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Military Cake

My brother just celebrated his 15th birthday. He is in the JROTC at his high school and really enjoys it, so I decided to make him a military cake. He requested a marble cake for his birthday, so I used half yellow cake and half chocolate cake. I used the Cake Mixes From Scratch and Variations recipe from allrecipes.com.

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbs baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbs cocoa powder
Special Buttercream Frosting

DIRECTIONS:
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in shortening until fine crumbs are formed. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla. Beat at low speed for 1 minute, then high for 2 minutes, scraping the bowl frequently. Pour half of the batter into a smaller bowl and add 2 heaping tablespoons of cocoa powder. Blend thoroughly.

Spoon batter randomly into 2 greased and floured 9" round pans. Cut through the batter with a knife, making swirling patters to "marble" the cake. Bake in preheated 350° oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

CREDIT: Submitted by "Nancy Dorman" on Allrecipes.com

DECORATE:
To decorate the cake, I divided the Special Buttercream Frosting and tinted it using Wilton Gel Icing Color. I used a pair of Hubby's camo pants to try to match the colors for the camo as close as I could.

Using a star tip, I covered the cake with piped stars, much like you would do for a Wilton character shaped pan. This method makes it look like you spent a ton of time on it, but it's actually relatively quick and easy. The most time-consuming part of decorating the cake was tinting the icing.

Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

A friend came over to hang out today and we decided to bake chocolate chip cookies. I decided to try to search for the quintessential "perfect chocolate chip cookie". I found a recipe for "Best Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie" on allrecipes.com and it sure does live up to the name! I did tweak it a little bit. The recipe below includes the revisions.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 Tbs vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 325°. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Cover dough and chill for at least 1 hour.

Drop chilled cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Recipe makes approximately 16 cookies.

CREDIT: Submitted by "ELIZABETHBH" on Allrecipes.com

Anniversary Cake

My mom and dad just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. To celebrate, the family and close friends went out for dinner, then back to the house to renew their vows and eat cake! Of course, my job was to make the cake. I got my inspiration from the front cover of "The Wilton School - Decorating Cakes" book. This was my first attempt at Wilton roses and I studied their book and watched a couple of YouTube videos on demonstrations. I made the roses a few days ahead of time and stored them in an airtight container until I made the rest of the cake on this morning. It was also my first time to make leaves using the leaf tip.

The cake itself is my go-to White Cake recipe.

The frosting is Wilton's Buttercream Icing recipe.

PURE WHITE BUTTERCREAM ICING

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Crisco
1 tsp clear vanilla extract
4 cups sifted powdered sugar (approx. 1 lb.)
2 Tbs milk

DIRECTIONS:

In large bowl, cream shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. Makes about 3 cups of icing.

The cake consists of 2 layers - a 10" round on the base and a 6" round on top. I tinted the frosting and iced the cake with the buttercream icing. Next, I stenciled the swirls on the side of the cake and piped dots to make the swirls.

I placed the dried roses on top of the cake and used the leaf tip to pipe leaves coming out from underneath the roses. I had made a "25" with my roses and set it up on the cake as a "topper".

Antarctica Cake

Hubby decided that he wanted a pool party for his 25th birthday this year - problem is, his birthday's in January. I decided to make a cake to go along with his wintry theme and decided to do penguins. This was my first time working with fondant (I used it to mold the penguins). It was surprisingly easy! If you can play with Play-Doh you can use fondant.

For the cake, I used the White Cake recipe that I used for Jeff's Rainbow Cake back in October.

For the icing, I used the Cream Cheese Frosting II recipe from allrecipes.com.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING II

INGREDIENTS:
2 (8-oz) pkgs. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:
In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the powdered sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

The cake is just a one-layer 12" square. I made the penguin's body parts from store-bought fondant tinted with black and orange gel icing color, using a toothpick to hold the pieces together. The ice block that the fishing penguin is sitting on is actually a block of store-bought fondant.

I tinted a small amount of frosting blue and spread on the cake for the pond, pulling my spatula up while I was spreading it to create the "waves".

Our "igloo tower" was created from sugar cubes, glued together by a paste made from powdered sugar and egg whites (instructions found here).

The fishing rod is a toothpick, the fishing line is thread, and the fish is a Swedish Fish candy (I threaded a needle and poked it through the Swedish Fish).

