Tag Archives: cake

Week In Review (4/16-4/20)

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Monday I shared with you the delicious cake I made to celebrate my mom’s birthday!! It was awesome getting to celebrate my mom’s day with this cake.

Tuesday I went with my prom date to go pick out his tux and all the little accessories that go with it. I never knew what cuff links were until this day… always just thought they were little decorative clips that some kids gave to their dad’s for Christmas. And um can I just say this looks like the most awesome thing in the history of ever! Coffee Faucet

Wednesday was the day the White Chocolate Wonderful ice cream came out. Holy Schmoly. Make THIS! Buy an ice cream maker. Buy White Chocolate Wonderful. DO IT DO IT DO IT.


Friday I showed you guys the yummy coconut cake I made for Easter. I’m convinced this baby could turn coconut haters into coconut freaks! I also got my fake baby for my child development class. It’s just like in the movies for when kids have to take care of fake babies for class…that baby is the reason why my week in review post is later than usual…crying baby=no sleep.

Random Fact of the Day: In the 1920′s popcorn was banned from movie theaters because it was too noisy.

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Coconut Layer Cake

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In case you haven’t noticed, I kind of like coconut.

Coconut has definitely NOT always been my flavor of choice. Samoas were a total No-no to me when I was a Girl Scout. It would disgust me that my parents would waste their precious money that could have been spent on MORE Tagalongs on…Samoas.

yes that tiny spot that is unfrosted at the bottom is bugging me too

It always blew my mind that my parents would order coconut ice cream. Uhhh…hello? Cookie dough was my thanng, how could coconut even be considered a possibility?

And then, one day I tried a coconut cream pie. I’m not sure what convinced me that a pie with coconut in it was a good idea…but man, that coconut cream pie was delicious. Me and coconut have become pretty good buds since then. 

So here we go, a coconut layer cake that we served on Easter. A perfect fluffy little cake that’s great for any occasion. Why not celebrate the wonderful day of Friday with this yummy cake? Good idea, get on it baby!!

Coconut Cake

(makes 1 6-inch form spring layer cake)

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 1/t teasoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup shredded coconut

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 (6-inch) round form spring cake pans.
  2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. Cream the butter and sugar with mixer until light yellow and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl as needed. Add the vanilla extract.
  4. With mixer on low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
  5. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until top springs back when touched and toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center. Cool on baking rack for 15-20 minutes, then turn cakes out onto baking rack to finish cooling for an additional 25 minutes.

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 stick butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

2/3 cup shredded coconut

milk, as needed

  1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and salt. Add the powdered sugar and mix until desired consistency is achieved. Add milk as needed to thin frosting out if it gets too thick, or add more powdered sugar if frosting gets too thin. When desired consistency is achieved, fold in the shredded coconut.
  2. TO ASSEMBLE: Cut tops off of cooled cakes to make them flat and even. Place one layer flat on serving plate and spread with frosting. Place the second layer on top and frost the sides and top. To decorate the cake, sprinkle the top and sides with coconut. I used about 1/2 cup of toasted and non toasted coconut. Store in fridge but serve at room temperature.

Random Fact of the Day: A Toyota car is built in 13 hours and a Rolls Royce is built in 6 months.

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Mom’s Birthday Cake

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Yesterday was my wonderful mama’s birthday! To celebrate, we ate cake :)

Of course I made a cake, by her request. It obviously included chocolate. And whipped cream. And mousse.

She’s a smart lady ;) .

Anyways, it was really great to celebrate a day dedicated to my mom. She’s a great woman who I love with all my heart. She has taught me so much in life that nobody else could have ever taught the same. She has loved like no one else could ever love. She has cooked liked no other person could ever cook!

I love my mom so much, that is hard for me to even find the right words to express how much she means to me.

She is the one who always believes in me, no matter how crazy my ideas and ambitions are. She is the one who always encourages me to go beyond my comfort zone. She is the one who always knows how I’m really feeling and how to make it all better (many times involving hugs and kisses<–including the chocolate kind). My mom means the world to me and I feel so lucky to have been blessed to have her in my life.

I love you mom!

P.S. nice choice on the cake flavor combos. deee-lish!

Mom’s Birthday Cake

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup dark cocoa powder

1 cup plus 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar

2 eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 1 (6-inch) springform cake pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa powder, and whisk until smooth. Set aside.
  3. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside
  4. Cream butter and sugar together in mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Mix in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Pour batter into prepared cake pan. There will be extra. You can either make cupcakes, whoopie pies, or freeze the batter for later use with the extra batter.
  5. Bake batter that is in prepared cake pan in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until top springs back when touched and toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center. Let cool on wire rack for 25 minutes. Invert out of cake pan and onto wire rack. Cool an additional 30 minutes. Pop in fridge for 15 minutes. Cut in half lengthwise. Assemble with mouse filling, then frost with whipped cream.

Chocolate Mousse Filling

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

  1. Whip cream with mixer using whisk attachment. When cream takes on whipped cream appearance, mix in melted chocolate until thoroughly combined. Spread on top of bottom cake layer. Let set in fridge for 30 minutes before topping with top cake layer.

Whipped Cream [Frosting]

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

2 1/2 Tablespoons powdered sugar, or to taste

chocolate syrup, for decoration

  1. Whip heavy cream with powdered sugar in mixer using whisk attachment. Add more powdered sugar or use less depending on how sweet you want your whipped cream. Stop mixer once cream has stiff peaks and takes on whipped cream appearance. Frost tops and sides of cake. Finish cake with drizzle of chocolate syrup, if desired.
Random Fact of the Day: About 85% of the plant life on earth is in the oceans.
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Week in Review (4/9-4/13)

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Hey hey hey there Friday! Lookin good, there. Pretty fantastic week here at Beautiful Disasters. Let’s recap…

Monday I shared with you guys my First Ever Guest Post! I made a delicious Triple Chocolate Birthday Cake in honor of my sister’s birthday (which was in March), and posted it over on The Heritage Cook. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, you definitely should, because that thing was dee-lish! Chocolate gone wild.

