Ruffle Cake

 I made this ruffle cake this week for a get together at my sister's work. Sorry for the dark picture - the lighting wasn't so great first thing in the morning.

 The cake is my standard go-to chocolate cake from Hersheys website:

http://www.hersheys.com/pure-recipes/details.aspx?id=184&name=HERSHEY%27S+%22PERFECTLY+CHOCOLATE%22+Chocolate+Cake#share_modal

The frosting is a salted caramel (using caramel left over from my carrot cake) swiss meringue buttercream. Any smooth frosting will work for this technique.

I've seen these ruffle cakes all over the interwebs and wanted to try one for myself. Turns out this technique is super easy. All you need is a piping bag and a petal tip (sometimes called a rose tip). I wanted to take pictures to show you how it is done but the lighting in my kitchen wouldn't cooperate. Fortunately, there is a great tutorial at this blog:
http://jamosie.blogspot.com/2011/05/tutorial-i-heart-ruffle-cakes.html

She does a great job of breaking down the steps and has photos to show the process.

Isn't it cool-looking? It's so fancy-looking but doesn't take any longer than any other type of frosting. Actually, you don't have to make sure that the cake's sides are perfectly smooth so it's even easier in some ways.

Two Cakes and a Frosting Recipe

I made two chocolate cakes over the past week. One was for my brother-in-law and one was for my older sister. Happy Birthday, Kids! My BIL requested a chocolate cake and my sister didn't care about the cake part - only the frosting! It had to be chocolate buttercream.

My Chocolate Buttercream (makes enough for one two layer cake)

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 12 oz. bag semisweet chocolate chips

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup milk

3 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

Directions:

Soften butter in microwave on defrost (about 20 seconds, add time in 10 second increments). Dump in large bowl and beat until fluffy. Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips. I like to use the microwave, again, but you could do it on the stove top. In microwave, heat on defrost for 15 second increments, stir between heating. Stop heating when most of the chips are melted. You can melt the rest by just continuing to stir them in with the melted chips. This will prevent you from burning the chocolate. When melted, mix chocolate in with the butter, adding vanilla extract. Add sugar, cocoa powder and milk, alternating between them and mixing on medium speed. That's it. Feel free to change amounts of milk and sugar to get the consistency that you want. You can make it without the cocoa powder but the chocolate taste won't be as rich.