Chocolate Cake

This chocolate cake recipe was awesome. To be honest, chocolate cake is not my favorite, but this was really moist and really delicious. The frosting was great too, really thick and not too sweet. I used Hershey's chocolate cake recipe and altered their frosting recipe.






Ingredients for the cake:

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Stir together all of the dry ingredients. Mix in the eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla and beat for a few minutes. Add in the boiling water. Pour batter into two 9 inch cake dishes (make sure they are well buttered and flowered). Bake for 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool about 10 minutes, take them out of the dishes, then let cool completely. Frost and decorate!

Ingredients for the frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup Cocoa
2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the butter. Beat in the cocoa powder. Add in the powdered sugar and milk alternatively. Add vanilla.

Yum!

-I

Marbled Cheesecake

This cheesecake turned out really sweet, but had a great flavor. It went pretty fast...It was easy to make, but even though I used a spring pan, I had a little problem with the crust sticking to the pan...hence the sub par appearance. I altered this recipe from Baking Bite's blog.





Ingredients:
2 cups crushed graham crackers
1/4 cup sugar
1 stick of butter, melted
2-8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
1-14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs, room temperature
2 oz bittersweet chocolate
2 oz white chocolate
*Alternatively you can use all bittersweet chocolate, or all white chocolate (though since white choc is so sweet, I suggest using a bit less if that's the way you go).

Preheat the oven to 350
Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter until the mixture starts to get clumpy. Press the mixture into a 9' pan (I suggest using a springform one if you have it) and bake for 10 minutes. Set aside.
Reduce the heat to 300
Melt the chocolates in a bowl in the microwave and set aside.
Beat the cream cheese in a separate bowl until smooth. Then, beat in the condensed milk. Add in eggs, one at a time, incorporating each of them. Pour half of the batter into the bowl with the melted chocolate. Alternating, pour the chocolate batter and the plain batter into the baking pan. Swirl with a knife to get the marbled look. Bake for 55 minutes. The cake will still be a bit loose; it will jiggle fairly evenly. Leave out for an hour, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Enjoy!

-Irene

Yellow Cake with Strawberries and White Chocolate Frosting

I made this cake for my friend Berto's birthday. I thought the frosting was pretty good (REALLY SWEET) and the cake was good, but I will continue to seek for a perfect yellow cake recipe.

Ingredients for the cake:
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup milk
strawberries (for the cake decor)
grated white chocolate (also cake decor)

Beat together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs in, one at a time. Add the vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture alternatively with the milk. Divide between two 9 inch spring form pans (or make sure to grease and flour the pans really really well.)
Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.


For the frosting:

6 oz of white chocolate
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups of powdered sugar

Melt the white chocolate with the cream in the microwave. Then add the butter and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Gradually at the powdered sugar until the frosting becomes fluffy. You can add more or less sugar depending on how you'd like the consistency and sweetness to be.

Frost and decorate the cake as wanted!

-Irene

Carrot Cake

My Dad came to visit last weekend and his favorite thing is carrot cake. I decided to bake him one. I used the recipe from one of my favorite blogs: Lovin' from the oven. The cake came out really moist and delicious. It was also ridiculously easy. The hardest part was shredding the carrots. I would definitely make this recipe again.








Ingredients:
For the cake:
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
2 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups shredded carrot
1 cup chopped walnuts
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
I added 1 cup of raisins, I suggest that if you like raisins

For the Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
few drops of water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all the cake ingredients together in a bowl until well combined. Grease and flour a pan, and pour in the batter. Bake for about 45 minutes, maybe a little more or less depending on the pan size you use (I made a bundt and it took about 55 minutes).

While the cake is baking, make the frosting by beating all the ingredients together until smooth. Wait for the cake to cool, then frost and enjoy!

-Irene

Banana Bundt

Everyone Wednesday night we hang out with Genna and Daniel, and tonight we decided to bake a Banana Bundt Cake. It came out really well...tastes a like banana bread, but the consistency is a little lighter. It goes great with butter pecan ice cream :)




Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ripe LARGE bananas (or 3 medium ones) mashed (about 1 cup)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350. Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Next, add in the mashed bananas. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add half of the dry ingredients into the butter/egg mixture. Add the sour cream, then add the remainder of the dry ingredients. Pour into a bundt pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until lightly browned.

-Irene & Scott