TWD: Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake

It sure is a joy to make a recipe you typically wouldn't give a second glance to and have it be DELICIOUS.


The selection for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie is the Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake. I followed the recipe to the "T" this week... with one big exception. As I was deep in the middle of baking, I opened my fridge to find *gasp* we didn't have enough butter! So, desperate times call for desperate measures... and in went some margarine. I used about a 1/2 cup of margarine instead of butter. I'm sure this is a huge no-no to real bakers. I'm sure those people are shaking their heads right now. But whatcha gonna do? It turned out fine. Nice and moist and delicious. And I gave myself a pat on the back for my nice marbling job.

And right after I took the picture on my really cute zebra plate which never gets used, my son attacked it. Hey there! I knew it was a bad idea to take pictures of cake while he was around. Lesson learned for next time.


Thanks to Erin of When In Doubt... Leave it at 350. She selected this delicious cake and has the recipe posted for everyone who wants to give it a try.

TWD: Coconut Tea Cake

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie selection was the Coconut Tea Cake, a bundt cake made with coconut milk and shredded coconut.


The was such a cinch to make. I took it to my family's early Easter celebration and had been fretting about having enough time to make it. I contemplated skipping it and throwing together a quick batch of cookies. This cake, however, ended up faster and easier to make than any cookies would have been.

We thought this cake was so yummy. It tasted like a pound cake with coconut, and the coconut wasn't too overwhelming. It was so good with ice cream. Thanks to Carmen of Carmen Cooks for picking this week's recipe. She'll have the recipe posted if you'd like to make it yourself.

TWD: Low and Lush Chocolate Cheesecake

So after a long hiatus from baking, I decided I needed to make this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection - the Low and Lush Chocolate Cheesecake. I so love cheesecake, and the fact that it's chocolate only makes it sound better.

So a few weeks ago when we were having company, I finally got in the kitchen and baked! Since I had the baby our meals have consisted of putting together a sandwich or pulling something out of the freezer. So I thought a home baked dessert would be fabulous.



Unfortunately, we weren't thrilled with this cheesecake. The chocolate flavor wasn't pronounced enough - instead it tasted more like cream cheese. It was okay, just not as great as I was hoping and expecting. I probably wouldn't make it again. If I were to bake a cheesecake, it would be Dorie's Tall and Creamy Cheesecake - that one was a real home run!

If you'd like to get the recipe or see how someone else's turned out, visit Tea and Scones.

Train Birthday Cake

Last week we held my son's second birthday party. He's completely fascinated with trains, so I went in search of some ideas for a train-themed cake. I came across instructions for one that was so incredibly creative. I was a little hesitant about taking on that much work for his party, but it was just too darn cute to pass up.


The instructions for this cake are unbelievably straightforward - anyone can do it. However, the cake is very time consuming to decorate and takes a lot of patience. My son absolutely loved it, though, so I was glad I took on the challenge.

If you're planning a little boy's birthday party and are looking for theme ideas, try the train theme and the train cake. It's just so cute!


Train Birthday Cake
(from Parenting.com)

Ingredients:
•1 family-size frozen pound cake (16 oz), thawed
•2 cans (16 oz each) vanilla frosting
•Blue food coloring
•Yellow food coloring
•Red food coloring
•2 Fruit Loops Cereal Straws (I used Twizzlers)
•1 Kids mini–ice cream cone (I used a regular sized cone)
•2 tsp light corn syrup
•2 Tbsp yellow decorating sugar
•2 Tootsie Rolls
•4 Ring Dings
•1 cup dark-chocolate frosting
•12 mini-Oreos
•4 Oreos
•11 large chocolate nonpareils
•12 Sno-caps
•1 blue M&M
•2 Tbsp mini-marshmallows
•2 green Fruit Loops Cereal Straws (I used Twizzlers)
•1/3 cup Hershey's Kissables (I used Gummi Bears)
•5 Hershey's Sticks or Kit Kats for the track (optional)

What you'll need:
•A bread knife
•A serving platter
•A resealable sandwich-size plastic bag (Ziploc)

Trimming the cake:
1.Using a bread knife, trim a ¾-inch piece off both short ends of the pound cake to make the cake about 9 by 4 ½ inches.
2.Cut the pound cake as indicated on the diagram to make two 2 ½ by 4 ½-inch cars, one 4 by 3 ½-inch car, and one 1 by 4-inch slice. Reserve the 1 by 4-inch piece and set aside.


