Did I Hear Someone Say Cake??

This cake was SOOOO simple it is crazy!!! The kids have not been able to enjoy a cake in a long time since we found out how severe their egg allergies are. I thought it was just to raw eggs until we had Hannah tested. My mom told me about this as well as several other things she found about making egg free foods. It was such a stressful time, i forgot all about it until my sweet, new bella loving friend told me about it. I called mama so excited. She was like "I already told you that!" lol. Oops. Well, either way, i was so eager and excited to try it. I gave my first go on Tommy's birthday cake. The next one i make will be for Baby Jesus. He LOVED my chocolate peppermint cake I made last year. Mind you, last years cake took a lot more to make. I added a lot to the mix inc sour cream, pudding, cocoa, chocolate chips.... you can make this a lot more complicated it you want to. :o). I was a little short on time and was not going to put a lot into it in case it did not work. The secret to this egg free cake? SPRITE! Yes, all it was was a box of dark chocolate cake mix and a 12 oz can of sprite. I stirred in a little cocoa powder to give it more of a chocolate taste, then I added the sprite. Beat it until it was all combined (on a low / med low setting). it was very thick! I had to scoop it out and spread it into the pans. It also took 5 ~ 10 minutes less to bake, so if you try it, keep that in mind. Also, grease your pans a little more than usual. With no oil in it, even in the nonstick cake pans, mine stuck :/. I hid it well though :).

the peppermint icing was very simple as well. It came from the Cake Dr cookbook. Anyone love that book as much as I do? The recipe is as follows:



1 stick room temp butter, 1/2 cup finely crushed peppermint sticks, 3 cups powdered sugar, 2~3 Tablespoons milk, 1 ~ 2 tablespoons peppermint schnapps or 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract. (I used oil). If you choose to make this with the extract or peppermint oil, you will need anywhere from 1 ~ 3 more tablespoons of milk. You will know how much to add as you mix it.

Cream the butter, stop the mixer, add all other ingredients and combine well. Increase speed and blend a minute more until light and fluffy.

The ganache on top of the cake .. again super simple. I used a 60% cocoa bag of chips. It was pretty bitter. Almost too bitter for me and i love dark chocolate. A good semi sweet would work best I think.
3/4 heavy cream, 8 oz chocolate (chopped or chips).
Place chocolate in a med. mixing bowl. Bring cream to a boil over med heat, stirring. Pour cream over chocolate, stir until melted. The mixture will go from ick to a glossy pretty chocolate ganache right before your very eyes :o). YUMM!!!! Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes and spread over cooled cake. (spread until it drips over edge repeat until all ganache is used. ) If you want it thicker more like an iciing, let stand for up to 4 hours or chill until it is spreadable then spread on cake.

My tips:

kids make awesome candy cane crushers!!!












let the kids have the beaters, but save the spoon for yourself ;o).












the end result may look messy .. but so gooey and good you wont care what it looks like ... just who gets the last piece!







Hope you like it. If you try it please let me know. :o)