MSM

This week's MSM is a little different, because a double decker and it's a blind recipe. My aunt and uncle are coming to visit for Easter and so I thought I'd make a cake for Sunday. A) because it's Easter and B) because I haven't had dessert in 40 days. In order to get everything done on time, I made everything this past weekend and refrigerate the stuff until I'm ready to assemble. The cake itself is just a yellow cake from a box mix to which I added a cake extender. What is a cake extender Amanda? Well, that's make something numero uno! (Isn't it amazing that I just know what you're asking to the computer?)

I got a book called the cake mix doctor, and in it is the world most valuable information outside of the Bible...and perhaps the dictionary... all of the recipes inside revolve around using cake mix from a box as a base, and adding stuff to it to achieve a " from scratch" taste. I haven't actually gotten to try this yet, but I hear it's wonderful. So, for a basic yellow mix, just to make the most of it, all you do is prepare the mix as per the back of the box and add the following
1c. sugar
1c. flour
1c. sour cream
1 tsp desired flavoring
1 egg
This will still fit in two 8" round pans and bake up beautifully. You may need to up the bake time a little, so just keep checking in on it. Mine took around 40 min.

On to part dos. My family is a bunch of chocoholics, so I knew that the cake wouldn't fully be appreciated unless there was chocolate involved. Not to fear my lovely family, I am going to fill the layers with chocolate hazelnut buttercream. You read me. Here is the recipe for this bad boy (I got this from Cake Central's website.) (Brandon tested it, and said that it was really good.)
1 c. softened butter
1/2c. shortening
2/3c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1lb (or 4 cups) powdered sugar
1 container of Nutella (yeah...now you know I mean chocolaty business)
2 tsp. vanilla
milk
Heath candy bars (if desired) broken

Cream butter and shortening. Sift cocoa with sugar and add gradually to the creamed mixture. Add a tablespoon of milk at a time until desired consistency is reached (I used about 2 tbsp.) Add Nutella and vanilla, and blend until smooth and creamy. Stir in broken pieces of Heath bar.

The cake itself will be covered in just regular buttercream and adorned with some royal icing flowers. I'll have pictures for next week :)