Category Archives: Cakes

Aug 1 2012

Batman Cake Pops {Giveaway}

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In honor of the release of The Dark Knight Rises, I decided to make some Batman cake pops. I meant to do this a couple of weeks ago when the movie came out, but I ordered the background poster too late and have been waiting for it to arrive in the mail. So here they are!

I don’t know how Bakerella does it. Her cake pops are perfection. Mine never come out how I want them to, and it takes all of my patience to not throw the pops against the wall while I’m making them. Truthfully, I’m not sure why I keep making cake pops. Anyway, these aren’t exactly how I envisioned them, but they did turn out pretty cute.

Items you’ll need for this project are cake, frosting, candy melts in yellow, black, white and orange, oil, white sprinkles, pop sticks, pop stand, a toothpick, and candy coated sunflower seeds.

I used brownie mix for this one instead of cake but you can use anything you want. A box mix or your favorite cake recipe will work. Make the brownie or cake according to the directions and let it cool. Once it’s cool, break it up in a bowl and mix a little frosting with it. I used chocolate frosting but white frosting works well too. I’m not sure how much frosting to use, I just put a little plop and mixed it in with my hands. The consistency should be like clay: not too dry, not too moist. Cover the cake mixture with some pastic and chill it in the fridge for a few minutes.

Create a pop stand before you start working on the pops. This can be made out of a block of styrofoam with some holes pre-poked into it, or buy a cardboard cake pop stand from the store. I got mine at Walmart in the baking section.

For the Bat Signals, melt the yellow candy using the instructions on the package and add some oil to it a little bit at a time, until it’s nice and smooth. Dip the end of one of the pop sticks in the candy, and push it about halfway into a rolled up ball of cake. Place it on your stand.

For the Batman cake pops, melt some white candy melts with a little bit of orange and the yellow until it’s the skin color you want. Using the same technique as the other cake pops, glue the sticks onto the cake balls. When you’re done gluing the cake balls onto the sticks, put the cake pops in the fridge for about 15 minutes so the candy hardens.

Next step is to dip the pops. Dip the Signals in the yellow candy and the Batman ones in the skin-colored candy and knock off the extra. Place two candy coated sunflower seeds on each Batman pop for the bat ears. Return them to the stand and chill once again.

Melt some black candy in a bowl or mug and also melt a little bit in a ziplock bag. Dip the Batman pops in the black candy half way and stick a white sprinkle for each eye and place on the stand.

Draw the bat logo with a toothpick on the yellow pops and fill it in with the melted candy in the ziplock (cut the tip off of the bag’s corner). Also draw a mouth on the Batman pops with the bag of black candy. For the last time, chill the cake pops. You’re done!

{Giveaway}

I’ve decided to give away the Batman poster I got for the background. It’s a silk wall poster measuring 40″ x 24.” It shows Gotham City with Christian Bale’s Batman to one side. This is for US residents only as I will be paying for shipping myself.

The poster is brand new but the tape that I used to put it up for the photos with pulled off some of the ink on the corners. So if you win, you will be receiving the poster slightly damaged.

The giveaway will end on August 8th, 2012 at 11:59pm.

Read the Official Rules for more information.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Mar 10 2012

Crazy for Cake Pops Review and Giveaway

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I received a copy of Crazy for Cake Pops: 50 All-New Delicious and Adorable Creations by Molly Bakes for review from Ulysses Press recently and decided to make something from the book. There are many great decoration ideas in this book with lots of photographs of each cake pop.

Besides the cake pop decorations, there are also many other sections of the book. It starts out with descriptions of all the equipment you’ll need for the projects, as well as recipes for chocolate, red velvet, vanilla, peanut butter, toffee, and lemon cakes and the frostings that go with them. There is also a section in the back that shows some techniques for making the cake pops.

Never made cake pops before? Don’t worry. There are detailed explanations of how to make cake pops and plenty of colorful photos to show you the process. I’ve made cake pops once before, so I was familiar with the instructions, but it was nice to refresh my memory.

As I flipped through the book I came across a ton of designs I wanted to try, but I settled on the Moustache Cake Pops. I thought these looked great and simple.

