Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting {Recipe}

We have a deep egress window in our house. It's about 4 feet down to the bottom of the window well. And for some reason, the occasional bunny decides to take a leap down it. Once, my husband and my father tried to free the bunny by opening the window and "grabbing it." But bunnies are fast. The thing decided instead to squirt through the small window opening, and run around the basement for a while before they caught it.

(Stay with me... I'm getting to the cake.)

So, last week, when yet another bunny decided to check out the window well, my husband wasn't home. And my father lives two plane rides away. So, the 5-year-olds and I went to ask the neighbor if he had any ideas for rescuing the bunny, and NOT letting it escape into the basement. He insisted that he would catch the bunny- again from inside. So down to the basement we went, bucket in hand. This bunny wasn't quite as quick as the last one-- and Mr. Dick was ready for him (or her). After one near-escape, the bunny was captured, put in the bucket, carried triumphantly through the house to be set free, outside to roam once more.

The 5-year-olds dubbed Mr. Dick "The BunnySaver." He now has superhero status in our house. So, to thank him... I made him a carrot cake. That's appropriate for a Bunny Saver, right?

The challenge is that I don't really like carrot cake (it's a texture thing). I've been asked many times for a good carrot cake recipe, but have had to say no because, until now, I've never baked one. So, I consulted the Google gods, and I looked over my favorite pumpkin cake recipe-- because I figure pumpkin cake and carrot cake should be kind of similar.

I actually like this cake. It does have a lot of texture, but I'm prepared for it. Plus, I think I've had a lot of dry, and overbaked carrot cakes. This one does not have those problems. It's very moist. I hope you'll try it, and if you do actually like carrot cakes. Let me know (honestly) how this one rates.

What You Need:
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup (granulated) sugar
1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)
3 eggs (at room temperature)
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup buttermilk (at room temperature)
2 cups grated carrots (about 4-6 carrots)
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
Optional:
1 cup flaked coconut, toasted (and divided)
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted (and divided)

For The Icing:
1 8 oz. brick of cream cheese (at room temperature)
1/2 cup butter (at room temperature)
2 tsp. vanilla
3-4 cups powdered sugar

Yield: 2-8" or 9" layers (or, like I made, 3-6" layers)

Tip for Tuesday - Crumb Cup

What's so special about this glass? It keeps crumbs out of my cakes.

That's right! Want to keep your cake from picking up crumbs? Just keep a "crumb cup" nearby. I prefer pint glasses because they're heavy-bottomed, so they don't fall over when you load a bunch of icing on the side, or when you stick the spatula inside of it.

When you find a crumb in your icing, or on your spatula, just wipe it into the crumb cup. Why not wipe it on to the side of your icing bowl? Because you forget. You forget that that blob was the crummy blob, and that blob was the non-crummy blob.(And everyone has a crummy blob now and again!)

The Crumb Cup-- today's Tip for Tuesday.

Click the Links Below to See:
How to Ice a Cake
Basic Cake Decorating Ideas, Tips & Tricks

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Leftover Royal Icing as Buttercream

I always make entirely too much Royal Icing.

You'd think by now I'd know... and yet, every time I decorate cookies... I make too much.
So, what to do with all of that leftover Royal Icing??

Well, after giving it to the children to decorate as they please....

And making rows and rows of dots...

...which the children love to use as sprinkles.

I discovered that if you just add some butter or shortening, you can turn it into ... ta-da! Buttercream Icing!

How To Get the Right Royal Icing Consistency... Consistently

Decorating cookies with Royal Icing is so easy that my 5-year-olds can do it. (and do... often.)

However, learning to get the right consistency is something that just takes time. If I had someone to color, bag and thin my royal icing all of the time, I think I'd make a lot more cookies.

Silky Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

My choco-holic husband said about this icing:
"It's like eating a chocolate cloud."

What You Need:
4 Egg whites
1 cup Sugar
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) Unsalted butter (at room temperature)
4 oz. Melted dark chocolate
1-3 Tbsp. Unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
1 Tbsp. Vanilla (optional)
Special equipment, etc.:
Candy thermometer
Saucepan with about 1/2 inch water
Lemon juice or vinegar & paper towels

Testing Egg-Free Hard-Drying Cookie Icing

A friend posted a recipe link to an "easy," hard-drying icing similar to this over the holidays, and I was intrigued. Would cookie icing made without egg whites or meringue powder really dry hard? Could it be as useful as royal icing, and this easy to make? I had to try it myself to see. But I was skeptical, so it took me a few months.

