Cakes | Stephanie's Slice Of Life

Category: Cakes
- Ricotta Cheesecake
  
  Posted at 5:08 pm by StephMo
  
  Jan 25th
  Whenever my daughter and I would get coffee at a local coffee shop she would always get a slice of their ricotta cheesecake. There was no crust, just the cheesecake and it was delicious. Of course this became something on our list of items to bake, which we did and it was also delicious. This cheesecake is not your typical cheesecake like the recipe I have shared before which you can find by clicking this link:
  
  https://stephaniessliceoflife.com/category/recipes/cake/chocolate-chip-cheesecake/
  
  The ricotta and lemon juice give it a distinct flavor difference as well as the fact that there isn’t a graham cracker crust.
  
  As you can see my cheesecake unfortunately cracked despite taking all the right steps to prevent cracking. To prevent the cheesecake from cracking you can either wrap the bottom of the springform pan with aluminum foil and place in another pan with about an inch of water in it, or place two 9″ pans of water on the rack below the cheesecake. I chose to do the two pans of water beneath the cheesecake, and I think next time I will try the other method. You also should not open the oven while it is cooking or while it is resting in the oven after it is turned off.
  
  Ingredients:
  
  2 8oz. blocks of cream cheese, softened
  
  16 oz. ricotta cheese
  
  1 1/2 cups sugar
  
  4 eggs
  
  1 tbsp. lemon juice
  
  1 tsp. vanilla
  
  3 tbsp. corn starch
  
  3 tbsp. flour
  
  1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
  
  16 oz. sour cream
  
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease a springform pan.
  
  In a large mixing bowl combine the softened cream cheese and the ricotta cheese. Make sure the cream cheese is very soft so that there won’t be lumps. Mine was a little lumpy because my daughter didn’t realize this and the cream cheese was just not quite soft enough.
  
  Add the sugar, eggs, lemon juice, vanilla, corn starch, flour, and butter and mix well.
  
  Stir in the sour cream until just combined, and pour into the springform pan.
  
  Right as you are about to place the cheesecake in the oven reduce the heat to 325 degrees. Place in the oven along with pans of water, or inside a pan of water as mentioned earlier.
  
  Bake for 1 1/2 hours without opening the oven. Shut off the oven but do not remove the cheesecake, keep it in the oven for an additional 2 hours also without opening the oven.
  
  Cool on the counter for another 1-2 hours before refrigerating. Refrigerate overnight before eating.
  
  The next day remove the springform part of the pan and it is ready to eat! You can eat it plain or with your choice of topping.
  
  I was going to mix some sugar with sliced strawberries to make a topping but we decided to play around with the strawberries a little and make Tanghulu strawberries, which are candied strawberries. You can see that the strawberries look glossier than normal. I also decided to shave some chocolate on top to somewhat hide the large crack.
  
  So yummy! Enjoy!
  Ricotta Cheesecake
  
  Print Recipe Pin Recipe
  
  Ingredients
  
  16 oz. cream Cheese, softened
  16 oz. ricotta cheese
  1 1/2 cups sugar
  4 eggs
  1 tbsp. lemon juice
  1 tsp. vanilla
  3 tbsp. corn starch
  3 tbsp. flour
  1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
  16 oz. sour cream
  
  Instructions
  
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a springform pan.
  Combine the softened cream cheese and ricotta cheese in a large mixing bowl.
  Add sugar, eggs, lemon juice, vanilla, corn starch, flour, and butter and mix well. Add sour cream until just mixed, do not over mix.
  Pour into the springform pan. Reduce heat to 325 degrees when putting in the oven and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Do not open oven. Shut off the oven but keep inside for an additional 2 hours, also without opening the oven.
  Cool on the counter for 1-2 hours, then refrigerate overnight before eating.
  Posted in Cakes, Recipes, Ricotta Cheesecake | Tagged cheesecake, cheesecake recipe, dessert recipes, food blog, food blogger, ricotta cheesecake, ricotta cheesecake recipe, stephanie's slice of life
- Pumpkin Roll
  
  Posted at 5:20 pm by StephMo
  
  Nov 23rd
  
  I had never made a pumpkin roll, or any type of roll for that matter and I was really excited to try it. I remember my mother making a chocolate roll I believe, but I never really paid attention to how she made it. I was surprised to read that you needed to roll the cake up in a towel, but you actually do. It makes sense when you think about it. If you were to wait for it to cool, it wouldn’t roll. If you were to roll it warm without the towel it would just stick together. You learn something new everyday!
  
