It takes a village...

There are some stores that you go into knowing you will make completely unnecessary purchases.  Brookstone, for example, or Papyrus.  For me, that store is Williams-Sonoma.  Yes, I know I can get similar cooking items from Homegoods or Macy's.  And yes, I know this store is outrageously expensive.  But every time (especially when aided and abetted by my mom) I walk into that store I end up purchasing sometime I absolutely don't need.  And this Christmas Eve was no exception.

I bought a village bunt pan.

What is a village bunt pan you ask?  I'll tell you.  It is a mold that makes small, Christmas village-type houses out of cake.

When would one use something like this?  Well, when one was making a Christmas village cake of course!  (So, like, once).

Don't judge me!  These houses were awesome.  After I made them I stood back and stared.  Did I really just make those?  They're beautiful.  Of course next came the inevitable problem.  I slaved all Christmas Day making this cake, put it down on the table, and as we all stared at it said, "Nope, sorry.  We can't eat this today.  Too pretty."  Luckily there was an incredible back-up key lime pie.

We finally ate it (or some of it, anyway) and the village crumbled and died.  I put away the pan for next year, when I may or may not make village bunts again.  Probably not.  Hey, at least I didn't buy the Star Wars pancake molds!  No matter how big my Williams-Sonoma delusion, I know deep in my soul I don't need a Millennium Falcon shaped pancake in my life.

Now I will admit to also purchasing the Brown Sugar Bunt cake mix from WS as well, which I used to make the houses.  But the cake and frosting are all my own.  And yes, I did make the cake chocolate because it was the dirt underneath the white frosting (or snow) of the village.  Ok, you can judge me now.  And I made a tree.

My Village Cake
You'll need:
A Williams and Sonoma Village pan.  Seriously.  There's no way around this unless you are the Cake Boss.
A rectangular or circular cake 9" or larger pan with vertical sides (large enough to fit all the houses, you can test this before you bake)
Parchment paper
Brown Sugar Bunt mix (interchangeable with a different mix or your own recipe, but I recommend bunt mixes for their ability to maintain a shape)
Either a ziplock bag or a pastry bag with decorating tips
Lots of Pam
2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

2 sticks butter

3 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons half and half

Green food coloring

Sugar ice cream cones

Candy for decorating (I choose red and white MandMs and snowmen peeps)

For the dirt (cake):

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease baking pan.  Place a long rectangular strip of parchment paper along pan so it comes out both sides.  This will be it much easier to lift the cake out of the pan when frosting later. 
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and 2 teaspoons vanilla; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake 45to 60 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to platter using parchment lifts. Cool completely.

For the snow (frosting):

1. Combine butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, half and half, and remaining vanilla in an electric mixer.  
2. Beat until fully combined.  The measurements aren't precise, feel free to add more of any ingredient until you create a spreadable, creamy frosting with the right flavor.

  
For the houses:

1. Prepare the bunt mix and preheat the oven according to instrutions.
2. Liberally spray the pan with Pam.
3. Evenly distribute the battle to each house well.
4. Bake until toothpick inserted inside comes out clean.  Let stand for 10 minutes to cool.
5. Slice any extra cake from the tops of the wells so the bottoms of the houses are flat.  Upend and place houses on a platter to cool.

To decorate:

1. Frost "ground" cake.   Place each house on top, and decorate houses as desired
2. Pipe green food colored frosting onto cones and decorate with candy.  Place on cake.
3. Once everything is decorated, sift powdered sugar over the top like snow.

What does this have to do with Going My Way?  Well Bing did love a White Christmas.  Also, he's big on families and neighborhoods in the movie.  Finally, I'm pretty sure one of those houses is a church.

I saw it and thought...I could do that...Easter Cake!

