How To Frost A Layer Cake

I promised you a couple weeks ago that I'd show how to frost a cake. And today is that day. Are you ready? I am! Let's get started.

First off, you will need a revolving cake stand (see note below), a large off-set spatula, a leveled and stacked cake on a cake board and an ample amount of prepared frosting at room temperature.

NOTE: The top of the revolving cake stand has a smooth surface to help you to slide the cake off the stand once it has been frosted and decorated. I like to cut a piece of non-stick drawer liner the same size of the round top to place on the top to give me a non-slip surface. When I'm spinning my cake stand around I can be confident in knowing that my cake is not going to fall off of it. Also when looking for a cake stand look for one with a heavy base so that once the top of the cake stand doesn't become top heavy. In a pinch a lazy susan works just fine.

___________________________________________________

Before we start, I want to tell you how important it is to have level cake layers. If your cake baked and domed, that's okay, just use a serrated knife and gently saw off the domed tops until they're level. Fill the layers with jam, frosting, or other fillings and stack them on top of eachother- just be sure to stack the cake layers cut side down. If you're layers aren't level, your cake will be crooked or your cake layers may slide off eachother. I filled these cake layers with jam but if you want to use frosting, 1/2 cup between each layer is sufficient.

Recipe: Lemon Blueberry Marble Cake

1). Place stacked and leveled cake on a cake board and place on the cake stand. Plop (technical term) a substantial amount of frosting on top of the cake. Don't put all of the frosting on top of the cake- reserve a little for decoration and piping if you like.

2). Using your off-set spatula, begin to smooth the top of your frosting, all the while working it down the sides of the cake.

3). With the back of the spatula, guide your frosting down the sides of the cake all the way down to the cake board.

4). If you have too much frosting on your spatula, scrape off the excess into a bowl. If you need more frosting, add it to the sides of the cake and continue to cover the entire cake making sure no crumb is visible. Don't be afraid to use the amount of frosting you need in order to get the job done. You don't want to have too little frosting or you'll be be scraping the cake and getting crumbs in your frosting.

5). You just want the cake covered entirely in frosting. Don't worry about what it looks like at this point. It's OK if it's not smooth and beautiful at this point. It will be, and we'll get there together.

6). Now that the cake is covered in frosting, it's time to smooth it out. I start by holding the off-set spatula at a slight angle over the top of the cake, just touching the frosting. I hold the spatula in place and spin the cake stand. Don't apply too much pressure or the frosting will work it's way down the sides of the cake. Keep spinning til smooth and level but don't worry if it's not perfect.

**All throughout this process you should be scraping off the excess frosting. You'll be more successful if you have clean tools**

7). Now we're moving on to smoothing out the sides of your cake. Hold the spatula upright against the sides of your cake. Rather than pressing the backside of the spatula right up against the frosting, you want to hold it at a slight angle. Hold that in place while you spin the cake stand. This motion will smooth out the sides of your cake. Repeat until you're happy with the appearance.

8). Sometimes when you smooth the sides of the cake, excess frosting will work it's way up around the edge of the cake. This is okay because we're about to smooth it out as well as the top again.

9). Grab your spatula and gently approach your cake (see the position of the spatula in step #8). Gently drag the spatula from the outside edge towards the center of the cake. Do this all around the cake til the edges are smooth.

10). Repeat step #6 in order to smooth the top of the cake once again if needed.

11). If you want to add a border to the edges of your cake, add the reserved frosting to a piping bag fitted with the tip of your choice (this is tip #12). Pipe a border around the top of your cake. If you want to pipe a border along the base of the cake, wipe any smeared frosting off the cake board with a damp paper towel before proceeding.

12). I forgot to take a picture of this, but if you have spikes on your beaded border, then gently press them down, one at a time with a damp finger. This will round them out and give them a more uniform look.

13). If you like, you can use other tips to further decorate the cake. I used some of the reserved frosting and tinted it with gel colors for writing on the cake and for making the smaller polka dots on the side of the cake. (I used #3 tip for this).

14). Using a thin flexible spatula, lift the edge of the cake board from the top of the stand. Slide your hand underneath the cake to support it and transfer it to a cake pedestal or plate. Stick a candle in it in and call it a day. Be proud of what you have done!

To The Rescue!

This is my first post of the new year and I had to make it good, so I have for you a cake. Not just any cake, a grandiose cake. This is the cake I for the two boys I nanny for. Their birthdays were in November and the oldest turned 3 and the little one turned 1. If you'll remember I made an applesauce spice cake for his first birthday, but this cake was made for their birthday party.

Their mom originally chose a different theme a much simpler theme, but then she changed her mind and wanted a Wonder Pets themed cake. If you're not familiar with The Wonder Pets, they are 3 school house pets that turn into super heroes once school is out and rescue other pets in need of help. They make a fly boat out of materials they find in the classroom and fly to their destinations. There were no guidelines with this cake, just make it big enough to feed 40. Sometimes that great because I'm not limited by anything and other times it makes it even harder...because I'm not limited by anything! Boundaries can be a good thing.

