Home-made frosting with simple ingredients

Frosting can be made using ingredients from an average pantry.

With the stress of upcoming finals and the ever taunting pull of summer right around the corner, one couldn’t help but yearn for some stress relief. 

For some that might mean meditation or hanging out with friends, but why not attempt to redirect that stress to try to do something new like, making a chocolate cake and chocolate frosting from scratch? 

With minimal ingredients that you might already have at home for each, these recipes should be a cinch!

Ingredients for cake:

1 cup boiling water   

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup vegetable oil 

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa 

powder

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 cups white sugar 

Directions:

Set oven to 350 degrees, allow to preheat. Pour all ingredients into a large bowl. Mix with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes in order to fully combine.

After mixing, prepare two 9 x 1.5-inch pans or one large pan by thoroughly spraying the bottom of the pan with Pam. In other words; thoroughly grease your pan(s). This will help you later in the process of removing the cake from the pan.

Pour the batter as evenly as you can into the pans. Be aware that the batter will be slightly watery/runny though the consistency won’t affect the quality of the cake. 

Place the pans into the center of the oven and set a timer for 30-35 minutes. It is recommended to bake the cake at first for 30 minutes, then to take them out to check if they’re ready by sticking a toothpick into the center of the cake. If the toothpick comes out of the cake clean, meaning it has little to no cake residue on it, the cake is done baking.

Once the cake is done baking, set the pans on top of the oven and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes. Then, carefully remove cakes from the pans and set aside to allow them to cool further for approximately 10 more minutes.

If you have made it safely to this step, congratulations, begin to frost the cake. Unfortunately for myself, I was not able to safely remove my cakes from the pan. If you too have had trouble and find yourself picking up the rubble of destructed cake bits, please proceed to the next steps.

It’s OK that you haven’t been able to get the cakes out of the pans. That part is a lot harder than most let on. You just need more practice. Until then, don’t throw away your cake remnants.

Continue to deconstruct the cake by tearing it apart with your hands in a large bowl. 

 (Proceed to frosting instructions before continuing next steps). Using a generous glob of frosting you will have made, place it into the bowl of cake remnants.

 Mix cake and frosting together with hands until it is at a consistency where it sticks together like dough. Take the newly made “dough” and roll a portion of it into a small ball. Repeat until batter is used up, placing each ball onto a baking sheet or a plate.

 This step is optional. You can either choose to dip your cake balls into chocolate to complete the full cake ball look or you can, like me, decorate the plain cake balls with extra frosting. Finish decorating and enjoy, but don’t forget to refrigerate extra cake balls to save for later.

Ingredients for frosting:

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1/3 cup milk

2 cups powdered sugar

2/3 cocoa powder

1/3 cup butter

Directions:

Melt the butter in a bowl using the microwave for approximately periods of 15-20 seconds. Careful not to overheat!

Pour in the rest of the ingredients with the melted butter.

Mix together with a whisk or an electric mixer until you reach the desired frosting consistency. Note: You may add in a tad more milk or powdered sugar if consistency is not to your liking.

Use your frosting to frost your cake or to decorate your cake balls or just about anything else. It’s your frosting to do with as you wish. Enjoy it right out of the bowl if that’s what you’re here for.