Super Bowl XLIII Cake

My mom asked me to make a sheet cake for our Super Bowl party today. I hate decorating cakes. So I baked the cake (Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake), made the frosting, and slathered it with green frosting. My parents finished decorating it for me. My mom used to be a cake decorator (she hasn't done it in about 10 years), and my dad always does the handwriting on her cakes. I think they did a pretty good job. We haven't tasted it yet. I just wanted to get it posted before the game starts. I'll update this tomorrow and let you know how yummy it was.

UPDATE! So... The cake fell and became uber dense as it was cooling. Maybe I didn't let it bake long enough. I have a habit of taking things out of the oven before the timer goes off. Or maybe the buttermilk powder trick I used in Dorie's Perfect Party Cake didn't work in this cake. Oh well, either way it was still really good. But it didn't turn out like the first time I made this recipe.


PS: I made the Perfect Party cake for Josh. IT WAS INSANE! SO GOOD! I'll post about it tomorrow or Tuesday. ;)

For the frosting I used Special Buttercream but with 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening. It makes enough to generously cover this cake with some leftover.

HERSHEY'S "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Directions:
1. Spray 2 9-inch round pans (I used a 13x9) with baking spray. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on wire rack. Finish cooling completely on wire rack before frosting.

Mr. Goodbar Cupcakes

Sorry there was no poll this week. My dad chose the cupcake flavor, and he reigns supreme! Ever since I was little, I can remember my dad buying those bags of fun-size Hershey's assorted candy bars. His favorite is and has always been Mr. Goodbar (with Special Dark at a close 2nd). Recently over dinner, he randomly suggested that I make Mr. Goodbar cupcakes. How could I say no?? If you are not familiar with Mr. Goodbar, it's a milk chocolate candy bar with chopped peanuts mixed in. For the cupcake version, I made peanut butter cupcakes with a piece of Mr. Goodbar baked on top. Then I topped them with milk chocolate frosting. I had a hard time with this frosting recipe. It's from Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman. The original recipe was soupy like a glaze and not very chocolatey. I probably ended up adding about 6 more ounces of chocolate plus another cup of confectioners' sugar before I got it to a spreadable consistency. I won't be making it again. The cupcakes themselves, however, are DELICIOUS! Very peanut buttery! I'll definitely call this recipe from Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans a keeper!

PS: Remember this idea when you have a Halloween bag FULL of those fun-sized candy bars and don't want your kids overdosing on candy!

Ingredients Butter, brown sugar, and peanut butter ready to meet each other!

Deeeeeelicious batter!

Ready for the oven!Cooling and looking good so far! Tada! I used peanuts from a bag of trail mix so they'd be unsalted. :D Doesn't that look so yummy!?

MY NOTES: I don't recommend the frosting recipe. It's hard to work with, very sweet, and does not have a pronounced chocolate flavor.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes (from Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans)
Makes 12-14 (Recipe says 12, I got 14)

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup milk (any fat content)

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 12 muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar until smoothly blended and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Mix in the egg. Add the vanilla and beat for 1 minute, or until the batter is smooth. On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing just until the flour is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.

Fill each paper liner with a generous ¼ cup of batter, to about 1/3 inch below the top of the liner. (At this point, I placed ½ of a bite sized Mr. Goodbar in the center of each cupcake and lightly pressed it down.) Bake just until the tops feel firm and are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 22 minutes (If you put chocolate on yours, insert the toothpick from the side diagonally toward the center). There may be a few small cracks on top. Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack.

Carefully place the wire rack on top of the cupcakes in their pan. Protecting your hands with pot holders and holding the pan and rack together, invert them to release the cupcakes onto the wire rack. Turn the cupcakes top side up to cool completely.

Milk Chocolate Frosting (from Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman)
3 oz. milk chocolate (I ended up using about 10 oz altogether!)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar (I added another 3/4 cup to make it spreadable)
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat chocolate and butter in a double boiler or microwave until just melted. Remove from heat and cool.
Using a whisk or wooden spoon, beat sugar, salt, cream, and vanilla until smooth. Add cooled chocolate mixture and beat until blended. (If frosting is too soft, put it in the fridge for 10-20 minutes to harden it a bit. Beat it again until it becomes spreadable.)

Overall rating on a scale of 1-5
Moistness: 4
Tenderness: 5
Frosting: 2

Hershey's Dark Chocolate Minis w/ Dark Chocolate and Peanut Butter Frosting

I also made mini cupcakes for my dad's birthday party. I used the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake recipe. It was light, fluffy, and moist just like a box mix (and people say it cannot be done... pshh)! This recipe would've made about 100 minis, but after 96 I got sick of pouring the batter into the tiny cups... yeah yeah I'm that lazy. The reason I labeled them as "Dark Chocolate Minis" is because I used Hershey's Dark Chocolate cocoa powder in both the cupcakes and the chocolate frosting. It was deliciously chocolatey, but it's one of those things where some people loved it and others didn't really care for it. I frosted half of them with Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Frosting recipe. I frosted the other half with a peanut butter frosting recipe I found at Bake & Destroy. Her husband is totally right about wanting to eat this stuff with a spoon!

dark chocolate w/ dark chocolate dark chocolate w/ peanut butter

Cake and chocolate frosting recipe from Hersheys.com. Peanut butter frosting recipe from Bake & Destroy.

MY NOTES: Like I said, I used Hershey's Dark Chocolate cocoa powder. And as the recipe states, this IS a very thin batter. Don't freak out!

HERSHEY'S "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" Chocolate Cake
Makes 30 regular cupcakes OR 96 mini cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Directions:
1. Line muffin cups with paper baking cups. Heat oven to 350°F.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Fill cups 2/3 full with batter.
3. Bake 22 to 25 minutes for regular cupcakes, 13-18 minutes for mini-cupcakes. Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" Chocolate Frosting
Makes about 2 1/2 - 3 cups

Ingredients:
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.

PEANUT BUTTER BUTTERCREAM

2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
pinch salt
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 Tbs milk

Beat together sugar, butter and salt until creamy. Add peanut butter, beating well. Add milk and beat until smooth and creamy.