So I knew from the beginning I wanted this to be a tiered cake. And I like things in 3's so it had 3 tiers. The bottom tier was a 9x13-inch chocolate cake, the middle tier was a 2-layer yellow cake with confetti in it and the top tier was a Wonder Pets fly boat made out of rice krispy treats and covered in fondant. The Wonder Pets characters- Linny, Ming Ming and Tuck, were purchased.

The chocolate cake was a cake I've made before. It was the one-bowl chocolate cake from Sky High Cakes and it was really delicious. But if you'll remember, I had issues with the cake sinking in the middle. Well a reader saw that I was having a problem and decided to tackle the issue herself. The cake originally did not contain eggs, but she added them and it was fine. So I tried it and it turned out perfectly. Thanks so much!

The yellow cake, was well, a disappointment. It was even more disappointing because the title of the yellow cake was Moist Yellow Cake and it was anything but moist. It was dry and crumbly. I should have known better when the recipe called for the cake to be spritzed with a sugar syrup. I have a problem with that. Cakes should be moist without adding moisture in that form, don't you think? The flavor was fine, but the texture all wrong. So I'm not going to post the recipe for the yellow cake, but you can find it on a mega blog who likes to make cake pops, under that title. If you want to make confetti cake, just mix in several tablespoons of sprinkles to a white or yellow cake recipe.

The cake was covered in vanilla bean buttercream and tinted blue and green to make it look like the sky and grass. The clouds (those were my favorite!) were piped with a #12 tip and the flowers were cut out of fondant. The mast on the boat was made with a wooden skewer and a couple pieces of notebook paper and colored pencils. And the wheels were fondant covered Oreos.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake adapted from Sky High

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8 or 9-inch pans. Line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper, butter the paper.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Use a wire whisk to blend the dry ingredients thoroughly.

Add the oil and 1/2 cup of the water to the dry ingredients. Add another 1/2 cup water, eggs and the vanilla; again whisk until smooth. Divide the batter between the two prepared pans.

Bake the cake layers for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes; then invert onto cooling rack. Remove the paper liners and let cool completely before frosting.

Makes 2- 8 or 9-inch layers or 1 9x13 cake. (I doubled this recipe and baked it in 2 pans).

Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting adapted from Sky High

• 5 egg whites
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 6 Tablespoons water
• 1 1/4 lbs. (5 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp.
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out

Split the vanilla bean in half and scrape the seeds out and set aside.

Put the egg whites in a large mixer bowl and set up the mixer for use. In a medium heavy saucepan, combine the sugar water and vanilla bean pods (not the seeds). Warm over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a boil and cook, without stirring, washing any crystals from the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush, until the syrup reaches the soft-ball stage, 238 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat.

Beat the egg whites on a medium -low speed until frothy. Remove the vanilla bean pods with thongs and set aside (rinse these and put in a bowl of sugar to make vanilla sugar). While beating, gradually pour in the hot sugar syrup in a thin stream, taking care not to hit the beaters. Continue to whip until the mixture is luke warm and a stiff meringue has formed.

If the bowl is the slightest bit warm, do not add the butter, it will melt! Reduce the speed to low and add the butter 2-3 Tablespoons at a time. When all of the butter is incorporated, return the mixer to medium and whip until the buttercream appears to curdle and then suddenly comes together. Add the vanilla bean seeds and the extract, and beat until well blended.

Makes 6 cups

This picture makes me laugh because he kept poking his finger in the frosting. Then he would whisper to me that he ate a cloud. :-)

Inside And Out

Merry Christmas to you all! Thank you for following along with my blog. Thank you for the comments, the emails, the recipes, the inspiration, encouragement and mostly the friendships that we've built along the way. I wish you all the merriest of Christmases filled with laughter, love, family, friends and traditions new and old.

Peace and blessings,

Monica and Mr. H

Christmas Breakfast: Day 6

Today is the last day of the Christmas Breakfast series. I'm kinda sad and a little relieved. I actually have a couple more breakfasts to share with you, but I'll save them for 2010. If you missed any breakfasts here they are:

• Day 1: Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes
• Day 2: Eggs Benedict
• Day 3: Easiest Ever Yeastless Cinnamon Rolls
• Day 4: Sweet Potato Pancakes with Cinnamon Syrup and Baked Pancakes
• Day 5: Migas and Peppermint Bark Cookies
• Day 6: Cinnamon Toast

Today I offer you one of my most favorite and simplest breakfasts ever- Cinnamon Toast. I've blogged about it before when I first started blogging and it sits in my archives with 2 little lonely comments--one of them is from me. It's something that I love so here it is again.

Mr. H first introduced this specialty to me and we have it a few times a month. What's great about it is that you can make as many or as little as you need with not much effort. You butter your favorite bread, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar and bake for 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven. It's buttery, slightly salty and sweet (if you use salted butter), crunchy on the edges and softer in the middle. The best part is the cinnamon and sugar bubbles up and creates a flaky crust on top of the toast. Mmm, it's pure bliss in minutes!

