Marzipan FIlled Sugar Cookies

Mmmm. Marzipan. Marzi-what? These cookies will hopefully give you a fabulous introduction to marizpan if you have not already tried the cherry-almond braided Danish.

Just saying Marzipan makes my mouth water and my mood lighten. I realize this is a big generalization, but if there was ONE European baking or dessert product that is not fully appreciated on this side of the Atlantic it would be marzipan. Sure, we’re familiar with almonds, as they make plenty of appearances in biscotti and we all know a dash of almond extract can go a long way in adding something special to coffee cakes or cookies, but it just is not the same as infusing a dessert with the fragrant and tasty flavor of marzipan. Infact, I’d say we Americans are most familiar with marzipan straight up as molded, brightly colored small fruit and animal (and other) shaped candies in Italian bakeries. But, this intensely almond, moldable paste/dough is popular in Europe paired with breads, chocolates, and is even used to adorn cakes similarly to the now-equivalent but much less flavorful fondant. It wasn’t until I moved to the Northeast (and yes, I admit, even more recently having German coworkers and a German boyfriend!) that I really began to appreciate this gem of a treat for not only its taste but its wide appeal on the dessert plate and palate from Turkey to Bangladesh to Germany, and everywhere in between.

Then it would come to you as no surprise that my next goal was to create a dessert with marzipan or almond paste that could be enjoyed by both non-Americans and Americans alike, and hence the marzipan filled sugar cookies were born, but not without some streamlining first! First and foremost, when you decide to try making these cookies, you will find yourself standing in the baking aisle at the grocery store, gazing at your almond paste and marzipan options. What is the difference between almond paste and marzipan anyway? Almond paste is typically not as sweet as marzipan, as marzipan has more sugar already mixed in, and it also does not have as smooth a texture as marzipan. For this recipe, I prefer to use almond paste and then mix in some egg and sugar to get just the right texture and flavor that will work well to be incorporated into the cookie, but if you would like to use marzipan, just be aware that you might want to use less sugar. But back to the intent grocery store gaze. Odense makes fantastic marzipan sold in tubes and is awesome for other recipes that call for marzipan, but for almond paste, Solo makes a nice can that works great in this recipe. So, even though this recipe uses Solo almond paste in a can, I will still refer to this recipe as marizpan cookies as the name just has that special zing. ☺

I was inspired by sugar drop cookies (cookies that do not require cutters) for the initial recipe, and modified it to include a healthy dose of almond extract. Stage two of my vision included taking a small piece of almond paste mixture and then placing it in the middle of two dollops of cookie dough, thinking it would spread out and become perfectly enrobed during the baking process. Fortunately, the recipes for both the cookie dough base and the almond paste filling were absolutely delicious both separately (Ok! I admit, I ate more than a few bites of the cookie dough!) and combined in cookie form, but it took a few tries to get cookies that looked as delicious as they tasted. Below are the recipes for the filling and the dough, as well as the play-by-play development to creating cookies that you’ll feel guilty to devour. ☺

Almond sugar cookie dough
1 tblsp. Almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1½ Cup Sugar
2¾ Cup Flour + 2 tblsp
1 Cup butter or margarine, softened (I used margarine)

In a small bowl, combine the baking powder, soda, and flour. In a large bowl using an electric mixer, cream sugar and margarine/butter until smooth. Beat in the almond and vanilla extracts and egg. Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl and mix well. If the dough is still moist, mix in flour one tablespoon at a time. Ultimately you want dough that is slightly sticky but still balls up, and scoops easily. When baking, bake in an oven preheated to 350 for 10-12 minutes (see below for details).