  My son takes a remote cooking class through school and today’s recipe was this pumpkin roll, which I believe is the Libby’s pumpkin recipe. He was not as excited as I was, of course. Since it is a remote class I am always in the kitchen helping him cook and giving him little pointers if he needs them, and today was a learning day for me too! I will definitely make this recipe again because it was fairly easy, and delicious!
  
  I know I am supposed to let him do everything by himself, but since I wanted to blog about it I jumped in a little here and there.
  
  Ingredients:
  
  3/4 cup flour
  
  1/2 tsp. baking powder
  
  1/2 tsp. baking soda
  
  1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  
  1/2 tsp. ground cloves
  
  1/4 tsp. salt
  
  3 eggs
  
  1 cup sugar
  
  2/3 cup pumpkin
  
  1/4 cup powdered sugar for towel
  
  8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  
  1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
  
  6 tbsp. butter, softened
  
  1 tsp. vanilla
  
  Grease a 10″ x 15″ cooking sheet or jelly roll pan. Add parchment paper and grease and flour the paper. Not wax paper, which the original recipe calls for. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
  
  Combine the dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl and set aside.
  
  In a large mixing bowl beat together eggs and sugar, then beat in pumpkin until combined.
  
  Add the dry ingredients and mix well.
  
  It wasn’t easy taking pictures without his teaching noticing through the computer camera lol.
  
  Spread the batter evenly on the prepared pan, and bake for 13-15 minutes until the cake bounces back when touched.
  
  Sprinkle 1/4 cup of powdered sugar on to a kitchen towel. This will prevent the cake from sticking to the towel. My powdered sugar was really clumpy for some reason, next time I will sift the sugar onto the towel.
  
  The next part had me very confused, I must admit. How to get the cake onto the towel without breaking it. I just grabbed onto both edges of the cake while it was on the parchment paper and flipped quickly. Luckily it didn’t break!
  
  Then you start rolling up the cake in the towel. After it is rolled let it cool on a cooling rack for an hour.
  
  Prepare the frosting by beating the cream cheese and butter together with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the vanilla and beat. Then beat in the sifted powdered sugar until combined.
  
  Unroll the cake carefully and spread the frosting evenly over the cake.
  
  Re-roll the cake and wrap with plastic wrap. Our cake did crack as you can see. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. Store in the refrigerator.
  
  Once it is cool, sift some powdered sugar on top and slice.
  
  I was a little impatient and didn’t let it get cold enough before cutting and the frosting smudged a little. It tastes amazing! So good!
  
  Yum, yum!!
  
  Posted in Cakes, Pumpkin Roll, Recipes | Tagged cream cheese frosting, food blog, food blogger, pumpkin cake, pumpkin cake recipe, pumpkin recipes, pumpkin roll, pumpkin roll recipe, stephanie's slice of life
- Coffee Cake
  
  Posted at 4:42 pm by StephMo
  
  Nov 3rd
  
  I had to do something today to help with the Election stress, and baking always helps. My son has been requesting a Coffee Cake for a little while so that is what I decided to bake. Coffee Cake is such a nice afternoon comfort food with a cup of coffee, and hit the spot today for sure.
  
  However, the election stress did contribute to me making it upside down! Ugh. I use a bundt pan and was not thinking straight I guess and neglected to put the topping on the bottom since you flip the cake. It tasted the same but thankfully I wasn’t bringing it somewhere because it did look a little strange. Don’t look too hard at the photo because you can tell.
  
  If you have ever noticed how wonderfully moist a Coffee Cake is, it is because one of the ingredients is sour cream. It adds such a wonderful touch doesn’t it? On a side note, sour cream also makes mashed potatoes better. Ok, now back to the cake.
  
  Ingredients:
  
  1 cup of sugar
  
  2 eggs
  
  1/2 cup butter, softened
  
  2 cups of flour
  
  1 tsp. baking powder
  
  1/4 tsp. baking soda
  
  1/2 tsp. salt
  
  1 cup sour cream
  
  1/2 cup sugar
  
  2 tsp. cinnamon
  
  2 tsp. vanilla
  
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease and flour a bundt pan.
  
