Chocolate Chip Banana-Wheat Bread

Last night I went into the freezer for some ice cubes, and saw that I had a few frozen bananas hanging out in there. Whenever fresh bananas get a little too ripe in our house, I stick them in the freezer, to use them in the future for a delicious treat. Well, I save them up until I have enough for a recipe, and it just so happened I had 4 in there. Since I couldn't do my laundry tonight (the dryer's broken!) Banana Bread it is!

Chocolate Chip Banana-Wheat Bread
(adapted from the "Banana-Wheat Quick Bread" recipe in The Pillsbury Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook, published in 1996)


Ingredients
1 c. All-Purpose Flour
3/4 c. Whole Wheat Flour
1 c. Granulated Sugar
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 c. Mashed Ripe Bananas
1/4 c. Butter, softened
2 tbsp. Orange Juice
1/4 tsp. lemon juice (I didn't have any so I just used lime juice)
1 egg
3/4 c. Chocolate Chips (supposed to be raisins, but I conveniently didn't have any on hand!)

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350°. Grease and flour the bottom of your loaf pan(s). I used two, because we have a mismatched pair, but use as few or as many as you want!

In a big bowl, mix together the flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, bananas, butter, orange juice, lemon juice, and egg.

(now doesn't that just look yummy?)

Mix everything at medium speed for about 3 minutes. Lower to the lowest speed setting, and add the chocolate chips. Stir just until they're evenly dispersed.

Pour batter into your pan(s) and put them in the oven for 55 minutes. Mine only took 40 minutes, but that's also because it was in two pans. So just keep an eye on it!

Once your bread's baked, let it cool in the pan(s) for about 5 minutes, and then remove it from the pan and let it continue cooling. (Or, follow my mom's lead and eat it as soon as it cools enough to hold in your hand without burning yourself!)

Delicious! 

Bon appétit!

Apple Cinnamon Muffins!

So this past weekend I was feeling antsy - it had snowed (!) before Halloween (!!) in Philadelphia (!!!) so I had a bit of cabin fever and decided I wanted to bake something. I carved my pumpkin, hoping to use its guts to make something delicious, until Martha Stewart luckily told me that would be a bad idea.

Thanks Martha!

Since I couldn't use my pumpkin, I looked around for something else to use, and discovered a pair of Crispin apples that hadn't been used yet, along with a red delicious that had seen better days. I googled "Apple Muffin", et voila! This delicious recipe from King Arthur Flour!

Now, my mama is a big fan of King Arthur. In fact, she refuses to use any flour BUT King Arthur in her kitchen. And every time we get one of their catalogs in, I sit and drool at all of their fun little tools and delicious-looking recipes. So it was only appropriate that I should use one of their recipes to scratch my baking itch!

Nom nom nom...

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

(adapted from King Arthur Flour recipe)

makes 24 full muffins

Ingredients

2 c. 100% Whole Wheat Flour 

2 c. 100% White Whole Wheat Flour (King Arthur calls for 100% WHITE whole wheat flour, and then all-purpose flour. Since we only ever buy white whole wheat, and use it as all-purpose, these muffins have extra fiber. They still taste delish though, so I'm making that part of the recipe! But all-purpose works fine here!)

2 tsp. Baking Soda

2 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. Salt

3 tbsp. Cinnamon (more than King Arthur calls for, but I'm a big fan of cinnamon, so use to taste!)

1 c. Butter (2 sticks) room temperature

1 c. Granulated Sugar

1 c. Dark Brown Sugar

2 Large Eggs, lightly beaten (I pretty much just broke the yolks and stirred a little until the yellow leaked out.)

2 c. Buttermilk (I just used sour milk - pour 1/8 c. white vinegar into 1 7/8 c. 2% milk, and let it sit for 5 minutes -- it works the same!)

3 Large Apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (haphazardly, if you're me!)

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 450°F. Prep your muffin tins -- you can just throw some cupcake liners in them, but if you're out of them, or just lazy (like me!) you can grease and flour them. (And, if you're SUPER lazy like me, just buy a "baking" spray that has the flour and grease all in the one can for you. Easy Peasy!)

