German Chocolate Cake Truffles

So, you’ve leveled and carved your cake.  What do you do with all the scraps?  It’s practically a crime to throw away perfectly good cake, right?  This is an idea I kept seeing on various websites and decided to give it a try.

Cake truffles are very easy to make, but I’ve had nothing but rave reviews from everyone who’s tried them. 

crumbled cake

1. Crumble cake scraps into a large bowl. For this batch, I had about 8 cups.

ready to shape into balls

2. Use your hands to mix in about ½ cup frosting. You want the mixture to be just moist enough to hold together.  If you add too much frosting, you’ll end up with soggy truffles.

chilled and ready to
dip in chocolate

3. Scoop up a heaping spoonful of the cake and frosting mixture and form into a ball with your hands. I line up the truffles on a foil-lined cookie sheet.

4. Chill truffles until firm, about 2-3 hours.

I use a toothpick to dip
the truffle in the melted
chocolate

5. Dip truffles into melted candy coating and place back on foil-lined cookie sheet.  Once firm, cover and store truffles in a cool, dry place.

This batch of truffles is German chocolate cake with coconut-pecan frosting.  Before the candy coating set, I decorated the truffles with a sprinkle of coconut and chopped pecans.

This was my first time making the cooked coconut-pecan frosting.  The first recipe I tried, using 3 whole eggs, was less than successful.  Apparently, my stirring skills were somewhat lacking and I ended up with little bits of hard cooked egg whites in the frosting – not particularly appetizing.  My second attempt, using three egg yolks, was much better, thus saving my baking reputation.

Coconut-Pecan Frosting

1 c sugar

1 c evaporated milk
1/2 c butter
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 t vanilla
1 1/3 c flaked coconut
1 c chopped pecans

In a saucepan, combine sugar, evaporated milk, butter, and vanilla.  Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture thickens, about 12 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in coconut and pecans.  Once frosting has cooled to room temperature, spread on cake (or mix with cake crumbs to make truffles).

Nutella Love

So, it turns out February 5 is World Nutella Day.  How on earth did I not know that? There’s a website and everything. Next year I’ll definitely be prepared to celebrate this important occasion properly. In the meantime, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to get in some early preparation. 

Inspired by the pages and pages of Nutella recipes posted online, I decided to play with one of my favorite recipes, butterscotch blondies. Instead of adding chocolate chunks, I swirled spoonfuls of Nutella into the batter.

Yum.  I have a feeling there will be more Nutella experiments in the future.

Butterscotch Blondies with Nutella Swirls (adapted from Best-Ever Brownies)

½ c unsalted butter

1 c light brown sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 c flour
1 t baking powder
¼ t salt
4 T Nutella

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

Cut butter into small chunks and place in saucepan over medium heat. When the butter is melted, add the brown sugar.  Stir and cook for about 1 minute, until mixture starts bubbling.

Cool for about 10 minutes, until lukewarm.

Beat egg and stir into sugar mixture with vanilla.

ready for the flour mixture

Add flour, baking powder, and salt and stir just until mixture is combined.

almost done

Spread batter into prepared pan.  Drop Nutella by the spoonful into the pan.

okay, maybe I used a little
more than 4T of Nutella

this is the fun part

Use a knife to swirl Nutella into the batter. 

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

fresh from the oven

The good news is that you don’t have to wait for the blondies to cool completely.  They taste great warm.

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.

Chocolate Muffins

Yes, it’s a million degrees outside (I have a special thermometer) and yes, it’s been a long week and I’m tired, but that little voice in my head still called, “bake something.” 

I searched the Internet and found a site called Cacaoweb.  Suddenly, I was feeling a little more energetic.

going into the oven

The chocolate muffin recipe looked quick and easy, so I tweaked it a bit and headed to the kitchen. This will be a perfect Friday morning treat for my coworkers.

awaiting the final touch

The recipe called for a 350°F oven, which I followed, but the muffins didn’t puff up as much as I would have liked.  I’d suggest baking the muffins in a 400°F oven. To make the muffins a little special, I added a drizzle of vanilla glaze and a freeze dried strawberry.

Chocolate Muffins (adapted from Cacaoweb)

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour

7 T unsweetened cocoa powder
2 t baking powder
½ t salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 c milk
2/3 c butter, melted
2/3 c mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400°F and line 12-14 muffin cups.

Beat the eggs and sugar together.  Add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and milk. Mix until incorporated. Slowly stir in melted butter, then chocolate chips.

Bake about 15 minutes, until a wooden toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy!

can't wait for breakfast!

First Wedding Cake

Happy Anniversary, Beth and Egon!

I can’t believe that it was nine years ago that my sister and almost brother-in-law came to Baltimore to talk wedding cake. I had pulled a bunch of pictures I thought they’d like to give us a starting point for deciding on a design. Their reply was something along the lines of “We like where you’re going with this and will leave it up to you.” Oh, the pressure.

I remember the panic setting in after they left. Creating an actual wedding cake for a couple hundred people?! What was I thinking?  I had only ever baked for my family.

To distract myself, I turned on the TV. Believe it or not, there was the fabulous Martha Stewart, showing her viewers how simple it was to create a tiered wedding cake. I took this as a sign from the almighty pastry gods that everything would be okay.

I stocked up on tropical fruits
to use as models and started
shaping the marzipan.

Many ideas and sketches and recipe tests later, I decided to make a lemon sponge cake with raspberry filling and vanilla frosting.  As for the design, I had to keep in mind that this cake needed to travel well.  (I was going to assemble the cake in Ocean Pines, MD and set it up in Dewey Beach, DE.)  My inspiration came from another Martha Stewart episode where she shaped marzipan into various fruit shapes.  I decided to go tropical.

After the marzipan dried,
I started layering colors
to create star fruit, papaya,
pineapple, mango, etc.

The day before the wedding, I assembled the cake layers in the kitchen and my brother-in-law’s cousin created corsages and bouquets a few feet away in the living room.  The next morning, my brother-in-law, his dad, and I headed to the site of the reception to set up the cake and centerpieces.  Seeing his well over 6-foot tall FBI agent dad help me arrange fluffy, white layers of cake just so must have been quite the sight. We did a good job, though. Everyone seemed to enjoy my very first wedding cake.

Lemon Sponge Cake adapted from Cakes & Cake Decorating

1 c. flour

1 t baking powder
½ c butter, softened
½ c sugar
2 eggs
zest of 2 lemons

Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour 8-inch round cake pan.

Into a large bowl, sift flour and baking powder.  Add butter, sugar, eggs, and lemon zest.

Mix ingredients by hand for 2 to 3 minutes.  Mixture should be slightly glossy.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.  The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool completely on a wire rack. This recipe can easily be doubled (tripled or quadrupled).