Cinnamon Toast from Mr. H

• Sliced Bread (2 per person) (we like Nature's Own Honey Wheat)
• Salted Butter, softened
• Cinnamon Sugar

Spread softened butter on sliced bread. Place on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar- about 1 tablespoon per slice.

Bake in a preheated oven at 250 degrees F for 15 minutes.

NOTE: These can be made in a toaster oven but it's best to only do one or two slices at a time because the underside doesn't toast up as well. The oven works best.

__________________________________________________

Here are the last of my holiday decorations. I promised Shelly from Cookies and Cups that I would post pictures of my Christmas Story villages. She made some awesome cookies of Ralphie in his bunny suit and a leg lamp my husband would love to have. So fun!

Here is another cutie! My wooden reindeer planter. My FIL made this one year when he was sponsoring a wood shop class as a local high school. He and all the kids in the class made one to take home to their families for Christmas. So cute. I look forward to pulling him out of the attic every year.

While we're speaking of cute, I wanted to send out a special thank you to my dear friend Janet who sent me these gorgeous and tasty cookies. I love them Janet!

And finally...I've finished my cookie boxes! Whew! In them were these yummy bacon and egg cups along with 6 other cookies.

Ta da! I've delivered 2 boxes to the neighbors and the rest I'll give to my family on Christmas Day. I wish I could give you all a box of cookies.

Thanks for following along with my Christmas breakfast posts. I hope you all make and eat some yummy things tomorrow morning. Merry Christmas Eve!

Christmas Breakfast: Day 5

I have 2 goodies for you today- a savory breakfast meal and a simple no-bake cookie. With all the cookies and bars you've all been baking, I'm sure you can appreciate a cookie that can be whipped up in minutes.

First up, we have migas. Migas are crispy fried corn tortilla strips, scrambled with eggs, cheese and pico de gallo- diced onion, cilantro and tomato. But I don't like onion and cilantro so I leave those out and just fold in some chopped tomato at the end. You could also add some minced jalapeno as well.

I don't have a written recipe for this because I just make it, but I'll do my best to give you a recipe if you choose to make it.

Migas For 2 from Monica H

• 5 eggs
• 3 corn tortillas, chopped into 1-inch pieces
• vegetable oil for frying
• 1/8 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/8 tsp. paprika
• 2-3 Tbsp. pico de gallo, or combination of onion, cilantro, jalapeno or tomato
• 1/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated
• salt and pepper to taste

Over medium high heat, coat the bottom of a saute pan with vegetable oil. When it gets hot and shimmery, fry the corn tortillas until crispy, golden and the tortilla nuggets are borderline hard. Don't rush this, you don't want them to burn, but you want them rigid enough that they're not going to get soggy when you add the egg.

Whisk up eggs in a bowl and set aside. Drain off any excess oil, then add cumin, garlic powder and paprika. Coat the tortillas with the spices then add the eggs. Cook the eggs til almost done, then fold in the pico de gallo. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Just before the eggs are set, fold in half the cheese. Then add the rest of the cheese to the top and allow it to melt. Serve right away.

_________________________________________________

Next up is a Peppermint Bark Cookie. I got the idea for these through the Williams-Sonoma catalog. They had 12 white chocolate covered chocolate wafers, sprinkled with crushed peppermints for $13. That's over a dollar a cookie- I don't think so. Why buy them when you can make them?

I used Nabisco chocolate wafers, and instead of fully coating them with white chocolate, I decided to just add a bit to the center, to cut down on the sweetness. And also because I liked the look of the dark and white showing. Pretty and much less expensive than the "gourmet" variety.

Peppermint Bark Cookies from Monica H

• Nabisco Chocolate Wafers
• White Chocolate or White Candy Melts, melted
• Hard Peppermint Candies, crushed

Place the chocolate wafers, face side up on a sheet of parchment paper. Place a mound of melted white chocolate on the cookies. Using the back of a spoon or your finger, smooth out the chocolate. While chocolate is still wet, sprinkle with crushed peppermints.

Allow to dry completely and store in an airtight container if not serving right away.

And here are more of my Christmas decorations. I have a TON of ornaments. I love them! So every year I buy more when they're on sale. I probably have enough ornaments to fill 2 full size trees, but I usually cram them all onto one, so this year I decided to put some of my favorites in my favorite bowls and place them around the house.

This bowl is in my guest bathroom. The bowl is from Hallmark, the pine cone ornaments are from Sears and the little trees are from Home Depot. I got the mercury glass votive holder at Crabtree & Evelyn 10 years ago when I worked there. This one went together on a whim, but it's my favorite, I think.

This is one of my favorite bowls. This is not the greatest photo of it, because it's footed, but it's called the Saddle Bowl from Nambe. The giant mercury glass ornaments and the smaller red ones are both from Target. This one sits in the center of our breakfast table.

And this one is on my dining table. The red glittery bowl is from Target. I got it 3 years ago for my birthday. Aint she purdy? It's filled with white and red frosted ornaments that I've had forever. The striped ones and the black ones are from Target as well.

That's all for now. I'll be back tomorrow for one last Christmas morning breakfast. One more day!