I've Moved.  Please Visit Me at My Website.

 

www.TheManicCheater.com

 

See You There!

It's Time to Move On

 

 

After 7 months of playing around, 5,000+ visitors, great successes, heartbreaking failures and many lessons learned, I have decided to end this blog.

 

BUT, dry your eyes...I have decided to end this chapter and start a new one.

 

I'm excited to announce the launch of my own website:

 

 

TheManicCheater.com

 



 

My website has a little more focus with more direction and purpose behind it than my first internet-based endeavour.  It contains folders that include both a continuation of my blogging as well as a collection of my successful recipes.

 

The MANIC BLOG will read like this blog and will see the addition of a rating system to recipes that I have executed.  It will contain tips, anecdotes, outside stories and shared insights and will also chronicle the tweaks and cheats I employ along the way--all with with the same attitude, humor and snark as my blogspot pages.

 

The CrOOK BOOK is an aptly named collection of stolen recipes that have been tweaked to my liking and executed with successful results. These recipes are worthy of being shared with and followed by others.  This portion of the website will only house my own recipes that are derived from other sources and will not highlight any changes, tweaks or cheats as highlighted in the blog portion.  It will consist of my recipes that stand on their own.

 

Please always share your comments, suggestions, praise and criticism with me directly through the site.  And share it with people via Facebook,  Twitter and other social formats to help me expand my venture and as I grow my name, skill, and appreciation of tweaking in the kitchen.

 

Thanks for your help in my getting here.

   -Mark Patrick Spiecher (The Manic Cheater)

 



100th POST!

Classic White Tier Cake

w/ Almond Decorator Icing

 

Verdict: Success

Neighbor-worthy

 

In honor of my 100th post I made myself a celebratory cake.  I love me some white cake but I didn't want to screw this post up so I didn't really tweak anything except for the fact that I made it a mini-tier cake!  I did however add some really cool flare to the cake in the form of color and piping to mark the occasion as well.

 

Ingredients
Cake:
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 x 9 x 2 buttered and lined with parchment paper

Icing:

1 stick butter

1/4 cup shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla extract almond extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 cups powdered sugar

4 tablespoons milk or water
+ 1/2 cup powdered sugar
+ blue food coloring
 

Preheat oven to 350°

Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl for 5 minutes.  In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt.  In a third bowl, combine egg whites, milk and vanilla.  Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and ½ the milk mixture, then flour, then milk, then flour.  Mind the sides while you beat and scrape them down.  Pour your batter into your plined an, smooth the top with a spatula and throw in your oven for about 25-30 minutes.  Allow to cool on a cooling rack.

Remove your cooled cake from the pan and place on a platter and chill in your fridge for 20-30 minutes.  Remove chilled cake and trim the sides so you have cake with a sharp knife so you have flat even lines.  Measure out one large and one small square and slice the cake to make two different sized cakes. There will be scraps and, if you are anything like me, you will rip through those suckers and end up with a sore tummy.  With as much precision as you can muster, slice a sliver of the top of each piece to ensure you have a flat-top. 

In a bowl, beat butter and shortening with a hand mixer on Medium speed until fluffy.  Beat in almond and salt.  Lower your mixer speed to Low and beat in sugar, 1 cup at a time scraping down the sided as you go along.  Add half your milk and turn speed up to High until it is nice and fluffy.  Gradually add as much more milk as you need for the icing to be a spreadable consistency

Ice the larger cake with your icing, keeping it nice and smooth, especially on the top surface.  Lay your smaller cake upon your larger cake and ice smoothly.

**It is not necessary to use all of the icing here as I made extra to be a little fancy.  I separated 1/4 of the icing from the batch.  I added 1 drop of blue food coloring to the larger of the 2 batches to make a subtle blue hue and added 5 drops in the smaller plus your extra sugar for a thicker consistency.  I iced the cake with the lighter blue and put the darker, smaller batch in a pastry bag with a decorator tip and added piping.

Notes:
This dessert was fun and meaningful and also a nice transition piece to something forthcoming...

(kinda) Tweaks:
I made it a tier cake!
I added piping.
I used my stand-by icing and made it almond flavored--was amazing.

Questions???  theManicCheater@gmail.com