Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting and Raspberry Filling

I must say that this was absolutely delicious. Also, there's no great photos of it in the process of making. You get the beginning and end result. Whoops.



It was admittedly a box cake (Pillsbury Classic Yellow). The only 'problem' during the mixing was that we didn't have vegetable oil. My step-brother, a baker, said to use extra virgin olive oil. Which worked absolutely fine. Later on, my step-sister told me that she always uses butter, never oil, but that the traditional substitute for veggie oil is applesauce, and that it works wonderfully.



The frosting I used came from Smitten Kitchen's, however we had trouble with it being too thin. I would suggest that if you use her recipe and find that it's still thin, throw in about a cup of powdered sugar.



The raspberry filling was wonderful, although it was my step-sister who made it, not me. (I'm afraid of making sauce, although apparently not of making frosting--chocolate just seems more natural to work with.)

For some reason, over the night, half the bag of raspberries disappeared. I'm certain someone ate them, but are afraid of confessing. My dad had to go out and purchase more.

Also, I swear that the filling looks like some thing exploded in a goop of blood and gore and bone fragments. It just looks like meaty pulp. I find that mesmerizing. (Although I'm sure that now a bunch of people won't eat the cake anymore.)

(It was delicious, I swear.)



We ate the cake. That's what's left. Kiwii frosted it and cut strawberry slices in a sort of floral pattern. This was a group effort cake, obviously.

Heart-Shaped Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

The recipe was taken from tWtCC.



As you can see, I didn't mix the batter just enough (there's a small brown blob on the there). So, yea, everyone? Mix your batter more than I did. It looks like some of these hearts had myocardial infarctions.



Overall, we enjoyed them. The batter was very nice. I really liked the brown, but then I added the red.



And I was absolutely enjoying how much dye I put it. To me, red velvet cake should be RED. This was also done during the end of January. I was unable to make anything on Valentine's Day, but I wanted to do these.

The problem, however, is that whoopie pie batter is CAKE, not cookie. I had some odd notion that I'd be able use cookie cutters. I also turned out to be wrong.



It was a pain. What I did was trace the outline of the heart by using the edge of the (now useless) cookie cutter with batter, then dolloped the batter on and formed it with spoons and knives. In the end, they turned out wonderfully, but just not as simple as I planned.



Which you can see them in the background. I always, always, use parchment paper. It is a GODSEND. No mess! No cleaning up the pans!



I did not use the frosting from tWtCC, but just normal whoopie pie filling. I'm so tired of cream cheese frosting. Our family NEVER uses any other frosting other than cream cheese. Let's just say that even though cream cheese is better with red velvet, I was glad not to use it. The only problem is that we found it way too sweet. Misha (my boyfriend) and my dad both thought that next time, less sugar!



This is the second time I've made whoopie pies, actually. I originally did so years ago (when I was like 14) and accidentally dumped loads of fake almond extract into the frosting. Which I stupidly never tasted until I assembled all the whoopie pies. The batter was delicious, however!

List of recipes/food I want to make

Mousse
Grilled Cheese
Porridge (Read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and they ate каша or kasha, which is Russian buckwheat porridge.)
Muffins (I'd like to try these.)
Chocolate Orange Sticks (blood oranges and normal.)
Russian black bread (From Smitten Kitchen.)
Chicken Pesto and Risotto (from Cook (almost) anything at least once.)
Falafel (From Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once: carrot falafel.)
Blue Cheese Scones (Taken from C(a)AALO.)
Tortillas (For Michael, so he can make tacos.)
Lobster (Do you know how much I miss lobster? We used to have it once every year. Maybe I should try prawns? I hate crabs. Should try eel and calamari as well!)
Lamb Stew (Just like my Latin teacher used to make for International Day.)
Chicken and Apricot (Latin class reminded me of one of the dishes someone served for a project.)
Spicy Chili (The red to emphasize spice.)
Veal Rolls (C(a)AALO)



This post from Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once made me think of an idea--dessert tasting platter. Small tarts, spoon-size creme brulee, mini cakes, chocolate orange sticks.