cooking

Its birthday party time around here again. Baby Chuck just turned six and Mr. Dumpling is an incredible 10 years old.

For the first time in six years we gave them separate parties, which was exhausting, but was a new kind of fun for them. Had to make two cakes in two weeks. Here they are:


Dirt Pile:
One recipe All Purpose Chocolate Cake and one
Vanilla cake recipe
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup best-quality butter (Kerrygold works well)
2 large eggs at room temp.
1 tbsp vanilla extract (use natural)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup whole milk
Cream together butter and sugar, add eggs & vanilla, beat with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy (this is important, should ideally look like yellow whipped cream). Fold in flour and baking soda, stir in milk. Dont overmix, you want to retain the fluffiness of the original mixture. This cake turns out much better when made with a heavy duty mixer than when mixed by hand.
In a (greased and floured) 14" round baking pan or two 9" X 3" rounds, pour the vanilla cake mix to just cover the bottom. Scoop four or five large spoonfuls of the chocolate cake mix into the pan and swirl them around gently with the spoon into the vanilla (you don't want to mix too much or you will lose the marble effect). Alternate until all your batter is used up. Bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out with just a bit of crumb on it -about 40 min.
To frost we used American Chocolate Frosting in a Can per the Birthday boy's specifications. Then we covered the cake with crushed Bourbon creams and gummy worms.

Tomorrow: Ice cream cake