Flashback Favorites: The Icing on the Cake

Revisiting some of my favorite past posts. I LOVE this recipe for all the lighter cakes of spring!

The Icing on the Cake

I like frosting, really I do. When it's just right, it makes a simple cake something truly special. Some people love all kinds, no matter how sugary- even the shortening based ones from the supermarket bakery. They're also usually the ones who as kids, ate all the frosting off their cupcakes and tossed the actual cake in the trash! I know that my very best friend will always want a corner piece of a sheet cake- the one that's essentially half cake, half frosting- if there's a big ol' honking icing rose on the top of it, so much the better. I'm the type that's often hopeful about the frosting, but end up leaving most of it on the plate. I want to like it, but am often disappointed.

My latest challenge has been to find a nice, simple vanilla frosting for when I decide, at the last minute, to whip up a batch of cupcakes or a rectangular cake (you know, the one in the 9x13 pan, that you end up snacking on, one little bit at a time, all weekend?) I haven't been happy with most of the frostings I've tried that use butter and powdered sugar- they're usually too sweet for my tastes. But I'm also too lazy to try anything more involved (meaning, a stovetop as is called for in some frosting recipes). But this weekend, as I rooted through my cupboard, I came across a recipe for white chocolate butter cream frosting on a package of Bakers' white chocolate squares. It turned out to be exactly what I've been searching for- easy, a subtle white chocolate flavor, and more interesting than "plain vanilla", which surprised me because I'm not much of a white chocolate fan. This will definitely be my "go-to" frosting from now on!

White Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting (enough for 1-9x13 pan, double the recipe if you're stacking 2 round layers)
3 oz. white chocolate
3-4 tbs. heavy whipping cream
1 stick unsalted butter (mine was still a bit chilled from the fridge, but not rock-hard)-cut into pieces
1/2-3/4 c. powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Break white chocolate into pieces into a microwave-safe bowl. Add the cream and heat at 50% power for 30 seconds, stir, and heat another 30 seconds. Stir until white chocolate is melted and smooth (heating for a few seconds more at a time as needed). Stir to cool mixture slightly. Combine butter, 1/2 c. powdered sugar, white chocolate mixture, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, adding more powdered sugar as needed to make desired consistency.

Chocolate Icebox Cake, Take 2

Last Thanksgiving I pulled out my recipe for chocolate icebox cake. We hadn't even been in the new house a full two months and I had just finished repairing the cabinetry and trim and repainting (3 coats plus primer!) the kitchen, entryway, family room, living room, dining room, hallway, and Munch's bedroom. I had unpacked some of our basic kitchen supplies, but had yet to tackle the stacks of boxes in every room of the house. I hadn't yet unearthed half my wardrobe and the majority of my shoes and hoped they'd be found before the cold weather started. Not only that, but I had done all that work on the house late into the evenings AFTER a full day teaching kindergarten. Those first months of school are always the most busy and tiring part of the year because the kids are still SO young at that point and then I even had report cards and parent-teacher conferences as well.

I was nowhere near attaining a comfort level in my new kitchen, nor did I have the confidence (or tools!) in it yet to just whip things up at a moment's notice. An icebox cake, requiring only the effort of my pulling out the mixer to whip the cream and corralling a five year old to put it together, was a perfect solution for a dessert to bring to dinner at my parents'. The cake was a beautiful success- luscious layers of dark chocolate wafers sandwiched between lightly sweetened vanilla whipped cream, which after an overnight refrigeration had softened into thin layers of "cake".

Munch and I had assembled the cake in my favorite cake carrier from my old Williams Sonoma days. It comes with a springform round that clamps onto a stainless steel serving platter with an acrylic lid and carrying handle that fastens the whole thing shut. It's perfect for any type of cake that requires a springform, yet since the serving platter is already incorporated into the design, I no longer end up losing track of my springform bases when I transport desserts. The whole contraption has seen better days though, and there's now a crack in the domed lid. I'm used to its quirks though, but had forgotten that Munch wasn't.

We had arrived at my parents' in a bit of a rush and I remember feeling harried. Munch proudly announced that she would bring the cake in, and as she is so responsible and the cake was in the backseat with her, I didn't think twice. I was steps away from the car when I heard a terrible clatter- and turned around to find the cake upended onto the ground! The carrying handle had jiggled loose and slipped off the cake carrier, sending the dessert, its base, and lid in various directions. Our beautiful layered icebox cake was now a sloppy mess on my parents' gravel driveway. My exhaustion hit me immediately and for once, I had no words of comfort for poor Munch who was horrified at the mistake. My extreme silence left her even more unsettled and within moments, I think we were both in tears in that driveway.

Fast forward a few more months. The kitchen has been unpacked AND its contents rearranged after using it a while. As I'd been assigned to bring dessert to my sister's tomorrow, I figured it was time to revisit the icebox cake. Once again, assembling the layers went quickly and smoothly. Munch even had the chance to operate the mixer and watch the cream as it thickened to soft peaks. The cake is now sitting overnight in the refrigerator, waiting to be taken to lunch tomorrow. And Munch's words of wisdom this time around? "Carry the cake plate from the BOTTOM!"