  Beat together the softened butter, sugar, and eggs until smooth and set aside.
  
  In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. I recommend sifting the ingredients together. Sift, sift, sift, it makes a difference!
  
  Alternate adding the flour mixture with the sour cream to the wet mixture. Mix well after each addition.
  
  For the topping mix together the sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla in a small bowl.
  
  Sprinkle half of the topping inside the bundt pan. Top with half of the batter, then the other half of the topping, and the other half of the batter.
  
  Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before flipping the cake out of the pan and on to a plate.
  
  Get yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy!
  
  Posted in Cakes, Coffee Cake, Recipes | Tagged coffee cake, coffee cake recipe, food blog, food blogger, sour cream coffee cake, sour cream coffee cake recipe, stephanie's slice of life
- Pumpkin Whoopie Pies With Cream Cheese Filling
  
  Posted at 3:26 pm by StephMo
  
  Oct 30th
  
  Whoopie! It is snowing outside, in October, which makes it a perfect day to bake! Despite the snow, it is still pumpkin everything season and time to make some more pumpkin treats for my family as well as my daughter and her college friends.
  
  I am generally not a big Whoopie Pie fan because I just don’t like the typical marshmallow filling. BUT there are other options, such as cream cheese. Let’s hear another “whoopie” for cream cheese! So these yummy little treats not only have that wonderful pumpkin spice flavor, but cream cheese filling. The best of both worlds!
  
  I absolutely love my cream cheese frosting recipe, so why not use that as the filling? Originally I suggested cutting the frosting recipe in half, but after listening to some reviews I am putting it back to the original way so you can really fill those cakes!
  
  Cake Ingredients:
  
  3 cups flour
  
  1 tsp. salt
  
  1 tsp. baking powder
  
  1 tsp. baking soda
  
  1 1/2 tbsp. cinnamon
  
  1/2 tbsp. ground cloves
  
  1/2 tbsp. ginger
  
  2 cups brown sugar
  
  1 cup vegetable oil
  
  1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
  
  2 eggs
  
  1 tsp. vanilla
  
  Filling Ingredients:
  
  1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), softened
  
  8 oz. block cream cheese, softened
  
  1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
  
  3 – 3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
  
  For the cakes, in a large mixing bowl mix together the brown sugar and oil. It looks like slush doesn’t it?
  
  Mix in the eggs and pumpkin and set aside.
  
  In a separate bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger in a mixing bowl. Sift all of the ingredients together and set aside. Remember what I always say, sift, sift, sift! It really does make a difference.
  
  Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix well.
  
  Mix in the vanilla. The batter should be thick. Let it sit for a few minutes to thicken up even more.
  
  Use a large cookie scoop and gently scoop the dough onto a greased cookie sheet. Using a cookie scoop helps to keep the cakes uniform in size. I use a knife to clean up the edges if they aren’t perfectly round.
  
  Bake for 10-11 minutes or until set at 350 degrees. Cool on the pan for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
  
  They look so perfect don’t they? Now cool completely before frosting.
  
  Frosting:
  
  Using an electric mixer on medium speed beat the butter and cream cheese until well mixed and smooth. Add the vanilla and beat just until combined. Beat in the powdered sugar.
  
  You may like the frosting sweeter and if so, just add a little more powdered sugar.
  
  Spread a good amount of frosting onto the flat side of one of the cakes going almost to the edge and top with another similarly shaped cake.
  
  Honestly one of the best things I have ever eaten! So good!
  
  Keep refrigerated because of the cream cheese frosting. Enjoy!
  
  Posted in Cakes, Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, Recipes | Tagged food blog, food blogger, pumpkin whoopie pie cream cheese filling, pumpkin whoopie pie recipe, pumpkin whoopie pies, whoopie pie recipe, whoopie pies
- Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
  
  Posted at 10:52 am by StephMo
  
  Aug 4th
  
  I can officially say this is my favorite cake, and not just my favorite cake recipe, but my favorite cake. It is better than a bakery. While it is very time consuming to make, it is completely worth it. Unfortunately the vintage lighting in my Maine cottage was not very good for photos 🙁
  
  Carrot cake was my wedding cake and every year on our anniversary we would buy a carrot cake from the same bakery. When they stopped offering to bake the cake without walnuts, instead of looking for another bakery I decided I would just bake a carrot cake for our anniversary. HUGE thank you to that bakery because this cake is so much better! Now every year on our anniversary we have this cake.
  
