I mentioned in my last post that I hosted a baby shower for my friend S on Saturday afternoon. The last two weeks our dining table has been baby shower central. I didn't decorate so much besides making a few washi tape garlands and hanging some paper honeycombs. What I did spend some time on was making a diaper cake! When I first told the fiance that I was going to make a diaper cake he thought I was going to make a cake shaped like a diaper. Nope! But I do think the "cake" turned out really well if i do say so myself!
I didn't have too much planned for the baby shower besides decorating some onesies and having two little activities for the guests. I printed out a February calendar from here for guests to write their predictions as to when the baby will be born. I had also seen some templates online for people to write out some of their hopes, wishes and advice for the baby as they get older so I reworked one for the shower. If you would like to use the one I put together, you can get it here.
And then there was the food! Since the shower started at 3pm, I kept the food pretty simple and the menu pretty small. I asked two friends to bring some carrot and cucumber sticks and some hummus and I made some chili popcorn for people to snack on. For the sweets I made some coconut macaroon tartlets which I filled with a berry sauce and topped with a small dollop of skyr whipped cream and a blueberry. I also baked two batches of peanut butter cookies and mixed in M&Ms instead of chocolate chunks like in this recipe.
But best of all was this chocolate fudge cake. I did a trial run of this gluten free chocolate fudge cake last week and shared it with the fiance and some of our friends and everyone enjoyed it. For someone who has had their share of chocolate cake, I thought this gluten free chocolate fudge cake tasted amazing. It has the texture that I'm used to, it was moist and full of chocolate flavor. Seriously, I've had like 4 slices of this cake this weekend. It is also the first recipe where I thought Jeanne's All-Purpose Gluten Free flour was perfect. In other recipes where I've used her flour I thought the mochi flavor was too strong but here it was masked with the cocoa powder. I paired the cake with a chocolate buttercream and it was basically chocolate heaven. This is a wonderful chocolate cake but if you aren't on a gluten free diet, this Devil's Food Cake recipe is my favorite.
Chocolate Fudge Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
(slightly adapted from Art of Gluten Free Baking and Savory Sweet Life)
Makes a two layer 8-inch cake
Chocolate Fudge Cake
3/4 cup natural cocoa powder, sifted (not Dutch-processed)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup or 230g unsalted butter, melted
2 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup hot coffee
Preheat oven to 350F or 175C. Grease the bottom of your spring form with a little bit of butter and line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper.
In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs with a mixer until they are pale in color and fluffy, this took me about 5 minutes. Add the brown sugar and beat for 2 minutes until it is well combined with the eggs. Carefully add the melted butter and beat on low while you incorporate it into the egg mixture. Beat for another minute before mixing in the vanilla extract.
Pour the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and stir it a few times with a spatula before using the mixture to combine the dry and the wet ingredients. When there are no more streaks of flour, slowly pour in the hot coffee and beat the cake batter on low until just combined. Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake in the middle of the oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
When the cake is baked, let it cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing the sides of the spring form and sliding the cake off the bottom of the pan. Remove the parchment paper when the cake has cooled. Let the layers cool completely before frosting the cake.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
1 1/2 cup or 340g unsalted butter, softened
5 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla extract
7 tbsp heavy cream
Sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder in a medium mixing bowl.
Cream the butter on low for a few minutes with your mixer until it becomes really creamy and paler in color. Add 1/3 of the sugar and cocoa powder mixture into the butter and beat until combined. Add the rest of the sugar and cocoa powder and beat on low until all of the dry ingredients have been absorbed by the butter. With the mixer on medium speed, add the vanilla extract, salt and cream and beat for 3 minutes.
If you would like to frost the cake the way I did for the baby shower, refer to this scalloped cake tutorial on Oh Happy Day.
Yum! I hope you enjoy this cake as much as I do!
*A few of the pictures in this post are from S!
No comments:
Post a Comment