Berry Cheesecake-cake (no, that's not an echo. or a stutter)

Did I mention that I love, love, LOVE to bake?  On Thursday I happened to catch an episode of "Food Network Challenge," in which four pastry chefs were designing cakes, competing against one another with the hope of their own unique (and outrageously creative) cake being chosen for a sweet sixteen party.  This inspired me to bake my own cake on Friday.  Generally speaking, I prefer to bake cookies, but I'll crank out a cake if the mood strikes.

With the onset of summer, I decided to incorporate some fruit into my cake (not a fruitcake; I'd rather die than eat one of those).  When I began, I wasn't even sure exactly how I wanted the cake to turn out, but I figured I'd get started and see where I ended up.  My original intent was to bake a white cake with some fruit in it, and also attempt a fondant icing to cover the cake-- so that's the idea I ran with.

I started out with a plain yellow cake base (you can use a boxed cake mix [gasp!] but I made mine from scratch.  If you've never tried to make a cake from scratch, you should.  It's not all that much more difficult-- and if you bake on a somewhat regular basis, you'll probably already own all of the ingredients this recipe calls for).  Here's my cake recipe:

1 cup butter, softened (but I used 1/2 c. butter, 1/2 c. veggie shortening)
1 2/3 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups sifted flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups millk (I used vanilla soymilk, which worked just fine). 
1 c. fresh strawberries, sliced
1/2 c. fresh blackberries, sliced
 
1) Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. 
2) Add eggs, one at a time, until well-blended. Then blend in vanilla.
3) Sift together (into a separate bowl) the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4) With electric mixer, blend the mixture, adding (alternately, a little bit at a time) both the flour mixture and the milk.  Depending on the consistency (and your personal preference), you can add more flour or more milk, depending on how you want your cake to turn out.  More dense/ brownie-like: add more milk (for a runnier texture).  More cake-like, fluffy: add more flour (for a thicker mixture). 

5) Now that your cake mix is blended well (I usually like to blend it all together for about 5 mins or so-- it gives it a more light, smooth texture in the end), you can fold in the fresh berries.  Do NOT blend these in-- you'll want whole berries in your cake (and blended berries would be very watery, completely changing the texture of the cake), so folding in is the best route. 

6) Grease and flour two round cake pans.

7) Bake at 350 degrees F for about 40-45 mins (until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean).
8) Leave the baked cakes in the pans for 10 mins after removal from the oven.  Then turn out onto cooling racks and allow to cool completely.
 
 
So your cakes are done!  Now on to the frosting-- like I said, my original intent was to create a fondant icing, but fondant must be "glued" to the cake with a buttercream frosting of some kind.  So that was my first task: buttercream icing.  I decided to go for an almost "cheesecake" feel for this cake, so I decided on a cream cheese frosting.  Here's the recipe:
 
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
 
Blend the butter and cream cheese together, then add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until well-blended.  Then mix in the vanilla.  Again, texture is a matter of personal preference, and you can add milk if you need the frosting more runny, or add powdered sugar if you need it a bit thicker.
 
When your frosting is ready and your cakes are cooled, you're ready to assemble the cake!  Go ahead and put one layer of the cake upside down on a cake plate (this gives you a flatter surface for frosting between the layers--  and ultimately the cake holds up a little better in the end.  I covered this layer with thick globs of the cream cheese frosting (about 1/2 - 3/4 inch of frosting).  With a "cheesecake" flavor in mind, I decided to add some graham cracker crumbs.  This is very easy, and can be done very quickly and nearly effortlessly.
 
Take about 9 graham crackers, break them into pieces, and put in a plastic Ziploc bag.  You can either use a rolling pin to crush the crackers, or you can pound the grahams with your hands (if you've got some unresolved anger-- this is a great way to get rid of it!).  These crumbs are going to go between the 2 layers of cake, on top of the cream cheese frosting. I used about 1/2 - 3/4 c. of the crumbs and sprinkled them evenly over the first layer of cake. 

So you've got your bottom cake layer, covered with a layer of frosting, topped with graham cracker crumbs-- now you're ready for the top layer of cake!  You can put this on right-side-up (not upside-down, like the bottom layer).  Now that your cake is assembled, feel free to slather the rest of the cream cheese frosting around the entire cake. 
 
Like I said, I was originally going to cover this entire cake with some rolled fondant, but as I finished icing the cake with the cream cheese frosting, I thought the cake looked too delicious already to be covered up with fondant (which is not very pleasant-tasting).  Plus, my fondant adventure during this whole baking process (which was my first-ever attempt at making fondant) turned out to be a NIGHTMARE!  I'll post more about that later. 
 
