CdM in the Kitchen: Not Your Grandmother's Chocolate Drizzle Cake

This cake was inspired by my great grandmother's recipe for white cake topped with bittersweet chocolate drizzle but I decided to give it a modern updateby adding cherries, of course, and trying out the ombre cake trend I've been seeing all over Instagram. It's the perfect dessert for a birthday party or even just a summer get together with friends. Check out the recipe below and try it this summer for a cake that looks and tastes delicious made from fresh homemade ingredients!

Ingredients
2 boxes of White Cake mix
Eggs
Cooking Oil
4 boxes of powdered sugar
Milk
3 sticks of butter or margarine 
2 bags of Fresh Cherries
Sugar
Corn Starch
water 
Red and Pink food coloring
Unsweetened Bakers Chocolate

First I made 4 8" round cakes by filling the pan to half what I would normally fill it and then let each layer cool.
While the cakes were baking I started on the Cherry filling I used to put in between the layers for an added burst of flavor.
I pitted the first bag of cherries and put them in a small sauce pan with around half a cup of water and 4 tablespoons of sugar. I brought the mix to a boil and stirred the cherries letting them simmer for several minutes until they became soft. Then I took the mix off the stove and poured it into a strainer. I used a wooden spoon to mash the cherries up over a bowl until I had juiced all the cherries. I then poured the juice back into the saucepan. I saved some out and mixed in 1 tablespoon of corn starch to cut in while the sauce was cooking. I brought the mix to a boil and added more sugar then let it simmer while I slowly added in the corn starch mix and stirred until I found the consistency I wanted. I put the sauce into the fridge to cool and thicken to a jelly like consistency.
I then started on the homemade frosting. I sat 1 stick of margarine out to soften before putting it in a bowl and adding in the powdered sugar and a dash of milk. I mixed the ingredients adding more powdered sugar and milk until I had used 1 box of powdered sugar and had the frosting at a thick consistency.
I spread the frosting over the first layer of cake covering the top and then added a few spoonfuls of the cherry filling in the middle before repeating the process for all 4 layers.

A post shared by SierraClair (@cerisesdumatin) on May 12, 2017 at 5:01pm PDT

 I put the cake in the fridge to harden and let it sit overnight before taking it out the next morning and making a new batch of frosting for a crumb coat. After letting that sit I mixed the dark red food coloring into a small bowl of frosting and added a few drops of purple to make it even darker. Then I mixed pink into a separate bowl and put drops of the dark red color around the bottom of the cake and added drops of pink and light pink in the middle. I used a thin flat spatula to spread the frosting while turning the cake stand to achieve the ombre effect.

A post shared by SierraClair (@cerisesdumatin) on May 13, 2017 at 1:14pm PDT

Now that I had the cake frosted I melted 3 pieces of the unsweetened chocolate and spooned it on the sides of the cake to make the drip effect. I covered the top of the cake completely with more chocolate and smoothed it out to add some shine to the cake. I topped it off by piling cherries on the top of the cake and sticking them in the chocolate as it was cooling so they would stay. I also added some around the sides of the cake for a finishing touch.
Cherry lovers will enjoy the bittersweet flavors of this cake as a way to satisfy those sweet tooth cravings anytime of year!

CdM in the kitchen: easy Fruit Tarts

Recipe: DIY Tart du Fruits

This easy yet delectable take on the classic french dessert will have everyone at your party thinking you are a master of the french culinary arts.
Ingredients
Mini Philo dough pastry cups (can be found in the frozen section)
1 cup of rasberries
1cup of blueberries
1 cup of cherries
1 cup of strawberries halved
1 cup of blackberries
Mint leaves (optional)
chocolate chips (optional)
Jello Vanilla Pudding mix

Instructions
1.Make jello vanilla pudding mix in a large mixing bowl and store in fridge for 1 day before serving tarts.
2.Defrost pastry cups before filling.
3.Place generous dollops of  vanilla pudding into the pastry cups.
4.Add different combinations of fruit varying with strawberries or cherries etc.
5.Add mint leaves and chocolate chips for garnish if you like.

Yes, it's really that easy!

In case you were wondering about the blog title...

Let's start from the beginning, I have always loved cherries. Cherry pie, cherry cheesecake, cherry lipstick, you name it I have it with cherries on it. My favorite drink is a Shirley Temple. I even won an award at the county fair for entering my cherry collection when I was younger. I was an avid collector as a child. Anyways when I decided to make blog I wanted something original that sounded fun and juicy. Of course I immediately thought of cherries.But I couldn't come up with an original title that still sounded chic. Which brings me to my next point. I have also been studying French for the past four years and I hope to become fluent. After all isn't French the language of Fashion? So what does one do when they can't find a chic saying in English? Well she translates it into French of course! And that's how I came up with CerisesduMatin, which means cherries in the morning. Sort of a spin off on the daily dose or something like that. To me cherries make everything more fun so, I hope you enjoy reading your cherries in the morning and that it brightens up your day!

A cherry quilt I sewed.                                                         My acrylic painting of cherries.