Cake Recipes

PUMPKIN CAKE

• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs 
• 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 2 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice 
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 10 inch bundt or tube pan.
2. Cream oil, beaten eggs, pumpkin and vanilla together.
3. Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, ground nutmeg, ground allspice, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and salt together. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix until just combined.
4. If desired, stir in some chopped nuts. Pour batter into the prepared pan. 
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 min. - 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 
6. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes then turn out onto a plate and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. 
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(I haven't tried the next recipe, but plan to some day.  Not sure about the paraffin wax in the ganache.  I'm sure I'll change that to whipping cream instead.)

Butterfinger Cupcakes from The Starring Rolls Cafe

Adapted from Plain Chicken

Chocolate Cake:
1 box Devil’s food cake mix
1 small package chocolate pudding mix
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips 

Fudge filling:
1 jar pre-made chocolate fudge frosting
Buttercream frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
6-7 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate ganache:
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Paraffin wax, about 1 1/2 inches square
Topping:
6 Butterfinger bars, crushed (or any other candy topping you desire)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill muffin pan with cupcake liners.  Prepare chocolate cake.  Mix the first six ingredients until mixture isn’t lumpy.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Divide batter evenly into muffin cups, and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Mine took 25 minutes.  Cool cupcakes completely.
Using a sharp knife, cut a hole about halfway into the cupcake.  Remove the cake chunk and fill the hole with frosting.  Invert the cake chunk on top of the frosting-filled cupcake.

Prepare the buttercream frosting.  Mix all ingredients until smooth and creamy.  I refrigerated my frosting for a little while to help it set up.  Pipe buttercream around the cake chunk until it is completely covered.  If you don’t have piping bags, just spoon the frosting on top of and around the cake chunk.  It doesn’t have to be beautiful.  Refrigerate frosted cupcakes about 30 minutes or until the frosting is hardened.
While frosted cupcakes are chilling, prepare your chocolate ganache.  I melted the chocolate chips with about a 1-1/2 inch square piece of paraffin wax.  The wax helps the chocolate to harden quickly so it doesn’t drip all over the place.
Go ahead and crush your Butterfinger.  I froze mine before crushing them.  
Remove a cooled cupcake from the refrigerator.  Use a spoon to spread/smear the chocolate over the buttercream frosting.  Cover buttercream frosting with ganache.  Use your hand to immediately coat the ganache with Butterfingers.  You will have to work quickly so that the chocolate doesn’t harden before you put your Butterfinger on.  Set aside and allow the ganache to harden.
Oh, and you may have to heat and reheat your ganache several times during the process if it hardens.