Fondant & Sam's Chocolate Chocolate Cake

I'm beginning to become a bit of a cake lady.  I've always been the first to offer to bake a cake for a friend's birthday and have, for years.  But, the last couple of cakes I've made have been more ambitious than anything I've made before now--they've involved homemade fondant, hand cut shapes, colors, designs, and so much more.  (See the Coconut Cake recipe for Lydia's birthday to see what I mean!).

This weekend I made the ultimate black & white hipster cake for my friend Sam's birthday--a dark, dark chocolate cake covered with black chocolate fondant and a top layer of vanilla cake with vanilla bean icing and vanilla fondant.  I served the cake at a fabulous birthday party for my friend Sam last night, and by and large, rumor had that it was clearly delicious!

Chocolate Cake
This cake comes from Elise Bauer's friend Suzanne over at Simply Recipes and can be found here.  This cake is fantastic: an intense amount of chocolate mixed with an intense amount of chocolate makes for a moist, decadent cake. 

Ingredients
* 3 cups cake flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 2 2/3 cups sugar
* 1 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa
* 1 cup + 2 tablespoons water
* 1 cup + 2 tablespoons canola oil
* 5 large, or 4 extra large eggs
* 3/4 cup water, additional
* 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Frosting
*1 pound (16 oz) powdered sugar
* 1 cup dark cocoa
* a flavoring liquid--almond extract, vanilla extract, rum, or water
* 1 1/4 cup - 1 1/2 cup butter

1.)Preheat oven to 350F.  Begin by mixing the dry ingredients in a separate bowl--flour, salt, baking soda, cocoa, baking powder.  Use a whisk or sifter.

2.) In a separate container, preferably your Kitchenaid mixer, mix 1 cup and 2 tablespoons water and 1 cup and 2 tablespoons canola oil.  Mix on low-medium for one minute.

3.) Add eggs, 3/4 cup water, sugar, vanilla and almond extract.   Mix for 3-4 minutes with your Kitchenaid Mixer (a couple of minutes longer with your hand and whisk).

4.) Grease 4 regular size cake pans (either 8 in. or 10 in.).  Pour cake batter evenly into each pan and bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool.

Prepare Frosting
1.) First, whisk cocoa and powdered sugar, or pulse several times in a food processor.

2.) Drizzle in--until the consistency of firm butter--several tablespoons of flavoring liquid (I used an amalgam of almond extract and vanilla, but you can use rum, or even water).

3.) Add 1 1/4-1 1/2 cups butter (firm, but not too soft or hard) to powdered sugar + flavoring liquid mixture.  I used my Kitchenaid and its paddle to properly integrate the two ingredients.  Mix on low speed for several minutes, or until dark chocolate in color.  Scrape down sides of the bowl and taste.  The consistency should be smooth enough to spread, but also firm enough to hold the cake together.

4.) Ice cake--between the layers, the top, and all around the sides.

FONDANT
This recipe comes from a chef named Peggy Weaver whose food and cooking website--Peggy's Baking Corner--is certainly worth checking out for all of its useful tips on cake baking, fondant, and the like.  You can find this basic fondant recipe here.

Ingredients
* 16 oz. white mini marshmallows
* 2 to 5 tablespoons water
* 2 pounds powdered sugar
* 1/2 cup Crisco

OTHER INGREDIENTS
* 1 small bottle of McCormick's black food coloring (if you're preparing the black layer, then use the below recipe and the entire small bottle of black food icing.  It will be very black and you will be very pleased!).

1.) Begin by melting the marshmallows.  Peggy suggests you use the microwave, but the quantity of fondant this recipe yields is better suited for a large deep skillet on your stove top.  Using a big deep skillet, add all of the marshmallows, 2 tablespoons water, and the bottle of food dye if you're making the black layer of fondant (it's water based, so the food coloring will easy substitute as the water necessary for this recipe).  However, if you're not dying this layer of fondant, add 2 more tablespoons of water.

2.) Stir constantly until mixture is smooth.  Add 3/4 of the powdered sugar (just short of 2 lbs of powdered sugar) and mix in until fully integrated.

3.) Grease clean surface or counter and add the remaining 1/4 cup of powdered sugar.  Empty pan onto surface and thoroughly grease your hands.

4.) Begin kneading the fondant like dough.  Add the powdered sugar thoroughly and continue to knead until a stiff, but sticky dough forms.  If your dough tears too easily, add a tablespoon of water until the texture feels stiff and stretchy.  If the dough is too wet, add more powdered sugar, or a teaspoon of corn starch at a time.

5.) Wrap fondant in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  Fondant will keep in the freezer for a couple months, but I prefer to use it within 24 hours. 

6.) When ready to roll out the fondant, thoroughly flour your surface with corn starch and the dough ball.  The fondant will be stiff and will need a lot of kneading until it begins to yield to your pressure.  Roll with a standard rolling pin to the desired layer of thickness (but not too thin).  Lay over iced cake and trim excess fondant off with a pizza cutter.

7.) Serve final cake to hungry hipsters and ENJOY!

Say hello to Sam and his fellow birthday friend:

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Coconut Cake with Coconut Buttercream Icing & Fondant

This blog post may be the very end of me.  Why? Well, let's just say I accomplished one of those rare culinary tasks this past weekend that I, myself, cannot seem to believe I actually did.  What did I do? Well, I started by baking a double batch (4 layers) of a coconut cake that called for real coconut and coconut milk.  Then, I made a double batch of homemade coconut/cream cheese/buttercream icing.  Then, once the cake cooled, I carved it into the shape of...a unicorn.  Covered it in my homemade icing and then covered it in a layer of fondant (which I also made myself).  Then, decorated it with buttercream icing and voila--a mind blowing unicorn!

Now, the cake looked pretty amazing. I watched episodes of Ace of Cakes whilst performing this activity and telling myself I could do it.  I don't know if you've ever taken 4 circular discs of cake and attempted to create any kind of animal out of it, but let's just say it was beyond intimidating.  In fact, I didn't even take pictures of the pre-icing cake stage because I didn't want people to see any flaws I may have had in the first step of the process.

So why did I make a unicorn cake? It's not every day of the week you slave for 10 hours over a specialty item in the kitchen.  This weekend, I had the best reason to create one--the one and only Lydia Dorsey was celebrating her 21st birthday! So, unicorn cake in hand, I drove for three hours with my magical friend in the back carriage of my SUV.  It was quite a fantastic journey and worth every hour of effort to bring her this baked good! Lydia loved the cake (as you will hopefully see from below photos) and it tasted amazing.  Coconut cake is not a highly marketable baked good, but in this company, it was a clearly delicious treat.

Coconut Cake
This recipe comes from Elise Bauer over at Simply Recipes and can be found here.  One of Elise's co-contributers, Garret from Vanilla Garlic, posted this recipe as a cupcake recipe in the fall, but I think it makes a much more impressive cake.  I've made multiple changes here from the original--first, the frosting recipe, although initally Garrett's has been reworked into a hybrid coconut cream cheese and coconut butter cream icing, and second, the cake recipe is not only doubled, but also calls for a cakier creation (cake flour instead of all purpose).  The resulting product is a dense, wedding-cake-like creation, and the icing adds so many layers of flavor it practically melts in your mouth.  That's right, a cake that MELTS in your mouth.

Coconut Cake
Ingredients
* 1 1/2 cups unsalted/salted butter, room temp.
* 2 1/2 cups sugar
* 6 eggs, room temp.
* 2 cups coconut milk, or 1 regular size can of coconut milk
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 4 1/2 cups cake flour
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 cup sweetened desiccated coconut

Coconut Cream Cheese Butter Cream Icing
Ingredients
* 2 sticks of butter, room temp. (or1 cup butter, room temp.)
* 1 8 oz package of Philly Cream Cheese, room temp.
* 1/2 cup sweetened desiccated coconut
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2-3 cups powdered sugar (probably more on the three side, but you'll have to taste as you add for personal preference and texture)

