buttercream

Vegan Chocolate Cake

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No butter, eggs or milk in this super dark chocolate cake! How is that possible? Science! This cake is super moist and delicious, it will probably be my new go-to birthday cake recipe. I topped it with not-so-vegan peanut butter buttercream for my husbands 37th birthday. YUM! If you want to keep the entire cake vegan, though, use whatever frosting you like 🙂 I provided the cake recipe and the buttercream recipe that I used in this post.

Also, this recipe only made an 8 x 8 inch pan, but you can easily double it for a 9 x 13 if you’re feeding more people. The buttercream however, will probably cover it. It makes a ton, I have some left over in my fridge which will probably (definitely) be eaten with a spoon when I’m hungry 😉 And last but not least, this cake is SO EASY to make! no mixer required, just a bowl and spoon and you are done!

So here we go! Let’s go make a vegan cake!

What you will need:

8 x 8 inch baking dish, greased

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar
5 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup water

For the buttercream:

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoons milk
2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder and sugar. Add in vanilla, vinegar, oil and and water and stir until combined. Pour into prepared dish and bake for 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool completely before frosting. Note: if you doubled the recipe, you will need to bake longer so just keep an eye on it.

For the buttercream, beat together the butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add in vanilla, milk and powdered sugar and beat until completely smooth and you reach desired consistency. Spread over top of cooled cake.

Slice and enjoy!

Store covered at room temp.

Yellow Butter Cake with Vanilla Buttercream

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I made this cake for my husbands 35th birthday. He sent me the recipe from another blog called thekitchn.com. They have a ton of awesome recipes so go check them out if you have not already!

I must say, this is probably going to be my new go-to cake! Great for any occasion, even weddings! Dress it up or down, decorate it how you want, or don’t. It is so easy, not many ingredients are needed and it is so delicious! I could eat it in one sitting, no joke.

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mmmmmmmm 🙂

So without further ado, let’s go bake a cake!

What you will need:

For the cake:

Two 9 inch round cake pans, greased and lined with parchment paper

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whole milk

For the buttercream:

1 cup unsalted butter at room temp
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoons +/- whole milk

Note: The decorations you see pictured are just vanilla wafer cookies dipped in melted chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside. In another large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until nice and creamy. Add in eggs, one at a time and beat well until incorporated. Beat in vanilla.

Slowly add in flour mixture, alternating with the milk. Beat for a full minute or two until the batter is a nice consistency. Pour into prepared pans and bake for 25 minutes.

Allow to cool on a wire rack before inverting to cool completely.

Now make the buttercream! Beat the butter until creamy and smooth. The key to making your own buttercream is that you cannot beat it enough. I used a hand mixer and my arm was about to fall off! Next, add in 3 cups of powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time and beat until incorporated and smooth. Add in vanilla and 2 teaspoons of milk. Keep beating, adding another cup of powdered sugar and more milk if needed until you reach desired consistency.

Look at this buttercream! YUM

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Frost the cooled cakes, decorate and enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

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I know, I know! ANOTHER banana bread/cake recipe. Ugh. I have like 20 now up on this site. But they are all so good and I always have the ingredients on hand so banana bread or cake is what I make! This one is so easy and with the buttercream frosting it can be used as a birthday cake. So delicious, so moist, my stomach hurts because I literally just ate 3 pieces. And my pieces are huge.

For the buttercream, I actually don’t even measure out my ingredients anymore. I’ve made SO MANY freaking cakes within the past 2 years that I can honestly say I’ve become a pro at buttercream. However, I did list the ingredients and about how much you need for this cake. But you will see or come to realize that every buttercream is different depending on the person and what you want for each cake. If you have any questions, send me a comment!

So, without anymore typing/reading, go start your ovens and let’s bake a cake!

What you will need:

9 x 13 inch glass bake pan sprayed with nonstick spray

2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 large eggs
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the chocolate buttercream: 

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2-3 cups powdered sugar

For the cake, preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together the mashed bananas, eggs, water, milk, oil and vanilla. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and stir or whisk until combined. The mixture is quite wet.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 33-40 minutes. Mine was done right at 33 minutes. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting with the buttercream.

To make the buttercream: Beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add cocoa powder and milk and beat until combined. Slowly add in powdered sugar until you reach desired consistency. Note: You cannot beat buttercream too much! Keep beating until you get what you want!

Frost the cake when it has cooled completely. Store covered at room temperature. Enjoy!

Heart Cake

Tis the season for heart shaped cake! I love this chocolate cake recipe and to make a heart shape is so easy! All you need is 1 square pan and 1 round pan and you can do it. You can even just use a boxed cake mix to keep it super easy. But the recipe I use below is delicious! And, you don’t need to use a mixer. Just your own strength and a whisk. So, let’s go bake a cake for our loved ones…

What you will need:

1 8 inch square pan, greased
1 8 inch round pan, greased

For the cake:

2 cups all-purspose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 cup warm water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the buttercream frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
3 cups +/- powdered sugar
Food coloring (optional)
Sprinkles (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder. Set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, water, oil and vanilla. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until combined. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 25-27 minutes. Note: My square cake was done before the round so always check before the timer goes off.

