Kids of all ages love chocolate cakes. If you bake one for the first birthday of your child, you will definitely get the reward for being star mom in the form of lots of hugs and kisses from the children at the birthday party. Here is a simple first birthday cake recipes with delicious chocolate frosting.

Items needed for the chocolate cake recipe and frosting:

Cake:

Cocoa powder - 1 cup
Boiling hot water - 2 cups
Soft and unsalted butter at room temperature - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 ½ cups
Eggs - 4
All-purpose flour - 2 ¾ cups
Baking soda - 2 ¼ teaspoons
A pinch of salt
Vanilla extract or essence - 1 ½ teaspoons

Frosting:

1 packet of semi sweet chocolate chips
½ cup of half and half cream (you can use full cream too, but add some milk to it)
¾ cup of unsalted butter at room temperature
2 ½ cups of icing sugar

For decoration:

Mixed fruit jam - 1 cup
Edible silver balls - 1 packet
Colorful chocolate gems - 1 packet

Preparing the cake:

Whisk the eggs and sugar in a deep bowl.
Add the butter and whisk some more to get a fluffy texture.
Add the vanilla extract and mix well.
Dissolve the cocoa powder in boiling hot water and let the mix cool.
Add this mix to the butter-egg mix and whisk some more to get a smooth batter.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
Now add the dry ingredients to the prepared mix, spoon by spoon, and whisk some more to get the cake batter to dropping consistency.
Grease a 9 inch baking pan and pour the batter in the pan.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for 35-40 minutes.
After the baking time, remove the cake from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack.

Preparing the frosting:

On a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and butter.
Remove from heat and stir in the cream and icing sugar.
Whisk to combine well and your chocolate frosting is ready.

Assembling the cake:

Let the cake cool completely before assembling.
Cut the cake in the middle horizontally.
Place the bottom layer on a serving plate.
Spread a generous amount of frosting over the layer and cover with the top layer.
Spread the rest of the frosting on the cake and cover all the sides.
Put the mixed fruit jam in a piping bag and decorate the top and sides of the cake in any design you like.
Use the silver balls and chocolate gems to cover the top and sides of the cake.
Put the prepared cake in the fridge for 2 hours to let everything set before serving..(^_^)

Banana Bread recipe.

Here's all the ingredients you will need to make this delicious recipe:

2 cups of brown rice flour

2 tablespoons of starch

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of  baking powder

3 large bananas

2 large eggs

1/3 cup of maple syrup

1/2 cup of milk

2 tsp of vanilla

1 tsp of orange zest

1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

Here's a step by step preparation guide:

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.

Combine the starch, the brown rice flour, sea salt, baking soda and the Gluten free baking powder in a mixing bowl.

Create a puree by mushing the bananas together and you can now add eggs, maple syrup, milk, vanilla and the citrus zest.

Mix all the dry and the wet ingredients together into one big mixing bowl. Pour the mixed contents of the bowl into a large baking pan.

You will need to bake this cake for about 50 minutes, but do not forget to keep an eye on it! Always check if you can poke the center with a toothpick or knife and if nothing sticks to it, then you are all set!

how to make PUMPKIN PANCAKES.

Ingredients

3 c self - rising flour

1/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

2 1/2 c milk

4 Tbsp butter, melted

1/2 c sugar

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 can pumpkin (15 oz)

1 tsp orange zest chopped fine (optional)

Instructions

1. in a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and spice

2. in a separate, small bowl, beat the eggs a little and add the milk and beat a little more

3. melt the butter in the microwave

4. pour the egg mixture into the flour and beat until combined

5. add the butter and sugar and beat

6. add the pumpkin (and orange zest if you're using it) and beat until combined

7. pour out 2 oz portions on a griddle heated to 300 or cook on the stove - it is easier if you use a 2 oz ladle - also make sure you use butter or cooking spray on your griddle/pan because these will stick - I use cooking spray

8. the pancakes are ready to flip when the edges start to look a little dry and bubbles are rising to the surface and popping

9. butter them as they come off the heat while they're nice and hot so the butter melts

10. we used maple syrup on these but they would be good with others like orange.

hot chocolate mix (easy n delicious)

1 can (8-oz) cocoa (I use Hershey's)
2 lb powdered sugar
8 cups non-fat evaporated powdered milk
1 container (18-oz) non-dairy powdered creamer

In a large bowl combine all the above ingredients. Store in an airtight container or put in pretty jars for gifting. To serve put desired amount into a cup and add boiling water.

~ENJOY~

vanilla slice

Vanilla slices are a pudding that everyone can enjoy. They're great soft comfort food with a rich icing on top that makes your whole body un-tense when you bite into them and gives you plenty of energy for the day. Here we will look at vanilla slices, why they are so delicious and how you can go about making your own.

What You Will Need

If you want to make your own vanilla slices you will need:

Puff pastry (made with 100g flour)
Flour for rolling
Vanilla custard
2 Table spoons of jam
White glace icing

Making your own custard and icing

That vanilla custard though is best made yourself. For this you will need 1 egg and 1 more egg yolk, a quarter cup of caster sugar, three tablespoons of plain flour, 250 ml of milk and just a few drops of vanilla essence. To make, add the eggs and egg yolk in first, beat and then add the flour and milk before heating in a saucepan and boiling with the vanilla essence.

To make the icing meanwhile you will need three quarters of a cup of icing sugar (sieved), four tablespoons of water, and half a tablespoon of strained lemon or orange juice. You can add a little coloring if you like to spruce it up. In order to make the icing you are generally going to beat while warming in a pan until the icing thickly coats the back of your spoon. You can use more water to thin it out, or more icing sugar to thicken.

Method

First heat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius.

Next roll the pastry so that it's 1 cm thick, making sure that you floured the area to prevent sticking.

Now cut your pastry into eight separate oblong pieces that are ten by two centimeters.

Bake this for 20 minutes and allow the pastry to rise

Leave to cool

Now when cool, split the pastry in half cross-ways.

Fill the pastry with the custard and sandwich it in. If you wish to make your own custard then you can do so by using the ingredients above - otherwise you can just buy it and fill it in that way.

Now spread the glace icing on top of both slices. Again you can make this yourself using the advice above or you can buy it ready made depending on how much you want to impress your guests. Make sure to flatten it with a fish slice or something else.

~~ENJOY~~