I’ve already made Captain America apple hand=pies, Hulk ice cream sandwiches and Iron Man pizza hand pies, now it’s Thor’s turn! Edible Avengers, assemble!

A chocodile is essentially a chocolate covered Twinkie. What I’m doing here is taking it to the next level with a lovely whipped cream cake filled with mascarpone filling topped off with a layer of rich chocolate ganache.

To those who wonder why I would want to make my own chocodiles or more importantly why I would make them in the image of the son of Asgard – I say thee Nay! It’s simple really. Cake. Cream. Chocolate. Thor. Why. Not.

cake ingredients:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

cream filling ingredients:
8 ounces mascarpone cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

ganache ingredients:
6 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

I llllove this Marvel cakelet pan from Williams Sonoma so much. Then again I’ll buy anything with Wolverine on it, but today it’s all about Thor.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep the cake pan with melted butter. Mmm, buttery Thor. Set aside.

In a bowl whisk together the cake flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the whipped cream until stiff peaks form – don’t go TOO FAR of you will get butter! Add the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Add the sugar and the vanilla.

Carefully add the flour mixture until combined.

Pour the batter into the cakelet pan. Obvs this only makes *one* Thor unless you want to wash it and start again after it’s baked, or you can just fill all the characters in with batter. Make sure you tap tap tap the pan to get out all of the air bubbles.

These golden pans really conduct heat well and if you butter it well and leave in the cakes a few minutes long they will get a golden brown exterior. Whether you want that or not is up to you but I like the definition it gives to the cakes.

Bake for 15-17 minutes depending on your oven, until a toothpick test comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack.

While the cakes are cooling, make the filling: In a medium bowl combine mascarpone cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Stir together until smooth, and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form – don’t overdo it, the last thing you want is for it to curdle. Then fold the whipped cream, into the mascarpone mixture until combined. Keep the filling in the fridge in an airtight container until you are ready to use.

Once the cakes are cool, use a #12 piping tip and fill a pastry bag with the filling. Pipe the little cakes as full as you like – just be careful and don’t go overboard! Keep them in the fridge while you make the chocolate.

Now for the chocolate coating: in a small saucepan over medium heat – combine the chocolate chips, heavy cream and the vanilla. When it starts to melt, work fast and whisk it together. Keep whisking while the chocolate keeps melting and magically in a matter of seconds you will have a beautiful silky ganache. Let cool slightly.

Place the filled cakes on a wire rack, then spoon/pour the chocolate over the cakes. These should be served immediately or stay in the fridge due to the filling.

Now your Thor chocodiles are ready to serve! They are cake-y and delicious and give you the power to lift Mjolnir I SWEAR!!! Hm.

Tres Leches is a sponge cake, drowned in three different kinds of milk so it can soak up all the goodness and then topped off with a whipped cream. It sounds and tastes complicated but I promise you it is one of the easiest cakes to make.

Think of it as a cold cakey bread pudding. Cake pudding? pake cudding? Whatever it’s delicious. The recipe is old, tried and true and rarely varies – here’s my version:

ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

milk mixture ingredients:
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk

whipped topping ingredients:
1-3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9×13 pan with buttered parchment. Set aside.

In a bowl whisk together the flour, cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time until combined, then add the vanilla.

Add the flour until completely combined and pour into the prepped cake pan.

Spread evenly and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

While the cake is cooking combine the whole milk, heavy cream condensed milk and evaporated milk together. Keep it in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

When the cake is done, let cool in the pan for 30 minutes.

Using a fork, pierce the cake all over – you want the milk mixture to seep in everywhere.

Then pour the milk mixture over the top of the cake.

You’ll be surprised at how fast the cake absorbs it all. This pic was taken only after a minute or two!

For the topping, in the bowl of an electric mixer whip the heavy cream, sugar and vanilla until nice and thick – don’t overdo it though!

Spread the whipped cream over the top of the cake and serve.

I have a lot of Star Wars recipes on this blog from Princess Leia cupcakes, Han Solo in carbonite Jell-o, Smores Troopers, Jawa cupcakes, Yoda Oreos…but nothing, nothing will compare to what I have for you today. To celebrate Star Wars Day 2012 I give you…a severed Wampa arm made out of cake!

