Swiss Meringue Buttercream

So, I've been watching her for a while and tried a few of her recipes - vanilla cake; strawberry cake - but not much success.  She owned a bakery and got great comments, so I think I must have done something wrong.  This time, I wanted to try her buttercream recipe.  It came out nice and fluffy, however, it isn't your normal american buttercream, and it does taste a little "greasier" I guess you could say.

In my family, only one of my sister's commented on the taste of the icing.  However, she did eat it, lol.  No one else said anything.  So maybe it's just us :)

Now, don't get me wrong, it still tastes like icing, but with that different, sort of "greasy" taste.  I am, however, pleased with the texture of the buttercream.  You can find her recipe here, along with all her other recipes and links to her YouTube videos.  Because she does have YouTube videos explaining step by step, I won't go into detail on the steps.  I just wanted to show you the pictures I got from making it at home, and the way it looks.

If anyone can help me figure out how not to make it greasy-tasting, feel free to leave a comment and help me out :).  If you have a different recipe, also let me know!

These are the egg whites before mixing in the sugar.  You can see the sugar in the bowl lol.

After mixing in the confectioners sugar (still looks really glossy and fluffy :) )

After chunking in the butter and shortening (as she states).  It didn't curdle!! YAY! (that's a win for me.  I've made other meringue buttercream when it does curdle and it freaked me out!)

After mixing with the paddle.

Note, this would have been enough to do some nice decorations on my cake, but I had 2 cakes (remember).  Had it just been one cake, I would have had fun with that! :)

My final product.

Leave comments below, let me know what you think! Enjoy!!  Check out this cake on the inside!

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White Velvet Cake

So we've had red, we've had blue, why not make it white?  AND, I've been searching FOREVER for a white/vanilla cake recipe that is moist and crumbly, and I have to say this batter really nailed it!  Family enjoyed it as well.

I had tried another white cake recipe before with buttermilk (again, thinking this was the key to MOIST cake) and bleh! Cake was dense, mushy, and bleh!  I repeat, bleh.  So with this recipe, I was happily surprised.  Cake came out looking fluffy, crumbly, and moist.  Plus, my mother was very pleased (she's a hard woman to please!) Look!

Again, these were the leftover scraps - used to make another Flag cake :)

Then this is what happens when you have one dark pan and one light one.  I need to invest in SAME PANS!!

But, anyway, find the original recipe here, and keep reading for how I attacked this "bad boy."  Pictures are included, including how "fluffy" the oil/shortening actually gets!

First thing is first - DRY INGREDIENTS.  I sifted them together.  But first I sifted the flours separately before measuring.

I said this on the Red Velvet post, spoon your flour into the measuring cups to measure.  DO NOT pack flour into measuring cups.  This method make lighter - fluffier - cakes. :)

• 1 1/4 cups of sifted all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups of sifted cake flour
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar

Next, beat together at high speed the vegetable oil, vanilla, and shortening until fluffy.

• 2/3 cup of vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup of vegetable shortening at room temperature
• 3 tbsp of good quality vanilla extract (for WHITE cake, get clear extract)

My thought - fluffy?  What is fluffy, how long do I do this?  Look at the pictures below for a description.

This was after 5 minutes.  Well it became thick and pale, not so fluffy : /.  I was about to stop here not knowing if this is what the "fluffy" part meant.  I thought about it and decided to keep the mixer going for another 5 minutes to see if it would get "fluffier." Sure enough, it did! So I let it go for a couple minutes longer to see how "fluffy" it would get.

This is fluffy!  It will get here, no worries (after about 10-12 minutes)

You will then beat in the eggs, one at a time.

• 3 large eggs

Don't know if you've already heard this, but make sure your ingredients are all at room temperature.  My eggs had already been sitting out for a bit so they were at room temperature.

Still fluffy-ish :)

Lastly, alternate between dry ingredients and buttermilk - folding after each incorporation.  Start and end with the dry ingredients.

 The batter is a nice and thick.

Pop this into the 325 degree oven for about 30 - 35 minutes.  My pans were two 8 inch pans.  The cake came out quite nice and fluffy itself!

Enjoy!! Comment below with your experience, don't forget to check out the other velvet cake recipes that went into making the Fourth of July Flag cake :)  (Red and Blue)

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Blue Velvet Cake

BLUE!! Not red, but BLUE!  I've tried "purple" velvet (following the exact same red velvet recipe but purple food coloring - eh, not so great, looked black, but not an appetizing looking black.  LOL.  But that, my friends, is a different story).  I knew the red velvet recipe was going to be one of the recipes I used, so why not make the rest of my flag cake a velvet cake.  My next task was to find a blue velvet cake recipe, so off to Pinterest I went (surprise, surprise!).  This was going to be a first time for me, but hey what better way to test a recipe than with my family (best taste testers and so very honest!).

After searching for all of 5 minutes (I know, I like to do better research, but I was at a time crunch.  I was looking for one that resembled the already amazing red velvet recipe, this was the closest one - I thought), I found this dandy little recipe here.

Here is my experience with the recipe.  Again, I didn't taste my final product, but my family did and they loved it.  However, I will say this, out of the three cake flavors that I made that day, the Blue Velvet did appear to be the most "dry" one.

This is how the cake looks at the end (these were the leftover parts - I used to make a second cake :) )

First, you need to cream together the Crisco (shortening), sugar and eggs.

• 1/2 cup of Crisco
• 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
• 2 eggs

It will look a little grainy from the sugar - NO WORRIES :)

Second, make a "paste like mix" with the cocoa powder and blue gel paste (and the two-three drops of violet paste).  

This actually proved to be a little difficult.  I actually added a few drops of buttermilk to loosen it up some.

• 1 ounce of Royal Blue gel paste coloring
• 2-3 drops of Violet Blue gel paste coloring
• 2 tbsp of cocoa powder

This was very thick and dark!

By the way, this is the food coloring I used (Wilton) and this is the size of the one ounce jars.  I had to look this up because I couldn't find the measurement on the jars.  I like to use Wilton as well. 

Add this "paste" to your Crisco mix.

Still looks grainy.

You will then add the salt, flour with the buttermilk and vanilla.

• 1 scant tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 cup of buttermilk

I interpreted this as - add the salt, flour, buttermilk, and vanilla and mix.

Lastly, alternate in adding baking soda and vinegar (no, you're not making a volcano - lol) into your batter.  Just blend I folded, do not beat!

• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tbsp of vinegar

The final batter!

Bake at 350 for 25 - 30 minutes.  I baked mine in 8 inch pans.

The finished "bread" is the first picture, so you can see what it looks like on the inside.  Again, this was used for my "flag" fourth of July cake.

Be sure to check out the other velvet recipes (Red and White)

Enjoy and comment below with you experience with this cake :)

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Red Velvet Cake

Stop looking, this is the red velvet cake recipe you need in your life!  Plus, prepare to be shocked by more than just the recipe today :).


I have made this recipe so many times since I've found it, and it has yet to fail me!  Every time I make it I get a ton (yes, a ton!) of compliments on it.  I'm not a red velvet fan (I know, make your shocked face now!), but when it comes out of the oven it just always looks so crumbly and moist.  

At first, I thought the secret ingredient was the buttermilk, but after making 2 other velvet cakes (blue velvet and white velvet) yesterday, I think the secret ingredient is the coffee (this also works as the secret ingredient in the chocolate cake recipe I make - also, not the biggest fan of chocolate cake - insert second shocked face here - I warned you about being shocked, lol).

My first go at this recipe was for my sister's wedding cake.  It was then I knew I found a recipe to keep in my cake book.  Everyone loved it!  Since then, any time a red velvet cake is requested, I pull out this recipe and get to baking.


You can find the actual recipe here.


Here is how I went about it :)


First things first, always mix your dry ingredients separately -

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 Tablespoons unsweetened, cocoa powder
• 2 cups of granulated sugar
• 1 cup of vegetable oil

TIP to measure out flour, use a spoon and spoon it into the cup measurement.  NEVER pack in the flour, this will make a more dense cake, and we don't want that.  The lighter the flour, the better :)

These are all the dry ingredients before being whisked together

After whisking all the dry ingredients together.  You can see the little specks of cocoa powder.

Normally, at the same time I'm gathering the dry ingredients, I have my kitchen-aid mixing the oil and sugar together.  I have this at about speed 4 with the whisk attachment.

