Chocolate Oreo Poke Cake

Chocolate Oreo Poke Cake

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Ganache

Revisted a tried and true combination of chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and added a new twist of chocolate ganache.

Chocolate Birthday Cake

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
A Baked By Jen Original
Makes enough to frost a 2-layer 8-inch cake

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
6 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons milk

Beat butter in mixer on low to medium speeds until creamy.

Sift into the bowl powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

Resume mixing at low to medium speeds, stoping to scrape down the bowl occasionally, until incorporated.

Stir in vanilla extract.

Stir in enough milk until desired consistency is reached.

Minnie Mouse Cake

This Minnie Mouse cake is definitely one of my favorite cakes made to date.  It was requested by a friend for her daughter's 5th birthday.  I have seen this design done plenty of times and I was very excited to finally get the chance to replicate it.

The cake was 2 tiers of chocolate cake with oreos and oreo buttercream filling with a vanilla bean buttercream frosting.  All decorations were made with store bought fondant.  The ears and the bow were the only 2 things I made in advance.  I loved that the details were very simple (a lot of circles) but once the cake was assembled, it made quite the statement.

Ultimate Chocolate Cake (Tuxedo Cake)

This past weekend was Cake4Kids' 3rd annual CakeOff4Kids event.  Because a few of the bakers that signed up to bake in the contest dropped out at the last minute, I volunteered to bake a cake for the event.  The category I was "entered" in was the Ultimate Chocolate category.  I went with my go to chocolate cake baked with chopped Andes Mints, filling it with ganache, peppermint butter cream frosting, and more crushed Andes Mints.

I searched high and low for the Andes baking chips that I have used often in my Best Brownies with no such luck.  So, I enlisted the husband to unwrap two boxes of Andes Mints and I manually chopped them to bits.

The contest required two cakes, one for the judges and one for the guests.  For the judging cake, I wanted to make it taste as "chocolately" as possible.  So, in addition to filling the cake with ganache and peppermint butter cream frosting, I coated the outside of the cake in the same.  For the tasting cake, I went with the classic ganache pour with all of the leftover ganache.

I didn't place in my category but I had a small sample of the cake and this combination definitely jumped up my list of favorite cakes.  I can't wait to replicate it for the Holidays.

Batman Cake (Oreo Cake)

For my niece's birthday party, I made a chocolate cake with Oreos baked in the batter.  She is currently obsessed with everything Batman so I used the frozen buttercream transfer method to quickly decorate the cake.  My sister helped by using the same method but with melted chocolate to make mini toppers for the cupcakes.

Chocolate Mint Cheesecake Cake

A friend's birthday was around the corner and she was looking forward to some mint oreo cheesecakes that I have made previously for a holiday potluck which she loved.  Of course, I couldn't just settle with the same dessert.  I went with a tried and true method of inserting the mint oreo cheesecake in between two layers of chocolate cake frosted in a vanilla cream cheese buttercream.  I have previously used this method with my red velvet cheesecake cake and strawberry cheescake shortcake cake with great results.

To add an additional element of surprise, my future sis in law, over at The Buttercup Baker, helped transfer an image of Justin Timberlake (birthday girl's celebrity crush of all time) onto an edible icing sheet for me.  I never worked with it before and I am glad it was really easy to use.  I didn't place it right onto the frosting but onto a piece of fondant.  I had no issues with the image bleeding despite being in the fridge over night and most of the day.

Valentine's Day Round Up

Whether you love or hate Valentine's Day, it's the perfect excuse to indulge in something sweet.  Here's a round up of tried and true recipes for your sweetie or sweet tooth!

Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Strawberry Pound Cake

Sweet and Salty Brownies

Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

Cocoa Caramel Cake

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

My company hosted a Bake Off this past Monday and despite the fact that I was out of town the weekend prior and sick as a dog all week long, I made an effort to enter just because I couldn't pass up the opportunity to bake.  I racked my brain but couldn't come up with anything creative so, I stuck to a tried and true combo, chocolate cake and peanut butter frosting.  I absolutely love this flavor combo and I must've made it numerous times as seen here, here, and here.

