St. Patrick's Day Cake with Gold Coins

Being of Irish descent my family has always celebrated St. Patrick's Day.  My parents would make a rainbow out of rolls of colored crepe paper that descended from the top of the banister down to the kitchen table and ended at a pot filled with chocolate gold coins.  Then we would have green pancakes, or green eggs and ham for breakfast.  Yeah, my parents were creative like that.  Since they both work full time now and the kids are grown and moved out of the house they don't do much holiday creativity anymore.  I have decided to step up to the plate in the celebrating of St. Patrick's Day and have vowed to make something special and green every year.  For my St. Patrick's Day cake this year I wanted to do a surprise inside.

Ingredients Assemble!

First the frosting.

Vanilla ButterCream Frosting - Wilton

½ cup shortening

½ cup butter – melted

1 tsp vanilla or other flavorings

2 Tbs heavy cream, milk, or water – Mix with beater

1 Tbs Meringue Powder (optional)

4 cups powdered sugar – Mix with a beater 1 cup at a time.

Add more heavy cream or powdered sugar for the right consistency you want.

 *This is my go-to frosting recipe that I use most the time.

Second separate the eggs.

Butter Spongecake - Julia Childs

⅔ cup sugar

4 egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla

4 egg whites

pinch of salt

2 Tbs sugar

¾ cup cake flour

4 Tbs melted butter

Beat egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla together.  Whip together 4 egg whites, salt, and 2 Tbs of sugar until stiff peaks form.  Alternate folding in cake flour and egg whites to egg yolks.  Add melted butter last and fold in. Bake 350 degrees for 30 min.  Makes one 9” cake round, or three 6" round cakes.

I added green food coloring to the egg yolk batter and the egg whites.

Fold in egg whites and flour into the egg yolk batter.

I added more green food coloring to make sure it was really really green.

Fold in the melted butter last.

To make a hole in the middle of the cakes I could do this two ways:
1 - Bake a hole. - Which I did this time with a biscuit cutter.
2 - Cut out a hole. - Which I did last time for an American Flag Cake I made two years ago.
Independence Day Cake

I added a lot of butter spray to the pans and the biscuit cutter so my hole would not fall apart when I took the center ring out.

Frost the bottom of the cake and stack it.

There's my hole.

Fill the hole with chocolate gold coins for the surprise inside.

Another layer of frosting.

Top it.

Crumb coat.

Base coat.

A simple St. Patrick's Day cake decoration.

Transport to my Parent's House.

And wait for the surprise.

Surprise!

Gold coins inside a green cake.

My hidey hole held up well.

Enjoy.

Tangled Cupcakes

Tangled Cupcakes

My sister asked me to make cupcakes for her daughter's 4th birthday.  She is in love with the movie, "Tangled".  Yes, I am referring to both of them.

This is my baking mess that I set up before getting started.  I like to get everything I need together in one spot before starting; to make sure I have all the ingredients I need.  I put things away as I move along. 

Microwave Marshmallow Fondant
The first thing I started with was the paint pallets.  I quickly made some fondant, rolled it out and cut out some paint pallets with a few fondant cutters:  large leaf, medium circle, and small circle.

Painter Pallets.

On to the Frying Pans.  I used black candy melts and sort of dripped out the relative shape of a frying pan, then let them dry overnight.

Chocolate frying pans are the best.

Then on to some frosting.

Vanilla ButterCream Frosting - Wilton

½ cup shortening

½ cup butter – melted

1 tsp vanilla or other flavorings

2 Tbs heavy cream, milk, or water – Mix with beater

1 Tbs Meringue Powder (optional)

4 cups powdered sugar – Mix with a beater 1 cup at a time.

Add more heavy cream or powdered sugar for the right consistency you want.

I made the cupcakes the day of the party so they would be fresh.

Chocolate Cupcakes - 24+

1 and 2/3 cup sugar

¾ cup (1 and 1/2 sticks) butter - softened

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup cake flour

1 and ¼ cup all purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

¼ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 and ½ cup milk

Cream together sugar and butter.  Add in eggs and vanilla.  In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients.  Alternate adding dry ingredients and milk, starting and ending with milk.  Stir to combine.  Bake 350°F for 18 – 20 min.

Time to add some paint to those pallets.

I mixed red, yellow, and blue, then combined them all to get the different paint colors.

I wanted some grass for half the cupcakes.

Then purple to match Rapunzel's dress for the other half.

Here are my finished Paint Pallet cupcakes.

And the Frying Pans go on a bed of grass with a flower.

Finally finished the Tangled Cupcakes

Tangled Birthday Party.

Everything was decorated super cute.

The highlight of the party was that they got their very own Princess Rapunzel.

Only Princess Rapunzel can get the children's undivided attention.

With Singing...

and Face painting...

Since little kids are so wiggly this was the best group shot we could get.

The most important thing is that they all had fun.
And I had fun making cupcakes.
Enjoy.