Late But Tasty: Cherry Almond Cake

I finally finished Super's midterm cake! It was well received despite it's lateness.

True to my own musing, I ended up making the Cake Blog's Fresh Cherry Cake. They use goose berries, which are yellow to add some lovely colors. I originally intended on using bing and rainer cherries to get my reds and yellows in, but we only had red ones by the time I made it. Lovely nonetheless.

The almond whipping cream was truly delicious. I would double it. It looks nice put on sparingly, but when actually eating the cake, it was more tasty and less dry if you dump on an extra serving of whipping cream. Don't feel guilty. Do it for cake everywhere.

Now a confession: the cake fell over as soon as we finished taking pictures. I put it back together like this, and I actually liked that look for serving better.

I don't think you need to fear it falling over if you're using a more normal size of cake pan. I used little springform pans: a wedding gift from my Ever-Lovin' Bethany. They are so cute. I want to make everything in them. I cooked them at 350, as instructed, and they took about 15 minutes. My only trouble with them was that I didn't push them far enough into the oven on the second batch, which led to one side cooking a bit faster. So watch out for that. But truly, they are lovely.

I also now love to grease and flour cake pans. The railing outside our apartment is often coated in a light dusting of flour. I'm just waiting for the day when I drop my cake pans three stories. That will be both tragic and funny, and it's just the kind of mistake I'd make.

I'm glad this post is finally up. Lately I've been loving writing about deeper things, like my unemployment, and I have several posts I'm eager to share with you all next week. Feel free to like, pin, and share any of them.

Unemployment Day 10: Cakes for Calculus

Fun fact: the math lab at BYU was originally built to be a computer server room.

Computer servers = air conditioning^10.

This is why Super, who is spending the day there, requested that I bring him a sweater, which he wore proudly in the August swelter. He's charming like that.

Connecticut, in April = no swelter.

He's also so charming that he saved me the donut holes from his last day of class and wrapped them up in his old homework. They came out streaked with blue notebook paper lines.

Speaking of sweet things, I'm a cake behind! Super's midterm cake will be done tomorrow! Get excited.

Finally! The Blueberry Cake and an End to Cake Week

This Cake Week has turned out to be the longest week of my life—sort of. Many good and time-consuming things have happened to delay this final cake post, but here it is.

Super's cake for spring finals was a Blueberry Breakfast cake, from the Cake Blog.

Sadly, our verdict on this cake was that it was good, but it turns out that what we really wanted was a blueberry cake, not a breakfast cake.

The maple flavor, the cinnamon, and the browned butter really overpower the cake. So if you're really committed to those flavors, this is the cake for you. If not, maybe reconsider.

I didn't make any alterations to the recipe, except we added a lot of fresh blueberries to the finished cake. Turns out this is what it really needed. With the extra blueberries, it was considerably more tasty. To cut down on cost, I used a tiny bit of maple extract with normal syrup in the cake, since pure maple syrup was much more expensive.

If you're looking to make the same cake, I recommend this site on how to brown butter. The butter didn't behave like I expected, and this was really helpful. The recipe says it takes about ten minutes to turn an amber color. On my stove, it took three minutes. So, be aware of the cues.

I'm already very excited to make the next cake. Super has definitely earned it: yesterday his first midterm lasted four hours and forty-five minutes. Any suggestions?

This Is Not the Cake You Were Looking for, But It's Chocolate Cherry Cake

I'm still a few days away from having a completed cake of awesomeness, which will be Super's official spring term cake. In the meantime though, Super and I have been enjoying a lovely chocolate cherry cake, made by our kind friend, Miss Berry.

She kindly shared with me the recipe, which I now give to you. It comes from a very old magazine, which means it's legit. According to her, the frosting always comes out grainy, meaning you can feel the sugar granules still. I don't mind though. This is one of my favorite textures. I love unabashed sugar.

Cake

1 pkg. Fudge Cake Mix

21 oz. can of cherry pie filling

1 tsp. almond extract

2 eggs, beaten

Frosting

1 c. sugar

5 Tbsp. butter

1/2 c. milk

1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 9x13 pan. Combine cake mix, cherry filling, almond extract, and eggs. Stir by hand until well mixed. Pour into greased pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. While cake cools, prepare the frosting by combining sugar, butter, and milk in a small saucepan. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in the chocolate chips until smooth. Then pour over cake. 

Speaking of cherries, we spent the morning at a U-Pick cherry farm in Payson, Utah. It was fantabulous in every way imaginable: great cherries, amazing prices, lovely company, beautiful trees, and tall, sturdy ladders for the climbing. I highly recommend going. Their last day is Monday, July 8th, but they are open Monday (and the rest of today) from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., so you can still make it! It's 75 cents for a pound, which is a great deal. More info here.

I'm making Super's cake for real today; pictures will be up on Tuesday. But all these cherries are tempting me to make this cake instead . . .

