Goes to me!

Last post, July 20th?? Really Tara? Come on.  I guess things have been kinda crazy though, I’ve only had time to bake a few things between then and now. I moved, kind of moved again, and am actually moving AGAIN right before Christmas. But I did make some things and take some pictures. Also all I have right now to bake things with is a toaster oven. But it bakes cakes really really well! Cookies are another story…Anyways..

A WEDDING CAKE! I made another wedding cake! Just a little mini one. I made it for one of the girls I work with, and it was so much fun to make. She told me that I could do whatever I wanted, as long as there was caramel in it somewhere. And then she got a matching flower to what she had in her hair, and some black ribbon, so I incorporated those too. The result? CUTE! I really love making little cakes. They will definitely be in my bakery.

I fixed the crooked ribbon before I gave it to her I swear. This is the only picture I have of it! Not a very good quality picture, but I don’t have a camera anymore since mine decided to just die. Sometimes it works, sometimes. Once every 120 times I try to turn it on (that’s a tested fact, ladies and gents). I really like the look of the rough textured exterior. I was inspired by some cakes I saw on  My Sweet and Saucy (oh man I love all their cakes!). The top layer was a brown sugar cake with a caramel buttercream filling. The bottom layer was a dark chocolate cake with a raspberry buttercream filling. The outside was a vanilla bean buttercream. I wish I had had some more time to make it a bit more fancy inside, but apparently it was pretty good the way it was.

I stole this next picture off of her facebook.

Looks pretty good to me!

I also made this cake because I was craving a chocolate cake one night.

It’s a chocolate mayonnaise cake! I’d never made one before but holy crap it was so good. It was so moist and chocolatey. Definitely what I was craving. Here’s the recipe!

Dark Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1- 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1-2/3 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup mayonnaise (hellmans full fat is awesome for this)
1-1/3 cup water (or coffee)

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. In the bowl of your stand mixer using the paddle attachement mix the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until light (about 3-5 minutes) . Add the mayonnaise and beat for about 2 minutes. On low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the water (or coffee). Divide the batter between 2 8″ cake pans (greased and lined with parchment) and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a skewer in the centre comes out clean. Let the cakes rest in the pans for about 10 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling. Do what you want with them!

The icing recipe I used (I think I doubled it):

1 cup of soft butter
1  1/3 cups cocoa
2 cups icing sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup hot coffee
1/4 cup cream

Mix all ingredients together in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. You can add more icing sugar or more liquid to get the consistency you want. For a fudge-like frosting, make it in the food processor! So delicious.

Now go and make yourself some cake! But don’t eat it all yourself, that’s bad news bears.