This is a first for me….this will be the third dessert I have made within 4 days…. two over Easter weekend and then one for our staff lunch on Tuesday. Fortunately, I’m sending a salad to the Staff Appreciation lunch at my kid’s school on Thursday, 4 desserts in a week would be a bit much! I had a “banana pudding” dessert several years ago and it was delicious. I actually got the recipe for it, but it was missing a step or two and I didn’t want to guess what to do. I ended up searching for a banana pudding recipe and although I found one that was very similar, I opted for this one instead. I must say I was intrigued by the 10 minute prep time and the inclusion of sour cream. I decided to wait and post this after the luncheon. I really enjoyed it and it got rave reviews from the staff as well! This was super easy to make and the taste did not disappoint!
This recipe was found on Divas Can Cook. I have found several good recipes on their site, so I was pretty confident it would be a good one.
Easy Banana Pudding:
Ingredients:
3-6 bananas (I used 6 banana ~ 2 per layer)
2 102g boxes instant Vanilla pudding
2 cups of milk
1 box of Nilla Wafers (You’ll only need about 3/4 of a box)
8 oz. container of Cool Whip (3 cups)
1 cup sour cream
Instructions:
Combine pudding and milk in a large bowl.
Whisk until creamy.
Add sour cream and 1 1/2 cups of Cool Whip.
Stir until combined.
In a dish, add a layer of chopped bananas and Nilla Wafers
Spread approximately 1/3 of the pudding mixture on the wafers.
Repeat the layering process two more times, ending with the pudding mixture.
Spread on the remaining Cool Whip on top.
Garnish with crushed wafers.
Refrigerate for 3 hours.
Serve cold.
Notes:
I made this dessert the evening before and it kept very well. The author does not recommend using instant banana pudding in lieu of vanilla. This tasted great as is and I wouldn’t change a thing!
This was the second dessert I prepared this weekend. I said I would bring something to Tim’s family’s Easter dinner and decided on a dessert. When I was young, my mom often had Angel Food Cake for dessert. She had a few variations of how she served it, but one of my favourites was with a lemon topping. Unfortunately, it was not one of the recipes I thought of asking her before she passed away, so I haven’t had it in decades. I thought that I might try a search and see what I could come up with. I really had no memory of how she made it, so this was pretty much a shot in the dark!
Lemon Trifle:
Basically, I pretty much made this up. I found a recipe that looked promising for my Mom’s lemon topping on Food.com. I used the suggested ingredients and ratios to come up with this trifle. It was delicious, but I’d make a few modifications next time, more so for presentation than anything else.
Ingredients:
1 pouch of Sherrif lemon pie filling mix – prepared according to the instructions – Cooled completely.
3/4 cup of whipping cream + 1 cup of whipping cream – whipped
vanilla sandwich cookies (I used a row of Girl Guide Cookies because I have an entire case on hand) Anyone want to buy cookies??
2 angel food cakes (I bought one from the bakery and it wasn’t enough to fill my trifle bowl. I think a cake mix makes a larger angel cake and one mix would probably make enough, but the store bought ones seemed smaller and I would buy two next time or make my own.)
lemon rind
Method:
Cook the lemon pie filling according to the directions and then cool completely.
Meanwhile, whip the cream. (If you wish, you can add a tablespoon of icing sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla to the whipped cream, but I didn’t). You can do this all at once and make an approximate division for the recipe or whip it in two batches. This isn’t rocket science and it will not make much difference if your whipping cream is a bit off. Both the lemon and whipping cream are delicious, the combination really just makes it creamier.
Remove about 1/4 of the lemon pie filling and set aside. (I didn’t do this in my original attempt, but think the brighter yellow and stronger lemon would be a nice addition.)
Take the remain lemon pie filling and fold in the 3/4 cup of cream that you previously whipped (if you mixed it in one batch, just take slightly less than half of the batch.)
Chop 10 to 12 vanilla sandwich cookies (lemon would be good as well).
Break the cake into small bit-sized chunks. Divide the cake into thirds.
