Baking Junkie

Cake Category

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

Oreo Cream Cake

Inspired by and filling recipe from Real Mom Kitchen, cake recipe adapted from Kevin and Amanda, frosting from Hershey’s
There are two times a year that I am guaranteed to make a cake, which means I’m also guaranteed to put a lot of thought into those cakes. The two occasions are my birthday and our anniversary (Derek has never actually requested a cake for his birthday, it’s usually some other sort of treat).

This was my birthday cake and I made this oreo cake for our anniversary.

I used my all time favorite chocolate cake recipe (which I can’t believe I haven’t shared with you guys yet!) I love that it starts with a box of cake mix, but the addition of the pudding, milk and sour cream just takes it to a whole new level. This cake is incredibly moist and flavorful and completely blew me away the first time I tried it. The combination of the chocolate with the Oreo cream filling is fantastic! While it doesn’t taste exactly like an Oreo, you still get the feeling that you are eating one (a giant one nonetheless)!

This cake is not for the faint of heart. It is completely rich and indulgent, and one small piece was usually enough for us. We managed to eat half of the cake before sending it in to Derek’s coworkers, who also gave it rave reviews. There have been several times this summer where I have said the words “this is the best thing I have ever made” and this cake started it all. Enjoy!

Oreo Cream Cake
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Cake:
1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Filling:
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese
½ cup sugar
2 cups Cool Whip
12-15 Oreo’s, coarsely chopped

Frosting:
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together all ingredients for cake. Batter will be thick. Pour into two well greased 8 or 9 inch cake pans. Bake as directed on box, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cakes cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove and place on wire rack to cool completely.

To make filling, beat together the cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer. Using a large spoon, fold in Cool Whip, then Oreo’s.

For the frosting, melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Stir in cocoa powder then vanilla. Alternately add the powdered sugar and milk, whisking to spreading consistency.

To assemble the cake, level each cake layer with a serrated knife. Place one cake layer on cake round or serving plate. Spread Oreo filling in an even (thick) layer on top of cake. Be careful not to extend past the edges. Place remaining cake layer on top of filling and press down gently. Use a spatula to remove any excess filling extending past the cake layers. Frost the top and sides of the cake. Serve immediately or refrigerate.

Tags: Buttercream, Cake, Candy, chocolate, Oreo

Posted in Cake | 21 Comments »

Monday, June 20th, 2011

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake

Recipe adapted from Annie’s Eats

I know that I’ve mentioned this countless times before, but these cupcakes are by far my most popular recipe. They are requested by family and friends over and over again. I never mind making them, because honestly they are one of my favorites as well. The frosting is definitely the best I have ever had in my life, and you’ll often find me eating it by the spoonful. When my birthday rolled around last month I knew I wanted to make a cake I had never made before, and I wanted it to be a little over the top, so I decided to try the cookie dough cupcakes in a cake form.

Derek originally requested chocolate cookie dough cupcakes for his birthday last year, so I adjusted Annie’s recipe accordingly, but I have always wondered what the original recipe was like. It is a brown sugar based cake batter that really has the flavor of cookie dough. Combine that with an eggless cookie dough flavored filling and a cookie dough flavored buttercream and you have cookie dough Nirvana! My first thought was that the cake was a bit dry, but I didn’t seem to notice it when I had my second piece (and third)! This cake did not last very long in the break room the next day. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake
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Cake:
3 sticks salted butter, softened
1½ cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 2/3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup milk

Filling:
4 Tbsp salted butter, at room
6 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup + 2 Tbsp flour
7 oz (1/2 can) sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Frosting:
3 sticks salted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp milk
2 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and brown sugar. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add these dry ingredients to cake batter, alternating with the milk. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. Pour batter into two well greased 8 or 9 inch pans. Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire rack and cool completely.

For filling, cream together butter and brown sugar for approximately 2 minutes. Add in vanilla, then flour, and lastly sweetened condensed milk. Stir in chocolate chips. Place filling on top of one layer of cake and spread out evenly. Top with remaining cake layer.

To make the frosting, cream together butter and brown sugar. Add powdered sugar in increments until smooth. Add in the flour and salt. Then add the remaining liquid ingredients. Spread over top and sides of cake until smooth.

