My first cake request!!  Here it is . . .

I can’t believe that I did it . . . well, I can’t believe that I was able to find all of the ingredients that I needed in Cranbrook!  It was touch and go for a while.  Who would have thought that finding liquorice rope and swedish fish would be hard?  Thank you Zellers for coming through for me in my hour of need!

In case you don’t memorize everything I write on my blog…I had a request to make a friend’s cake for his 40th birthday….it could be either hunting or fishing…and I could do what I wanted.  “Cupcakes?” I suggested, “No.” Drat.  So, after hours searching Google Images, I found an example to go from.  Here’s what I did!

Best Ever Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream Icing

(adapted from http://www.howsweeteats.com/)

1 box devil’s food cake mix

1 package Jello instant chocolate pudding mix

1 cup sour cream

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a VERY large bowl, mix together everything except chocolate chips. Batter was very thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into cake pan of choice (I normally use two 9-inch pie pans). For cooking time, I use the cooking times on the back of the devil’s food cake box as a guide and usually add 10 mins to whatever it says. Then I did the toothpick check, and had to put back in for 10 more minutes.  It took around 45 mins for one 9×13 pan.

Peanut Butter Buttercream

(adapted from Wilton.com)

1/3 cup solid vegetable shortening

1/3 cup butter

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 cups (approx. 1 lb.) confectioners’ sugar, sifted

4-6 tablespoons milk (I used whipping cream)

Makes: About 3 cups

Cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add peanut butter and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk, one tablespoon at a time, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Bottom layer, piped with icing

Using a cake leveller (thanks Kim . . . it works great!) I sliced the 9 x 13 cake in half in order to add a layer of peanut butter icing.  I decided to try a new technique and instead of using a spatula to ice the crumb coat, I piped it on (again, thanks for the tip Kim!).  I found that this was MUCH easier, especially since this cake is incredibly moist (and delicious…I ate some crumbs!) and the peanut butter icing is quite thick.  If I was doing this again (which I totally will), I would freeze the cake once it had cooled and then slice and crumb coat it from the frozen state.

Into the fridge you go!

I had it in the fridge/freezer for about 20 minutes while I prepped the decorating icing.  I used regular buttercream for this step.  I was worried the brown tint to the peanut butter would affect the colour tinting needed for the cake.

Buttercream Icing Recipe

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
• 2 tablespoons milk

I used tip no. 104 to do the water, and tip no. 67 for the grass.

Sugar, sugar, sugar!

Like I said before, I had to hunt down all of these ingredients.  I found Jelly Belly’s in brown and black for rocks, candy cane shot glasses (from the dollar store) the bait basket , and base for a tree, liquorice laces for the fishing line, Swedish Fish for the fish (duh), and mini ice cream cones for trees.