Sam's Chocolate Coffee Ice Cream Cake

My wonderful nephew Sam just graduated from high school and I couldn't resist creating a special cake for his celebration. Coffee flavored desserts are his favorite so I made him an ice cream cake with two layers of moist Guinness chocolate cake, a center of coffee ice cream and a topping of espresso flavored whipped cream. It was a big hit and I know it's something I will make again and again and always think of Sam when I do.

Here's the recipe:

Sam's Chocolate Coffee Ice Cream Cake
(a celebration cake created for and named after the best nephew in the world)

Cake:
1 cup Guinness
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup sour cream ( or substitute plain yogurt)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease and line two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper.

A prepared cake pan. Line the bottom and the sides with greased parchment.

Pour the Guinness into a large saucepan, add the butter in slices and heat until the butter is melted. Turn off the heat and whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and pour into the beer mixture and finally whisk in the flour and baking soda.

Divide the cake batter among the two prepared cake pans and bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until done. Leave the cake to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before inverting them onto a cooling rack. Let the cakes cool completely before assembling.

The cakes after baking. Let them cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the pans.

To Assemble:
1 quart premium coffee ice cream, left at room temperature for 10 to 15  minutes to soften
2 pints whipping cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoons espresso powder
chocolate covered espresso beans

Line an 8-inch cake pan that is at least 4-inches deep with plastic wrap.

Drop in one of the Guinness chocolate cake layers.

Top the cake with the quart of softened coffee ice cream.

Use a spreader to evenly distribute the ice cream and press it down. You have to work fast because you don't want the ice cream to melt.

Add the second layer of cake.

Wrap the cake well with plastic wrap and put it in the freezer to set for at least 4 hours.

After the cake has set in the freezer, put the whipping cream, sugar and espresso in a mixing bowl and whip it until it holds a stiff peak.

Unwrap the frozen cake remove it from the cake pan. Place it on a serving platter that will be able to fit back into the freezer.

Spread the whipped cream around the sides of the cake.

Put the remaining whipped cream in a piping bag fitted with a star tip and pipe a border around the top of the cake.

Inside the border, pipe dollops around the cake and top each of them with a chocolate covered espresso bean.

Place the cake back into the freezer for at least 20 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Guinness Chocolate Cake With Peanut Butter Filling

What's better than a Guinness Chocolate Cake? Two Guinness Chocolate Cakes with Peanut Butter Filling!

Hands down, my most requested cake is Chocolate Cake With Peanut Butter Filling and Chocolate Buttercream but sometimes it's fun to experiment and mix things up a bit. So staying with the peanut butter and chocolate theme I instead made two Guinness Chocolate Cakes and topped each of them with Peanut Butter Filling and Cream Cheese Icing.

I just thought the smooth lightly sweet icing would go really well with the chunky peanut butter filling. And, there really is no cake better than super moist Guinness chocolate.

When it came to decorating, I kept the sides of the cakes bare since I like the look of the bright white cream cheese icing against the dark chocolate brown cake. For a little extra pizazz I piped borders around the top, middle and base of the cake. The border also hides the not so pretty edges of where the peanut butter filling and icing meet.

I'm serving this cake tomorrow at the Wednesday Community Meal in recognition of our volunteers who have November birthdays and I hope it's a hit.

Here's how I made it:

Guinness Chocolate Cake
(makes two 9-inch cakes)

2 cup Guinness
2 sticks plus 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups sour cream
4 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla
4 cups all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and line two 9-inch springform pans.

Pour the Guinness into a large saucepan, add the butter in slices and heat until the butter is melted. Turn off the heat and whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and pour into the beer mixture and finally whisk in the flour and baking soda.

Divide the cake batter among the two greased and lined pans and bake the cakes for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Leave them to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack before releasing them from the pan.

Once the cakes are cool, make the filling and cream cheese icing.

Peanut Butter Filling:
1 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk

In a mixing bowl, whip peanut butter and butter together. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Finally add milk and beat just until the filling comes together and is spreadable. Don't over beat.

Cream Cheese Topping
2 packages (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup heavy cream

Whip the cream cheese until smooth. Add powdered sugar and whip again. Add the cream and whip again until it's light and spreadable.

To Assemble:

Place one of the cakes on a platter and top with half of the filling.

Spread the filling evenly over the cake being careful not to get too close to the sides.

Add a little more than a third of the icing to the top of the filling and spread it evenly, trying your best to keep it neat and the layers separate.

Top the first cake with the second cake and repeat, adding filling and cream cheese icing to the top.

Put the remaining icing into a pastry bag fitted with the tip of your choice and pipe a border around the top of the cake.

Also add a border around the middle of the cake. This hides the messy edge of where the filling meets the icing.

Finally, add a third border to the base of the cake. Keep the cake chilled until you are ready to serve. Enjoy!

Coming Soon...A Tiered Anniversary Cake

Anniversary Cake Supplies.

For the last month I've been working on a design for a tiered anniversary cake for a celebration this coming Sunday. Since showtime is quickly approaching, I'm doing my best to stay organized and trying to get as much as possible done ahead of time.

Over the weekend I finished getting all my supplies in order and the first task I knocked off my to do list was covering the cake boards.