In a medium bowl, mix together your 2 flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Make sure you stir them super well so the cinnamon get evenly dispersed throughout!

In a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer. Add the white sugar, and 1/2 cup of the dark brown sugar. Set the rest of the brown sugar aside for the end. Beat the butter and sugars until they're nice and fluffy. Mine didn't get fluffy, exactly, it more like finally just mixed together, which I figured was good enough.

Add the eggs, and mix until semi-combined. (You can mix all day and that butter and eggs still won't blend totally.) Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, and give it one more quick mix to incorporate the scraped additions.

Add the buttermilk (sour milk) slowly, on the lowest possible setting. According to King Arthur (whom I will continue to refer to as if he were a real person) if you over-mix in this step, you run the risk of curdling your mixture. I didn't really see any curdling with my sour milk, so maybe just buttermilk curdles. Anyway, if that kind of stuff makes you nervous, you can mix equal parts of the buttermilk and flour mixture in, alternating between the two.

Either way, stir the dry ingredients in on low, and then turn off the mixer. Using a spatula, gently fold the apples into the batter. (This is done exactly like it sounds. Fauna actually did it right - but DEFINITELY use the spatula!)

Using a spoon, scoop batter into each of the 24 cups, and then sprinkle the rest of the dark brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower oven temperature to 400 and bake for another 10.

Let them cool, and then dig in!

Bon appétit!

Next up: Chocolate Chip Banana-Wheat Bread

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes!

Whew, 2 years later, welcome back!!

Is there a better way to start the comeback than with one of my absolute favorite recipes?? I think not!
I first saw this recipe in a Rachael Ray Magazine in November of 2009 (which, coincidentally, is when I wrote my last blog post!) Once I saw it, I just couldn't get it out of my mind. I mean, can you blame me??

Since I first made them, I've made these babies multiple times for multiple functions and have had them requested more than any other baked good. So I strongly suggest you take down this super simple recipe and share the love!

(The frosting Rachael included with the recipe got mixed reviews from other bakers, so I scrapped it and used cream cheese frosting, instead!)

Pumpkin-Cheesecake Cupcakes
(adapted from Rachael Ray Magazine, November 2009)
makes 24

Ingredients:
2 8oz. Bricks of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 c. Confectioners' sugar
2 Egg whites
3 tsp. Vanilla extract
3 c. Flour
4 tsp. Pumpkin pie spice
3 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
2 c. Canned pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling!)
4 eggs (can be substituted with 2 c. Unsweetened applesauce)
2 c. Granulated sugar
1 c. Vegetable oil (can be substituted with 1 c. Unsweetened applesauce, unless eggs have been substituted)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line 2 12-cup muffin pans with cupcake liners. (bonus points if you can find some with pumpkins on them!)
2. Use an hand-held or stand electric mixer to cream together the cream cheese and confectioners' sugar in a small bowl. Rachael says it takes 3 minutes, so I usually take her word for it and leave it on while I'm prepping the other ingredients. (The joys of a stand mixer!)
3. Beat in egg whites and 1 teaspoon of  vanilla. Set aside.
4. In a medium sized bowl, add the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until ingredients are well-dispersed.
5. In a large bowl, add the pumpkin puree, whole eggs, sugar, oil, and the other 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Mix together until blended. (It'll taste better than it currently looks, I promise!)
6. Slowly add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mix, until both are completely blended, but do not over-mix.
7. Using a small ladle or ice cream scoop, layer the cupcake liners with 1/3 pumpkin mixture, 1/3 cream cheese mixture, and finish with another 1/3 pumpkin mixture.
8. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, and check for doneness (totally a word) by sticking a toothpick in the center of one of the middle cupcakes. If it comes out without anything on it, they're done!

Now, as I mentioned, I don't use Rach's frosting. I have quite an affinity for all things cream cheese, so obviously cream cheese made it on top of these cupcakes! Besides, cream cheese frosting is one of the easiest frosting's to make, and hardest to mess up -- double score!