For the colored frosting:
1.Spoon the contents of 1 can of vanilla frosting into a bowl. Add a few drops of blue food coloring to tint it a light blue.
2.Divide the remaining can of vanilla frosting in half and spoon into separate bowls. Add yellow food coloring to one bowl of frosting to tint it yellow; add red food coloring to the other bowl of frosting to tint it red.

For the engine decorations:
1.Cut the red Froot Loops Cereal Straws in half.
2.Brush the outside of the Kids Cone with the corn syrup and sprinkle with the yellow decorating sugar.
3.Heat the Tootsie Rolls in the microwave for 2 to 3 seconds. Roll out each Tootsie Roll on wax paper and cut into two 1 by ½-inch rectangles for the train windows.

Frosting the cake:
1.Lay the trimmed 1 by 4-inch slice flat on a serving platter. Spread the top with some blue frosting.
2.Stack the 4 Ring Dings, spreading frosting in between each cake, and lay the stack on its side to make the cylindrical front engine.
3.Place the 4 by 3 ½-inch piece upright behind the stack of Ring Dings.
4.Spread the entire engine with blue frosting to cover and make smooth.

Assembling the engine:
1.Spoon the chocolate frosting into a resealable plastic bag. Snip a small corner from the bag and pipe a 1-inch-high layer of chocolate frosting at the base of the cake.
2.Add 2 mini- and 2 regular-size Oreos to either side for the engine's wheels. Pipe small dots of chocolate frosting on the cookies and add the large chocolate nonpareils to the Oreos and press the Sno-caps onto the mini-Oreos.
3.Press the Tootsie Roll windows into the sides of the upright cake.
4.Press a single large chocolate nonpareil into the nose of the engine. Pipe a small dot of chocolate frosting on the center of the nonpareil and add a blue M&M.
5.Gently press the Kids Cone and Froot Loops Cereal Straws into the top of the engine. Fill the cone with mini-marshmallows for the engine's steam.


Decorating the middle car:
1.Set one of the 2 ½ by 4 ½-inch pieces of pound cake behind the engine. Frost with the yellow frosting.
2.Trim the green Froot Loops Cereal Straws with a serrated knife to fit the length and width of the top edges of the cake.
3.Fill the top of the cake with the Hershey's Kissables.
4.Pipe a half-inch-wide band of chocolate frosting along the base of the cake. Attach the mini-Oreos. Pipe a dot of chocolate frosting onto each mini-Oreo and add the Sno-caps.


Decorating the caboose:
1.Set the remaining cake piece behind the middle car and cover completely with the red frosting.
2.Set the 2 remaining red Froot Loops Cereal Straw halves on top of the back of the cake.
3.Pipe a half-inch-wide band of chocolate frosting around the base of the cake. Press the remaining Oreo cookies in as wheels on either side of the caboose. Pipe a dot of chocolate frosting onto each mini-Oreo and press the Sno-caps on.


For the optional train tracks:
1.Cut 3 of the chocolate sticks in half.
2.Place the pairs of halved chocolate sticks in front and in back of the middle car and caboose. To complete, place the 2 long chocolate sticks in front of the engine cake.

Serves 8 to 10. For diagrams and more pictures, go to Parenting.com.

TWD: Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart

Carla of Chocolate Moosey chose the Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie. It's gorgeous... and so delicious.


I wish someone had told me sooner how easy it was to make Dorie's tart dough! I believe I skipped a tart recipe a little while back because I didn't feel like messing with dough. But boy, it was easier and quicker than expected.


I baked this a few weeks ago for company and it turned out perfectly. Making the caramel ended up being fairly easy. And the layer of chocolate ganache set up beautifully. I couldn't get over how picture perfect it looked. This will definitely be a go-to recipe for company and special occasions.

Another Dorie success! Great choice, Carla!

Milky Way Cake

Last week the group My Girl, Paula baked up this delicious Milky Way Cake. It looked fabulous and I had been dying to try it. But I decided I needed to wait until we had someone to share the cake with before I made it. The thought of having an entire cake in my house for me and my husband to eat alone didn't sound like the greatest idea.

So fortunately, I had the opportunity this weekend to make it and share it. The cake was really easy to make and included melted Milky Way bars in the batter - yum. The frosting was a bit more challenging, as it had to reach a specific temperature on the stovetop. It took boiling for a good 10 minutes or so before I got it there. I was a little impatient. And then it got a little hard to frost towards the end as the icing began to cool and harden.