To assemble the cake, I first placed the igloo tower on the cake. Then we piped a shell border around the top and bottom of the cake and around the base of the igloo tower. Then I placed the ice block and penguins. I finished it off by sprinkling white Wilton Cake Sparkles over the top of the cake.

Oh, yeah, and here's the proof...

Stained Glass Cookies

I first discovered this recipe in my Better Homes & Gardens 100 Best Cookies magazine last year around Christmastime and decided that they were something that i had to try. They're actually called "Sugar Cookie Cutouts" in the magazine, but look like pretty stained glass. They looked so gorgeous in the magazine picture, but this recipe was definitely the most problem-recipe I used this Christmas. After making the recipe that came with it though, I think next time I'll use my never-fails-me-sugar-cookie-recipe for the cookie part. This recipe made dough that was way too soft to handle (even after adding extra flour), and the cookies spread to much during baking (even after re-chilling the cutouts right before baking. Oh, and next time I'll use smaller cut-outs too - the large ones were pretty, but there was definitely too much candy in the cookie. These ones were definitely more for decoration than for eating.

INGREDIENTS:
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
Crushed Jolly Ranchers, Lifesavers, Butterscotch, etc. (I used Jolly Ranchers and some leftover Butterscotch candies I had in the pantry)
Meringue Powder Icing

DIRECTIONS:
In a medium mixing bowl beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, and a dash of salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour with a wooden spoon. Cover; chill for 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 375°. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with the foil with cooking spray. On a lightly floured surface roll one portion of the dough at a time to a 1/4" thickness. Cut with cookie cutters. Place cutouts on lined cookie sheet. Using small cookie cutters or hors d'eouvre or fondant cutters, cut shapes from the center of the cookie. Fill cutouts with crushed candies (be careful not to get candies onto the cookie where you don't want them or they will bake into it).

Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very light brown. Cool on cookie sheet 1 minute. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool. Frost cookies with Meringue Powder Icing.



CREDIT: Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publication - "100 Best Cookies - Our Most Popular Holiday Recipes", p.106, c. 2007

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

I first made these sugar cookies last year, and they are absolutely delicious! I have since used this recipe a few other times for cut-out cookies and it never fails me. Perfect, soft, easy-to-work-with sugar cookies! The hint of lemon in the cookies keeps them from being too sweet.

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp finely shredded lemon peel
3 1/2 cups flour**
Meringue Powder Icing

**Note that the original recipe only calls for 2 1/2 cups of flour - I find that I need 3 1/2 cups each time I make them.

DIRECTIONS:
In a large mixing bowl beat butter with electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and dash salt; beat until combined. Beat in sour cream, egg, vanilla, and lemon peel. Beat in as much of the flour as you can. Stir in remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Cover; chill for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375°. On a well-floured surface roll half of the dough at a time to a 1/8 - 1/4" thickness. Using cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes. Place cutouts 1" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated oven for 7-8 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer cookies to wire racks; cool.

Spread cooled cookies with Meringue Powder Icing; let dry completely. Using a small clean paintbrush, paint designs on each cookie with food coloring.

CREDIT: Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publication - "100 Best Cookies - Our Most Popular Holiday Recipes", p.69, c. 2007

Gingerbread Men

I've been making this recipe now for a few years and can't remember where I got it from. The dough is usually extremely easy to work with, but we had such a wet winter that I had to add a couple of extra cups of flour because they were so sticky from the humidity. This is my favorite gingerbread cookie recipe.

INGREDIENTS:
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups (12-oz jar) dark molasses
2/3 cup cold water
7 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp crushed cloves
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Decorations (raisins, red-hots, M&M;s, etc)

DIRECTIONS:
Mix shortening, brown sugar, and molasses thoroughly. Stir in 2/3 cup water. Blend flour, soda, salt, and spices; stir into molasses mixture. Chill for about 1 hour (up to overnight).

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Roll the dough about 1/4" thick. Cut with cookie cutters and place on prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes. Cool slightly, then remove from baking sheet. When completely cool and ready to decorate, use Meringue Powder Icing as "glue" for the decorations.

Cookie Party!

I threw a cookie decorating party at my apartment today to help with some of the time-consuming decorating. Last year my family (except for one sister) traveled to Texas to spend Christmas with extended family. Our family tradition has always been to celebrate and open presents on Christmas Eve night. Since my sister and I were the only siblings still here in Georgia, Ashley and her husband came over and the 4 of us had a nice Christmas Eve dinner together. Afterward Ashley and I decorated some cookies I had baked. We had so much fun we decided that we need to make sure to have a Cookie Party the following Christmas with the rest of our sisters (there are 4 of us girls!). Tonight we decorated Gingerbread Men and Sugar Cookies.

