Dreamsicle Cake

Ok this is easy peasy.

Simply start with a box of Betty Crocker super moist French Vanilla cake mix.

Mix as directed on box EXCEPT replace the oil with 1 stick of melted butter and substitute 1 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice instead of water. Then bake as directed on the box.

Dreamsicle Cake baking in my 1940s Gaffers & Sattler range.

Cool the layers thouroughly after baking. I cool in the pans for 10-20 minutes, no more than 20 or they will stick, and then cool out on a towel or cooling rack out of the pan for at least another 30 minutes, preferably 1 hour.

Then make this simple orange butter creme icing:

1 box of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1 stick of room temperature salted butter and 1/3 cup fresh squeezed orange juice. Place it all in a bowl and mix on low until mixed then mix on high until smooth and creamy (about 3 minutes). Once smooth & creamy, simply frost the cake!

Dreamsicle Cake

Simple, easy and delicious …Way!

Fearsome Bakes

mmmmmm………..yummy!

Key Lime Cake! Woohoo!

Fearsome’s  – Soon Will Be –  World Famous Key Lime Cake

For the cake you will need: 1 box yellow cake mix, 1 – 3.4 ounce package instant lemon pudding, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1/2 (1 stick) cup melted butter, 4 large eggs, 2 tablespoons of key lime juice, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 3 drops of green food color.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray two 9 inch round cake pans with cooking spray. In a large bowl combine all ingredients with a mixer on low until all wet, about 30 seconds, then increase speed to medium and beat for about two minutes. Fold into both cake pans and bake until sides just pull away from side of pans and a toothpick comes out of center clean, about 25-30 minutes depending on your oven. Cool in pans for 10 minutes then flip one layer onto cake plate, flip other onto towel or paper to cool.

Glaze for layer on cake plate: In a bowl combine 1 cup confectioners sugar and two teaspoons Key Lime juice simply stirring with a spoon until smooth and creamy then spread glaze over the layer on the cake plate while cake is still cooling. Then let cool completely.

For the icing you will need: 8 oz room temperature cream cheese, 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room temperature butter, 1 – 16 ounce box confectioners sugar, 1 teaspoon Key Lime zest, 1 teaspoon Key Lime Juice, 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract. Add all ingredients into a medium mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer until smooth.

Ice first layer over the glaze, add second layer and ice whole cake.

ONE

DAMN

GOOD

CAKE …Enjoy!

 

Fearsome Bakes

It’s my nephew’s 29th birthday. He lives here in sunny San Diego California near his uncle. The rest of our family lives back east spread here and there along the coastal states but mostly right in the center of it all. A place I call Virginia.

Needless to say his mother is back there so the maternal side of Fearsome popped out when I asked him yesterday which of his mother’s home made cakes he would like us to bake for him to celebrate. Her Coca Cola cake was his answer.

So today I set aside a few hours of kitchen time. Quality time with the dogs, fresh pressed coffee, a Rich Roll pod cast and my circa 1946 Gaffers & Sattler range.

I set out to make two cakes, one for Josh and one for my Sunday morning meeting. Josh gets the first one as I didn’t quite get the icing as good on that one. The meeting gets the other because they think I’m a pro. The both will taste the same but the second one is prettier.

I’m so vain. I bet I think this post is about me.

Coca Cola Cake:

• 1- box Devils food cake mix without pudding
• 1- 3.9 oz box instant chocolate pudding
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 & 1/4 cups Coca Cola

Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs & melted butter in large mixing bowl and beat on low speed just until blended then set aside. In medium sauce pan bring the 1 & 1/4 cups of Coca Cola to a boil. With mixer on medium speed slowly pour hot Coca Cola into cake batter (careful as it will splash) and mix for 2-3 minutes. Pour batter into greased and floured (Baker’s Joy spray is much easier) 13×9 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes or until inserted toothpick just comes out clean (usually right after sides of cake have pulled away from sides of pan). Cool in pan for 10 minutes then flip onto cookie or serving sheet. Note you pour icing over warm cake.

Icing:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup Coca Cola
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 1- 16 ounce box powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Combine the butter, Coca Cola & Cocoa in a large saucepan cooking over medium heat just until butter is completely melted, do not boil. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth then pour over warm cake starting from center so it spreads itself evenly and outwardly to fall over edges of cake. Then sprinkle with chopped pecans.

Let cool completely before serving.

Coca Cola Cake

Fearsome bakes

Classic Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I’m filling in for my dear friend Polly tomorrow. We have a regular Monday evening meeting we attend together every week. She is the current cookie supplier for this coffee clatch. Polly is in The Big Apple for the holiday so I’m stepping in. Polly is also a retired pastry chef so I have big shoes to fill.