  Even though I do not use walnuts you can absolutely add them to this recipe if you choose. I also only use 1/2 cup raisins because no one in my family likes raisins except me. If you enjoy a carrot cake with more raisins you can increase that to 1 cup.
  
  Ingredients:
  
  2 cups sugar
  
  3 extra large eggs (room temperature)
  
  1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
  
  1 tsp. vanilla
  
  2 cups flour (plus 1 tbsp)
  
  2 tsp. cinnamon
  
  2 tsp. baking soda
  
  1 1/2 tsp. salt
  
  1 lb. carrots grated
  
  1/2 cup raisins
  
  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease two 9″ round cake pans, line with parchment paper, then grease and flour the parchment paper.
  
  Peel the carrots and grate them using the fine side of a hand grater, you do not want the carrots shredded. Once grated put them aside. This is my least favorite part of making this cake, and pretty much the only reason I don’t make this cake more often.
  
  In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar, eggs, and oil and beat on medium speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes.
  
  Stir in the vanilla.
  
  In a separate bowl sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
  
  Slowly add the dry mixture to the wet mixture while beating on low speed with the electric mixer. The batter will be thick.
  
  In a third bowl combine 1 tbsp. of flour with the carrots and raisins and mix well. This helps prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cakes.
  
  Have you noticed the vintage Pyrex bowls yet? These were my mother’s, I love everything vintage.
  
  Stir the carrot mixture into the cake batter and pour into prepared pans.
  
  Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
  
  Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes and then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.
  
  Once the cakes are cool it is time to frost these delicious cakes with cream cheese frosting!
  
  Cream Cheese Frosting:
  
  1 stick of butter softened (1/2 cup)
  
  1 8 oz. block of cream cheese softened
  
  1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
  
  3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (or more per taste)
  
  Using an electric mixer on medium speed beat the butter and cream cheese until well mixed and smooth. Add the vanilla and beat just until combined. Beat in the powdered sugar.
  
  You may like the frosting sweeter and if so, just add a little more powdered sugar.
  
  Place one of the cakes upside down on a dish or cake stand and start frosting the middle.
  
  Place the second cake round side up on top of the first cake and finish frosting.
  
  Make sure to keep the cake covered and refrigerated.
  
  Then eat, and repeat! Yum!
  
  Posted in Cakes, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Recipes | Tagged baking from scratch, blog, blogger, cake, cake recipe, carrot cake, carrot cake recipe, cream cheese frosting, cream cheese frosting recipe, food blogger, from scratch, home baked, homemade, stephanies slice of life
- Coconut Raspberry Layer Cake
  
  Posted at 5:21 pm by StephMo
  
  Apr 19th
  
  My daughter and I put our flavor cravings together and came up with this AMAZING cake. We knew we wanted to incorporate coconut and raspberry, and were first thinking of a chocolate cake to go with them which I think will be the next cake we bake. Ultimately we decided on a yellow cake and cream cheese frosting to compliment the two flavors, and were we happy that we did. Wow!
  
  Most yellow cakes have so much butter and eggs in them that you can feel your arteries clogging from just reading the recipe. Since I didn’t really want to use 100 eggs for one cake, I went to the Betty Crocker yellow cake recipe I have been using for years. Simple, moist, delicious, and it only uses one bowl. You really can’t get better than that.
  
  We only had about a half of a bag of coconut so we decided not to put any in the cake batter, only in the middle and on top. I’m sure a little extra in the batter would have been delicious. Here is how to make this yummy cake.
  
  Cake Ingredients:
  
  2 1/4 cups flour
  
  1 1/2 cups sugar
  
  1/2 cup shortening
  
  1 1/4 cups milk
  
  3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  
  1 tsp. salt
  
  1 tsp. vanilla
  
  3 large eggs
  
  Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9″ round cake pans.
  
  Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer for 30 seconds on low speed, and 3 minutes on high speed.
  
  Pour into prepared pans.
  
  Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
  
  Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.
  
  Once the cakes are cool you can make the cream cheese frosting. If you have read some of my other blogs you know that this frosting is my absolute favorite. It will be yours too, trust me.
  
  Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
  
  1/2 cup butter, softened
  
  8 oz. block cream cheese, softened
  
  3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  
  1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
  
  Combine the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth.
  
  Add the vanilla and beat until combined. Then add the powdered sugar and continue beating until smooth and completely mixed.
  
  If it doesn’t taste sweet enough for your liking, add a little more powdered sugar.
  
  To frost the cakes, place one of the cakes upside down onto a plate or platter.
  
  Spread some of the frosting on the top of the layer.
  
  Spread a thick layer of Raspberry Preserves, try not to get too close to the edge so it doesn’t ooze out when you place the next layer on top.
  
  Sprinkle some coconut on top of the raspberry layer, we used Baker’s Sweetened Coconut.
  
  Top with the next layer with the round side facing up. Then start to frost the top and sides of the cake. When finished frosting sprinkle some coconut on the top.
  
  Refrigerate for a little while before eating, it tastes better slightly cold. Then dig in! So good!!!!
  
  Posted in Cakes, Coconut Raspberry Layer Cake, Recipes | Tagged coconut cake, coconut cake recipe, coconut raspberry cake recipe, cream cheese frosting, cream cheese frosting recipe, food blog, food blogger, yellow cake, yellow cake recipe
- Chocolate Chip Cheesecake With Strawberries
  
  Posted at 1:17 pm by StephMo
  
  Apr 9th
  
  This cheesecake was one of those desserts that the entire time my family was eating it there were happy little “mmmm” sounds and constant “this is so good” being said. Is there really any better compliment than that? I might even go so far as saying this is one of the best cheesecakes that I have ever tasted. This cheesecake has just gone to the top of my list of desserts to make for Holidays and the like. If you prefer a plain cheesecake, just eliminate the chocolate chips and the cocoa from the recipe.
  
  It is quite time consuming in that it takes about five hours from start to finish, but not difficult to make. The only difficult part about it was actually having the restraint to not eat it until it was cool. We were somewhat successful in that regard.
  
  Ingredients:
  
  1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
  
  1/3 cup melted butter
  
  1/3 cup cocoa powder
  
  1/3 cup sugar
  
  3 – 8oz. packages of cream cheese
  
  1 – 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk
  
  2 tsp. vanilla
  
  3 eggs
  
  1 cup mini chocolate chips
  
  1 tsp. flour
  
  1- 16oz. package of strawberries
  
  2 tbsp. sugar
  
  Crush graham crackers to make them into crumbs. You can do this in a food processor, or in a zip lock bag with a rolling pin. I use my little chopper.
  
  Combine the graham cracker crumbs, butter, cocoa, and sugar in a small mixing bowl.
  
  Push the mixture into the bottom and slightly up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Make sure it is well packed down.
  
  With an electric mixture, beat the softened cream cheese until smooth. While beating add the sweetened condensed milk and continue beating until well mixed.
  
  Beat in the eggs and vanilla at medium speed until smooth.
  
  Toss 1/3 cup of the chocolate chips with the teaspoon of flour. This helps the chips not sink to the bottom of the cheesecake while baking.
  
  Fold those chips into the cheesecake mixture, and pour into the springform pan.
  
  Sprinkle the additional 2/3 cup of chocolate chips on top.
  
  I put a baking sheet under the pan just in case there was any leakage.
  
  Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour. Do not open the oven. Leave in the oven for an additional hour with the oven turned off.
  
  Once the cheesecake is out of the oven, place in the refrigerator to cool. Do not remove springform portion of pan until completely cool.
  
  Ta da! Oh my goodness, look at that!
  
  You can serve it as is, or if you would like you can make an easy strawberry topping.
  
  For the topping, I just macerated strawberries by slicing the strawberries and tossing them with 2 tbsp. of sugar.
  
  After the strawberries sit for a little while, the sugar draws out their juices and makes a syrup.
  
