Princess Cake 2

Another Princess Cake!!!

I know this picture isn't great but I had to take it in a real hurry and it's the best one I have, I'm sorry.

So, this is another Princess Cake for the same girl, only this one is a chocolate cake filled with chocolate butter cream... mmmmmm chocolate....

This one came along with cupcakes too and they are the cutest things, check them out:

The cupcakes were marble cupcakes with butter cream... delicious!

Princess cake

How cute is this cake?? This is a Princess cake I had to make for this saturday along with 100 cupcakes! That's right 100!

The cake is vanilla with a Nutella Mousse filling and the cupcakes were Red Velvet with Butter Cream. YUM!!

Now, you will never guess what the cake looks like inside though, so here's a picture...







COLORS!!! Yes, the cake was all different colors inside, it was so cute!





And here we have a picture of the cupcakes, also very cute.









This is what the cake with the cupcakes ultimately ended up looking like set up at the party, I know it's not the best picture but it looked good.

Cherry Cheesecake

I haven't been able to post in a while and I feel terrible about that. Since my camera is still on the fritz, I decided to put up this photo of a mini Cherry Cheesecake I baked. I swear this is the best cheesecake recipe I've tried, and I've tried quite a few believe me!

The recipe below is for a regular sized 9 inch cheesecake not the mini one I have here on the picture. I usually add the flavors like vanilla, nutmeg and lemon rind to taste, feel free to add lemon juice or anything else you wish, this combines well with everything. I will have to post my Oreo Cheesecake so you can see how good that one is! It uses the same recipe, just add Oreos!! Imagine. As for the topping you will see this one is store bought but any topping is great with this, I also use Dulce de Leche topping that I make or Nutella .... YUM!!

Enjoy!

For the crust:
2 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 TB sugar

Cheesecake:
3 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened
1 can condensed milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
nutmeg
lemon rind

1. Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter, press into buttered 9 inch spring form pan to form crust on bottom and sides.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add condensed milk and beat well.

3. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition.

4. Add vanilla, nutmeg and lemon rind to taste. Pour filling into crust.
4. Bake at 350F for 40 to 45 minutes or until set.
For this cheesecake I bought a can of cherry topping and just added whipped cream to the sides. The good thing about cheesecake is that you can top it anyway you like or leave it plain, it's still delicious!

Daring Bakers Chocolate Valentino!!

I joined The Daring Bakers and this month the February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.



***You are not going to believe this!!! Just as I was trying to load the pictures of my Chocolate Valentino with vanilla ice cream and blackberry sauce (yum!) my stupid camera decided to just not do anything! I poked, probed, looked, examined, took things out, put things back in, not knowing at all what I was doing of course, but the damn thing just didn't want to work. So unfortunately, I have no pictures of my delicious dessert. I have posted the pictures from Wendy's and Dharm's blogs so you can see their amazing work.

Dharm's

Wendy's

Don't they look fantastic???

I could not believe how easy this cake was to make and how great it tasted! I also made vanilla ice cream by hand! Yes people by hand, with no ice cream maker and that was incredibly easy as well as delicious! Unbelievable.

I baked a round cake and then cut out hearts and served them with the ice cream and a blackberry sauce that I prepared. It was fantastic! I love this recipe and will definitely be doing it again along with the ice cream!



Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

You can find the ice cream recipe and instructions that I used from David Lebovitz right here.

Please check out Wendy's and Dharm's blogs to get specifics on the recipe and any other information I may have missed on this post.

Also, don't forget to head over to The Daring Bakers Blogroll