Assembly:
Place one third of the cake pieces on the bottom of the trifle bowl.
Add 1/3 of the lemon cream filling.
Add second layer of cake followed by 1/3 of the lemon cream filling.
Add the reserved lemon curd. It will be a very thin layer.
Top this with the crushed cookies and the final layer of cake.
Add the remaining third of lemon cream.
Top with the remaining (1 cup) of whipped cream.
Garnish with lemon rind and/or additional cookie crumbs.
There really is no right or wrong way to do this, I made it up! As long as your whip cream whips properly, you’re good to go. I suppose you could even use Cool Whip in lieu of the whip cream, but I like the real thing. This sounds like lots of steps, but I literally whipped this up in about 30 minutes. It was delicious and light!
My original post for yesterday was supposed to be the recipe for this awesome Mocha Torte that I made for my Dad’s 78th birthday. However, I ended up sharing how to rescue what seemed to be a ruined cake because I under baked it and it sank in the middle. So, as promised here is one of my all time favourite cake recipes. My friend Kirsten passed this cherished family recipe on to me a few years ago and like her family, it’s now one of my go to recipes as well! This is easy to make, looks great and tastes decadent. I love that you can make it the night before and it keeps perfectly!
Kirsten’s Mocha Torte:
Ingredients:
Duncan Hines Fudge Marble cake mix (I often bake a chocolate cake from scratch instead)
1 cup margarine
1 Tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water
1. Bake cake mix in 2 round pans. Split into 4 layers by cutting each cake in half horizontally.
2. Mocha Filling: Put the softened margarine in a bowl. Add the coffee/water mixture, 2 cups of the icing sugar and cocoa. Beat until smooth.
3. Whip 2 cups of whipping cream. Add 1 t. vanilla and 1/4 c. icing sugar.
4. Assembly: Spread mocha filling on first layer, followed by whipped cream. Repeat 3 more times. Cover top and sides with whipped cream. Decorate as desired. Make one day ahead.
It wasn’t until I was typing out this recipe that I realized that I actually messed up when building my cake. That’s two major errors on the same cake. Yikes! (It has been a stressful week.) First I under baked the cakes and then I assembled it wrong. I actually never even thought about the assembly, as I was so consumed with salvaging the cake. I completely forgot to add a layer of whipping cream on top of the layers of mocha filling. I should have clued in when I went to complete the cake with the whipping cream on the top and sides. I generally feel there is not quite enough to do the sides nicely and end up giving the top a nice thick layer and then let it flow slightly over the edges, but with the sides and layers of the torte revealed. I was surprised when there was ample whipping cream to cover both the top and sides nicely – dah! Oh well, the flopped cake tasted great and no one knew the difference. (Including me, the gal that has made this exact recipe more times than I can remember!)
Here’s a shot of the finished cake.
This is how the torte looked with my blunders.
This is recipe is a sure hit! If you enjoy Mocha, you’ll love this.
Last night, I got home from work and had to muster up every ounce of energy I had to whip up a cake and pop it in the oven. We are having my dad over for Easter dinner tonight (Good Friday) and I’m making birthday cake for dessert. April 19th will be my dad’s 78th birthday! I decided to make a Chocolate Layer Cake. This is one of my favourite recipes, and it always works! Except for last night. What a perfect time for a cake to flop – it coincided perfectly with another rare and untimely event – I ran out of flour! Yep, I was so relieved when I scraped up just enough flour from the jar to make the recipe in the first place. I literally have no more than a few teaspoons of white flour in the house and its Good Friday, one of the only days in a year when stores are actually closed for the entire day. I’m famous for having to “re-do” things, but I simply didn’t have the time or energy to pull it off this time. Instead, I thought of a creative solution to my predicament.
