel or liquid
Cake of your choice - I made chocolate, since they are individual, you could use different kinds for each car
Frosting of your choice - I made a traditional butter cream from scratch but you could use pre-made frosting
1 tube pre-made frosting any color