But the finished cake was very moist and oh so rich. It's the type of cake that you'll need to slice very thin, as you'll love the first several bites, but the richness just kind of gives you a stomachache after eating an entire piece!

Everyone commented how great it tasted and how much it really tasted like a Milky Way bar. So if you're a fan of Milky Ways, you'll definitely want to give this a try. And be sure to go to the blogroll at My Girl, Paula to see what the other group members did with their cakes (I've seen delicious looking Milky Way cupcakes and bundt cakes!).



Milky Way Cake
(from Paula Deen)

For Cake:
confectioners' sugar, for dusting pans
8 (1 3/4 ounce) Milky Way bars
1 1/2 cups butter
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs, well beaten
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For Icing:
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup marshmallow cream
1/2 cup butter
6 ounces chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Grease three 9-inch cake pans and dust them with confectioner's sugar. To make the cake, melt the Milky Way bars with 1 stick of butter. Remove from heat and let cool.

2. Cream the remaining 2 sticks of butter with the granulated sugar. Add the beaten eggs and the cooled chocolate mixture. Sift the flour and the baking soda together. Alternately add the flour and buttermilk to the batter, blending well. Add the nuts and vanilla.

3. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake for 30-40 minutes or until the cake is firm to the touch. Cool for 5 minutes, remove from the pans and place on cooling racks.

4. While the cake cools prepare the icing. Combine the sugar and milk in a heavy saucepan. Cook to the soft-ball stage (234 degrees on a candy thermometer). Remove the pan from the heat and add the marshmallow cream, butter and chocolate chips, stirring until melted. Add the pecans. When the cake has cooled completely, frost each layer, sides and top of the Milky Way Cake.

16 - 20 servings.


One Year Ago I Was Baking: Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake

Hummingbird Cake

This week we made Hummingbird Cake for the group My Girl, Paula. I've seen this cake made by other people but have never tried to make it myself. It has pineapple and banana in the batter, and since I love both, I was really excited to try it.

The cake was very quick and easy to put together. The worst part is dividing the batter between three pans, which I didn't have. I just had two pans, so I had to bake them in two batches. All of mine were done at the very minimum time - 23 minutes. And upon tasting, they seemed just a tiny bit on the dry side, as if they were overdone. So next time I'd check them a few minutes early.


The frosting is a typical cream cheese frosting, which reminded me of eating carrot cake. It was such delicious frosting and spread really easily. The cake was really good and totally gorgeous... and HUGE. Half of it is still sitting in my fridge and I'm not sure how it's going to get finished in the next few days. Guess I better get to work and have another piece, right? :-)


Hummingbird Cake
(from Paula Deen)

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)
1 3/4 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 to 4 bananas)
8 oz. can crushed pineapple, with juice
1 and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pound confectioners’ sugar

Frosting:
8 oz. package cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.

2. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add the eggs and oil and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Do NOT beat. Stir in the banana, pineapple and its juice, pecans, and vanilla. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake for 23-28 minutes, or until tooth pick in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then turn out onto racks to cool completely.

3. While the cake cools, blend together cream cheese and butter. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Stir in the pecans, or reserve them to sprinkle over the frosted cake. Fill and frost the cake.

Orange Blossoms

Aren't these just the cutest little cakes you've ever seen? They're Orange Blossoms, selected for this week's installment of the group My Girl, Paula!


These are really delicious and quite addictive. They're so little, you really need some willpower or you'll never stop popping them right in your mouth. They come together really quickly and easily. The only problem I had was dipping them into the glaze without them falling apart. I eventually found my rhythm and got it down pat.

Give these a try, everyone will love them!



Orange Blossoms
(from Paula Deen)

For cakes:
1 package yellow cake mix
3.4 oz. package instant lemon pudding mix
4 large eggs
3/4 cup cold water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
For glaze:
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
3 Tbsp. melted butter
3 Tbsp. water

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease one or two minature muffin pans. For the cakes, in a mixing bowl combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water, and oil, and beat well. Fill the prepared muffin pans, using about 1 tablespoon of batter for each cake. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cakes spring back when touched.

2. For the glaze, mix the confectioners' sugar, orange juice, butter, and water until smooth; set aside.

3. Dip the blossoms in the glaze immediately after removing them from the oven. Drain on waxed paper.

Makes about 4 dozen cakes.