What You Need:
2 cups powdered sugar
3-4 Tbsp. milk (or water)
1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
2 tsp. clear vanilla flavoring
Optional:
Food coloring 

The Easiest Way to Frost a Cupcake

One question that I hear from a lot of people is "how can I frost a cupcake, and make it look nice and smooth?"
Any way but with a spatula or knife is my honest answer.

You'll notice that in any of my cupcake projects, I never ice the cupcakes with a spatula. It's just a real pain, never looks smooth, and is not pretty.

So, what is the easiest way to frost a cupcake??

With the icing swirl...

Or with a fondant cut-out.

Banana Pina Colada Cupcakes

It's spring break time! I'm far from the college days of getting a real spring break, but I am ready to be sipping some fru-fru drinks with umbrellas in them. Who's with me?!

How about fru-fru drinks in cupcake form? Will that do? They are mighty tasty!

What You Need (for the cupcakes)
1 ½ cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter (at room temperature)
1/4 cup coconut "cream" (see explanation below)
2 eggs (at room temperature)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 ½ tsp. Baking powder
¾ tsp. Baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ c. coconut milk
1 c. mashed ripe bananas
1 sm. can crushed pineapple (drained)

What You Need (for the icing)
4 Egg whites
1 cup sugar
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) Unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1-2 Tbsp. Coconut Rum like Malibu
Special equipment:
Candy thermometer
Saucepan with about 1/2 inch water
Lemon juice or vinegar & paper towels 

Optional What You Need (for decoration)
Marachino cherries
Dried or "vaccuum fried" pineapple
Flaked coconut
Drink Umbrellas

"Icing-tastrophy" or How to Save Separated Icing

I may not have admitted to the world yet that I do, indeed, love Swiss Meringue Buttercream Icing... just like everyone said that I would.

I love it because of how many different flavors you can make it. So far, I've done vanilla, chocolate, caramel, pineapple, coconut, and my favorite, strawberry.

However, re-using the icing can be a challenge. Once you refrigerate it, to reconstitute it, you have to whip it again. BUT you have to make sure it's at the right temperature to bring it back to life. If you don't... you get this:

Soupy, separated, mess.

How To Color Icing

I hate coloring icing.
If cakes, cookies and whatnot looked great in shades of white, I'd be so happy.
But they don't.

I've actually been trying to write this post for at least 2 months, probably more. But every time I start, I just can't get very far. I don't really know the best way to organize it, or what you really want to know. So, here's the deal... I'm just going to get this done. Now, your job is to ask the questions I don't answer in the main post, and I promise to answer them, to the best of my ability, in the comments section.

What You Need:
Icing
Gel and/or powder-based food coloring
Toothpicks
Butter Knife or Icing Spatula(s)
2-4 small bowls or mugs (You won't necessarily need one per color, but occasionally you need more than one.)
Plastic Wrap
Icing Bags
Small sandwich bags (for flooding consistency icing if you're using it)

Neapolitan Cake

It's the best of all worlds, strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. And even better, I made it using one cake mix, and just one batch of icing.

What You Need: (For the Cake)
White cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/4 cup Buttermilk or soured milk*
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1/4 cup frozen strawberries, defrosted
3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 oz.unsweetened or semisweet chocolate (or chocolate chips)
1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
*Soured milk is 1 Tbsp. white vinegar + enough milk to make 1 cup

What You Need: (For the Icing)
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks)
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1/4 cup frozen strawberries, defrosted
2 oz. chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

Banana Split Cake

My cupcake version of this Banana Split Cake is one of my favorite things I've ever created (in the kitchen, anyway). So, I decided I needed to make a cake-sized version.

What could be better than my favorite banana cake, topped with scoops of yummy, rich icing that taste just like ice cream, but without the brain freezes or the dripping??

What You Need:
Banana Cake (baked in 6, 8, or 9-inch round pans)
One recipe Vanilla Buttercream Icing (divided into thirds)
1/4-1/2 cup frozen strawberries, defrosted
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
Sprinkles
Chocolate for drizzling
Marachino Cherries
Whipped Cream
Small Ice Cream or Dough Scoop

The Most Ridiculous Chocolate Cake Ever

I've mentioned before that my husband loves chocolate. So, we were discussing his usual birthday chocolate pie the other day, and with the input of the two 5-year-olds, we ended up deciding that he didn't want just a chocolate pie this year. No. He wanted a chocolate cake and French Silk pie combo. If I weren't writing this blog, there is no way he'd have EVER gotten away with this request.

So, here it is: The most ridiculous chocolate cake ever! (Don't let the candles throw you, that is 6"x8" of pure chocolate, butter, sugar goodness.)