  Now I challenge you to eat a piece of this cheesecake and not make any “mmmm” sounds 😛
  
  Posted in Cakes, Chocolate Chip Cheesecake, Recipes | Tagged cheesecake, cheesecake recipe, chocolate chip cheesecake, chocolate chip cheesecake recipe, food blog, food blogger, graham cracker crust, macerated strawberries, strawberry cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake recipe
- Chocolate Chip Cake With Ganache Frosting
  
  Posted at 4:26 pm by StephMo
  
  Feb 27th
  
  Yesterday I woke up craving cake, which is not something I typically crave. Don’t get me wrong, I crave lots of other sweets but just not usually cake. I must have had a dream about cake or something. Not only was I craving cake, but I could vividly see the picture in my mind of the Chocolate Chip Cake shown in my mother’s Betty Crocker Cookbook that I would look at as a child. I am not even sure if she ever made that cake, but I wanted it.
  
  In my Betty Crocker Cookbook the Chocolate Chip Cake is a version of the Silver White Cake. I feel like it used to be a yellow cake in her older cookbook, but I went with the white cake. Since I am also not a fan of frosting unless it is cream cheese or ganache, I decided to frost it with ganache as opposed to the buttercream frosting suggested. Let me say, the cake was delicious!
  
  Ingredients for the cake:
  
  2 1/4 cups flour
  
  1 2/3 cups sugar
  
  2/3 cup shortening
  
  1 1/4 cups milk
  
  3 1/2 tsps. baking powder
  
  1 tsp. salt
  
  1 tsp. vanilla
  
  5 large egg whites
  
  1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
  
  Grease and flour two 9″ round cake pans, or a 13″ x 9″ rectangular pan.
  
  Combine all of the ingredients except egg whites and chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl.
  
  If you have never used shortening in a recipe or have difficulty measuring it out, I find using a knife instead of a spoon works best as I have shown in the next two photos.
  
  Beat ingredients on low speed for 30 seconds, then on high speed for 2 minutes.
  
  Add egg whites and beat on high speed for 2 more minutes.
  
  Fold in the chocolate chips and pour into the pans.
  
  Bake at 350 degrees, round pans for 30-35 minutes, rectangular for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  
  Cool rounds 10 minutes and then remove cakes from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.
  
  Now on to the ganache!!!!
  
  Heat 2 cups of heavy cream in a pan until slightly boiling while being careful not to burn the cream.
  
  Pour the cream over 16 oz. of semisweet chocolate and let sit for a few minutes. Whisk or stir until the chocolate is completely melted.
  
  The consistency will be very thin and not ready to frost a cake. It is ready to use as a glaze, but not frosting. Refrigerate the ganache for a few hours whisking every so often until it becomes a thicker consistency.
  
  Now it’s time to frost the cake!
  
  Top one of the layers (round side down) with frosting, and then top with the second layer (round side up).
  
  Frost the sides first, and then the top. Look how good that is starting to look!
  
  My craving for cake was satisfied completely! Yum!
  
  Posted in Cakes, Chocolate Chip Cake, Recipes | Tagged cake recipe, chocolate chip cake recipe, food blog, food blogger, ganache recipe, white cake recipe
- Ballet Slipper Cake
  
  Posted at 1:09 pm by StephMo
  
  Jan 23rd
  
  Ok, ok, I know the photo quality is horrible and the cake is not the best looking. I made this cake 15 years ago when my daughter was 4 and in ballet. Back in the days when you didn’t take pictures of your food, and if you did it was just to remember a special occasion not thinking it would ever be posted on-line.
  
  I came across this recipe recently and after I wiped away my tears, I looked on-line and saw that you can’t find this recipe anymore. At least I was unable to. So despite the terrible photo from taking a photo of an old actual photograph, and me not being the best cake decorator 15 years ago, I felt it was worth sharing.
  
  Let me just say how thrilled my daughter was to come home to this cake after her “big” dance recital. I’m adding a photo of her more for myself than anything, but wasn’t she adorable? Also back in the day where you couldn’t see the photo and didn’t realize she was squinting. She still is adorable, but she is in college now, gulp. The years really do just fly by. Cherish every moment of your little ones, because they are big in the blink of an eye.
  
  So, this cake is not gourmet in any way, but it really doesn’t matter to a little ballerina. It will pretty much guarantee you the title of “parent of the year” for making it though. What you need are:
  
  Red M&Ms
  
  Red or pink fruit roll ups
  
  Vanilla frosting
  
  2 frozen pound cakes
  
  Red food coloring
  
  Thaw the pound cakes and trim them with a knife to look like the shape of ballet slippers. Use some of the vanilla frosting to spread on the tops where the slipper opening would be. Dye the rest of the frosting pink with a few drops of red food coloring. Frost the rest of the slippers pink. Place one slipper leaning against the other as I did. ** One thing I can’t really remember is whether or not to decorate the cakes completely and then lean one against the other, or to lean and then decorate. That should be easier to determine when the cakes are in front of you.
  
