Snickerdoodle Cake

Photo: Foodnetwork using a whipped egg white frosting and torching it, I simplified the frosting.

Due to the gas shutoff (after the hookah smoker's fire) in our building, I haven't posted recipes on THE SAVVY SHOPPER lately. Have you noticed? I miss baking yet meanwhile, discovered snickerdoodle cookies. After ConEd gives us the green light to return gas to our apartment line, I'll make this cake. As usual, I like to share ... but also can click here myself to remember how to make it (the one and only time, I'm not testing my tweaks beforehand. But, no worries, it's a simple butter cake flavored with cinnamon and brown sugar, therefore I can eyeball the ingredients :) --

Snickerdoodle Cake

Photo: thespuceeats

Ingredients:

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1/2 cup white sugar 
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs (Add one at a time and beat in-between.)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla

Extra butter to grease your cake pans.

Directions:

1) With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars.

2) Add one egg at a time. Incorporate.

3) Next add the buttermilk, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4) Toss in the rest of the flavorings: cinnamon and vanilla. Mix until uniform about 2 minutes.

Usually I use two pans, than if I desire four layers, I cut each cake layer in half. However, you can use 4 cake pans if you wish.

5) Pour the batter into 2 well greased 9" cake pans. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 30 minutes, or until done in the center. 

6) After removing from the oven, let the cake cool for about 5 minutes, scraping the sides of each pan with a knife. Wait a beat and while they are still warm, remove from the cake pans. (Too hot, they fall apart, but if no longer warm, they stick to the sides of the pans and fall apart.) After removal, cool completely.

Snickerdoodle Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup condensed milk (or rich cream, I never stock it.)
2 teaspoons vanilla (or more!)
2 teaspoons cinnamon (or more!)
5 cups of confectionery sugar (I just grab the box and add powdered sugar until I get a stiff, yet creamy consistency.)

Optional: Add 2 - 3 tablespoons of soft butter (I usually skip the butter in the frosting. The butter will help keep the frosting moist if you plan to eat the cake days later, as well as, add flavor and more calories. (You must take the bad with the good.)

Directions:

Generously, frost all your cake layers. Some people sprinkle the frosted cake with cinnamon sugar, but I don't. I might sprinkle a little cinnamon powder on top to garnish.

++++++++++++++++++++++
Should we turn the recipe into a Single Serving Mug Cake?

Ingredients:

Photo: sugarandspiceglitter

1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
6 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch of salt
Skip the egg (unless you use the rest (minus a tablespoon) of it for something else). Substitute 1 tablespoon of applesauce; or mashed banana; or mashed avocado; or even a nut butter.
3 tablespoons buttermilk (If the batter needs a tad more, add it drops at a time)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (or more!)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1) Mix the ingredients (in the order as the above cake directions, beating with a fork in the same mug you will use to bake it in the microwave. Incorporate well.

2) Microwave for one minute. Check it. Microwave for 10 seconds more at a time until done.  

3) Frost the mug cake by making a small portion of the frosting above. Eyeball the amount. Garnish the top with cinnamon. 

Baking is science, but not rocket science. Enjoy!


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Mini Italian Cream Cake

Sometimes I crave a slice of cake, not a big 9-inch cake that I must eat all week long to finish, but only a slice! So I bought two 4-inch Fat Daddy aluminum cake pans and got the idea to reduce the quantity of a cake recipe to make the equivalent of a slice of cake. I'm thrilled with the results! It took a pandemic to think of experimenting to make a single-serving cake, and in fact there's more than enough to share with a partner.

Nobody knows how Italian Cream Cake got its name since the cake is from the American South, not Italy. Here's how to make a 4-inch mini cake:

Mini Italian Cream Cake

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon shortening or vegetable oil

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg, separated

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup shredded coconut

You will need two small 4" cake pans, buttered and floured.

Directions:

1) With an electric mixer cream together the butter, shortening (or vegetable oil) and sugar.

2) Add the egg yolk and vanilla.

3 Next toss in the flour, baking soda and salt.

4) Add the buttermilk. If the batter is too thick, add a little more for a not too thick (or too thin) consistency.

4) Whisk the egg white in a separate clean bowl until stiff peaks form, then use a specular to fold it into the batter.

4) Next fold in the chopped pecans and shredded coconut.

5) Pour the cake batter into the 2 buttered and floured mini cake pans.