A wampa was the ice creature that captured Luke when he was on Hoth. Using the force, the young Jedi gets his lightsaber and slices off the wampa’s arm to make his escape. (watch it all go down here.) This is my version…in cake.

Are you disgusted? You should be because it looks very real. In fact I put it in O.G.’s fridge and she freaked out. Oh, she ate it of course but she kept saying it ‘was making her gag’ so she ate it with her eyes closed. However, she did say it was delicious but “Why can’t you ever just make me a regular cake?” Ah, story of my life.

ingredients:
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup white sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
6 egg whites
Red gel food coloring

powdered sugar for dusting
1 cup Guava jelly
Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe here)
2 cups sweetened coconut
Chocolate bars

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prep a 10×15 inch jellyroll pan with parchment, lightly buttered.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and sugar until light. Add the vanilla. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and add it to the yolk mixture. While mixing, add in the red gel food coloring until combined. Set aside.

In a separate bowl whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the red batter until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepped jelly roll pan – using a spatula to even it all out. Bake for 8-10 minutes depending on your oven.

Get a CLEAN dishtowel and dust it with powdered sugar. Turn the warm cake onto the towel. Peel back and pull off the parchment paper.

Cut about 3” off the end of the cake and slice that into 1” wide pieces – these will be the Wampa fingers. Set aside for later.

Roll the cake up with the towel – the LONG way. What you are doing is trying to form the rolled shape. Let cool in the rolled up towel for 20- 30 minutes.

Whisk the jelly to get it nice and loosened up, also reserve about 3 Tablespoons for later. Guava jelly is light, almost clear and always makes for good ‘blood’ substitute (Game of Thrones horse heart cupcakes) but a dark jelly will work also.

Carefully unroll the cake, and spread the jelly onto the cake. Now roll the cake up again. Quite obviously NOT with the towel. Place the rolled cake seam side down onto a platter.

Arrange the Wampa ‘fingers’ you cut at the end of a platter so they look like a hand.

Frost the cake arm and ‘fingers’ with the whipped cream cheese frosting.

Getting between the ‘fingers’ can be tricky, just use a small offset spatula and take your time.

Take the coconut and pat it around the frosted cake and fingers, like ‘fur.’

For the fingernails I cut a thick chocolate bar into chunky pieces and placed them on the end of the fingers.

Finally, take the reserved jelly and pour it on the cut end of the ‘arm’. It will look like oozing Wampa blood.

Who’s ready for Wampa? YUM!

ingredients:
3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
16 (half a package) Biscoff cookies, crushed
1-3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup Biscoff spread

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a bundt pan with melted butter and set aside.

In a bowl whisk together the cake flour, salt, baking powder and crushed Biscoff cookies. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the whipped cream until stiff peaks form – don’t go TOO FAR of you will get butter! Add the eggs one at a time until incorporated.

Add the sugar and the vanilla. Then carefully add the flour mixture until combined.

Pour the batter evenly into the prepped bundt pan. Drop the Biscoff spread in dollops around the center of the bundt, then using a butterknife, cut figure eights in a swirling motion to get the spread to swirl down into the batter.

Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake for 50-60 minutes depending on your oven, until done.

Let the cake cool in a pan for 15-20 minutes, cross your fingers – then turn out the cake onto a wire rack and let it continue to cool.

For the Kid’s homework he was asked to make a ‘favorite recipe.’ The Kid loves to cook and the choice was easy: my neapolitan mochi cake. He followed the entire recipe himself (a little helping holding the bowl, etc) and in the end he got to eat his creation!

ingredients:
1 pound mochiko (1 box)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
2 cups sugar
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
2 Tablespoons Valrhona Cocoa Powder
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips
pink gel food coloring

Mochiko is a sweet rice flour. It’s very fine, almost dusty. You can find it in most asian markets or online. It gives a familiar ‘chew’ to baked goods, reminiscent of mochi itself.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a bundt pan by greasing it with butter. Personally I never flour it, but that’s all on you.

