Blue-Eyed Baker: Gobs

Yesterday my little brother asked for Oreos and my mom said no, mostly because she was going to a smaller grocery store and they charge like $5 for a package of Oreos.  He got upset and then she told him to ask me to make him some.  I didn't want to try to make Oreos and I was in a cookie making mood so I made gobs (or whoopie pies) instead.  They kind of look like Oreos.

I stole the recipe from Brown-Eyed Baker because it was the first one to pop up and like I've said before all of her recipes that I've tried so far have been really, really good.

So here you go,

Gobs
Yield: 18-24 Gobs

What You'll Need:

Cakes:
2 c. Flour
1/2 c. Cocoa Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Shortening
1 Egg + 1 Egg Yolk
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 c. Buttermilk (I used 2% milk because I had no buttermilk and didn't feel like buying it for just one recipe)
1 c. Hot Water

Frosting:
1 1/4 c. Shortening
1 1/2 c. Marshmallow Fluff
1 c. Powdered Sugar
1 Tbsp. Vanilla

How To:

For the Cakes:

1. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Sift together flour, salt, cocoa powder and baking soda.  Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar.
4. Add the egg, yolk and vanilla to the sugar-shortening mixture and mix until incorporated.
5. Alternating the flour mixture and liquids, add 1/3 flour mix, milk, 1/3 flour, water, 1/3 flour.  Mix well (3-5 minutes).
6. Here's the tricky part, originally the recipe I used said to drop about a tablespoon and a half of the batter/dough/whatever onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.  I did that and it didn't turn out well.  If you look at Brown-Eyed Baker you'll see that her cakes are nice and fluffy, mine were not, maybe because of the substitution of the 2%, maybe not.  Anyhow, I didn't like how my cakes looked so I filled cupcake tins about a quarter of the way full and when I took them out of the oven I smushed down the tops.  That method worked well for me and I liked the outcome.  They also make whoopie-pie pans so if you have those I'm sure you can use them. So, if you use the Brown-Eyed Baker's method bake time is 5-6 minutes, if you use the cupcake tin method bake time is 7-8 minutes.  If you use whoopie-pie pans, well good luck!

For the Frosting:

1. Add the marshmallow fluff and shortening to your bowl, mix well.
2. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix on high for about 3-5 minutes.  Your final result will be a nice and fluffy frosting.

Finally, assemble the gobs as you would a sandwich, cake-frosting-cake.  I used an icing spatula but you can really use whatever tool you want.

My results,

I have yet to perfect my dessert photo-taking skills.

That's all for today! Happy Friday and Happy Baking!

Blue-Eyed Baker: Mother's Day Cake

Sunday was Mother's Day.  I hadn't bought my mom anything and I also hadn't planned on it because money has been tight.  So I thought to myself, I like to bake cakes and my mom likes to eat cake (and share it with her coworkers) so why not bake a Mother's Day cake?  That's exactly what I did.  And here is the result.

Gorgeous.

Okay, my decorating wasn't great but I made it at the last minute so I think I did pretty good.  I mashed up two of my fave recipes, Hershey's Chocolate Cake and Wilton's PB Buttercream.  They're both really simple recipes but they always turn out so lovely.  The cake isn't too heavy and I can't get enough of the icing.  You'll also want a nice glass of milk as a chaser.

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Cake

Yield: 2 9-in cakes

Ingredients:

• 2 c. Sugar
• 3/4 c. Hershey's Cocoa Powder (Unsweetened)
• 1 3/4 c. Flour
• 1 1/2 t. Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 t. Baking Soda
• 1 t. Salt
• 2 Eggs
• 1 c. Boiling Water
• 1/2 c. Vegetable Oil (I also use Olive oil when need be it makes no difference)
• 1 c. Milk
• 2 t. Vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  

In a large bowl stir together the dry (flour, salt, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda) ingredients.  Then add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.  Beat together for appx. 2 minutes.  Stir in the water.  Don't worry the batter is supposed to be thin.

Bake each cake for appx. 30-35 minutes. Mine took exactly 30 but it always depends on the oven you're using.

Wilton's PB Buttercream

1 recipe = 3 cups

Ingredients:

• 1/3 c. Butter
• 1/3 c. Vegetable Shortening (I use Crisco. ALWAYS)
• 3/4 c. Peanut Butter
• 1 t. Vanilla
• 4 c. (1 lb.) Confectioner's (powdered) sugar
• 4-6 T. Milk

Cream the butter and shortening.  Then add the PB and vanilla.  Gradually add the powdered sugar.  If need be add milk to reach your desired consistency.  Note: I didn't add the milk and everything turned out fine.

Just lovely.

This was the first time I ever attempted a basket weave.  I've never even practiced on a flat surface.  It didn't turn out perfect but I was happy with the results.  Plus it tasted amazing so no one actually cared.

I hope you all had a fantastic Mother's Day and Happy Friday!

Author's Note: I didn't change these recipes at all.  I did include the links so that no one could say I plagiarized.

Blue-Eyed Baker: Boxed Mixes and Canned Icing

As you all know I've been home this past week and the original plan was to bake a couple things while I'm here.  That actually hasn't happened.  I'm going to bake a cake for Mother's Day that will be just lovely but other than that I haven't made anything except for some cupcakes that came out of a box but to me those don't really count.

I haven't used a boxed cake mix in about a year, Wednesday night was the first time since I discovered my love for baking from scratch.  In the past I've made my famed Irish Carbomb cupcakes and people have said "Did you make these from scratch?" and I very pompously replied "Of course I made them from scratch.  Who wants to use a boxed mix?".  I'm very proud of my from scratch creations even if they're recipes from other people, I have yet to make up my own recipe or even drastically change a recipe I've found on the internet. We'll get there someday.

So on Wednesday, my sister, Julia, text me asking if I would bake cupcakes for school the next day.  At first  I said no because I was going out with a friend later and I didn't want to be up late baking.  Then she said they're for Josh Seader, who's a guy that I graduated High School with, he was always really nice and Senior year we had like every class together so she guilted me into making them.  I still knew I wasn't in the mood to bake anything from scratch and I probably wasn't going to have all of the ingredients anyway so, much to my chagrin, I purchased a boxed mix and some canned icing.

It was your classic yellow cake and chocolate icing.  As I was making them, 3 eggs, 1/3 cup oil, 1 cup of water, yuck, I thought to myself that this is really gross and I would have rather taken the time to make something from scratch.  The icing was Duncan Hines Whipped and if I ever had to endorse a pre-made product that would probably be the one.  It wasn't bad.  I still wasn't happy with the overall product but I'm sure the kids in Julia's class could care less.  They're getting free cupcakes at school they most likely do not care that I went through a lot of emotional pain making those boxed monstrosities.  At this point you can probably tell that I really dislike using boxed mixes.

They didn't look half bad,

I used my favorite cupcake icing technique to ease the pain.

I'd also like to express my disdain at the glut of wedding cake recipes online that masquerade as "professional" or "homemade" recipes but utilize a boxed mix.  Now these recipes add other things to the boxed stuff but if you're going to use the boxed crap don't say that it's homemade or that you're a professional.

Okay, my rant is over.  Happy Friday!