6) Bake in a 350 degree F preheated oven for 25 minutes or until the centers are done. The cakes will bounce back when touched. Remove from the oven and cool. Before the pans are completely cold lift out the cakes.

Italian Cream Frosting

Ingredients:

Ending up with 4 layers

2 ounces cream cheese, soften at room temperature

2 tablespoons butter, soften

1 box confectioner's sugar (You won't need the entire box.)

1 squirt of vanilla extract

1/4 cup of ground pecans

Directions

1) Toss the softened cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and confectioners' sugar into a mixing bowl and mix until smooth and fluffy Never measuring, I pour the powdered sugar into the bowl until I get the frosting consistency I desire. 

2) Spread the frosting on a cold cake in-between layers, as well as the top and sides of the cake. I cut my two 4'' cakes in half to get 4 layers of cake.

3) Sprinkle ground pecans all over the top of the frosted cake. 

Note: I don't need frosting for just myself to be as decadent. So I lightened it by omitting the butter and cream cheese. I used cottage cheese and skim milk instead of cream cheese because I didn't want to open a package of cream cheese I had to finish by myself. Sans butter, the frosting is less creamy. Not what I would serve guests, but the tastes still satisfies. It's good!

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To feed more people here are the portions of ingredients for a 9-inch cake:

Full Size Cake

1 stick butter

1/2 cup shortening

2 cups of sugar

2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 egg, separated

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cup shredded coconut

Directions:

1) Follow the steps above increasing the amounts of ingredients. 

For myself alone, a no butter icing.

2) Use either two or three 8'' or 9'' cake pans to make either 2 or 3 cakes. Southern bakers usually make 3 cakes for 3 layers.

Full Size Cake Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

4 tablespoon butter, softened

box of confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped pecans (toasted if you make the effort.)

As you see without guests, I don't go crazy decorating a cake with tons of icing. Crushed nuts are the finish and enough of a good thing!

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Lemon Elderflower Cake

Photo: AM-NY

Did your invitation to the wedding of Great Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle get lost in the mail? Oh what a coincidence, mine too! Recently, I've looked for a tasty lemon cake recipe and as luck would have it, the Mountbatten-Winsors are serving a fancy lemon cake after the ceremony. For all my readers not attending the nuptials, nor the after parties, I've got your back. Have a slice of the royal wedding cake. Here is a recipe. (Theirs requries 500 eggs and 200 lemons!):

Photo: Huffington Post of elderflower blossoms

👑Ingredients for the cake

1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3/4 cup buttermilk (You can substitute milk if you wish.)
3 extra large eggs (Large works too.)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice of 2 lemons (1/4 cup), plus the lemon zest
2 tablespoons elderflower cordial (Ederflower liqueur can be substituted.)

👑Ingredients for the elderflower syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup elderflower cordial

👑Ingredients for frosting
1-2 cups lemon curd (For homemade here.)
1 tablespoon elderflower cordial

🏰Directions for the cake:

1) With an electric mixer cream together the sugar and butter. 

2) Add the buttermilk, than the eggs, one at a time.

3) Next mix in the dry ingredients: flour, baking power, baking soda and salt.

5) Now toss in the flavors: lemon juice, lemon zest and elderflower cordial (or liqueur).

6) Pour into 2  buttered  9 inch cake pans and bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for about 30 minutes (until the center is done). Remove from the oven and let cool.

Meanwhile make the simple syrup flavored with elderflower --

🏰Directions for the Elderflower syrup:

1) Combine sugar and water in a saucepan on a stove top. Bring the mixture to a boil. Simmer until the sugar dissolves. 

2) Turn off the heat and add the elderflower cordial. Let cool.

Prepare the frosting:

🏰Directions for the Lemon Ederflower Frosting:

💂Option A) To a jar of lemon curd (or use homemade) add a tablespoon (eyeball a squirt) of elderflower cardial.

💒Option B) The royal cake is reported to have a butter cream frosting: Toss room temperature butter, confectionery sugar and drops of milk in a bowl. Mix in lemon zest and elderflower cordial.

Photo: Huffington Post of elderflower berries

How to finish and frost the cake:

1) Next refrigerate the cake layers for a few hours.

2) Remove the 2 layers of cake from the refrigerator and make 4 layers by slicing through the centers in half, if you wish. If too difficult, no worries, a 2 layer cake will be fine too.