I say cake boards because in addition to the tiered cake, I'm making two large cakes that we can slice into first so that the centerpiece cake can remain intact, at least for a bit.

For cake boards, I use 16-inch wood rounds that I cover with fabric and trim. I purchased the boards at the hardware store and I love that they are sturdy and reusable. When the party is over, I just remove the fabric and trim and set them aside for next time.

When it comes to choosing what fabric to cover the boards in, I like neutral and simple since the cake should be what stands out. For this event I'm using muslin since I'm trimming the cake boards with a burlap trim and thought they'd look nice together. The materials I chose also add a bit of texture to the cake boards which I like and feel is perfect for a fall celebration.

Here's how to cover a cake board:

Lay the board on the fabric and simply pull the fabric taut around it and staple into place. Don't worry if the stapling looks messy. This is the underside and no one will see it.

See how nice this looks.

To add the trim, measure the circumference of the board and add one inch to this to get the length you need. Cut the trim.

I used a glue gun to adhere the trim to the side of the board, working just a bit at a time until the side is completely covered. When you get to the end, cut the trim neatly so that it overlaps just about 1/4 of an inch.

Here are my completed boards. Notice the seam of the trim on the bottom board — It doesn't look too bad but I always make sure it's on the backside of the finished cake.

Peachy Coconut Cake

Linda's Peachy Coconut Birthday Cake

I created this Peachy Coconut Cake for my dear friend Linda who volunteers with me at the Wednesday Community Meal. We threw a little surprise birthday party for her last Wednesday and because the weather was unusually hot, I wanted to make her a cake that was tropical and unexpected.

Using a highly rated peach coconut cake recipe from the Epicurious website as my inspiration, I changed the recipe to suit my taste. I could tell that the white coconut cake recipe, calling for a full cup of sweetened cream of coconut, as well as buttermilk and sour cream was a winner so I followed that to a tee.

What I wasn't so fond of was the frosting recipe which was made with just whipping cream and more cream of coconut. It seemed to me that this was a frosting that would weep and not hold up or look so pretty on a hot day. My solution was to make a lightly sweet cream cheese icing since it would hold up better and you can't go wrong with the combination of peaches, cream cheese and coconut. These flavors are so good together.

For the peach filling, I used 2 pounds of frozen sliced peaches that I cooked with bit of sugar, vanilla and lemon juice. After cooking for about 10 minutes, I drained them and saved every drop of their sweet peach infused juices for soaking the cake layers.

In the end the cake looked pretty, tasted great and Linda loved it. Here's the recipe:

Peachy Coconut Cake

For the cake:
2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (I used Coco Lopez. Look for it in the mixed drink aisle of the grocery store.)
4 large eggs, room temperature and separated
2 teaspoons vanilla

For the filling:
2 pounds of ripe peaches, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch slices (I used frozen)
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla

For the frosting:
2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, toasted

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees and grease, flour and line with parchment two 9-inch cake pans that have at least 2-inch sides.

In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In another medium-sized bowl whisk together the buttermilk and sour cream. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar.

Measure out your cup of cream of coconut.

The cream of coconut looks kind of strange but don't worry.

Add the cream of coconut, vanilla and 4 egg yolks to the butter mixture.

Mix well to combine.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and 1/3 of the buttermilk mixture and beat until combined. Repeat this step two more times until you have added it all.

The batter will look like this.

Whip the egg whites until stiff but not dry.

This looks just right.

Add the egg whites to the batter.

Fold the egg whites into the batter until they are thoroughly combined.

Divide the batter among the two prepared pans and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the baked cakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack.

Don't attempt assembling the cakes until they are completely cool. Whenever I've tried to rush the cooling step, I've regretted it. Trust me, trying to slice a warm cake horizontally will make you want to cry.

Put the 2 lbs. of sliced peaches into a large sauce pan. I used frozen peaches.

Add the sugar, lemon juice and vanilla.

Cook the peaches over medium high heat until the juices are bubbling and beginning to reduce. This takes about 10 minutes. Also, do your best to stir the peaches gently and not break them apart.

Drain the peaches, reserving all of the liquid. Let the peaches and liquid cool before assembling the cake.

Spread the cup of sweetened flaked coconut on a lined sheetpan and toast in a 350 degree oven until golden brown, stirring every so often. Don't walk away because this takes only about 5 minutes.

Make the cream cheese frosting by whipping together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and whip again. Finally add the heavy cream and whip until the frosting is light and fluffy.

To assemble the cake, slice the layers in half. Place one half on a platter, cut side up and brush on 1/4 of the reserved peach juices.

Add 1/4 of the frosting.

Spread it out to the sides, keeping it from going over the edge.

Add 1/3 of the peach slices.

Repeat for the second layer.

And, for the third layer. Try to save 3 or so pretty peach slices for the top of the cake.

Soak the top of the cake with the remaining peach juices and ice with the remaining frosting.

Sprinkle on the toasted coconut and top with the reserved peach slices. Keep the cake refrigerated until you are ready to serve. This cake is ready to take to Linda's surprise party at the Wednesday Community Meal.

Happy Birthday Linda! (Thank you Leslie for the great photo!)