Allow to cool 15 minutes on a wire rack before inverting to finish cooling completely.

To make the frosting, beat butter until smooth and creamy. Add in vanilla and 1 cup of powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add in milk and another cup of powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Keep adding powdered sugar until you reach a nice, spreadable consistency.

You will also need a big plate that the cake will fit on. Cut the round cake in half and arrange on plate in a heart shape:

Frost, decorate, slice and enjoy!

Peanut Butter Cake with Chocolate Frosting

So, it was just my husbands birthday and we went to Key Lime Cove for the night. It was a lot of fun and our 3 year old loved it! When we got home I wanted to make him a cake, even though it wasn’t his birthday anymore. But it’s what I do! He LOVES peanut butter. I’m sure I’ve mentioned that before. So I always try to incorporate it when I’m making him desserts. The buttercream frosting is one I always use but the cake is new and super delicious! It is a little bit dry, more so than I would have liked. But it tastes so peanut buttery that it works, especially with a cup of coffee 😉 And the frosting is super yummy. Oh, and the best thing about this recipe is that it is only one tier so it does not make a lot. Perfect for my family of 3. So… let’s go bake a cake!

What you need:

8 inch round cake pan, greased

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
Dash of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk

For the frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 Tablespoons milk +/-
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside. In another large bowl, beat together the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar until nice and smooth. I just used a hand mixer since we aren’t making a lot of batter. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Slowly add in the flour mixture, alternating with the milk until just incorporated. Batter is thick. Spread evenly into prepared pan and bake for 28-30 minutes. Let cool about 10 minutes before inverting to cool completely.

Make the frosting. Beat butter until smooth and creamy. Add half of the powdered sugar, the vanilla and 2 tablespoons of milk. Beat until creamy. Add the rest of the powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk and beat until creamy. Add the cocoa powder and 1 tablespoon of milk and beat until you reach desired consistency, adding more milk as necessary.

Tip: I used a hand mixer for this as well. Adding the ingredients slowly really helps get a nice, fluffy buttercream frosting. Also, beating. Beat and beat some more until your hand hurts 🙂

Frost the cake, decorate and enjoy! Store covered.

We didn’t have any candles so I used matches 🙂 I wanted to see what it looked like.

Liam’s 3rd Birthday Cake

This is actually the same exact recipe as my 31st birthday cake found here. I’m sorry I don’t have pictures showing the process but it’s hard taking pictures of myself and I made this early in the morning before anyone was up.

And I felt I still needed to blog about it 🙂 This was a lot easier than it looks, I’m sure. I liked that I could be sloppy with the frosting because it’s a volcano. Doesn’t have to be perfect. And instead of using 4 tiers, I saved a little extra cake batter to fill another small pan to make it 5 tiers and to look more like a volcano. I was going to use dry ice, but too much stress. So, if you want to make this cake, feel free to use dry ice in the top tier, all you do is place a shot glass inside the top tier with the dry ice so it doesn’t ruin the cake. And for the “lava” I just used powdered sugar and a tiny bit of milk and food coloring to make it red/orange. Pour it over the top and voila! Gravity does the rest.

I got the dinosaurs at Dollar Tree and the #3 candle at Target. I would also recommend using some sort of support in the cake because 5 tiers is tall! I used a wooden kabob stick which worked perfectly. I put it in after all the tiers were on and frosted.

Here’s Liam super excited to eat his birthday cake!

P.S.- I know I’ve been slacking in the blogging world. I have something in the works, though so please stay tuned! I’m very excited for my next baking adventures 😉

Banana Cake with Spiced Vanilla Buttercream 

I know, I know. Another banana cake recipe. But this one NEEDS to be made!! So delicious! There are no words to describe this buttercream. Holy moly get in my belly RIGHT NOW. Yes, I am screaming! I found this recipe on Pinterest as a “picked for you” and tried it. I changed it a bit but love how it turned out. Definitely different than other banana breads I’ve made. Read the entire recipe before starting and you will see why. Go start those ovens…

What you will need:

9 inch springform pan, greased

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

For the buttercream:

8 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3-4 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In another large bowl (or bowl of your electric mixer), beat oil and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

In a medium bowl, mash bananas with the lemon juice. Add to the wet mixture and beat until combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk until everything is combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

IMMEDIATELY put in freezer for 30 minutes. This is a new step I learned makes the cake stay moist. It worked really well and cooled the cake quick so you don’t have to wait forever to frost.

To make the buttercream:

In a large bowl (or bowl of your electric mixer), beat cream cheese and butter until soft and smooth. Beat in vanilla and cloves. Slowly add in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until you reach desired consistency. Frost the cooled cake. I mean, it’s gorgeous!

Slice and enjoy!