Unfortunately, I had a few issues with making these. One thing I’ve realized from making cake pops is they always end up more complicated to make than they look. I used the recipe for the chocolate cake and chocolate frosting from the book (recipes below). The cake turned out pretty good although I may have overcooked it. This didn’t matter too much though, because I mixed it with the frosting and it became moist again.

The frosting was a little weird though. I followed the instructions exactly, but the mixture was less like frosting and more like a truffle mixture. It tasted great but wasn’t fluffy like the instructions said it would be. Not sure what happened. I mixed a little half and half in to soften it, but it was still really hard. It did mix into the cake crumbles well though and the mixture seemed right, so I guess this “frosting” didn’t mess it up, but I wouldn’t use the recipe for actual frosting.

Another problem I had was that my cake mixture wasn’t holding together well enough to form the moustache. It kept falling apart. I don’t think I mixed enough of the frosting into the cake.  Oops! I was able to make regular cake pops though so this is what I ended up with:

Not too bad, although I was bummed that the moustaches didn’t work out. I’ll try them again sometime. If you think you could do better, the recipes and instructions for the Moustache Cake Pops are below. Post a picture on my facebook page if you give these ones a shot. I’d love to see them!

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Chocolate Cake

Yield: Makes enough for approx. 20 medium cake balls

Ingredients

  • 55 grams (8 tablespoons) cocoa powder
  • 250 milliliters (1 cup) boiling water
  • 120 grams (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing
  • 200 grams (1 cup) granulated sugar
  • 200 grams (1-2/3 cups) self-rising flour*, plus more for the tin
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature

Instructions

  1. Put the cocoa into a heatproof bowl, pour in the boiling water and stir until combined. Set aside to cool. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly grease and flour a 10-inch (25-centimeter) round cake tin. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well. Pour in the dry ingredients and gently beat until combined. Fold in the cooled cocoa until the color of the mixture is even. Pour into the tin and bake for 45–60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Once baked, leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Notes

*I didn't have self-rising flour so I made some using this recipe: 1 cup flour, ½ tsp. salt, 1½ tsp. baking powder sifted together.

https://shaneskillercupcakes.com/2012/03/crazy-for-cake-pops-review-and-giveway/

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Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

  • 120 grams (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
  • 200 grams (2 cups) powdered sugar, sifted
  • 100 grams (1-2/3 cups) chocolate, melted and cooled

Instructions

  1. Cream the butter. Gradually add the powdered sugar and then the chocolate. Continue to cream until light and fluffy. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before using.
https://shaneskillercupcakes.com/2012/03/crazy-for-cake-pops-review-and-giveway/

Print
Moustache Pops

Ingredients

  • 20 medium cake balls, chilled
  • 1 (14-ounce) bag black candy melts

Instructions

  1. Roll each cake ball into a log shape with your hands. Use a lollipop stick to make an indentation in the top center and bottom center of each “log.” Squeeze and pinch the center of the “log” to shape the middle of the moustache. Now squeeze and pinch the ends, curling each one upwards to create a handlebar moustache shape.
  2. Melt the candy. Dip the end of each lollipop stick ¾ inch into the candy and insert a stick into the center of each moustache. Leave to set. Dip each pop into the candy, dipping from left to right to get an even coating. Insert into a polystyrene block to dry.
https://shaneskillercupcakes.com/2012/03/crazy-for-cake-pops-review-and-giveway/

{Overall Opinion}

Overall, I love this book. I personally need to practice making cake pops more often so I can make some of the more complicated cake pops in the book. For those of you that are cake pop newbies like myself, there are some easier designs to make in the book too. The great thing about cake pops is there are many ways they can be decorated, and even the easiest ones (like mine above) still look nice. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in making cake pops.

{Buy It}

Crazy for Cake Pops is available on several websites such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble in paperback and e-book form.

