Orange Chocolate Stout Cake

Yesterday was my friend Emily's birthday.  Earlier in the week, she had asked if I would mind baking her cake.  Of course I didn't mind!  Baking is great on its own, and I thoroughly enjoy that.  However, baking for a friend is exponentially better.

So last night we went over to her place for some champagne and cake before heading out for margaritas and entirely too much food.  A big "thank you" should go to Sean, too, since he was gracious enough to give me some of his beloved Guinness for this cake.

Sean harassed Lola while we were there, too.  Can't you tell that she's thrilled?

I'd like to thank Evil Shenanigans for this recipe.


You'll need:


1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cups cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup stout beer (I used Guinness), room temperature
4 eggs
1 tbs orange zest
1/3 cup orange juice (freshly squeezed, please!)
1 tsp vanilla


1 1/2 sticks butter
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4-1/3 cup milk


This can be made into a sheet cake (what I did) or into a round layer cake using two 8 inch cake pans.  If you're interested in going the layer cake route and need some guidance, please see the original post.


Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray.


In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.

In another bowl, combine the melted butter, beer, eggs, orange zest, juice, and vanilla.


Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix until well combined and no large lumps remain.  Be careful not to over mix.

Pour the batter into the pre-greased pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean once inserted into the center.

Let the cake cook completely.


While the cake cools, start on the frosting.  In a small pan over medium heat, melt the 1.5 sticks of butter until it is nut brown.  Make sure to keep stirring the butter almost constantly. Allow the butter to cool to room temperature.


Beat the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla until combined.  It's probably going to look pretty clumped up at this point.  Add in the milk, little by little, until you've reached the desired consistency.  Once the cake has cooled you can go ahead and frost it.

This cake itself was fudgey and pretty moist, and not overly sweet.  The orange flavor really came through, too.  The frosting was pretty sweet on its own, but was balanced by the not-so-sweet cake, and the whole thing seemed to go over pretty well!    

Milky Way Cake

Wow, it's been a week since I've posted a new recipe!  I guess that results from a combination of not feeling particularly inspired lately, and also being pretty busy.  Friends of ours were down this weekend to visit and celebrate Sean's birthday.  I did a lot of cooking and baking in preparation for their visit, so you can expect quite a few posts in the near future.  

That's Sean doing his Tom Haverford face.  If you don't know who that is, go watch Parks & Recreation.  You won't regret it.

I saw this recipe on The Pioneer Woman's blog months ago, and had been waiting for Sean's birthday to roll around.  He loves Milky Way candy bars, so I thought this would be perfect for him.  In reality, this cake should have an alternate title: "Oh My God, Call Wilford Brimley Because I Just Got the Diabeetus".  Potential metabolic conditions aside, this is a pretty good cake!  I'm not nuts about Milky Ways like Sean is, so that probably has something to do with me not being over the moon about it.  

You'll need:

11 full-size Milky Way bars, divided use
3 sticks butter, divided use
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
3 tsp vanilla extract, divided use
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 cups powdered sugar
1 dash salt
1/2 cup milk (more if needed)
1 cup pecans, finely chopped


Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F.  In a large sauce pan or double boiler over very low heat, melt 8 of the Milky Way bars together with 1 stick of butter, stirring to combine.  Once melted, remove from heat and set aside.  I won't kid you... it's going to look a little gross there for a while.  You're going to think that you made a mistake.  But you haven't  It will start to look more appetizing.

See, it's looking kinda nasty.

Ahh... much better.

Sift the flour and salt, then set aside.  Mix the baking soda with buttermilk and add 2 tsp of vanilla.  Set this aside also.


Cream 1 stick of butter with the 2 cups of granulated sugar.  Add the eggs 1 at a time.  Add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately to the creamed mixture, mixing after each addition.  Add the melted candy bar mixture to the mix and combine.

Pour the batter into a greased jelly roll pan or 9x13 baking pan and bake for 1 hour or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Mine took just over an hour.

Be more patient than I am and make sure that everything is well combined.  See the lighter swirls there?  Yeah, I was in a rush.

Now, to make the icing.  Melt the remaining 3 Milky Way bars with the remaining 1 stick of butter in your saucepan or double boiler.  Hey, no one said this was low fat.  Add the powdered sugar, dash of salt, milk, 1 tsp vanilla, and chopped pecans.  Stir over low heat.  Feel free to add some more milk if it looks a little tight.


Pour the icing over your cooled cake and allow to set.  This is a super sticky cake (who would have thought since it contains almost a dozen candy bars, right?), so don't expect things to be nice and neat when slicing.


Congratulations!  You now have Type II diabetes.  Enjoy the cake =)

Applesauce Spice Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

My parents came to visit us this weekend.  Okay, I should be honest with you.  I'll start again.  My parents came to visit Maeby this weekend.  She's their only grandchild (read: granddog) at the moment, and they just love her.  The feeling is mutual, I can assure you.  My mom has threatened on many occasions to kidnap her.  She likes to laugh it off and pretend that she's kidding, but we all know that she's at least half-serious about it.  You have to keep an eye on her to make sure that she doesn't try and smuggle Maeby out under a coat or something.


My dad's birthday happens to occur this weekend as well.  I wanted to bake him a birthday cake, preferably without having to resort to using a boxed mix.  Mostly because I didn't have a boxed mix handy and didn't feel like heading back to the store.  Also, because I thought it might be nice to bake a cake that was at least moderately seasonally-appropriate.  Enter: the Applesauce Spice Cake.

The recipe for the cake was originally found at Baking with Basil, and the frosting recipe was found at Savory Sweet Life. 

For the cake, you'll need:


2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 stick butter, room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs, room temperature


For the frosting, you'll need:


2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs vanilla extract
up to 4 tbs milk or heavy cream


Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease your 9x13 cake pan with butter or non-stick cooking spray.


In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.  Whisk until combined.  Add the butter, buttermilk, and applesauce to the dry ingredients.  Beat until well combined.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time.


Pour into cake pan and bake for 20-30 minutes, depending upon your particular oven.  Mine only took about 22 minutes, so make sure to start checking at 20 minutes.  You can also use this recipe to make cupcakes!  If you choose to go that route, fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full and bake for 16-19 minutes.

The cake after baking, complete with the hole in the center where I tested for doneness.

To make the frosting, you'll want to beat the butter with a mixer outfitted with a paddle attachment on medium speed for just a few minutes.  Add 3 cups of powdered sugar (you can always add the 4th cup later on if you think you need it) and beat on the lowest speed, that way the powdered sugar doesn't go flying everywhere.  Beat this until the sugar has been well incorporated into the butter.  Increase the mixer's speed to medium and add the vanilla, salt, and 2 tbs of milk. 


If the frosting looks a little too stiff for your liking, you can add the extra milk 1 tbs at a time.  If it ends up being too runny, you can add some more of the sugar to stiffen it up.

A beautiful buttercream!  This is my favorite recipe to date.  It isn't so sweet that your teeth hurt while eating it.

Now frost your cake and/or cupcakes! 

All frosted up!

After slicing into it.  Mm mmm...

This cake smells wonderful while baking.  It smells just like fall.  It's sweet and spicy, and really moist.  Next time I think I'll bake it into cupcake form =).

Happy birthday, Dad!!