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
1 8oz. Brick of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 c. Butter, at room temperature (2 sticks)
4-6 c. Confectioners' sugar (depends on taste preference)
2 tsp. Vanilla extract

Directions
1. Beat together the butter and cream cheese. Lower the mixer speed to the lowest possible speed, and begin adding the confectioners' sugar about 1/2 cup at a time, to taste. When it's your preferred flavor, add the vanilla and mix on high for 30 seconds.

And voila! Delicious Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes!


Next up: Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes!

Happy Turkey Day!

Howdy! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I know I did... my family's greatest strength is finding and preparing delicious food, so of course our Turkey Day dinner was delicious!

So by now, my family has caught on to me, and figured out that while I can make mashed potatoes or green bean casserole, my real forte is baking. Naturally, that meant a Thanksgiving day dessert!

I thought long and hard about this one, wavering between pie (which I've never done) and cake, which is my favorite. I finally decided to make a turkey cake, dinner style, to surprise the family.

For example:

found here.

But my mom decided that might be a little too weird, even for our family. So instead, I went for a LIVE turkey cake. Much more aesthetically appealing, no?

I started with a basic recipe for White Almond Sour Cream cake, and added my own changes.

2 boxes spice cake mix (the original obviously calls for white cake mix, but I thought spice would be more festive)
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar (I used Splenda granulated - no need to add any more calories than are already present!)
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 2/3 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I didn't have any, so I just melted some butter and used that instead.)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp almond extract
1 cup sour cream (the original calls for 2 cups, but I substituted a cup of pumpkin instead)
1 cup canned pumpkin

8 egg whites (you can use 6 whole eggs instead, since you don't have to worry about them coloring the white cake, but it's a few less calories to use only the whites)


Preheat the oven to 325. Grease your pans. (An important step I forgot, but luckily my mother is magic at getting cakes out of pans.)


Stir all the dry ingredients together with a whisk. (or a whisk attachment) Add in all the other ingredients, and mix on medium for about 2 minutes. Make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom, especially if you're using a stand mixer. Oh, and since there's so much batter, don't put the mixer on medium right away. Work up to it. Believe me.


I poured the batter into the two halves of my Wilton Ball pan, and also into a large bundt pan. Throw the pans in the oven, and wait FOREVER for them to finish cooking (There's no real bake time for these, but plan on about 40 minutes to an hour. Since the ball halves and the bundt cake are all so dense, it takes a little while to cook. Once they're done, let them cool.


When you're ready for decorating, use a knife to level off the tops of the two ball halves, so they'll sit evenly when placed on top of each other. Also level off the bottom of one of the halves, so it has a base to sit on.


Smear a little chocolate icing on the leveled bottom and attach to the cake board or plate. Smear more chocolate icing on the top of the ball, and attach the top half. ***I iced the bottom half a bit before putting it on the board, because it is nearly impossible to do once the cake has been attached. Ice the whole ball in chocolate icing.


Measure the bundt cake so you can cut off about a quarter while still giving the turkey a tail that shows above his head. Smear more chocolate icing on the bottom of the tail to attach it to the plate. From the leftover bundt cake, trim a head and neck shape, and attach to the body. I used dowels to help give it more support, since it had very little cake to sit on.



Once all the pieces have been attached, the decorating is easy. I created different colors out of vanilla icing and food coloring. Then I just painted them in alternating stripes for his tail.

Then I covered his head in chocolate icing, and used a little blue icing tube to pipe on eyes. His beak is a jelly orange slice cut in half, and his waddle is some red cookie icing.

Tada!

You Don't Have to be 18 to Vote!

.... at least, not on the Iron Cupcake:Earth Apple Challenge!!

Get out there and vote vote vote! This month I made Apple Pie Cupcakes, and I'm hoping for a win! Voting is open until December 4th, so you have plenty of time to vote for your favorite cupcakes!

