The Best Buttercream Icing

I found this recipe online and tested it out on St. Patrick's Day to see if it was really the Best Buttercream Icing and if it was what I wanted to use for Eliana's birthday cupcakes. I didn't think it tasted quite right so I called my sister Rachel, the professional cake decorator. She confirmed my suspicions that the problem was the recipe called for all shortening and no butter and that I should use half shortening and half butter. After making it with half butter I decided that I don't like an all shortening icing but like the flavour SO MUCH BETTER when it's half shortening and half butter. Now it really is the best buttercream icing;)

I also used a little less of the heavy cream than the original recipe called for, but depending on how you want to ice your cake or cupcakes you can keep it the way I've got it here or add a little more of the heavy cream.

The Best Buttercream Icing
1 cup shortening, room temperature
1 cup butter, room temperature
8 cups powdered/icing sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup of heavy cream or whipping cream

In a Kitchen Aid or a large bowl with a mixer cream shortening and butter until fluffy. Add sugar 2 cups at a time until well blended. If the frosting gets too thick at any time you can add some of your heavy cream. Once all the sugar is mixed in add the salt, vanilla and heavy cream and mix until combined. Then mix on high until the frosting is light and fluffy. If you need additional cream you can add up to another 2 tablespoons, however don't do this until you've mixed the frosting on high to first see the consistency. As far as the consistency and taste of the icing goes, it is MUCH easier to add more of the heavy cream than to make it too thin and have to try to add more powered /icing sugar.

The frosting can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. To use after it's been in the fridge let it return to room temperature and then mix it again for a couple minutes. Then frost as usual.

* Note: This recipe can be easily halved if you don't want to make as much.

Chocolate Cake/Cupcakes with Raspberry Mousse Filling and Buttercream Icing

I decided on this combination for Eliana's cake and cupcakes for her 1st birthday and was thrilled with how well everything turned out. Of course my icing roses surrounding the cake weren't perfect but the overall effect in my opinion at least was. And seeing as it was my first attempt at making these roses I was happy, though I of course learned a few things!

Both the cake and the cupcakes were chocolate cake with a raspberry mousse filling and topped with buttercream icing.

To make cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare two muffin tins with liners and then spray with PAM. Make the Extreme Chocolate Cake recipe and pour into each muffin cup. The easiest and non-messiest way I have found to do this is to fill up a large 2 or 4 cup measuring cup with the batter and then pour the batter in to each cup. Be sure not to fill each cup more than 3/4 full as they will overflow and spread flat (instead of making a nice round top like most cupcakes/muffins). Bake the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.

Remove cupcakes from the pan and cool on a metal rack. Once cooled, fill with the raspberry mousee filling or you can of course use chocolate ganache and then frost with buttercream icing.

To make a 6 inch cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare two 6 inch cake pans by lining the bottom with waxed paper and spreading shortening around the sides of the pans (note: you can also use 8 or 9 inch cake pans and cut your cake down to the size you want or you can make an 8 or 9 inch cake). Make the Extreme Chocolate Cake recipe and pour into the prepared pans filling them approximately 3/4 full. (You will have some extra batter which you can use to make some cupcakes.) Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Remove the cakes from the pan and cool on a metal rack. Once cooled, put one cake on your cake stand / plate and then pipe around the outside edge of the cake with some buttercream frosting (this will keep the filling from coming out the sides of the cake). Then fill with the raspberry mousse filling and top with the second cake and frost with buttercream frosting.

The Best Buttercream Icing
I found this recipe online and tested it out on St. Patrick's Day to see if it was what I wanted to use for Eliana's cupcakes. I didn't think it tasted quite right so I called my sister Rachel, the professional cake decorator. She confirmed my suspicions that the problem was the recipe called for all shortening and no butter and that instead I should use half shortening and half butter. After making it with half butter I decided that I don't like an all shortening icing but like the flavour SO MUCH BETTER when it's half shortening and half butter. I also used a little less of the heavy cream to make the icing a little thicker and easier to work with as far as making the roses.

1 cup shortening, room temperature
1 cup butter, room temperature
8 cups powdered/icing sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 cup of heavy cream or whipping cream

In a Kitchen Aid or a large bowl with a mixer cream shortening and butter until fluffy. Add sugar 2 cups at a time until well blended. If the frosting gets too thick at any time you can add some of your heavy cream. Once all the sugar is mixed in add the salt, vanilla and heavy cream and mix until combined. Then mix on high until the frosting is light and fluffy. If you need additional cream you can add up to another 2 tablespoons, however don't do this until you've mixed the frosting on high to first see the consistency. As far as the consistency and taste of the icing goes, it is MUCH easier to add more of the heavy cream than to make it too thin and have to try to add more powered /icing sugar.

The frosting can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. To use after it's been in the fridge let it return to room temperature and then mix it again for a couple minutes. Then frost as usual.

Note: This recipe can be easily halved if you don't want to make as much.


Rose Icing Technique
Tip used is Wilton tip 1M, a large flower tip.

If using this technique to cover a cake with the roses you will need to cover the entire cake with a thin layer of icing first, so the roses have something to stick to. If you are doing individual roses on cupcakes you don't need to worry about this step.

Starting at the centre of the cupcake make a little dollop which will be the centre of your rose and then working outward swirl around your centre two or three times to finish off your rose.

If you are covering a cake with the roses, I recommend starting on the sides from the bottom up and then doing the top of the cake. You can vary the sizes of your roses and fill in extra space with some little swirls (going in the same direction as the roses beside them).

You can of course use food colouring to make the roses different colours or you can use icing spray tint to spray the entire cake with a colour after you're done.


