Cookies and Cream Cake

Most people love Oreo's don't they?  "Cookies and cream" brings me back to when I was a little kid because I used to love the ice cream flavor more than anything. 

It was two of my friends at school, Rachelle and Jordan's, birthdays over Thanksgiving break so I figured that when we came back to school I could make them something scrumptious! 

Believe it or not, this is a Cookies and Cream birthday cake and it was quite delicious if I may say so myself. 

The recipe entails the following: dark chocolate cake, Oreo cream cheese frosting filling, a buttercream coating, as well as chocolate whipped cream and Oreo's for decor. 

I have been so busy lately with school work and finals are coming up in about a week and a half so even having time to make this cake was a miracle.  I'm so happy I did though!  It's amazing how just sitting in the common room for an hour with a cake can make it vanish so quickly. 

My amazing boyfriends mom, Sharon, gave me a cute apron a few months ago with a cupcake pattern on it... 

Isn't it adorable? Thanks Sharon!

The decoration of this cake can be done in any way you like but I will explain what I did. After the buttercream frosting had set I chopped up a bunch of Oreos into fine crumbs and coated just the top of the cake with them.  Then with the remaining Oreos I had a cut them eat into half circles and placed them around the base of the cake.  Lastly, I piped the chocolate whipped cream both around the perimeter of the face of the cake and between the Oreos around the base.  I also added a heart on the top with my left over buttercream.  There are many ways that you could go about decorating this so be creative and have fun with it! 

Ok now that your mouth is watering I can give you the recipe... and I would like to acknowledge The Dainty Chef and Cooking Classy for inspiring me to make this wonderful creation.

Ingredients:

This recipe makes a regular sized 2-layer cake.

For the chocolate cake:
1¾ cup all-purpose flour
⅔ cup cocoa powder
1½ tsps. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
¾ cup butter (this is one and a half sticks)
1½ cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs at room temperature
1¼ cups buttermilk

For the Oreo cream cheese filling:
4 ounces soft whipped cream 
1/2 cup soft unsalted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
5-7 chopped Oreos

For the buttercream:
3 sticks salted butter
4 cups powdered sugar
3-4 tbsp. heavy whipping cream
1½ tsp. vanilla 

For the chocolate whipped cream (This recipe makes a lot):
Approximately 1 cup of heavy whipping cream
Chocolate chips

*Note: Also need Oreo's for decoration (1 package is enough for the whole recipe)

Directions:

For the chocolate cake: 

Preheat the oven to 350.  Pre-grease and flour 2 8-inch round cake pans.  Make sure that you put a good amount of flour because I had a hard time getting my cake out. 
In a medium bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. 
In a larger bowl, using an electric mixer, combine butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs (1 at a time).  
On low speed, mix in the flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk (start and end with flour mixture). 
Divide batter amongst the 2 pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool completely before attempting to remove from the pans. 

         

              

For the Oreo cream cheese filling: 
Beat, with an electric mixer, the cream cheese and butter until smooth.
Gradually add powdered sugar and mix until very well combined.  
Stir in chopped Oreo's (not finely chopped). 
Once cake layers have cooled, spread the filling on top of one of the layers, and place the second layer over. 

For the buttercream frosting: 

Beat butter with an electric mixer until it turns a white color (at least 5 minutes). 
Slowly add in powdered sugar, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla until well combined and retains a thick consistency. 
I decided to use salted butter because it makes the sweetness not as intense and creates a perfect balance. 
Spread over the sides and top of the cake. 

For the chocolate whipped cream (optional):

Take a generous amount of heavy whipping cream and whip with an electric mixer.  

Slowly add in about a half cup of melted chocolate chips (this will be up to you on how much you want to add).  Keep whipping until it is thick enough to pipe. 

This recipe makes a lot of whipped cream so you can use it to put in hot chocolate or anything you want!

Putting it all together: 

As described above, I put crumbled Oreo's on the top, half-Oreo's around the base, and piped the whipped cream all around.  Get inspired by these pictures or come up with ideas of your own! 

Here is a picture of one of the pieces of cake... mmmm I miss it already.

Happy Birthday Jordy and Shelly! Love you guys!