Almond Paste Filling
1 can (8 oz) Solo Almond Paste
2 tblsp egg substitute or egg white
6 tblsp powdered sugar

First and foremost, depending on your almond taste, an entire can of almond paste may yield a little extra, although for me that is not a problem. ☺ Scoop/dig the almond paste out of the can, and mash it up with a spoon in a medium sized bowl. Add the egg substitute (yes, I stock this in my kitchen for quick and easy baking needs, as well as for my health) to the almond paste and mash it in – you will probably feel like it will be difficult if not impossible to fully homogenize the egg/almond paste mixture, but I promise, it should only take a few minutes! Then, add in the powdered sugar to taste (5-6 tablspoons is perfect!). Next, the assembly! Please see below for the evolution of the perfect assembly of cookie dough and filling! (Or, just skip down to stage 3)

Stage one: My first attempt to generate edible and attractive cookies yielded a plate full of those on the left of the above pictures. To make these, I first cut parchment paper to the size of my cookie sheet, and then placed a ball of dough about the size of a teaspoon on the paper. Next, I took some almond paste about the size of a nickel rolled into a ball and placed it directly on top of the cookie dough, and topped the cookie dough/almond paste blob with another teaspoon sized dollop of cookie dough. As it probably does not surprise you, these cookies ended up looking like a pancake with a small circle or square of butter on the top, rather than what they were supposed to be: a chewy cookie with a stripe of almond running through them!

Stage two: Now, how to get rid of the bulge reminiscent of a cube of butter underneath the exterior of the cookie? Hmmm. I tried to use a little less cookie dough, turn the temperature down on the oven to limit overzealous cookie spreading, and I upped the amount of the almond paste to the size of a quarter and did not spend a lot of time rolling it into a ball. And, much to my surprise, the cookie looked basically the same, with just an increase in the variability of cookie shape (the middle cookie in the above picture).

Stage three… SUCCESS: After two batches of deliciously tasty but misshapen cookies, my fingers were crossed for the last attempt. I put a small bit of dough approximately the size of a small teaspoon on the parchment paper and flattened it a little, and then took my quarter sized ball of almond paste and flattened it out into a disk, and then placed this on top of the cookie dough. This might get a little tricky as the almond paste will be a little sticky; do not worry, just add a little powdered sugar to it to reduce the stick, or rub a little onto your hands to reduce the hand-stick. Then, place some cookie dough on top of the almond paste, approximately the size of a tablespoon, and pop the cookie sheet into the oven and cook at 350 for 10-12 minutes. As a small variation, and to see what works best for you, you can alternate – bigger amount of dough on the bottom, then covered with almond paste disc, and topped off with the smaller amount of dough – this may result in a little exposure of the almond paste during cooking, and may produce slightly different looking cookies. Lastly, take these cookies out of the oven right after the cookies are golden brown around the edges (~12 minutes, for a crunchy cookie) or just before this happens (~10 minutes, for a chewy cookie). The final product may also be delicious with chocolate drizzled over it, or just the way it is described here, represented by the cookie on the right in the top photo and highlighted in all its glory in the bottom photo.

Guinness Chocolate Cake with Kahlua-Chocolate Ganache

A few weeks ago I got this idea in my head that one could make a cake with beer and it would taste good, and I haven’t been able to forget this crazy idea. Maybe it isn’t so crazy, as I googled beer cake and did find a few possibilities. I decided to make my own chocolate-beer cake, selecting Guinness as the beer of choice – a tasty, chocolate stout that would mix well with chocolate, deepening the flavor of the cake, and being just as tasty to drink what didn’t end up in the cake. ☺ I also experimented with using less sugar, to bring out the flavor the Guinness, and the result was a moist cake with a subtle beer flavor that was complemented well with the sweeter Kahlua ganache topping (Baileys would have been great in the ganache as well!) Overall, this recipe yielded 6 small bundts and two cupcakes with the leftover batter.

Guinness Chocolate Cake
2 cups all purpose flour
½ Cup butter flavored shortening
1¼ - 2 Cups sugar (I used less because I wanted the flavor of the Guinness to come out more but adding the full 2 cups would also be delicious ☺)
¾ Cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1½ tsp baking powder
1 cup ½ and ½
2 eggs
1¼ cup Guinness
2½ tsp Vanilla

In a large bowl, cream together Crisco and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat well. In a separate smaller bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda and powder until mixed. To creamed Crisco/sugar/eggs, add dry ingredients and liquids, and mix well. Grease pans (I chose small bundt pans) and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven on the top rackfor approximately 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool and remove from pan, level the bottom of the bundts with a serrated knife, turn right-side up and glaze with ganache:

