Ides of March

Our family celebrates two birthdays in March, and my brother-in-law owns one of them. Remember his cake last year? It is no surprise to hear that he is a lover of chocolate. In our family, who isn't?

I used my favorite chocolate cake recipe (psssssst! The same one I used for my niece Brenna's birthday last month) This was the first time I used it in a cake recipe. It turned out to be rich, dense and delicious. You might want to have a giant gallon glass of cold milk ready when you eat this one. I'm just sayin'.......

After the cake had baked and was cooling, I made some yummy marshmallow cream to fill the layers of the cake. Try it! The directions are easy!

1 3/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup water

3 large egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put the sugar, water, egg whites, and cream of tartar in heatproof container or the top of a double boiler with at least a 2-quart capacity and beat with a handheld electric mixer on high speed about 1 minute. Put the bowl over, but not touching, a saucepan of barely simmering water or the bottom of the double boiler. Beat on high speed until the mixture forms a stiff peak that stands straight up if you stop the beaters and lift them out of the mixture, about 12 minutes (be sure to keep the cord of the mixer away from the burner). The frosting should register 160°F on a thermometer. Remove the container from the water, add the vanilla extract, and continue beating for 2 minutes to further thicken the filling.

Oh....the times when you wish you had a jar of peanut butter! Fluffernutter anyone??

This is my decorating wheel. My cake carousel. My assistant. Anyone who decorates cakes should have one. I purchased this from a wholesale bakery supply and it is a good one. The base is cast iron which makes the whole thing extremely heavy and very durable. So if anyone tells me to go "sit and spin"...........

I can.

Put a good sized dollop of icing under the first layer to secure it to the cake board.

Then I started filling the layers with the Marshmallow.

Pressing lightly!

Once the layers had been filled, I refrigerated the cake for about an hour.

Note to Self: Do not use Marshmallow filling for this cake again unless you plan on serving it the same day. The Marshmallow seems to dissolve inside the layers overnight and tends to leave the areas inside the layers a tad gooey. Of course, if you like goo.........please........use it again.

Now......on to the strawberries!

Make sure the strawberries have been washed and completely dried. I usually melt a 12 oz. bag of semi-sweet morsels with 1/3 cup vegetable oil in a double boiler. Then holding the stem, carefully dunk 2/3 of the strawberry and place it on waxed paper to set.

Now for the good part. The frosting.

(Dear Lord, help me).

This is actually Martha Stewart's recipe for Dark Chocolate Frosting. It is as wicked as she is.........and I do mean that in a good way.

Dark Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon boiling water
2 1/4 cups (4 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 pounds best-quality semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Directions: Combine cocoa and the boiling water, stirring until cocoa has dissolved. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add melted and cooled chocolate, beating until combined and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in the cocoa mixture. If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated up to 5 days, or frozen up to 1 month, in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.

Frost. Lick. Frost. Lick. Oops, I mean I frosted it smoothly along the top and down the sides, then I put it back in the fridge to firm up.

I piped a nice fat (hey, who are you calling fat?) border around the top of the cake and then sunk some chocolate covered strawberries around the edge. Um.......(swallow) yeah.

If this isn't a chocolate overload, I don't know what is.

but......

I served John his birthday cake along with some Matcha and Cocoa cupcakes . It was one of the quietest birthdays on record. For about 10 minutes all you could hear at the table was the sound of forks scraping the plates and the occasional sigh.

But then again, I sometimes think that my family (including myself) would eat shoe leather if it were dipped in chocolate, so maybe we're not the best judge.

You are going to have to try it for yourself.

...and if you're even able to speak after eating this, let me know what you think, okay?