layer cake

Hazelnut & Chocolate Cream Layer Cake

March 5, 2019 by Melina Thompson 2 Comments

Moist (and gluten-free) hazelnut cake meets creamy chocolate frosting! This might be my most favorite layer cake EVER. And it might be a bit embarrassing but I made this cake way back when I was still pregnant, I just did not have time to edit the photos yet. So its been sitting on my drive this whole time and I totally forgot how beautiful and delicious it had turned out! Hazelnuts are my absolute favorite nuts and in combination with chocolate: HEAVEN. Maybe its because I grew up with Nutella. Or because it just is a simply dang good combo. I’d say try for yourself!

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Chocolate Almond Layer Cake

April 5, 2018 by Melina Thompson Leave a Comment

This towering high Chocolate Almond Layer Cake will make a cute addition to your Easter brunch buffet. Or maybe a birthday cake? Almond cake layers with a rich, semi-sweet chocolate ganache buttercream. Who can resist?! Using 5-inch cake pans will achieve the towering affect, but the cake can easily be made with 6-inch pans for a lower, wider cake….

Naked Mulled Wine Chocolate Layer Cake

December 15, 2017 by Melina Thompson 2 Comments

It’s less than 2 weeks till Christmas (yay!) and my holiday baking is in full gear. Besides just a few sugar cookies, I’ve been making a lot of cakes and other treats, like this Naked Mulled Wine Chocolate Layer Cake. It is so festive and pretty, and super easy to make! Two layers of mulled wine infused chocolate cake filled with chocolate cream cheese frosting. I topped the cake with sifted cocoa powder but that was more because it looks pretty. You could decorate it with some more cream cheese frosting (double the recipe), toasted meringue, or just plain melted chocolate….

Eggnog Layer Cake with Apricot Filling

December 10, 2017 by Melina Thompson Leave a Comment

Tis the season! The season to cozy up with some coffee or tea and watch Christmas movies, the season to listen to Christmas music aaaaall day long and of course the season to bake. And, the season for Christmas sweets, mulled wine and eggnog! My family in Germany is pretty big on all those things. We actually used to make eggnog ourselves (maybe I should post that recipe here, if I can find it?). So this year I decided to make this Eggnog Layer Cake with Apricot Filling. Although we never made eggnog cake for Christmas growing up, this still very much reminds me of my childhood Christmases. And reminiscing about the good old Christmas days back in Germany, what better and more appropriate filling for this cake than HERO apricot fruit spread.

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Coffee Chocolate Fudge Cake with Ganache Frosting

August 18, 2017 by Melina Thompson 6 Comments

I made this Coffee Chocolate Fudge Cake with Ganache Frosting for a birthday card photo shooting about 2 weeks ago and realized that this is the first time I am posting a chocolate layer cake on my blog. How can that be?! So I figured it’s way overdue. This chocolate fudge cake is made with a whole cup of coffee which makes it extra moist and and adds a lot of flavor. Coffee and Chocolate is such a classic and one of my favorite flavor combos. Although the recipe calls for coffee, I actually used cold brew. And as if the cake itself is not rich and chocolate-y enough, it is frosted with chocolate ganache made of 70% dark chocolate, butter and cream. Do I need to say more? Chocolate heaven.

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Vanilla Chiffon Cake with Blueberry Buttercream

July 26, 2017 by Melina Thompson Leave a Comment

I made this Vanilla Chiffon Cake with Blueberry Buttercream for the first time about 4 years ago for my husband for Valentine’s, but didn’t get a chance to document it. I’ve been meaning to make this again ever since because it was so pretty and delicious (even my husband loved it! He’s not the biggest cake eater, ironically…) and I finally came around to it when Challenge Butter asked me to come up with a buttercream recipe for their Community blog.

There is just something about the combination of vanilla and blueberry – such a classic. This one here is made of light and moist layers of vanilla chiffon cake and blueberry Italian meringue buttercream. I love using chiffon cake for layer cakes because it is so incredibly soft and light and does not contain any butter, so when I refrigerate the cake, it does not get hard like most other, butter-heavy cakes.

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Pumpkin Hummingbird Cake with Maple Buttercream

November 16, 2015 by Melina Thompson 4 Comments

As if there’s not enough food during the Thanksgiving holiday, I’m gonna add this super decadent Pumpkin Hummingbird Cake with Maple Buttercream to the menu. Can never have enough cake, right? This is a fally twist on the classic replacing the banana with pumpkin and adding maple sirup to the buttercream!
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Banana Baby Birthday Smash Cake

June 14, 2015 by Melina Thompson 78 Comments

It feels like it was just yesterday that our sweet baby girl was born and it is so hard to believe it’s actually been a whole year! She turned one last month and we celebrated, of course, with cake. It was beyond debate that I would make her the prettiest little baby smash cake so she could dig in with her tiny chubby hands! And it needed to be healthy. So I made some minor changes to one of my favorite banana cake recipes (here with coconut and honey cream cheese frosting). It is made with whole wheat flour (or oat flour), bananas, apple sauce, canola oil and spices. Despite the sugar, all ingredients in this cake are super healthy and baby friendly. She loved it, and so did the rest of the family who ate the leftovers!

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Orange Coconut Cream Cake

February 26, 2015 by Melina Thompson 2 Comments

I made this quite a while ago but as I’m sitting here typing this post I am seriously starting to crave a piece of this incredible Orange Coconut Cream Cake. Coconut cake is one of my all time favorites (besides chocolate – of course – and anything nuts) and this recipe has been with me for years. The creamy coconut with the zesty orange is just a perfect match and this is a perfect cake for both cold winter days and summer parties!

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Pear and Poppy Seed Layer Cake

February 6, 2015 by Melina Thompson 6 Comments

Winter is (hopefully) drawing to an end here in Texas and I am trying to make the best of this wintery coldness with this soul-warming pear and poppy seed cake: Three pear upside down cakes that are packed with almonds and stacked with poppy seed buttercream. Buttercream that is so loaded with poppy seeds its almost black! That’s my kind of cake, cause poppy seeds are my secret obsession. There is a German classic, Poppy Seed Crumble Cake (which was actually one of my first and most popular posts), I tell you – to die for. If you love poppy seeds. Or even if you don’t. But if you do, you will love this combination: poppy seeds and pears! A dream team that makes the cold winter weather just a little bit more bearable… a little bit.

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