Cream Cheese Frosting

Sometimes the timing is so bad it is actually perfect. One year ago I was taking my daughter to daycare for the first time and preparing myself to go back to work after having been home with her for the first few months of her life. Those crazy postpartum hormones were still raging and I needed a distraction so I wouldn’t cry all day while being away from her.  I had thought about blogging for quite a while and had been encouraged to do so by friends (some of them hadn’t even known it was on my mind). So I did it. I took an old recipe out of my grandmother’s recipe box and I started my food blog. It was a bit scary and I wasn’t sure how I would find time to continue with it once I went back to work, but I did it. I took that first step, made that first post. Here I am, one year later, still going and going stronger than I thought I could. Aren’t friends amazing?! They knew I had it in me and encouraged me to go for it. I huge thank you to those ladies as well as my husband for supporting me on this journey.

Now let’s get to today’s recipe. What is a birthday without cake?! I love it when you can toss all ingredients into one bowl and come out with something delicious so that’s what I did here. One bowl, guys! Fewer dishes to wash when you’re cleaning up. This is a two layer cake that I made a little bit fancier by spreading ganache between the layers and covering the frosting with sprinkles. To me, sprinkles just scream “LET’S CELEBRATE!” I hope you’ll join me in celebrating one year of blogging with a slice of this chocolate cake!

Tips:

1)There is no need to do a crumb coat of frosting here since the sprinkles will hide the few crumbs you might otherwise see in the frosting.

2)If you’d like to simplify the layering a bit, make a little extra of the cream cheese frosting and use that instead of the ganache in between layers of cake.

3)When applying the jimmies (sprinkles), put cake dish on a baking sheet to help catch any that fall off as you go.

One Bowl Dark Chocolate Cake

Cake Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 cup dark cocoa powder

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

¾ cup mayonnaise

3 eggs

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

¼ cup water, lukewarm

Ganache Ingredients:

3oz dark chocolate chips

3oz heavy cream

Frosting Ingredients:

8oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups powdered sugar

10oz rainbow jimmies

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 9″ round cake pans with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Slowly add in milk. Mix in mayonnaise, eggs and vanilla until well combined. Pour in water and mix until fully incorporated.

Pour equal amounts of cake mixture into cake pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until a test stick can be inserted and removed clean. Once cakes are baked, let cool 20 minutes before removing from pans. Let cakes finish cooling on a wire rack.

Once cakes are fully cooled, you can make the ganache. place chocolate ships in a medium bowl. In a small sauce pan, heat cream to a simmer. Pour cream over chocolate ships and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk mixture until fully combined and smooth. Let cool another 5 minutes. Cut domed tops off of each cake. Place first layer of cake on a serving platter of your choice. Pour ganache over bottom layer of cake and spread until it is evenly coated. Place top layer of cake on ganache.

For the frosting, mix cream cheese and butter on medium speed in a mixing bowl. Stir in vanilla and add powdered sugar one cup at a time. Once all ingredients are fully combined and smooth, cover cake in frosting. Using your hands, gently press jimmies onto sides and top of cake. Remove any unwanted jimmies that fell onto the dish as you decorated the cake.