the hubbs b-day feed

Admittedly this is another tardy (hee hee, tardy) post. My husband birthday was about a week and a half ago and to celebrate this day I tried my hand at a layer cake and a John Barrymore Onion Pletzel. Specifically a chocolate cake with cannoli filling and a coffee buttercream.

I used my super-trusty, go-to "why would you ever make a cake out of box ever again" chocolate cake recipe. The recipe is the Moosewood Collective's vegan chocolate cake It is a snap to put together, literally just dry into wet. I can attest that it is virtually impossible to mess up always tastes wonderful and can be enjoyed by all. The cannoli filling was simply some ricotta sweetened with confectioners sugar. Let me tell you it was pretty hard not to just eat the entire bowl and claim to our guests that 3-layer cakes generally do not have anything between the layers.

The coffee buttercream was a bit of an experiment and lessons were learned. 1. making frosting of any sort on a 90-some-odd degree day makes things a little drippy. 2. Anything with 3 sticks of butter as a primary ingredient will return to a sold butter consistency when cooled. This was a recipe from The Marshmallow Fluff Cookbook. Basically the powdered sugar is replaced with fluff in this buttercream. It comes together like a dream and did not taste overwhelmingly of marshmallow. Toss in a little espresso powder dissolved in a bit of hot water, and tada! The cute little decorations are the new fancy-schmancy M&M's.

The John Barrymore Onion Pletzel was my first attempt at any of the sweet dough's from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It was good, but I am not totally sure that it was good enough to justify the sheer amount of butter involved. All in all it made for a tasty and special breakfast when paired with a couple of fried eggs.

Fluffernutter Whoopie Pies

This adaptation started out as an all-call to the usual suspect who sample or reap the feed benefits of my cooking and baking projects. One of the responses stated anything chocolate and peanut butter.... and the fluffernutter whoopie pie was born.
The recipe for whoopie pies that I have used in the past is from The Marshmallow Fluff Cookbook. A very fun look at the history of fluff, facts and figures, and recipes.

I took the traditional whoopie pie recipe, but swapped out the filling for the fluffernutter frosting also found in the book. They were a hit. They had their debut at a cookout and there was nary a pie left!
Fluffernutter Whoopie Pies

1 egg
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 c. sugar
2 c. unsifted all-purpose flour
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Heat oven to 350 F. Grease two large cookie sheets and set aside. In a large bowl with mixer at medium speed beat egg and vegetable oil. Gradually beat in sugar and continue beating until pale yellow in color. In another bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a measuring cup combine milk and vanilla. Add flour and milk mixtures alternately to eggs and sugar, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Drop by tablespoons onto cookie sheet. These will spread a lot, so make 6 cakes per sheet at a time. Bake about 5 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched with finger. Remove to wire racks to cool. When cool, use filling (see below) and two cakes to make sandwiches.

Fluffernutter Frosting

1 c. Marshmallow Fluff
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/3 c. butter or margarine, softened
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/3 c. confectioners’ sugar
2 T. milk

In small bowl with mixer at low speed, combine Fluff, peanut
butter and butter until blended. Increase speed to medium. Beat
in confectioners’ sugar, alternately with milk, adding just enough
milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. Beat in vanilla.