Raspberry Mousse Filling
Whipping cream, whipped up with a little bit of powdered/icing sugar.
Raspberry pie filling

Whip the whipping cream with the powdered/icing sugar then fold the raspberry pie filling in to it. Ratio is about 3 whipping cream : 1 raspberry pie filling

The Bestest Carrot Cake...yum, yum

Ok, so I've been craving and wanting to make Carrot Cake forever...well maybe not forever, but for a very very very long time. Don't ask me why I haven't done it before today, because I seriously love it...and with the cream cheese icing...yum, yum as Winnie the Pooh would say (can you tell we watch a lot of Winnie the Pooh at our house?).

This recipe is an old one from when I was living at home, with some changes of course... like the brown sugar (as I really liked how it worked in the Zucchini Bread a couple weeks ago), the pineapple (as I love it in the Best Banana Bread recipe) and then of course substituting half the oil with applesauce.

Carrot Cake

4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil *optional: 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup milk
1 cup white sugar
2/3 cups brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 generous tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup (8 oz can) crushed pineapple, juice drained *optional
3 cups shredded carrots
*optional: 1 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, etc)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare desired pans (2 - 9 " round or square) by spraying with PAM and covering with a light layer of sugar.

Beat the eggs, oil (and applesauce), milk, sugar and vanilla together until well combined.

In a separate bowl add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and stir together then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until well combined.

Add in the pineapple and shredded carrots and mix thoroughly.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until toothpick inserted in comes out clean. Cool cakes for approximately 10 minutes before removing the cakes from pans and then cool completely.

Frost the cake after it has cooled completely.

*Note: I made one 9 " square pan and then 6 large cupcakes today. The cupcakes take approximately 25-28 mins to cook.

Cream Cheese Icing
8 oz Cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups icing sugar

Cream the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth, then add in the icing sugar one cup at a time and beat in between each cup until smooth and fluffy.

*Note: Just beware this is quite sweet with the icing... in fact I almost couldn't finish the piece shown in the picture above. So go small and then go back for seconds if you like, or don't put as much icing on;)

Enjoy!

Extreme Chocolate Cake

Our friend Sarah found this recipe on allrecipes.com. She did a search for chocolate cake and printed the one with the highest reviews. She definitely chose well that's for sure! All recipes always has a quote right under the title of the recipe and this one says: "A rich moist chocolate cake with a chocolate buttercream icing. This is the best cake in the world!" I'd have to agree that this is the yummiest chocolate cake and as a result the only recipe I use! It makes a 4 layer tier cake, but you can of course be as creative as you'd like with the recipe!

Note: If you're wondering about the picture of the cake above, Chris made it for his brother Ben on his birthday. Chris and Ben love Volkswagen's (and are both working on restoring old VW Bugs), so Chris put the VW symbol on it!

Extreme Chocolate Cake

Cake
2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil (you can substitute applesauce for half or all of the oil)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Icing
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
5 1/3 cups confectioners' sugar
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour* two 9 inch cake pans.

In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 3 minutes with an electric mixer.

Stir in the boiling water by hand. Pour evenly into the two or three prepared pans.

If you’re using two pans: bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

If you’re using three pans: bake for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to cool completely.

Frosting Instructions

Cream butter until light and fluffy. Stir in the cocoa and confectioners' sugar alternately with the milk and vanilla. Beat to a spreading consistency.

4 Layer Tier Cake Instructions

Split the layers of cooled cake horizontally, cover the top of each layer with frosting, then stack them onto a serving plate. Frost the outside of the cake.

3 Layer Tier Cake Instructions
Instead of using two 9-inch cake pans use three 8-inch cake pans.  This way you won't need to cut the cakes.  Cover each layer with a layer of frosting and then stack them together onto a serving plate.  Frost the outside of the cake. 

Enjoy!

*Instead of greasing and flouring the pans I like to spread shortening around the outside of the pans and then put parchment paper on the bottom of the pan (I use a pencil to trace the pan and then cut it out). The cakes pop right out of the pans this way and then you just peel the parchement paper off. 

The Best Banana Bread Ever

This is seriously the yummiest banana bread I've ever had...and I've had my fair share of banana bread over the years. In fact, growing up banana bread was a staple at our house.

Chris got the recipe from someone in his ward back home and I can promise you that once you taste it you'll be hooked. The secret is the crushed pineapple, but not to worry if you don't like pineapple you'd never even know it was there.

The Best Banana Bread
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bundt pan with Pam and then sprinkle with sugar.

1) Cream together:
1 cup butter or margarine (softened)
3 cups sugar
5 or 6 mashed bananas
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
2 cups milk

(Note: cream the margarine and sugar together first and then add in the rest one ingredient at a time, mixing between. make sure the margarine is soft.)

2) Mix together:
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon

3) Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until smooth.

4) Add:
2 cups nuts
1 cup crushed pineapple

(Note:I don't usually add the nuts.)

5) Pour batter into prepared pans.

(Note: I fill the bundt pan a little over half full and then make the rest into muffins or loaves.)

The bundt pan usually cooks for about 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. The more batter you put in the bundt pan the longer it will take to cook. In my oven the muffins take approximately 27-28 minutes to cook, however I'd suggest starting at 20 minutes and then check them after 2-5 minute increments until toothpick inserted comes out clean. The loaf pans take approximately, so I'd suggest starting with 40 minutes and then check every 5 minutes or so. Let bread cool and then invert it onto a plate and dust powdered / icing sugar on top and serve!

(Note: This recipe is easily halved if you don't want to have quite as much batter. 1/2 recipe makes 1 loaf pan and 12 muffins. To make 1/2 recipe use 3 bananas and 2 small/medium eggs or 1 extra large egg...I know you could have figured that out yourself, but just thought I'd put it here for good measure;) )

Enjoy!