Chocolate-Kahlua Ganache
2 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 tblsp butter
2 tblsp ½ and ½
1 tblsp Kahlua
1 tblsp powdered sugar

Melt chocolate and butter in the microwave, mixing periodically to ensure even melting and to make sure the chocolate doesn’t over-cook. You can also use a double boiler on the stove to avoid obliterating your chocolate, but a microwave is completely sufficient as long as you have either a watchful eye or are an impatient cook (like me!). Stir in ½ and ½, powdered sugar and kahlua, mixing well. Spoon/drizzle over small bundts. Additionally, melt a small amount of white chocolate, and drizzle over the top of the chocolate-kahlua glaze.

Cherry-Almond Danish Braid

This recipe is a staple of mine, making a few appearances at parties recently where it was quickly gobbled up, reminding me how much it should be shared. This recipe is delicious. Easy. Deliciously easy, and easily customizable. This recipe came from a Better Homes and Gardens Off the Shelf Baking cookbook. Why off the shelf? This recipe uses storebought puff pastry dough, as well as almond paste and cherry preserves… makes me feel just a tiny bit guilty posting this when I try to specialize in homemade goodies, but it is so good it must be shared, especially for the options in personalizing it!

Cherry-Almond Danish Pastry Braid
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 8 oz can almond paste
¼ cup sugar
1 egg, separated (I use the equivalent egg white substitute for the entire recipe)
½ Cup cherry preserves
almond slices for decorating
raw, course sugar, for decorating

Per Puff Pastry Sheet:
Line large baking sheet with parchment paper. Unfold the pastry sheet. Prepare the almond filling by beating almond paste with sugar and egg white with an electric mixer until combined. Spread the almond paste mixture (about half, although I find that half is a little much) on the center panel of the unfolded pastry sheet, staying away from the edges of this panel by approximately half of an inch on all sides. Spoon and spread cherry preserves over the top of the almond filling to your liking (recipe calls for approximately ¼ cup per pastry, but a little more is always a good thing!). Using kitchen shears (so easy with these!), cut strips approximately 1 inch wide towards the center filling in the two outside panels. Starting at one end, fold the cut strips in over the center filling, alternating between sides. Using the egg yolk or more egg substitute, brush over braids. Sprinkle course sugar and sliced almonds over the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for approximately 15 or 20 minutes. Bake in an oven preheated to 375 for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
Customizing options:
*Use fresh fruit instead of preserves
*Instead of almond paste, spread lemon curd and top with raspberries or blackberries
*Instead of almond paste, use a cream cheese filling topped with fresh fruit or preserves
*Slice apples and toss with sugar and cinnamon before filling danish

Orange Chocolate Swirl Tiger Cake

First, a few weeks ago marked the perfect occasion to bake – February 14. No, not Valentine’s Day, but Chinese New Year! An occasion for resolutions, reconciliation and wishes of a prosperous year full of luck, wealth and good fortune. And, this day being the start of the year of the Tiger! A good friend and coworker of mine from China also happened to have her Birthday just before Chinese New Year, so I was sold – let’s bake a cake... a tiger cake! For this occasion, I tested out the combination of an orange cake with the classic chocolate described in a past blog entry, swirled together and sealed underneath a layer of fondant with a tangy, sweet orange buttercream frosting. To up the potential tasty-factor of this cake, the orange cake and the butterceram frosting was flavored with oranges picked straight off the tree from my parent’s backyard in Arizona. I was lucky enough for my mom to visit me in Boston at the beginning of February and come bearing the seasonal Arizona gifts of home-grown grapefruit, lemons, and oranges. The cake was made from two 10 inch rounds, combining chocolate swirled with orange cake, using Dorie Greenspan’s ‘Perfect Party Cake’ (Published in her Baking: From My Home to Yours) as inspiration for the orange cake. Although Dorie’s recipe was heavily adapted, I find that her mixing and incorporation instructions are perfect as she described, and the combination of the ingredients as written below plus her technical advice (also written below) produces an amazing, beautiful cake with a fine, fluffy crumb, complete with a sweet, orange scent. One final note: This cake comes together with TWO cake recipes, the orange that follows (as written, one whole recipe), but also a half-recipe of the Decadent chocolate cake described in another blog here. To make this cake, prepare both recipe batters individually, grease and flour two 10 inch baking rounds, and alternate scooping each batter into the round (details to follow). This cake is also so delcious as it is without the swirling with chocolate cake, so it can be made and enjoyed as it is written.