Unfortunate Cake Delay

In great news, this Cake Week will not end yet! (Why yes, I have all kinds of power when it comes to extending weeks. Seven days is highly relative.)

The sad news is that the delay on making the cake is happening because our car broke down (that makes three times since our engagement, if you don't count the flat tire). So, alas, I have not yet made it to the store for ingredients.

I think this waiting is making me more pumped though to get started. I've got cake pans anxiously anticipating their next huggable friend.

Anyone want to guess what kind of a cake it will be?

I'll give you a hint: it involves Super's favorite kind of berry. Feel free to guess away in the comments.

In other news: in addition to the car dying, there was another demise in our household—Devin, the stormtrooper spatula, who melted to my mom's pan (so three demises if we count the pan; we must like the number three).

Don't worry though. We've replaced him with a clone spatula from Williams Sonoma. It's like Devin was never even gone. Honestly, he is a great spatula. He's even a better spatula than he is a stormtrooper.

Next to Devin, these people are my favorite stormtroopers.

Gooey Butter Cake and Caramel Cake

In the newlywed chaos, two cakes have emerged since my last cake event. They were nothing as complicated as the 108 Oreo Cake or the infamous Cookie Dough Cake, but they were certainly delicious.

For winter finals: Paula Deen’s gooey butter cake with sliced strawberries on top.

For spring midterms: Caramel Cake from Our Best Bites, which I also added sliced strawberries to.

Of the two, the Caramel Cake was definitely the more delicious of the two. I’m finding that if you let yellow cake sit for a day before eating it, the flavors mingle in a wonderful way. Such was true with this cake, and the Cookie Dough Cake as well. And I wouldn’t recommend omitting the strawberries on top with the caramel cake. They’re a must-have, per usual.

These are both great cakes to make if you're looking for something awesome, but less time consuming than the 108 or the Cookie Dough.  Sadly, I didn't take pictures of either of these cakes. But here's a picture I'm quite fond of. 

I don't know what exactly it says about our relationship, but I'm pretty sure it says good things. 

The Big, Big Cake Event

 I told Jacob that instead of me making him a cake for winter midterms, I was planning our wedding cake instead—a true cake event.

 We had four different ice cream cakes from Coldstone Creamery, and it worked out great! This is a lovely option if you want lots of pretty, tasty cake for a good price. But they take a lot of muscle to cut, as you can see here.

(Thanks goes to my co-worker who kindly sat with me at lunch and helped me choose the most delicious combinations even though she wouldn’t be able to eat them and their gluten-infested insides.)

It's Cake Week! Send me a picture of your best Cake Event at ellisemdashes@gmail.com. 

Cake Week! Cake Week!

Though posting has been sporadic, the cake events have continued!

Cake event, noun: the over-the-top cakes, Ellis makes Super to celebrate the commencement of midterms and finals.

You’ll notice that “midterms and finals” means a cake event every two months during fall and winter semester, and a cake every three weeks during spring and summer terms. That’s some intense cake making for the summer months.

And it’s time to get baking again. So on that note, I declare this Cake Week. Cake Week means I put up some pictures of us and fancy cakes, culminating in pictures of the newest Cake Event, which will happen sometime before next Tuesday.

I now declare this Cake Week—open.

Have you made any awesome cakes in the last few months? Send me a picture at ellisemdashes@gmail.com, and I'll post the best ones here. 

This Cookie Dough Cake Is An Event

Perhaps you'll remember how I made Super a 108 Oreo Cake to celebrate his successful completion of midterms?

I knew I needed to top myself for finals, so I made what Brother Joseph said is "not really a cake, but an event." It combines all of my favorite things: cookies, cookie dough, chocolate chips, and good frosting. If you're wondering where the no-egg cookie dough goes, it constitutes the filling between the cake layers. And yes, it's as lovely as you'd hope it could be.

If you'd like to make your own, check out the tutorial from Tip Junkie. Her buttercream frosting recipe with the cake has become my new favorite. It's far superior to any other I've tried. Beyond that though, here are a few suggested changes to the tutorial though.

1) The cookie recipe she gives is not my fave. You could easily substitute whatever cookie recipe you love most, which I recommend. We did however use walnuts in the cookies, which were graciously grown and donated by Super's cousin. Super contributed to his own cake by cracking walnuts with his bare hands. Here he is modeling his red hands. The pictures don't really show the new texture of his palms, so you'll have to just trust me that this cake resulted in battle wounds.

2) I often skip out on the mini chips, but they really do work best in the cookie dough. Big chips tend to make my teeth hurt. So if you're like me—cheap with over-sugared teeth—spring for the minis.

3) This cake tastes much better once when given a few days to sit. So plan ahead and let the flavors percolate to perfection.

Flinging chips on the cake. YES.

This cake took at least 8 hours to make, but I think it was worth it. It probably wouldn't have taken as much time if it weren't for the fact that Super's house is too cold for butter to soften. I doubt you'll have this problem though.