Extreme Chocolate Birthday Cake

Hello, it’s Nicole here! So, it was my birthday not too long ago…now, my husband hates shopping at the best of times, let alone right now with everything that is going on. So being the thoughtful husband that he is (albeit, with some ulterior motives :P), and knowing how much I love chocolate, and cake, and chocolate cake, and spending time with him…but mostly chocolate cake…he suggested that we bake a big multi-layer chocolate cake together for my birthday. Of course I said yes, and thought I’d share it here too.

 There used to be a restaurant in town that my parents like to go when I was growing up, and they had this delicious 7 layer chocolate cake that my dad absolutely loved. The restaurant shut down, and years later my dad finds out someone he knows used to work there and gave him the recipe! The original recipe was for 12 cakes, but has been cut down for one so that’s why some of the measurements may seem a little funny.  (I also included the measurements we used to make two ¼ sheet pans).

 We decided that this was the chocolate cake we were going to bake, and frost it with my favourite chocolate frosting recipe from my mom (we doubled it), and fill between the layers with Samantha’s chocolate mousse, which we have blogged about here. Since we wanted more than two layers, but only had two cake pans, we decided to do two sheet pans (took 3 single recipes) and cut them both in half for a rectangular four layer cake.

 

Without further ado…here’s our cake:

 

Chocolate Cake

Makes one 10” round cake

(Amounts in brackets, for two 12”x17” sheet pans)

 

Ingredients:

1 cup Sugar (3 cups)

¼ cup + 2 tsp. Cocoa Powder (¾ cup + 2 Tbsp)

½ cup + 2 Tbsp. Oil (1¾  + 2 Tbsp.)

½ cup + 2 tsp. Hot Water (1½ cup + 2 Tbsp.)

2/3 cup Mayo (2 cups)

1¾ cups Flour (5¼ cups)

1 tsp. Baking Powder (1 Tbsp.)

1½ tsp. Baking Soda (4½ tsp.)

2/3 cup Buttermilk (2 cups)

3 Eggs + 1 Egg White (9 Eggs + 3 Whites)

 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300°F

In a mixer with the whisk attachment, mix the sugar and cocoa, until blended. Add the oil and blend until smooth, then add the hot water and mix well. Add the mayo and blend until smooth.

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and buttermilk.

Mix on low until all dry ingredients are wet – make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Now mix on high to get rid of any lumps – do not over mix.

Add eggs and mix on medium speed until well blended – do not over mix.

Pour batter into greased & lined 10” pan put in the preheated oven right away (do not let them sit out). Bake for 50-60 mins.

Let cool before filling and frosting.

Mousse

(We made 1 1/2 recipes)

Recipe here

 

Chocolate Frosting

(We doubled this recipe)

Ingredients:

½ cup Sugar

½ cup Water

¼ cup Cocoa Powder

6 oz Dark Chocolate

6 oz Unsalted Butter

 

Directions:

Heat sugar, water and cocoa in a saucepan, stirring until smooth and sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate and butter to the pan and whisk until both are melted and mixture is smooth.

Chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator. Mix on high speed in mixer until fluffy.

 

Once all the components were ready, we trimmed the edges of the cake then measured and cut them both in half so we had four equal sized layers. We decided to build it on a sheet pan because we didn't have any other plates or trays that were big enough! We split the mousse into three equal parts. Put the first layer of cake down an covered it with mousse, followed by the second layer of cake, then mousse then cake, then mousse, then cake.

    

We then put this in the freezer to harden up the mousse a bit before frosting it. 

We had a bit of a mishap when layering the mousse on. The second layer of cake broke in half when we put it on, and then when we put it in the fridge to harden the mousse up a bit, it slid and the top layers started falling off and getting mousse everywhere. We were able to fix it, but next time we would probably surround each layer with an frosting ‘dam’ along the edges to hold the mousse in. The weather was also fairly warm, so that probably didn’t help. In the end, we put it in the freezer once we fixed it, so that it would be easier to frost. This also made the tray messy, but thankfully that doesn't change the flavour!

It was delicious, and chocolatey…and GIANT…and heavy! Now I understand why in all those cake shows on TV they talk about how heavy their fancy cakes are!! There was so much cake that we shared some with my family, my husband's family and still had extra that we put in the freezer so we could enjoy it again later.

Birthday Card

 

Another week already!

This week I made a Birthday card for a friend so I thought that I would share it with you.

As Summer wraps up, I thought I would go with a bright and fun card.

I used the regular size that we do for cards, 6 ¾ x4 ¾. I picked a bright green as my base and then layered a 6 ¼ x 4 ¼ bright pink layer on top.

Before doing that I stamped the pink layer with beige ink and then used white embossing powder over it to make for bright white words. I left some space under the words, an inch or so. Then I flattened this layer.

                                   

I punched some bright green hearts, three to be exact. Then when the layer was flat, I glued the three hearts under the words.

                                                       

Then finally I glued the layer onto the card and then a bright cheery Birthday card was created!  

                                                       

Craft Time

 

Time sure flies by lately. I have missed a few weeks but in general I feel like I have missed a few weeks of life as work has been so busy. I miss crafting and sleeping and baking. It all feels like one big haze since mid August.

I did do a little craft. I made a painted letter. Way back when, we painted letters like this at a Birthday party that I had. Everyone came up with their own designs and used the colours of their choice. I quite liked the one I made. I still have it. It would look perfect on the door of a nursery or little kid’s room and I have a perfect little sweetie to make one for so take a look at the creation that I made.

First of all you will need a wooden letter. I picked an S which I got from the craft store. The one I got was painted white.

Next choose your colours and design. I went with a soft bright purple and I decided on a lady bug crawling design so I also needed red and black paint. I based this off a another S I painted at my Birthday party. I basically used a lady bug stencil and I traced out a path for my lady bug to follow.

You want to completely paint your letter with a few base coats and allow to dry before you start marking out your design.

                                   

Once it’s all dry then you can trace out what you want to paint or you can free hand it. I plotted out where I wanted my lady bug to go (three points) and then with a pencil I made a little dotted line path for it to follow.

I painted the lady bug in red with a thick coat which I let dry overnight and used black for the antennae.

Next I painted over my sketched dotted line with black ink.

Lastly after everything was dry, I sprayed it with a sealer so that it would last longer.

Now all I have to do is wrap it up and give it away!