My sister's boyfriend, Travis, posing with the undecorated cookies.

Progress.

Stacey was in charge of dipping the pretzels in chocolate.

Ashley putting the finishing touches on a nutcracker soldier cookie.

Vikki's humorous snowmen.

Buckeye Cookies

These have got to be my all-time favorite cookie recipes! They're technically called "Peanut Butter Munchies" but I re-christened them "Buckeye Cookies". My mother-in-law makes fantastic buckeyes every year at Christmastime and these cookies remind me of them. They are a little time-consuming to make (I enlist a baking partner to help roll them out), and I would highly recommend investing in 2 different size cookie scoops if you plan on making these - I use a small (2 tsp) cookie scoop and a medium (1 1/2 Tbs) cookie scoop made by Oxo - they're absolutely wonderful and you'll wonder how you ever baked cookies without them!

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 Tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 Tbs granulated sugar (to flatten cookies with)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350º. In a medium bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda; set aside.

In a large bowl beat together butter, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, and the 1/4 cup peanut butter until combined. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; beat well. Beat in as much of the flour mixture as you can. Stir in remaining flour mixture. Form the chocolate dough into 32 balls** about 1 1/4" in diameter (This is where I use the medium 1 1/2 Tbs cookie scoop, and they're not exactly 1 1/4" in diameter). Set aside.

For filling, combine powdered sugar and 1/2 cup peanut butter until smooth. Shape mixture into 32** balls about 3/4" in diameter (This is where I use the small 2 tsp cookie scoop - as with the chocolate dough balls, these are not exactly 3/4" in diameter).

On a work surface, slightly flatten a chocolate dough ball; top with a peanut butter ball. For each cookie, shape the chocolate dough over the peanut butter filling, completely covering the filling. Roll dough into a ball.

Place balls 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Lightly flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in the 2 Tbs granulated sugar.

Bake cookies in preheated oven for 8 minutes or until just set and surface slightly cracks. Let stand 1 minute. Transfer to wire racks and cool.
**NOTE: Using the Small and Medium cookie scoops, I usually only get about 24 cookies from this recipe. Make sure that you have the same number of chocolate dough balls as you do peanut butter dough balls.

CREDIT: Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publication - "100 Best Cookies - Our Most Popular Holiday Recipes", p.68, c. 2007

Peanut Butter Blossoms

This is my Mom's recipe that she used to make every year at Christmas. Of course, I have to carry on the tradition! I made a double batch this year since my mother didn't have time to do any Christmas baking (oh, the humanity!!) and gave her a batch. Soft, moist, chewy, and deeee-lish!

INGREDIENTS:
1 can condensed milk
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups Bisquick
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar (for rolling)
1 pkg chocolate kisses

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375º. In a large mixing bowl, beat condensed milk and peanut butter until smooth. Add Bisquick and vanilla; mix well.

Shape into 1" balls (I use a 2 tsp cookie sand roll in sugar. Place 2" apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until LIGHTLY browned (do not overbake). Immediately after removing from oven, press a chocolate kiss into the center of each ball. Let cool. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.

CREDIT: My mother!

Christmas Toffee Bars

Christmas Time! My favorite time of year! It's a ginormous excuse to bake lots of cookies!! The Christmas Toffee Bars were a new addition to my holiday repertoire this year. They came out of the Holiday Cookies edition of Cuisine at Home - one of my favorite cooking magazines (although they don't typically have a lot of baking recipes in there, they offer tons of handy tips, reviews, and beautiful photos - I love to find yummy-looking photos of meals for Hubby to make for dinner!) My mom got me the special Holiday Cookies edition as a stocking stuffer but decided to give it to me before Christmas so that I could use it! :) These were a cinch to make and were delicious!

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups vanilla wafer cookies, crushed
3/4 cup brown sugar, divided
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, or almonds), toasted

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350º. Butter a 9" x 13" glass baking dish.

Crush vanilla wafers in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin. Combine crushed cookies with 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup melted butter in a bowl.

Press the mixture into the prepared dish, using a measuring cup to "tamp" it down. Bake for 8 minutes, or just until set.

Melt 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar together in a saucepan, stirring to blend. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil 1 minute without stirring.