Sharing the Kitchen

Munch is now a very grown-up six years old and I have been working on giving her more independence in the kitchen. A couple of years ago, I bought her a set of measuring cups and spoons at Cost Plus; each cup or spoon was a different color, making it easier to give her directions when measuring out ingredients (an orange cupful, rather then 1/2 cup). For the most part, I handled reading the recipes and let Munch practice measuring, pouring, and mixing.
Munch is a much better reader now, and between cooking and baking with me and her aunt, she has internalized a lot of the steps of cooking. She knows to keep the dry and wet ingredients separate when baking, that a pan should be hot enough that you hear a sizzle when something is added. I can trust her to use a paring knife to cut things up. However, recipes as they are written in cookbooks remain a challenge- they are still too wordy for Munch, and often printed in a small enough font that she often loses her place. I have taken to rewriting ingredient lists and simple instructions for her on a separate piece of paper, which helps tremendously. She can now make a batch of chocolate chip cookies on her own, with me handling the oven for her. I do however, let her check on the cookies' progress and determine if they need more time or are ready to come out.
The newest recipe Munch has tackled is a mix-in the pan chocolate cake. All the dry ingredients are sifted and mixed directly in the pan before adding the wet ingredients. It's fun for kids because they also create a hole to place the baking soda in, then pour vinegar over it creating a mini volcano.

Mixing the dry ingredients- flour, cocoa, brown sugar, and salt

Watching the baking soda and vinegar bubble

Sprinkling marshmallows over the cake batter before putting it in the oven

Recipe: Munch's "Moon Mud" cake, also known as a mix-in the pan chocolate cake, or a "craters of the moon" cake because of the way ingredients are added to "craters" in the dry mixture

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Sift the following dry ingredients directly into a 9 or 10-inch round cake pan (I have found it more difficult for kids to mix thoroughly in a square pan due to the corners) and mix carefully until it looks like light brown sand.

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cocoa powder

Add 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips to the sand and mix in.

Use a spoon to dig out three holes, or "craters", in the sand- small, medium, and large.
In the largest hole, pour in 5 tablespoons melted butter.
In the medium sized hole, spoon in 1 teaspoon baking soda.
In the smallest hole, pour in 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Here comes the fun part- Pour 1 teaspoon white or cider vinegar over the baking soda and watch it foam and bubble!
When the bubbling stops, pour 1 cup milk over the all the sand and mix carefully until it looks like smooth mud.

Scatter about 1 cup of mini marshmallow "rocks" over the top of the batter.

Bake the cake until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out dry/clean- about 40-50 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan, then slice and serve.

Alphabet Activities: Letter U

I know I've been away a LONG while...but you don't really want to hear all the usual excuses. So let's jump right in:
Munch has been making terrific progress with her letter sounds. We started some phonics readers a few months ago and I hear her sounding things out every so often. Even more frequently I'll catch her using beginning sounds in labels to differentiate between several choices. So it sometimes seems beside the point to do the full focus on a letter of the alphabet. But I do want to be consistent, finish, and assemble her various alphabet pages into a book and I suppose we can begin working on writing lower case letters as she's beginning to show an interest in them and a readiness to write them. So this weekend, we tackled the letter U. We began with her alphabet workbook- Munch does LOVE workbooks- and she asked to practice lower case so we added it too:
And continued with coloring the upper and lower case u. It's nice to see how well her cutting skills are coming. We worked on scissor skills so infrequently last summer.
As she had just gotten out of the shower, Munch insisted I do the gluing as she didn't want to get all sticky. But she added more of her drawings to our letter page, which was decorated with cocktail umbrellas-
While I got set up for our cooking project, I hinted to Munch that AudioDad might to an upside-down headstand for her if she asked nicely-
Once the show was over, Munch and I got to work mixing up some batter-
then she sprinkled brown sugar over some butter I had melted in a cake pan-over which she arranged pineapple slices and halved cherries-for a lovely pineapple upside-down cake!which we enjoyed after a taco dinner (u-shaped shells!)-

More Cuteness

I don't know what has gotten into the Munchkin lately. She has been such an angel these last couple of months. AudioDad's been hard at work all weekend applying sealer to our fence. So last night Munch & I whipped up a lasagna and cake for him. After dinner, we ate our cake- Munch is the type that, if there's a yummy snack or treat, she's got one in each hand is already calling dibs on her next piece. So usually, she'd be gobbling her cake & eyeing her daddy's (he'll give her bites of his and she knows it). But last night, he offered her a bite of his cake. And as sweet as could be, she said, "No thank you. It's Daddy's. We made it 'cause we love Daddy." Be still my heart!
And speaking of cute and sweet, if you haven't made it over to Speaking of the Sweetest Things yet, you've got to. Her blog is just adorable!

Happy birthday!

It's AudioDad's birthday- time to celebrate! We kicked off the weekend with Saturday night dinner at Q in Napa. He & I both ordered a delicious beef brisket sandwich topped with some irresistible fried onions.
What's nice this year is that Munch is old enough to have fun helping with the birthday preparations. And, she's slowly learning to keep things a secret. When she picked out this adorable dog

for Daddy last month, I figured I was safe- you usually couldn't drag details of her day out of her without very specific questioning. Unfortunately, she immediately told AudioDad all about the doggies upon returning home- luckily, it didn't make much sense to him at the time. He instead started to worry that I had adopted another puppy from the pound! Within the last week however, we were able to manage wrapping up AudioDad's gifts, hiding them away, and making him a card, all the while Munch is saying, "Ssshh..it's a 'purprise' for Daddy." For breakfast this morning, we made brioche french toast topped with blueberries. Munch put her newly acquired sifting skills to good use:


Munch and I also made a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting which we shared with the family after an impromptu barbecue.


Yum!