  Cut the fruit roll ups into 3/4 inch wide strips. Then cut four 3 inch pieces and place them as an “X” across the white portion of each cake. Cut four 8 inch strips and cut the ends as I did, then drape them off of the cakes where the straps would be. Use the red M&Ms to outline the white frosted areas.
  
  Now you have a happy ballerina!!!
  
  Posted in Cakes, Recipes | Tagged ballet cake, ballet shoe cake, ballet slipper cake, ballet slipper cake recipe, ballet slippers cake, food blogger, lifestyle blogger, mom blogger, my slice of life
- This Chocolate Cake Recipe Really Does Take The Cake
  
  Posted at 8:38 pm by StephMo
  
  Nov 12th
  
  When we moved into our home 13 years ago, our neighbor baked us a bundt cake. I don’t remember what frosting it had on it, I only remember the cake was fantastic. Come to find out it is the recipe on the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa container. Believe me when I say, this cake, really takes the cake!
  
  It is the only chocolate cake I will make, and have made since then. I usually make it as a bundt cake, but have made cupcakes and a sheet cake over the years as well. It has been the only cake my daughter requests on her birthday for I don’t even know how long. And since her birthday was 4 days ago, I just made one!
  
  When the cake is for my daughter, I just use Betty Crocker’s Vanilla Glaze recipe. When it’s for someone else, I put Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Glaze on top of the vanilla glaze. My daughter isn’t a big fan of chocolate glaze, that’s why I don’t make it for her, not because I don’t think she’s worthy lol.
  
  ** A few tips, first make sure to sift the dry ingredients, especially when using cocoa powder. Also, I use water from the tap because mine gets really hot. I have used it when it didn’t get quite as hot, and the recipe doesn’t work well.
  
  Here is the cake recipe, or you can take it right off of the container.
  
  Ingredients:
  
  2 cups sugar
  
  1 3/4 cups flour
  
  3/4 cups cocoa powder
  
  1 tsp. salt
  
  1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  
  1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  
  2 eggs
  
  1 cup milk
  
  1/2 cup vegetable oil
  
  2 tsp. vanilla
  
  1 cup boiling water
  
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan (or whichever pans you prefer).
  
  Sift all of the dry ingredients together. As I stated earlier, it is really important to sift the ingredients and not just mix.
  
  Add the eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for two minutes while scraping the sides constantly.
  
  Add the water into the batter and mix well with a spoon or spatula, the batter will be very loose. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 – 35 minutes until a toothpick or knife comes out clean.
  
  This cake is so moist it doesn’t even need glaze, but why not add a little butter right? Yum.
  
  The glaze recipes are from Betty Crocker’s New Cookbook, which I received as a wedding shower gift in 1998. It’s always been my “go to” cookbook. I don’t believe these recipes are on-line, so here they are.
  
  Vanilla Glaze:
  
  1/3 cup butter
  
  2 cups powdered sugar
  
  1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
  
  2 to 4 tbsp. hot water
  
  Melt the butter in a saucepan and remove from the heat.
  
  Stir in the vanilla, then stir in the powdered sugar and add hot water 1 tbsp. at a time until the glaze is smooth and consistency of thick syrup.
  
  Then you can just drizzle the glaze how ever you would like over the cake.
  
  Chocolate Glaze:
  
  1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  
  2 tbsp. butter
  
  2 tbsp. corn syrup
  
  1 to 2 tsp. hot water
  
  Heat the chocolate chips, butter, and corn syrup in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until the chocolate chips are melted. Cool slightly.
  
  Stir in the hot water 1 tsp. at a time until the consistency of thick syrup.
  
  Drizzle over the cake just as I have the vanilla glaze. As I mentioned previously, the chocolate glaze is amazing on top of the vanilla glaze. Yum!
  
  Posted in Cakes, Chocolate Cake, Recipes | Tagged baking, betty crocker recipe, blog, blogger, bundt cake, chocolate cake, chocolate glaze, food blogger, vanilla glaze
- Categories