Birthday Cake Disaster:
I had whipped up a double recipe of my favourite chocolate cake recipe and popped it in the oven.I knew that a single recipe was not big enough for two round pans, but the double was a bit too much. I should have taken some of the extra batter and made a few cupcakes, but I was honestly just too lazy. I knew the cakes would need additional time, because of the additional batter, so I wasn’t surprised when the cakes weren’t cooked in the suggested 30 minute bake time. I have always felt that my oven is a bit out of sync and that the actual temperature is a lower than the setting. I sometimes set the oven a few degrees higher to compensate, but I was too tired to think of this.
After the first check at 30 minutes of baking time, I proceeded to set the timer in 5 minutes intervals to stay on top of things and not over bake the cake. I continued to bake and check regularly for what seemed like forever. I was totally exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. Finally,after what I am guessing was more than an hour of bake time, I tested the cakes and the poker came up clean – finally! It was not until I went to remove them from the oven that I realized that the oven really didn’t seem that hot. Well, that’s because sometime between the original 30 minute timer and the time I removed them, I must have turned the oven “off” instead of the timer. Ugh! Within 10 minutes both cakes had sunk ~ one not so bad, as it must have had slightly less batter to begin with, but the other would have made a a great cake if the party theme was “sink holes”! I decided to cover them with a towel on the cooling rack and deal with it this morning.
Steps to Recovering a Ruined Cake:
Starting over really was not an option as I had no flour in the house (like that has ever happened before!) I could have borrowed from a neighbour, but I feel like I have done that a few too many times already. It seems I am often over looking a necessary ingredient. So, I decided to proceed and see what the interior of the cakes looked like. My plan was to make a 4 layer cake by cutting the two round cakes in half. When I cut them open, I realized that one cake really was fine. It had only sunk slightly and was cooked all the way through. However, the second cake was basically a pile of mush in the middle with a ring of cooked cake around the outside. I came up with a plan. Here’s what I did:
I used the bottom of the “good” cake as the base for the layer cake. I frosted this layer.
I then took the “bad” cake and scooped out the center of both pieces.
I took the cooked outer “ring” of cake and placed it on the bottom frosted layer. I frosted the top of the ring.
I then took the other outer cooked ring of cake and broke it into pieces.
I mixed the broken cake pieces with the remaining filling/frosting and filled the center of the ring.
I then added the final layer which was the top of the “good” cake and completed the cake.
When all was said and done, I had to toss about 1/4 of the cake or the equivalent of one layer. My final cake is a 3 layer cake with this yummy filling in the middle. You can’t tell at all from the outside and no one would ever know this was not the original plan. (I don’t think my dad reads my blog, so I’m pretty safe.) So, Good Friday birthday dinner will take place after all!
Here is the cake with sink hole in the middle.
This is the bottom of mushy cake.
Here is the top with the mushy middle that I had to scoop out and toss.
The frosted bottom layer.
Here is the salvaged outer ring of cooked cake.
Mocha filling ~ yummy!
Other outer ring was broken into pieces and added to the remaining filling.
Mix cake with filling.
Frost ring and then fill inner ring with mixture.
Add final layer.
Here’s a shot of the finished cake.
This white chocolate bunny provided the chocolate curls needed for the finishing touches.
I had originally planned to post the recipe for this Mocha Cake and will eventually share it. It has a whipping cream frosting and I added white chocolate curls for a simple look. Just because things hadn’t gone so smoothly with this cake, I was sort of expecting to come up empty when I checked the crisper for white chocolate. I was only disappointed for a moment and then got a twinkle in my I remembered that my kids “smugly” informed me they no longer believe in the Easter Bunny. This ended up being a life saver! I didn’t even feel bad when I opened up the white chocolate bunny and sliced off the bottom of it for chocolate curls. I wonder if they’ll notice that the bottom of the bunny is missing and that the bag has been taped up?
Despite my efforts to eat healthy, desserts are definitely my weakness. I came across this recipe on A Step in the Journey and was wanting to try something new, so thought I’d give this a whirl. I love trifles and figured anything that combines chocolate and peanut butter is almost guaranteed to be a hit.Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifle:
Ingredients:
Brownies (either from scratch or a box). I made the Best of Bridge Fantastic Fudge Brownie recipe. I love their recipes and own many of their books, but managed to find it on-line as well. I omitted the walnuts and didn’t ice the brownies. I guess you could include the walnuts, if you wish, but I didn’t. This recipe is designed for a 9″ X 13″ pan, so if you use your own recipe and it only makes a square pan – double it!
