Wednesday, November 4, 2009

An October Birthday Cake

For the past three years I have baked Country Living's Halloween cake for my sister's birthday. Her birthday is in October but we don't always get around to celebrating it right on her birthday, thus the Halloween/fall theme always seems appropriate. Here is last year's cake. This spooky spider cake is number four.
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I think they must use a vacuum to suck off the excess sprinkles before they remove the spider template. Otherwise, how do you explain the pure white frosting? I think my extra sprinkles make it spookier, right? Right?
The actual recipe for the cake hiding under my Betty Crocker cookbook white frosting is the one from last year's cake. This year's recipe called for a box cake plus a few additions. I remembered that we really liked the moist, dark chocolate from last year, so I reused this recipe. It has become my standby chocolate cake recipe.
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Classic Chocolate Cake- Halloween Style[from country living]
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Ingredients
2 cup(s)flour
1/2 cup(s)cocoa
1 teaspoon(s)baking powder
1 teaspoon(s)baking soda
1 teaspoon(s)salt
3/4 cup(s)butter, softened
2/3 cup(s)granulated sugar
1/2 cup(s)dark brown sugar
3eggs
1/4 cup(s)sour cream
2 teaspoon(s)vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup(s)milk
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Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour, two 8-inch-round cake pans (for layer cake; pictured), Set aside. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.
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Beat the butter and sugars together in a bowl using an electric mixer on medium-high speed. Beat in the eggs. Reduce speed to medium-low. Stir the sour cream, vanilla, and milk together and add it in thirds, alternating with the flour mixture. Beat until batter is smooth, about 3 more minutes.
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Divide the batter equally between the prepared pans and bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center tests clean. For layer cake, it should take about 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
Trim cooled cake layers, if necessary, to make level.
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And you? Have you been baking anything yummy lately?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I read I've got my Mom's lasagna sauce simmering on the stove. It was always a fav growing up. I like to make it a day or 2 ahead to let that parsley, basil, and garlic really set in. We will have it for Celia's big #5 B-day dinner on Friday.

-Janet M.

Sarah Jane said...

Jenn,
Small world! I was perusing your older posts and I'm pretty sure we've met. I used to be a school social worker in Bloomington with Erik and Krista worked at my school one year, too. We were at Erik's Obama fish fry last year. Very fun. I'll keep up on your blog.
All the best,

Nicola said...

it came out great. i love that magazine. i love seeing someone else's version of their cake's!
baking yummy things, yes. so fun and pretty? no.
nicola
http://whichname.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

That cake was awesome! I bet Country Living photoshops the extra sprinkles - cheaters!


-Erik J.