Ice Cream Cone Cake

 Ice Cream Cone Cake

This cake is as much fun to make as it is to eat!
By themselves, the cones taste a lot like sugar wafer cookies but bigger! 

For this cake, I used the Marble One-Egg Cake Recipe, the Butter cream frosting and the glaze that you can find here:
 http://learninghowtodecoratecakesmzz.blogspot.com/2012/10/chocolate-wedding-cake.html       
 
For the cones on the cake, I cut the cones in half, stuck them on the sides of the cake and filled them with icing, I used half white, half chocolate in the decorating bag with a star tip and then used a swirling motion to make them look like real ice cream cones.

The little colored balls are just bubble gum balls.

For the upside down ice cream cone on top I used part of the cake that I trimmed off  the top and sides of the cake, before putting on the crumb coat, made a cake ball, put it in the cone, put the cone on top of the cake upside down & angled and pushed down on the cake ball part, so it looked like it could be melted ice cream and then I put the glaze on top of it. Wanting the effect of melted ice cream on top.

You can find the recipe for cake balls here:  http://learninghowtodecoratecakesmzz.blogspot.com/2012/10/cake-ball-lollipops.html      I didn't follow the recipe exactly for this, though. I just used the extra cake and icing and mixed them together until I could form a ball, roughly the size of a baseball.

One thing I have found out that helps keep the plate clean until you're ready to decorate the cake is to cut parchment paper into 4 squares and put under the cake before you initially frost it with the crumb coat. You can remove them by pulling slowly and straight out, one at a time when you finish frosting the cake and are ready to decorate.

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Granny's Banana Cake Recipe

Granny's Banana Cake Recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed, ripe
2 teaspoons lemon juice
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/8 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Frosting
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
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  Directions

1. Preheat oven to 275°. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.
2. In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
4. In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 1 tsp vanilla & 1 tsp almond extract.
5.Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.
8. For the frosting, cream the butter until smooth. Beat in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla & 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.
Add icing sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.
9. Spread on cooled cake. 
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Okay, so I know baking the cake at 275 for an hour seems like a long time and a really low temp for a cake, usually I bake cakes at 350 at about half the time. For some reason, this cake baking at 275 and then putting it straight in the freezer makes it really moist.
This is a yummy recipe! If you don't want to use almond extract in the cake and frosting, you can just go ahead and use vanilla extract instead. Not a big problem, just a little different taste and either way you do it is good! 

This cake is for my Grandma's 94th Birthday and she has a hard time making cakes these days but still loves eating this cake! Usually I don't decorate a banana cake but I layered & decorated this one for this special occasion! 

And yes, I really need a lot of work with my writing on and decorating cakes!

Chocolate Wedding Cake

When my Daughter and new Son-in-Law decided they wanted an all chocolate cake, I told them I would try making it. They said if I couldn't, not to worry about it, they would settle for a cake made out of Ho Ho's and Twinkies but I really wanted them to have the cake they wanted and thought making a cake out of snack cakes was a kind of silly idea.

--> I learned all I could about about stacking tiered cakes, trimming the cakes and using a crumb coat, smoothing out the frosting, what to use for the chocolate drizzled part, how to make a glaze. This is a picture of the top two layers in the refrigerator.

 If I ever make a cake like this again, I'll do the base frosting first, put the layers together and then do the decorating, bottom to top.

 I did one layer at a time, top to bottom. I had to drive 30 miles to deliver it, up and down hills, down a bad patch of highway and I was scared driving, thinking it would fall all over the place, but I got it there in one piece. I added the strawberries once I got there.

My daughter & son-in-law  loved the cake even though I made the bottom layer marble. The top two layers were chocolate. (I used the Marble Cake Recipe below for the chocolate layers of the cake.)

This is the recipe I used for the cake, out of an old Betty Crocker Cookbook that was passed down to me from my Mom. (old enough that there is no publishing date inside that I can find)

One-Egg Cake

2 Cups Flour
1 1/4 Cups Sugar
2 1/3 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 Cup Soft Shortening (I used unsalted butter instead)
1 Cup Milk (I used half & half instead)
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 Egg (1/4 Cup)

Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour two layer pans, 8x1 1/2" or a square pan 9x9x1 3/4". Measure flour by dip-level-pour method of by sifting. Blend flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add shortening, 2/3 of milk and vanilla. Beat 2 minutes, medium speed with mixer or  300 vigorous strokes by hand. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl constantly. Add rest of milk and egg.Beat 2 more minutes, scraping bowl frequently. Pour into pan(s). Bake layers about 30 minutes. cool. Frost with your favorite icing.

Marble One-Egg Cake

 Make One-Egg Cake (above) - except pour half of the batter into another bowl and add a mixture of 1square unsweetened chocolate (1 oz.), melted, 1/4 tsp. Baking Soda and 2 tsp. Water. Beat 1/2 minute. Spoon chocolate and white batters alternately into prepared pan or pans. Run knife through to give marbled effect.

Cup a Dee Cakes Kid's Buttercream Recipe - This recipe makes more than enough frosting to cover all three layers of this 3 tier cake!

2 lbs unsalted butter, at room temperature
16 Cups powdered sugar (4 lbs)
1 Tblsp plus 1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 Cup heavy cream OR light corn syrup (not nearly as good, but works)
Chocolate:  4-6 oz melted chocolate per lb of icing (will be a light brown).

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment add all butter, salt and vanilla to 5 Quart bowl and blend.  Scrape down bowl.  Add ½ of the powdered sugar in stages (put a clean dish towel over the mixer and bowl to keep sugar dust down).  Add all of the whipping cream and blend.  Scrape down bowl.  Add the rest of the powdered sugar in stages until it is blended in.  Scrape down bowl.  Now whip the fool out of it on super high for about 2-4 minutes depending on the strength of your mixer.  The icing will go much lighter in color, fluffier and a good spreading consistency.  You should notice the icing begin to increase in volume (it will fill the mixer bowl).

Thanks to Jennifer from Cup a Dee Cakes for the recipe I found on this page: http://cupadeecakes.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-do-i-get-my-cakes-smooth.html

Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients

1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon water
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In medium bowl, combine powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Stir in water and vanilla: mix well.

Bridal Shower Cakes

My daughter wanted cakes for her bridal shower that were pretty unique. I told her I could try to make them and if I didn't succeed, I would go buy a cake for her party. Great news! I didn't have to buy her a generic cake from a grocery store or bakery, I ended up taking a lot of time and made her the ones she wanted, although the cakes weren't exactly heart shaped like she wanted, I still think they turned out pretty good for a novice and got tons of compliments on them! This is what my end result was and for someone that has spent every year for my kids' Birthday Parties buying cakes, I'm wondering why I wasn't brave enough to try doing this on my own.

I'm learning a lot and am going to try to make another cake that my daughter requested. (Yes! She loved the others so much, she thinks I can do another unique design!) My 17 year old son told me that he wants me to make him a cake, too but he doesn't want to have to share it with anyone! Usually, I don't brag a lot but for someone that only frosted cakes and threw on bought decorations or just gave in and went and bought cakes, I'm bragging!