Cool Whip – large size
Large box of Jello Instant Chocolate Pudding
3 cups of milk (used to make Jello) + 2 Tablespoons
Bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
1 cup of Peanut Butter
8 oz. package of cream cheese ~ at room temperature
1 cup of powdered sugar (icing sugar)
Optional: Ahoy!Extras Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter chewy cookies (I bought this mini bag and added a few broken cookies along with the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Method:
Prepare the brownies and let stand to cool.
Mix up the Jello according to the package instructions. Cover and place in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the trifle.
Chop the peanut butter cups with a food chopper or knife.
Whip softened cream cheese. Fold in peanut butter. Once combined, add powdered sugar and the 2 Tablespoons of milk. Continue to whip until fluffy.
Break the cooled brownies into small bite-sized pieces.
You can divide your layer ingredients into halves or thirds depending on weather you want to have 2 or 3 layers. (You don’t have to physically divide them, but make a mental note and be sure to keep enough ingredients for each layer.
LAYER the trifle:
I ended up buying a mini package of Ahoy! Extras Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies to add as well.
1/2 (or 1/3) of broken brownie bites
1/2 (or 1/3) of peanut butter mixture
1/2 (or 1/3) of chocolate pudding
1/2 (or 1/3) of Cool Whip
1/2 (or 1/3) of chopped Peanut Butter cups
Repeat to create either two or three layers of each ingredient. End with broken peanut butter cups to garnish. You can add a few chocolate curls as well, if you wish.
Of course, I will be sharing this dessert. Something this decadent would be way too dangerous to keep at home. I’ll let you know how everyone likes it!
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Last week, I was putting together a little gift box for my kids’ teacher for Valentine’s Day. I really wanted to include one of my new favourite things to make, cake pops, but I didn’t have any frozen cake or cupcakes on hand and really didn’t want to make a whole cake for one cake pop (because then I would have cake in the house – again!!) I had never made a mug cake before, but they seem to be quite popular and I thought why not make a mug cake and then turn it into a cake pop. As a newbie to mug cakes, I do not have a “go to” recipe, so I followed this recipe from the Instructables.
It turned out fine, but there was a bit of cake in the very bottom of the cup that seemed a bit hard and crusty (not sure why). Of course, this didn’t matter to me as the cake was tasty enough and I only required enough to make one cake ball. However, for future reference, I was able to make 4 cake pops from one mug cake.
I am not sure that I would have noticed this had I not been forming the cake into balls, but the cake did seem a bit oily to me. There was a comment on the original post that mentioned using only 2 teaspoons of oil and then substituting the balance with applesauce. I think I would play with this a bit in the future as well, unless someone has a great Mug Cake recipe to share?? I would love to have a “go to” recipe for mug cakes. I love that one mug cake could be used to make a small batch of cake pops or you could make two and break them up into 4 bowls and have dessert for the whole family. The kids would love warm chocolate cake and ice cream! I will continue to be on the lookout for that perfect recipe ~ share if you have it!!
Cake Pops:
break cake into small crumbs
add a spoonful of icing (not too much)
form into a dough like texture and roll in to balls
dip in melted chocolate
add sprinkles
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Happy Valentine’s Day! The kids have a bake sale at school today and last night I finished up some Red Velvet Oreo Brownies for the sale. My passion for red velvet only began a year or so ago. I had tasted it occasionally before, but it didn’t become such an obsession until I tasted Piazza De Nardi’s Red Velvet Cake ~ Oh my goodness! Since then, I have tried out recipes now and again, but a Valentine’s Day bake sale seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out a few more red velvet recipes. Earlier in the week, I made Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies. They are absolutely delicious and the recipe is a definite keeper.
