I made this cake for my favorite four year old, Maddie.  This was so fun!

The base is a basic chiffon cake.  It’s a lovely one bowl recipe, the only difference is after you mix all ingredients you fold in beaten egg whites.    The result is a light and airy cake that is not too sweet.  My right hand gal Nancy baked the cake and made a delicious real butter cream frosting.   I also needed a small rectangular cake for the base of my large rock formation.   I am no ready, I have the perfect canvas for a Lion King cake.

First I mixed a basic butter cookie recipe and kneaded some cocoa into enough dough to form the large and small rocks.  I baked them and set them aside.

I cut the rectangular cake on the diagonal and put the two identical pieces together.  I added cocoa to some of the butter cream and I iced the wedge or base for the rocks.  With a toothpick I traced into the icing where I’d put the water.  I iced the top of the cake brown.  I added blue food coloring to some of the butter cream to form water and iced in the water.  I sprinkled graham cracker crumbs around the brown base to make it look like sand.    I placed cookie rocks around the cake with some grasses coming out of them.  I bought the grasses at Michael’s for .59 each.

Now I’ve got to start thinking about what I’ll be making for Ryan’s next cake!

I feel good about making a delicious birthday cake with real ingredients.

Have a wonderful week!

Angie

This recipe is a one bowl recipe, my favorite.  It is very, very moist and especially delicious with the cream cheese frosting.  Refrigerate after you frost it and pull it out of the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.  Cover and refrigerate any leftover cake.

I’ve changed the recipe a little bit.  The original recipe called for only 1 teaspoon of cocoa…what?!  I wanted the cake to have a little more “chocolate” taste.   Use three 9″ pans and you’ll have a nice high cake.  Baking times may vary according to your oven.  See my post on baking and frosting tips.

There is a great deal of food coloring in this recipe.  I strongly suggest you use what’s required.  I tried it with less and it didn’t have the same dramatic affect.

Red Velvet Cake

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons fine or table salt
4 tablespoons cocoa (it’s a good idea to sift the cocoa if you don’t plan on sifting the rest of the ingredients)
2 1/4 cups vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk at room temperature
3 tablespoons red food coloring (use the liquid or gel not the paste)
1 1/2 teaspoons white or cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cream cheese frosting, recipe below

1) Preheat the oven to 350′.  Generously coat 3 9″ pans with cooking spray and dust evenly with flour.

2)  In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder.  In another large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla.

3)  Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.

4)  Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans.  Place the pans in the oven evenly spaced apart.  Bake 25-30 minutes.  Set the timer for 25 and check the cake.  (see my cake tips post below this one)

5)  When done, remove the cakes from the oven and run aknife around the edges to loosen them from the sides of the pans.  Cool 10 minutes then invert onto a plate, then reinvert onto a cooling rack.  (Now the bottom of the cake is resting on the rack, rounded sides up)  Cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 lb. cream cheese, softened
2 sticks softened butter (1 cup)
6 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
milk as needed

1)  In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or an electric mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese until well blended and creamy.  Add the sugar 2 cups at a time and mix on low speed.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally.  When you add the last 2 cups of sugar, you may need to add milk to get the perfect consistency.  Add one teaspoon at a time.  Once all of the powdered sugar is incorporated, add the vanilla and beat briefly until fluffy.  You’re ready to frost the cake.

2)  When assembling a two or three layer cake, you’ll want the cakes to be relatively flat.  If your cake has a dome like top, use a long serrated knife to level it off.  (It  is critical here to go ahead and taste the cake.  You know, for quality control purposes)  Place the cut side down either on the plate or on the top of the bottom layer.  It is far easier to frost the bottom part of the cake (the part that was in the pan as opposed to the cut side)  Hope that makes sense!

3)  Use lots of frosting.  Joking aside, it’s quite nice to not worry about crumbs on your finished cake.  You first do a “crumb” layer.  Refrigerate the cake for at least 30 minutes before proceeding to the final layer.

4)  Put a splotch of frosting on the plate to hold the cake in place.  Put your first cake, cut side down if necessary and ice the top of it.  Proceed to layer two and layer three.  Using lots of frosting, ice the sides filling in any gaps between the layers.  Finally, frost the top.

5)  Frost the chilled cake with the final layer of room temperature frosting.  If you prefer a very smooth surface on your cake, you can dip your spatula into water and smooth out the seams on your cake.

Enjoy!

Angie

When Ryan received the invitation to Alex’s birthday party, I thought gee, the design on this invitation would make a really cool birthday cake.  Here it is!   I bought a large black foam board at the grocery store and a silver sharpe.  I had to carefully map out the planets as Alex’s parents and grandparents all have major science backgrounds!

For the cake, I used my good ole Betty Crocker Bake n’ Fill pan that’s shaped like a half-moon.  I simply iced the cake with yellow frosting and I used tie dyed fruit roll ups to resemble flames on the burning sun.  I went on-line and found images of the planets and duplicated them on round butter cookies with icing, more fruit roll ups and chocolate.  Mercury has the Hershey’s Air Delight crumbled on the top as it looks like moon rock, only brown.  (and quite tasty) Saturn was my fav.  Using my warm hands, I squished yellow fruit roll up into a strip and trimmed it into an even long strip with my pizza cutter.  To keep everything in place I used a dollop of frosting as glue.

I had to throw in a couple of comets and asteroids….  You can see that there wasn’t much cake so I made a couple dozen chocolate cupcakes with the assorted planet colors.  Then, how to write happy birthday??  I stood in the kitchen staring at my creation for a bit and thought I’d ice more cookies and write on the cookies.  Cute huh?

Most importantly, the birthday boy was happy!  Happy Birthday Alex!!

Have a wonderful day!

Angie