In honor of my Dad's birthday yesterday I made him a little treat to celebrate all 56 years!
Recipe(s):
Simple Vanilla Cake
2 C Sugar
4 Eggs
2-1/2 C All Purpose Flour
1 C Milk
3/4 C Vegetable Oil
1 Tsp Vanilla
*Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees, Line two 9-in round cake pans or one 9x13-in rectangular baking pan with parchment paper. Grease the paper and the sides of the pan well.
*In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the sugar and eggs together until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Add flour, milk, oil, baking powder, and vanilla and beat for another minute, just until the batter is smooth and creamy. DO NOT over beat.
*Pour batter in greased/lined pans
*Bake in pre-heated over for 30-40 mins or until tops are golden and toothpick poked into the center comes out clean (remember if you use a 9x13, it may take slightly longer to bake).
*Loosen the sides of the cake from the pan with thin, then turn out onto rack and remove paper.
*Let cool completely before covering with frosting.
Chocolate Ganache With Fresh Strawberries
1 1/2 C Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
1/3 C Heavy Whipping Cream
1/2 C Sliced Fresh Strawberries
White Chocolate Drizzle
1/4 C White Chocolate Chips
1 tsp vegetable or canola oil
*While cakes are cooling, make two double boilers by having two pots 1/4 full of water barely simmering with a glass bowl on top of each pot. Do Not allow bowls to touch the water or your chocolate will burn!
*To one of the glass bowls, add the semisweet chocolate and heavy cream to make the ganache. Continually stir the chocolate and cream until only a few lumps remain and remove from heat. Continue to stir and the residual heat will keep melting the rest of the chocolate and it will keep getting smoother.
*In the other double boiler add the white chocolate and oil and continue to stir until only about halfway melted.
*White chocolate is much more fickle and will burn easier, so only melt it halfway before removing it from the heat. Keep stirring until smooth.
*Put cake on serving dish and add ganache, follow with fresh strawberry slices. Add second layer and add ganache to top layer.
*Swirl the white chocolate on top of the ganache before cool, then with a toothpick swirl the white chocolate until it looks how you want.
*Add fanned strawberry as garnish and ENJOY!