Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Well let me start by saying I was honored to be asked to make this cake for a friend!

I am glad to say I am happy with the final product and I hope they will be too! Getting to the final product was a bit of a production! HAHA

It started on Thursday... I baked 2 12inch Red velvet cakes. When the cakes came out they looked great. After they were cooled I started to wrap them in saran wrap...

That is where the disaster began! The Cakes started to split from me handling them. They weren't quite dense enough even though they tasted delicious! I thought I would be able to salvage the cakes during the stacking/decorating process so I went to bed still confident!

Fast forward to Friday! I wake up...
Whip up some spectacular cream cheese frosting and get to stacking! The bottom layer was fine. I piled on the cream cheese frosting and then went to add the second layer...
that is as far as I got... the top layer split into about 5 pieces so it was time to start all over again :(

SO again I baked 2 12inch red velvet cakes. This time I tweaked my recipe and made them more dense so they would handle better. While the cakes were baking and cooling I worked on another cake that I will be posting about later...

Check out the awesome Red Velvet!


Fast forward to about 3:30pm on Friday afternoon and I started the layering process again. This time it was a success!!! YAY!!!



Now it had been a long day of baking so I didn't take as many pictures as I should have but here is what I ended up with! A nice Christening Cake for Nicholas!





Happy Baking everyone!

Giveaway WINNER!

Congratulations to JOHN LOCONTE!
He is the winner of the dozen cupcake giveaway!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway and to everyone who has supported The Frosting Addict thus far!

The winner was generated using random picker if you would like to verify the results you may click on the icon below....

Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes

Rainy, drizzly, damp days make me want to bake!
I have been dying to make these cupcakes which were inspired by Cherry Vanilla Ice cream from Cabots in Newton, so while my brother sat on the couch and annoyed me I whipped up these heavenly treats!

I started with a basic Vanilla Cupcake.



As soon as they came out of the oven I brushed them with cherry juice. Talk about super moist AND it helps to infuse the cherry flavor with the vanilla cupcake!


While these babies were cooling I whipped up some pillowy soft frosting.
I made a basic Buttercream and instead of using milk or water as the liquid I used cherry juice again.
I wanted the frosting to be very light and airy so I whipped this frosting more then I would for a normal buttercream... the result was exactly what I was looking for!



I piped on the frosting using my wilton 1M tip and topped each cupcake with a cherry!

Don't these look like a little piece of heaven?!?!





Enjoy!!!

Sugar Cookies

My mom and I are spending some quality time with my nieces this week over school vacation. I decided I would love to bake with my nieces and sugar cookies seemed like a fun thing!

We are hanging at my mother's house today and I have to say I don't like baking anywhere but my own kitchen anymore! My mom only has a hand mixer and it has made me appreciate my Kitchen-aid so much! HA!

Now... on to the cookies!
We gathered the ingredients...



If you know anything about 7 year olds you would obviously know that they want to do everything themselves. This could have gotten out of control but luckily my nieces listen very well.



We mixed everything together and then popped it in the fridge to chill the dough for an hour.
Next step was to roll out the dough and cut shapes. I know it is past valentines day but the only cookie cutters my mom had were heart shaped.

So we cut all different sized hearts....






These cookies baked up pretty quickly and once they were cooled me moved onto decorating!
The icing is made of confectionery sugar and milk. I colored one batch red and one batch pink.

If I was decorating these at home I would use piping bags to decorate and also have a different consistency icings.. but for some plain old fun in the kitchen medium consistency icing and a couple of spoons worked just fine!








The girls had a blast decorating and the cookies came out very cute! I also must say they tasted really great! I love sugar cookies and this was one of the better recipes I have come across.

Enjoy!


Recipe

* 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
* 2 cups white sugar
* 4 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 5 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!

I am giving away a dozen yummy cupcakes to one of my readers! I will hand deliver the flavor of your choice to anyone living within 2 hours of Dedham, MA!




The winner will be chosen using random.org and here is HOW TO ENTER:

For one entry- Become a follower of The Frosting Addict (click "follow" over on the right sidebar) or let me know you already are.
For a second entry- "Like" The Frosting Addict on Facebook, then come back and leave a comment here that you "like" me =)
For a third entry- Spread the word about this blog by posting on your blog or facebook -OR- Add The Frosting Addict to the blog list on your blog (then leave a comment here telling me you shared or added The Frosting Addict to your blog list).

**Current facebook fans can still enter by leaving a comment here telling us they are a fan!

**Each thing you do will earn you another entry in the contest (up to 3 entries per person)

**Winner will be chosen on Friday February 25, 2011 and the winner will be contacted through facebook or email if you leave your email on your comment!

SO SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT YOUR FROSTING ADDICTION AND WIN SOME CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!

More Mini Donuts

Since I wasn't completely satisfied with the donuts the first time I made them, I decided to try it again and make some adjustments to improve the moisture and flavor.

I loved the decorations for valentines day but this time I was taking these little donuts to New Hampshire to share with some of my favorite people!
I tossed half the batch in powdered sugar and half in cinnamon sugar and they came out much better! Sweeter, more moist and the perfect bite sized treats!











Mini Baked Donuts
*the bold items are what I added to the original recipe

Yield | 24 mini donuts

Ingredients
½ cup granulated sugar
1¼ cups cake flour, sifted
1¼ tsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
½ cup buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1½ tbsp. butter, melted
½ teaspoon of vanilla

2 tsp of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove mixture
2 tbsp sour cream

Instructions
Prepare pan with baking spray.
1. Heat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder,sugar, and salt.
3. Add buttermilk, egg, butter, and vanilla and stir until just combined.
4. Add batter to a piping bag and fill each donut cup approximately one-half full.
5. Bake 4–6 minutes or until the top of the donuts spring back when touched.
6. Let cool in pan for 4–5 minutes before removing. Finish the donuts with glaze, sprinkles, or cinnamon sugar.

Mini PB&J Cupcakes

What could be better then a Peanut butter and Jelly sandwich? How about Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes!?!?!?!

I decided to make mini cupcakes since I just bought a mini muffin pan and since I am bringing these to New Hampshire this weekend to share with 13 other people mini cupcakes were the way to go!

I started with a basic vanilla cupcake. I struggled a little bit with getting these cupcakes uniform size. I used my cookie scoop and tried to fill the scoop half way for each cupcake but I wasn't always spot on.. either way it worked out they just aren't all the exact same size.






Since they were miniature sized they baked up really quickly and cooled quickly as well.

Once they were cooled using a piping bag and my cupcake filling tip I filled each cupcake with grape jelly.



I had some peanut butter buttercream left over from when I made peanut butter cup cupcakes so that is the frosting I used for these adorable treats.
I think I should have used a star tip to frost these to make them look for "professional" but the most important thing is taste and I think they taste very yummy!!!





I hope all my friends enjoy these!!!