So I ended up just making a berry-filled cake, complete with graham cracker crumbs and cream cheese frosting.  Once the cake was completely frosted, I used some leftover graham cracker crumbs and berries to garnish the top of the cake.  When I finished, I was very pleasantly surprised-- going into this, I had no idea what to expect from this cake (I'd never made it before, nor had I ever heard of anyone doing anything like this).  The cake turned out beautifully, and what's more-- it tasted AMAZING.  The cakes themselves were almost a "berry muffin" texture.  My sister (and trusted taste-tester) described the cake as tasting like "two scones, one on top of another, glued together with frosting."  This cake was VERY rich-- mostly due to the frosting.  Though I'm a sucker for sweet frosting, that can be avoided (again, personal preference) by substituting some of the powdered sugar with flour (but be very careful with this). 

Overall, I'd say this cake was a winner-- it didn't really taste much like berry cheesecake (which I was initially trying to achieve) but it will definitely be made again!  Happy tasting :)

The Day I Was Supergirl

I'm ashamed to admit that it's been almost two months since I've posted anything on my blog.  So much has happened since my last post.  With some guidance from the past few pages of my planner, I can give a recap:

3/26: Interview for a position with MOST Ministries in Ann Arbor, MI
3/27: Half-marathon (my first!) in Flushing, MI (finished 8th in my age group... not too bad for my first time)
3/27: My introduction to the Twilight saga by my darling sister, Amanda.  Thus begins my addiction...
4/7: Interview for a position with Pfizer in Kalamazoo, MI
4/8: Job offer from Pfizer in Kalamazoo!
4/17: 80's Fest in Frankenmuth-- one of my greatest passions :)
4/20: Job offer from MOST Ministries in Ann Arbor! (which I unfortunately had to decline, as I'd already accepted the position in Kalamazoo)
4/20 - 4/23: Pure chaos (working 17 hours each day PLUS packing for the big move [to Kalamazoo])
4/24: Relocation from Frankenmuth to Portage, MI.
4/25: Relax.
4/26: First day at Pfizer.  My first taste of a real job (a job I love).

So for the past few weeks I've been living in Portage, which is just south of Kalamazoo. I live just minutes from where I work (very convenient) and just minutes from anywhere in town as well. My job consists of facilitating the communication between graphic artists and various international markets in the Pfizer corporation-- so I get to work with artists (a plus) and with customers from around the globe (even better).

I love every minute of my job so far, even though sometimes the work can seem very mundane and pointless (there can be a lot of filing/ labeling/ general clerical duties). Today I fought this off by listening to a new station on Pandora, which I happened upon accidentally. This station (my new favorite) plays film scores from various well-known movies (Jurassic Park, The Hours, Twilight, Harry Potter, Love Story, The Chronicles of Narnia, Edward Scissorhands, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc). There's nothing quite like the Star Trek theme song to inspire some excitement about even the most dreary job. This station made my day today; it made me feel like a superhero :) I was starring in my own movie, with a terrific soundtrack (eerie, fantastical, majestic, tech-y, peaceful... all of the above).

After work today, I decided to go running. Portage has a plethora of beautiful parks and paths, and I usually go running down the same few trails. Today, though, I tried a different trail. I ran from one park to another, through an area called Bishop's Bog. Sounds wet? Yes, it was. The trail, completely covered by a canopy of trees, is actually made of plastic wetland decking, which seemingly "floats" on the water in the bog. In essence, I was running across the water. It was phenomenal. I was splashing through puddles (felt like a little kid) and I got soaked, but it was totally worth it. This is where Vibram FiveFingers come in handy-- perhaps regular shoes would prove to be a nuisance, but running in these bad boys is like running barefoot. And running barefoot through water is great.

Once I cleared the bog itself, I ran down a woodchip-covered trail through a wooded area until I reached Schrier Park. Though I've been running recreationally for quite a few years now, my run today was BY FAR the most exhilarating run of my life. I didn't come across one other person down this trail (just a few squirrels and 2 raccoons), and I was unable to hear the traffic or see anything aside from trees and flowers. It smelled amazing (nature at its best), and I enjoyed every second of it. I left my iPod at home for this run, and I'm glad I did. Instead of my usual playlist running through my head, I had only the sounds of nature running through my head-- the film score on the soundtrack to my own movie :)