Unicorns and broccoli soup!

Well this past week has been a whirlwind of emotions - celebrated the last birthday of the year, went to the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, and then found out a dear family member passed away after a long, hard battle. Needless to say, I'm drained and glad to only have the holidays left in the year. The birthday we celebrated was for our youngest daughter and she just hit double digits, agh how has it been 10 years already?! This was the year of the unicorn, lol, and almost everything she wanted from her cake to presents was unicorn. On top of that, she wanted a cake red velvet with cream cheese frosting, which I have never made, so that was a little daunting. Her dinner menu was fairly simple, broccoli cheddar soup with bread bowls, so with that the birthday menu was complete. The cake came out just as she wanted and was "the best read velvet cake ever", so that was the biggest success. Make this for your unicorn enthusiast and they will be sure to love it!

What's cooking in my kitchen this week:
Red velvet unicorn cake with broccoli cheddar soup

What you'll need:
Red velvet cake
2 1/2 cup flour
1 cup agave (or 1 1/2 cup sugar)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, room temp
2 eggs, room temp
1 Tbsp red food coloring
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cake pans, oiled and floured

Cream cheese frosting
1 lb cream cheese, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
blue, pink, and purple food coloring
2 cups white chocolate chips
2-3 sugar cones
wax paper
#32 frosting tip
disposable frosting bags
tube of black decorating gel

Broccoli cheddar soup**
4 heads broccoli
4 carrots, shredded
1 lb smoked ham*
1 sweet onion
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup corn starch
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
10 cups milk
3 cup half and half
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
 medium sized bread loaves for everyone

*Note: my family has meat eaters, so I add ham to make this soup a little heartier. You can omit the ham if you do not want meat in your soup. 
**Note: the amounts shown  are for serving 12-15 people, if you are serving less, you can cut them down by half. 

How to make it:
I first started with the cake. Oil and flour the cake pans so they are ready once you have the cake batter made.

Next, sift flour in large bowl and then add all the remaining dry ingredients - baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. In a smaller bowl, combine all the wet ingredients - eggs, vegetable oil, butter milk, vanilla extract, and agave (if using sugar put in large bowl with dry ingredients). Pour wet ingredients in bowl with dry ingredients and whisk until all combined. Add red food coloring and mix until batter is dyed.

Please note, I did not have the entire amount of food coloring the recipe calls for (oops!) so my color is more pink than red. If you add the correct amount, it should have a nice red color instead of the pink you see in mine.

Pour batter in cake pans prepared earlier and tap out air bubbles.

Bake in 325° oven for 30 minutes (if using sugar, bake in 350° oven for 20-25 minutes). Let cakes cool on wire rack completely.

Once cakes have cooled, remove from cake pans and let sit and cool in fridge for at least 8 hours - I cooled mine overnight. This helps the cake decorating process go a lot easier. Now the magic of decorating can begin! Stat by making the unicorn horn and ears. Melt white chocolate in either a double boiler, if you have one, or in small pan with large metal bowl, if you don't have a double boiler. Make sure water does not touch the top pan or bowl.

It does take a few minutes to melt and white chocolate is very particular so there is no walking away from it either. Once chips start to meld together, it won't be too much longer.

After about another minute, remove from heat and continue to stir around. The residual heat will melt the rest of the white chocolate and it will all be liquid. Dip sugar cones in white chocolate and cover completely. Place on wax paper on cookie sheet to have white chocolate harden again and set aside.

For the ears, have a triangle stencil and place under wax paper. Take a spatula and trace around stencil with white chocolate. Then place each ear on back side of muffin tin to give a slight curve to bottom of the ear and set aside.

Time to make the frosting! Place softened cream cheese and butter in large bowl.

With paddle attachment, mix the cream cheese and butter until incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and powered sugar. Beat until mixed well and frosting forms peaks.

Now it's time to put the layers of cake together. Place first layer on cake pan you are going to serve on. Place wax paper around bottom edge of cake, so any frosting you may get on the cake pan, can be easily removed. Place frosting in decorating bag with big round tip. Pipe circle of frost on top of first layer.

Then take cake decorating knife and spread frosting all over top.

Place second layer on top of first layer and repeat with frosting. Continue repeating with third layer.

Once top is done, pipe frosting on sides and then spread out again with cake decorating knife. As this is a dark cake and white frosting, you will need to put at least two layers of frosting on the outside of the cake. The first layer can be a little thinner as this layer is mainly used to get all the little cake pieces sealed, so the next layer will be smooth and just frosting.

Once cake is frosted, split remaining frosting into 3 parts, so you can dye each part with blue, pink, or purple food coloring.

Take the best looking dipped sugar cone to use as the unicorn's horn. Place in middle of cake and press down firmly, to make sure cone is in cake a little ways. Next, take the ears and place on either side of the horn. Use the black decorating gel to make the unicorn's eyes - I went the easy way making them closed, which was totally ok with the birthday girl.

Now take the blue dyed frosting and put in decorating bag with the #32 tip. Swirl little flowers to make the mane for the unicorn. Don't forget to take it down the one side of the cake.

As blue is the birthday girl's favorite color, I made sure to have a little more of this frosting than the others so I could also put a finished edge around the the bottom. To do this, remove the wax you had placed around the bottom when just frosting with the white. Just dot the bottom edge with the blue (or which ever color you want) all the way around.

Repeat with the pink frosting for the mane, and add cheeks to the unicorn. Repeat again with the purple for the mane.

I happened to have some sliver sprinkles around, so I decided to add a little extra and put sprinkles in the unicorns mane. If you don't have, don't worry but if you do, then sparkle that unicorn up!

Now it's time to make the soup. First, get the veggies and ham prepped. Put peeled carrots in food processor with the shred blade in and shred carrots. Set aside.

Finley dice onion and place in small bowl, set aside. Dice up ham, if using and place in small bowl and set aside.

Take the big stalk off the broccoli and then cut into small, bite-sized pieces. Put in large bowl and set aside.

Now that the veggies and ham are prepped, it's time to get cooking! Put 1/2 stick butter in large cooking pot. Turn heat to medium and melt butter. Add diced onions and let saute for about 2-3 minutes, then add carrots and continue to saute for another 5-7 minutes, until onions are translucent.

Next, add the milk, half and half, chicken broth, broccoli, ham, salt, and ground black pepper. Stir around and continue to stir every few minutes while cooking.

Once soup is boiling, reduce heat to low and continue to simmer and stir for at least an hour. By then, broccoli should be tender. Add shredded cheddar cheese and stir to melt. Serve right away, or keep on low until ready to serve.

What makes this meal for the birthday girl, is the soup being in bread bowls. You can buy bread loaves at the store, but I find they never come in enough quantity, so I make them to be cheaper.

Either way, once ready to serve, cut top of loaf at slight angle. Remove top and then press loaf down into sides, to create the bowl. Ladle in soup into bread bowl and enjoy!

I'll end with a silly pic that we always have to do for her birthday!

Did you know?
On this day in 1616, Nicholas Culpeper was born (died Jan 10, 1654). He was an English botanist and herbalist.  He published the 'Complete Herbal' (1653) containing a comprehensive list of English medicinal herbs and their uses.