Go here: No One Puts Cupcake In a Corner

Please and Thank you!

Iron Cupcake: Earth - Apple!

So, it's already that time again! Time for my Iron Cupcake: Earth submission... I can't believe November's already almost over! Really, where does the time go??

Anyway, I don't quite want to let go of Fall yet, (I have a thing about winter. If it's gonna be that cold, the least it can do is snow.) so I was excited to see that this month's ingredient was apples!

But, in keeping with the "not letting go of the seasons" theme, I decided to make a cupcake based on a dessert that is usually served in July....

APPLE PIE!

So, here is my adaptation of an apple pie cupcake.

Recipe adapted from the New Best Recipe Cookbook

1 1/2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
8 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 c. sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 c. unsweetened applesauce (this was my addition because A, I didn't have any eggs. whoops. and B, I wanted to add some more apple flavor to the cupcakes!)
1 3/4 tsp. cinnamon (also my addition, to give it more of an "apple pie" taste)

Preheat your oven to 350. If it's like ours, you might have to preheat it before you even pull the ingredients out of the cabinets, because it takes forever to preheat. While it's heating, whisk together (or throw in your stand mixer) flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt until well blended. Add in the butter (I cut it into chunks as I tossed it in to help it stir in better), sour cream, vanilla, and apple sauce, and mix well, pausing to scrape down the sides every once in a while. Then throw in the cinnamon and mix a few seconds more until it's evenly distributed. Spoon batter into 12 cup baking pan lined with cupcake cups, and pop into the oven for about 20-22 minutes.

When the cupcakes are done, they won't have a rounded top, because the eggs usually provide that estra bit of fluff that the applesauce obviousl doesn't. But that's okay, just remember to tip them out of the pan almost immediately, so you don't end up with sticky and torn edges, like I did.

It was okay though, they still tasted delicious, and were super moist!

Now you can do one of two things. You can let them sit, which is what I did (I baked them the night before a dinner) or you can continue making them while they're still warm, which I think would probably be delicious.

Heat up some yummy pre-made apple pie filling (I used a sugarless one that was still amazingly delicious). You may need to cut the larger chunks up into smaller pieces. I just kind of chopped haphazardly around the bowl to make them a bit easier to work with.

Then, spoon the filling over each cupcake,

And add the pie crust top! (I bought premade, rolled pie crust at the super market. I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the crusts, and then baked them for about 10 minutes at 450.)

A little ice cream or whipped cream, and you're set!

And, as always,

Don't forget to vote for my cupcake on Iron Cupcake:Earth starting November 27, on No One Puts Cupcake In the Corner!

I am competing for these prizes:
The Demy by Key Ingredient
"Hello, Cupcake" by Maren Tack and Alan Richardson
Bella Cupcake Couture
Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac
"The CAke Mix Doctor Returns!" by Anne Byrne
Beautiful Baking Liners by Vestli House
Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Bakery & Cupcakey Supply

Bon Apetit!

My Very First Daring Bakers Challenge!

...and what a challenge it was!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.
First of all, when did it get to be November?? Holy Mackerel!Anyway, cannoli. Apparently "cannoli" is the plural of the word "cannolo." So all these years I've been saying "cannolis" and been totally wrong. What else is new?

Anyway, these were very interesting to make, for a number of reasons. First, I didn't exactly have all the supplies I needed. We don't have a deep fryer at my house, so I was using a normal pot. Then, we only have a meat thermometer, not an oil/candy one (hint hint, Christmas!) so once the temperature got above 200, I was kind of guesstimating. Third, I don't have cannoli forms, so I was REALLY behind the proverbial 8-ball.

Nonetheless, here are how my cannoli turned out.

*Note: I am an idiot, and totally forgot to take pictures of the filled cannoli. Duh. so, no "finished product" photos this month.... sorry.*
These were chocolate cannoli disks which would be topped with mint filling. A little too minty for me, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them. The chocolate flavor was good though!

