Birthday Cake

When it comes to birthday cake, yellow cake with chocolate frosting is classic. The birthday girl I made the cake for is a chocolate fan, as am I, obviously. So I decided to change it up a little and did 1 layer of yellow cake and 1 layer of chocolate cake with buttercream frosting in between the layers and chocolate frosting on the outside covered in sprinkles. By the time I was done my kitchen was COVERED in frosting and sprinkles. But it was worth it because I loved how the cake turned out!! It sounds like a lot of steps/recipes, but it's really not that bad!

Birthday Cake

What you'll need:
1/2 recipe yellow cake (1- 9 inch cake), recipe below

1/2 recipe chocolate cake (1- 9 inch cake), recipe below
1 batch buttercream frosting, recipe below
1 batch chocolate frosting, recipe below
sprinkles, if desired

Directions:
Mix yellow cake and set aside (don't bake yet). Make chocolate cake according to directions. Place both cakes in oven at same time. Once done baking and cooling, invert chocolate cake and frost top with buttercream frosting. Stack yellow cake on top and frost the whole thing with chocolate frosting. Decorate with sprinkles. Store in refrigerator.

Yellow Cake
seen on Annie's Eats
Ingredients:
For the cake:
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing pans
1½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting pans
1½ cups cake flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1¾ cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1¼ cups milk

Directions:
To make the cakes, preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line the bottoms of two 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper.  Butter and flour the edges of the pans, tapping out the excess; set aside.  In a medium bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, and salt; whisk together to blend well and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar.  Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed.  Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Blend in the vanilla.  With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the milk.  Beat each addition just until incorporated.
Divide the batter between the prepared baking pans.  Bake, rotating the pans halfway through baking, until the cakes are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30-35 minutes.  Transfer the pans to a wire rack and let cool 20 minutes.  Run a knife around the edge of the pans to help remove the cakes.  Invert the cakes onto the rack and peel off the parchment.  Let the cakes cool completely before frosting.  Level the cakes if necessary.

Hershey's 'Perfectly Chocolate' Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.  

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).

Pour batter into prepared pans.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

up to 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

 

Instructions:

Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. Add more sugar to make stiffer, or more milk 1 TBLS at a time to thin out until desired consistency is reached.
 

Hershey's 'Perfectly Chocolate' Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.
Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Kit Kat Cake

I'm still here. First I was just really busy. We went out of town for a few days, then my mom came to visit for a week. Then I found out i'm pregnant. And although I can't stop eating, thinking too much about food isn't exactley something I want to be doing while 8 weeks pregnant. So it's been slow around here.
You may have noticed these kinds of cakes before. Usually the top is covered with m&ms, making it look somewhat like a bowl of m&ms. I made a chocolate cake from scratch and it was a little tall. Notice how it's taller than the kit kats? But that isn't why I chose not to "fill" it with m&ms. I figured with chocolate cake and kit kats, adding m&ms might be a little over kill. Since it was for my SIL's baby shower, I thought duckies would be fitting. My mom arrived at our house that morning so right away I put her to work to make the frosting. We've always called it "the white sticky frosting" in our house, but it's like a swiss meringe , made of egg whites, sugar, corn syrup (and whatever else might be in it) and cooked over the stove. It ends up tasting like marshmallows and it's really good. However i'm not sharing that recipe today. Today is just the cake idea, so you can go make your own creation!

Kit Kat Cake


Ingredients:
1 2-layer cake (homemade or box mix is fine)
frosting
kit kats
ribbon

Directions:
Make your cake layers and let cool. Once cool, frost both layers and stack. Press kit kats into side all the way around and decorate/garnish as desired. Tie a ribbon around the whole thing and you're done!