Frosting a cake

A pretty cake adds a bit of ceremony to an occasion, don’t you think? As far as birthdays and moments of congratulations go, I think flowers and cakes are the perfect thing for celebrating. I had a friend who used to make a pretty little cake for each friend on their birthday. So I thought I’d share with you a new little trick I learned in case you’d like to do the same: how to frost a smooth, level cake, with no crumbs in the frosting

Of course you will need a cake, buttercream (recipe of choice) and some leveled spatula. 

Once the cake is cooled, level it using a cake leveler or serrated knife. Whenever possible, I like to level the cake right in the pan, then take it out and let it finish cooling.

I was recently introduced to the cake icer tip, which I use with a 16-inch pastry bag. It is fantastic for laying frosting on the cake. If you don’t have one, you can improvise by piping your buttercream frosting out of a ziplock bag and using a knife to keep it on. The trick is to lay frosting on the cake, not rub it over the cake, which will pull crumbs up into your frosting.

If you use the cake icer tip, the jagged edge faces towards the cake, the smooth edge away from the cake.

Use a spatula or knife to level the frosting. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just mostly level. Again, try to press the frosting against the cake, not rub it up from the cake.

If you put strips of parchment under the cake, carefully pull them out.

Let the cake sit for 15 minutes to let the frosting dry a bit on the outside.

This is the last step, the fun part. Use a piece of parchment paper or a paper towel and lay it right on the cake. Use your finger to press lightly over the cake and smooth the icing, then peel the paper away. Do the same for the sides. You can pull it  up and press it back on several times to get the cake as smooth as you like it.

Note: If you use a papertowel with an embossed pattern, you can have the pattern transfer to your cake. If this is the effect you’re going for, make sure you use the embossed side of the paper towel against the cake. And for this effect, you get only one shot of laying down the paper and peeling it away; you can’t re-lay the paper once you’ve peeled it away.

Happy Frosting, 

Dina

Techniques from: http://www.giverslog.com/?p=1502

Cookie Dough Recipes

Cookie dough makes me feel like a messy girl with pigtails, beaters, and a big grin - all over again! I love cupcake batter, but cookie dough is in a class of its own.

Note: Pregnant women should refrain from eating cookie dough due to raw eggs in it. (although - there are some debates about the dangers of eating raw egg.)

What to Do With Raw Cookie Dough

There are countless things to do with raw cookie dough. Some ideas are:

• Mix it with vanilla ice cream for your own homemade cookie dough ice cream.
• Swirl it in with fudge for some cookie dough fudge.
• Spread a layer of it in between two cakes instead of frosting. This would be awesome with cheesecake.
• Just leave it sitting around with a spoon and eat some periodically.
• Make cookie dough cupcakes

Raw Cookie Dough Recipe

Note: To make it egg-less, I used milk to replace the moisture from the eggs. It worked perfectly!

• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 3/4 C unsalted butter, melted
• 1 C packed brown sugar
• 1/2 C white sugar
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 4 T milk
• Any amount of any mix-in you'd like - t chocolate chips, nuts, or fruit would all work.

1. Mix all ingredients in a big bowl. That's it!

If you are not pregnant then you could go for the ordinary cookie dough recipe also known as "the ultimate mind blowing cake". I adopted this recipe from tidymom.net and it never fails to make me forget my name (its that delicious)

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Summary: yields 24 cupcakes

ingredients

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
• 4 large eggs
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

instructions

1. preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. Using the paddle attachment on your mixer, combine the butter and brown sugar. Cream together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, approx 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl .
3. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.
4. Alternating add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl with the milk on low speed, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated.
5. Blend in the vanilla.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.
7. Divide the batter evenly between 24 cupcake liners. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

quick notes

While the cupcakes bake and cool, prepare your cookie dough filling.

Thanks to: tidymom.net and cupcakeproject.com

Rainbows Frosting and Rainbow Cake

Brilliant Rainbow Frosting Idea. Your colors will depend on how dark you want it to be. Sometimes i do lighter versions of the rainbow colors.

You can also try this technique: