Bakin' a Cake

I felt like baking last night, so at midnight, I got up and made a cake. The cake is a mixture of a few recipes, and it turned out awesome! I'm actually very proud of how it turned out. I wanted to share some pictures and my recipes...

Chocolate Chip Yellow Cake Recipe:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 stick unsalted butter (softened)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 8 oz chocolate chips

The best thing about this recipe is that the entire thing can be made using only one bowl!

Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add in the butter, milk and vanilla while beating with an electric mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time. Once the batter is made, stir in the chocolate chocolate chips by hand. 

I used two 8 inch pans, and it took 35 minutes to bake all the way through.

Next, I frosted the two cakes together using frosting-

Milk Chocolate Frosting recipe (from sweetlavenderbakeshoppe.com)

• 1 and 1/4 sticks unsalted butter
• 1/8 tsp sea salt
• 2.5 cups powdered sugar
• 2.5ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3/4  tsp vanilla 
• 1/8 cup heavy whipping cream

Soften the butter in the microwave for about 10 seconds, then beat with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and mix. Add salt. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave. Add melted chocolate and mix. Lastly, add the heavy whipping cream and mix.

Once the two cakes were together, and i had one tall cake, i made the buttercream icing for the outer icing layer.

Amy's Bread Buttercream Icing:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup milk

Soften butter in the microwave. Mix butter and small amounts of powdered sugar together until all is incorporated. The milk and vanilla can be added at any point.

I frosted the outside of this cake with a frosting knife, and moved on to the marshmallow fondant.

Marshmallow Fondant (adapted from diy.wed-central.com):

• 16 oz. bag mini marshmallows 
• 2-5 tablespoons of water 
• 2 pounds of powdered sugar
• Gel Food Coloring 

Microwave the marshmallows and 2 tbsp of water for 30 second intervals. Mix between. Continue this process until all are melted. Begin incorporating the powdered sugar. Once the mixture is more of a solid, remove from bowl and continue mixing the powdered sugar in by hand. Once the fondant is done, fold in food coloring by hand. 

I let my fondant sit in the refrigerator, wrapped in plastics wrap, for about 2 hours. I then used parchment paper and rolled the fondant out flat with a rolling pin, so that i would be able to cut out my shapes.

In the end, the cake is a chocolate chip cake with milk chocolate buttercream filling iced with buttercream frosting!