This one brings back memories because I’m pretty sure I haven’t made it for over a decade. The recipe comes from my all-time favorite cake book called Colette’s Cakes: The Art of Cake Decorating by Colette Peters. The publication date is 1991, but it is still a beautiful and relevant cake book. It is primarily about decorating cakes for all occasions, but it does include a few recipes, too. I was inspired to look it up on Amazon and thrilled to find it is still available in hard cover. Here is the buy link: http://www.amazon.com/Colettes-Cakes-Art-Cake-Decorating/dp/0316702056/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364141604&sr=1-1&keywords=colette%27s+cakes

She has a few other books on there, too, focusing on birthdays or weddings. She is truly an artist! In addition to making her chocolate cake (which is delicious!), I also used her buttercream icing recipe. It’s a pretty common recipe, and I added Nestle’s “Choco bake” to make it chocolate. Have you ever used “Choco bake”? It comes in little foil packets and can be added to icing (and many other things) and it imparts rich chocolate taste without changing the consistency of the icing. Love it. I also use it to drizzle over cakes and desserts for appearance and a little hint of chocolate.

My usual family group of ten is coming over tonight for dinner and cake. Hope everyone enjoys this dessert!

Always one to look on the bright side, I have only this to say:

1. It smells far better than it looks.

2. I wisely placed a cookie sheet under it so I don’t have to take a fire hose to the bottom of my oven.

3. I will know what size pan to use next time.

While critics may point out that cupcakes are not precisely “cake,” I must play the beleaguered mom here and plead my case. I had to make a dozen cupcakes for a basketball banquet for my 7th grader, and there were a dozen more to put on my cakestand. This pink bunny is a sibling to last week’s blue one. Simple chocolate cupcakes with classic white buttercream icing. Not fancy, but they sure go fast anyway!

I’ll admit, I thought Butter Pecan was just for ice cream. I now see this differently. It makes a very good cake! Kind of like french vanilla meets maple syrup. How can that go wrong? Butter Pecan always reminds me of my Dad because he loves that kind of ice cream. I’m not in charge of dessert tonight for the family dinner, but I’ll take Dad a piece of this to take home. My sister says she has a Bailey’s Irish Cream Cake. Can’t wait to try that! I think my YEAR OF CAKE celebration might be rubbing off on people. By the way, my recipe for the cream cheese frosting can be found here: http://www.kraftbrands.com/philly/recipes/Pages/Recipe-Detail.aspx?recipeId=50972

I doubled the recipe because I LOVE FROSTING. And I don’t care who knows it. I’m also a big fan of Easter Bunnies–this one was waiting for me at Target. Because I like to keep families together, I also bought his siblings in green, yellow, and pink. Perhaps they will appear in an upcoming picture!