If you thought you were a fan of chocolate cake before, wait until you try this triple chocolate cake. After all, three layers of chocolate are definitely better than one. There’s no doubt about it.
Start with two layers of freshly baked chocolate cake. Then make homemade chocolate frosting. Pipe the frosting on top of the bottom layer, then top with the remaining cake layer.
Instead of topping the cake with the remaining frosting, make a simple ganache in your microwave. Add chocolate chips, heavy cream, and butter to a microwaveable bowl and microwave until the butter is melted. Remove from the microwave and stir until the mixture is smooth, shiny, and pourable. How easy is that?
Top the cake with this delicious ganache and spread to the edges. Then pipe the remaining frosting around the cake.
Want an ultra-rich chocolate cake? Our Test Kitchen adds a little bit of coffee to the cake batter. Coffee doesn’t leave you with a coffee or mocha flavored cake, but rather enhances the chocolate flavor. If you’ve never tried adding it before, it’ll be love at first bite.
Serve this decadent cake at celebrations throughout the year – with champagne and strawberries on Valentine’s Day, on Father’s Day to those dads with a sweet tooth, or for any chocolate-lover’s birthday. No matter the occasion, there’s always a reason to bake with a little love and a lot of chocolate.
Heat oven to 350°F. Line the bottoms of two 9-inch baking pans with parchment paper and dust sides with flour.
In a small bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
In a large mixer bowl with stand mixer on medium speed, beat eggs, sugar and butter, about 1 minute or until well blended. Reduce to low speed. Gradually beat in coffee, milk, vinegar and vanilla until well blended.
Gradually add flour mixture, about 1 minute or until blended.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.
Place one cake layer on serving plate and top with ¾ cup frosting. Top with remaining cake layer.
In a small microwavable bowl, add chocolate chips, heavy cream and butter.
Microwave on MEDIUM power until butter is melted and heavy cream is warm. Stir until mixture is smooth, shiny and pourable. Pour over only top of cake and smooth to edge.
Spread or pipe remaining frosting around side of cake.
During the spring and summer months, the last thing I want to do is heat up the house turning on the oven. While I love baking, I’m a big fan of the no-bake desserts. You can find plenty circulating in magazines, on Instagram, and on Pinterest this time of year. But this lemon blueberry icebox cake is worth the bookmark.
First, make some fresh whipped cream by beating heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla for about 2 to 3 minutes with your Hamilton Beach hand mixer. When soft peaks form, cover and refrigerate. You could certainly use store-bought whipped cream but since we skipped preheating the oven, we figured we had a little time to spare.
Next, beat cream cheese and sugar for about a minute until the mixture is creamy. Then add lemon curd and continue beating until well blended. Stir two cups of whipped cream into the lemon curd mixture and reserve the rest.
Now it’s time to assemble your “cake.” In the bottom of a 13X9 baking dish spread the lemon curd/whipped cream mixture. Layer ginger snap cookies on top of the lemon mixture in a single layer. Next, add a heavy-handed layer of fresh blueberries. Top with the remaining whipped cream and refrigerate.
In the refrigerator the ingredients transform into what we know as icebox cake. The cookies absorb some of the moisture from the lemon mixture and soften, creating a cake-like texture.
When the cookies are softened, remove the cake from the fridge and add toppings before serving. We topped ours with even more blueberries and lemon zest, but you could add a few extra gingersnaps, too.
Serve this no-bake cake at a bridal shower, kids’ birthday party, or summer cookout. While this cake may skip the “baking” is definitely doesn’t skip on flavour thanks to the plump, sweet blueberries and spicy gingersnaps. Leave the oven off and let your refrigerator do all the “baking” for you this summer.
In a large bowl, with hand or stand mixer on high speed, beat heavy cream, ¼ cup sugar and vanilla extract about 2 to 3 minutes or until soft peaks form. Cover and refrigerate.
In a large bowl, on high speed beat cream cheese and remaining sugar until creamy, about 1 minute. Add lemon curd, beating until well blended.
Stir 2 cups whipped cream into cream cheese mixture and spoon into a 13x9-inch dish.
Layer cookies and blueberries over lemon cream cheese mixture. Top with remaining whipped cream. Cover and refrigerate overnight or until the cookies are softened.
Garnish with blueberries and lemon zest, if desired.
Fresh, seasonal berries are one of the best parts about the spring and summer months. Toss ripe blackberries into your morning smoothie, use strawberries to top your favourite salads, or incorporate plump blueberries into your next bake-a-thon. This beautiful pink cake is our ode to strawberry season.
In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking, powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. Using your Hamilton Beach® stand mixer beat butter until creamy. Then add sugar, vanilla, and (optional) red food colouring and beat until well blended. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Then gradually add the mixture of dry ingredients and fresh strawberries until you have a perfectly blended batter.
The Test Kitchen added a little food colouring to achieve a deep pink colored cake (this cake is begging to be served at a bridal shower or baby shower), but feel free to leave the food coloring out if you want to let the strawberries speak for themselves. FYI, if you omit the food colouring you should expect a light brown cake color rather than pink. The Test Kitchen experimented with the amount of food coloring to find a middle ground between red velvet-esque red and hot pink. And ¼ teaspoon was the magic number.
