Gender Reveal Cake Pops

It is a Boy, A Girl, or are we going to be progressive parents and let our baby decide what gender they want to be.  Or Baby was not cooperating and the Ultrasound technician could not determine the gender at this appointment and we will have to re-schedule.  I am not a spontaneous person and I do not like surprises, so I decided that I really wanted to know our baby's gender before they were born.  I do not have a gender preference.  I just want a healthy baby.  But I do want to know what color I should decorate the room, what list of names I should choose from, and what gender themed outfits and accessories I should get before baby is born.  In anticipation of our big Gender Reveal Day, at 10am on Tuesday October 6th, 2015,  I decided to make Cake Pops. 

I had the left over vanilla frosting from a previous cake and have a ready supply of every color of candy melt available.  All I need is the cake.  I decided to go with a simple vanilla tea cake.

Tea Cake

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 egg
1 cup self rising flour
1/3 cup milk

Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla, and the egg.

Add flour and milk.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 min.  Allow the cake to cool for 5 - 20 min before turning it out of the pan.

Crumble the cake with about 1 cup of vanilla frosting and mush it all together until it has the consistency of playdough.

Take about a Tbs full of dough and roll it into balls.

Dip the end of a lollipop stick into melted Candy melt chocolate and stick it into the center of the ball.  Freeze or refrigerate the balls until the chocolate sets and the stick is stable.  Cover the cake pop in more candy melt chocolate and refrigerate again to set.

Our big day had finally arrived.  My husband and I went to the Women's Health Center and after an hour of searching, because baby was being in breech position facing my back and did not feel like moving, our Ultrasound Tech informed us that we are having a girl.

That means I need to go with pink cake pops.

Our baby's Ultrasound profile picture.

Pink Cake Pops for a Girl.

We are so excited to be having a little girl.
Now we need to pick a name for her.

Chocolate Roulade, Chocolate Jelly Roll

My brother's birthday was yesterday.  He requested a chocolate cake for dessert.  I told him, "No problem, a Chocolate cake is easy".  Then I went and made is harder and turned it into a Chocolate roulade.  It was really not that hard.  I just had never successfully made a jelly roll that held together before.  I am quite proud of myself that this one turned out well rolled, not falling apart, and delicious.

Chocolate Roulade, Chocolate jelly roll

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cake flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
powdered sugar

Chocolate Ganache
4 oz semi sweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Line jelly roll pan with parchment paper.  Beat eggs, water, and vanilla together for about 5 min until fluffy.  Beat in sugar gradually.  Mix together dry ingredients and slowly add to egg-sugar mixture.  Beat until smooth.  Pour the batter into the parchment paper lined jelly roll pan.  Bake at 375 degrees for 12 - 15 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Flip the cake over onto a powdered sugar or cocoa powdered covered parchment paper.  Remove the top layer of parchment paper.  While the cake is still warm, roll it.  Refrigerate, seam side down, for 15 min.  Unroll the cake and fill with chocolate ganache or jelly.  Roll it up again and cut off the ends.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar and refrigerate until ready to eat.

Beat together 3 eggs, water, and vanilla for about 5 min.  Slowly incorporate sugar.

Mix together the dry ingredients and beat until smooth.

Pour batter into a parchment paper lined jelly roll pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 min.

Dust another parchment paper with cocoa powder or powdered sugar.

Carefully flip the cake over on top of the cocoa powdered dusted parchment paper and remove the baking layer of parchment paper.

While the cake is still warm, roll it up and refrigerate for 15 min with the seam side down.

Meanwhile, make chocolate ganache.  I used 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate to 1/2 heavy cream.  Bring the cream to a boil, remove from heat and add chopped chocolate.  Stir together until smooth.

Remove cake from the refrigerator and unroll.

Spread out the filling.

I also added whipped cream.

Roll the cake up again and cut off the ends.

Dust with powdered sugar.  I used Hershey chocolate syrup to give it a pretty design on top.

Enjoy.

Gingercake

I hear that ginger is a good natural remedy for morning sickness.  I have had pretty bad morning sickness during this pregnancy.  I also have pretty bad cake cravings.  A Gingercake would take care of both of my problems.  Right?  I should add that this tastes better than any gingerbread I have had and it made my kitchen smell like Christmas for two days.  It was amazing.  I also got to finally use my Treacle.  I went on a Treacle quest two years ago after reading "Alice in Wonderland."  I was surprised how hard it was to find here in Utah.  Thank goodness for the "London Market".  

Gingercake

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup Treacle
4-5 inche piece of fresh ginger root, finely grated
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
1 cup self rising flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream together butter and brown sugar.  Add treacle, grated ginger, and beaten eggs.  Mix together dry ingredients and slowly add to the the mixture.  Add heavy cream last and mix until smooth.  Pour cake batter into a well greased pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 50 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool cake for 10 min before turning it out to cool.

 Finely grate about a 4" piece of ginger root.  This part smells wonderful.  I will never use ginger powder again.  That's a lie, but using real ginger made a huge difference.

 Cream together butter, brown sugar, ginger, and treacle.  I finally got to use my Treacle.  Best day of my cooking life.  Add beaten eggs.

 Add the flour mixture.

 Add the heavy cream last and mix until well incorporated.

 Pour cake batter into a well greased pan and bake for 50 min at 350 degrees.

 Allow the cake to cool for about 10 min before turning it out.

 Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with heavy cream.  I have been craving heavy cream poured over a hot dessert lately and this satisfies that craving.

 Or whipped cream.

Enjoy.

Strawberry Short Cake

Angel Food Cake is perfect for Strawberry Shortcake.  I used to watch the Strawberry Shortcake cartoon.  I used to play with Strawberry Shortcake dolls.  I even had the Strawberry doll house.  Every once in a while I like to pretend that I am inviting all the dolls over to my house for dessert.  Except the Purple Pie Man, he was a jerk.  I love this cake recipe because it delicious, fairly quick to make, and I only need a few ingredients so I rarely have to run to the store in the middle of baking if I forget something.  I have also been able to successfully make this recipe with half the ingredients if I don't want to eat that much cake.

Angel Food Cake

12 egg whites, room temperature

1/4 tsp salt

1 and 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract

1 and 1/2 cup sugar, divided

1 cup cake flour

Bake 375 degrees for 30-35 min.

The hardest part is all the eggs.  What is the phrase, "To make an omelet you have to break a few eggs."  To make Angel Food Cake you have to break a dozen eggs.

Whip together room temperature egg whites with a pinch of salt until fluffy.  Add Vanilla, Almond, and Cream of Tartar and mix that in.  Then add half the sugar (3/4 cup) 1 Tbs at a time until stiff peaks form.

Sift together the other half (3/4 cup) of sugar with cake flour and fold into the egg whites 1/4 of the mixture at a time until it is thoroughly incorporated.

I was itching to use my heart-shaped silicone baking tray.  These little guys bake in 10 minutes at 375 degrees.

My big pan took 40 minutes to bake.

While I was waiting for it to finish baking I whipped up a dish of heavy cream.  Strawberries and Cream are my favorite thing to eat.  I added Orange extract instead of vanilla this time to change things up a bit.

Both cakes turned out great.

And now for the strawberries.

Enjoy.

K.