I figure I’m safe with a tested classic favorite. Simple, easy and damn good. Here is how you do it: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and use the following ingredients…

1. 2 1/4 cups flour
2. 1 tsp. Baking soda
3. 1 tsp. Salt
4. 1 cup (2 sticks) butter softened
5. 3/4 cup granulated sugar
6. 3/4 cup brown sugar
7. 1 1/4 tsp. Vanilla
8. 2 large eggs
9. 2 cups Semi Sweet chocolate chips
10. -optional- 1 cup chopped nuts

In separate bowl mix four, baking soda & salt then set aside. In the main mixing bowl beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until mixed well then beat in eggs to the mixture. Then beat in the flour mixture to complete the cookie batter. Hand stir in the chocolate chips and nuts if nuts are desired.

Drop the batter using a heaping teaspoon onto non-greased cookie sheets then bake 9-10 minutes at the 375 degrees F or until just golden brown then let cool for a couple minutes on the cookie sheet before removing with a spatula to a cooling rack or towel. This should yield you about 4dozen cookies.

 

Cookie Dough!

This 1947 oven has seen its share of cookies.

Perfection!
Smells so good in here!

 

Baking Beard’s EZ Sweetheart Chocolate Cake

Fearsome Bakes!

It’s been too long since since we posted a cake recipe. It’s time, just in time to save your ass with your sweetheart! So as Valentine’s Day approaches did you forget to stop and get chocolates and roses? This quick and easy chocolate cake will make your sweetheart melt like a Hershey bar on your fingers.

Fearsome’s easy Sweetheart catching yummy chocolate chip cake featuring creme cheese chocolate frosting!

AKA ….The Valentine Catcher Cake

Preparing to ice, you can see the indentations of the baked in chocolate chips!

Start with a box, yes a box…this is easy so it’s not from scratch, of Betty Crocker Super Moist Devils Food cake mix. Mix the cake as directed but substitute one stick of melted butter in place of the oil. Split batter into two layer pans and then drop 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips onto each layer’s batter (1/2 cup each). Don’t mix the chips in, just scatter on the batter. Bake as directed. Cool for 15 minutes in the pans and flip out of pans onto a towel to cool completely.

The icing is the key and we do make that from scratch as it’s so freakin’ easy. In a medium mixing bowl start with 1 – 8 ounce package of room temperature creme cheese and place in bowl. Add 1 – 1 pound package of confectioners powdered sugar (this is about 4 cups). Add 3/4 cup of Hershey’s baking cocoa. Then add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 cup of milk. Start to blend on slow speed, as it starts to moisten slowly increase speed of mixer and have extra milk handy to add just a few drops at a time ….keep mixing and adding extra drops of milk on a higher mixer speed until icing is creamy and just spreadable. –Careful to not add too much milk thus making it too runny to hold on cake…add the extra milk just drops at a time to just get creamy and spreadable.–

Ice the cool cake layers then refrigerate for about an hour uncovered to set icing.

My sweetheart’s gonna love me for this, yours will too!

Fearsome bakes another one

Fearsome, the baking beard, bakes often and this week decided to twist up an easy stand by. A friend that loves chocolate all the way down to his bones asked for a special chocolate one. But he’s a milk chocolate kind if guy so my from scratch dark chocolate cake would be a bit too much.

Keeping it easy I decided to twist up an already great Betty Crocker box cake. So here’s what I did:

Start with a box of Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Fudge cake mix. Mix according to directions with the following changes. Instead of oil, melt one stick of lightly salted butter and substitute that for the oil and add one teaspoon vanilla, then mix as directed. After splitting into 9 inch round pan spirinkle 1/2 cup of Hershey’s milk chocolate chips on top of batter of one layer and then anoth 1/2 cup on top of the other. Then bake as directed.

After cooling and turning out of Pans it’s time to make the chocolate frosting from scratch, it’s easy and makes the cake so much better. It is important to have the layers completely cool to room temperature before icing.

To make the icing place one stick of room temperature lightly salted butter into bottom of a mixing bowl. Add 1 – 16 ounce package of powered confectioners sugar and 2/3 cup of Hershey’s baking cocoa. Then add 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Have 1/3 cup whole milk waiting at the side. Pour a little of the milk on top and start mixing with electric mixer on low. Add a little milk at a time and slowly increase mixer speed to medium high. Keep slowly adding milk until icing becomes spreadable.

Ice the first layer then add the second and ice as well. Place milk chocolate chips in top as desired. Super easy, super chocolate and moist as can be. Enjoy!

Fearsome’s Milk Chocolate Chip Cake

Fearsome bakes Carrot Cake

It’s that time to post another cake on this here blog thingy.

I love Carrot Cake and this is super easy from scratch! It’s delish!