In a medium bowl whisk together the mochiko, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Stir together the melted butter and sugar. Then add the evaporated milk. Add the vanilla and the eggs and mix well. Now add it to the dry ingredients and mix well.

Divide the batter into three bowls, leaving one bowl as is.

In the second bowl add the Valrhona cocoa powder and the chocolate chips. Stir well.

In the third bowl add a touch of pink gel food coloring just until you get a nice pink. Set aside.

In the prepped bundt pan, pour in the chocolate batter.

Top that with the vanilla (plain) and then finish it off with the pink.

Place the filled pan on a baking sheet and bake for 45-50 minutes depending on your oven. Check to see if it’s done by piercing it with a large skewer.

Let the cake cool in the pan, then turn the pan over onto a wire rack and the cake will pop right out.

Slicing into the unassuming cake and seeing all the pretty colors is what makes this cake so fun! The Kid loves the mochi texture and he likes to eat each color one at a time. This Kid is methodical.

This cake is a delicious and fun family treat!

While I make my Watermelon Ice Cream Bombe on the regular, I wanted to somehow incorporate cake. My family LOVES ice cream cake.

So I made a ‘green’ base by baking a matcha (green tea) cake, and then layering it with a fresh watermelon ice cream, studded with mini chocolate chip ‘seeds’. It came out beautifully and the family loved it!

watermelon ice cream ingredients:
5 cups watermelon, cubed (will become 2 cups watermelon juice)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup mini choco chips

In a blender, blend the cubed watermelon until it becomes fully liquid.

Pour into a cheesecloth and strain out the pulp. Keep 2 cups of pure watermelon liquid.

In a bowl mix together the watermelon liquid, sugar, lemon juice, and heavy whipping cream until the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and churn per the manufacturer’s directions. In the last 5 mins, add in the mini chocolate chips.

Keep in an airtight container in the freezer until ready to use.

matcha cake ingredients:
4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup cake flour, sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon matcha powder
Pinch of salt

Matcha is a highly concentrated green tea powder, you can find it in the tea section of most asian markets. It’s…pricey. But nothing can compare. Nothing will give you a full rich taste green tea taste like powdered matcha.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prep a springform pan.

Separate the whites and the yolks. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry and set aside. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks until light. Add the sugar and vanilla, and mix well.

In a bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and matcha powder. Add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture. Fold in the egg whites.
Pour the batter into the springform pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until done, depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

Once the ice cream has set and the cake has cooled, now you can assemble!

Level off the cake and place it back into the springform pan. Warning, the cake may have shrunk.

Spoon the watermelon ice cream on top of the matcha cake, speading evenly.

Gently press the ice cream down to form an even layer. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer until you are ready to serve.

When the cake is cut you will have sweet, delicious slices of fresh watermelon…in cake and ice cream form! Perfectly refreshing for summer!

I love fresh blueberries and luckily the Farmer’s Markets are full of them every weekend. This is a coffee cake that I brought up to date by using milk tea. The tea adds a subtle, wonderful flavor and it’s great to serve with tea too.

Perfect for breakfast or a shower party…or standing up at your kitchen counter with crumbs everywhere. I’m classy like that.

ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whole milk
2 Tablespoons tea (I used Royal/T tea)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups freshed blueberries (washed and dried)

crumb topping ingredients:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
6 Tablespoons butter (diced)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9×13 pan with buttered parchment. Set aside.

Steep the tea – I used Royal/T milk tea because I love the flavor. It is infused with rose and has a nice fragrant flowery taste that really compliments fruit so I thought it’d be great together with the blueberries.

In a small saucepan, warm the milk being careful not to scald it. Take it off the heat and put the loose tea in an infuser and let the tea steep in the hot milk. Set aside. You want this good and overly saturated, the milk will start to darken in color. Let cool.

In a bowl whisk together the flour, cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and the vanilla.

Alternate between the whisked dry ingredients and the cooled milk tea.

Pour the batter into the prepped pan, spreading evenly. Sprinkle the fresh blueberries over the top.

