My baby is two, and I am still dumb founded by how fast the past two years have gone. I use to laugh at people when they said to hold on to every moment because it's gone before you know it now I know what they meant. The past two years have been the biggest learning experience in my 21 years of life. I have learned to be patient, how to be a little more organized (I said a little) and how to hold on to every second. So for my little munchkins second birthday I really wanted to make a cake that represented her. So I of course knew I was going to do a chocolate cake she loves chocolate she literally drools over the stuff. However when it came to the frosting I was stumped, I mean there is a million different combination I knew she would like but I didn't want just any type of cake I wanted a Lola style cake. Then it hit me I would do Peanut butter and Jelly. She has loved Pb&J's for as long as she has ate solids heck I even craved PB&J with chocolate syrup on it when I was pregnant with her, it was meant to be. So here it is the perfect little cake for my perfect little baby.
(Excuse the picture quality on a few they were taken with my iPhone)
Rich Chocolate Cake
found via Sweetapolita
Ingredients
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup Cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup strong cold coffee
1 cup buttermilk, room temp
1/2 cup vegetable oil1 Tbsp vanilla extract
For the cake above I split this recipe in half it splits really nicely which is one of the many things I love about it . Even after splitting this recipe it gave me a 4 layer 6 inch cake plus 4 very yummy cupcakes. For the coffee I usually use a flavored coffee mix that complements the frosting but for this cake I just used plain old strong coffee but if you would like to try it I recommend a vanilla coffee mix it makes a nice difference in the cake it self.Perfect Peanut Butter Frosting
1 stick of room temp. unsalted butter
2 cups creamy peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1-2 tsp milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
With a paddle attachment cream your butter till it is nice and fluffy then simply add in the remaining ingredients. If you like a nice stiff frosting you can forget about the milk however if you want a really creamy frosting I would recommend adding the milk 1/4 tsp at a time till you reach the constancy you like.
How to assemble the cake
Assembling this cake is simple. Divide the two 6 inch cake layers to make 4 place first layer on cake plate or board add a layer of peanut butter frosting then a layer of jelly repeat till all layers are on. You can skip every other layer with the jelly if you would like. Now simply frost the cake however you please. I did a nice simple smooth design with the rosettes on the bottom using a wilton 16 tip and I used the closed star tip (wilton tip 27) to do the decorations on the top. All in all it's a simple tasty cake which was perfect for my little Lola.
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| My little Cake Monster. |
