A 35th Anniversary Celebration

When my parents decided to do a 35th Anniversary party, naturally I stepped up to be in charge of the dessert end of the event. Initially I was planning on doing my two favorite cupcakes: chocolate with mocha frosting and chocolate with coconut frosting. But as the party date drew closer, I decided that I wanted to make a small cake for them to cut combined with cupcakes for the guests to eat. I also haven't made a "cake cake" in a long time and I do miss the process of making and frosting a cake. The solution was a 6" chocolate with coconut buttercream cake and the cupcakes in chocolate with mocha.

It was quite the experience making a double batch of both frosting and cake, and I learned that my Kitchen Aide is much better suited for single batches. This makes it easier to someday justify that candy apple red 7 quart Kitchen Aide someday!

Analysis of the Cake
Round two of Miette's double chocolate cake recipe went even more amazingly than the first round (which was a pretty awesome round on it's own).  The biggest problem the first time around was that the cake was incredibly crumbly, however this go-around I adjusted the baking time and perfection was found. Since yays and nays were established in the previous post, enjoy the photo montage of the process as well as the final results!

Buttered cake pans dusted with cocoa powder  to give the final cake a lovely matte sheen!

The finished cake, almost too pretty to frost!

The final spread complete with sparkler candles to celebrate 35 years

By taking the butter cream base, adding a splash of coconut rum, and garnishing with toasted coconut, a delicious coconut butter cream is created!

Cutting the cake! Happy Anniversary!

Analysis of the Frosting
To make the coconut butter cream, I simply take the butter cream base, add some coconut rum and garnish with toasted coconut to bring the subtle but sweet taste of coconut to the picture! It's a gentle enough combination that even people who don't like coconut have praised the creation.

Mocha Frosting Analysis

Chocolate Cake with Oregon Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

July has certainly been the month of cupcakes with the numerous birthdays and celebrations that popped up. We round out the month with a return to finding the best chocolate cake and exploring a heavenly sounding frosting flavoring suggested to me by a friend. These cupcakes were a birthday present for my dear friend Melanie (there's your shout out!) who has a soft spot for cream cheese frosting so I figured there wouldn't be a better audience to test these out on!

All packaged and ready to be delivered to the birthday girl!

Analysis of the Cake
The last time I made chocolate cupcakes was way back in April, but after a recent visit to Miette bakery in San Francisco (my own personal Mecca of cupcakes and bakery decor) and a sampling of their chocolate cake, I'd been recently feeling inspired to attempt to recreate it. But, I was also torn because I got my yellow cake recipe from Miette's cookbook as well and a part of me wanted to explore some of the other cookbooks whose cake recipes have been relatively untouched by my crafting. But, a sign from the heaven's came down unto me as I was searching through Rose's Heavenly Cakes. There within it's pages was Miette's chocolate cake recipe. So, since it was in two separate cookbooks I decided I should just give it a go.
The Yays

• Holy cow does this recipe pack a chocolatey punch. Using 70% dark chocolate courtesy of Scharffen Berger and natural cocoa powder, the cupcake delivers on a dark, strong but not overpowering, and smooth chocolately taste. 
• That same strong chocolately taste is strong enough to match equally flavorful frostings without being lost in the mix. As was noted in my previous chocolate cake adventure, the last recipe I used was overpowered by the mocha frosting.
• The techniques used for mixing deliver a foamy soft batter (whipping the eggs, straining the batter through a sieve as a final mixing step to avoid over mixing) and a subsequently light/airy cupcake
• Those who know me well also know that a lot of times cake is a just a vehicle for me to eat frosting, my one true love. But these cupcakes are so damn good they don't really need frosting, I would literally just eat the cake and skip the frosting. That's fairly unheard of for me.

The Nays

• The cupcake did not hold its structure well by the last bites but I think it's my fault and not the recipes. I would like to try this recipe a second time but maybe cook it for less time to avoid the breakage that ensues.
• There is literally nothing else wrong with this recipe

Overall Impression: ohmuhlord, this is definitely the new winner for chocolate cake with some minor tweaking the second time around.

Analysis of the Frosting
Cream Cheese Frosting. 

• Although the last time I made this particular recipe I wasn't sure if it was the best cream cheese frosting, the more feedback I got from others (and a few more samplings myself), the more I decided it was addictingly delicious and the cream cheese frosting I will crown as perfection.

Strawberry Flavoring

Overall Impression: Ohmuhlord this is amazing and the combination of strawberry and cream cheese is simply to die for. De-lish.

Chocolate Cake with Mocha Frosting

So technically I have made this combination of cake and frosting before, but a) this was a new chocolate cake recipe and b) this frosting combo is so fantastic that it deserves an appearance on this blog and c) I learned via youtube a new way to frost cupcakes! So it's semi-new and semi-previously done before.

Bird's-Eye-View of the Finished Product! Yay newly discovered rose swirl!

Analysis of the Cake
The "Chocolate Butter Cupcakes" recipe was brought to us today by Rose's Heavenly Cakes. The author of this cookbook has also written The Cake Bible, a cookbook I own but have yet to try cake recipes from. So the bar was set pretty high, I mean if you are going to make a book that is self-titled the end all be all of baking then you hopefully know your stuff pretty darn well. So let's take a journey, shall we?

All ready to battle the heat of the oven!

The Yays 

• The technique used for mixing was vastly different from any other I have used before, and while I was skeptical it did make a lovely textured batter. Rather than creaming the butter and sugar as the first step, this recipe had you mix the dry ingredients then add the butter then add the egg/vanilla mixture. Future Hillary will continue to experiment with this mixing technique and possibly research the science of this method
• The texture of the finished product was quite delightful. The cupcake held its shape well out of the wrapper and it had a soft/melty texture on the tongue. Quite delightful, really.
• It had a nice, delicate chocolate flavor. Definitely a solid basic chocolate cake recipe that will be filed away as the current winner of overall basic chocolate cupcake recipe for the time being.

Way to hold your shape little guy!

The Nays

• Not a bold enough chocolate cake to be paired with the mocha frosting, a devil's food would have been better. But that isn't the cake's fault. I suppose in the future though I would still like to try getting more of a chocolate BAM from the cake. Regardless, if you paired it with any other frosting it still wouldn't lick that chocolate craving I would be seeking from a cupcake.

Overall Impression: Somewhere between Meh and Ohmuhlord. 
  
Analysis of the Frosting
Using the aforementioned Italian Meringue Buttercream frosting with some melted chocolate and the "Classic Mocha Espresso" recipe from The Cake Bible, the most perfect melding of chocolate and coffee in frosting has been discovered. And that is a lot coming from someone who doesn't like coffee or most coffee flavored things. But this one's definitely a winner.

Overall Impression: Ohmuhlord

In summary, we have ourselves a current winner in the category of basic chocolate cake, however that has not been officially sealed for all eternity. With the onset of Oregon berry season rapidly approaching (especially if we continue to have this lovely weather!), I foresee a further continuation of the quest for the perfect yellow cake paired with  strawberry buttercream frosting on the horizon. Stay tuned!