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees F

Cake: 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 cup vegetable oil, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 4 eggs, 2 cups grated carrots (do not pack into cup), 1 cup raisins ( do not pack into cup).

Hand mix with spoon all dry ingredients then add oil, butter, eggs and vanilla…stir well, then add carrots and raisins…stir well.

Divide into two 9 inch greased & floured (I use bakers secret spray it’s easier) round pans and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center.

Cool

Creme cheese icing: 4 ounces room temperature creme cheese, 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, 3 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon Vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon salt, have just a little milk available to add for consistency.

Place all in bowl except milk, with a power mixer blend together on medium to higher speed…..then….add a few drops of milk at a time until spreadable. Be careful as too much milk will make it too runny and it won’t work…JUST until spreadable. Ice cake!

Iced and ready to go in fridge to hold for my Sunday morning group.

Enjoy!

Fearsome’s Favorite Apple Cake

Tonight I’m having some family over for dinner of lemon Kale salad, fresh olive bread, homemade beef stew, whole grain pasta and Fresh Apple cake for dessert!

Ok this cake is easy and delicious! So delicious. Did I say delicious? Well it is!

Fearsome Beard’s Fresh Apple Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

4 cups peeled then chopped Granny Smith apples, 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla, (optional 1/2 cup chopped nuts of choice).

Place chopped apples in large mixing bowl. Break the two eggs over apples then add all other ingredients. Stir until well mixed into a creamy batter full of apple pieces. ( I chop my apples to fairly small pieces.)

Spray bundt pan with Bakers Joy ( or any other baking spray with flour in it) Spread batter into bundt pan and bake 1 hour.

Let cake cool in pan.

When cake is cool flip out onto cake plate and poke holes in it with a toothpick then make this glaze to pour on top.

Glaze: 1 stick real butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup milk, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Bring to boil stirring in sauce pan on stovetop. Boil stirring occasionally for 3 minutes. Pour over cooled cake.

Fearsome Beard’s Fresh Apple Cake cooling in pan.

Glazed and ready to eat. Yummmmm!

I thank my sister in law, Doris, for this recipe.

 

Finished product

The cakes are ready!

Two coconut and the most incredible chocolate cake ever. Both recipes are on this here blog thingy if you want to check them out under category Recipes.

My gratitude today is for my wonderful old kitchen in my 1920 California craftsman home. Complete with a top of the line vintage 1946 Gaffers & Sattler stove.

Tomorrow morning this old kitchen will be the center from which 16 people will have breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast. After that clean up…dinner for 20 will include a 25 lb turkey, 12 lb ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberry, broccoli, spinach salad and fresh rolls. This old kitchen will be busy and the stove its usual work horse self.

You already Know what dessert is. (For the pie hounds there will be pie brought by a guest.) I’ll be having cake!

Fearsome bakes for Thanksgiving

Ok…

For Thanksgiving I’m making three cakes.  The chocolate cake I posted here:

https://fearsomebeard.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/fearsome-bakes-2/

I am also making my coconut cake which is a tradition that everyone loves so much that I have to bake two each year to fill the demand (totals thee cakes). My coconut cake is super easy as it is just a modification that I made up myself from a mix. Here is my secret made up by me recipe:

Cake…

1 box of Betty Croker French Vanilla cake mix and 8 oz package of flaked coconut.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and mix the cake mix as directed substituting 1 stick of melted butter in place of the vegetable oil and add 1 teaspoon vanilla. As soon as the mix is finished being mixed, stop the mixer and add 1/3 cup coconut and then mix the coconut in at low speed until evenly distributed. Split batter into greased 9 inch pans and bake as directed on box. After removing from oven cool 20 minutes in pan and then flip out onto towels to fully cool.

Frosting:

1 lb of confectioners powdered sugar, 1 stick of room temperature butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/4 cup whole milk, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/3 cup coconut.

Beat sugar, butter, milk, salt and vanilla with mixer on high speed until smooth. If too stiff add very small amounts of additional milk (as in drops) and mix until spreadable. Then add the coconut and beat in with mixer.

Frost cake and then pour remaining coconut on top of cake.

It’s easy, moist and delicious. I’ll post pics after they are frosted as they just came out of oven. I feel gratitude for my family, the smell coming from my oven and this blog that I may share this recipe!

Fearsome bakes …

Today I baked another cake for my Sunday morning group. I baked a cake that I love to make and everyone who has it loves it too… It’s easy and delicious. It’s a quick one I started making awhile back based from a Betty Crocker mix and modified.

