Happy Birthday Jimmy!

Little Sydney trying to help Uncle Jimmy blow out Sparkler Candles

...oops forgot to tell them!

We celebrated Jimmy's birthday early and invited over some of his close friends. For Jimmy's Birthday Cake, I made him my favorite Red Velvet Cake from scratch...that's LoVe. I used Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cake recipe which I found from much trial and error to be one of the best and most true to the Red Velvet Cake of yesteryears. I just add a bit more food coloring to the recipe to get that rich red blood color. Isn't Retro a lovely thing?

Buttermilk, vanilla, eggs, vinegar, red food coloring, sugar, flour...

I sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and sugar by hand

The dry and the wet ingredients...before they mix together

I burned out this $10 Martha Stewart hand mixer which I got from K-Mart.
You gotta let the cream cheese get to room temperature...

Did I tell you that I used to decorate cakes in my aunt's bakery in Kailua...Craig's Bakery?
Worked there several years while I was in high school and college.
Don't miss working at 5am.

Decorating this cake was like riding a bike.
My hands knew just what to do.

My Birthday gift to Jimmy.
I made the tag using my Close to My Heart stamps.

Just a pic of the Birthday tag itself.
I wrote a sentiment to him on the back side.

This Mickey Mouse mint container is the cutest thing.
It made the perfect container for his Birthday gift.

This weekend my family will be celebrating his birthday again. This time I'll make his all time favorite...Barefoot Contessa's Chicken Pot Pie. I'll share the recipe with you. It's sooooo easy and soooo delicious. He doesn't know it yet but he's going to have to make his special biscuits to go with this pot pie. :)

Hawaii's own...Chocolate Dobash Cake
A chocolate chiffon cake
with scrumptious
chocolate pudding frosting.
A local favorite.

Update: On Earth Hour Day, March 28, 2009, we celebrated Jimmy's birthday again at my mom's house with my family. Lucky guy! My mom got him a Chocolate Dobash cake from Zippy's Napoleon's Bakery. We decorated his cake with fancy birthday candles and humungous strawberries.

Happy Birthday Jimmy!

Here's a recipe for our local version of Chocolate Dobash cake. This was printed in our Star Bulletin newspaper. It's a recipe from Muriel Miura and Betty Shimabukuro's terrific cookbook "What Hawaii Likes to Eat". I have this cookbook and it's a "must have". I still have to try to make this cake myself. This is an all time favorite on Oahu. We all grew up eating this cake and it's still a favorite that's sold at our bakeries. I don't know anyone who has ever baked one themselves. I will one day. Maybe for my BFF, local girl from Kailua now transplanted in Australia, who always has to have this cake when she comes home to visit.

Chocolate Dobash Cake

3 eggs, separated
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
» Frosting:
1-1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 8-inch pans.

Beat egg whites until frothy; gradually beat in 1/2 cup sugar until stiff.

Sift together remaining 1 cup sugar, flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa. Make a well in center; add oil and half of milk. Beat until well-blended at medium speed. Add remaining milk and egg yolks; beat until smooth.

Fold mixture into egg whites. Pour batter into pans and bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool, then slice each layer in half to make 4 layers.

To prepare frosting: Combine water, sugar, salt and butter in saucepan and bring to boil. Combine cocoa, cornstarch and water; add to boiling mixture and return to boil. Cool completely. Frost between cooled layers, sides and top.

LoVE Red VelVeT CaKe!!!

It was my BFF's birthday today so I got up super early and made her Red Velvet cupcakes from, yessirreee, ScrAtCh. YOu heard that right...sCraTch. This is my all time fav cake and my fav recipe.

I always remember eating red velvet cake when I was younger and remembering loving it. Don't know if it was the "redness" or the cream cheese frosting or both. While it has cocoa in it, can't really say it taste like chocolate cake. If you've never tried it, run to your nearest local bakery and buy some.

Anyhoo, I swear I smelled like some sugary bakery person when I was done frosting the cupcakes with the super delish cream cheese frosting (which I mistakenly added 2x the required butter...oh well, no one knows and it tasted super!). If you've ever made red velvet cake, you know that the one big problem is all the redness from the red food dye gets all over...your fingers, the table, etc. It's called washing your hands a lot so you don't turn your kitchen into an absolute red fest!

I decided to decorate the cupcakes with little paper parasols. By the way, these parasols had tiny tiny rubberbands around the parasol to keep them closed. Ok, some unfortunate person in China is sitting there all day putting these stupid rubberbands around these paper things and wondering why these crazy Americans buy these things. Akkk!

Besides the parasols, I sprinkled my favorite sprinkles on the top. Hey, you can't have real cupcakes without the sprinkles!

Needless to say, my BFF and my fellow co-workers LoVeD the cupcakes...I knew they would. Who can resist HOMEMADE SCRATCH Red Velvet Cupcakes???? Yummmmmmmy.

When I was first searching for the perfect red velvet cake recipe because I wanted to have this as my wedding cake, I researched on the internet and my old cookbooks. I compared the differences in the recipes. I read about other Red Velvet Cake ("RVC") fanatics who swore by one thing or another. I tried several different recipes but was unsuccessful at getting the "perfect" RVC. Until one day, when I was talking about my quest and my husband's niece said that she had the perfect recipe. She gave it to me. I tried it. My quest was over. I found the Holy Grail.

If you're interested in getting your hands on this all time favorite recipe of mine---it is a Winner!, then leave a Comment and include your email and I'll be happy to shoot it over to you. Check out some of the photos of the RVC process from beginning to end.