Chocolate Chip Cake and Starlight Cake with Fall Candy Decorations

The Fall Festival  at church is tomorrow and I promised to bake 6 cakes for the cake walk. Besides cakes for church, I need to bake mini-cupcakes for the Halloween party at work, too.

In most of my cake/cupcake posts, I choose to use boxes of cake mix. Today is different. Instead of cake mix cakes, I chose to use two recipes from my 1985 Betty Crocker cookbook, chocolate chip cake and starlight cake.

Starlight cake is a yellow cake that is made with vanilla extract. The chocolate chip cake uses brown sugar and granulated sugar. The batter does smell like chocolate chip cookie dough!

Maybe because of my cake mix ways, I did not use the shortening called for in the recipes. Instead, I substituted 1/2 cup of canola oil for the shortening, and reduced the amount of milk from 1 1/4 cup to 3/4 of a cup. Personally, I was happy with the batter and my cakes were nice and moist.

Starlight mini-cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. Each cupcake is topped with black and orange sprinkles and two pieces of candy corn. 

Starlight cake with peanut butter buttercream frosting.  The cake is decorated with a candy pumpkin, candy corn, orange/black sprinkles mix, and mini-flower decors. 

Chocolate chip cake with peanut butter buttercream frosting. See the frosting recipe below.

Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting - This recipe will frost about five single-layer 8" cakes. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 2 lbs. of powdered sugar
• about 3/4 cup of milk
• 3 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

• Put butter and peanut butter into a large mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed until the butter and peanut butter is light and creamy. 
• Add one third of the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed until the powdered sugar is blended with the butter mixture.
• Add half of the remaining sugar, and 1/2 cup of milk. Beat on low speed until the powdered sugar is about mixed into the frosting. 
• Add last of sugar and remaining 1/4 cup of milk. Beat on low speed until sugar is incorporated. If frosting is too stiff, add another Tbsp. of milk and blend at low speed. Then, beat on high speed until frosting is smooth and creamy. 

Chocolate Chip Cake

Yield: 1 - 13x9 cake, or 2 - 8" cakes

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed firmly
• 1/2 cup granulated, white sugar
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

• Heat oven to 325 degrees. 
• Grease and flour your pans. I used disposable pans and skipped this step.
• Put the flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixer bowl. Stir until well blended.
• Add all of the wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients. 
• Mix on low speed, scraping bowl constantly for 30 seconds. Then beat on high speed for 3 minutes.
• Add chocolate chips and stir into batter.
• Pour batter into cake pan(s).
• Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a wooden tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean. 
• Gently remove  the cake from the oven and place on a cooling rack until cool. 
• Frost with desired frosting. 

Starlight Cake

Yield: 1-13x9 cake, or 2-8" cakes

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup granulated, white sugar
• 3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 large eggs

Directions

• Heat oven to 325 degrees.
• Grease and flour cake pans. If using disposable pans, you can skip this step.
• Place flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Stir until well blended.
• Add oil, milk, vanilla, and eggs to the bowl of dry ingredients. 
• Beat at low speed for 30 seconds. 
• Beat on high speed for 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. 
• Pour batter into cake pan(s).
• Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a wooden tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean. 
• Gently remove the cake from the oven and place on a cooling rack until cool. 
• Frost with desired frosting. 

Note: For mini-cupcakes put about 1 Tbsp. of batter into each liner and bake for about 12 minutes. I made 24 mini-cupcakes and 1-8" layer cake from one batch of cake batter.