{Win It}

Ulysses Press has graciously offered to send one of my readers a copy of Crazy for Cake Pops: 50 All-New Delicious and Adorable Creations! To enter fill out the Rafflecopter form below. If you’ve never filled one out before, sign in with either Facebook or log in with your name and email address. Then fill out the first three entries. You don’t have to complete the first three entries but you can’t get to the other entries without finishing them. Once completed, all of the extra entries will become available for completion. Let me know if you have any problems filling out the form.

I WILL BE VERIFYING ENTRIES! So please leave any requested info for the entries. If any requested info is missing from the form, I will not be able to verify your entry and will choose another winner.

The giveaway will end at 11:59pm EST on March 17, 2012. US entries only, please. Terms and Conditions are located at the bottom of the Rafflecopter widget.

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Feb 9 2012

Valentine’s Day Dessert Roundup

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I absolutely LOVE Pinterest! It has become an addiction. Over the past few weeks I’ve been pinning my favorite desserts and crafts for that lovey-dovey holiday that’s coming up on my Valentine’s Day board.

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There are a lot of fun things on Pinterest for Valentine’s Day, and I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite desserts that I’ve come across for this holiday.

1. Of course I shared with you the 5-Minute Valentine Mug Cake a little while ago. It’s a quick and easy dessert that’s perfect for one or two people, like say, you and your special someone on Valentine’s Day!

2. Next up is Love From The Oven’s Pink Velvet Cake Pops. The cake pops are made with a pink velvet cake recipe (that’s provided on the website) and mixed with frosting to give it a malleable texture. Then they are rolled in balls, stuck on sticks with a little bit of melted candy as glue, chilled, dipped in white chocolate, and decorated with lovely sprinkles from ABC Cake Decorating Supplies.

3. Confessions of a Cookbook Queen is one of my favorite blogs to read, and I just love how her Cherry Vanilla Tuxedo Cake turned out. It’s pretty and pink with a delicious sparkly chocolate glaze over the top. Yum. Also, I dare you to leave her blog without a chuckle or two. She’s too funny.

4. In Katrina’s Kitchen has these lovely White Chocolate Infused Cookies and Cream Cupcakes for Valentine’s Day. I just love the idea of layering the red velvet cupcakes with the filling. Why haven’t I ever thought of that?

5. Another cupcake with a Valentine theme that I loved was Glorious Treats’ Sweet Heart Cupcakes. They are so cute and use the same idea as above by cutting the top off but on these you cut out a small heart with a cookie cutter on the top piece. Then you frost on the top of the bottom piece and replace the top. Head to their website for the recipes. Such a great idea! I want to thank Glorious Treats for allowing me to use their photo.

6. If a cookie is more to your style, try The Busty Baker’s Valentine Brownie Cut Out Cookies. They are tasty brownie cookies with decorative royal icing on top. She gives you many great suggestions about how to make these too!

What’s your favorite Valentine dessert? Do you have any special plans for Valentine’s Day? Leave me a comment and don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest! Leave your Pinterest username below, and I’ll follow you back.

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Feb 6 2012

Pac-Man Cake {Guest Post}

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Recently I asked my friend and blogging buddy, Amber Seree, to write a guest post for Shane’s Killer Cupcakes. She came up with a great tutorial for making a Pac-man Cake! If you’d like to be a guest poster for SKC read the Guest Post Guidelines and contact me to pitch me your idea. Enjoy!

Hey there, guest blogger Amber here. I thought I’d share this with you all, because this cake is an easy, fun way to create something for your child’s birthday, or for a gaming enthusiast. My step son and I baked and decorated this together for his birthday. It turned out delicious and it was fun too!

You will need:

  • 1 Box Duncan Hines Devil’s Food Cake Mix ( or other chocolate cake mix. Use ingredients on the box accordingly)
  • 1 1/3 Cups Water (from Duncan Hines mix box)
  • 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil (from Duncan Hines mix box)
  • 3 Large Eggs (from Duncan Hines mix box)
  • 1 Bag Dark Chocolate Chips (substitute with semi-sweet or milk chocolate, or mix if you’d like)
  • 1 Can White Frosting
  • 1 Can of Chocolate Frosting (the large can is not needed, the regular size will do)
  • Yellow Food Coloring
  • Butter (to grease the pans)
  • 2 8” x 1 1/2” Round Baking Pans
  • Flour (for cake pans)
  • Large Mixing Bowl
  • Whipped Cream (optional)

