Raining Cats and Dogs Carrot Cake

First Irene and now Lee and Katia – when is hurricane season over?  I’m certainly over it.

But enough of the whining.  As promised, here is the carrot cake recipe.

I'll probably get a lotta flack for this, but I have to admit I'm not a fan of carrot cake.  Ginger, however, is another story. Everything tastes better with ginger. When I saw the combination of pineapple and crystallized ginger, I knew I had found a winner of a carrot cake recipe.  To tie in the flavors, I also added a teaspoon of ground ginger to the cream cheese frosting.  And unless my friends were all being very enthusiastic liars, the recipe was a hit.

Carrot Cake (Bobby Flay's recipe from Food Network website)

¼ c butter

1 c crushed pineapple, drained

3 eggs

½ c canola oil

2 t vanilla

1 lb carrots, peeled and finely grated

2 t freshly grated ginger

2 c flour

1 ½ c sugar

½ c brown sugar, lightly packed

2 t baking soda

½ t ground ginger

1 ½ t ground cinnamon

½ t freshly grated nutmeg

1 t salt

1/3 c crystallized ginger, finely diced

¾ c toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter and flour two 8-inch cake pans.

In a food processor, finely chop pineapple.  Melt butter.

In a large bowl, beat eggs for about 10 seconds.  Add oil, melted butter, vanilla, carrots, chopped pineapple and fresh ginger. Mix until combined.

In another bowl, combine flour, sugars, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on low, just until combined. Stir in crystallized ginger and pecans.

 

Pour batter into prepared cake pans and bake 40 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few crumbs.

Cool cakes in pans 15 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

I decorated the cake with dog-shaped carrot cake shortbread cookies (see previous post) and fondant carrots.  To add a little more color, I gave the dogs orange collars and green leashes.

Threadcakes 2011

A couple weeks ago I learned about the Threadcakes competition. It’s an online contest where the amazing tee shirt designs from Threadless.(You’ll want to check them out if you’re not familiar with the site.) are turned into cakes. With only two weeks to go until the deadline, I started pouring over the hundreds of designs.  The choices were overwhelming, but eventually I narrowed down my selection to a few.

While I loved the Muppets tee, I had to consider my time constraints.  To do the cake justice, I’d have to spend lots of time tinting fondant just the right shades, then carving the cake and sculpting all the characters. I decided this might be a project for next year. This year my goal was to enter a cake. Next time I’ll be prepared to create something spectacular – or at least pretty darn good. 

Order the shirt
here.

                           

I kept coming back to the jack o’ lantern design and decided to go with it. The tee is kind of creepy and lots of fun, with a design within a design.

The first thing to do was bake.  I went with my standard cold oven pound cake to provide a sturdy surface on which to stack. Then, since I was making a jack o’ lantern, pumpkin cinnamon buttercream was a must.

I stacked the layers, did a little carving, and crumb coated the cake. Then it was time to cover it with orange fondant. 

I used a ruler to create some ridges and set the pumpkin aside.

Next I sketched the face and cut out the eyes and nose from black fondant and the mouth from dark gray fondant. I added to few stars and a crescent moon to the eyes and nose and applied them to the pumpkin.

Then I cut out the buildings from black fondant and laid them on top of the mouth and added white stars to the sky. Working with the teeny, tiny orange windows and lane dividers was tricky and more than a bit tedious, but I kept at it and got them positioned just right.

I shaped the two ghost figures with dark gray fondant and applied the mouth to the pumpkin.  A brown stem completed the jack o’ lantern and a fondant candle and flame finished the design.

Can’t wait to get started on next year’s cake!  Here's the link to my entry.

Oh, and be sure to check out all the amazing cakes on the Threadcakes site.

 

Here, Fishy Fishy

Well, my stubborn nephew hasn’t made an appearance yet (C’mon and get born already. I want to meet you!), but that meant I got to spend the day with my chosen family.  Lots of laughter, a tasty lunch, a great movie, and of course, cake with some of my favorite people ever - life is good.

Yesterday was my friend’s birthday, so I made a coffee chocolate chip pound cake with mocha filling to celebrate. I’d been brainstorming design ideas for him for a few months and came across a beautiful cake that looked like a fish jumping out of the water. I figured this would be perfect for the fly fisherman.  And whadda ya know? He’s leaving for a fishing trip tomorrow. Perfect.