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that the competition was fierce.  The actual winners were lemon cupcakes, chocolate ice box cake, and coconut cake; which I have to confirm were all delicious.

SF Giants Cake

For my friend's husband's birthday, I suggested making a cake and she requested a small and simple one, as we would just be having dinner at a restaurant with a few family members and friends.  (Last year, I made him an iPad cake.)  I made him a 6-inch chocolate cake covered in vanilla buttercream frosting.  I brought back a favorite technique of mine for this cake, the buttercream transfer.  It was the easiest way to copy the logo of his favorite baseball team onto it.  The fun part was that I purposely picked a chocolate cake in order to fill it with an orange frosting to mimic the team's colors on the inside as well.

Train Theme Cake

Worked on another birthday cake this past weekend.  This time I got to make a cake for a boy turning 3.  I kept this cake a bit more simple by sticking to buttercream and fondant accents.  Also, instead of making Henry the Train out of fondant or whatever, I picked up a toy that he could just keep afterwards.

This cake came together with minimal amounts of hiccups.  If you remember, I couldn't wait to go back to this theme since it was last done for a Cake4Kids recipient.  I made sure that the train tracks made its way onto the board this time.  Also, it was great to have this cake turn out the way I imagined given I also made this boy's first birthday cake.  That cake almost broke me when nothing would turn out as planned.

Cake is 6in (2 layers) and 8in (3 layers) tiers of chocolate cake and chocolate frosting.  I used Pure Madagascar Vanilla Extract in the frosting for the first time and I am hooked on it now.  I wish I had a picture of the inside for you.  I have started to use an Ice Cream Scooper to measure out how much frosting I put in between each layer and it looks a lot nicer now.

Alice in Wonderland Cake

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of making an Alice in Wonderland cake for a 4 year old's birthday party.  I had fun creating subtle references to the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, and "Queen of" Hearts with this cake.

The flavor of choice was chocolate cake with oreo buttercream frosting.  I didn't think to make the oreo buttercream frosting just a filling.  So, this cake is actually filled and crumb coated with oreo buttercream frosting.  It made it a bit difficult to smoothly cover in fondant.

I gave this cake a mini topsy turvy look by trimming down the top tier.  I forgot to place the trimmed piece back on top of the cake to give it more of a slant.  It probably would've gave the cake a bit more support too as the layers of fondant weighed it down a bit.  The wrinkles at the bottom bothered me quite a bit.

Because I didn't want the hat to look squatty; I made it with 3 layer of cakes.  I love the height/look of the cake with the 3 layers.  Going forward, this will probably be the standard for cakes smaller than 6 inches.

Cocoa Caramel Cake

My niece won first place in the Made By Kids category at the Cake4Kids CakeOff-4Kids event this past weekend!  Under my supervision, she baked, frosted, and decorated both a tasting cake and a show cake (which we ended up serving that night as well).  They were chocolate cakes with a salted caramel buttercream frosting.

Instead of having her use Hershey's cocoa powder in my go to chocolate cake recipe, I supplied her with a "premium" can of Ghirardelli cocoa powder.  It definitely changed this chocolate cake recipe for me.  I don't think I can ever go back to every day grocery store brand now.  (To make matters worse, I recently purchased both E. Guittard and Scharffen Berger cocoa powders to do a comparison in the near future.)

The best part of the night was when I let her decide whether to use coffee or boiling water with this recipe and she replied with the most logical answer, "Kids don't drink coffee!"

The show cake included a base made of candy melts and extra candy melts as "sprinkles" on top.  She piped on the frosting using a 2D tip.  I was trying to teach her to do swirls but her making drop flowers worked out a lot easier.

Not wanting her to deal with hot bubbling sugar, I prepared the salted caramel sauce for her which she simply added about 1/2 cup to my go to vanilla buttercream recipe.  I was afraid of burning the caramel; so, I took it off the heat a lot sooner than necessary; hence, it didn't turn out as amber.  It might explain why the taste was too subtle in the frosting.  So, I let her drizzle the caramel sauce all over the top of the cake and it turned out really good!  People thought the tasting cake was her show cake as well.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cupcakes

Chocolate and peanut butter is a combination that never gets old in my book.  I have made these exact cupcake combination multiple times.  However, this time around, I added a surprise element.  A few of the cupcakes had a mini reese peanut butter cup inside.  Next time, I would toss them in some flour as they did sink all the way to the bottom.

Peanut Butter Frosting
A Baked By Jen Original
Makes enough to generously frost 24 cupcakes

1/2 cup of butter
1 cup of peanut butter
3 cups of powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of milk

Beat the butters together until light and fluffy.  Add the powdered sugar.  Add the vanilla extract. Add enough milk until desired consistency is reached.

Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting for a friend.  I made my go to chocolate cake recipe with coffee instead of water and my go to buttercream frosting with 1/4 cup of strawberry puree.  It reminded me of a thick and creamy milkshake!  Frosting was piped on with a 2D piping tip. The last time I made this combination of flavors was back in 2009!

Valentine's Day Recipes

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I thought I'd compile a list of my go to Valentine's Day treats for inspiration to share whether it's with coworkers, friends, family, significant others.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Salted Caramel Brownies and Mini Strawberry Swirl Cheesecakes

Cheesecake Brownies 

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Vanilla Bean Macaron with Chocolate Ganache

Best Brownies

Chocolate Cupcakes - Two Ways

Chocolate Souffles

Baby Lava Cakes

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

Chococat Cake

It's getting a lot harder for me to take pictures in natural light around this time of year!  My brother was taking this cake to work the next morning and I was only able to snap a few shots before bed.

This cake reminded me on how much I dislike using store bought fondant to cover an entire cake.  The last time I covered an entire cake in fondant, I ended up ripping a lot of the smooth edges off my cake and redoing it.  Fortunately, no edges were ripped off but the cold weather made it extremely difficult to knead the store bought fondant.

Cake was chocolate cake with strawberry frosting as requested by recipient.  I hope she enjoyed it!

Cupcake Stand Topper Cake

When my sister heard that her friends would be ordering cupcakes with no cake topper for their cupcake stand at their wedding, she offered my services to them.  It was a bit nerve wrecking thinking this was going to be at someone's wedding but it all came together without a hitch.  Cake was 3 layers of chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream frosting and chocolate buttercream frosting.  Entire cake was covered and decorated in marshmallow fondant.  I wish I was provided with ribbons but instead I made fondant ribbons.

In addition to the cupcake stand topper cake, I made over 50 fondant daisies for their cupcakes.  I love how everything looked after the professionals came and set it up with the stand and real flowers.

Flower Pot Cakes for Mother's Day

I worked on two cakes this week, one for my Mom and one for my boyfriend's Mom for Mother's day.

Both cakes are chocolate cakes with chocolate buttercream frosting covered and decorated with marshmallow fondant.  The "soil" on the cakes is a mix of crumbled chocolate cake and vanilla cake which my boyfriend suggested; how ingenious!

I only let the fondant flowers dry out for a few hours but I suggest allowing them to dry over night in flower formers or egg cartons to avoid looking so flat.  Also, I wrapped the cake vertically in fondant which I noticed later caused a lot of sagging.  Next time, I would cover the cake upside down in fondant then flip it right side up.

Chic Birthday Cake

By adding a bow to the cake, I turned it from simple to chic!  This cake was made from the extra chocolate cake layers and peanut butter frosting I had saved in the freezer from the Hello Kitty Baby Shower cake I made the other week.  I sampled some of the trimmings when I was reshaping the cake and I swear it seemed more moist than the first time around.

When I freeze my cake layers, I triple wrap it in saran wrap and then place in it a Ziploc bag.  The cakes can be frozen for up to two months without losing its flavor.  When I need to use it, depending on whether I'm carving or not, I'll thaw it slightly or completely before use.