Chocolate Birthday Cake Frosting & Decorating

For my little sister’s 11^th birthday this week, I made a two layer chocolate cake with my new favorite icing (BUTTERCREAM)! The results were delicious and now my entire family is on sugar withdrawal.

Earlier today, hoping to tempt my little sisters to go to town with us, I told them that we would buy them ice cream and everything (an impressive bribe, considering that they hardly ever get to buy ice cream). My youngest sister piped up: “No, I don’t want ice cream; I’ve had too much sugar lately!”

That was just shocking and sickening. No child should refuse ice cream. Ever. No matter how much sugar they’ve had.

Even while making the cake for my sister’s birthday, I only used half the sugar I planned to use. When it came down to the moment where I poured all that mountainous white poison into the measuring cup, my hands stiffened up, my eyes bulged in horror, and I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

It must be weakness that held me back.

Weakness or no weakness, this cake was still sweet enough (what with the buttercream frosting).

Since we don’t have two pans that are the same size I had to cut around the edges of the larger one to make it the same as the smaller one. That was a terrible idea, because when it came to frosting the cake the creamy white frosting filled up with crumbs. It was time for Plan B.

Plan B turned out to be this interesting cracked chocolate shell that you now witness. And since I already have a great number of chocolate cake recipes (“great number,” is, alas, no exaggeration), in this post I’m only sharing the recipe for vanilla buttercream frosting and the “how to” for my chocolate shell backup plan (which turned out to be a good idea after all).

So, onwards.

Oh, and before I forget, here’s a great gluten free chocolate cake recipe for you to use with the frosting!

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

2 sticks butter, soft

2 cups powdered sugar (approximately)

2 tablespoons (approximately) cream cheese

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 tablespoons cream

 

In a small bowl, blend together the butter, 1 cup powdered sugar, cream cheese, vanilla extract, and cream. Add more powdered sugar, beating after each addition, until the frosting is the consistency your aiming for (if you want a creamier frosting, you’ll only probably use 1 ½ cups. For a thicker frosting, you’ll probably use both cups).

 

Cracked Chocolate Cake Shell

3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

 

Fill a small saucepan with about 1 inch of water, then place the saucepan on the stove on high. Put the chocolate chips in a medium sized bowl and put the bowl over the saucepan. The bottom of the bowl shouldn’t touch the water. If it does, you’ll need a bigger bowl or a smaller saucepan.

As the chocolate chips melt, stir occasionally to keep them from seizing up. After they are completely melted, remove the bowl from the heat immediately, or the chocolate chips will seize up.

Spread a large sheet of parchment paper out over your work surface. The sheet should be about 12” wide and 36” long.

Spread the melted chocolate over half of the sheet of wax paper. You want the chocolate to be spread very thinly.

Fold the rest of the wax paper over the thinly spread chocolate and press smooth, so that the chocolate is smooth on both sides.

Slide the whole thing onto a cookie sheet and refrigerate for at least fifteen minutes, until the chocolate has hardened up again.

Peel off the wax paper, then break the chocolate into thin chunks of various sizes. Arrange all over the surface of the cake.