My nephew's third birthday!

For my nephew's third birthday I wanted to create a cake I knew he would love. He is amazed by cars and what could be more fitting for a three year old than a lightning McQueen car cake along with a #3 race track.  I am so proud of him and was so honoured to be able to create this cake for him!

The cake is a chocolate fudge cake recipe which I've been using for quite some time now, I like it because it is fluffy, unlike most from scratch cakes this one is amazing. 

Lightning McQueen's frosting is a white chocolate buttercream frosting (the recipe is available on the Wilton web-site).

The track cake icing is just a simple chocolate buttercream frosting! 

Chocolate cake recipe!

Ingredients
Cake:
3 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
3 eggs
2 2/3 cups flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/8 cups cocoa powder
Frosting:
1 1/2 pounds sweet butter, soft
3 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
Ganache:
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 tablespoon light corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream
Directions

To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Oil 3 (10-inch) cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper. Alternately, oil the pans and then flour them.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the brown sugar and oil. Turn on the mixer to a low speed and mix in the eggs. Let the sugar, oil, and eggs mix while sifting together the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Set this mixture aside.

In another small bowl, mix the vanilla into the milk and set this aside as well. Bring the water to a boil and pour over the cocoa and whisk it until it is smooth. To the egg mixture, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture beginning and ending with flour. With the mixer off, scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition. With the mixture at a low speed add the cocoa. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and pour this mixture into the prepared cake pans. Bake the cake for approximately 15 minutes or until tester comes out clean. When cake layers have cooled, remove from pans and refrigerate until cold.

The first post.

Well, the title pretty much sums it all up.

So, I have finally made the decision that it was well past overdue that I create a blog where I can share with all of you my kitchen creations!

Over the years I have gathered quite a collection of cookbooks, from my grandmother and from many purchases at the bookstore, to be truthful though the recipes I turn to the most are my tried and tested ones, the ones gathered in my little green tin box titles "Recipes" that little box of goodness is very cherished!  Those are the recipes I will begin to share with you! I also have an extensive collection of photos which I have gathered over many years of baking and I would like to share those with you as well, in due time-things cannot be done overnight!

So sit back and hold on, let the crazy ride begin.