Day 23 - Cake

So Sunday was my nephews 1st Birthday party. I spent the whole morning finishing up the cake, that I had been working on Friday night, and all of Saturday, except for the few hours in the morning getting Max. His party theme was Mickey Mouse, so what better than to do a Mickey Mouse Club House cake for him. There were a few flaws, but I loved it none the less. and it matched his little Mickey Mouse costume I bought him. We had to lock Max up for a few hours by himself. He did good, but my grandparents who live next door said he cried the whole time we were gone, which is really sad. I was hoping he would settle down after a bit, but apparently not. I will start going out for little intervals to start getting him used to being alone.

I made a 2 layer marble cake, with butter cream icing for the party. Now I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but when I have large cakes to do I kind of forget everything else around me and just bake and design. I am going to include my recipes and a few tips on how to make cakes this large.

Vanilla-Fudge Marble Cake 

Oven 350F

¾ cup butter

2 eggs
2 ¾ cups flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ¼ cup butter milk or sour milk
2/3 cup chocolate-flavoured syrup

Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, grease a bundt pan, 2 8 or 9 inch cake pans, or a 10 x 13 pan. In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on low to medium speed about 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating on low to medium speed 1 minute after each addition and scrapping bow frequently. Alternately add flour mixture and butter milk mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Reserve 2 cups batter, pour remaining batter into prepared pan.

In a mixing bowl combine chocolate syrup and reserved 2 cups batter. Mix well.

Pour chocolate batter over vanilla batter in pan. Do not mix.

Bake in a 350° oven about 50 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted near centre comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes on wire rack. Remove from pan: cool completely on wire rack.

Tips:

This recipe rises amazingly high. If you are using a unique pan, use half the suggested amount of batter. I also find it easier to cook 1 layer at a time (half the batter) rather than a full cake and cutting it. This cake also freezes very well as long as you wrap it a few times in foil and plastic wrap. So you can make this up to 2 weeks before it is needed.

Butter cream Icing

2 lbs. powdered sugar

1/3 to 1/2 cup warm water *

2 teaspoon clear vanilla flavouring

7/8 teaspoon near-colourless butter flavouring

3/8 teaspoon popcorn (fine grain) salt—if not available, omit salt

1 lbs. (2 cups) shortening (Sweetex if possible--Crisco will work.) Sweetex is a high-ratio shortening.

Measure powdered sugar into mixing bowl. Pour water, clear vanilla, near-colourless butter flavouring, and popcorn salt over powdered sugar and let sit for 1-2 minutes. After sugar has settled some, add one-third of the shortening.

Using the mixer's beater/paddle (not wire whip), begin mixing on low speed until blended then turn mixer to medium speed and mix for 1-2 minutes. If icing forms a ring around the top of the bowl, it needs more water. Add more water a tablespoon at a time until no ring forms. (Icing will soften more also when the remainder of the shortening is added.)

Scrape down bowl to remove any sugar residue on sides and bottom.

Start mixing again on medium speed and continue to mix until icing is smooth** (with absolutely no lumps).

It usually takes 2 or more minutes of mixing to achieve smooth icing, but mix as long as necessary during this stage to get the icing smooth.**

Once the icing is smooth, add remaining two-thirds of shortening and beat at high speed for 2-3 minutes or until shortening is well mixed and volume has increased. If the icing is too firm for it's intended use, add more water a tablespoon at a time.

Do not over mix or icing will be soft and grainy.

Tips:
Do not scrape bowl when removing the icing from the bowl at the very end. There may be clumps stuck to the side.

The mixture should always be fluffy before adding anything else

Add the flour and milk and separate times.

When all milk and flour has been mixed in, reserve 2 cups of batter, and pour vanilla batter into pan.

If you don't have chocolate syrup use a melted chocolate bar or a few tablespoons of cocoa powder.

This is the largest tier.

The top tier, with butter cream icing between the layers.

Do not over mix the icing after adding all the shortening.

The final product, now that I see the picture I would have added more to the cake. But nothing was working for me so I'm glad it turned out as nice as it did.

Isn't he bad. The moment I put shoes on he is all over them, I thought this photo was cute though. My nice bleach white shoes with a little rose on them.

There is my cake post :). 1 more post and I am all caught up! I am also so close to 500 views, and I am getting hits from all different countries. I am thinking when the challenge is over I will do requests. I already have a few people have asked for, so if anyone wants any recipes done or tips, or wants a good recipe for something feel free to let me know and I will get it up for you. My blog accepts anonymous comments so feel free to leave it there.

Happy Baking!

Sey