Other:

  • A spatula would be nice
  • An electric mixer or whisk (though you can use a fork!)
  • Something to spread the frosting evenly, you can use a butter knife, but there are specialty tools

Directions

Baking:

  1. PREHEAT oven to 350° F for metal or glass pans, or 325° F for dark coated pans. Butter the insides of the pans lightly. You can flour the inside of the pan as well, though we skipped that step and it came out fine.
  2. Blend the cake mix, oil and eggs in a large bowl until completely mixed. With an electric mixer this will be around 2 minutes, if you are mixing with hand, this will take longer.
  3. Pour the batter into cake pans. Add chocolate chips as desired. My stepson chose to sprinkle them liberally on one layer, and concentrate them in the middle on the other. However you want to do it should work fine. If you will use chocolate chips for the eyes, be sure to save at least 10 to accomplish this.
  4. Bake for 33-36 minutes for metal or glass pans. Add a few extra minutes for dark coated pans. Trick: carefully stick a toothpick into the center of your cake, if it comes out clean, it’s ready. Just be aware of your chocolate chips!

Frosting:

  1. Put white frosting into bowl. Add up to 10 drops of yellow food coloring at first, and mix it well. You may need to mix in more to get the vibrant yellow you are looking for. I added 24 yellow drops and one green drop, but the green addition almost became a disaster. If you are going to try to add 1 green drop for a richer, deeper yellow, I’d recommend having an extra can of white frosting on hand just in case. I also highly recommend starting with only 10 yellow drops and working your way up. The type of food coloring and frosting you use may make results vary. Once you have the yellow color you are looking for, set it aside.
  2. Once cake layers COOL COMPLETELY, flip the first one out onto a plate. Be careful of breaking it. The best way I have found is to set plate or platter on top of the cake pan and flip them both upside down together. I’d recommend flipping it back over so that the flat edge is on the bottom. To do this, simply repeat the steps above but without the cake pan. Make sure you use the final serving plate or platter the second time.
  3. Frost the top of the first cake layer thickly with chocolate frosting.
  4. CAREFULLY flip the second cake layer on top of the first. For this top layer, you want to be sure you get the bottom (flat edge) on top, and the rounded (top) facing down. This way you get a smooth surface for your pac man.
  5. Once your top layer is in place, carefully frost the entire cake in the yellow frosting. Be sure to leave an empty triangle for the mouth! Pay extra care to the sides, especially when you get close to the chocolate frosting in between the two layers. Leave the triangle empty all the way down the side of the cake.
  6. Fill in our mouth area with left over chocolate frosting. You may want speciality tools for this, but I used a butter knife and a steady hand and it came out fine.
  1. Lastly, make an eye with chocolate chips. Though you could probably use a chocolate candy melt, a reeses peanut butter cup or other various chocolate candy.
  2. To add extra flair (& possibly cover up the bottom edge of the frosting, as in my case) add whipped cream flourishes around the base of the cake, and voila! You’ve got yourself a Pac Man cake.

{About the Author: Amber Seree}

 Amber Seree is a graphic/web designer, as well as a writer, and a sometimes-baker with a passion for reading and watching good things.  You can find her art at {infinitefathoms.com} or her writing over at {hellcatchitchat.com}, where she is currently blogging about TV and movies. If you like to watch good things too, then check it out.
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Jan 30 2012

Butter Pecan Cupcakes

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My mom asked me to make her some cupcakes for her birthday recently and loved the sound of a the Butter Pecan Cake from Taste of Home. So, as any daughter would do, I set out to turn the cake recipe into cupcakes! The recipe was easy to put together, but be careful when toasting the pecans. I got sidetracked making the batter and almost burnt the pecans in the oven! So keep an eye on those and stir them regularly.

