Ingredients:

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1¾ cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Topping:

• ¾ cups brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons chopped nuts

Directions:

1. Combine sour cream and soda in bowl.
2. In a separate bowl blend together the butter and sugar, adding sifted dry ingredients alternately with sour cream.
3. Spread one half the mixture into an 8 inch square baking pan.
4. Spread half the topping onto the batter, and then add the remainder of the batter. Sprinkle remaining topping over the entire pan.
5. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes or until done (test in the centre with a toothpick).

Serve warm or cold.

My wife’s youngest daughter Andrea has taken to cake making and produced this Louis Vuitton purse cake for her sister’s birthday.

Apart from one afternoon class in working with fondant, she’s had no formal training in baking or decorating. She does watch Ace of Cakes faithfully and has picked up a lot of tips from the show.

For example, this week’s episode, Four Weddings and a Rat, Duff gives a tip for mixing the silver with vodka to create “paint”. The alcohol evaporates quickly, leaving it dry. Andrea took the same approach with the gold that she used to decorate the purse.

I’ve posted full-size versions of these two pictures —here and here. You can see some of the other cakes Andrea has made and decorated here.

We decided to try Bob Blumer’s Schamburger cake  for a birthday dinner today. The “hamburger is made using two white cakes as the bun, a brownie (recipe below) as the meat patty, mango puree as mustard, raspberry puree as ketchup, green and yellow jello as relish and sliced almonds as sesame seeds.

(click for full-sized pictures)

Directions:
1. Mix all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

2. Melt butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat. Stir in cocoa powder. Blend in sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

3. Blend in dry ingredients and chopped nuts.

4. Pour batter into greased 13X9X2 inch pan. Bake at 350F 30 to 35 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened

Directions:

1. Melt the chocolate and whipping cream together in the top of a double boiler over warm water or in a microwave oven on low power for 30-second bursts. Stir often with a rubber spatula to ensure even melting.
2. When the mixture is smooth, remove the top pan of the double boiler and wipe the bottom and sides very dry.
3. Transfer the mixture to another bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and chill until thick, but not stiff, about 1 hour.
4. Using a mixer, beat the butter in a mixing bowl until fluffy, about a minute.
5. With the mixer on low speed add the chocolate and cream mixture in two stages. Blend for no longer than 1 minute or the chocolate may curdle.

Technorati Tags: baking, cakes, frosting, choclate, ganache

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Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup margarine, softened
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 tbsp. flour
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar (for decoration)

Directions:

1. Heat
   oven to 375 degrees. Grease 9×13 pan.
2. Combine flour, 2/3 cup powdered
   sugar and margarine and mix until it comes together in as a ball of dough.
3. Pat dough evenly into pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until
   slightly golden.
4. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, flour & lemon juice
   until frothy.
5. Pour over hot crust. Bake 20-25 minutes or until light
   golden brown.
6. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Technorati Tags: recipes, baking, squares, desserts

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2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup of brewed coffee or espresso
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Frosting
1/2 cup butter
2 tbs. cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1-1/2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 F and lightly grease a baking pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and sugar. In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, coffee and cocoa. Stir constantly until heated to a boil. Pour boiling mixture over flour and sugar. Add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda and vanilla. Mix well, using a wooden spoon or high-speed mixer. Pour batter into baking pan. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until done in centre.

Meanwhile, prepare the frosting combining butter, cocoa and milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently until heated to a boil. Mix in powdered sugar and vanilla and stir until smooth. Pour warm frosting over brownies as soon as they come out of the oven. Cool and cut into squares.

Del.icio.us Tags: Baking, Recipes, Chocolate, Brownies

2 cups grated carrots
juice of one orange
2 tsps vanilla extract
1/4 cups canola oil (or 1/2 cup apple sauce)
1 cup honey
1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup unbleached flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Mix the first six ingrediants together in a bowl. Mix the dry ingrediants together in a seperate bowl. Stir chopped walnuts into dry ingrediants.

Add the dry ingredients to the carrot mixture and stir until just mixed.

Pour into a greased and floured 8″ square pan and bake at 350 degrees, for 45-50 minutes or until a knife blade inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven, cool slightly and turn out onto a plate.

Del.icio.us Tags: Baking, Recipes, Carrot Cake

9 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
9 oz. milk chocolate, chopped
3 cups sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla

Melt the two kinds of chocolate in a double boiler over low heat. When the chocolate is almost melted, remove from heat and stir until smooth. Using a wire whisk or electric beater, beat in the sour cream and vanilla until the mixture is smooth and well blended. This will generously fill and frost a 9″ two layer cake.

Technorati Tags: Baking, Recipes, Frosting, Cakes

When done well, cat litter cake looks as gross as it sounds. One would hope that the need for never-used (at least for their intended purposes) cat-litter equipment would be self evident. Nonetheless, I do bring that to your attention.

1 box spice cake mix
1 box of white cake mix
1 package white sandwich cookies
1 large package vanilla instant pudding mix A few drops green food colouring
12 small Tootsie Rolls or equivalent

Serving Dishes and utensils
1 NEW cat-litter box
1 NEW cat-litter box liner
1 NEW litter scooper

Prepare and bake cake mixes, according to directions, in any size pan.
Prepare pudding and chill.
Crumble cookies in small batches in blender or food processor.
Add a few drops of green food colouring to 1 cup of cookie crumbs.
Mix with a fork or shake in a jar. Set aside.
When cakes are at room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl.
Toss with 1/2 of the remaining cookie crumbs and enough pudding to make the mixture moist but not soggy.
Place liner in litter box and pour in mixture.

Unwrap 3 Tootsie Rolls and heat in a microwave until soft and pliable.
Shape the blunt ends into slightly curved points.
Repeat with three more rolls.
Bury the rolls decoratively in the cake mixture.
Sprinkle remaining white cookie crumbs over the mixture, then scatter green crumbs lightly over top.

Heat 5 more Tootsie Rolls until almost melted.
Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with crumbs from the litter box.
Heat the remaining Tootsie Roll until pliable and hang it over the edge of the box.
Place box on a sheet of newspaper and serve with scooper.

Technorati Tags: Baking, Cakes, Kitty Litter Cake, Fun, Parties, Recipes

Mix together:
4 cups chopped apples
2 cups sugar
and let sit about 15-20 minutes.

Beat the following:
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoon vanilla
and stir into apple mixture.

Sift into the wet ingrediants:
2 cups flour
2t baking soda
2t cinnamon
1t salt

Stir in:
1 cup walnuts

Bake at 325 for 45 minutes or until crumbs don’t stick to a toothpick.

Top with Cream Cheese Frosting:
3 oz cream cheese
3 T margarine
1/2t vanilla
Beat and add 2 cups of powered sugar. If it’s too thin, add a little bit of milk [The Red Kitchen]

Technorati Tags: Recipes, Baking, Cake, Apple, Walnut