Immediately pour the mixture over the hot crust, then return the pan to the oven. Bake an additional 10 minutes, remove, and cool for 2 minutes.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the toffee and let stand until they're glossy, about 5 minutes. Spread the chocolate over the toffee using an offset spatula, then sprinkle the nuts on top. Cool bars completely.

Remove toffee from the pan. To break it into pieces, insert the tip of a paring knife into the toffee and twist the knife.

CREDIT: Cuisine at Home's Holiday Cookies - Gifts From Your Kitchen, p. 86, c. 2006

Chocolate Velvet Pound Cake

Wanting to bring a special dessert to this year's Thanksgiving with the in-laws, I broke out my Southern Living Cookbook and finally narrowed it down to either the Orange-Pecan-Spice Pound Cake or the Chocolate Velvet Pound Cake. The Chocolate Velvet won, since neither Hubby nor I felt like running to the store to pick up oranges! It was absolutely delicious - light and moist - not at all like your typical heavy pound cake.

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (16-oz) package light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 (8-oz) container sour cream
1 cup hot water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Chocolate Ganache

DIRECTIONS:
Melt semisweet chocolate morsels in a microwave-safe bowl at HIGH for 30-second intervals until melted (about 1 1/2 minutes total time). Stir until smooth.

Beat butter and brown sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer 5 minutes or until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Add melted chocolate, beating just until blended.

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to chocolate mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Gradually add 1 cup hot water in a slow, steady stream, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in vanilla.

Pour batter into a greased and floured 10" tube pan. Bake at 350º for 60-65 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes. Remove from pan, and let cool completely on wire rack.

GARNISH:

• Sift powdered sugar over top of cake. Serve with Chocolate Ganache and ice cream. I also topped the cake with fresh raspberries (strawberries would be good, too.)

CREDIT: The All-New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, p. 152, c. 2006

Chocolate Ganache

This recipe goes with Chocolate Velvet Pound Cake.

INGREDIENTS:
1 (12-oz) package semisweet chocolate morsels
1/2 cup whipping cream
3 Tbs butter

DIRECTIONS:
Microwave chocolate morsels and whipping cream in a 2-quart glass bowl at MEDIUM (50% power) 2 1/3 - 3 minutes or until morsels begin to melt. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in butter, and let stand 30 minutes. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer 3 to 4 minutes.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

CREDIT: The All-New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, p. 152, c. 2006

Pumpkin Cake

When Hubby's office had their annual Thanksgiving party, he signed me up to make a dessert. In keeping with the season, I chose to do a pumpkin cake, although I did cheat and use canned frosting since I was so short on time!

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups canned pumpkin
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and flour a two 9" round pans. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine sugar and oil. Blend in vanilla and pumpkin, then beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread batter into prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool. Top with your favorite cream cheese frosting and sprinkle with cinnamon (I cheated and used canned frosting).

CREDIT: Submitted by "Sue Case" on Allrecipes.com

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I was baking the Iced Pumpkin Cookies for my friend's Bake Walk I realized that I still had some leftover pumpkin. Not wanting the pumpkin to go to waste, I went ahead and whipped up these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies as well! I added a little bit of cayenne to give them a little more spice - they were delicious! Also very cake-like.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 - 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, depending on preference
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp milk
1 Tbs vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.

Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350º for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

CREDIT: Submitted by "Jennifer" on Allrecipes.com

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

A friend of mine asked if I could bake something for the "Bake Walk" they were doing as part of the Fall Festival at her church at the end of October. I wanted to make something seasonal, so chose these pumpkin cookies. The only change I made was to add cinnamon to the icing. They're very cake-like!

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 Tbs milk
1 Tbs melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350º. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.

To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency. Sprinkle in cinnamon and mix to taste.

CREDIT: Submitted by "Gina" on Allrecipes.com

Greek Lemon Cake

October 27th was mine and Hubby's 1 year wedding anniversary. We did not follow tradition in eating the top tier of our wedding cake on our anniversary because I've heard so many horror stories about how dry and tasteless the top tiers are after one year. Besides, that just gives me an excuse to bake us a fresh "top tier" for our anniversary! Our wedding cake was a lemon cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting. Although I have the recipes that we used for our wedding cake, I wanted to try a new recipe, so chose Greek Lemon Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting.

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 tsp grated lemon zest
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 cup lemon yogurt
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350º. Grease two 9" round pans (or one 10 inch tube pan). Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Set mixture aside.

