Happy Birthday To… Me :) 24… yikes!

I wanted to celebrate with some cake of course, but wasn’t so keen on making an entire cake. I’ve seen cakes baked in jar’s, so I thought why not a mini-birthday cake for one (maybe I’ll share with Adam..) Simple chocolate cake with vanilla swiss-meringue buttercream, depending on jar size, bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes. And bonus, it’s portable! You can make this for someone special on their birthday :)

Make a wish…

… until next year!

.. Stay tuned this afternoon for another, outrageous, birthday treat I created.

Make this cake today. Trust me. I had been wanting to bake something else with rhubarb ever since the last cake I made. It was an alright cake, but I wasn’t impressed with it like I thought I might be. I was looking for something more, something better. Something like This! I had this great idea to make a cake slightly based on a zucchini cake, but instead using Rhubarb. However the actual idea worked more than when I tried it. The Rhubarb doesn’t shred so easily, so I had to do it all by hand. But it was totally worth it. I said I wouldn’t, but I definitely ate the piece I photographed this morning, after an already large piece last night. It had to be done.

The cake could easily be turned into a sheet cake, or a loaf cake depending on what you’d like to make. It’s really easy and Rhubarb is now in season so it should be readily available. Although, I had gone to safeway to get dinner and cake ingredients, and had to go to Thrifty’s instead because they had no Rhubarb. And I wasn’t going home without it!

This would be perfect after dinner, or for breakfast. I topped it with cream cheese icing, but you could just as easily dust it with icing sugar. And it can all be made in one bowl – so easy clean up!

Make it…now!

Shredded Rhubarb Cake

Recipe by Bakeaholic

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3-4 tsp ground cinnamon
• dash of nutmeg
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• about 4 stalks rhubarb
• 1/2 cup non-fat natural plain yogurt

Directions:

pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Shred/tear rhubarb and set aside. You can try using a grator for this, but I found it just mushed it up. So I cut it into quarters and peeled it by hand.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil, and sugar by hand using a whisk.
3. Slowly add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and vanilla.  Thoroughly combine.
4. Add Rhubarb and Yogurt, stirring until well blended.
5. Pour into greased and flowered bundt pan, and bake for 45-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Start with 45 minuts, and check to see if it needs longer.
6. Cool for 10 minutes in pans on wire rack.  Remove from pan and cool completely.

You can top it with icing sugar, or make a cream cheese icing by combining a package of cream cheese with a tiny bit of milk, and a few cups of icing sugar.

The cake will keep covered or a 2-3 days. If it lasts that long!

If you make this cake please credit and link back to me – I’d love to see it =)

I found these cute little things from Whisk Blog! What a cute idea for the holidays. I substitued the frosting for Nutella and sprinkled the tops with crushed candy canes! Really simple and pretty for the holidays and great to bring to a cocktail party.

Recipe – From Whisk: A Food Blog
Makes 1 8×8 pan or 2 dozen minis

½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
½ cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa
¼ teaspoon baking powder¼ teaspoon salt
Nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350˚F. Grease a mini muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, stir together the butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add eggs, and beat well. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to egg mixture, beating until blended. Stir in nuts, if desired.

Fill a piping bag (or freezer bag) <– This is a must, makes it very easy to fill and make them all even! And fill the mini muffin cups. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

I mixed Nutella with some icing sugar and piped it onto the tops, and sprinkled them with crushed candy canes!

Enjoy!