"Michael" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Good morning, all! I hope everybody is doing well on
> this beautiful Sunday morning. Snow on the ground
> here and very cold, but the sun is shining. Thanks
> to Jill and Wayne for the praline suggestions. I
> stirred the pralines pretty constantly when it was
> boiling, and although the family thinks they're fine,
> I think they're a bit on the grainy side, just as
> suggested.

You could always send your portion this way....they'd go well with the
chocolate caramel cake I'm making!
>
> I'm baking a HUGE cake right now. I bought a 12"
> round pan a week ago at the cake store that was going
> out of business and I am just now putting it to use.
> I'm getting some experience with the Hershey's
> Perfectly Chocolate cake, so I did it. I increased
> the recipe by 50%, and that is just the first! I'm
> waiting right now for it to cool a bit and then I'll
> go for round two. That will be a total of three
> times bigger than what I usually make! I didn't have
> the flower nail to put in the center to conduct heat,
> and I was nervous about that. After 25 minutes the
> cake was still way wet, so I put it back for another
> 10 minutes. Going like this, it took 55 minutes to
> bake.
>
> I'm hoping to slice the two layers in two and end up
> with a four layer cake. After the next layer gets
> comes out of the oven, I'm going into town to rent a
> cement mixer to make the icing.
>
> Michael


Wow, big cake! I hope you're having plenty of company to help eat it?
I love the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake. If you like that one, you'll
also like the Black Magic cake and/or the Deep Dark Chocolate cake. What
icing are you making for this one? Last summer I made it with a chocolate
mousse filling and used that to ice it as well, then poured a thin layer of
ganache over that. Last time though, I used a cream cheese icing. It was
chocolate that time, but I have also made it with orange oil instead of
chocolate, and that is divine.

Let us know how it turns out!

Me, I went to the farmer's market a little while ago and found some
strawberries that were not only red, but sweet and juicy! I was utterly
amazed. So, tonight my daughter and I will be having strawberries with
freshly whipped cream on the flourless chocolate cake I made this morning.
Dinner is field greens with cucumber and tomatoes dressed with a light
citrus pepper vinaigrette (just evoo, lemon juice, blood orange juice, a bit
of balsamic, 1 clove garlic, lots of fresh ground pepper), a beautiful New
York strip that I picked up at Iowa Meat Farms, some corn my aunt canned
last summer, and a roasted artichoke with lemon-garlic-basil sauce. (Mayo
whirred in the blender with fresh basil, 2 cloves garlic, and the juice of
1/2 lemon).
I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

kimberly
>

wow that sounds good i love strawberries and it is hard to find good
ones

Kimberly wrote:

Wow, big cake! I hope you're having plenty of company to help eat it?
I love the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake. If you like that one,
you'll
also like the Black Magic cake and/or the Deep Dark Chocolate cake.
What
icing are you making for this one?

******************
I called the icing "cocoa crunch." It was supposed to be just the
Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Icing, but after I poured the cocoa in
on top of the butter, I decided I needed to melt the butter down a
bit. I microwaved the cocoa along with the butter and a lot of it
hardened up into little chunks that 4 hours of hand-beating (alright,
maybe not quite that long) failed to break up. Cocoa crunch. Gotta
love it.

And thank you for the suggestions on the other cakes. I'll look
around for recipes for them.

Michael

"Michael" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> Kimberly wrote:
>
> Wow, big cake! I hope you're having plenty of company to help eat it?
> I love the Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate cake. If you like that one,
> you'll
> also like the Black Magic cake and/or the Deep Dark Chocolate cake.
> What
> icing are you making for this one?
>
> ******************
> I called the icing "cocoa crunch." It was supposed to be just the
> Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Icing, but after I poured the cocoa in
> on top of the butter, I decided I needed to melt the butter down a
> bit. I microwaved the cocoa along with the butter and a lot of it
> hardened up into little chunks that 4 hours of hand-beating (alright,
> maybe not quite that long) failed to break up. Cocoa crunch. Gotta
> love it.
>
> And thank you for the suggestions on the other cakes. I'll look
> around for recipes for them.
>
> Michael

Michael,

The mousse filling/frosting was just made by melting chocolate with a little
bit of cream, allowing to cool a little bit, then folding into whipped
cream. Easy, silky, rich and yummy!
For the cream cheese frosting you need 8 ounces of cream cheese, 1/2 stick
of butter (both softened at room temp), 3-5 cups of powdered sugar, and 1-3
tbsp milk. The variation comes in how soft or stiff you want the icing. To
make it chocolate, melt the butter in the microwave *then* whisk in 1/2 cup
of cocoa. Add to the cream cheese and powdered sugar with 1 tbsp milk. Add
more sugar or milk to adjust consistency.
To make it orange, leave out the chocolate, and don't melt the butter. Just
combine the ingredients, adding orange juice in place of milk, and 1/2 tsp
orange oil OR 1 tsp ornage extract. You can also add fine orange peel as
well.

hope this helps!
kimberly

>