Hi friends!  It's been rather cakey lately on the blog.  Should I apologize?  You like cake though, don't you?  So lots of cake is a good thing, right?  I'll go with that and break the news that I have another cake for you today.

Hot Fudge Whopper Cake





Oh yeah!  It was good, so good.  I made it for my boy, you see.  My boy who turned 8 last week.  I'm still not accepting the fact that my baby is 8 years old.  It just can't be true.

Anyway, the boy likes chocolate.  Only chocolate.  If it has a whisper of anything else, he will kindly pass.  So!  His birthday cake needed to be something spectacularly chocolate.  I saw this cake on my most favorite sweet treat blog - Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.  I knew right away that I would be making it soon, I just needed the right occasion, like a special birthday.

See, special birthday!




This cake was super fun to make and it was chocolate heaven!  So good!  I followed Kristan's instructions and the cake turned out fantastic.  It was rather like making the Tuxedo Cake.

Hop over to Confessions of a Cookbook Queen to see Kristan's original post and then go make some cake!

Hot Fudge Whopper Cake
Source:  Confessions of a Cookbook Queen
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You'll need to start with a chocolate cake.  Bake your favorite chocolate cake, from scratch or a boxed mix (no hating, folks).  I made a two layer 9" cake.  Bake the layers and let them cool completely.


This post is linked to:  Sweets for a Saturday
Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Okay!  Straight up keepin' it real here...
This photo doesn't do justice to the amazing deliciousness of this little cake.
It's all my fault.  I crave banana sweetness, I make cake, then I rush to eat cake.  I snapped one single solitary photo of this cake before I got busy eating it. 


That slice.  The big fat one you see up there.  It was my late afternoon snack.  It was worth it and I don't have any regrets.  I went on to have several more slices over the next day or two, and I don't regret them either.  The cake was so good!  Like a perfect slice of banana bread topped with....with...oh my gosh, you are going to die!...creamy (as in cream cheese) caramel frosting!   Snap!

You need to make this cake.  It's the perfect size!  A tall and lovely 9 inch round.  It's just right for dessert tonight, especially if you have ripe bananas ready to be used up.
Maaaaaake it!

If you are a Dulce de Leche fan, you might like these naughty nuggets too!
Ahhhh-mazing!
Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars


Dulce de Leche Banana Cake
Source:  slightly adapted from Bakers Royale
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Ingredients
For the cake:
½ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed bananas (about  1 1/2 to 2 large bananas)
¾ cup dulce de leche

For the frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, cold
8 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoons dulce de leche
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups of powdered sugar, sifted


Make the cake:
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter a 9" round cake pan and then lightly dust with flour. Place parchment round on bottom of pan.Place sour cream in a bowl and add baking soda; set aside.
Mix butter and sugar until light and creamy.
Add eggs in one at time and beat until combined. Add vanilla and beat until combined.
Mix flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. Mix bananas, dulce de leche and sour cream mixture. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with banana mixture. Mix after each addition until just combined.
Pour mixture into prepared cake pan and bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes or until cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake for 5 minutes in cake pan. Remove cake and continue to cool cake completely on a wire rack.

Make the frosting:
Mix cream cheese, dulce de leche and butter until combined. Add vanilla and mix until combined.
Gradually add sifted powdered sugar and mix until fully combined.



This post is linked to:  These Chicks Cooked
Cast Party Wednesday
Totally Tasty Tuesdays
What's Cooking Wednesday
Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Hello friends.  I have big news today...
I made a cake!  Yes.  Me.  Myself.  I made a cake!
I'm quite proud of myself and my little cake.
Introducing....
Mr. Tuxedo Cake!




































You might be asking...why is this big news?  You see, I just don't do many cakes. I get asked to do cakes all the time, and I have to hang my head in shame and mumble about how I just can't do a pretty cake.  I do cupcakes.  I'm the Cupcake Lady!

Honestly, cakes frighten me.  They're scary and just waiting for me to mess up one tiny thing, thereby ruining the entire endeavor!  Cupcakes are cute and sweet.  They don't mind if I make an itty bitty mistake.  If they get sassy, I just eat 'em, and it's only one man down.  You can't do that with a cake.

