Chocolate Turtle Fathers Day cake

Chocolate Turtle Fathers Day Cake

My dad has always loved those little turtle candies (..you know the ones in the orange and white package..) and we usually end up getting him a box for holidays, so this year i decided to include his love for those little turtles in a cake made just for him. I got this recipe from my recipes.com and Oxmoor house, but instead of buying frosting, i couldn't help but make my own, I actually didnt find anything else about this recipe i would change, i think thats a first! Anyway.. in the process of making my own frostings, i actually invented my own chocolate frosting recipe that tastes AMAZING! When finished the cake turned out moist, rich, and absolutely fabulous! This could almost tie with my decadent Oreo cake, and actually it took a lot less time to make than that one. SooooOooo... heres the recipes i used:

Ingredients

Unsweetened cocoa
1 (18.25-oz.) package devil's food cake mix
1 (3.9-oz.) package chocolate instant pudding mix
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
1 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon chocolate extract
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1 (6-oz.) package semisweet chocolate morsels
1 cup chopped pecans
1 (16-oz.) container ready-to-spread cream cheese frosting
1/2 cup canned dulce de leche
2 (7-oz.) packages turtle candies
1 (16-oz.) can ready-to-spread chocolate fudge frosting
1 (12-oz.) jar dulce de leche ice cream topping
1/4 cup pecan halves, toasted

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 2 (9-inch) round cake pans, and dust with cocoa. Set aside.

2. Beat cake mix and next 7 ingredients at low speed with an electric mixer 1 minute; beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Fold in chocolate morsels and chopped pecans. Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake at 350° for 30 to 32 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks, and cool completely. Wrap and chill cake layers at least 1 hour.
refrigerator.

4. Whisk together cream cheese frosting and canned dulce de leche in a small bowl until well blended. Set aside. Cut 6 turtle candies in half, and set aside for garnish. Dice remaining turtle candies.

5. Using a serrated knife, slice cake layers in half horizontally to make 4 layers. Place 1 layer, cut side up, on cake plate. Spread with 1/2 cup cream cheese frosting mixture; sprinkle with one-third diced turtle candies. Repeat procedure twice. Place final cake layer on top of cake, cut side down. Spread chocolate fudge frosting on top and sides of cake. Cover and chill in refrigerator until ready to serve. Just before serving, drizzle dulce de leche ice cream topping over top of cake. Garnish with remaining halved turtle candies and pecan halves. Store in

Test Kitchen Tip: We tested with 2 dulce de leche products: canned and jarred. The canned product is by Nestlé and available in a 14-oz. can. It's quite thick, and when blended with ready-to-spread cream cheese frosting, makes a rich, caramel-flavored filling. Find it in the supermarket with the Mexican ingredients. The jarred dulce de leche ice cream topping is perfect to drizzle over the finished cake. Find it in the supermarket with other ice cream toppings.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8oz. Cream Cheese, Room Temp.
1/4 cup butter, room temp.
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/3 cup white chocolate chips, melted

Simply beat all ingredients together, make sure and melt the white chocolate chips first, they are my favorite part,
and they just add a little extra kick.
BTW this is probably the only recipe i wont add butter flavoring too, i think im a butter flavoring addict.

Emilee's Super Rich Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

3/4 cup butter
4 cups powder sugar
1 tbsp cocoa
2 squares of unsweet baking chocolate, or 2 ounces
1/3 cup semi-sweet choc. Chips
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp butter flavoring

Beat butter on medium speed until it is smooth. Melt the semi-sweet chips and the unsweet squares, and let cool a couple of minutes while you do the next step (you can melt these together, in a double boiler, or just simply in the microwave). Next pour in 2 cups powder sugar, along with cocoa, and when that is combined pour in your melted chocolate. Next, one more cup powdered sugar, then your milk, then the final cup powder sugar, and finally when all that is mixed add your flavorings.