Well, these Red Velvet Oreo Brownies are incredibly good as well and the three layers make them look so pretty! I found the recipe on Sally’s Baking Addiction, so all of the credit goes to her. She mentions at the end of her post, that she adapted the Red velvet layer from Sunny Anderson at the Food Network.
Red Velvet Oreo Brownies:
Ingredients:
BROWNIES
2 large eggs
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon red food colouring
3/4 teaspoon white vinegar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
COOKIES ‘N CREAM FROSTING
(I adapted this slightly as I thought it would be criminal not to include a bit of cream cheese.)
1/4 cup butter (at room temperature)
1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
1 and 3/4 cups icing sugar
2-3 Tablespoons whipping cream
6 Oreos, crushed (plus 3 extra to break on top of ganache)
2 Tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
Directions:
Set out the butter to soften.
Preheat the oven to 350. Foil line an 8×8 baking pan with extra foil extending over the sides, so that you can easily lift the cook brownies out of the pan after. Set aside or freeze and complete the last two layers closer to the day you need the brownies.
Brownies:
Beat the eggs in a small bowl. Set aside. Melt the butter in a large microwave safe bowl. Add each of the following ingredients one at a time in the suggested order, stirring between each addition: sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder, salt, food colouring, and vinegar. Whisk in the eggs, then fold in the flour until completely incorporated, but do not over mix. Pour the brownie batter into prepared baking pan. Bake the brownies for 22-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean, with a few small moist crumbs. Allow the brownies to cool at room temperature for 30 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator to cool completely.
Oreo Frosting:
Whip the butter and cream cheese together with an electric mixer, until creamy. Add the icing sugar and 2 Tbsp cream, beating on medium until creamy. I found that 2 Tbsp of cream was enough, but if needed you can add 1 more Tbsp cream. You don’t want the frosting to be too thin, so be careful not to add to much cream ~ keep the icing thick, but spreadable. Fold in the crushed Oreos. Lift the cooled brownies out of the pan, remove the foil and spread them with the frosting. Stick them into the refrigerator as your prepare the ganache. You want the frosting to slightly chill on the brownies.
Ganache:
Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a small bowl. Heat the heavy cream until boiling, either in the microwave or on the stove top. (I microwaved mine.) Pour boiling cream over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Cut in the butter, one small piece at a time, and stir until smooth. Spread over frosted brownies. Add the additional crushed Oreos to the top and then chill for at least 30 minutes before cutting.
Cut the brownies into squares and then cover them tightly in a sealed container. They can keep chilled in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
If you double this recipe, use a 9×13 baking pan and bake for 35-45 minutes at 350.
These turned out really good. I was sad to package them up to send to the bake sale. I am sure the original frosting recipe would be very good as well, but I love the cream cheese flavour with red velvet. These are a must try!
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I need to make a confession. While others rave about Starbucks and the quality coffee they serve, you won’t find me going through the Starbuck’s drive-thru unless I have a craving for one of their Cake Pops. As previously mentioned, I am somewhat of an icing “connoisseur”. I love icing and the more the better. I actually can’t believe it took so long for someone to come up with the idea of combining the icing and cake. A cake pop is literally win-win, everyone gets the equivalent of a “corner piece”. If made correctly, the cake pop is super moist and absolutely delicious, without an offensive amount of icing. I have wanted to try making cake pops for a long time, but two things held me back:
Failure: I heard so many horror stories about how hard they were to make and how long it took to make a batch. I didn’t want to go to all the trouble only to have them fall apart and be a major fail. (Especially if I was making them for a special occasion).
Success: What if I make them and they turn out so well that I want to make them all the time? It is easy to resist what doesn’t exist. I rarely eat cake pops simply because they aren’t all that accessible. If I can make them successfully, I may be doomed!
I decided to give them a whirl for my daughter’s birthday party. My thinking was this. She was only having 4 girls over, so I only needed to make about one dozen cupcakes for the party. The recipe I made was large enough for 24 cupcakes. I basically made the entire batch into cupcakes and then made frosted only enough cupcakes for each of the 5 girls plus Tim, Shay and myself and few extras. I knew that 8 cake pops would be manageable and if they failed, it wouldn’t matter as they were just going to be added to the loot bags. I basically used the additional cupcakes to make the cake pops needed, so it wasn’t an overwhelming number for my first attempt.
