Thursday, March 6, 2014

Cupcake Chronicles: My First Cake!

"Leah, where have you been all week?  We've missed you terribly!" said no one.  Well, I'll tell you anyway.  On Monday, I had my wisdom teeth out - all two of them.  I spent Monday on narcotics, but I'm so loopy normally, that I didn't really appear any loopier.  I spent Tuesday whining, because if you have to have surgery, you might as well get to whine, too.  I spent much of Wednesday at work, and the rest of it, well, whining.  Today, I'm trying to get my act together because even I can get tired of whining.

Today's post doesn't really fit in the Cupcake Chronicles, but it is a big step in my goal to learn to pipe frosting: my first cake!

(To clarify, this is not the first cake I have ever eaten, made, or even frosted.  This is the first cake involving me, frosting, and a piping bag.)

My mom's birthday was two weekends ago, but we celebrated last weekend.  My sister made the cake, and we both made the frosting, and then she provided moral support while I frosted the cake.  The perfect chocolate cake recipe is Hershey's Deep Dark Chocolate Cake, which they have apparently renamed the "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake (quotes included).  It's perfectly moist, very decadent, and easy.  I made it once for a friend who also happens to be a gourmet chef and it said it was the best chocolate cake he'd ever had.  So there.

The frosting is just your "average" buttercream with cocoa powder added in.  There is nothing average about it.  It is delicious and decadent and perfect.

This technique comes from I Am Baker and I used my new Wilton #1M tip.  She recommends having 8 cups of frosting (a recipe using 4 sticks of butter), but I only made 4 cups (using 2 sticks of butter).  As you can see, I didn't have enough to keep making roses on the top, but guess what - it's plenty.  It was the perfect amount.  Everyone around the table (who have very active good Dutch sweet teeth [sweet teeth? sweet tooths?]) declared that any more frosting would have actually been obnoxious and disgusting.  So there you have it.  


And it's mostly pretty!  (You can't see on the back where two of the roses flopped down off the cake.)

Love and Cake,
Leah Joy

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