Store covered in the fridge 🙂

Birthday Cake

AH! It’s my 100th post! So cool that it just happens to fall on my 31st birthday. Well, yesterday was my birthday so close enough 😉 Naturally this post is about cake.  And not just any cake. A chocolate cake with chocolate AND pink buttercream frosting and 4 tiers! What?! If you follow me on Instagram you know that these pans were my great grandma’s. Never been used, stashed away for me to break them in 🙂 I was super excited to try them out and wanted to make a different shaped cake. It turned out great and the pans are amazing! They will definitely get a lot of use. So, here we go! Put on your aprons and let’s make a cake…

What you will need:

Here’s a picture of the actual recipe and then I’ll tell you what I used/did.

3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

For the buttercream:

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
About 5 cups powdered sugar
A few tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease your pans with butter. In a large bowl, beat vegetable oil and sugar until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt and then add about a third of it to wet mixture. Add half of buttermilk and alternate with flour. Beat in lemon juice and melted chocolate.

Evenly pour batter into pans. This was tough for me since I never used 4 different sizes at once. Bake the smallest size for about 30 minutes. The other ones were all done at different times, I just kept an eye on them to make sure they didn’t over bake.

Allow to cool 10 minutes before inverting to cool completely. Level the layers by using a serrated knife, then frost with buttercream.

To make the buttercream:

In a large bowl, beat butter until smooth and creamy. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk. Add 2 more cups of powdered sugar and another tablespoon of milk and vanilla and keep beating until you reach desired consistency. Since I used pink frosting, I took out about 1/2 cup at this time and set it aside. Add cocoa powder to remaining buttercream with another tablespoon or 2 of milk and beat until nice and creamy. Frost the cake!

For the pink, I added 2 drops of red food coloring to the frosting I set aside and piped it on using a Wilton #8 tip. Very time consuming! Thank God I don’t get paid for this because I was stressing out! Not perfect, but it’ll do 🙂

Slice and enjoy!

And here’s my beautiful set up. I’m 31, not 12 , I swear 😉

Here’s the cake after about 11 of us dived in 🙂

 

Lemon Cake

My signature cake shot 🙂

That’s right. Another lemon recipe. But lemon cake??!! I may have died and gone to heaven. Seriously, yum. And since I have shredded coconut on hand, I sprinkled some on top of my slice. I mean…. My mouth is having a party. And I just ate it so unattractively that I’m thinking a YouTube video of me eating cake would get a lot of views. And my self esteem to drop LOL.  So let’s just get to it:

What you will need:

2 (9 inch) round cake pans greased and floured

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

For frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp
2 1/2-3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Note: I do not like a lot of frosting on my cakes, but if you do, go ahead and double this recipe. Then you will have enough to frost the sides of the cake as well.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In another large bowl (or bowl of your electric mixer), beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately and beat until just combined. Beat in lemon zest and juice.

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Smooth batter with back of a spoon and then gently drop pans on counter to release any air bubbles. Bake cakes for 28-32 minutes. Let cool at least 10 minutes before inverting to cool completely.

To make frosting:

Beat butter until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and lemon juice and beat until desired consistency. Frost cake, slice and enjoy! Store covered for a couple days.

Here’s my slice with the coconut:

Mmmmmm good

Funfetti Cake

I’ve been craving cake since over 2 months ago. Well, let’s be real. I’m always craving cake 🙂 Just a good old birthday cake. So when I saw this recipe on Pinterest by bakedbree.com I knew I had to make it! And, to make it romantic for Valentine’s Day, I piped roses on with buttercream frosting. Seriously, I love trying new baking/piping techniques. It is so fun. All the steps are in this post so you can try, too 🙂 So, come on! Time to bake a cake…

What you will need:

Two 9 inch (or 8 inch) round cake pans greased and floured

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
4 egg whites
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup rainbow sprinkles

For the buttercream frosting:

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon extract
Food coloring (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. In a large bowl, sift together flour and baking powder. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together egg whites and buttermilk. Set aside.

In a large bowl (or bowl of your electric mixer), mix together sugar and lemon zest. Add butter and beat until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add lemon juice. Beat in half of flour mixture and half of buttermilk mixture. Add the rest and beat until everything is incorporated. Gently fold in sprinkles.

Divide batter evenly between the prepared cake pans. Bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes on a wire rack before inverting to cool completely.

To make buttercream:

Note: I ended up running out of buttercream! I couldn’t even decorate the sides of my cake. So I would double the recipe I provided if you plan on making roses. If you just frost your cake normally, you will have enough.

In a large bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy. Add lemon extract. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want. Beat in food coloring if using. Use separate bowls if wanting more than one color. Frost cake.

To make the two-tone roses, I used a plastic piping bag (make sure it is a big one), and a Wilton 1M tip. P.S.- Don’t tell anyone but I did not intentionally want to make them ombre. They just sort of turned out that way so I’m sorry, I can’t explain how I did that. I put the frosting in the bag wrong, but it worked out… I guess.

So, take your piping bag, fold down the sides, and put in the darkest color. Close the bag flat so the frosting sticks to the sides. Open the bag and put in your lighter color between the dark color. Pipe how you normally would. I know it is really confusing. I wish I could show you instead of type it.  But this is what I got.

And… the accidental ombre…

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Frost cake, slice and enjoy!

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