How to Make Cake Pops:
I found a really great tutorial that was very helpful. Check out Divas Can Cook for the full tutorial.
My Experience:
I used 7 cupcakes to make 8 cake pops, I would never have guessed that the amount of cake in a pop was close to equivalent to that of a cupcake.
Crumble the cake with your hands, so that all of the larger lumps are out. You want fine crumbs.
Use only a small amount of icing. I didn’t actually measure, but I am guessing I used no more than 2 to 3 Tablespoons of icing for all 8 cake pops.
Form balls that are uniform in size.
Dip the “stick” in melted chocolate and stick about half way in. Set the pop upside down on a plate with the stick in the air. Freeze for about 20 minutes (or longer).
Dip the entire ball in melted chocolate. (I melted mine in my microwave.) You want to make sure that the container is deep and narrow so that the chocolate is deep enough to submerge the pop in.
Remove the pop and gently turn the ball to avoid it from dripping all over. Basically, try to “catch” the dripping chocolate at the base of the ball.
You can add sprinkles to the top or actually roll the ball in them.
Stick into a styrofoam base that you have prepared ahead of time.
Summary:
I was literally able to make all 8 in about 20 minutes (plus the freezing time). They were super easy to make and I didn’t have any “do-overs”. They all worked fine on the first try. The chocolate outer shell held up well and they didn’t crack at all. The flavour was great and I’m certain I’ll be making these again!
Red Velvet cake broken into fine crumbs.
Rolled cake pop balls.
Dip the sticks in chocolate and then push them half way into the ball. Freeze.
Finished cake pops. I used white chocolate and white sprinkles.
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Eden requested red velvet cupcakes for her “friends” party this evening. I wanted to get this up and posted early as I thought I might be busy doing last-minute things for the birthday party. I plan to make cream cheese frosting for the cupcakes and put a simple white swirl on top. To tie them into the “snow” theme, I decided to make some snowflakes for the top of each cupcake. She is only having four friends over, so I made one snowflake for each of the girls.
White Chocolate Snowflakes:
Photocopy of simple snowflake images.
Piping tool.
White chocolate chops
Finished snowflakes with a few clear sugar sprinkles and a silver candy ball in the center of each.
I found images for snowflakes on the web and printed them off. I then melted the chocolate in the microwave and put it into my new Wal-Mart piping tool and began to trace-out the snowflakes. In theory this all seemed like a great idea and basically it turned out fine, but with many grunts, groans and the odd curse under my breath. The melted chocolate was too thin and eventually worked its way under the little handle thingy that was supposed to push the chocolate down to the tip. It worked fine for the first three and then absolutely would not work for the last two. I ended up putting the last of the chocolate in a tiny Ziplock snack bag and snipped off the slightest bit of the corner. This actually worked better than the tool, next time I’ll go straight to the bag. They were a bit difficult to make as the chocolate is so much thinner than icing. The tendency was for it to run all over the place. It took a few tries to figure out how to make it work the best. I ended up doing a thin line and then going back over to make the little arms of the snowflakes thicker and thus sturdier. I also ended up aborting the printed snowflakes on the paper and ended up just doing my own thing. It was hard to make them too intricate with the chocolate having a mind of its own and being somewhat less than cooperative. As soon as I piped a snowflake, I quickly added a silver candy ball to the center and a few clear sugar sprinkles to it before the chocolate set. I had set the paper with the printed snowflakes inside the bottom of a cookie sheet with a layer of wax paper on top. This allowed me to see the snowflakes through the wax paper and also ensured that I wouldn’t break them when I tried to move them. I just set the whole tray with the completed snowflakes in the fridge to set and will add them to the cupcakes on Saturday.