• 2 cups of granulated sugar
• 1 cup of vegetable oil

Oil and sugar before it was mixed (forgot to get the after : /)

Once I have that going and/or done, I mix the buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, and vanilla extract in my nifty 2 cup Pyrex measuring unit :).  

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of buttermilk
• 2 oz of red food coloring
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract

Mix slowly and carefully, otherwise, it may look like you had a bloody massacre in your kitchen when cleaning.  This is what mine looked like, oops!

See the "bloody" paper towel?  I used two 1 oz bottles of red food coloring (Kroger brand)

I then get my coffee and vinegar mix ready.  

• 1/2 cup of plain, hot coffee
• 1 tsp of white distilled vinegar

I normally have little pouches of instant coffee in my baking supplies for these type of recipes.  I use the whole pouch of the 1/2 cup.  Nice and strong - but, you can't taste it in the finished product.  I pour the instant coffee powder in the measuring cup, pour in hot/boiling water to the 1/2 cup mark, add in the vinegar, and stir. I don't ever leave it too hot - fearing it may "cook" the batter, so I blow and stir to cool it off some.

I always switch up the brand with what I have at hand.  Haven't really stuck to one flavor.

Lastly, mix the dry and wet ingredients a little at a time.  

I mix all the wet ones first (with the oil sugar in the kitchen-aid) slowly.

All the wet ingredients combined.

Then I add the dry ingredients slowly.  About 3-4 batches.  Again, do this slowly.  This is a very "runny" batter so if turned up fast it will splatter!

This is how it should look at the end.  See the nice, red color?

Finally pop into the oven (preheated at 325) and bake for about 30 min for 8" or 9" pans.  If it isn't done after 30 minutes, I put it in for another 5 minutes, checking each time.  Here is the finished product:

Some of the leftover cake

The final "flag" cake.

Enjoy!! Leave comments below with your experience.  Also, don't forget to check out the other "velvet" cake recipes (blue and white) for this cake, along with the original recipe and recipes at Divas Can Cook!

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Home BAKER!!

HAPPY late FOURTH OF JULY!!!

So, today, I've decided to put together a post (maybe multiple posts - have yet to decide) multiple posts of me going through new (and tried and true) cake recipes to give you my opinion on them, the steps I took, and the final result.

Now, I am by no means a pastry chef, but I have done this for many years (since high school!) My dream is to perfect this art with hopes of one day opening a bakery and making cakes for others (not just family). I love to see how far I've come, but I want to be a top cake baker and artist!! So with that, I'm always on Pinterest looking for new recipes that I will love, my family will love, and hopefully future clientele will love!  However, as of lately, I haven't done much other than pinning : /. (Where are Emoticons when you need them?!?!).  Since I've had so much free time this summer, I started thinking to myself, why not challenge myself to try something new at least 2 times a month, including cakes!  I miss caking! What better way than to start on July 4th with this cute cake idea I saw floating the net (click picture for link):

*EDIT- I love how this same tutorial was on multiple different blogs, claiming it was theirs.  So I'm giving credit to the photo, who knows it's actual origins!*

Well, it was an image stuck in my head - I didn't think of going back to this site to look at how to make it (why? I don't know).  With that image in my head I went through and tried it myself:

*EDIT - this one is actually original - made July 3rd and 4th, 2015 :)*

I used 4 different recipes for this bad boy - Red Velvet Cake; Blue Velvet Cake; White Velvet Cake; Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  Overall, I am satisfied with my end result, though I wish the recipe for the red velvet would have yielded more cake.  Everyone enjoyed the cake which, no matter how pretty it may be, if it doesn't taste like good cake, it's not good cake!

Follow the links to read on my experience for each recipe along with the link to the original recipes.  Enjoy and comment on each with your own experiences :)

** It should be noted that the husband of the year award goes to my husband for misplacing the cake before we headed to my parents house; in turn, having the cake fall :(.  - insert sarcasm here.  LUCKILY, the flag was still visible somewhat. LOL!  

Check out my other cakes - Cake Central; or on Instagram - #DianaGCakes; 

P.S. My Little Pony Cake coming this weekend :)

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