Adventures in Baking - Marble Cake

My sister's birthday is in early November.  We are a family who tries to get together for everyone's birthdays and just have a nice family dinner.  Since my mom reads my blog (Hi Mom!) she knows I've been getting my bake on more often.  So when I asked her what I should bring to dinner, she told me (okay, asked me) to bake a cake.

Not only did I rise to the challenge, but I also made the non-decision to make a marble cake.  Does Alison like chocolate or vanilla cake better?  Who cares, let's make one that's both!

So I Googled cake recipes for an entire night.  I never know how to know if this recipe works, tastes good, or any of that.  I will read an entire page of comments and still not really form an opinion because for every person that struggled with it, 2 more loved it, and then 3 people made it, but with substitutions, or add ons.  If there are enough positive reviews I'll make the assumption that it must usually work out okay.

The recipe I used was at realsimple.com. (That's the link directly to the recipe, not just the Real Simple website.)  It tasted good but as you can see it turned out more like a chocolate cake on top of a white cake.

I found the original batter quite thick and almost tough to work with.  I scooped the 2 cups out and into the cocoa/water/sugar mix and that batter was much more workable.  Were I to make it again I would add a little more milk to the original vanilla batter before I poured it into the pan so I could "swirl" the flavours together better.

My second struggle was actually baking the cake.  I have a nice glass 9x13 dish that has a lid.  I thought "Great! I can travel with it!"  What I didn't realize was baking in glass is different than in metal pans.  Of course the recipe didn't specify pan material, but I put it in at the temperature suggested for the smallest allotment of time suggested and it was nowhere near done.  The toothpick came out coated in chocolate batter.

Logically I thought this was due to the runnier consistency of the chocolate batter, and the fact that I put the timer on for the shortest time.  I put it back in for 2 more minutes.  Then 2 more, and then another minute and thirty seconds.  I think in total I cooked it for almost 10 extra minutes.  At that point there was one spot where the toothpick still came out fairly coated, but I wanted to be able to eat at least some of the cake so I decided it was done enough!

 If you look closely at the photo you can see a small spot in the middle where the cake sank a bit.  I was quite worried that it would still be runny in that section!  Of course it turned out fine, and once I'd iced and decorated it you couldn't tell it had a sunken spot at all.

I made some icing from scratch using this recipe, but I really had to read all the comments as there was a confusing part about the icing sugar.  At any rate it tasted really good and I didn't thin it out too much so it spread on the cake beautifully.  After the white icing I used the various decorating stuff I had from doing the cookies for Emma's Halloween party.  Who doesn't love black and pink decorations on their cake?? (I think my artistic handwriting needs some work, but no one complained about my block letters!)

I then put the lid on thinking there was lots of space, but it did squish the letters a bit.  To make up for that we took our girlie coloured sprinkles (pink, blue, yellow and purple) with us to dust the cake with right before the candles went on.  The girls love putting sprinkles on stuff.

Here's the last photo - the cake all ready to go!

We had a nice birthday visit with Alison and the parentals.  My kids didn't eat the cake (I didn't think they would) but everyone else said it was good.  I tend to agree.

Do you have any baking catastrophes (or successes!) that made a good story?  Share in the comments, and thanks for reading!

7 Things I Learned Hosting Emma's Halloween/Birthday Party

This weekend we threw a party for Emma.  It was a birthday-Halloween party.  We had 11 kids total, ages 4 to 8.  We had lots of food (and lots of sweets), presents, cake, and games.  We also had very little spills, and only one kid had tears (she stumbled on the stairs) so I'd say it was successful!

That being said, here are a few things I learned throwing a (fairly) large party in our (fairly) small house:

1. No matter how organized you feel, you are never adequately prepared for a kids party!  We had all the food ready, the loot bags done, and the crafty area prepared well before kids started to arrive.  As the kids were arriving I was thinking "Ya, this is totally do-able."  Then more kids came, and then more, and more, until there was no floor space left for anyone else to squeeze in and colour.  At that point I started thinking "Man, we're doomed!"  Plus they all had costumes on which flowed out beautifully and were ridiculous tripping hazards!
2. If you have watched all these lovely children eat hot dogs in the past, it does not mean they will eat hot dogs at your house/party.  Of course no one went home hungry, but we did have a few bits of resistance to the hot dogs we served (both Pillsbury wrapped "mummy dogs" and regular hot dogs with or without buns)  Luckily most kids like carrots, and there were cookies, crackers and cheese.
3. 7 and 8 year olds have more energy than 4 year olds when collected together at parties.  I always thought as kids get older they mellow out a bit.  Toddler energy is boundless (unless they miss the recharge of nap times) but these kids were wild and crazy in a way toddlers and younger kids can't be.  Maybe my 7 year old is abnormal, but when these kids get together they must feed off each other's energy and it's somewhat disturbing.  I had to play "teacher" and clap my hands and holler for quiet more than once.  I was glad to see them go outside!
4. If you were hoping the kids could play outside, it will rain.  The weather was not great, but that actually did not really stop the kids from going outside.  We have a play structure with swings (only 2) and most of the kids ran outside in the spitty rain to play for a bit.  I think hubby was concerned all those kids may collapse our second hand wooden structure, but it's still standing this morning!  There was easily 30 minutes of outside play (for most of the kids) so it did work out this time.
5. If there's a toy collection you were hoping to keep out of your house, every child will buy that as a gift for your kid.  We are desperately trying to keep Shopkins to a minimum.  Emma wants them desperately.  What are they even?  Tiny choking hazards that we will lose, that's what.  So now we have 3 "collections" from different "seasons" whatever that means.
6. I will refrain from drinking alcohol when hosting a children's party - no matter how much I need that glass of wine!  It was only 3 hours, and they weren't that uncontrollable.
7. Kids are cute.  I mean they were all dressed up in costumes, most were using their best manners, and they were actually policing each other without anyone getting too upset. ("Can you please be quiet so so-and-so can finish telling their story?  We were all quiet for you!")  I love watching the interactions and the different personalities of all these kids and how similar or different they are from my kids.  Parties can be such a social experiment!

I'd say it was successful and I've had a few moms message me that their kid had a great time.  It's nice to get that feedback.

Next year we will have fewer kids.  And maybe not do a Halloween theme, although the kids were quiet entertained with each other and their costumes.  I'm already planning and scheming ideas for the 8th birthday next year!