The above recipe is for a three layered cake and it ended up making about 32 cupcakes. Don’t over cook them either. I wouldn’t cook them any longer than 15 minutes if you’re going to make them into cupcakes. It might even be better to check them at 12 minutes. The cake consistency is almost of a muffin and they aren’t very sweet, which I liked, because they tasted great with the super sweet buttercream frosting I made for them.

The Butter Pecan Cake has a frosting recipe included, but I wasn’t sure if I liked the proportions in it so I opted to use one of my favorite, and easy, buttercream recipes from Savory Sweet Life. Her Classic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting is very good and added a good sweetness factor to the muffin-like cupcakes. I chose not to stir the leftover pecans into the frosting and instead sprinkled some on the top of each one as garnish.

Tip Junkie handmade projects

Jan 25 2012

The Best Chocolate Cake With Mocha Frosting {Recipe}

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I can’t take a lot of credit for the awesome cake that was made at my house this past weekend. That all goes to my mom, a woman who’s taught me pretty much everything I know about baking.

She was looking for a dessert to make for a football party we had last weekend, and her eye caught a picture of a delicious looking cake on the back of an old Cuisine at Home magazine we had lying around.

The cake recipe itself didn’t interest her much, but the recipe for the Glossy Chocolate Frosting sounded interesting. It had a rich dark chocolate taste with a hint of coffee. It’s probably one of the best chocolate frostings I have ever tasted.

For the cake, Mom combined two recipes. One was from a Taste of Home cookbook and the other was from the back of her Hershey’s cocoa powder box. She took the best parts of both recipes and mingled the flavors and amounts effortlessly. She was especially drawn to the use of cinnamon and buttermilk in the Taste of Home recipe but chose to use butter instead of shortening.

The consistency of the cake was amazing. It was moist and dense. Similar to the delicious chocolate bundt cake she makes that I shared with you last year. With the denseness of the cake and the richness of the frosting, it could seriously be a meal on its own. In fact I had a piece of this cake for lunch yesterday, but I wouldn’t recommend that on a regular basis.

The recipes and instructions are below with a few pointers about making it from my mom.

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The Best Chocolate Cake With Mocha Frosting {Recipe}

Ingredients

    For the cake:
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 cup baking cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
    • For the frosting:
  • 1 stick of unsalted butter (8 tbsp.)
  • 1-1/2 cup of sugar
  • 1-1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 1-1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
  • 1/4 cup of sour cream
  • 1 tsp. instant coffee granules
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

    For the cake:
  1. Preheat oven to 350* F. Grease and flour two 9 in. round pans (if you’re going to make a layered cake). Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
  2. In a small sauce pan bring water, butter, and cocoa to boil, stirring constantly, and remove from heat. Add this to the dry mixture and mix.
  3. In a small mixing bowl beat eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla and add it to the rest of the ingredients. Mix well.
  4. Pour into prepared pans and bake 30-35 mins, until a toothpick at the center comes out clean.
  5. Cool for 10 mins. in pans, then run a small knife around the edges of the pan and turn out onto wire cooling racks. Cool completely, tops down.
  6. Invert one layer onto a cake plate and frost the top with the icing (instructions below). Stack the other layer on top of the icing and ice the top and sides.
    7. For the frosting:
  7. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.
  8. Stir in sugar, cocoa, and salt. The mixture should be thick and grainy.
  9. Combine the heavy cream, sour cream, and instant coffee granules in a bowl and mix until smooth. If you want, you can ground up the instant coffee in a mortar and pestle first so it will mix in smoothly. This is not required though.
  10. Gradually add the cream mixture to the chocolate mixture until it is blended and smooth.
  11. Cook on the stove until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth and hot to the touch, about 6-8 minutes. Do not let it boil.
  12. Take it off the heat and add the vanilla. Cool the icing at room temperature until is it spreadable, about 2-3 hours. If the frosting is too runny, put it in the fridge for a bit. If you choose to chill it and it gets too hard, warm it in the microwave on high for 20-second intervals or leave it at room temperature for a while to soften it.
https://shaneskillercupcakes.com/2012/01/the-best-chocolate-cake-with-mocha-frosting-recipe/

I’m linked up with the sites below. Please check them out for many other great ideas!

Cajun Sugar Pie

 

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