Oreo Birthday Cake

For my Birthday I made my own cake. Now, before you say you’re sorry I had to make my own cake, you have to know, it was between making my own cake and letting my husband make my cake. I’ve never seen him bake so I probably would not get a cake in the end and it would be much more work for me to walk him through the cake making process.

It was a delicious cake with a fun topper. I love Indiana Jones!

And, I had fun taking pictures of my cake…

I got the recipe from a blog called My Baking Addiction. It was delicious! The icing really tasted just like the oreo filling and what’s not to like about an entire box of oreos on the cake!

Oreo Cake

INGREDIENTS:

For the Cake

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix {with or without pudding}
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

For the Oreo Buttercream

1 stick salted butter – room temperature
1 stick unsalted butter – room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar, 10x)
3-4 tablespoons very cold milk
25 Oreo cookies chopped

DIRECTIONS:

For the Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottoms of (2) 9 inch round cake pans with parchment and grease pans thoroughly.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mix, salt vanilla, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and divide batter into the prepared pans.

3. Bake for 25-35 minutes, rotating pans half way through baking the baking time. Bake until the top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake for at least 30 minutes before inverting. Allow cake to cool completely on wire rack.

For the Oreo Buttercream

1. Cream the butters in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract and combine well.

2. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, begin adding the very cold milk… one tablespoon at a time, combining well after each addition until you reach the desired consistency.

3. Fold in chopped Oreo Cookies and frost your cooled cake layers.

Graham Cracker Houses

My husband had a great Christmas idea four years ago. This is the fourth year we’ve done it and we always have a blast! Instead of gingerbread houses – which are a lot of work – we make graham cracker houses.

We invite a bunch of friends over and make graham cracker houses. This year, I assembled the houses earlier in the day so they were set before the party and kids trying to put candy on them. It worked out really well.

Graham cracker houses are really easy, and a great holiday party idea if you have kids (or if you just like playing with candy and icing)

My house. I actually did this the day after the party before I cleaned everything up. The trick to a good house (in my opinion) is the icing. It’s just powdered sugar and water, and you want it to be thick enough that it doesn’t run but thin enough that you can pipe it. I put my icing in a plastic bag, cut a hole in the end, (a very tiny hole) and pipe the icing out so I have good control over where it goes.

Side of my house

My 3yr old’s “house”. It looks like a tent to me. She made two other houses as well. The party this year was so much fun for her and her little friends! I just handed them bowls of icing with spoons in them, piles of candy, and let them have at it.

And, a melting house. This batch of icing was a tad thin and ended up slipping but I think it looks pretty cool!

And, as a plus, these houses are just as much fun to eat as they are to make!

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

I tried this new recipe off the food network site. Chocolate-Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes.

They turned out pretty well! I’m going to try them again with a few changes.

1. The cupcakes were really crumbly! I had to give my 2yr old a spoon so she could eat them. I think I’m just going to make a regular chocolate cupcake. The extra ingredients didn’t seems to enhance the flavor of the cupcake, just made it crumbly.

2. I LOVE the icing! I’m going to make this and put it on other things! I thought it could have been a bit firmer though, it was a little soft. Next time, I’m not going to use a purchased icing, I’ll make my own and make it a little thicker so when I add the chocolate mixture it’ll be a better spreading consistency.

3. Kroger brand maraschino cherries are terrible! They just don’t taste right, so I’ll use a different brand next time.

Chocolate!

On a blog with chocolate in it’s name, I do have to have a post about chocolate.

Chocolate covered cake balls to be precise.

They’re made by a company called Sweet Jane Lynn. I think it’s two sisters who own it (and operate it).

These are delicious! My husband ordered them for Valentines day for me and they just arrived yesterday, so plan for it to take a while since they have to make every order by hand.

They’re totally worth the wait though!