These will not sink into the cake, I came up with this recipe because I didn’t want the blueberries mixed in. Is that weird? I kind of like them to stand on their own – they are so fresh and flavorful, they almost pop in your mouth when you eat the cake. I feel that sprinkling them on top just adds to their beauty and stand alone flavor. I wanted a clear taste difference – layering the cake, with the blueberries and the topping.

Mix together the crumb topping ingredients and sprinkle over the blueberries.

Bake for approx 50 minutes depending on your oven, and until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake is ready.

Let cool, cut and serve!

There’s nothing like fresh blueberries, they way they pop in your mouth when you bite into them, whether they are fresh or cooked. This cake is a perfect to share on a summer morning!

My brother’s favorite ice cream is Italian Spumoni. Spumoni is an Italian ice cream made up of three flavors of ice cream: Chocolate, Pistachio and Cherry. It’s available during the holidays or at your local Italian deli. I make this dessert during the holidays, but a roll cake filled with ice cream is good anytime of the year!

ingredients:
4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup cake flour, sifted
pinch of salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Spumoni Ice Cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Separate the whites and the yolks. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry and set aside.

In another bowl, beat the egg yolks until light. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla, and mix well.

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture. Fold in the egg whites into the egg mixture.

Prep a jelly roll pan (or cookie sheet – by lining it with parchment paper, and greasing it with butter. This will make it easy to remove.

Pour the batter right onto the lined pan. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until a golden brown.

While the cake is baking, put a clean towel down and dust it with powdered sugar. You will invert the cake onto this to start the rolling process.

When the cake comes out, turn it onto the towel and peel off the parchment.

Begin with the narrow side and roll the cake and towel up together. Cool cake on rack, seam side down, for 10 to 15 minutes. You’re trying to get the cake to maintain it’s ‘roll’ shape.

Once cake has cooled, gently unroll and spread cake with the softened Spumoni and re-roll. Place back in the freezer until you are ready to slice and serve!

Mochiko is one of my favorite ingredients. Savory or sweet, it’s so versatile. This is a take on old skool Hawaiian custard mochi but in cake form filled with beautiful fresh blueberries! A lovely cake with that special mochi ‘chew’.

ingredients:
1 pound mochiko (1 box)
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
2 cups sugar
1 can evaporated milk
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-1/2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9×13 pan with melted butter. Set aside.

Mochikois a sweet rice flour that you can find in Japanese markets or even online. It adds a chewiness to both desserts and savory dishes.

Stir together the sugar and the melted butter. Add the evaporated milk and mix well. Then add the eggs one at a time, along with the vanilla.

Carefully stir in the mochiko, baking powder and salt.

After the batter is mixed, fold in the blueberries. If you are using frozen, move quickly – the batter will start to color or ‘gray’.

Pour the mixture into the prepped pan and bake for 1 hour.

Let the cake cool in the pan and then cut it into squares to serve.

This dessert is a lovely blueberry cake with an added surprise of a mochi chewy consistency. It’s perfect with afternoon coffee and tea!

Image Comics asked me to make a cake for the Rob Schrab book release party held at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood.

My design concept was to make a massive cake that looked like a fuzzy monster, complete with peeking eyeballs along the side and the actual book cover on top. Scary, but cute, and oh so delicious. I am not good at scary monsters but I can do kawaii monsters better.

I made a two layer red velvet cake and frosted it with cream cheese frosting. To achieve the ‘fuzz’ I baked another cake and crumbled it to smithereens.
This can either me fun – or an ocd nightmare. I say the latter. There was red velvet crumbs everywhere and I couldn’t break out the vacuum fast enough.

I pressed the cake crumbs into the sides of the cake – just enough pressure to stick, but not smush. I still wanted it to look furry.

Much like the Adam WarRock cupcakes, I printed out the book cover image with edible ink. The colors were flawless. I laid that on the very top of the cake, and then pressed more ‘cake fuzz’ right up along the edge of the image.

Then I added various sized sugar eyeballs along the sides of the cake – enough to look cute but disturbing.

I’m really happy with how this turned out. Now I am obsessed with ‘monster fuzz’ on cakes! If you love great art, and monsters, and all things amazing get a copy of “But I Can’t Do Anything Else! The Art of Rob Schrab” it will inspire you!