Separate the eggs (keep the yolks!). In a large bowl beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/2 cup of the sugar, beating until stiff glossy peaks form. Set aside.

Cream butter or margarine, 1 1/2 cups sugar, egg yolks, lemon zest, and lemon juice together until fluffy. Add flour mixture alternately with the yogurt to the egg yolk mixture. Gently fold in the egg whites and pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350º for 50 to 60 minutes. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to finish cooling.

CREDIT: Submitted by "Carol" on Allrecipes.com

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

This recipe goes with Greek Lemon Cake.

INGREDIENTS:
4 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbs lemon juice
Up to 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar**

** NOTE: This is how much powdered sugar the original recipe calls for. I know that I did not use this much powdered sugar, but unfortunately, cannot remember how much I did use, since it has been so long that my computer has been down and haven't been able to post these!

DIRECTIONS:
Beat cream cheese and butter in a bowl until combined. Beat in powdered sugar and lemon juice.

Gradually beat in additional powdered sugar till frosting is of spreading consistency.

CREDIT: Submitted by "Amanda Howell" on Allrecipes.com

Rainbow Cake

Our friend Jeff celebrated his 42nd birthday in October. There was a huge surprise birthday party for him and I had volunteered to make the cake. His wife said that his favorite flavor is white cake with chocolate icing, and Hubby had the bright - literally - idea of dyeing the cake and turning it into a rainbow cake.

This was a HUGE cake - a 12" square as the base, then tiers of a 10" round, 8" round, 6" round, and 3" round (or...jumbo cupcake on top!)

We used the "Cake Mix From Scratch & Variations" recipe from Allrecipes.com, except that we made 5 batches since we had such a large cake.

The recipes below are for a regular cake (one 9"x13" pan or two 9" rounds).

WHITE CAKE:
INGREDIENTS:
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbs baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup shortening
3 egg whites, beaten until soft peaks form
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:
In clean bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.

In large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in shortening until fine crumbs are formed.

Add milk and vanilla. Beat at low speed for 1 minute, then high for 2 minutes, scraping the bowl frequently. Fold in egg whites.

Pour batter into greased and floured pan. Bake in preheated 350º oven for 25 to 30 minutes (may be more or less, depending on the pan size used).

CREDIT: Submitted by "Janet" on Allrecipes.com

CHOCOLATE COOKIE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbs cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbs milk

DIRECTIONS:
Mix together all ingredients. May need to add more milk (slowly) until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency.

NOTE: When I made this, I also added 2 squares of melted unsweetened chocolate to enhance the chocolate flavor and decrease the sweetness.

CREDIT: Submitted by "Nancy Dorman" on Allrecipes.com


RAINBOW CAKE METHOD:
We can't take credit for the rainbow cake idea. Hubby is a member of the Something Awful Forums and got the idea from this thread. The vertical stripes look difficult, but are rather easy, if you follow the proportions outlined below.

How Do I Know How Much Batter To Dye Each Color?
This cake took all night and I enlisted Hubby's help. We began by calculating - yes, calculating - exactly how much of each color batter would go into each pan. We chose to use 5 colors - red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. In order for the bands of color to be about equal proportional, we actually had to use more of the blue (the outer band) than the red (the inner band).

Here are the percentages that we used of each color, with red being the inside band and blue the outside band:
Red - 10%
Orange - 15%
Yellow - 20%
Green - 25%
Blue - 30%

I'll go ahead and include our "master table" that we used to know how much of each color to use in each pan. Note that this probably won't make sense, but hopefully it will help!

The easiest way is to determine the total batter capacity of the pan and multiply the total capacity by the percentage of cake batter based on color.

Example: An 8" round pan holds 3 cups of batter. 3 cups x 10% red = 0.3 cups or approximately 1/3 cup red batter. 3 cups x 15% orange = 0.45 cups or approximately 1/2 cup orange batter.

Ok, So How Do I Get Those Cool Vertical Stripes?
Ok, now that we know how much of the batter to dye each color, let's go on to the method. Once you have all of your colored batter separated and your pans prepared, pour your first color directly into the center of the pan (your first color is the one towards the outside of the cake and the one that has the most batter from your calculations). Continue to pour the rest of the colors directly into the center of the pan until you have poured all of the batter in. Now, very carefully transfer to the oven and bake - it's that easy! Or, at least, I can say that it was easy since Hubby did that part!