Pour the batter evenly into two prepared 9-inch baking pans and bake for 25 to 40 mins. After baking, cool on wire racks for 10-15 minutes before frosting.
We topped this pretty-in-pink layered cake with a homemade white chocolate cream cheese frosting and you guessed it, even more fresh strawberries. Cream cheese is arguably the best frosting there is (after all it also tops Hamilton Beach staff favourite hummingbird cake and classic carrot cake), and adding white chocolate to the mix only upgrades its already delicious flavor.
I think we can all agree that cakes baked with fresh ingredients (and a little love) are the best cakes. So skip the store-bought mix and make time for baking with berries this spring.
Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom and sides of two 9-inch baking pans and line bottoms with parchment paper. Dust sides with flour.
In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large mixer bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar, vanilla and food colour beating about 2 minutes until well blended.
Beat in eggs, one at a time until blended. Gradually add flour mixture and strawberries on LOW speed beating for 1 minute or until blended.
Pour mixture evenly between prepared pans.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire racks.
Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.
Place one cake layer on cake plate; spread top of layer with 1 cup White Chocolate Frosting. Top with remaining layer; frost side of top of cake. Garnish with whole strawberries, if desired. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
White Chocolate Frosting
In a microwave safe medium bowl, stir together chips and heavy cream. Microwave on 50% power in 30 second intervals, stir each time until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool.
In a large mixer bowl, beat butter, vanilla and salt about 2 minutes or until creamy.
Begin gradually adding confectioners' sugar and beat about 2 minutes until smooth.
Pour heavy cream mixture into mixer bowl. Beat on medium speed about 30 to 45 seconds or until mixture is blended. Do not over beat, mixture would look curdled.
Spread onto cupcakes or cake. Store in refrigerator.
Move aside carrot, hummingbird cake is here to steal the sweet show this spring.
If you’re a fan of carrot cake, you have to try hummingbird cake. Both are traditionally topped with cream cheese frosting and are moist, dense cakes. They’re usually served in the springtime. Enjoy a sweet slice after Easter dinner, Mother’s Day brunch, or at bridal or baby shower.
While bright orange carrots help make carrot cake extra moist, hummingbird cake recruits bananas and pineapple for the job. The cake is dotted with fruit, which lend to its sweetness as well as its density and texture.
This layered cake makes for a beautiful presentation, and your guests will enjoy the coconut cream frosting in the middle AND on top of the cake. So the second layer is totally worth it.
You could definitely use traditional cream cheese frosting, but the addition of coconut complements the pineapple and banana in the cake perfectly.
Each member of our taste panel finished their generously-sized slice (wiping their cake plates clean) and left with a piece wrapped up to-go. It’s that good. Some say the name of the cake comes from the “mmmm” sound that people make after that first bite, similar to the humming noise hummingbird wings make.
Serve this cake with coffee after celebrating the moms in your life on Mother’s Day or with a mimosa (maybe with a splash of pineapple juice to play off the cake flavors) during Easter brunch or at a bridal shower. After you try it, they’ll be no denying this cake its earned place on top of your dessert plate this spring.
To learn more about the Hamilton Beach® 7 Speed Stand mixer or to shop, visit BestBuy.ca.
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease two 9-inch round baking pans and line bottoms with parchment paper. Flour sides of pans.
In a large bowl, using an electric stand mixer on low speed, beat flour, bananas, pineapple, sugar, butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt and eggs until blended, about 2 minutes. Increase speed to medium, beat for an additional 2 minutes.
Pour mixture evenly into prepared pans.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes.
Remove from pans and remove parchment paper. Cool completely on wire racks.
Place first cake layer on plate, and spread 1 cup Coconut Cream Frosting over top. Place second cake layer on top of first. Frost side and top of cake with remaining frosting. Sprinkle with shredded coconut, if desired. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
In a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer, beat cream cheese, butter, almond extract and salt until creamy.
Gradually add confectioners' sugar, beating until smooth and creamy. Stir in 3 cups coconut.
Spread onto cupcakes or cake. Sprinkle with remaining coconut.
Yield: Frosts a 2 layer cake
Test Kitchen Tip: If frosting is too thick, beat in milk 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.
If you’re taking the time to bake a cake or cupcakes from scratch, go the extra mile and make homemade frosting as well. This cream cheese frosting is undeniably delicious, and is super simple to make. Use it to top carrot cake for a special dessert, red velvet waffles for a super-sweet breakfast in bed, or pineapple-packed hummingbird cake.
In a large bowl using a Hamilton Beach® hand mixer, beat butter, cream cheese, vanilla, milk, and salt until creamy. Whether you’re still using a vintage Hamilton Beach® mixer passed down from your grandmother or have upgraded to a shiny new model with a bowl rest feature or snap-on case, our hand mixers make easy work out of making this icing from scratch.
After those ingredients are well mixed, start to gradually add confectioners sugar and beat until smooth.
If the mixture is too thick, add a little more milk until you find the perfect consistency. Easy enough, right? Right.
After you try this homemade cream cheese frosting you’ll never opt for the store-bought version again. Once you have this recipe down, you can customize with different flavourings to make a good thing even better. Add almond extract, shredded coconut, or even food colouring to put a twist on this class cream cheese frosting. No matter what you top with this flavourful frosting, the lucky recipients will know it was baked (and frosted) with plenty of love!