Chocolate

After seeing Anita’s cute little owl cake over on Leave Room for Dessert, I was inspired to make one for my birthday. (Yes, for my own birthday…don’t worry, I had some help).

I didn’t have two 9 inch cake pans, so I made mine out of 10 inch pans, and the cake batter ration evened out nicely. I followed her example of cutting and arranging my layers in this format:

I then proceeded to do a thin crumb coat with my chocolate buttercream icing. I refrigerated it for about 30 minutes to set before piping on the rest of my design.

I used a petal tip for frosting the feather design, starting with the bottom and layering feathers up, leaving a round space for the belly and eyes. I used plain vanilla frosting for the eyes and belly, filling in the yellow details with a star tip. For the eyes, I sliced thin sections of black licorice.

I had so much fun making this cake! Enjoy!

Courtney

Pinterest is one of the greatest websites ever designed (in my opinion, at least). If you are looking for inspiration, for anything from cooking, crafting, home remodeling, art, lesson plans, to funny quotes and useful tips, you can find it on Pinterest. (check out my boards and pins here)

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon this blog post featuring a recipe for homemade thin mints (yes, like the Girl Scout cookies). Immediately this caught my attention. I LOVE chocolate-mint anything. After a mouth-watering review of the pictures Sue posted, I was determined to try the recipe.

The original recipe was posted by the Chicagoist. Access it here. It’s so simple, yet is tastes exactly like real Girl Scout Thin Mints.

I used unsweetened cocoa powder for the recipe, as called for by the Chicagoist. On the first blog post I saw with the Thin Mint recipe (the one with the mouth-watering pics), Sue said she used dutch-processed cocoa powder. You might be able to use either one, but the consistency of the cookie may not be the same.

If you are wondering about the difference between regular unsweetened cocoa powder and dutch-processed, you are not alone. I confess, I had to Google it myself. I found this awesome website with a great explanation. Dutch-processed is neutral (as opposed to normal cocoa powder which is slightly acidic), and is typically used in recipes with more baking powder or another acidic compound.

Also, when I made these cookies, I used bittersweet instead of semisweet chocolate to coat them. This gave them a richer, less-sweet taste, which I loved because I am a big fan of dark chocolate. If you prefer, you can use semisweet or even milk chocolate for the chocolate coating.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and I would love to hear how your cookies turn out. Happy baking! -Courtney