Root Beer float Cake

Here's a cake recipe I had bookmarked for over a year. Tracking down the IBC Root beer was a bit of a challenge but thanks to the Soda Pop Central in whitby Ontario, where I found the root beer brand and discovered a whole lot of other unique sodas and goodies!

This cake is not only easy but it's super fudgy and chocolatey however to be very honest I did not taste any of the root beer. Everyone loved it though and I would make it again.

The only changes I did was soaking the cake in root beer too before frosting it to add more root beer-y flavour but the taste still didn't come through, the cake however was moist and tastes even better a few days after being left in the fridge to really meld together.

Root Beer Float Cake

From Baked, New Frontiers in Baking

2 cups root beer (don’t use diet)

1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

Preheat even to 325 degrees F. Spray the inside of a 10-inch Bundt pan (or 2 round cake pans) with nonstick cooking spray, or butter generously and dust with flour, knocking out the excess.

In a small saucepan, heat the root beer, cocoa powder and butter over medium heat until butter is melted. Add sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a small bowl whisk the eggs until just beaten. Then whisk into the cocoa mixture until combined. Gently fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture. The batter will be slightly lumpy. You can give it a quick whisk if you like, but don’t over beat the batter or it could cause the cake to be tough. Don’t worry, the batter is very loose.

Pour the batter into prepared pan and cook for 35-45 minutes (or 25-30 minutes for 2 cake pans), rotating the pan halfway through baking until a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely then loosen edges with a butter knife and turn out onto a cake plate.

Chocolate Root Beer Frosting

2 ounces 60% cocoa, melted

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon salt (you may want to use less… maybe just 1/2 teaspoon)

1/4 cup root beer

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using an electric hand mixer, beat softened butter and cocoa powder. Once combined add the melted chocolate, salt, powdered sugar and root beer. Beat together until smooth. Spread on top of cooled cake. Slice and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Thanks to Honey & Jam for the recipe

Pink Lemon Poppy seed cake

Here's a fun cake!

A little contrast with the frosting made this lemon poppy seed cake POP!

The frosting is a new recipe, normally I make swiss meringue buttercream but not having any egg whites on hand (sometimes a bad thing can turn into a great thing!) I ventured out to try something new.

A cooked buttercream recipe, the milk, sugar, heavy cream and a tad bit of flour are cooked into a bachamel type consistency then it's cooled down and whipped while small cubes of room temp butter are added.

It's really amazing!

The recipe is courtesy of Bourbonnatrix without the caramel part, and even so the sugar amount was perfect.

She mentioned having a little trouble with it going soupy and thankfully that did not happy with me, I cooled the creamy mixture down really well and actually made the entire process by hand (I know, totally stupid but my kitchen aid broke down!! Check out the bang up marks on my hand from whisking like mad with my teeny tiny whisk)

It worked! Had to put it in the fridge a few times before it was about to split, and also while adding the food colouring. You could use red food colouring or concentrated beet juice (if I had any I would have gone with it - natural colours are so much healthier than artificial)

Frosting:

Cooked Frosting

Inspired by Baked Explorations recipe

In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk:

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

Add:

1 1/3 cups milk (I used 2% honestly)

1/2 cup heavy cream

If using whole milk use 1 1/2 cups and 1/3 heavy cream.

Cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened, about 10-15 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer, and beat with the paddle attachment until cool. Reduce speed to low, and add:

1 1/2 cups softened butter, cubed

1 tsp pure vanilla

Mix until thoroughly incorporated, the increase speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.

If using food colouring add it in at the end or mix it with the creamy milk mixture.


Cake recipe is thanks to Technicolor kitchen

I varied it slightly by using up some extra coconut milk I had instead of the water in the glaze.

Also using sour cream instead of buttermilk and thinning it down to the consistency of buttermilk also using canned coconut milk.

She got 3 cakes out of the batter and I measured 2 and 6 cupcakes. All the syrup was used to drench the two cakes.

Raspberry dark chocolate cake!

I rarely go all out and make a cake, that's more my sisters department as she's an excellent baker but today I've had some help, for the most part and this cake was practically instant.

The cake part is a recipe for black forest sponge cake, recipe here The last time I've used this recipe was for a black forest cake and it was really delicious, light and spongy, like a bakery style cake.

The filling is pink, you may not be able to see that much in the picture but right now, about 24 hours since I've made it the color has darkened in the fridge. It's basically a whipped cream with homemade sweetened raspberry puree that I defrosted from last years raspberry picking trip.

When the cream comes to the soft peak stage the defrosted fruit puree is added in and then it's whipped up, the site here explains adding fruit purees to whipping cream, I was very worried about this stage because my buttercream split last time I mixed it with whipping cream so the thought of adding anything liquid to whipping cream terrified by but it went very well.

Finally it was frosted with a frozen ganache I had in the freezer as well for about 4 months now, I left it in the fridge overnight then let it come to room temperature and beat it with the paddle attachment while slowly adding some heavy cream to make it softer and more buttercream like (because ganache can be very stiff and hard)

A thin crumb coating went on first, then I let it sit an hour in the fridge and then the final layer was applied with the decorative raspberries and chocolate curls.

Super super easy cake, the dark chocolate raspberry combination is classic, do give it a try!