3) Brush the tops of the 4 cake layers (or 2) with elderflower flavored simple syrup, then top with the lemon curd (or butter cream) frosting. The cake has a messy (in a good way) look: Let frosting run down the sides and double or triple frost, if you like.

4) Decorate the top with cake icing flowers. You can improvise by putting the frosting in a plastic sandwich bag, then cut a corner off of one end, so the frosting can be squeezed out to make flowers. Or buy ready-made sugar flowers at the grocery store, it's in the cake aisle. You can get creative with berries; or sprinkles as flowers; or real ediable flowers; or just lemon slices cut as hearts and flowers.

Enyoy with a cup of tea!

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Mocha Chocolate Cake

• 

  Photo: Bon Appétit: Don't worry if your cake and frosting are lighter in color. This photo has a food styler who took liberties. It's the taste we care about.

  I tweaked a Bon Appétit recipe requiring cake flour and mascarpone frosting - neither of which I stock. Mascarpone cream is "Italian cream cheese." It is slightly richer than American cream cheese, but you can add rich cream or sour cream to compensate in taste.
  
  As it happens: There is always cream cheese in my refrigerator, but never, ever mascarpone cheese; and there is always all-purpose flour in my cupboard, but never, ever cake flour. I dislike a job (shopping) before doing a job (baking a cake). Nobody has time for that! IMHO: 99% of all cakes turn out just fine using all-purpose flour. I've never had trouble eating one! The difference is: All-purpose flour has slightly more protein than cake flour.
  
  Another reason, I altered the recipe is: My German mother conditioned me to think: American pastries are too sweet. So I usually reduce the sugar in cakes by 1/2 cup, or more when I can get away with it. If the cake batter is less sweet, you will taste other ingredients better like chocolate, vanilla, or coffee. After frosting I rarely miss the lack of 1/2 cup of sugar in the batter since frosting is mainly sugar. Don't mess with Mom when baking, she's usually right! Here is my recipe for --
  
  
  Mocha Chocolate Cake
  
  

  Ingredients for the batter:
  

  
  
  
  2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  3/4 cup natural unsweetened raw cacao (or cocoa) powder - I use cacao power.
  1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  3/4 teaspoon salt
  1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  1 1/2 cups (packed) brown sugar (The original recipe calls for 2 cups, so you can up the sugar if you must. You get used to less sugar over time.)
  1 cup buttermilk
  3 large eggs
  1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  4 teaspoons instant coffee (or espresso powder) dissolved in 3/4 cup hot water
  
  Extra butter and flour to grease baking pans.
• 
  
  Directions for the batter:
  
  
  1) In a large bowl, Mix the ingredients together starting with the butter and sugar. Shift the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt together in another bowl and add a bit at a time. Add the buttermilk and blend with an electric mixer.
  
  
  2) Add one egg at a time, beating with the electric mixer.
  
  
  3) Add the vanilla and coffee dissolved in water.
  
  
  4) Beat about 2 minutes until uniform.
  
  
  5) Pour the batter into 2 buttered and floured 9" baking pans.
  
  
  6) Bake at 325 degree F in a pre-heated oven for 40 minutes, or until the centers are done. 
  
  
  7) Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pans to cool completely.
  
  
  
  
  Ingredients for the frosting:
  
  

• 1/3 cup raw cacao (or cocoa) powder
  2 tablespoons instant coffee (or espresso) powder
  8 ounces cream cheese
  1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream; or sour cream
  A box of powdered sugar (not all is needed)
• Bittersweet chocolate curls for garnish
  
  
  Directions for the frosting: 
  
  
  1) Using an electric mixer blend the ingredients until smooth. I add the powdered sugar from the box until I get a desired creamy, yet thick consistency.
  
  
  Feel free to use mascarpone cheese in the frosting recipe instead of my cream cheese substitutions if you have it. Either way, you will love this moist mocha chocolate cake. From Bon Appétit ...  bon appétit!🎂
  
  ++++++++++++++++++++++
  Should we once again turn a full cake recipe into a Single Serving Mug Cake? (Yes! I hear you, Trish of The Red Cardinal.)
  