Fragrant Orange Cake
3¼ tsp. orange zest
1½ Cup sugar
2¼ Cup + 1 tblsp cake flour
1 tblsp. Baking powder
½ tsp salt
1¼ Cup Half and Half
4 large egg whites
1 stick butter, unsalted, room temp
¼ Cup orange juice.

Heat the oven to 350. Spray two 10 inch baking rounds with cooking spray and coat with flour.
Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg whites and milk. Combine the sugar and the orange zest in a separate, large bowl and rub together the orange zest and the sugar until the mixture is fragrant. Add the butter to the orange/sugar mixture and beat on medium-high with an electric mixer for 3 minutes, until the mixture is very light and airy (do not worry, you will not OVER beat!). Beat in the orange juice until thoroughly incorporated. Add one third of the flour mixture, and beat well on medium speed. Beat in half of the half and half/egg mixture. Then, beat in half of the remaining flour mixture, and once incorporated, beat in the remainder of the half and half/egg mixture until thoroughly mixed in. Beat in the remainder of the dry ingredients, and once incorporated, beat the entire mixture for an additional 2 minutes to fully aerate the batter. Alternate pouring the orange batter and the chocolate batter into each of the two rounds and swirl around a knife a few times in the batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean; approximately 30-40 minutes.

After baking, this cake was sealed with an orange buttercream with oranges straight from the backyard tree, and covered with home made orange fondant.

Orange Buttercream:
½ C shortening
½ C Butter or margarine
1 dash salt
5¼ - 5½ C confectioner’s sugar
3 tsp orange zest
3-4 tblsp orange juice.

Cream butter and shortening and then add orange zest. Add sugar, one cup at a time, beating on medium speed. Add orange juice 1 tblsp at a time and beat on high until blended and a consistency that suits your needs. Once the cake has cooled, fill the bottom layer with buttercream, and put top layer on the cake. Coat the stacked layers with the buttercream and let dry for at least a few hours before coating with fondant. The tiger stripes on the cake were made with chocolate fondant to finish it off.

Happy Birthday, YueYang, and Happy New Year! ☺

Chocolate Sherry Cream Bar Cookies

Whew! two posts in one day! In addition to trying the chai tea cookies for the first time yesterday, I was inspired to try another recipe also listed in the Better Homes and Gardens Special Publications: Ultimate Cookies. The recipe, titled Chocolate-and-sherry cream bars (NOTE: originally formatted for a 15x10 baking dish, all references below are for the halved recipe that would suit the 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish size) really had my attention with its mouth-watering, centerpiece-esque photo, but similar to the chai tea cookies, this recipe ended up getting a makeover. I'll post my equally as mouth watering recipe below, but please know that the original exists out there for reference. I found the chocolate bottom a success, so I simply scaled down the original recipe for the fudgy bottom layer and conjured up a completely different recipe for the sherry cream layer.

Chocolate Sherry Cream Bar Cookies (suitable for 8X8 or 9X9 square baking pan)
Chocolate Bar
1/2 cup butter
2 ounces semi-sweet or dark chocolate
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 (the prep for this recipe goes really quickly! I'm a fan!) In a double boiler over low or medium heat, heat the chocolate and butter, stirring to aid in even melting. Once melted, remove from heat, and mix in the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until combined. Mix in the flour, and pour into a greased baking pan. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Set aside and let cool to room temperature.

