Baby Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cakes

Using the same chocolate pumpkin batter that I used to make whoopie pies, I made these baby bundt cakes. 

One recipe yields 18 cakes and they are a great size for sharing. I found that two cakes fit perfectly, side by side, in an inexpensive foil loaf pan, so you can safely deliver them with no worries about getting the pan back.

For an extra sweet touch, pipe a rosette of cream cheese buttercream.

Here are the recipes:

Baby Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cakes
(makes 18 cakes) 
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup canola
2 eggs
2 (15oz) cans pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Grease your baby bundt cake pans and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. My pan is from Nordic Ware and makes six cakes. The recipe makes 18 cakes, so I used the same pan, repeating the process of greasing and filling it, two more times after baking the first batch.

I greased the baby bundt pan with Crisco, being generous and careful to get it into every nook and cranny of every section.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugars, canola oil, eggs, pumpkin and vanilla.

In another large bowl, whisk together the remaining dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until well combined.

Fill the bundt cake sections 3/4 full with the batter and give the pan a firm tap on the counter to help the batter settle.

Bake the cakes for 20 minutes or until done and springy to the touch. Let the baked cakes cool for three minutes before inverting them onto a cooling rack. 

After they have cooled completely, frost them with vanilla cream cheese buttercream. I like to use a 1M tip and pipe a rosette on the top of each one.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Buttercream
(Note: this is the same recipe I used to fill the whoopie pies, but increased to make enough to top all 18 of the bundt cakes)
12 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2  cups unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whip the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and whip again.

Two cakes ready to be shared. They fit perfectly in a foil loaf pan.

From Scratch "Funfetti" Cake

You don't need to head to the store for a cake mix when you want make a colorful and celebratory "Funfetti" Cake.

Really, all you need is a good homemade cake recipe and a bottle of sprinkles and you are good to go.

I like to use my favorite vanilla buttermilk cake recipe and star sprinkles from Betty Crocker. The stars don't have a shiny coating like some sprinkles and melt nicely into the cake during baking.

My favorite sprinkles.

The result is a cake that's as pretty as it is delicious and trust me, you'll never want to go back to using a box mix. Oh and to make it even better, frost it with my easy to make Vanilla Cream Buttercream, it's not too sweet and very light and creamy.

My  two-tiered frosted "Funfetti" Cake chilling in the fridge.

Here are the recipes:

"Funfetti" Cake
(makes 2 8-inch cakes)

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs plus 2 egg yolks, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups cake flour (It's easy to make your own cake flour, click here for the recipe)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
1 (1.25 oz) bottle sprinkles (I like star sprinkles from Betty Crocker)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and line 2 8-inch cake pans. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy, about 6 minutes.

Beat in the eggs plus egg yolks, one at a time, until combined. Beat in vanilla.

In another large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. With mixer on low, add a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating to combine. Beat in 3/4 cup buttermilk, another third of the flour mixture, another 3/4 cup buttermilk, and remaining flour mixture until just combined. Scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the sprinkles and stir just until evenly distributed.

Divide the batter among the two prepared pans.  Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool for about 5 minutes in the pan and then invert onto a cooling rack. Let the cakes cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Cream Buttercream
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature


In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the milk and half of the sugar until simmering.
In the meantime, in a small bowl combine the cream, the other half of the sugar and cornstarch. Mix well with a whisk.

When the milk is simmering,  pour about half of it into the cream mixture and whisk well. Add it back to the milk in the saucepan and heat, stirring constantly until the mixture becomes very thick.

Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla. Put the mixture into a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the mixture cool completely.


When the buttercream base is cool, transfer it to a mixer and whip until smooth, add the butter a tablespoon at a time and whip until light and fluffy.

Tiered Anniversary Cake

Cake closeup.

I made two large single layer cakes that we could cut into right away so that the stacked cake could stay intact for as long as possible.

 I'm happy to report that Michael and Marc loved their anniversary cake. I'm so pleased and in debt to my wonderful friends Cindy, Cheryl, Anne and Tiffany who helped me set up and serve.  It takes a team to cut hundreds of slices of cake.

Cindy also deserves a special shout out for helping me transport and stack the cake. On the ride to the church she held a cake on her lap, kept the flowers from tipping over and calmed my nerves.

I had to drive so slow and carefully to keep the cakes safe that I'm sure I irritated other drivers. Cindy and I came to the conclusion that I need a "cake on board" sign for my car. 

Cakes in the car. Cindy ended up holding the smallest cake in her lap and I'm so glad she did.  It would have tipped for sure had I left it in the back of the car.

It's such a good feeling when a cake is done and you realized it survived transport and stacking unscathed.

Once at the church, the setup went fairly smoothly and best of all, the cake was a hit. Thank you Michael and Marc for choosing me to be a part of your special day. Making cakes for friends is the best! Happy Anniversary!


Here are the recipes:


Red Velvet Cake
(makes 2 9-inch cakes)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ounce red food coloring
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line two 9-inch cake pans.

Cream butter, add vanilla and mix well. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add eggs, sour cream, food coloring and buttermilk. Mix well. Add salt and baking soda. Mix well. Add cocoa powder and flour and mix just until blended. Don't over mix.

Divide batter among the two cake pans and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until done.


Vanilla Cream Cheese Buttercream
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar, divided
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened

In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the milk and half of the sugar until simmering.

In the meantime, in a small bowl combine the cream, the other half of the sugar and cornstarch. Mix well with a whisk.

When the milk is simmering,  pour about half of it into the cream mixture and whisk well. Add it back to the milk in the saucepan and heat, stirring constantly until the mixture becomes very thick.

Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla. Put the mixture into a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the mixture cool completely.

