Cake #32: Italian Cream Cake

Although not the prettiest cake in town, this Italian Cream Cake is one of the best-tasting cakes one could ever imagine! The recipe creates a 3-layer cake that is stuffed with pecans and coconut and then covered in an ultra-sweet cream cheese icing. This cake is bound to be well-liked; however, I will warn that the extreme richness will allow few to finish their slice!

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Italian Cream Cake

1 cup Buttermilk

1 tsp. baking soda

5 eggs, separated

2 cups sugar

1 stick butter

½ cup shortening

2 cups flour, sifted

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans

1 small can coconut

Combine soda and buttermilk and let stand. Before mixing cake, beat separated egg whites until stiff. Set aside. Cream sugar, butter, and shortening. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add buttermilk alternately with flour to creamed mixture. Stir in vanilla. Fold in egg whites. Gently stir in pecans and coconut. Back in 3 9-inch greased, floured layer pans at 325 for 25-35 minutes. Frost cake with Cream Cheese Icing when cool.

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Cream Cheese Icing

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

½ stick butter

1 box powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans

Beat cheese and margarine until smooth. Add sugar and beat well. Add vanilla and pecans stir well. Frost cake between layers; on top, and on the sides.

Cake #31: Flower Patch Surprise

Last week, my boss celebrated her birthday; unfortunately, with so many coworkers in-and-out of the office, we didn't get a chance to celebrate until today. For some odd reason, we decided that the theme of her party should be opossums (it was based on a joke shared at our last staff meeting.) My coworkers had hoped that I would make a "opossum" cake - but I was unsure how exactly one goes about making a "opossum" cake.

My original plan was to create a garden of cupcakes, and then add a small fondant opossum to one of the cupcakes. After working hours to create the flowers, I didn't really feel that I had time to experiment with fondant modeling; therefore, I scraped the opossum idea and decided to merely make a hilly, flowered meadow.

Cake #30: A Howling Good Cupcake

Although I'm leaving for vacation in a couple days, I still somehow got roped into baking the birthday cake for one of my co-workers. Since I was a little pressed for time, I decided to bake cupcakes so that the bake time would be reduced. Fortunately, the co-worker celebrating her birthday is a big supporter of wolves (she and her husband apparently do a lot of volunteer work trying to preserve the wolf's habitat.)

Anyway, I had been wanting to make these "wolf" cupcakes from Hello, Cupcake for awhile, so I thought this would be the perfect occasion. To make the wolf, I cut a large marshmallow to make the snout and ears. Then, I covered the entire cupcake in chocolate frosting using the leave tip. For a finishing touch, I adding a few M&Ms for the nose and eyes.