TWD: Cinnamon Squares

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection is the Cinnamon Squares. They were chosen by Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures. She has the recipe on her site, so go get it!


This was a recipe I'd noticed in Dorie's book and had been looking forward to trying. The cinnamon squares were not at all what I expected, but totally delicious nonetheless. The recipe was very easy to follow and it turned out great. I expected to want this for dessert (which of course I did), but I also thought it would be great with brunch. The cinnamon flavor just reminded me of breakfast.


The squares were gorgeous iced and cut. The icing was thick and rich and very tasty. And I loved the cinnamon chocolate center. So pretty and so yummy! I think I'll make these for a brunch sometime in the future. Another great recipe by Dorie!

Margarita Cheesecake

Is this making anyone else hungry?

I really love cheesecake. Always have and always will, I'm sure of that. Any kind of cheesecake - it really doesn't matter what's in it. And I've had a lot of cheesecake in my life. But never margarita cheesecake. Until now. Why, oh why didn't anyone alert me of this sooner?

Please make this for your next get-together. Or for just your family. Or just yourself. And don't forget to come back later and thank me.

Happy Spring to everyone!



Margarita Cheesecake
(from Good Housekeeping magazine)

7 Tbsp. butter or margarine, cut up
5 limes
1 orange
8 ozs. (65 wafers) vanilla wafer cookies
4 packages (8 ozs. each) cream cheese, softened
1 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
1 container (8 ozs.) sour cream
1/4 cup orange-flavor liqueur or orange juice
Orange and lime slices, for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Wrap outside of 10" by 2 1/2" springform pan with foil to prevent leakage. While oven preheats, melt butter in springform pan in oven.

2. Meanwhile, from limes, grate 1 Tbsp. plus 2 tsp. peel and squeeze 1/2 cup juice. From orange, grate 1/2 tsp. peel. In food processor with knife blade attached, pulse vanilla wafers and 2 tsp. lime peel to make fine crumbs (you should have about 2 and 1/2 cups crumbs). Stir crumbs into melted butter in springform pan, then press onto bottom and 2 inches up side of pan to form crust. Bake crust 15 minutes. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

3. In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Gradually beat in sugar and salt until blended. Reduce speed to low; beat in eggs, 1 at a time, sour cream, liqueur, orange peel, lime juice, and remaining 1 Tbsp. lime peel just until blended and smooth.

4. Pour cream-cheese mixture into crust, making sure to scrape any peel on beaters into batter. Bake cheesecake 45 minutes (cheesecake will still jiggle slightly in center). Turn oven off and leave cheesecake in oven 1 hour to cool slightly and set.

5. Remove cheesecake from oven and cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cover and refrigerate cheesecake at least 6 hours, until well chilled or up to 2 days.

6. To serve, carefully remove outside of springform pan. Let cheesecake stand at room temperature 30 minutes for better flavor. If you like, arrange orange and/or lime slices on top of cake for garnish.

TWD: French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection was made by Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction. She chose the French Yogurt Cake with a Marmalade Glaze. According to Dorie, it's the go-to cake for just about every occasion in France. She tells us that most of the French don't bake, but everyone can bake up this cake because it's so foolproof.


Well, I wasn't raised in France. And I've never even been there. Which clearly must explain why I wasn't blown away with the cake. Really though, it's not the recipe's fault. I did a few things wrong. Number one: I used a glass pan, which meant I should have lowered the oven temp. Did I? Nope. And as a result, the edges were a bit overbrowned. Number two: I discovered that I need new baking powder. My cake barely rose at all. Number three: My buttering-the-pan skills leave a little to be desired. The cake stuck to the insides of the pan.


The cake itself was pretty tasty and the marmalade glaze really added a great flavor. But regardless, I just wasn't loving it. That happens sometimes. So I probably won't make it again. But I'm pretty sure Dorie will not disappoint in the upcoming week's selections... she's good like that.


Thanks to Liliana for choosing this. It's another one I never would have made on my own, and I'm glad I gave it a try!

TWD: Chocolate Whiskey Cake

Let's face it, I'm a fan of pretty much anything chocolate. So when I heard we were making a chocolate cake this week for Tuesdays with Dorie, I was pretty excited. Until I read over the ingredients and saw... alcohol. And prunes. Prunes? Really?


Well, who am I to argue with the great Dorie Greenspan's tastebuds? If she says prunes will be good in a chocolate cake, then I'll take her word for it. The picture in the cookbook sure looked great, and I couldn't spot a single prune in the cake in that picture. So I put my faith in Ms. Greenspan and went for it.

