A co-worker of mine was heading back to his home country of Italy and I thought we should have a nice send-off accompanied by cake, of course.
I pondered my options and decided to go for something Italian-ish :-)
Spumoni and tiramisu came to mind, but he is lactose-intolerant, so after a bit of internet browsing, I found many recipes for Spumoni Cake. It sounded tasty and I seem to have a penchant for layered things...
Start by blending the wet ingredients: eggs, oil and sour cream:
Next, the package of instant pudding mix:
Quickly stir in the package of cake mix because the pudding mix will cause the wet ingredients to thicken. I used white cake mix instead of yellow to get better color results. The batter was still yellow because I used whole eggs instead of just whites and the pudding mix was yellowish too.
The batter will be super thick!
Divide the batter into thirds.
In one batch, add coarsely chopped walnuts, almond extract, and green food coloring. I also added a drop of blue to balance out the yellowness of the cake batter.
The next batch gets chopped maraschino cherries (the picture of whole cherries was better!), more almond extract, red food coloring, and any extra juice that came from chopping the drained cherries.
The last batch just got the melted chocolate.
I buttered and floured the bundt pan, even though it was non-stick.
Start with the green layer first, then pink, then end with chocolate. Dollop each layer on and then smooth it out with a rubber spatula.
Smooth out the top layer
Bake, cool, then turn it out onto a plate. The cake was just sitting there naked, begging for a glaze or some kind of topping, so I whipped up some ganache.
That's one cup of cream and 1-1/2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips. Just heat the cream and pour it over the chips. Let is sit for five minutes and stir. Voila! You've got a bowl of rich am creamy ganache!
The cake was dense, very moist and delicious!
Spumoni Cake
Adapted from Cooks.com
1 pkg. yellow or white cake mix
4 eggs
3/4 c. cooking oil
1 - 8 oz. container of sour cream
1 small pkg. instant vanilla pudding
For batch #1
1/2 c. coarsely chopped walnuts
2 to 4 drops green food coloring + 1 to 2 drops blue food coloring
1/2 tsp. almond extract
For batch #2
1 (8 oz.) jar maraschino cherries drained and chopped
2 to 4 drops red food coloring
1/2 tsp. almond extract
For batch #3
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate melted
Prepare yellow cake mix by combining cake mix, eggs, oil, sour cream and dry pudding mix. Beat together 2 minutes at medium speed. Divide batter into 3 bowls. To 1 bowl add walnuts, green food coloring and almond extract. To bowl 2 add drained cherries, red food coloring and almond extract To bowl 3 add melted chocolate. Mix each well. Put green batter into well greased tube or bundt pan, then add pink batter, then chocolate, smoothing out each layer with a rubber spatula. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes. Cool, then turn out on cake plate.
I pondered my options and decided to go for something Italian-ish :-)
Spumoni and tiramisu came to mind, but he is lactose-intolerant, so after a bit of internet browsing, I found many recipes for Spumoni Cake. It sounded tasty and I seem to have a penchant for layered things...
Start by blending the wet ingredients: eggs, oil and sour cream:
Next, the package of instant pudding mix:
Quickly stir in the package of cake mix because the pudding mix will cause the wet ingredients to thicken. I used white cake mix instead of yellow to get better color results. The batter was still yellow because I used whole eggs instead of just whites and the pudding mix was yellowish too.
The batter will be super thick!
Divide the batter into thirds.
In one batch, add coarsely chopped walnuts, almond extract, and green food coloring. I also added a drop of blue to balance out the yellowness of the cake batter.
The next batch gets chopped maraschino cherries (the picture of whole cherries was better!), more almond extract, red food coloring, and any extra juice that came from chopping the drained cherries.
The last batch just got the melted chocolate.
I buttered and floured the bundt pan, even though it was non-stick.
Start with the green layer first, then pink, then end with chocolate. Dollop each layer on and then smooth it out with a rubber spatula.
Smooth out the top layer
Bake, cool, then turn it out onto a plate. The cake was just sitting there naked, begging for a glaze or some kind of topping, so I whipped up some ganache.
That's one cup of cream and 1-1/2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips. Just heat the cream and pour it over the chips. Let is sit for five minutes and stir. Voila! You've got a bowl of rich am creamy ganache!
The cake was dense, very moist and delicious!
Spumoni Cake
Adapted from Cooks.com
1 pkg. yellow or white cake mix
4 eggs
3/4 c. cooking oil
1 - 8 oz. container of sour cream
1 small pkg. instant vanilla pudding
For batch #1
1/2 c. coarsely chopped walnuts
2 to 4 drops green food coloring + 1 to 2 drops blue food coloring
1/2 tsp. almond extract
For batch #2
1 (8 oz.) jar maraschino cherries drained and chopped
2 to 4 drops red food coloring
1/2 tsp. almond extract
For batch #3
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate melted
Prepare yellow cake mix by combining cake mix, eggs, oil, sour cream and dry pudding mix. Beat together 2 minutes at medium speed. Divide batter into 3 bowls. To 1 bowl add walnuts, green food coloring and almond extract. To bowl 2 add drained cherries, red food coloring and almond extract To bowl 3 add melted chocolate. Mix each well. Put green batter into well greased tube or bundt pan, then add pink batter, then chocolate, smoothing out each layer with a rubber spatula. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes. Cool, then turn out on cake plate.
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