Spencer was turning 4 this year and I wanted to do something special for him. He really loves dinosaurs so I knew making that part of the cake was important. I looked at several dinosaur cakes and they were all either “dragon looking” or way to advanced for me. His cake had to be cool  because he loved the Bunny Cake so much. I had to make 2 of these cakes so I used a full sheet pan. Since most people won’t be making this size, I am including the directions for a 10×8 pan. If you need to make a full sheet cake, double the recipe. If you wish to use a boxed cake, you will need 2 boxes for the 10×8 and 3 boxes for the 11×14.

Ingredients: (Cake) (10 x 8 cake pan)

• 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. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
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 batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean
4. Completely cool for at least 15 minutes
5. Remove from Pan
6. Frost

Ingredients: (Frosting)

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
• 2/3 cup Hershey’s Cocoa
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Melt butter
2. Stir in cocoa
3. Add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency
4. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.
5. Makes about 2 cups frosting

(Click any image to enlarge)

I will post more this week on Spencer’s Cake! Happy Birthday to my “baby”!

A few days ago I told you about participating in a 3T Throwdown. Head over to Food (Just Sayin’) and Shin Dig It to see how Toni and Tonya did! Mine didn’t come out like it was supposed to. My “lava” was “lava rock”. It wasn’t hard just solid. My recipe called for custard cups instead of ramekins. Mine were Pyrex and most ramekins are ceramic. I believe this was where the cooking time differed. I baked it the least amount of time. Here is the recipe and my results for the contest. If you try it please let me know how yours turns out!

Are you a Brand or representing PR Agency? Want to challenge me with your products? Shoot me an email with “Food Challenge!” in the subject line!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup Dark Chocolate Chips
• 1/4 cup Land O’ Lakes Butter with Olive Oil
• 3 ounces of Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 1/3 cup Dark Brown Sugar, firmly packed
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup Flour

Directions:

• Butter (4) six ounce Ramekins
• In a microwave safe bowl, stir together Chocolate Chips and Butter. Microwave on high for 30 seconds and stir, then heat again for 10 seconds. Stir until all the Chocolate is melted.
• Stir in softened Cream Cheese and Vanilla.
• Beat on medium speed for 1 minute.
• Switch to Low Speed and gradually mix in Flour, only until combined
• In a large bowl, combine Dark Brown Sugar and eggs and beat for 2 minutes
• Using a rubber spatula, stir in chocolate mixture until no streaks remain
• Pour batter evenly into the baking cups.
• Bake for 13-15 minutes in preheated oven until tops are bubbly and puffed
• (I baked mine in the Pyrex Custard Cups for 13 minutes and they over cooked)
• The center will still be soft. Take out of oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
• Run a butter knife around the outer edges to free the cakes from the baking cups.
• Turn each cake upside down onto a dish
• Top with your favorite topping and eat!

(CLICK ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

Disclosure: This is NOT a sponsored post. I did not receive any cash, product or sponsorship of any kind. All products used in this post were purchased by me. Any brands named were in no way involved in the writing of this post. I wrote this post because I love to cook and bake and want to share it with my readers!

My awesomely named friend Toni, from Food (Just Sayin’), has initiated a “Throwdown”! We will be making a Molted Lava Cake. I have never made anything like this before so it should prove to be interesting. You can follow out smack talk on Twitter using the hashtag #BakersSmack

Also joining in on the fun is Tanya from Shin-Dig-It. You are probably wondering how do you have a Throwdown when you can’t taste anything right? Since this is all for fun, it is an honestly policy. Obviously if you kill your recipe then you will wave the white flag. You can also have people try it in your home and give honest opinions. My sons would have no trouble telling me if something tasted like crap! lol

Look for our posts this Tuesday to see how everyone did!

Are you a Brand or representing PR Agency? Want to challenge me with your products? Shoot me an email with “Food Challenge!” in the subject line!

THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO DELIGHTFULCHAOS.COM. PLEASE VISIT THE LINK BELOW

Easter Bunny Cake with Printable Template

In the past year I am trying to be more fun with things for the kids. I am not a very crafty person so I depend on the tricks and cheats to make things look like I really know what I am doing! I am a cook, not a baker so when I wanted to make something a little different, I turned to Wilton. I own so many Wilton specialty pans it is unreal. My mom buys me them for every holiday and occasion you can imagine.

I looked all over for this pan and I just couldn’t find it locally anywhere! I wrote the folks at Wilton and they made my day and sent me one. This is not a difficult pan to use but it definitely required a little bit of patience to use. For my first time using it, it came out “OK”. The cake is supposed to be 3 layers but to be honest, it uses a lot of cake and I ended up only having enough to make 2 levels.

I learned from Googling for pictures of other peoples cakes using this pan that getting this cake to line up perfectly is not going to be that easy.

I used 2 boxes of white cake mix and I just added some red food coloring to make it pink. I might suggest following Wiltons cake recipe for this one to ensure that you have the correct amount of cake mix for 2 layers. I found it a real pain using a boxed mix which was why I only did 2 layers. You can use any flavor or color of cake that you wish.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray pans and ring lightly with Pam. Prepare your cake, whether it is a homemade or boxed cake.

Place Batter Dividing Ring into one prepared pan.

Place Batter Dividing Ring in the first prepared 9 x 11/2 in. pan. Pour darker colored batter in outer and center sections and lighter colored batter in the middle section. Fill sections halfway. ((for convenient filling, place batter in disposable decorating bag, I tried to pour it in at first and oh boy, what a mess.)

Remove ring from pan by carefully lifting straight up on handles. Rinse and completely dry ring.

Place ring in 2nd prepared pan and repeat steps 1 and 2. These will be the top and bottom layers of your checkerboard cake.

Place clean and dry ring in 3rd prepared pan. Pour lighter colored batter in outer and center sections and darker colored batter in the middle section. Fill sections halfway. This will be the middle layer of your checkerboard cake.

Remove ring from pan as before. When you remove the ring, do this slowly and it should slip out perfectly. I didn’t have any trouble with this step. Bake 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely.

Depending on how many layers you want to do, simply stack your cakes on top of each other, placing a layer of icing between each cake. Be sure you alternate your cakes so you get the checkerboard look when you cut it. For my first attempt I don’t think it came out TO bad. I couldn’t seem to get a clean cut either so it’s probably not the best finished product pic!

ENTER TO WIN A WILTON CHECKERBOARD CAKE PAN

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Giveaway is open to US residents who are 18 years of age or older. I reserve the right to remove any entry from this giveaway. This giveaway is sponsored by Wilton. This giveaway ends 03/17/2011 at 11:59pm EST. If you are currently or have previously reviewed this product or participated in this campaign, you are ineligible to enter/win.

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