Cake Baking Instructions:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 F.  Cream butter until light and fluffy, then add sugars a little at a time, and cream until light and fluffy a second time.  Don't forget to scrape down your mixing bowl during this process!
2.) Add the eggs, one at a time.  Allow for 30 seconds between each addition so that the eggs are properly mixed in (this will take 3 minutes).  Again, make sure to scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl as you are doing this step.
3.) Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl: flour, salt, baking powder, and mix to integrate.  Set aside.
4.) In another separate bowl, mix 1 can coconut milk with 2 teaspoons vanilla.  Mix to integrate.
5.) Now, add both the dry and wet ingredient mixtures to the butter/sugar/egg mixture in your master kitchen bowl (i.e., if using a kitchenaid mixer, the one you're electronically mixing).  Garret from Vanilla Garlic suggests adding 1/3 dry ingredients first, then 1/2 wet ingredients; then, keep adding until all ingredients are fully in the bowl.  I think this method works well, but the idea is that you NEVER add all of one ingredient at once, but that you vary your dry and wet ingredients during this process.  Remember what the Mighty Alton Brown says, "Remember kids, speed kills."  This is very true when baking a cake!
6.) Once you have mixed all of the ingredients, scrape down the sides of your bowl and mix one or two more times on low to make sure all of your ingredients are integrated.
7.) Pour into 4 circular cake pans--I used 9 in. diameter pans, but as any cook knows, you can use whatever pans you have in your kitchen.  Cakes are amazingly flexible during the batter-to-cooked cake stage.  You can pour very thin layers of cake and bake until done, or very thick layers of cake and bake until done.  I did 4 regular sized cakes, but you certainly can divvy up the batter according to preference.
8.) Bake for about 25 mins., but make sure to check at 15 minutes and 20 minutes (to prevent over cooking and burning).
9.) Allow to cool on a cooling rack and then proceed to the carving/icing instructions.

Carving Instructions
1.) Are the cakes cooled? Are you sure? Okay, move onto step two.

2.) Set up two cakes next to each other and map out how big you want your unicorn to be.  You'll use the other two cakes to carve out details--a horn, a snout, an ear, etc.  You get the picture.
3.) Since I can't really articulate how one carves a unicorn...really, I don't think I can do it without weird made up words and confusing anecdotes, take a look at another food blogger's attempt to create what she called The Unicorn of Trial.  I followed her basic idea in cake carving and even used her fondant recipe.  This blogger at Cardamon and Lavender basically calls the carving process her "winging it skills."  I believe, yes, "winging it" is the terminology that you should use here.
4.) Somehow...create a unicorn, then, proceed to the next step to ice your cake.

Icing Instructions

1.) First, prepare the icing in your kitchenaid mixer: cream the butter and cream cheese together (about 3-5 minutes).
2.) Scrape down the sides, mix in two teaspoons of vanilla extract, and slowly add powdered sugar while mixing on low-to-medium speed.
3.) Fold in the coconut and spread frosting over cooled cakes (you should know by now that you can't ice a cake without cooling it properly first!).
4.) Voila! Once you've iced the cake, you suddenly see a real unicorn take shape. It's absolutely amazing.  Now, you can choose to roll out and add the fondant, or wait until the following day to do so (at this point, you will have been baking, carving, icing for 3-4 hours, so you'll probably need a break. Given how important the fondant detailing is, I'd suggest taking that break now!).
5.) However, if you've given your cake a 24 hour resting period, roll out and place fondant over cake.  It's best if you can do this in one layer, but given the size of the cake, there will probably be a seam where you've attached two very large fondant layers.  Carve off the excess fondant using a knife (I prefer a pizza cutter) and press into cake gently.  The coconut icing will adhere the fondant to the cake like delicious, sugary glue.
6.) Decorate with colored icings, sprinkles, and cut out fondant.  I'll post and detail the fondant recipe in tomorrow's entry.  It's shockingly simple and pretty easy to do!


And now, a photo montage of Lydia, her unicorn, and such: 

 

Lydia eating the horn.

 Lydia's Self-Portrait (the Unicorn that started this all!) FYI: Lydia's quite the talented painter/artist.

The magical unicorn on fire.

More fiery footage.

 The ravished unicorn, yum.

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