My mother always tells me to make my frosting thicker since it will pipe better, however depending on how thin/thick you would like it, you can add more milk, also i ended up adding a little of my left over dulce de leche to the last of my frosting as i piped around the sides and top of my cake, and it added a nice texture, and just a tiny bit more flavor as well.

Thanks Dad!

Pink and Zebra Cake:

I made this cake for my friends birthday. My friend declared that she wanted a chocolate cake, however since I'm not a big fan of plain chocolate cake, i decided to mix it up a little. I followed a recipe that called for chocolate cupcakes, with a cheesecake center. instead of the cheesecake in the cupcakes, i made a layer of cheesecake in the middle of my cake by pouring some of the batter in it, then putting on the cheesecake layer, then pouring the rest of the batter on top. I was a little scared at how this recipe would turn out, however, it turned out pretty good. I also made some red velvet cake balls to go along with the cake since she was having some people over, and i didn't know how many the cake would feed. Turns out it was more than enough, and the zebra was a big hit! O yeah, I didn't use any fondant on my cake, i have yet to experiment with that. I iced it with regular old bags, but i still think it looked pretty good, and definitely tasted Amazing!

Heavenly Cookies and Cream Cake

Cake Balls..

..Or No Cake Balls??, That is the question!

If heaven was a cake, it would taste like this one. This cake turned out absolutely AMAZING! I recommend it to any chocolate, or Oreo lover for that matter. I couldn't decide if i liked it better with cake balls on top or not through, so the choice is yours! Anyways, this cake has a rich, moist chocolate cake base, and in the middle is a cookies and cream-cream cheese layer, not to mention it's covered with chocolate cream cheese icing, the perfect combination of all the best flavors!

Heres what i did:

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:

• 1 cup hot coffee
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 cups cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon butter flavoring (optional)
  

For the creamy Center:

• 1 cup cream cheese
  
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 6 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 cups crushed oreos

For the chocolate Cream Cheese icing:

• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• 3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon butter flavoring (optional)
  
• 1 cup cream cheese
• (you can add some crushed oreos here if you like)
  

INSTRUCTIONS

For the cake:

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. ( or if you like it simple like me, get some spray that already has flour in it) In a bowl, combine the coffee and cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Add 1 cup cold water and whisk until combined. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking so da, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Continue beating at medium speed while slowly adding the eggs, butter flavoring, and vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture until well combined. Pour into the prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
3. Allow to cool 10 minutes in the cake pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

For the Creamy Center:

1. Whisk the Cream cheese, cream, and sugar until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the crushed oreos. Set aside.

For the chocolate-Cream Cheese icing:

1. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, or in a double boiler over low heat, if you like that better; set aside to cool. Combine the butt er, cocoa powder, and powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Next mix in the Cream cheese. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the vanilla, butter flavoring, and cooled chocolate. Beat until well in corporated. Set aside at room temperature.

To Finish it off: Get one cake out and spread a layer at least 1/2 inch thick on it of the creamy center. Next flip the other c ake on top, and cover in Chocolate-cream cheese icing. Finally, sprinkle crushed oreos on top, mini chocolate chips might be good too, and if you wish make a few cake balls with some extra cake and apply them on top as well. O yeah, i also cut oreos neatly in half, and put them around the bottom of my cake, creating a cute border.

Cookies and Cream, Oreo, Cake balls :

I poured a little extra cake into a little pan, if you dont have one, you could use a muffin pan, or any mini cake pan. Then i crumbled up the cake, and added some icing,

and a tiny bit of the creamy center, i just est imated, but make sure you don't put too much icing and filling, because your cake balls could get a little runny. After that, roll them into balls and sometimes it's best to put t hem in the freezer for only a couple min. so that they are easier to roll in the chocolate, and they aren't falling apart on you. Next i melted some chocolate, rolled the balls in it, and placed it out. I used bittersweet, but for better results i might suggest trying a milk chocolate cooking bar, or melting milk choco late, chocolate chips. Finally i Rolled them in powder sugar before the chocolate got too hard.