Lovin' From the Oven

It’s just been one of those days..

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…You know, one of those days where you don’t want to do anything, one where you just want to lay in bed all day and watch movies, one where you just never want to change out of your PJ’s. Well, today was that kind of day. I had just finished planning a spring break trip for 10 people to Lake Tahoe in three weeks, studying for a quiz, and listing/shipping out all my Ebay items. What better way to reward myself than with chocolate cake? Oh, I know! Let’s add ice cream, maraschino cherries, chocolate syrup, and caramel sauce and call it a day. 😉
I must admit that the chocolate cake was made from a box– hey, I told you it was one of those lazy days! Even though it was baked from a box, it still satisfied my chocolate craving. Sometimes that’s all you need– a good ol’ box mixed cake topped with spoonfuls of cake batter cookie dough ice cream, cherries, and syrup. I cuddled up in bed with my chocolate cake sundae and started reading Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, Pioneer Woman’s tale of how she met her husband. Once I started reading, I was hooked. I probably spent a good hour, if not more, going through chapter by chapter reading this amazing love story. My boyfriend thought that I was being a sappy/typical girl for “aww-ing” at the end of each chapter and spending so much time reading romance stories. WARNING: Once you start reading, you won’t be able to stop (Not to mention that her food blog is also very inspiring and well worth your time)! So if you have time, I’d recommend reading her story from beginning to end. It truly shows how amazing love is and it’s capacity.
So, sorry there isn’t a recipe for today.. But stay tuned for my next post, for I assure you there will be a recipe. I’ll be blogging about cupcakes and doing my very first giveaway in celebration of my 100th post! Hooray!

Valentine’s Day Part Two: Malted Milk Cake & Frosting

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My boyfriend & I are some of the biggest fans of whoppers that you’ll find out there. Most people I know don’t like the malt taste, but I adore it! I can eat a box of whoppers all by myself. When I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. It’s a malt cake (I could barely taste it) with a chocolate malted frosting. Now, although I couldn’t taste the malt in the cake, the frosting definitely made up for it. It was DELICIOUS! My boyfriend says that the frosting just tastes like chocolate frosting, but what does he know.. 🙂 He doesn’t even like sweets!

I split the batter into a 9×13 pan and an 8×8 pan so that I would have a thinner layer to be able to stack upon one another and it worked out perfectly. I used cookie cutters to cut out the heart shape– TIP: Press the cookie cutter into your cake, LEAVE IT IN THERE, and then use a spatula to slide underneath the shape and cookie cutter. Lift gently, and then press out the cake onto parchment paper. Works like a charm! Don’t bother cutting the shape in the pan, removing the cookie cutter, and then trying to get it out. You’ll ruin the cake for sure!

1 cup softened butter
2 cups sugar
5 egg whites
3 cups sifted self-rising flour
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup malted powder
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and continue to cream well for 6 to 8 minutes. Add egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Whisk malt powder into milk. Add flour and milk mixture alternately to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Add vanilla and continue to beat until just mixed.

Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Level batter in each pan by holding pan 3 or 4 inches above counter, then dropping it flat onto counter. Do this several times to release air bubbles and assure you of a more level cake. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. Cool in pans 5 to 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling racks. Cool completely.

Chocolate Malted Frosting
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
6 T milk
1 cup malted powder
1 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 1/4 cups powdered sugar

Mix milk and malted powder in electric mixer. Add cocoa and vanilla. Mix until a well blended (as in non-lumpy) paste. Add butter and shortening and cream. Add sugar and beat for 4-5 minutes.

For the writing on top, I used a candy decorating pen bought from Williams Sonoma, but you can find it HERE or HERE. They’re really easy to work with and make life so much simpler. No messy clean up! I probably should have tried piping out a bit before though before writing directly on the cake. Oh well!

OH! and just for kicks, this is what some of the Valentine’s Day cards that I sent out to people look like:
Everything made by hand! Homemade is the way to go. 🙂 The heart is an example of what my cricut machine that I got for Christmas can do. What the heck is a cricut machine anyway? Check out my previous post about it.
You can buy the smaller version or go all out and get the bigger version.

Banana Cake w/Cream Cheese Frosting

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Yay for finally being home and being able to bake! Baking really is such a great stress reliever for me. I was supposed to go out last night but the plans fell through, so I stayed home and baked instead. My mom had some ripe bananas (I swear she buys fruit in bulk so that I would make something out of them when they’re too ripe to eat) and suggested that I make something with them. I’ve already made banana bread a million and two times, so I settled for a cake instead. Honestly, there isn’t that much of a difference between banana bread and banana cake. They both taste the same.. one’s just a tiny bit lighter than the other. I added a bit of yogurt and oil to make the cake a bit moister, and that definitely did the trick. I baked the batter in one 9 inch pan and the other into a mini loaf pan. I don’t think there was enough batter to make two 9 inch cakes, but there would be for an 8 inch round pan. The cake was just okay in my opinion, but I’m not really a fan of banana desserts unless it’s banana flambe. Mmmmmm… banana flambe…

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; set aside.

Cream together the butter and the sugar.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well in between each addition. Add bananas and vanilla extract; mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour batter into the prepared pans.

Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 30 minutes. Cool and frost cake.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan

4 ounces low-fat cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 stick ( 4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 pound or about 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/2 to 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon pure lemon extract
Finely chopped toasted pecans and toasted pecan halves

In a large bowl, working with your mixer of choice, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the confectioner’s sugar and keep beating until the frosting is very smooth. Beat in the lemon juice or extract.

Frost the cake and decorate the sides with the chopped walnuts.

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