Chocolate Chip Cake or Cupcakes

I made Chocolate Chip Cupcakes a few weeks ago to take to a friends house. There were some left over so I took them in to work, hoping that everyone would finish them off. Coincidentally my boss was holding her sons birthday party the next weekend and asked if I could make a cake for the party. She had already bought a topper to put on the cake, so I didn't even have to decorate. Since she had sampled the chocolate chip cupcakes, she asked if I could do that. So I used the same recipe for the cake as I did the cupcakes.

Cake/Cupcake Ingredients:

* 3 1/4 Cups Cake Flour
* 1 1/2 Tablespoons Baking Powder
* 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
* 1 3/4 Sticks of Butter
* 1 3/4 Cups Sugar
* 1 Cup Milk
* 1 Tablespoon Vanilla
* 5 Large Egg Whites
* 2 Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

***If you don't have Cake Flour, substitute 2 Tablespoons of Flour with Cornstarch for every Cup of Flour.***

* Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F.

* If making Cupcakes, line 2 muffin pans; If making Cake, Grease and Flour 3 Round Cake Pans.

* In a bowl, combine the Flour, Baking Powder, and Salt. Set Aside.

* In the bowl of your mixer, cream the Butter and Sugar.

* Mix together Milk and Vanilla.

* Add dry ingredients to Butter Mix in 3 additions, alternating with the Milk in 2 additions.

* In a clean bowl of your mixer, Beat the egg Whites until stiff peaks form.

* Carefully fold the Egg Whites into the rest of the batter.

* Stir in Chocolate Chips.

* Divide Batter into Cake Pans, or Muffin Pans.

* Bake for approx. 30 minutes for Cake; Bake for approx. 22 minutes for Cupcakes.

* Cool before Frosting.

Buttercream Frosting Ingredients:

* 1 Cup Butter
* 3 Cups Powdered Sugar
* 1 Teaspoon Vanilla

* In the bowl of your Mixer, beat butter until smooth.

* Add Powdered Sugar, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition.

* Add Vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.

* At this point you can frost the Cake or Cupcakes.

* This was all I did for the cupcakes. The cake I added chocolate frosting between the layers.

Chocolate Frosting:

* 4 Ounces Unsweetened Chocolate
* 2/3 Cup Butter
* 1 1/3 Cup Powdered Sugar
* 1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla

* Melt the Chocolate in a heat proof bowl and set aside to cool.

* Beat the Butter until smooth.

* Add the Sugar and beat until light and fluffy.

* Add the Chocolate and Vanilla and beat until incorporated.

* Frost Cake!

* Enjoy!

Cake Pops

I had been hearing a lot about cake pops and wanted to try them out. I had a book I got at Target that showed how to make cute shapes and everything. At Michaels, they had the candy coating on sale so I bought a bunch. So today I finally decided to try and make them. OMG they were a pain in the ass. Just FYI if you are going to try and make them, patience is required. I have a feeling they will get easier with practice. Even as I was making them just now, it got a little bit easier. I didn't even attempt to be creative and make shapes or designs or even top with sprinkles.

Ingredients:

* Cake
* Frosting
* Candy Coating
* Sticks

***I used the Cake Pops book as my guide. ANd to make things easier on myself I decided to use a boxed cake mix and pre made frosting.***

* First step is to make the cake according to the directions on the box.

* Cool completely before moving on.

* Cut the cake into pieces and crumble into a bowl. There should not be any big pieces of cake visible.

***I thought that the cake would be harder to crumble completely, but it was actually very easy. I just rubbed it between my fingers into the bowl, and then worked on the bigger pieces that were left individually.***

* Add about 3/4 of the can of frosting. Do not add the whole can.

* Roll the cake into balls. I used my handy scoop to help with the step.

* After all the cake has been rolled into balls, cover in plastic and put in the fridge for a few hours. Or you can put in the freezer, but you don't want them frozen. I did find that it helped to have them cold, they tended to break as they got closer to room temp.

* Melt the candy coating according to the instructions on the package.

*Only take a few of the prepares cake balls out of the fridge/freezer at a time so they don't warm up.

* Dip the stick about 1/2 inch into the melted candy coating.

* Put a cake ball on the stick, try not go more than half way into the ball.

* Dip into the candy coating.

***This was the second bowl I tried. Make sure your bowl is deep enough to cover the whole ball. I broke quite a few trying to roll them around in the candy coating.***

*Stick it in styrofoam until dry.

***I didn't have any styrofoam, and couldn't think of anything else to use. So I found some styrofoam that was used as packing in a box.***

***I also discovered that one bag of candy coating did about half the cake balls I had made. So I had to use another bag.***

***I found a better bowl, deeper and covered the whole cake ball. Third times the charm right?***

*So hopefully this task was less frustrating for you than for me. Like I said, I got better as I went along. The orange ones came out better than the pink ones in my opinion. Next time I will try and get fancier and use some sprinkles!

*Enjoy!!!