Fondant weekend is a not so fondant weekend

So this weekend I was going to make fondant I got all the weird ingredients like glycerine and glucose, and got all the ingredients out and realized... I didn't bake a cake to cover! (face palm) So I decided to make a chocolate cake. The recipe I am using comes from the book The Cupcake Bible pg 78.  Since this is originally a cupcake recipe I just had to bake it a little longer, cupcakes take 15 min to bake, the cake I baked between 25-30min.

Since my man was out with his friend, it was just me and my baby boy. I thought he would be happy just playing with play dough... but boy was I wrong. He kept asking me questions, and wanting snacks... so finally because I was getting no where in the baking process I asked him if he wanted to help me make a chocolate cake, and of course his answer was yes. And it was a lot of fun, for those of you who have kids and love to bake if you haven't involved them in the baking process yet, you should! I didn't let him do anything messy, I would measure out the powder ingredient, let him dump them into the bowl and mix them. And of course after the cake was complete we both got one of the beaters :)

Chocolate cupcakes(made into cake)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 1/3 C All purpose flour
3/4 C Unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Baking soda

1 C Sugar
6 TB Unsalted butter softened
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
3/4 C Milk

In a medium sized bowl mix together the dry ingredients set aside.  In a large bowl beat sugar and butter with an electric mixer until fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat until well blended. Alternate adding flour mixture and milk, beat at low speed until combined. This mixture is thick.

For cupcakes:  spoon batter into muffin cups, bake for 15mins or until toothpick comes out clean.

For cake: cut a piece of wax paper that will fit in an 8" pan, put it at bottom, then grease and flour pan. Pour in batter and smooth. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

 Let cool then remove cake from pan and place on cooling rack.

I decided I am going to fill the cake with chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache.  But won't be able to make them until next weekend so I am freezing my cake to use then.  For those of you who haven't frozen a cake before, after the cake is cooled, wrap it in saran wrap, then foil and place in freezer. You can freeze a cake for up to a month, so if you are doing this every week and not using them, I would date them.

If anyone has good chocolate mousse recipe and/or a chocolate ganache recipe, I would love to try it!

My sister who doesn't eat cake

My little sister and I have a lot in common.... one of those things is we don't like to eat cake because growing up we only had dry boxed cake... so my goal is to make a cake for my sisters wedding that is sooo good and moist that she likes cake again. So today I called her because she asked me if I would be offended if she had someone else make her cake, I said no I wouldn't be offended at all, but I wanted to save her some money.

I asked her what flavor of cake and she said vanilla but didn't know what kind of filling she wanted, so I looked up several awesome recipes for filling and she shot them down because her fiance doesn't like fruit in his dessert!!!! There went all my great ideas :s but alas, I spoke with him and we agree on a vanilla cake with chocolate filling and for his grooms cake I will be making a sort of "death by chocolate" cake. 

I haven't made very many homemade cakes so this is my chance to practice making them and perfect at least two recipes  before August. I also haven't ever worked with fondant before so I am really excited to try new recipes this weekend for homemade fondant!!

The design for the wedding cake is simple: white fondant, with black ribbon at the base of each tier and real red roses at the top. There will be a black vine piped from the bottom tier to the top with fondant leaves.  Then for the guests there will be cupcakes with a red butter cream rose and black leaf on each of them.

I can't wait for this weekend!

So any readers have any good ideas for ANY cake fillings(with or without fruit)!! I would love to hear some feedback!