Red Velvet Cake

So red it makes my eyes hurt. YESSSSssss!!!

Once again, Bakerella comes through with another fantastic recipe! Mollie, aka my "work wife" turned 28 this November and her birthday cake request was for red velvet cake. Not entirely happy with my last attempt at red velvet, I turned to Bakerella and voila, sheer awesomeness was produced from my oven. Not only that, but I created everything with my hand mixer due to being too lazy to get out the behemoth known as Eloise-the-stand-mixer. Eloise is jealous of the no-name hand mixer.

This was my very first round cake and/or layer cake EVER. For the first time, it's really not just my shitty iphone camera taking an equally shitty picture. The cake was a hot mess but it tasted like heaven when we knocked it out at 8am the next morning at work. The best part of the hot mess was the fact that I ran out of the food gel that I was attempting to write "Happy Birthday Mollie" with. Instead, all I squeaked out of it was "Happy Birthday M." Fortunately, no one cares but me how it looked and it was gone quick enough where people couldn't really read what I wrote anyway.

Crappy looking but delicious cake is on the left, awesome and gorgeous friend Mollie is on the right.

Red Velvet Cake
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. red food coloring

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.
• Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.
• Place all the dry ingredients in your mixing bowl and stir together really good with another wire whisk.
• Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
• Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I also cover in plastic wrap while the cakes cool.
• Then make the frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups confectioners’ sugar

• Sift sugar and set aside.
• Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy. Add vanilla.
• Then, add the sugar in batches. Scrape down the sides in between each addition.
• And frost away.

Recipe from Bakerella

Chocolate Chip Cake

Chocolate chip cake. The powdered sugar is sprinkled on right before serving so it won't melt away.

 

I'm one of the few ladies of the world that doesn't love and go gaga for chocolate and/or chocolate cake. I'm a fruity candy kind of gal and my favorite cake is strawberry so there you have it.

I will say this though, I *LOVE* this chocolate chip cake. It is super duper easy to make and it always comes out moist and delicious.

My friend Sarah recently had a birthday and when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she requested chocolate. This cake is so decadent and rich, you sprinkle powdered sugar on top of it instead of frosting. It was gone in 15 minutes, tops. :)

Chocolate Chip Cake

• 1 (12oz) package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 (4oz) instant chocolate pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1 package Duncan Hines yellow cake mix

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix cake mix and pudding together. Add eggs, water, and oil. Stir by hand. Add chocolate chips. Stir until evenly mixed. Grease and flour Bundt pan. Pour batter into pan and bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool and turn over. Sprinkle with powdered sugar right before serving.

Recipe from the St. John Vianney Church Cookbook

Mom's Birthday Part II

Menu: Blueberry pancakes, fresh fruit, thick cut bacon, smoked salmon/goat cheese/dill frittata, carrot cake cupcakes, brunch champagne cocktail

My Mom's favorite thing to do with family (besides get all of the gossip haha), is to go to brunch on Sundays after church. We don't often make brunch due to busy schedules, but when we do, Mom always comments on how much she loves brunch and what a wonderful time she always has. For her birthday, creating this brunch for her and our family was my gift to her.

I tried to combine all of Mom's favorites into one meal: blueberry pancakes, fresh fruit, and smoked salmon. The sweet breakfast cocktail in a pretty shade of pink is now a new favorite! (Besides, what's not to love about booze with breakfast?!) I also made bacon so that there would be a little something for everyone (extra thick is totally the way to go...mmmmm pork fat....). With six people eating, I worked like a maniac trying to get everything hot and ready for when they all got back from church.

The blueberry pancakes I've done several times and are posted on this blog here. I baked the bacon in the oven while cutting up the fruit. The smoked salmon, goat cheese, and fresh dill frittata is an Ina Garten recipe. It's super easy and gorgeous and a must serve if you ever have guests to impress. It made for delicious leftovers served with a small salad the rest of the week.

We polished off the cupcakes for dessert and sang Happy Birthday again. Mom was absolutely thrilled and once I recovered from my food coma, I was able to enjoy her celebration even more because she was so happy. :)

Fresh flowers :)

Smoked salmon, goat cheese, fresh dill frittata (still puffy from the oven)

Smoked Salmon Frittata

* 1 medium onion, diced

• * 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• * 12 extra-large eggs
• * 1 cup heavy cream
• * 4 ounces fresh goat cheese, such as Montrachet, crumbled
• * 1/2 pound smoked salmon, chopped
• * 3 scallions, chopped, white and light green parts
• * 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• * 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• * 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Saute the onion and butter in a 10-inch oven-proof omelet pan over medium-low heat until translucent, about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the heavy cream, goat cheese, smoked salmon, scallions, dill, salt, and pepper and combine. Pour the mixture over the onions and place the omelet pan in the center of the oven. Bake the frittata for about 50 minutes, until it puffs and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve hot directly from the pan.

Recipe from Ina Garten


Breakfast Cocktail
* 1-2 bottles chilled dry champagne
* Pink Lemonade frozen concentrate
* 1 lemon, sliced thin for decoration


Right before serving, mix champagne and pink lemonade concentrate in a glass pitcher. Add sliced lemons for decoration. Serve right away.

Mom's Birthday Part I

My Mom celebrated a milestone birthday this October and it was absolutely spectacular! She *thought* that I was whipping up a casual Sunday brunch for just her, myself, and my dad but the reality was that we had her family drive (and fly!) in to surprise her, took her to Truluck's for dinner Saturday night, and then had brunch on Sunday. Mom's favorite kind of cake is carrot cake so I borrowed a simple but delicious recipe from a nice woman I work with to make for her. It's moist and delicious and ALWAYS a hit at the office when she brings it in. :)

Every little surprise was so special and fun for my Mom. When our family walked in through the door, she laughed and cried and then ran around like a crazy person trying to get ready for dinner! We had a champagne toast before Dad "suggested" taking pictures outside. Little did she know that he had gotten a stretch Hummer limo to take us all to dinner and back! 

Truluck's is known for their crab claws so we feasted on the remaining claws that they had (seriously, we cleaned out the house!) and then each ordered fish for dinner. I started out with a yummy hothouse tomato salad. My main dish was the miso-glazed seabass and it just melted in my mouth. We topped off dinner by sharing key-lime pie and chocolate cake and then had the limo take us back home where sang Happy Birthday, opened gifts, and went off to digest/sleep off dinner. Absolutely fantastic. :)

Tomato, shaved parmesan, warm bacon, fresh herbs, house ranch dressing

MSC certified South Georgian Chilean seabass, crab fried rice, chilled cucumber slaw

Key-lime pie

Chocolate layer cake, vanilla ice cream cup, strawberries

Ann's Famous Carrot Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 4 cups grated carrots (1 lb.)

Mix together flour, sugar, and oil.  Add eggs beating after each addition.  Add cinnamon, salt, and soda.  Add grated carrots and mix.  Pour into 3 8-inch pans that have been greased and floured.  Bake 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  Cool thoroughly before icing.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 8oz bar cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature
• 1 box 10X confectioner's sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Beat together cream cheese and butter.  Add powdered sugar and mix.  Add vanilla and mix.  Spread on cooled cake.  Refrigerate.