She instructed us to cut the prunes into "bits" so I chopped them up, a little unsure how big "bits" are. I think I left them too big, but more on that later. I heated them on the stove with water, then threw in some scotch whiskey (substituted for the Armagnac that she suggests), stood back, and set it ablaze. The flames weren't anything like what I expected. They lasted about 2 seconds - not even long enough to get a picture.


My husband later saw the bottle of scotch whiskey sitting out on the counter and said, "You used this stuff? This is the cheapest, nastiest whiskey ever and it's been in the cupboard for about 10 years." Information I could have used about 20 minutes earlier. Well, all I could hope for was that it got better with age.

Next came the ground nuts. The recipe calls for pecans, but allows for a walnut substitution, which I took. I discovered that I had an abundance of walnuts in the cupboard, and just had to grind them myself. It took me a while to get them perfect. Right about the time I finished, it occurred to me that it would have been faster and a heck of a lot easier to throw them into the food processor. Why does my brain work so slow?


Then I whisked the nuts together with flour and salt and set it aside.


Seven whole, wonderful ounces of bittersweet chocolate are coarsely chopped. Ghirardelli - the absolute best (it was on sale... ssshhhh...).


The chocolate is melted with butter. Have I ever mentioned my love for melted chocolate? I could eat it with a spoon.


I wasn't a big fan of the next step. Egg yolks and sugar were to be whisked together for about 2 minutes in order to make them thick and pale. This mixture was already thick to begin with, I didn't need to whisk them for 2 minutes to make it thick. And oh my goodness, my arm hurt after whisking for 2 minutes. It would be a stretch to imagine Miss Dorie Greenspan doing this step. I wonder if she has a whisk-er to do the hard work for her. Hmmm... is that a job I can post on Craigslist?


Then the prunes, the nut mixture, and the melted chocolate are mixed together. And you fold in the egg whites, and pour it all into your springform pan.


Bake for about 28 minutes or until the batter is still wet, but not too wet. Don't you love it when the directions are vague? Fortunately, I think I got it just right.


After it cools, you spread on the rich chocolate frosting made up of bittersweet chocolate, butter and confectioners' sugar. Dorie said it would be a self spreader, and would run down the sides. But mine was rather thick and I had to spread it myself. It was really delicious.


The end result was an absolutely gorgeous chocolate cake. And it was to die for. I couldn't taste the alcohol at all, which was great for me. I could, however, taste the prunes. I think if I had chopped them finer they would have blended a little better. But there was just something about those big chunks of prunes that was a turnoff. I ate a few and picked a few out. I think next time I'd figure out a way to make the cake without the prunes.


And it was sooooo good with ice cream. I literally ate over half of this cake. I made it on Friday and it got finished on Monday. It was just my husband and I eating it... and I'm sure I had more of it than he did. I reeeally don't want to step on a scale anytime soon.


Many thanks to Lyb of And Then I Do The Dishes for making this week's selection. Very fitting selection Lyb, considering the outrageous number of dishes I dirtied while making this cake.

TWD: Devil's Food White Out Cake

At last, the cake that adorns the cover of Dorie Greenspan's cookbook, Baking: From My Home to Yours. This cake is absolutely gorgeous and I've been dying to make it. So you can imagine my excitement when Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater chose the Devil's Food White Out Cake for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection. For those new to my blog, Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) is a baking group. Each week, someone picks a recipe from Dorie's cookbook and everyone bakes it. Then on Tuesdays, everyone posts pictures and descriptions of how the recipe turned out. If you'd like to try this cake yourself, the recipe is posted on Stephanie's blog.

Making this cake went pretty smoothly. I planned to follow the recipe precisely, but didn't have two 8-inch cake pans, so I decided to put all of the batter into the one cake pan that I did have. I left it in the oven a little longer and it worked nicely for me. My top did end up having a few cracks and a slight dome. But fortunately it sliced nicely and I used the top of the cake to crumble and decorate the outside with.


The frosting came together nicely for me. It's the hardest I've worked for frosting, but it was yummy. I loved the marshmallow-y taste it had. I assembled it into three layers and it looked pretty just like this.


Next the sides were frosted and the reserved top layer of the cake was crumbled. Doing this also allowed me to take a few bites of the cake and it was incredibly moist and chocolate-ey.

