a chocolate birthday cake and a recipe exchange

posted on: Monday, September 20, 2010



This weekend we celebrated baby Maria's birthday. Cooking on vacation has it's hardships but also it's perks. At home my stand-up kitchenaid mixer is my sidekick. It's hard being on vacation without my entire kitchen. The flip side of this, is that there are less dishes to wash and things become way more simplified. I've been using cake mixes a lot, which are surprisingly really good. I've been using the ingredients I can find and not stressing out about the ones that are only in abundance in the Northern hemisphere (peanut butter and chocolate chips, for example).


On Friday Enzo and I made a chocolate cake for baby Maria with doce de leite crème filling. It's so fun seeing Enzo cook. All the time I've spend with him in the kitchen teaching him how to mix and cut really paid off on Friday when he quickly cut all the chocolate into small pieces and whipped up the cake batter as I threw directions his way. I think his enthusiasm and love for his little sis were the ingredients that made the cake turn out awesome.


A couple hours before serving the cake I would of called it anything but awesome. I was contemplating sending it to cake wrecks, I think it would of made it there no problem. When cutting the cake batter in half then adding the filling then adding the top half back on we had a little accident. The cake collapsed when Christian and I were putting it back together quit chaotically. 


I borrowed a mixer from a neighbor to try and make whip cream. It was so kind and generous of her to let me use her mixer but it did not do the job, at least not in the way that I had envisioned. The cream turned into runny liquid. I added doce de leite to try and make it more stiff but the doce de leite also turned into liquid. I poured the liquid crème on top of the cake and drizzled milk chocolate and white chocolate crumbs on top. It looked pretty bad. I didn't really care because I knew baby maria wouldn't care, so I put it in the freezer to see if the crème would stiffen just a little. 

After dinner we brought some new friends over to celebrate and got the cake out and it looked so much better than a few previous hours before. The crème filling and the crème topping froze and it looked and tasted like doce de leite ice cream. I had also put chocolate chunks in the cake batter and that really made it taste good. Needless to say the cake was a total success. Baby Maria loved it too.

Chocolate Birthday Cake with Doce de Leite
(printable recipe)

 Chocolate cake mix
2 cups chopped milk chocolate
1 cup chopped white chocolate
3 cups table cream
1 cup doce de leite

1. Make the cake mix batter as directed in the package.

2. Add one cup of chopped milk chocolate to the batter and stir.
3. Bake as directed in the cake mix package.
4. While the cake is cooling whip 2 cups of table cream with ¾ cup doce de leite.
5. Once the cake is completely cooled down carefully cut it in half (horizontally) so as to be able to put the filling.
6. Spread the doce de leite crème filling on top of the lower half of the cake. 
7. Carefully add the top half and place it in the fridge to prevent the crème filling from melting.
8. Whip one cup of table crème with ¼ cup doce de leite. Spread it in top of the cake and sprikle one cup of chopped milk chocolate and 1 cup white chocolate on top.
9. Put in the freezer for a couple of hours, until the top crème mixture is hardened like ice-cream.


Today I'm excited to share this recipe as part of Studio Surface Recipe Swap. I can't wait to see what other recipes come my way. Check out the participants and let me know which recipe you like.





Michelle from Studio Surface
Ana from Live & Enliven
Estelle from Under a Pink Moon
Bianca from Bink and Boo
Damaris from Kitchen Corners
Suzie from Cupcake Monkey
Susan from House of Brinson

Also, today is the day that that Project Food Blogger goes live and voting begins. Have you read my challenge numero uno post? I'm having fun with this contest and I love reading people's posts and profiles, such an inspiring bunch. I hope you'll join the fun by casting your vote and sharing on facebook and twitter. You can click on my button on the left and the first one that should appear is my post. If you trouble let me know and I can give you more directions. I'll keep you updated if I make it to the second round. Crossing my fingers (and my toesies).

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