Happy birthday to Sean!

Yesterday was Sean's birthday. 

He requested a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, and boy did I deliver.

Dark chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting topped with chopped up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

It's beautiful.

It tasted just as good as it looks.  I found a peanut butter frosting recipe that is a keeper.  The peanut butter frosting recipe can be found here, from Joy the Baker.

Happy birthday Sean!  We went to the Minnesota Wild game last night.  It was a fantastic blow out game against Vancouver.  Wild won 5-1.  There were a couple great fights, which is my favorite part. 

Have an abnormally large carrot? Make cake.

Hi!  Hello there.  How was your week?  I hope it turned out just how you wanted it to.

Want to see what I did this week?  Let me show you!

First, I was visiting my parents and was able to watch the yearly garden competition judging.  This year, my dad blew my brother out of the water with his huge carrots. I'm pretty sure my dad grows vegetables on steroids.

So, I went home with this carrot.

Isn't it huge?  What do you do with one giant carrot?  Well make carrot cake of course!

First, grating of all the carrot commenced.  By the way, finally bought a box grater from Ikea.  And, I love it.

Gotta mix all the dry ingredients together.

Gather all the wet ingredients together.

Now comes time to combine!

Stir, stir, stir.

Doesn't look appetizing.  Don't think about the batter, but instead about the deliciousness carrot cake is.

 

Prepare for frosting.  Don't ask, I like taking pictures of random things.  Don't judge me.

Creamed butter and white chocolate.  I don't even like white chocolate and I love this frosting.  

Time to add powdered sugar.  Just about done with the frosting.

Stupidly, I didn't take any pictures after the cake/cupcakes were completed.  Silly me.  You will just have to take my word on how delicious it turned out.

I slightly modified the recipe for carrot cake from Better Homes and Gardens.  I wanted to stick with a basic recipe for carrot cake.  I didn't want any orange or pineapple in it or other crap like that.  Gross.  I made white chocolate frosting that can be found here.  I love this frosting. 

Seriously, try the frosting.

I think I outdid myself

I made delicious cake yesterday.  And by delicious, I'm talking about dark chocolate cake, toasted marshmallow filling, and chocolate frosting.  I got the recipe for it here.  I used a different chocolate frosting because I'm not a fan of malt powder. 

I mean, just look at it!  It look wonderful, minus my horrible frosting skills.  I'm slowly getting better, at least I hope.

I think I should have divided the two layers so there were four layers instead of two.  That is the only thing I would change.  Although the frosting was good, it was a little too runny.  Also, I think it is a little grainy so I need to do some more frosting experimentation.  I think my State Fair preparation is coming along quite nice!