To make the fish, I decided to tint gum paste light yellow and then add layers of food coloring with a paint brush. This way, fish would be shiny and look like it just came out of the water. I wasn’t crazy about the way the fish head turned out, but went ahead and started painting it anyway. I figured I could always start again.  After a couple layers of color, however, the fish came to life.

I roughly frosted the cake blue and added swirls of green and white. With a scattering of candy chocolate rocks at the base of the cake and a few gum paste leaves, grasses, and a cattail, I created a fish pond.

Ah, I just love it when a cake comes together.

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Coffee Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

1 c margarine, softened

½ c shortening

2 ½ c sugar

5 eggs

3 c flour

1 t salt

2/3 c evaporated milk

1/3 c strong brewed coffee

2 t vanilla

1 c mini chocolate chips

Grease two 9-inch round cake pans. Cream margarine, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time. Combine flour and salt. Combine evaporated milk, coffee, and vanilla. Alternately add wet and dry ingredients, mixing thoroughly with each addition. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pans and place into a COLD oven. Bake at 325° F for approximately 40 minutes.

Baby Cakes

My thoughts keep turning to the beach these days, partly because it’s August and just about everyone I know is on or returning from vacation, but mostly because I’m waiting for a very important call telling me it’s time to head to the shore. My sister (the one who lives at the beach) is expecting her third child. About ten days ago, her doctor told her she could deliver at any time. Now, every time the phone rings, I make a mad lunge for it, hoping it’s my sister or brother-in-law calling with good news.

In honor of my nephew’s imminent arrival, I thought I’d share some baby shower cakes.

The sand castle was for a tropical shower. I iced the chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and then covered it with crushed graham crackers. The decorations are chocolates molded in various seashell shapes.

I created a jungle cake for a baby with a jungle-themed nursery. For the party, guests were asked to bring items to hang on a clothes line. I incorporated that idea in the cake by attaching fondant baby outfits to a wire strung between the cakes.

The wire served another purpose, as well. It was a humid weekend and unfortunately, the fondant palm leaves started to droop - a lot. I ended up creating wire frames to attach to the tops of the pretzel rod tree trunks. Then I draped the leaves over the wire supports. Now I know it would have been better to use gum paste instead of fondant for the leaves. Lesson learned.

The shower guests may have felt a bit like cannibals eating these cupcakes, but the idea was so cute I just had to try it. To celebrate the arrival of a baby girl, I baked pink strawberry cupcakes in bright pink liners.

More Theater Cakes

Okay, confession time. Once in a great while, life demands the use of a cake mix.

I know, I know, but stick with me here. When using a prepared mix, I always like to play with flavor combinations. (You didn't think I just added water and eggs, did you?) Pumpkin chocolate chip is one of my favorite last-minute recipes. And it all starts with a yellow cake mix. Cinnamon-brown sugar cream cheese filling complements this cake nicely.

the woods

Jack's cow. . .



The Into the Woods cake was for my “nephew” and “niece.” The woods part of the cake was a given, but it needed something more.

I read about this fairy tale character-filled show and discovered that two of the main characters were on a quest to find “the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold.” There was my something extra.

. . .Cinderella's slipper, Rapunzel's hair,
and Red Riding Hood's cape

The “Enchanted April” cake was to celebrate my niece’s fabulous performance last fall. In the play, four very different women answer a newspaper ad offering “sunshine and wisteria” at a seaside Italian villa for rent during the month of April.

I hand painted fondant applied to the side of the cake to make the villa and grounds and created the sea with blue, green, and white buttercream around the bottom of the cake. The rest of the cake I decorated with wisteria.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake (adapted from Cupcake Fun)

1 (18.25 oz) yellow cake mix

½ t nutmeg (I prefer freshly grated)
½ t cinnamon
1 ¼ c water
2 T vegetable oil
3 eggs
¾ c canned pumpkin
6 oz (half a package) mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.

Combine cake mix, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add water, oil, and eggs and beat for two minutes with an electric mixer. Add pumpkin and mix until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour batter into prepared cake pans and bake 30-35 minutes. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cinnamon-Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Filling

8 oz package cream cheese, softened

½ c confectioners’ sugar
½ t cinnamon
1 t brown sugar
¼ c milk

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients with an electric mixer until well combined and fluffy.