Old Fashioned Yellow Cake

I put this cake together a while ago, but kept putting off putting it online. It was pretty good--I didn't have enough frosting to cover the whole thing so I quickly whipped up, with whatever ingredients I had, a spur-of-the-moment kahlua buttercream for the center. It would have been better with chocolate ganache or mousse, but I didn't have the ingredients. Overall, the cake was pretty good! The easiest & a really good cake recipe. I definitely want to re-try this one with a different kind of center. The frosting was light and so was the cake, so they went well together, but if I have enough ingredients next time I might opt for a light buttercream. I really have to do something about not having any ingredients for making something quality instead of opting for whatever's easiest...but it was a great change to make a yellow cake instead of everybody's same-old favorite chocolate stuff!

Oh, one more thing, I baked this in 9-inch cake rounds for 20-30 minutes.

Old-Fashioned Yellow Cake
Adapted by Cinnamon Girl Recipes from McCall's Book of Cakes and Pies

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 + 1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.

In a large mixing bowl sift flour and sugar, baking powder and salt.

Add butter, milk and vanilla. Beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping sides of bowl.

Add eggs, beat for 2 more minutes.

Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally among both. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Turn out and cool thoroughly on wire racks. Frost with cream cheese or whip cream frosting. If using whip cream frosting the cake must be refrigerated.

Whipped Cream Frosting

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon sugar

Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and chill with the whisk/beaters you will be mixing it with. Cover and chill for 30 minutes, then beat the mixture until stiff peaks form.

Kahlua Buttercream

4-5 tbsp butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp cocoa
1-2 tbsp kahlua
1 tbsp milk

Beat butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar, mix until combined. Add rest of ingredients & beat until fluffy.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Happy Halloween!!
Sorry I've been neglecting this blog! School & lack of ingredients happened...I have this recipe which was super easy to find the ingredients for. It was pretty good, pretty basic, everybody likes chocolate chip cookies and everybody likes bars, so it was good. Plus, I got to use not only the new pan my mom sent me (I now can bake recipes in a 9x13 pan!! instead of using 2 9-inch rounds, heh), but I also got to use the fall-themed sprinkles. I wasn't sure how they'd turn out on the bars, so I only sprinkled them on half (I didn't use the sea salt suggested in the recipe) but obviously could definitely have put sprinkles on the whole batch.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod

2 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips
Sea salt, for sprinkling over bars-optional

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 9x13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the melted butter and sugars together until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix on low, just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour cookie dough into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the spatula. Sprinkle cookie bars very lightly with sea salt, if desired. Bake cookie bars for 25-30 minutes or until the top of the bars are light golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. Cool bars on a wire rack to room temperature. Cut bars into squares and serve.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut

I've been kind of distracted lately, but I'm still baking every now and then! Back on the day that I made those whoopie pies, I also made these chocolate cupcakes with coconut. They were good: I used the same recipe I did for this chocolate coconut cake a while ago. I think it would have been better if I'd filled the cupcakes or used a different cupcake recipe. As a cake, this was GREAT. As cupcakes, I think I expected a little more. Nonetheless, they were still pretty good and were definitely pretty! As you can see, I added sprinkles to some for the friends who don't like coconut so much.

Whoopie Pies (again!)

I've made whoopie pies before but wanted to try them again. I used the same cake/cookie recipe as last time, but changed up the frosting to be the same cream cheese frosting from the Red Velvet Cupcakes I made this summer. They were great! I loved this combination probably better than the buttercream last year, not that I remember that very much. I definitely want to try making different flavors of whoopie pies in the future, but I was just making them off what little variation of ingredients I have. I'm reposting the recipes below even though they can be found elsewhere on my blog.

Classic Chocolate Whoopie
Recipe from Whoopie Pies
Found on Bakerella

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a bowl, sift together, flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

In another bowl, beat butter, shortening and sugar with a mixer on low until just combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.

Add egg and vanilla and beat for two more minutes.

Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk and beat on low until incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour and milk and beat until combined.

Using a tablespoon, drop batter on baking sheet two inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes each or until pies spring back when pressed gently.

Remove from oven and cool for about five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

1 Tbsp of batter should make about 48 two-inch cakes or 24 pies.
2 Tbsp of batter should make about 30 four-inch cakes or 15 pies.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe from Annie's Eats

8 oz. cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.