This cake does have a lot of moving parts but they all come together very nicely and it is well worth all the work! 

Happy Christmas season and Happy Baking!

Timeline Birthday Cake

So I actually made this awhile ago, for my Mom's 50th birthday last year but I wanted to share it with you all! This post is going to be more about the decorating techniques than the recipe itself, so stay tuned if you are interested.

You can use any kind of cake, but my Mom is a chocoholic so I made a devils food cake with a rich chocolate buttercream.  But for the purpose of this experiment lets say use your favorite cake and frosting. 

I wanted this cake to be really special so I got photos from all different times in my Mom's life: childhood, teenage years, marriage, each of my siblings being born, and present day.  

From left to right: her and her siblings when they were little, my grandpa with my mom and aunt, and my gorgeous mother at her engagement party. 

From left to right: my parents wedding day, me and my mom, and my brother and my mom.

From left to right: my sister and my mom, and our family with my dogs puppies!

If you decide to make this cake for someone, just try to think of defining moments in their life and/or people who are very important to them.  

What you will need:

- cake/frosting

- log cookies for the circumference of the cake

- toothpicks

- tape

- pictures or printed photos

- sprinkles (I used these light pink pearl candies)

- ribbon

- a birthday boy/girl!

Procedure (sounds like a science experiment?):

1.  Frost the cake with a thick layer of your frosting of choice and put it the fridge to set for 20-30 minutes.  

2.  Place the log cookies along the edge of the cake vertically until you cover all sides.  These cookies can be bought at any grocery store but I honestly cannot remember the name! They come in a big tin and shouldn't be too hard to locate.  They also come in vanilla and chocolate filled versions.  I broke them up into varying sizes for effect but that is your decorative call.

3.  To prepare the pictures, I printed them out from my color printer and attached them to a toothpick by taping the toothpick to the backside of the picture.  If I had more time I probably would have made the pictures double-sided so that the toothpick was not visible but I was in a crunch.

4.  Evenly place the toothpicks around the cake (with photos pre-attached) as seen above.

5.  Optional: Some sort of decorative feature in the center.  I put a big heart of pink pearl candies but you can do writing, sprinkles, etc.

6.  Tie a big bow around the cake to make it look like a present! 

Hope you try this out! It meant a lot to my Mom and I'm sure it will have an impact on whoever you want to make it for!  If you have any questions as always, let me know.

Happy baking!

Yellow Heath Bar Cake

So let's just start from the beginning.  My boyfriend and I both worked at a self-serve frozen yogurt shop last year in Marin county (called Swirl) and my favorite topping was the chopped up Heath Bar.  Before he left for school last year he gave me several pounds, yes POUNDS, of Heath Bar and I still have so much left! He was able to get his hands on this massive load of Heath because the shop we worked at orders everything in bulk amounts.  So.... because of all this I use every excuse to make something with it because it's so delicious.

And there was another birthday in my family! My brother turned sweet sixteen and he also happens to be a Heath fan, I mean who isn't right?  The cake I made was a yellow cake with a chocolate cream cheese filling (with heath bar bits) and a pretty simple white frosting on the outside.

Ingredients:

This recipe will make about 12 servings.

For the Yellow Cake:

2 cups all purpose flour

1.5 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 cup milk

3 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

For Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling: 

1/8 cup butter

4 oz softened cream cheese

2 oz melted chocolate (I used semisweet but you can use whatever you want)

1.5 cups of powdered sugar (sifted)

1/6 cup of half-and-half

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cocoa powder (if desired)

For White Vanilla Frosting: 

1/2 cup plus about 2 tablespoons of butter

1.5 tsp vanilla

3 tbsp milk

3-4 cups powdered sugar (sifted)

pinch of salt

Directions:

Cake: 

Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare two 8-inch round cake pans by spraying with cooking spray and placing parchment paper in the bottom. 

Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) in a medium bowl. 

Combine sugar and butter in a mixer and beat until light and fluffy.  Then add eggs one at a time. 

Next, add flour mixture alternatively with the milk.  The final step is to add the vanilla.  

Separate the batter evenly into the 2 pans and bake for about 20-25 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before continuing. 

Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling:

Cream together softened butter and cream cheese in a mixer. 

Beat in melted chocolate, salt, powdered sugar, half-and-half, and vanilla.  At this point you should evaluate what you have and decide whether or not you want to add the cocoa powder or not.  The filling I ended up putting in the middle of the cake was without the cocoa, but I decided to make more for garnish and did add the cocoa and liked it much more (your call).

White Vanilla Frosting:

Beat together the butter, salt, and vanilla.  

Add the milk and the powdered sugar until you have reached a desired consistency (it may be a little bit more or a little bit less than what I have indicated). 

Putting It All Together!

First, put a layer of filling on the upside of one of the cooled round cakes.  Then sprinkle a hefty amount of Heath Bar on top of the filling and place second cake round on top.  

Next, coat the entire top and sides of the cake with the white vanilla frosting and place in the fridge to set for 10 minutes. 

Finally, decorate it however you want! I piped some extra chocolate cream cheese frosting around the base and the top, placed a circle of heath bar bits on the top, dyed some extra white frosting blue and wrote "Happy Birthday Willie" and also drew some bikes around the sides.  (My brother is a big downhill biker by the way).

It was a big hit for the teens and some of the parents that stopped by as well. Hope you try it out and if you have any questions, concerns, feedback that would be great! Happy baking!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Butterfinger

I made this cake for my Grandpa's 75th birthday. It was lots of work in which I dedicated my whole Friday too but it was also so much fun! And I had the Olympic ceremonies on in the background too so who cares!

Here's the completed version shot:

I was so scared because I had to transport this baby all the way to Sonoma, CA which is only about an hour drive but it was about 85 degrees out! I stuffed it in a bag with about 6 ice packs and that did just the trick.  Anyways... back to the cake. 

The cake batter was to die for, I had to force myself to stop licking the spoon before I got sick.

So this is a recipe I got out of my Bon Appetit dessert cook book which I LOVE.  Basically, it is peanut butter cake with a chocolate peanut butter cream filling, cream cheese frosting, and some Butterfinger garnish.

Ingredients:

For the filling:

2 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup (packed golden brown sugar)

12 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup old-fashioned (natural) chunky peanut butter (I used a brand called Laura Scudder's that I got from our local grocery store)

For the cake: 

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda 

1/2 tsp salt

10 tbsp unsalted butter (room temp)

1/2 cup old-fashioned (natural) chunky peanut butter

1 pound golden brown sugar (I had a scale that I used but I think this is generally half of a standard bag of brown sugar)

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

For the frosting:

12 oz cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar (divided)

6 tablespoons of butter (room temp)

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup chilled heavy whipping cream

*Optional: Butterfinger and/or peanut garnish

Directions:

For the filling: 

Bring cream and sugar to simmer in saucepan, whisking to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat. Add chocolate; let stand 1 minute. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in peanut butter.  The cookbook directions say to chill uncovered overnight but I just chilled it for about 6 hours and that was totally fine.

For the cake:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray (with cooking spray or butter) three 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Line bottoms with parchment paper. Sift first 4 dry ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and peanut butter in large bowl until blended. Beat in sugar. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla. At low speed, beat in flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions.
• Divide batter among pans and spread evenly. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Cool cakes 5 minutes. Turn out onto racks; peel off parchment. Cool cakes completely before stacking and filling.
• For the frosting:
• Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese, 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Whisk whipping cream and 3/4 cup powdered sugar in bowl until mixture holds medium-firm peaks. Fold into cream cheese mixture in 3 additions; chill until firm but spreadable, about 1 hour.
• Place 1 cake layer, bottom side up, on 9-inch tart pan bottom. Spread with half of filling. Place another layer, bottom side up, on work surface. Spread with remaining filling; place atop first layer. Top with remaining cake layer, bottom side up. Spread the cream cheese frosting over the top and sides of the cake (crumb coat first- then finishing coat).  
• As you can see I made some additions to my cake with some piping, etc so feel free to get creative!

This is my first post so please follow me! I will be continuing to post in the future.  If you have any recommendations, questions, or anything feel free to send me a message!