When the buttercream base is cool, transfer it to a mixer and whip until smooth, add the butter and the cream cheese, a tablespoon at a time and whip until light and fluffy.

Buttercream Cake Decorations

Eleanor blowing out the candles on her birthday cake, iced and decorated with buttercream.

Elaborately decorated cakes often taste not so great. That's right, not so great.

This is because satin smooth finishes and fancy three-dimensional decorations are usually obtained with rolled fondants and gumpastes, sickly sweet sugar doughs that frankly taste terrible.

I really don't want to eat a cake that's covered with something bought in a can at the craft store, not to mention the manhandling that goes into getting these decorations onto the cake. Do I really want eat fondant that's been warmed in someone's hands before being rolled out and pressed and smoothed onto a cake? No, I don't. I want cake topped with homemade frosting that's applied with a spreader.

The fact is though that I do get requests to make special theme decorated cakes for celebrations and I've done my best to figure out a way to make these cakes with buttercream.

Recently my daughter Eleanor asked me to make a CaptainSparklez cake for her 15th birthday celebration. For those who don't know (I wouldn't if it weren't for Eleanor), CaptainSparklez (real name Jordan Maron) is a very popular minecraft Youtube personality with more than eight million subscribers.

For her birthday cake, Eleanor asked me to put the CaptainSparklez logo on top of a Guinness chocolate cake.

The CaptainSparklez logo.

 Lucky for me, the logo isn't too intricate and with a bit of help from my much more artistic husband Joe, who outlined the logo for me onto the cake using a wooden skewer, the cake turned out great. The final buttercream decoration looked clean, was recognizable and most importantly tasted great.

Eleanor's cake.

And, it was easy to make. After Joe outlined the logo, I traced the outline with buttercream using a #2 tip and then filled it in by adding more buttercream and simply smoothing it out with a small table knife. Completing the decoration took just about 30 minutes.

Joe used a skewer to outline the logo onto the yellow buttercream iced cake. If you don't feel comfortable just going for it, an option would be to print and cut out a template that you could trace.

I outlined the design using a # 2 tip, filled it in using the same icing and tip and used a small knife to smooth it out.

Almost done!

Here are some other cakes I've made using the same technique of piping an outline, filling it in with buttercream and using a knife to spread the frosting. The more you practice, the easier it gets.

Airplane Cake:

This is still my all-time favorite cake and was for my friend Jack's 90th birthday. The airplane is the B-29 he flew as a navigator in World War II.

I traced the plane using a cardboard template. Once again, my husband Joe helped by drawing it for me. Then I set the template on the cake, traced it then outlined and filled it with buttercream.

 

The template.

Adding more details with buttercream.

The skewer trick of tracing on your design before you add the icing also helped me get the lettering onto Jack's cake.

Dinosaur Cake:

This cake was for my Goddaughter GraceLin's 5th birthday party.

I used a dinosaur cookie cutter as a guide to making a template.

Outline.

Fill in the dinosaur and smooth out the buttercream using a small knife.

Looking good.

Looking even better with some pearl sugar for teeth, a candy eye and upside down heart sprinkles for spikes.

And, here's the recipe for the Swiss Meringue Buttercream that I use. It's from Julie Richardson of Baker & Spice Bakery and it's absolutely delicious and not too sweet.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream
6 large egg whites
1 1/4  cups granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon of fine sea salt
1 tablespoon espresso powder, dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water.

Place the whites in a clean mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar and cream of tartar.

Place bowl over a double boiler on medium heat, stir frequently until the mixture is very hot (120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit).

Move to mixer and whip whites on high for 2 to 3 minutes; turn down to medium low until cool (use the bowl as your guide).

In a separate bowl with a wooden spoon, stir butter to soften.

With mixer on medium/high speed, add the butter one tablespoon at a time, adding the next tablespoon just as the previous one is blended in. Once all the butter incorporated, add in vanilla, salt and coffee and whip on high speed until fluffy.

Big Birthday Cake

We celebrated two volunteer birthdays at the Wednesday Community Meal today — Happy Birthday Jay and Suzanne!

When it comes to making one cake for a large group this buttermilk chocolate cake with Swiss meringue buttercream is the perfect choice.

Just look at that big stack of plates and forks!

The cake recipe is one I've featured before. It's the "Greatest and Easiest Chocolate Cake" recipe featured on the box of Trader Joe's cocoa powder and it is indeed great and easy.

The Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe is from Julie Richardson of Baker & Spice Bakery here in Portland (6330 Southwest Capitol Highway). This buttercream is lightly sweet and spreads like a dream.

"Greatest and Easiest Chocolate Cake"

3 1/3 cups flour

1 1/3 cups cocoa powder

3 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 teaspoons salt

12 ounces butter 

3 cups buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla 

5 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. (Note: For my cake, I used 2 round 8-inch pans that were 4 inches deep.)

Place all ingredients in electric mixer bowl and beat on high speed for 3 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl once during mixing. Pour into prepared pans. Bake cakes for about 55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream
6 large egg whites
1 1/4  cups granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon of fine sea salt
1 tablespoon espresso powder, dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water.

Place the whites in a clean mixing bowl. Whisk in sugar and cream of tartar.

Place bowl over a double boiler on medium heat, stir frequently until the mixture is very hot (120 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit).

Move to mixer and whip whites on high for 2 to 3 minutes; turn down to medium low until cool (use the bowl as your guide).

In a separate bowl with a wooden spoon, stir butter to soften.

With mixer on medium/high speed, add the butter one tablespoon at a time, adding the next tablespoon just as the previous one is blended in. Once all the butter incorporated, add in vanilla, salt and coffee and whip on high speed until fluffy.