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Main Dish: Shangri-Lee Lobster with Crispy Spinach
Dessert: Double Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Leaves
Beverage Bar: Top Hat Shooters
Centerpiece: White Elegance
Music: Harry Connick, Jr., We Are
in Love
For more ideas, browse the Wedding & Anniversary Issue of the Semi-Homemade®
web magazine.
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Elegant
Anniversaries
An anniversary is a golden opportunity to celebrate, so get everybody
in the mood with some sentimental love songs. For a nostalgic color scheme,
try wedding day white, accented with fresh touches of green and gold.
Keep the basics simple, adding designer details to make it special - white
china dressed up with inexpensive gold chargers and clear glassware accessorized
with green fabric ivy twirled gracefully up the stems. Extend the motif
to fanned white napkins encircled with a sprig of ivy and an elegant
white floral centerpiece in tones from snow white to ecru. Treat guests
to food that’s equally romantic – sumptuous Shangri-Lee
Lobster and Double Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Leaves (see recipe
below), finished off with a congratulatory toast to Top
Hat Shooters.
Double Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Leaves
Serves 18
| INGREDIENTS: | |
| CAKE and FROSTING: | |
| 1 | box (18.25-ounce) devil’s food cake mix, Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe® |
| 1 1/3 | cups water |
| 1/2 | cup vegetable oil |
| 3 | eggs |
| 2 | containers (16 ounces each) dark chocolate frosting, Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy® |
CHOCOLATE LEAVES: |
|
| 1/2 | cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels, Nestlé® |
| 1/2 | cup milk chocolate morsels, Nestlé® |
| Special equipment | |
| One 9-inch-diameter round cake pan with 3-inch-high sides | |
| One 6-inch-diameter round cake pan with 3-inch-high sides | |
| Twenty lemon leaves, washed and dried well | |
Prep time: 25 minutes, baking time: 35 minutes, cooling time: 1 hour
Chilling time: 20 minutes, decorating time: 25 minutes
PREPARATION:
for the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Butter and flour cake pans.
- Combine cake mix, water, oil, and eggs in large bowl.
- Beat for 3 minutes, or until well blended.
- Divide batter proportionately between prepared pans.
- Bake for 35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cakes comes out clean.
- Cool cakes in pans on cooling racks for 15 minutes. Invert cakes onto cooling racks and cool completely.
for the Frosting:
- Slice each cake horizontally in half.
- Place 9-inch cake top, cut side up, on serving platter.
- Spread 1/2 cup of frosting over cake; top with 9-inch cake bottom, cut side down.
- Place 6-inch cake top, cut side up, on work surface.
- Spread 1/4 cup of frosting over cake; top with 6-inch cake bottom, cut side down.
- Frost cakes with remaining frosting.
- Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
for the Chocolate Leaves:
- Line cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper.
- Melt each kind of chocolate separately in microwave for 1 1/2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, or until smooth.
- Using offset spatula, spread underside of leaves with melted chocolates.
- Place leaves, chocolate side up, on prepared cookie sheet.
- Do not allow chocolate to drip over leaf edges.
- Refrigerate until set, then peel away leaf.
- Place 6-inch cake atop 9-inch cake.
- Arrange chocolate leaves decoratively atop cakes.