Sprinkling the crumbs onto the cake proved to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated. The top was easy, but the sides were tricky. When I pressed the crumbs into the sides of the cake, I kept getting frosting on my fingers and getting myself a mess. And let's face it, mine just wasn't looking as pretty as the one on the cover of the book. I had to remind myself that I'm not an expert and no one would care.


For those in the group (who have the cookbook), you can see that my layers of frosting are not as high and luxurious-looking as Dorie's. I mean, how did she do that? My cake just kind of smushed down the frosting, especially when it was sliced.



I brought the cake with me this weekend. I went out of town for a surprise birthday party and knew it would get eaten by everyone. Unfortunately, I made the cake on Friday and it didn't actually get enjoyed until Sunday. So it sat in the fridge for two days. I found it to be a little dry when I finally had a slice. But I'm pretty sure that's to be blamed on the 48 hours that it sat before it was eaten. It was a really great looking cake and I received a ton of compliments. When it was finally sliced into, it was gone within a few hours. So I think it was enjoyed!

Thanks Stephanie for a great pick!

TWD: Berry Surprise Cake

Up this week - the Berry Surprise Cake. On the outside, it looks like just a regular old cake...


But on the inside lies the surprise...


Gorgeous, delicious strawberries.

Dorie suggested using raspberries for this, but I'm not a big fan of them. I was hoping for a cake that would remind me of strawberry shortcake and fortunately that's just what I ended up with.

But, I can't write this post letting everyone think this was a breeze for me to make. So many things went wrong that I almost threw in the towel. To begin with, I had pockets of flour in my batter but I didn't want to overmix the "diva" batter per Dorie's instructions, so I worried about how it would turn out once baked. And the recipe calls for using an 8-inch pan. All I had was a 9-inch, and I wasn't about to run out and buy a new pan just for this cake. So I used what I had and ended up with a very short cake, which perhaps could also partly be attributed to my batter not being perfect.

And do you think slicing off a layer of a very short cake is easy? Nope, it's not! So the top layer that I took off was very uneven and broken. Then, because I wanted to make matters worse, I followed the wrong directions for the filling. I started out with the cream cheese as called for, then Dorie said to add the sugar, the vanilla, and the cream. Well, I flipped the page back to read the quanitities and accidentally read those of the frosting (which also used sugar, vanilla and cream). So I put in powdered sugar (instead of granulated) with my cream cheese, too little vanilla and the wrong amount of cream. Like I said, things weren't going my way. But it tasted alright, so I decided to just go with it.

Then, in went the berries. Because my cake was so short, I couldn't get in as many as I'd have liked. So it was just a small layer of strawberries for this cake. Fortunately, it ended up tasting quite good despite my frustrations with it. I served it up to some family who also seemed to enjoy it. So all turned out well in the end! And if I ever make this again, I'll buy a 9-inch pan and read the directions a little better.

Many thanks to Mary Ann of Meet Me In The Kitchen for selecting this week's recipe. If you'd like to find the recipe, follow it correctly, and make this yourself, go to her site!

Up next week: Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread.

Red Velvet Cake Balls

If you haven't ever stumbled across the site Bakerella, I urge you to go check it out. Not only is Bakerella really good at baking and writing, she is insanely creative and talented at food decorating. I am always amazed at her little creations and how picture perfect they are. She makes me want to spend just a tad bit more time when I'm putting on the finishing touches of my baked goods.

So I snatched her very popular recipe for cake balls and found out exactly why they're so famous. And I was surprised at how easy they were to make. I must admit I stared at the picture of her cake balls for a long time and wondered - first of all, how did she do that? And second of all, how long did she spend on hers to make them look that perfect?

This recipe is extremely easy. But be warned, unless you're extremely patient and have a lot of time on your hands, they'll probably come out as brown chocolate blobs like mine did. But the good news is that they're reeeeeally good and you'll get a lot of compliments. My hubby took some to work and was told that I needed to open a business selling these. I don't think they would have said that if they compared mine with Bakerella's, but I guess it's agreed that they tasted good!

Just a note on the recipe - Bakerella suggests using chocolate bark for the outside coating. I couldn't find chocolate bark, but my supermarket sold bags of chocolate candy coating, which worked great for me. And only melt a little at a time - it coats better when it's hot and very melted. If you try them, let me know what you think!


Red Velvet Cake Balls
(recipe from Bakerella)

1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.)
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)
wax paper

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)

Makes 45-50 cake balls.