I also got my prom dress!!! I was pretty nervous that it was going to be like IMPOSSIBLE to find one that I like under $400. yes, that is a 4 with 2 zeros behind it. Prom is expensive.

Tuesday I got to get out of school early, so our team could make it to our game in time. Good deal!!!! We won :)

Wednesday I showed you guys the yummy Chocolate Surprise Cupcakes that I brought to Ren Hen. YUmmm. I’m probably just about the only person in the world who would bring cupcakes to a bakery. But hey, the owners like them and I love bringing my stuff to them for them to try! A post on my visit will be coming soon :)

Thursday I had another game. Third one of the week. We lost, but put up a great effort and were all exhausted

Friday was my Bloggie’s Birthday!!! My blogiversary, if you will. So exciting! I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since this whole shebang started. It’s crazy to see how far everything has come, yet there is always so much to look forward too. I want to thank each and every one of my readers for your amazing support, loving comments, pins on pinterest, and everything else you guys do that just makes me smile. You guys are great, and you make blogging the fun it is. It’s so nice to have this as an outlet so I’m not stuck talking to myself about all these crazy things from bugs to couples eating eachothers’ faces off. So in honor of the big day, I made you guys what seemed to make the most sense. Super Duper Funfetti Mini Layer Cake. Maybe my titling of recipes could use a little work?

Today I have my FOURTH and final soccer game of the week. High school soccer season is cray cray.

Random Fact of the Day: Over 340,000 liposuctions were performed in the US in 2008

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Happy Birthday Beautiful Disasters!

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It’s been a whole year! Seriously can’t believe it. One year ago from today I posted this. “y’all”…really? Who do I think I am? Woody from Toy Story? I’m from the Midwest. I live 30 minutes from Chicago. Y’all and I don’t mix. Anywhoooo..

There are a couple things that have gotten better (as an addition to my improved word choice-I’m no thesaurus, though!..yet). One of the things that have stuck out the most to me is the improvement of my photography. I’ve never taken a photo class. I do not pay for some fancy schmancy photo editing program (although, I am thinking about it for in the future!). But I do have a wonderful mother who allows me to borrow her big, nice Nikon camera.

With that Nikon camera, a few tips from other blogs, and a little bit of help from photobucket.com, my pictures have gone through a few changes. Let’s look at the progression…

oh yeah, and there of course have been several DISASTERS. Capital D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R-S! Somehow I managed to once totally mess up a boxed brownie mix…?

Dum Dum DUUUUUM.

And then there was a pretty nasty looking first attempt at making toffee.

trying to spread chocolate on the separated butter and sugar, can you say FAIL?

So clearly I have learned a lot along the way. I’ve learned that going to bed before midnight, is a real accomplishment, foodgawker will cause you to literally want to eat your computer screen, REAL sunlight is the best way to take a picture, eating too much cookie dough will make you not even want to think about eating a baked cookie, some bloggers are just unbelievably amazing and I have NO idea how they do it (like Jess or Jenny), and that commentors can truly make your day.

You readers are one of the biggest motivations EVER. I love you all, and I feel like I truly have gotten to know a few of you. It’s amazing to see what incredible people you can meet through blogging. It’s always fun to connect with a fellow baking nut. You can never have too many baking buddies!! Or cooking friends, I like cooked food…occasionally. Like mac and cheese. Yumm… anybody wanna comeover and fix me some? I got cake.

Funfetti cake, in fact. It’s adorable. It’s delicious. It’s sweet. It’s got sprinkles out of the wazoo. It’s food blogging on Beautiful Disasters at its finest.

So here you go, a mini funfetti cake to thank all my wonderful readers, family, friends, and supporters for making this first year of Beautiful Disasters possible. It’s been a fun first year and I’m ready for the journey to continue! Now let’s eat cake.

Mini Funfetti Layer Cake

1 box cake mix, prepared**

1/4 cup oblong sprinkles (“jimmies”)

  1. Prepare cake mix according to directions on box. Preheat oven to temperature suggested on box. This is usually 350 degrees F or 375 degrees F. (Maybe I make cake too much.. this isn’t normal information for an average person to know)
  2. Bake in small, greased cake pan. I used a 4 inch oven-safe ramekin. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  3. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack for an additional 20 minutes. Stick in fridge to make cutting in half for layers easier.
**NOTE: I poured the amount of prepared cake batter into my ramekin and then put the rest (which was a LOT ) into a plastic baggy and popped it in the fridge. This is perfectly safe. Whenever you want to bake a cake or cupcakes, you can just put the bag into the fridge and let it soften and get to room temperature, snip off a corner of the bag, then pipe into cupcake molds or into a cake pan! Bake as you would according to directions on back of box.

Funfetti Whipped Cream Frosting

1 cup heavy cream

2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoons oblong sprinkles (“jimmies”)

additional sprinkles, if desired for decoration

  1. In mixer, whip heavy cream with powdered sugar for about 5 minutes, or until stiff peaks form. It should take on the look and consistency of regular whipped cream (go figure!).
  2. By hand, fold in sprinkles.
  3. Cut cake in half, to form two thinner circles or disks of cake. Spread whipped cream on bottom cake layer. Top with second cake layer. Spread remaining whipped cream on top and on the sides of the cake to frost. Sprinkle additional sprinkles, if desired.

that up there is just so you can see how tiny and adorable this little cake is!

Random Fact of the Day: The first cell phone call was placed in New York City in 1974 on a Motorola Phone that weighed over 4 lbs.

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