The Little Mermaid Cake

So a little while ago, I ended up making two identical Ariel cakes for the very same day... it was very bizarre. I guess the Little Mermaid is the theme to have for little girl birthday parties these days. I can't believe it's lasted this long!

So I thought that maybe to kick-start me getting back into things, I would start off with a my very favourite chocolate cake recipe. I like it primarily because of the taste, but also because of it's simplicity in both method and ingredients, all key factors in my book.

If you want to get my marshmallow fondant recipe, you can check out a previous post I did about a Barbie Cake. I did make it by hand this time though.

Before the fondant went on, this cake was iced with the Wilton Buttercream recipe. For the filling, since it was a two layer cake, I took about a cup of icing, and mixed in a big ol' spoonful of dulce de leche, and then chopped up two milky way bars finely and mixed it all together. That turned out really nicely... although you can't REALLY go wrong with those ingredients, now, can you?

So this cake recipe come from allrecipes.com, and it is now the only one I use for chocolate cake. It sort of has an Oreo taste to it if you can imagine. It's a soft, delicate cake with rich colour and an intense chocolate taste. I often find chocolate cake not as chocolatey as you'd expect it to be, but this recipe will not disappoint.  In this particular cake, I double the recipe and bake off two ten inch square cakes, which is different from the usual. I just lowered the temp and extended the baking time.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two nine inch round pans.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. Stir in the boiling water last. Batter will be thin. Pour evenly into the prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Also makes great cupcakes in about 18-20 minutes!

Here are a couple of alternate views of my cakes, everything was hand made by moi, well, except the candle.

Have a great day!