Happy Administrative Professionals Day!

This cake was developed to show my gratitude for our fabulous legal assistants in my office! In case you weren’t aware, today is Administrative Professionals Day! One of my first questions I asked my assistant Megan was “what is your favorite treat” as we know I aim to please. She apparently loves Twix bars and that chocolate/caramel goodness. I started by googling “twix cake recipes” and didn’t come up with anything. I then came across a recipe for a chocolate cake with a caramel buttercream filling and chocolate buttercream frosting….I decided this would be the winner.

Since it was a weeknight and I was short on time, I decided to do a semi-homemade recipe…shh don’t tell! I used a box cake mix and substituted buttermilk for the water it called for (I learned this a while back and I really think it makes the cake taste less like a mix and pretty moist). I whipped up my trusty buttercream recipe I got from Martha Stewart that I have used before, and divided the batch into two. I used melted chocolate chips to make the chocolate version, and a store-bought jar of caramel for the other. I wanted to try to do my own caramel but will save that for another day. I was rushed to fill, frost, and “decorate” the cake as I wanted to go to bed. I don’t think it is very pretty but let’s hope it tastes good! I am testing out my willpower today to not eat it, so will just have to trust I get honest reviews.

Happy Administrative Professionals Day to all of you out there!

***Ok…after careful taste testing in my office – they have determined that the filling is more butterscotch than caramel. Guess I better make my own caramel next time! At least I tried…

Buttercream Recipe

Ingredients:

10 egg whites
2 1/2 cups sugar
8 sticks butter, room temperature (please don’t have a heart attach on me right here and now – this makes a LOTof frosting)
Chocolate, Caramel, etc

• The recipe calls for 24 oz melted semi-sweet chocolate or 16 oz white chocolate. I used probably 8 to 10 oz as I had an already opened bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and I only added chocolate to half. In the past I have used melted Andes mints for a minty chocolate frosting.
• For the caramel portion, I ended up adding the whole jar of Hershey’s caramel sauce from the ice cream topping isle

Directions:

1. Combine egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl set over simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture reaches 160 degrees – about 5-10 minutes.
2. If you used your stand mixer bowl, transfer to the mixer and beat with the whisk attachment on high speed until it gets thick and cooled. You can test it by feeling the temperature on the bowl. This will take 10-15 minutes, so the stand mixer comes in handy. If using a hand mixer, just have patience.
3. Reduce mixer speed to medium, and add butter 1 T at a time. Don’t panic if your mixture starts to break up and appear soupy. Just keep whipping and whipping after all the butter is added and it will come back together.
4. If making different flavors, divide mixture out to separate bowls and then mix in the chocolate, caramel, whatever.
5. This can be kept in the refrigerate for a couple days, just bring back to room temperature before using and whip on low speed. I’ve heard you can freeze too but haven’t tried.

Here is the link to when I made the frosting and added Andes Mints on my old site if you want to see pictures of the step-by-step frosting process. I will try get around to uploading them to this site.