These were regular cannoli shells in the shape of little bowls (I used a mini muffin pan turned upside down and baked them instead of frying) which were filled with pumpkin filling. I thought the pumpkin filling was super delicious, and probably could've eaten them all day!

Here is my single photo of cannoli filling. Pumpkin filling with chocolate chips. Delicious!

Bon apetit!

Voting Has Begun!!

The voting for this month's Iron Cupcake:Earth challenge has begun!! Go vote for me and my "Banana Split for My Baby" cupcake, and take a look at the other baker's submissions as well! Voting continues until November 5th!!

http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/

Get out there and vote!!

Iron Cupcake: Earth - Music Edition!

Well, all kinds of excitement this month. I joined the Iron Cupcake:Earth challenge, and of course this month the theme was "music." Normally it's something like "savory" or "cheese" but this month, since it is the beginning of IC:E's 2nd year, they decided to try to get Ellen Degeneres to invite us to her show!

So the challenge was to create a cupcake based on a song title. Way more difficult than it sounds, I promise. So I thought for days, and consulted my brain trust. Luckily, my dad, Mr. Mike, loves strange challenges and sent me a website of songs with food in them. On that list was a song that my sisters and I used to love dancing around the kitchen to, and was just the perfect song for this challenge. Maybe you've heard it?

So, a banana split for my baby. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Well, it wasn't terrible, but it definitely took some creativity on my part. Which, really, is what this challenge is all about, right? So, I made a "neapolitan" cupcake, with a vanilla chocolate strawberry batter, topped with all the typical toppings of a banana split - pineapple, strawberry, chocolate syrup, nuts, and a cherry! And to hold it all together, banana cream frosting! So, here are my banana split cupcakes!

Banana Split Cupcakes

(cupcake recipe adapted from "The New Best Recipe" Cookbook)

Their recipe makes 12 cupcakes, so I doubled it for 24. These are the doubled measurements.

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

3 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 sticks butter, softened (I stuck mine in the microwave for a few seconds)

1 cup sour cream

2 eggs

4 egg yolks (in addition to the 2 whole eggs)

These are my additions:

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsps strawberry extract (can be found at Wegman's, Whole Foods, and some Walmarts)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted

5-6 drops red food coloring

First, preheat your oven to 350. Place your baking cups into the baking pans and set them aside. I got these super cute ones from Wegman's - how cute??

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat in the butter, sour cream, eggs, and yolks. Then, separate batter equally into three bowls. Into the first bowl, mix in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Into the second bowl, mix in the strawberry extract and red food coloring. The extract amount wasn't entirely exact, so just go with your nose - I added strawberry until the batter smelled like strawberries. Then, add red food coloring, a couple drops at a time, until the batter is nice and pink. For the third bowl, melt about a cup of semisweet chocolate chips, and stir them in. I started with about a 1/2 cup of chips, but they didn't really make the batter look chocolatey enough, so I added some more.

Once everyone is mixed up, begin spooning the batter i

nto the cupcake liners. I used a small dinner spoon to measure my batter. I layered the batter:

strawberry

chocolate

vanilla

Once all the batter is in the cupcake pans, place the cuppies in the oven for about 20-24 minutes. Mine took about 25 minutes to cook and brown on the top a bit. When they're done, take them out of the oven, and let them cool.

Banana Cream Frosting

(found on eHow)

I also doubled this recipe for the frosting.

1 cup of butter

2 medium banana

6 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the butter until smooth. (I softened mine a bit before throwing it in the mixer) Slice the banana and add to butter, beating again until smooth. Add confectioner's sugar, one cup at a time, until blended. Add vanilla extract and mix until blended. (I had to chill mine after this step in order to get it to the right firmness, but I think I might just have worked with the butter for a little too long.)

To assemble:

Put a smear of pineapple topping on the cupcake, followed by a smear of strawberry topping. Follow with a healthy dollop of banana cream frosting. To finish, add chopped walnuts, chocolate syrup, and, of course, a cherry! Bon Apetit!

Don't forget to vote for Iron Cupcake:Earth starting October 30, on No One Puts Cupcake In the Corner!