*Optional: Save out approximately ¾ cup of frosting to swirl on top of cake. Top with miniature chocolate chip cookies (using store bought or your favorite recipe). Place chocolate chips around outer edge of cake. Place crushed chocolate chip cookies in middle of cake and top with a drizzle of chocolate syrup*

Tags: Buttercream, Cake, chocolate, Cookie Dough, Cookies

Posted in Cake | 12 Comments »

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Funfetti Cake Pops

Recipe from Bakerella

If any of you are food bloggers, or avid bakers, these are probably nothing new to you. Bakerella has created a cake ball/cake pop craze over the past few years, and with good reason. When I first heard of these a few years ago I knew that I needed to try them. I mean come on, cake, frosting, and chocolate? In a small little bite sized package so I won’t feel so bad for eating ~~one~~ six of them? Yes please.

Let’s travel back in time to Christmas 2008. My annual baking day where I spend hours upon hours in the kitchen. These were on the list. If only I hadn’t gone out for a friends birthday the night before and gotten zero sleep. These may have turned out better. I used almond bark, and this was before I knew that you could add shortening or vegetable oil to thin it out. Also before I knew you should keep the cake balls in the freezer for longer than 10 minutes before rolling them. Let’s just say it was a royal disaster that ended in me eating a handful of plain cake balls with no covering, and dumping the rest in the garbage.

Fast forward a few years and I have finally decided to attempt them again. I mean come on, I have a baking blog now. My skills have grown. Surely I candle these, right?

Sort of.

I was ambitious and used homemade frosting. I even kept them in the freezer overnight so they would be good and ready for dipping. I used candy melts this time.

Still fail.

Ok so not quite. Most people thought they looked fine. Me? I’m a perfectionist, and will always compare myself to Bakerella so of course I thought they looked horrible! How do people dip things and get a smooth coating, because I certainly couldn’t figure it out. At least the taste was fabulous, but I decided I just couldn’t take pictures of them for the world to see.

Fast forward another month, and I decided to give them one more try. I figured it must be much easier to use cake pops so that they stay on the stick while you dip them right? Ok so most of them did, but not all! I still found the process frustrating and was about to give up on cake balls/pops forever.

Until Derek woke up.

He saw how frustrated I was and did his husbandly duty by consoling me. Then he asked to try one, and wouldn’t you know it turned out better than any of the ones I had previously made. On his first try! He figured out that it’s much easier if you roll the cake pop around instead of just dunking it right in. Just continue rolling to let the excess drip off and easy peasy!

He’s pretty proud of himself.

So there you have it, my cake ball saga. Since I made these for Easter I decided to go with a funfetti cake mix and frosting, but any cake and frosting combinations can be used. Since Bakerella is the queen of these things I highly suggest checking out her website if you haven’t already. You’ll find a ton of great stuff there! Enjoy! Bakerella video

Funfetti Cake Pops
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1 box Funfetti cake mix
Ingredients listed on box
1 can Funfetti frosting
2 bags of candy melts (any flavor or color)
Lollipop sticks

Make cake according to directions on box. Once cake has cooled crumble it into pieces into a large bowl (you could also use a mixer). Mix with can of funfetti frosting. Roll into small balls and place on a large cookie sheet. You should get about 4 dozen. Place in freezer for at least 20 minutes to chill.

Melt candy melts in microwave according to package directions. You may add a tablespoon of shortening to thin if needed. Remove a few cake balls (I recommend no more than 5) at a time from the freezer. Dip the end of a lollipop stick into the melted chocolate, then stick into a cake ball. Dip entire ball into melted chocolate. Swirl around to remove excess. Place stick into a piece of styrofoam to dry. Repeat process with remaining cake balls.

Tags: Cake, Cake Pops, chocolate

Posted in Cake | 13 Comments »

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

Carrot Cake

Recipe adapted from Better Homes and Gardens

Those of you who have been following the blog for while may remember that I originally posted this carrot cake recipe back in September. To this date it was the only recipe that I actually never got to try (ok, other than sampling the cake batter and frosting). I made the cake for my sister-in-law’s birthday and delivered it to her, but because of differing schedules (and the fact that we lives 2 hours apart) I was never able to try a piece.

In my original post I talked about how carrot cake has never really been a favorite of mine.