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Well, it party time! Today is the official date of Eden’s birthday and we’ll be having family over for cake and ice cream after dinner. Eden requested a Oreo Cookie Cake. I’ve made this cake once before, so I knew that it was pretty easy to make. I followed the recipe, but omitted the chocolate glaze on top and opted for our favourite frosting instead.
Chocolate-Covered Oreo Cookie Cake
This recipe was adapted from the original that I found on All Recipes. It makes approximately 16 servings.
Ingredients:
Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Prepare cake batter and bake in 2 (9-inch) round pans as directed on package. Cool cakes in pans 10 minutes. Invert onto wire racks; gently remove pans. Cool cakes completely.
For the filling ~ beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until blended. Gently stir in whipped topping and crushed cookies.
Stack cake layers on plate, filling with cream cheese mixture. Add a few sprinkles of extra cookies over the top and edges of the filling (the cookies become covered in whip topping and you can’t see the black/white contrast, so I added a few cookie crumbs to get that look.)
The original recipe calls for a chocolate glaze on top. You will need Microwave chocolate and butter in small microwaveable bowl on high 2 minutes. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Cool 5 minutes. Spread chocolate glaze on top of the cake; let stand 10 minutes or until firm. Keep refrigerated.
Roy Family Favourite Frosting:
Instead of the glaze, I made a batch of our all time favourite frosting and then made rose like swirls all over the cake.
My aunt used to make this frosting when I was a kid and I absolutely loved it. It is made with a cooked white sauce made with flour and milk. You cook the flour and milk until it forms a thick pudding like texture and then add butter, white sugar (NOT ICING SUGAR) and vanilla. It is super creamy and not as sweet as most icing. You really have to try it as it is very different from any regular butter icing. The issue is that I have found it to be a bit finicky to work with and it isn’t the best for decorating. I used it on this cake and it worked out quite well, but I have run into problems before. I have tried many variations of the recipe over the years and I think I get pretty consistent results now that I have worked out some of the issues. The recipe I now follow is from Our Best Bites. Their proportions seem to work well on a consistent basis. For this cake, I doubled their recipe.
Cindy’s Tips:
Stir milk/flour mixture constantly to avoid scorching and forming lumps.
Transfer the pot with the white sauce to an ice bath (ice cubes in a bowl). Set the pot on ice and stir it regularly to avoid lumps and a crust forming on top. I used to place it in the fridge, but would often get a crust on the surface that will not beat out when making the icing. UGH! So, I stick to the ice bath and don’t have that problem anymore.
Stir the vanilla into the cooled flour/milk mixture.
MAKE SURE THE WHITE SAUCE IS COMPLETELY COOL or even COLD before proceeding. Be patient.
Add the white sauce one tablespoon at a time and beat well between. I use the whisk attachment on my beater to make the icing fluffier.
Beat for 7 to 8 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved and you can not feel the granules when you rub a bit between your fingers.
I know what you’re thinking….this seems like too much of a hassle, but believe me it is worth it. I have had to start over with this icing more times than I can count, but it didn’t prevent me from figuring out how to make it work. It is sooooooo yummy!
Swirly Rose Cake Decorations:
I used a large open star tip. Started at the center and while working my way out by circling around the center, I twisted the tip slightly. I would make about two rotations per rose. I started by just doing the top cake and was going to leave it at that as I really did like the look of chocolate on the bottom, Oreo center and then the white roses on top, but I worried about the bottom layer drying out if left exposed until tomorrow evening. I decided to go ahead and place another row of roses around the bottom layer to prevent drying. It doesn’t matter how good the cake looks, if it is dry then the effort is all for nothing. This was my first attempt at making these rose/swirls. They aren’t perfect by a long shot, but not bad for a newbie.
Here is what it looked like before I added the final row of roses along the bottom.
Winter Party Cake
Although our theme is really more for the kid’s party on Saturday, I thought the white swirls were a classic look that somewhat went with our snowflake theme and especially our colour scheme. I had baked the cakes on Wednesday, froze them and decorated them on Thursday evening after work. Eden already saw the finished cake and loved it. Hopefully it will taste great too!
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