Happy Easter!  Like a good Catholic (my family is laughing at me right now), I went home and spent Easter Sunday with my family.  My mother put me in charge of the dessert, and I decided that this would be a perfect time to exercise my creative skills.  Searching Tastespotting.com (my new favorite site), I found a picture of a beautiful Easter cake.  According to Amanda's Cookin', she used something called a checkerboard baking set to make this cake.  Unlike Amanda (but probably like the rest of you) I didn't have that set, and I didn't have round cookie cutters.  So I decided to use my own ingenuity in making the cake.  It worked, but maybe next time I'll just make Betty Crocker mix out of a box...

Checkerboard Easter Cake
You'll need:
4 1/2 cups cake flour
2 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
8 large egg whites
3 cups sugar
4 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure lemon extract
3 different colors of food coloring
3 9-inch round non-stick cake pans of equal or similar shape

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the cake pans and line the bottom of each with parchment paper.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
3. Whisk together the buttermilk and egg whites in another bowl.
4. Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and mix them together until the sugar is moist. Add the butter, and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light and fully combined. 
5. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is even, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed.  There will be A LOT of batter.
6. Separate the batter evenly into three separate bowls. Add food coloring into each bowl and wisk thoroughly to combine, scraping at the sides. Repeat for the other two batches. I used Amanda's colors of pink, purple, and green because I thought they were the most Easter appropriate, but you can use really any colors.  Be careful with the dye, you only need a few drops!
7. Pour the differently colored batters into three different pans.  Bake for 25-35 minutes, checking after 25, or until the cakes bounce back rather than jiggle when you touch them- a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes.  Invert and cool to room temperature right side up and peel off the paper liners

The Frosting
I decided that I liked my frosting recipe better than Amanda's.  I made two batches, one that went in between the cake layers, and one that covered the entire cake.


Inner Frosting
You'll Need:
2 sticks of butter
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa power

1. Beat together all the ingredients except the sugar  and cocoa powder until smooth.
2. Combine the sugar and coca powder and then add them in half cup increments, beating after each addition.  This should give you enough frosting for the layers in between the cake. You can add more of any of the ingredients to suite your particular taste or consistency requirements.

Outer Frosting
You'll Need:
2 sticks of butter
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Repeat the instructions above.  This frosting is just a basic vanilla frosting.  If you prefer chocolate, you can add cocoa power or melt 2 cups of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips.  I've also made Bailey's frosting, Oreo frosting, or almond frosting by added almost extract.  It's up to you!

To Make the Cake Look Pretty

Now you could just stack the cakes on top of each other and use the "inner" frosting for in between the layers.  But how fun is that?  I did something much more insane.

When the cakes are cool, slide a long, sharp knife across the top of the cake and cut the tops of each cake off until each cake is flat.

Flip the cakes over (VERY CAREFULLY) and cut them into concentric circles, like the picture above.  I made patterns out of paper and cut around them very carefully with a knife.  After the pieces are cut, move the circles and fill each cake with different colored circles.  Each layer needs to be a different color, otherwise it doesn't work.  Use the "inner" frosting to put frosting in between the circles to hold them together, kind of like glue.  Spread the top of one layer with frosting and then CAREFULLY (all of this needs to be done very slowly) place the next layer of top.  Repeat.

Frost the entire cake with the "outer" frosting.  So you don't rip up the cake, pour all the frosting on top and slowly work your way down.  Wet a napkin to remove excess frosting from the cake.  Because it was Easter, I topped the cake with Malt Ball Easter Eggs.  You're free to add whatever you want!

Would I make this cake again?  Maybe.  It is very labor intensive, but it looked so cool afterward that I didn't regret the work.  I think this only works if you are feeling ambitious, have lots of free time, and have a special occasion to cook for.  For an everyday cake, skip the checkerboard.  I don't really know how this relates to Grand Hotel.  Maybe because it is a fancy cake.  No one really eats in the movie, so I'm willing to call this a hotel cake.  I asked my brother to come up with a connection between German hotels and this cake.  He said, "They both crumble at the hands of the Americans?"  Possibly inappropriate.  But it works...