I was baking cupcakes and trying to find a good chocolate frosting recipe that didn’t taste like pure sugar. After a few unsuccessful attempts and a new craving for coconut cake, I found what had been missing. Cream Cheese! The coconut cake frosting I made had a cream cheese base and it dawned on me that’s what I should use for most frostings. A few weeks passed and I tried it, chocolate frosting with a cream cheese base. It called for half the amount of powdered sugar which was a good sign in itself. After it was made I put it in the fridge to harden, well when I pulled it out I thought I had screwed up because it was too hard. I mixed it up and it was perfect, the cream base combined with the coldness make it so easy to spread. Anyways, here she is!
100 chocolate wafers, melted (8 ounces)
6 ounces of Philly’s cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp. milk
2 c. powdered confectioners sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Melt chocolate; cool slightly. Blend in cheese and milk. Add sugar gradually. Stir in vanilla. Frosts two 8″ layers.
My mom always made white cakes growing up and I never really liked them as much as yellow, no offense Liz. There is something about yellow cake with chocolate frosting that I just love. This is a good, basic yellow cake recipe great for layer cakes, sheet cakes and cupcakes.
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter, softened
1 c. sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 c. 2% milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
Beat butter and sugar in mixer on medium-high until pale and fluffy (2-3 minutes). Beat in one egg at a time then add vanilla and blend until thoroughly mixed, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture and milk alternatively ending with the flour mixture. Mix until the batter is smooth but be careful to not over mix.
Spread batter evenly into pans or cupcake holders and bake for 20-25 minutes. Put a toothpick in the middle to test, if it comes out clean – the cakes are done.
Set the pans on a cooling rack for a few minutes then completely transfers the cakes over to the cooling racks and let stand until cool.
Spread one of the many frostings on it and you are good to go!
No Blue Balls on Valentine’s Day … only red. : )
Red Velvet Cake
Cream Cheese Frosting
Chocolate Wafers
Once cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl, mix in cream cheese frosting thoroughly. May be easier (and more fun) to do with hands but definitely messier!
Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet, should make 40-50. Chill for several hours – and be patient and make sure it’s really cooled down or it will get gooey.
Melt chocolate wafers in the microwave or stovetop method. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)
Enjoy!
Happy Hump Day! With Valentine’s Day being Saturday I decided to a three day recipe. Our ultimate goal is making Red Velvet Balls and we can do this in three steps. The great thing is each step can be used as its own recipe and enjoyed with other sweets.
Red Velvet Cake:
2 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. oil
1 c buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cocoa
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. vinegar
1 oz. bottle red food coloring
Mix all ingredients together and bake at 350F for about 30 to 35 minutes.
Red Velvet Cake
In the fall time this is one of my favorite things to make. Brings me back home to the autumn nights when it was chilly and this cake is heavy enough to warm you up!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2 c. flour
2 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. oil
4 eggs
2 c. pumpkin
Mix all ingredients together. Add 1 cup of chocolate chips and stir in.
Put in grease bundt pan and cook for 60-80 minutes.
