Life’s been a little crazy and I haven’t been in the kitchen as much as usual! So trying to get back on track.

This is the first installment of a two part post. Our youngest just celebrated her first birthday and in keeping with tradition I made her a mini-bear cake. Since we would be celebrating with family I made a Black Forest cake (part 2) and a last minute decision to add the bear to the top of it.

I took some cake decorating classes just after the birth of our first child in attempt to get out and meet some new people. I did not make any life long friends, but I did get to explore various dessert decorating options. From there, I thought it would be a cool tradition to use the same pan every year on our daughter/s birthdays. So far I have used the pan to make bears, and a bunny (added some sugar cone ears and a LOT of pink icing). I will let you imagine what a bear turned bunny looks like because while it was tasty it was kind of strange looking!

The pan (Wilton mini stand-up bear) directions indicate you can use any box of poundcake mix, but I wanted to go one step further and make my own poundcake. Every kid deserves chocolate on their first birthday and I wanted to make a chocolate poundcake from scratch.

The pan only uses 1 cup of batter, so any recipe you make from scratch I recommend scaling it (most recipes are about 6 cups of batter). The extra batter is nice if you want to make a couple or if the first one does not turn out right.

My favorite recipe to use is a modified version of Paula Deen’s – The Bag Lady’s Favorite Chocolate Poundcake. Modified to make it healthier and scaled it to fit my batter needs.

Chocolate Poundcake

Yield: 3 cups batter

  • Wilton Stand up mini-bear pan
  • 1 1/2  cups All-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon Baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon Baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon Salt
  • 3 tablespoons Unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup Unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 1/2 cups Sugar
  • 1/2 tablespoon Vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup Plain Yogurt
  • Fudge Frosting to decorate

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa and set aside.
  3. Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer until fluffy.
  4. Slowly add vanilla, applesauce and eggs one at a time to butter mixture.
  5. Alternate the addition flour mixture and yogurt to the butter mixture. Start and end with flour.
  6. Assemble (per box instructions) and prepare mini-pan by liberally greasing with some non-stick cooking spray.
  7. Measure a generous 1 cup of batter (maybe closer to 1 1/4 cups) and add to the standing pan.
  8. Gently tap the pan to distribute the batter, and to avoid air bubbles. The pan will NOT be filled to the top with batter.
  9. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick/bamboo skewer/cake tester comes out clean.
  10. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
  11. Remove clips and carefully remove the top (facial part) of the pan. Let cool for 5 minutes.
  12. Place the facial part back on the bear and flip over to let the back cool for 5 minutes.

Step by Step

While the oven is pre-heating, sift together the following dry ingredients and set aside.

  • 1 1/2  cups All-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon Baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon Baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon Salt
  • 3 tablespoons Unsweetened cocoa powder

Add softened butter and sugar to a stand mixer and mix until fluffy.

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups Sugar

To the butter mixture slowly add the following wet ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup Unsweetened applesauce
  • 1/2 tablespoon Vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs (one at a time)

Then alternate the addition of flour and yogurt to the butter mixture. (Flour/yogurt/flour/yogurt/flour)
Assemble (per box instructions) and prepare mini-pan by liberally greasing with some non-stick cooking spray.

Measure a generous 1 cup of batter (maybe closer to 1 1/4 cups) and add to the standing pan. Gently tap the pan up and down to distribute the batter, and to avoid air bubbles. The pan will NOT be filled to the top with batter.

Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick/bamboo skewer/cake tester comes out clean. Remove from the cake and pan from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.

Removing the cake from pan

Wish I had remembered to take some pics. First, remove the clips and carefully remove the top (facial part) of the pan. Let cool for 5 minutes.  Then place the facial part back on the bear and flip over to let the back cool for 5 minutes. Then let fully cool before decorating.

Birthday Chocolate PoundcakethesugarpixieBakingFamilybirthday,cake,chocolate,poundcakeLife's been a little crazy and I haven't been in the kitchen as much as usual! So trying to get back on track. This is the first installment of a two part post. Our youngest just celebrated her first birthday and in keeping with tradition I made her a mini-bear...Misadventures and fun in the kitchen and beyond