What You Need:
One recipe Rich Chocolate Cake
One recipe French Silk Pie (including crust and whipped cream)
One recipe Chocolate Ganache

Just so you're prepared, we're talking about 1 pound (and then some) of chocolate, 6 eggs, about 1 pound of butter, 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, and a dozen or so other ingredients.

How to Ice the Corners of a Cake

Covering square and rectangular cakes with icing can be a little challenging the first few times you do it. I know it was for me. Getting those corners covered with icing and not gouging them or filling them with crumbs can really be hard.
Please click the link if you want to see my complete tutorial for icing any cake. 

Tropical Coconut-Pineapple Cupcakes

I recently taught a cupcake birthday party for a girl who wanted a Hawaiian theme, so I had to come up with some simple fondant tropical designs that even 'tweens could do.

The girl wanted chocolate cupcakes and vanilla frosting, but when I practiced them at home, I wanted something more 'tropical.' Not being a huge fan of coconut (really, it's a texture thing), I decided that using coconut milk in the cupcakes, and pineapple in the icing might be just the right combination for me.

What You Need:
1 box white cake mix
1 can coconut milk (I opted against "light")
6 eggs (divided)
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter (softened)
1 sm. can crushed pineapple, drained
*Yield: Approx. 2 dozen cupcakes or 1 dozen standard cupcakes and 2 dozen mini-cupcakes

Royal Icing Cake Decorations

When a friend asked me to make first birthday cakes for her twin girls... that had the likeness of their favorite stuffed animals on them, I scratched my head a little bit, because while I love making cakes, I'm just not a cake artist like some of those people you see on TV.

Then I remembered a technique that would allow me to make a picture of the animals, and it wouldn't require too much artistic work. I used royal icing... just like you would on a cookie, but I piped it on to parchment paper, let it dry, then you can transfer it to the cake.

What You Need:
Royal Icing
Parchment paper
Cake board or cookie sheet
Tape
Printed picture of your decoration*
Icing colors/tips for design

*Remember, if you're making money off of a cake, you can't use a copyright or trademarked image.

Royal Icing Recipe

Royal icing is the awesome, hard-drying icing you see on all of the most awesome cookies out there. I have been working for months (literally) to get the recipe just right, so here it is.

What You Need:
Vinegar or lemon juice to wipe down equipment
1 lb. powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. meringue powder
1/3 cup water
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
1-2 tsp. clear vanilla flavoring (or other flavoring of your choice)

(Click here for a Royal Icing Recipe using Egg Whites instead of Meringue Powder.)

Homemade Rolled Fondant

I start this post with a warning. This stuff is not easy to make. It's not exactly hard to make, it's just definitely not easy. I also reiterate my recommendation that you try working with a store-bought fondant a few times before you make your own so that you know what consistency you're looking for.

What You Need
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. water*
1 Tbsp. powdered gelatine
1/3 cup corn syrup
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. glycerine
2 tsp. clear vanilla
pinch of salt
1 1/2 - 2 lbs. powdered sugar (approx. 6-8 cups)

*Note: if you're not interested in making white-white fondant, substitute half-and-half or heavy cream for the water here. You'll get a little more "ivory" colored fondant, but it's richer and yummier.

Marshmallow Fondant - MMF

If you've never worked with fondant before, making it yourself can be a challenge. I always recommend that my students use store-bought fondant a few times before trying to do their own because then you will know what kind of consistency you're looking for.

What you need
This recipe is for a small batch. It makes about a pound to a pound and a half of fondant. If you want enough to cover a cake, you'll need to double it.
1 10.5-oz. bag of mini-marshmallows
1 Tbsp. water
1 tsp. clear vanilla extract
1 tsp. clear butter extract 
2-3 cups of powdered sugar 
butter or shortening to grease 

Fondant 101

This week is going to be all about fondant here on the Beki Cook's Cakes Blog.

Fondant is everywhere. ALL of the cake shows use - in my opinion - entirely too much fondant. But if you talk to most people, they have rarely, if ever, eaten the stuff. They talk about peeling it off of the cake before eating it. So, what's the point?! Well, it is beautiful! And if you're at all artistic, it's amazing the kinds of 'sculptures' you can do with it.

This post serves as a kind of introduction to fondant. Although, I will recommend that if you really don't know much about fondant, but would like to get into it, take a real class! It's nice to have someone who knows what they're talking about to answer your questions along the way, and help correct you if there's something you misunderstand. Check out your local craft store, kitchen store or community education catalog. I teach Wilton cake decorating classes at JoAnn Fabrics in Edina, Minnesota. I also teach other cake classes of my own through community education programs around the East Metro of the Twin Cities.