Birthday Cakes

In April I decided to make two of the 12 cakes in May. One for my birthday and one for my sister-in-law, Kami's birthday. I chose a chocolate cake and a s'mores cake. The chocolate cake I made was the Chocolate Truffle Cake and it was Great! My sister said it was the best chocolate cake she's ever had. I think it was rich and smooth. Anything with ganache is always a chocoholic's dream.

Here's the recipe for the chocolate truffle cake and information from the Taste of Home website-

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Chocolate-Truffle-Cake

Chocolate Truffle Cake

16 Servings

Prep: 35 min. + chilling Bake: 25 min. + cooling

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 cups 2% milk
• 1 cup butter, cubed
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• FILLING:
• 6 tablespoons butter, cubed
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 2-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream



• GANACHE:
• 10 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

• In a large saucepan, cook the milk, butter and chocolate over low heat until melted.
• Remove from the heat; let stand 10 minutes.


• In a large bowl, beat eggs and vanilla. Stir in chocolate mixture until smooth. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt; gradually beat in to the mixture (batter will be thin). Transfer to three greased and floured 9 in. round pans. Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted at center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.



• Filling: In a small sauce pan, melt butter and chocolate. Stir in cofectioner's sugar and cream until smooth.



• For ganache, place chocolate in a small bowl. In a saucepan, bring cream just to a boil. Pour over chocolate, whisk until smooth. Cool, stirring occasionally until ganache reaches a spreading consistency.



• Set aside 1/2 cup filing for garnish. Place one cake layer on a serving plate, spread with half of the remaining filling. Repear layers. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread ganache over top and sides of cake. Decorate with reserved filling. Store in frige.


• Nutrition Facts: 1 slice equals 676 calories, 38 g fat (22 g saturated fat), 109 mg cholesterol, 299 mg sodium, 84 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 8 g protein. Yep, it's bad for you, but tastes oh, so, good!

Chocolate Truffle Cake published in Taste of Home December/January 2010, p45

Now, on to the "Give Me S'more" Cake that I made for Kami. This cake was a bit of a challenge. It has lots of graham crackers in the cake mix which I think made the cake quite dense, but tasty. I also did not have a candy thermometer which would have helped immensely in preparing the frosting. I made this cake at my mom's and so she proceeded to tell me when she thought the marshmallow frosting reached the 180 degree mark. But I thought it wasn't hot enough because it wasn't hot to the touch or taste. The sugar needs to boil down and it just didn't reach that level so we had a grainy frosting. It was very sweet. I found it too sweet. We, my mom and I, did decorate the top a little differently from the recipe. My mom's idea was to use shaved chocolate covered graham crackers on the frosting. This worked out well because she conveniently had some frozen chocolate covered grahams that were easy to shave with a peeler. We topped the cake with one large s'more in the middle. We used a little chocolate frosting to hold a large marshmallow on a graham cracker. This made it look like a real s'more.

Cake 4- Apricot Almond Tart

This cake, cake number 4- the Apricot Almond Tart, I just started preparing last night. It will be for a 4th of July get together at our place. I've tried to make the cakes during the most appropriate season based on their ingredients. Since apricots are in season and this just sounded good, I'm giving this one a go.

Last night I baked the two 9" round cake layers and I wrapped them in foil and put them in the freezer. My mother does this to keep the moisture in the cake and I'm telling you that cakes always taste better after some time in the freezer. Plus they're so much easier to cut in 1/2 for layers.

This cake was very mild. The frosting was very rich, but the lightness of the cake was a good complement. It was almost all gone by the end of the party. I think this cake would pair nicely with vanilla ice cream.

It was a challenge to create the layers in this cake, just time consuming really. Anyway, loved the look and taste of this one.

Apricot Almond Torte

Prep: 45 Min. Bake: 25 Min. Yield: 12 Servings

Cake Batter:

3 eggs

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup ground almonds, roasted

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, whipped

Frosting:

1 pkg (8oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1/8 tsp. salt.

1 tsp. almond extract

1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, whipped

1 jar (10 to 12 oz.) apricot preserves

1/2 cup slivered almonds

Directions:

In large bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla on high speed til thick and lemon-colored. Combine flour, almonds, baking powder and salt; gradually fold into egg mixture alternately with whipped cream.

Transfer to 2 greased and floured 9 in. round baking pans. Batke at 350 degrees for 22-28 minutes til toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

In another large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and salt til smooth. Beat in extract and fold in whipped cream.

Cut each cake into 2 layers. Place bottom layer on serving plate and spread with frosting. top with another cake layer; spread with preserves. Repeat layers. Frost sides of cake. Decorate top edge with remaining frosting and sprinkle top with slivered almonds.

Enjoy!