  Ingredients:
  
  6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

  

  Photo: Skint Dad

  
  2 tablespoons raw cacao (or cocoa) powder
  1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  a pinch of salt
  2 tablespoons butter
  2 tablespoons brown sugar
  3 tablespoons buttermilk
  1 tablespoon of egg (Use the rest of the egg for breakfast. Waste not, want not.)
  1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  1 teaspoon of instant coffee (or espresso) dissolved into about 1/8 of a cup of hot water (You'll need to eyeball the water.)
  
  Directions: 
  
  Follow the batter recipe above↑ using the reduced ingredients. Grease and flour a mug and bake in the microwave for one minute, then 10 seconds at a time until the center is done.
  
  For the  Mocha Chocolate frosting, improvise using teaspoons of the ingredients in the order above until you get the taste and a desired creamy, yet thick consistency. Frosting is easy enough to eyeball!
  
  
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Chocolate Mirror Glaze With Berry Mousse

Photo: Renee Robinson - So pretty!

The cake recipes I publish on THE SAVVY SHOPPER are for cakes I tweak and bake myself with the exception of today's cake: Chocolate Mirror Glaze With Berry Mousse. I haven't gotten around to making it yet and therefore, I'll share Renee Robinson's experience as published on Facebook. The top image, ingredients and directions are hers. Renee's finished cake looks amazing! So away we go ... 🎭

Chocolate Mirror Glaze Cake with Cranberry and Blueberry Mousse

 

The Baker: Renee Robinson

Renee says, "I followed the recipe exactly as written [see link below] for the chocolate cakes layer, but have written it out for you, in what I think is easier to understand language." 

Ingredients for the Chocolate Cake:

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

Photo: recepetineats

2/3 cup cocoa powder (it wasn’t specified, but I {Renee} used dark Valrhona cocoa)
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 egg yolk
1 egg
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 cup milk
2/3 cup hot strong brewed coffee

Directions for the cake: 

Grease and line with parchment paper two 7 inch cake pans. Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a medium bowl mix together flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat oil and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. 

Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract; mix. Gradually add flour mixture to oil mixture alternately with milk, in three batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating just until combined after each addition. 

At the end add the hot brewed coffee and mix together only 30 seconds. Divide the batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes (or longer - until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean). Cool cakes in pans for 15 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.

Cranberry and Blueberry Mousse

The baker says, "The original recipe called for fresh or frozen black currants. I don’t have access to either, so I substituted other berries and changed the amounts of other ingredients, as seen below."

Ingredients for the Mousse:

300 grams blueberries

500 grams cranberries

Juice of half lemon
Scant 1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons powdered gelatin
2 cups whipping cream
10 tablespoons powdered sugar

Directions for the Mousse:

Place blueberries, cranberries, and sugar in a saucepan. Place over medium heat and cook only until sugar dissolves and fruits burst. Let cool for a few minutes. Add lemon juice. Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. 

Place 1 tablespoon of the gelatin in a small bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside for 5 minutes to swell. Gently heat softened gelatin in a double boiler or microwave and stir to dissolve. Add to half of warm puree and mix together. Whip half of whipping cream with half of powdered sugar until stiff peaks. 

Gradually add prepared half of berry puree and whip together.
Line the bottom of 9 inch spring pan with parchment paper. On the base – in the center of the pan, place the first chocolate cake and pour over black the berry mousse. Place in the fridge for ½ - 1 hour.

After this time make the second half of the berry mousse, repeating steps described above. Remove the pan from the fridge, place in the center the second sponge and pour over the second half of the mousse. Even the surface and place to the fridge overnight.

The next day carefully remove the cake from the pan. Place on a serving plate and decorate with mirror glaze.

Photo: mandarinpie

Here is the link to the original recipe for the cake.

https://sweetstyledhme.com/.../chocolate-cake-in-black...

Here is the link to the recipe used for the mirror glaze. Renee followed the steps exactly as written in the recipe. https://www.recipetineats.com/chocolate-mirror-glaze

And finally, what does THE SAVVY SHOPPER think? This cake requires more steps than a basic cake, since we must cook and cool things as we bake the cakes (the dreaded have jobs before you do a job syndrome!), and yet finished and plated, it should taste amazing. This summer I'll return here for the recipe to challenge myself by making this fancy, fussy, multi-steps cake, and now my dear readers, you can too! 

If looking to bake a less work homemade cake, try this buttermilk layer cake. There's no shame in an easy recipe as long as a cake is delicious!! I prefer them. As Jon Bon Jovi knows, "You do what you can."🎵🎂

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