I am competing for these prizes:

The Demy by Key Ingredient

"Hello, Cupcake" by Maren Tack and Alan Richardson

Bella Cupcake Couture

Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac

"The CAke Mix Doctor Returns!" by Anne Byrne

Beautiful Baking Liners by Vestli House

Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Bakery & Cupcakey Supply

Whoo Hoo!

twelve layers!!

Fun Fact: 12 is only 1 more than the number of runs the Phils scored last night against the Dodgers. Oh, and 12 more than the Dodgers scored. Just sayin'.

But, even better, 12 is the number of layers in this delicious cake I made! I originally got the idea from Bakerella, but wasn't sure if I wanted to make a Southern 12-layer cake, or a traditional German baumkuchen. In the end, I decided to make the 12 layer cake, mostly because I didn't have a spit to bake my cake on. :/

So here, it is, the delicious, deceptive 12-layer cake!

(Semi-Healthy) Twelve Layer Cake

(adapted from here.)

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups butter

2 1/2 cups Splenda/sugar mix (if you're just using sugar, it's the same measurement)

6 large eggs

3 cups milk

1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract

icing/glaze

1 1/2 cups Splenda (if using the mix or sugar, use 3 cups.)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup butter, cut up

1 can evaporated milk (what in the world is evaporated milk? I always expected it to be powdered. ya know, evaporated. but it's a liquid. what gives?)

1 tbsp vanilla extract

So, there are a few different ways you can go about baking this awesome cake. Bakerella calls for an individual disposable pan for each layer. This recipe calls for 4 identical cake pans cooked in 3 batches, which is what I used. Luckily, Grandmom Lulu came to the rescue yet again, and I was able to use the 2 9 inch cake pans from her with my mom's 2 round cake pans.

But first things first. If you're like me, your oven takes FOOORRRRRREEEVVVEEERRRRRRRR to heat up. If that's the case, turn it on before you even get your ingredients assembled. That way it'll finally be ready to go by the time you're ready to start baking. For this cake, heat it up to 375.

To start, sift your flour into a bowl with the other dry ingredients (except the sugar) and get them all mixed up and confused. Set them aside. Then beat together the butter and the Splenda/sugar mix. The recipe says to mix them "until light in color and texture." I'm not really sure what that means, so I mixed it until it looked like it was pretty well mixed.

Then add the eggs one at a time. If you're lucky like me, and your mom lets you use her stand mixer (or if you're really lucky and have your own - jealous) then you can just leave the mixer running and just crack them in while it's going. Next up, add in the flour and milk in alternating groups, going flour milk flour milk flour. Lastly, add in the vanilla.

When it's all mixed into a nice little batter, it's time to spoon it into the pans. I just used some Baker's Joy and skipped the whole parchment paper/flour deal and they still worked out. The recipe says to put a "scant" cup into each pan, but I accidentally grabbed the 1/2 cup, so I just heaped that and it worked out just the same. Smear the batter around the pan so it sits in an even thin layer, and throw all 4 in the oven at the same time. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, until the cake comes loose from the sides. Cool in the pan, then flip them out onto a rack.

Once you put the final batch in the oven, start making the glaze. Put the sugar, cocoa, butter, and evaporated milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook until the sauce thickens. It's supposed to thicken until it's the consistency of chocolate syrup, but mine never did. Add the vanilla, stir it up, and set aside to cool and thicken a little more.

When it's go time, just start stacking. Place a layer on a cake board, and pour just enough glaze to cover it. Throw the second layer on the first and glaze that one. Rinse and repeat until all 12 layers are on board.

Pour the rest of the glaze over the top of the cake and make sure all the sides are covered in chocolate deliciousness.

Now this is where the original recipe ends. However, I stole one more step from little miss Bakerella and used some canned (gasp!) dark chocolate fudge frosting to cover the outside of the cake and hide the layers.

Bon Apetit!

Next Up: My Submission for Iron Cupcake: Earth! Stay Tuned!

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