Sherry Cream (to cover an 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish)
At this point, this was one of those recipes that it wasn't until everything was all combined that I realized the recipe as written would never work and it needed to be made over. The original recipe, scaled down for a 9x9 dish, called for 2 cups of powdered sugar, a 1/8 cup sherry, and 1/8 cup half and half or light cream, whipped up, would never reach the fluffy, mousse-like texture that I so desperately craved, but instead had the consistency more of a gooey royal icing. I didn't feel comfortable risking the success of the fudgy bottom layer by topping it with this, so I scrapped it in favor of my own sherry cream recipe, which follows:

Approximately 1 cup Heavy Cream for whipping
a pinch cream of tartar
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/4 cup cream sherry

In the large bowl of a stand mixer (this can also be done with a hand mixer or by hand) fitted with the whisk, add the heavy cream and cream of tartar and whisk on high speed until soft peaks begin to form. Just after the soft peaks form, add 3 tablespoons powdered sugar and about half of the sherry, and whisk until incorporated. At this point, dig in - does it taste enough like sherry to suit you? Is it sweet enough? If the answer to either of these questions is no, then add more powdered sugar and/or sherry and whip again. Taste periodically and add more of either if necessary - I added a total of 4 tablespoons powdered sugar and a little less than 1/4 cup sherry, but a little extra of either is fine. Once you are pleased with the flavor, whisk the cream mixture until it is thickened; the peaks should be sturdy.

Scoop the above sherry cream mixture onto the chocolate bottom layer, smooth the top and drizzle melted chocolate over the top (alternatively, as the original recipe states, scaled down for a 9x9 dish, melt 1/4 cup chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon butter, add 2 tsp sherry, and then drizzle over the top... excellent too!). Place completed dessert in the refrigerator for at least an hour to firm up, before cutting and serving. Enjoy!

Modifications:
This recipe could also be easily modified to suit a gluten free diet. Try using a flourless chocolate cake recipe for the bottom layer!

Chai tea cookies

It has been awhile since my last post, but rest assured, my baking efforts have not slowed! January has been a busy month, both for baking and for working. January is the month for PhD student recruitment in the PhD program I am affiliated with, and I hosted a faculty/recruit dinner at our house last weekend, where some new recipes were on the program. This past Monday I also had my yearly advisory meeting at which my progress was evaluated, and I'm happy to say that things went well, giving me one more occasion to bake! :) And, last night was a girl's night amongst a few friends, where we were not short on the baked goodies, good conversations, and movies.

I promised at the beginning of this blog I'd be true and post the trials of a true bakie. I'd by lying if I said everything turned out amazingly, perfectly edible each time, or I didn't have to throw away my efforts midway through and adapt a recipe once I realized the recipe as written was not tested. That brings up an interesting point to me - sometimes recipes ARE NOT TESTED! Which is one of the reasons why I am a big fan of sources like America's Test Kitchen, who pride themselves on rigorously seeking perfection, and also the countless people that have their own blogs to share things that they know work and even more importantly, things that don't. I thought I'd start with one of the recipes I used last night, for the first time... Chai Tea Cookies, that was taken from the Better Homes and Gardens Special Publication: Ultimate Cookies. I've made a few other recipes from this book, and although the recipes are based on unique ideas, baking these cookies ultimately means being savvy with recipe adaptation and rolling with the punches. Here is the recipe, as written:

Chai Tea Moons
1 Cup Butter
1 Cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon chair leaf tea, finely ground
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
2 and 1/4 cup all purpose flour

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on med-high speed for 30 sec. Andd brown sugar, chai tea, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the flour. Divide dough in half, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375, and on a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/4 inch thick and cut using a cookie cutter. Place one inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges are light brown and firm.

Butter Icing (see below)
beat 1/3 cup butter, until softened with an electric mixer. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar, beating well. Beat in 1 tablespoon milk and 1 tsp vanilla. Add two more cups of powdered sugar, beating well.