As I’ve said before I love the ritual of baking. It’s an art that gives me so much reward. So here goes…

Fearsome’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake

1 box of Betty Crocker Butter Yellow Cake Mix

Make batter by Using 1 whole stick of melted butter (instead of the oil) and add a teaspoon of vanilla extract and then mix as directed.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In a 13×9 inch glass pan pour another stick of melted butter (not the one you’ve already used for the cake) slosh the melted butter around to coat pan the let rest sit on bottom. Pour one 16 ounce bag of brown sugar into baking pan and pat out evenly into butter. Place rings of canned pineapple from one end of pan to other evenly and tightly. Pour just a little pineapple juice into center of each pineapple ring. Then pour the cake batter on top and even it out.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until toothpick placed in center comes out clean. Cool for one – two hours and flip out onto a cookie sheet.

It’s simple and easy. All that butter and brown sugar…who couldn’t resist?

Fearsome bakes…

Ok so a friend bakes the most freakin wonderful chocolate cake ever, and I just popped one into the oven to try my hand at it. I’ll posts updates as it comes to completion.

It will not be consumed until my Sunday Morning group so come back to this post Sunday afternoon to see if it came out successfully as  delicious as hers.

in the mean time here the Recipe for what’s in the oven:

“P’s” Double Chocolate Layer Cake

( This is a huge cake and requires 10-inch baking pans )

CAKE:

preheat oven to 300 degrees F

combine, whisk until smooth and set aside: 3 oz of chopped semi-sweet chocolate with 1 1/2 cups of hot strong freshly brewed coffee

sift together and set aside: 3 cups of sugar, 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 teaspoons baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt

beat until slightly thick and lemon colored: 3 eggs

then add: 3/4 cup vegetable oil, 1 1/2 cups well shaken buttermilk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and the chocolate/ coffee mixture

finally add the dry ingredients with mixer on a slow speed and combine well

divide the mixture between two 10 inch baking pans, well greased and floured. Bake approximately 70 minutes or until cake begins to pull away from sides of the pans and center springs back when touched.

 

GANACHE FROSTING

chop fine and set aside in large bowl ONE POUND of semi sweet chocolate

bring just to a boil: 1 cup heavy creme, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons white corn syrup, 1/4 teaspoon salt

pour hot creme mixture over chopped chocolate whisking until chocolate is melted

cut into pieces and whisk into chocolate mixture until frosting is smooth: 1/2 stick ( 2 oz) unsalted butter

add: 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cool frosting stirring occasionally until spreadable ( to speed the cooling you can set the bowl of frosting in a larger bowl of ice water and stir frequently but gently to keep the frosting on bottom from setting up prematurely)

frost cool cake as usual, frosting should set up further after it’s in the cake.

Just out of the oven, my house smells like a chocolate factory!

Completed cake! The icing is the most decadent thing ever…ONE POUND of semi sweet chocolate with creme, butter, vanilla and a little sweetener. I’m in heaven licking the bowl!

By Reader Request…. Kentucky Butter Cake Recipe

Ok it is delicious. Way and I mean WAY!

Busy Beard here, I baked a second one today for my Sunday morning group, they is gonna love it!

here it is….Kentucky Butter cake……

preheat oven to 325 degrees F , grease and flour a bundt cake pan (I use Baker’s Joy as it’s easier)

In a sauce pan place 1/3 cup real salted butter, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons of pure Vanilla extract, and 3 tablespoons water. Set this on the stove top, not on burner but stove top. You just let it melt and do it’s thing while the cake bakes. Do not cook, stir or boil it, just let it set on the warm stove top.

In a medium to large mixing bowl place 1 cup room temperature (soft) real salted butter, 3 cups all purpose flour (not sifted), 2 cups of sugar, 4 eggs, 1 cup buttermilk, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoons of pure Vanilla extract. Mix with a spatula until all is moist then using mixer on low for about 30 seconds and increase to a medium high speed and beat for an additional 2 1/2 minutes. Pour into bundt pan and bake at 325 for 1 hour.

Just before cake comes out of oven, make sure Butter is melted completely in sauce pan (if not add just enough heat from a burner to do so) and stir the contents of the sauce pan on the stove just enough to lift the sugar up into it but leaving the sugar granular in the mix….say about 5-10 times around….that’s all.

Take cake out of oven and immediately, leaving cake in the pan, using a tooth pic poke holes in the cake all over and then spoon the sugar butter mixture from the sauce pan onto the hot cake in its pan. It will still be very granular runny sugar and this is what you want as it will give the bottom of the cake a crispy butter/sugar bottom. Let cake cool about an hour (this lets the sugar form a crystal crust on the bottom as butter soaks into cake) before taking out of the pan.

Once out of the pan and on the cake plate sprinkle powdered sugar lightly over it and then it’s ready to serve.

Note:  Above is the original recipe and it is to die for if you are a butter pound cake fan. I’ve looked for a good pound cake recipe for years and have never found one this good or this easy to make. The second one is pictured below in process….I will add the finished pic when it cools and is out on the cake plate. Enjoy!