I am proud to say that has now changed…

Whenever someone at my office has a birthday the office manager would usually pick up some sort of cake or baked good to bring in. I have decided to take over the “birthday club” and let all of my co-workers request whatever they’d like me to bake for their birthday. To kick things off one of them requested carrot cake. I wasn’t really crazy about the cream cheese frosting last time I made this, so I wanted to change things up a bit. While looking back at the original recipe it dawned on me that I COPIED THE RECIPE WRONG! 2 3-ounce packages of cream cheese apparently translated into 2 EIGHT ounce packages of cream cheese in my mind (I’ve never bought cream cheese any other way)! No wonder I thought it was too cream cheese-y, it was! I decided to just use the full 8 ounces of cream cheese and not waste two of them. The result was a MUCH better cream cheese frosting than I had previously made.

I was actually able to try the cake this time and loved it! The cake itself is incredibly moist, and tastes delicious with the not so cream cheese-y frosting. Instead of decorating the outside with pecan halves I decided to change things up a bit with finely crushed pecans. I’ve already had another request to make this cake again in April, and honestly I can’t wait! Enjoy!

Carrot Cake
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2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 cups finely shredded carrot
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbsp milk
½ cup pecans, finely crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized bowl beat together flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon. Add in carrot, vegetable oil and eggs and combine with an electric mixer. Pour into two well greased 9 inch round cake pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

To make frosting, beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Add in powdered sugar in one cup increments. Add milk. More milk can be added until desired consistency is reached. Place frosting between the two cake layers and use remaining frosting for the top and sides.

If desired place crushed pecans around the edges of the cake (use your hands to press them into the frosting).

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Tags: Cake, cream cheese

Posted in Cake | 23 Comments »

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Triple Layer Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Filling

Recipe adapted from Recipe Girl

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Hopefully you have someone to celebrate with and snuggle up to tonight. I know there are a lot of single people who hate this holiday, but instead of thinking of it as a day to celebrate love think of it as a day to celebrate chocolate!

Lori posted this chocolate cake recipe to celebrate a recent blog birthday but I knew I wanted to try it out for Valentine’s day. This is honestly the first time I have ever made a cake from scratch. While it was definitely more time consuming than adding some extras to a box mix, it is completely worth it! I was a little worried about the coffee in the recipe because I can’t tolerate the smell or taste of it, but neither one really came through much in the final product. I followed Lori’s advice and used Ghiradelli chocolate and the result was a cake and frosting that were incredibly rich and decadent. Words cannot possibly describe exactly how good this cake is. The strawberry filling is a great compliment to the chocolate and makes for a very romantic dessert! Enjoy!

Triple Layer Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Filling
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Cake:
3 ounces semisweet chocolate (I used Ghiradelli chocolate chips)
1 ½ cups hot brewed coffee
3 eggs, room temperature
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ cups buttermilk
¾ tsp vanilla
3 cups sugar
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
2 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
1 ¼ tsp salt

Frosting:
1 bag semisweet chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
¼ cup (1/2 stick) salted butter, cut into small pieces

Filling:
1 (16 oz) bag frozen strawberries, thawed
¼ cup sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease three 8-inch cake pans. Line bottoms with rounds of parchment paper, then spray paper too. Set aside.

In a medium bowl combine the chocolate and hot coffee. Stir together and let sit until chocolate is melted. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl beat eggs for 3-5 minutes. Add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and coffee until well combined. In a separate bowl combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, mixing just until combined.

Divide batter amongst the three pans and bake for 55-60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, bring the cream, sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over medium heat. Remove pan from heat and stir in chocolate until melted. Add butter and stir until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and place in refrigerator until it reaches spreading consistency (mine took about 45 minutes).

To make filling, puree strawberries in a blender or food processor. Transfer to a small saucepan and combine with sugar and cornstarch. Stir constantly over medium low heat. Mixture will thicken as it boils. Let cool completely before use.

To assemble the cake, run a small knife around the cake edges and remove from pans. Place half of the strawberry filling over the top of one cake. Top with second layer, then the remaining filling. Place final layer on top then cover and frost with ganache.

**If you don’t have three cake pans you can make a double layer cake and use the rest for cupcakes. Avoid filling the pans more than ⅔ full so they don’t spill over. Use all of the strawberry filling between the layers.**

Tags: Cake, chocolate, Ganache, strawberry

Posted in Cake | 11 Comments »