Looking at the recipe, I was pretty excited! An exotic flavored cookie - we all know how amazingly awesome chai tea tastes... sweet, a little spicy... yum! I started mixing everything and tasted the mix before adding the flour. chai tea? You wouldn't have guessed. Something different, yes, but not decidedly chai. I added an extra tablespoon of chai tea leaves. And one more thing, when they say finely ground, THEY MEAN IT! Unless you want to eat cookies that later involve the use of a toothpick or dental floss to dig the twigs out, I'd recommend using a spice grinder or mortar and pestle until you have a powder. This will also enhance the flavors. Also, the flour is just a little much - I'd add 2 cups and then roll the cookies out in the remaining 1/4 cup of flour. As written, these cookies end up being a little crispy. A subtle chai taste, in a crispy cookie. Frost and they'll soften up, but they are even nice without frosting.

As for the frosting, I made chai cookies, I want chai frosting! So, I took my milk and heated it up in the microwave in a small container, and steeped another tablespoon of tea in the milk for a few minutes. Then, when I added it to the butter and powdered sugar, I was now increasing the chai factor.

Bottom line, these are good, but still need a few adaptations in texture (I want more chewy and less crispy!) and more chai flavor. I think the solution to the texture may be using half white sugar and half brown sugar (think about duplicating the chewy chocolate chip cookies that call for both) and also finding a way to incorporate a small amount of liquid (preferably water or milk that the tea steeped in) into the cookie dough. So, I'll continue to play around with this and let you know what I find. And, given the idea of steeping the tea in liquid, I think I hear chai tea cakes calling my name! ...

Happy baking!

Decadent Chocolate Cake

In preparation for my first paid birthday cake endeavor, I made the chocolate and teal fondants a few days ago (previous post, see the finished cake above!), and today I baked the cakes, to assemble and decorate for Saturday. Developing this chocolate cake recipe has been a labor of love, and I'm excited to share it with you!

This recipe originally began as a chocolate mocha cake, but as coffee isn't for everyone, it has since been adapted into a 100% chocolate cake. Decadent, delicious, dark chocolate cake. Yum.

Let me start by telling you a little about this delicious chocolate cake. When I bake, I like to incorporate slightly unusual, less standard ingredients to produce a more unusual flavor. For example, this cake is made from both unsweetened cocoa powder, but also hot chocolate mix (try varying the flavor of hot chocolate or use instant coffee beverage flavor in as well!). By replacing some of the cocoa powder with hot chocolate mix, the chocolate note is lightened (not gone! Just less acidic and bitter), creating a warm flavor that allows for the permeation of other flavors, such as vanilla (which I love!). In combination with the other ingredients, this cake is a moist chocolate cake that is not overly sweet and still has depth of flavor beyond that of chocolate – the one cake that even those who prefer white cake will enjoy!

Decadent Chocolate Cake:

½ Cup Butter Flavored Crisco
2 cups Sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour (I use all purpose)
2 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
pinch salt
approximately 1 tblsp vanilla (I use Penzy’s double strength vanilla)
1 cup half and half (I prefer half and half, but milk can substitute)
1 cup hot chocolate made with Water (or skim/1% milk)
half of a chocolate bar (dark chocolate, not baking chocolate)
½ cup (a little more than ½ cup) unsweetened cocoa
¼ cup (a little less than ¼ cup) hot chocolate mix (ratio of unsweetened cocoa to hot chocolate mix can be varied to suit taste)

In a large bowl, cream together Crisco and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat well. In a separate smaller bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda and powder until mixed. To creamed Crisco/sugar/eggs, add dry ingredients and liquids, and mix well. Coat pans with cooking spray and then flour, add batter, and bake at 350 on top oven rack for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. This recipe will yield two 10 inch baking rounds suitable for creating a layered cake.

Now comes the fun part! Decorating the cakes! Of course, chocolate makes everything easy! As you know, I am a repeat user of Peggy Weaver’s Fondant (see http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm) - it yields very easy to work with, superior tasting, and significantly cheaper (but more time consuming!) fondant than what is commercially available. As described in the last post, for this cake, I used the above cake recipe and made two 10 inch rounds, and two 8 inch rounds. The two 8 and 10 inch rounds were then filled and crumb coated with chocolate buttercream frosting. The bottom 10 inch rounds were then covered with chocolate fondant and the top 8 inch rounds were covered with teal fondant and matching decorations finished the look. Happy Birthday Caroline!