Happy Birthday to this little monster! This morning Geoff looked at Isaac and said, "One year ago, your mom was going 'eeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhh'." He thought it was funny. He got a flat face and a "thanks, dear" in response from me. You could hear the eye roll dripping through in my voice.
To preface this recipe, Geoff said I should title this post "Most Delicious Cake Ever". Apparently it was delicious, chocolaty, and moist. And for my part, I will say that for a cake it was pretty good (I'm not a huge cake fan). I will also warn, the batter is super, super runny. Not a problem usually but be warned: don't try to use the spring form pan. That would be a disaster. Batter would flow out all over your counter.
Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Filling:
2 C sugar
1 3/4 C flour
3/4 C cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 C milk
1/2 C vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 C boiling water
Combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Mix thoroughly with a whisk or electric beater. Stir in the boiling water. The batter will be very, very, thin.
Coat 3 8-inch round pans with spray, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and spray again. Divide batter evenly between pans. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Dump cakes out to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Wrap cakes in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. If needed, level each layer.
To assemble cake, layer as follows*:
Cake
Cream Cheese filling, leaving 1/4 inch margin around the edges
Cake
Cream Cheese filling, leaving 1/4 inch margin around the edges
Cake
Frost the top and sides with chocolate buttercream.
Cream Cheese Filling
1 C cream cheese
3/4 C butter
1/2 Tbsp vanilla
6 C powdered sugar
Beat the cram cheese and butter with an electric mixer for about one minute. Add the vanilla and beat for another minute. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the powdered sugar, about 1/2 C at a time. Once all the sugar is added, beat on medium speed for two minutes, until fluffy.
Chocolate Buttercream
1 C butter
1 3/4 C cocoa powder
6 C powdered sugar
1/2 C + 3 Tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
Combine the powdered sugar and the cocoa. In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer for about one minute. Reduce the speed to low and add the sugar/cocoa about 1/2 C at a time. Halfway through this process, add the milk and vanilla. Once all the powdered sugar/cocoa is added, beat at medium speed for about two minute, until fluffy.
*As mentioned, I only had 2 round pans so I thought I could use a spring form pan as my third pan. This was a mistake. A messy mistake. Fortunately the cake spilled out all over my counter rather than all over the oven. I was able to salvage most of the batter from the spring form pan, dividing it between my two round cake pans
Original Recipe from The Nonpareil Baker.
Now, you will have to indulge the string of photos. He's just so cute, I have a hard time only choosing a few photos. Plus, we all know you're actually here to see the little boy, not to see the recipes.
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| He was really concerned about so many people singing to him. He didn't even notice the cake, let alone the candle. |
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| We finally had to point out the cake to him. |
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| And then it was all business. No time for smiling, no time for jabbering, just constant and methodical eating of cake. |
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| Isaac would have happily just played with the wrapped boxes. Who needs to open them? |
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| A big smile when he sees a car from Grandma and Grandpa. |
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| Excuse the runny nose. He's had a cold. |
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| Cute boy with a "5 Little Monkeys" finger puppet from Grandma and Grandpa. |
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| Fun blocks from Po and Ted. And after we showed him how, he started ineptly putting blocks together. A little engineer in the making (or as Dilbert's doctor would put it, I'm afraid he has "the knack"). |