So!  I'm pretty proud of this cake and it's given me confidence to do more cakes!  I can do cakes!  I can, I can, I think I can.  :)

I made this Tuxedo Cake for an upcoming cake order, sort of a trial run to be sure I could pull it off.  It's a chocolate cake, moist and delicious, with sweetened whip cream icing and topped with a bittersweet chocolate ganache.  Oh!  And I finished it off with some chocolate covered strawberries and Oreo cookie crumbs to make it look super pretty.

If you live in Texas, you'll know this cake from Rebecca Rather (aka The Pastry Queen) at the Rather Sweet Bakery and Cafe in lovely Fredericksburg.

Here's the recipe!  Thanks for stopping by.

Tuxedo Cake
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This post is linked to:  Sweets for a Saturday
Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday
Recipe Sharing Monday
Mouthwatering Monday
These Chicks Cooked
Cast Party Wednesday
Totally Tasty Tuesdays
What's Cooking Wednesday

Cake for breakfast?  Why the heck not!
Is anyone else reminded of that old Bill Cosby stand up routine?  The one where he is left alone in the morning with his children, and one of them asks for chocolate cake for breakfast. 

Yeah, cake for breakfast.  Just do it.

Prior to making this lovely New York style crumb cake, my favorite cake-ish treat for breakfast was Nutmeg Coffee Cake.  Now I'm lost and unsure about it's status as favorite.  I might just love this one more, just a little more.  I'll always be very fond of my Nutmeg Coffee Cake.  This crumb cake is really good though.  So good, tender cake and a mountain of buttery crumbs good.  Good, yum, good!  I really am at a loss for better vocabulary today.  So sorry.




New York Style Crumb Cake
Source:  Cooks' Illustrated
Print the Recipe!

For the Crumb Topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), melted and still warm
1 3/4 cups cake flour

For the cake:
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick), cut into 6 pieces, softened but still cool
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup buttermilk
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

To make the topping: Whisk sugars, cinnamon, salt, and butter in medium bowl to combine. Add flour and stir with rubber spatula or wooden spoon until mixture resembles thick, cohesive dough; set aside to cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.
To make the cake: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease an 8 inch baking dish and line with parchment paper, leaving about a 2 inch overhang on the sides.  In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt on low speed to combine. With mixer running at low speed, add butter one piece at a time; continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no visible butter chunks remaining, 1 to 2 minutes. Add egg, yolk, vanilla, and buttermilk; beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute, scraping once if necessary.
Transfer batter to baking pan; using rubber spatula, spread batter into even layer.  Break apart crumb topping into large pea-sized pieces between your thumb, pointer, and middle fingers and spread in even layer over batter, beginning with edges and then working toward center. Bake until crumbs are golden and wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack at least 30 minutes. Remove cake from pan by lifting parchment overhang. Dust with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.



This post is linked to:  Sweet Indulgences Sunday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday
Totally Tasty Tuesdays
Tasty Tuesday
Mouthwatering Monday
These Chicks Cooked
Cast Party Wednesday
Recipe Sharing Monday
What's Cooking Wednesday
Sweets for a Saturday

Just a quick post to share a couple cute (in my opinion!) cupcakes I've made recently.

I did these sweet cupcakes for a little boy's first birthday.  He had an adorable safari theme and I thought these cupcakes fit nicely. 



These little cuties were for a girl's birthday party with a Minnie Mouse theme.  I loved the liners so much - black with white polka dots.  Cuteness!




Thanks for stopping by.  If you live in or around the great city of Dallas (Texas-y'all), I would love to make treats for you too!  Check out my Contact Me page and...well...contact me.  :)

Cooler weather!
Cooler weather, I say!
Hooray!

Here in Texas we have had a long, hot summer. Hot. So Hot!  We've had cooler weather this week and it's been so nice.  By cooler, I mean highs in the lower 90's.  Now, if we can just get some rain and put an end to these raging wildfires ravaging my beloved state.

Photo credit:  Associated Press, LM Otero

We have so much to think about and be grateful for this week.  My heart goes out to my fellow Texans affected by the wildfires.  I'm also remembering September 11th with my fellow Americans.  We will never forget.  Some of us will never forgive.  Don't worry, I'm working on that character flaw.

Enjoy your week, everyone.  Hug someone you love.