Butter Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I have taken it upon myself to dub myself as the official special occasion baker of the family. I don’t really think anyone minds so much. My mom is the only one who enjoys cooking and she’s not one for following recipes or trying out new recipes… she’s more of the “cooking” type, I suppose.

So, as the special occasion baker, I asked my brother whose birthday was Thursday, what he wanted me to bake for his birthday. My brother, Mike is one of the smartest, most creative people I know. I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of knowledge that is floating around in that head of his. He’s always been that way, too. But, aside from that… aside from the intelligence and creativity, he has a huge heart. And while it’s great to be smart and talented… having a big, open heart with lots of love to give is what I look up to the most in my big brother. For his birthday dessert, he simply asked for a yellow cake with chocolate icing. No problem.
The thing is… yellow cake is a color of cake… not a flavor! So, I waffled between a vanilla cake (which typically turns out white in color) and a butter cake (the more traditional yellow color). I finally decided on a butter cake after finding this recipe.

The icing… well, that was interesting. I wanted to make a buttercream. But, for whatever reason, like a dumb ass, I just made the recipe on the back of the Hershey's Dark Cocoa Box. Once I made it and tasted it, I decided that this wasn’t the frosting that I thought I was making… No, I wanted to make this frosting. But, I couldn’t find this recipe in my folder. This is one of those times that instead of being glad that I don’t have a computer at home…. I was quite frustrated. So, I had to find another buttercream recipe and decided to try one of Dorie’s buttercream recipes: Chocolate-Malt Buttercream. Except… I couldn’t remember if my brother liked Malt (incidentally, he does), so I left the malt out. I ended up using the dark frosting for decoration.

Anyway… long story short… This cake and frosting was a miss. The cake was dry and tasteless and the frosting was sweet and gritty (from the brown sugar). I think that not using the malt, made the frosting have less flavor, I should’ve amped up the chocolate since I was leaving the malt out.

I’ve not had a lot of luck with cake textures. It seems that I do well with chocolate cakes, they are usually pretty moist, but for whatever reason, I can’t get a really moist cake texture from any other cake. The cakes previously had still been good, but honestly… not as good and moist as a boxed cake. Which seems so weird to me. Homemade should be better, right?

The worst part is that when you bake for a special occasion you want it to be something really great. So, it sucks that my brother’s cake wasn’t really all that great. I’m not quite sure if it was the recipe or me (though, let’s be honest… the cake recipe was a 5 star recipe on Southern Living…. It must have been me), but I’m not giving up on cakes just yet.

Happy Birthday Mike! I’m sorry your cake kind of sucked.

Also…. As a side note, my blog also had a birthday of sorts… May 23rd was the one year anniversary of my blog! C-R-A-Z-Y!

For the Chocolate-Malt Buttercream

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup malted milk powder
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup boiling water
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted, butter, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
To Make the Buttercream: Melt the chocolate with half the brown sugar in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from the heat.

Whisk the malt powder and cocoa together in a small bowl, pour over 3 tablespoons of the boiling water and whisk until smooth. Whisking the melted chocolate gently, gradually pour in the hot malt-cocoa mixture and stir to blend—it should be dark, smooth and glossy; set aside.

Working with the stand mixer, preferably fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining brown sugar and beat for 2 to 3 minutes more, until well blended. Beat in the salt and vanilla extract, then reduce the mixer speed to low. Scrape in the chocolate mixture and mix until smooth. Still working on low speed, gradually add the confectioners' sugar. When all the sugar is in, increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for a couple of minutes. Lower the speed and add the remaining tablespoon of boiling water, then increase the speed and give the frosting another quick spin. It will be light and should be thick enough to use immediately. If it doesn't hold its shape, beat it just a bit more.

TWD: Fluted Polenta & Ricotta Cake

Cornbread is one of my most absolute favorite things in the whole entire world. My mom’s cornbread, especially. I love the crispy edges, the coarse but tender texture. Yum.

In my family… cornbread is always savory. We refer to sweet cornbread as yankee cornbread and because it’s just something so foreign to me and also because I like my sweet dishes to be sweet and my savory dishes to be savory… I’ve just never been a big fan of sweet cornbread… whether it was made for dinner or dessert.

So, yes, I was quite nervous about this recipe. I honestly, would have skipped it altogether, but I’m going to be out of town all next week and won’t be able to participate, so I knew that I needed to complete this week’s recipe.

It came together really easy. I used dried figs and also dried cherries in the recipe. And when it was made… all I could think was… wow, this is just like a really sweet piece of cornbread. So, I took my pictures and then proceeded to throw the rest away.

I wish I could shake this whole sweet vs savory texture thing… maybe one of these days my palate will mature enough for that.

Anyway, a lot of other people really liked this recipe… so if you like sweet cornbread and would like it as a dessert, you should definitely give this recipe a try. Also, be sure to check out the rest of the groups cakes at Tuesdays with Dorie

And thanks to Caitlin for picking such an unusual recipe this week! Check her blog out, too.. it’s really good! Engineer Baker

Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake

About 16 moist, plump dried Mission or Kadota figs, stemmed
1 c. medium-grain polenta or yellow cornmeal
½ c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 c. ricotta
1/3 c. tepid water
¾ c. sugar
¾ c. honey (if you’re a real honey lover, use a full-flavored honey such as chestnut, pine, or buckwheat)
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 10 ½-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom and put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.
Check that the figs are, indeed, moist and plump. If they are the least bit hard, toss them into a small pan of boiling water and steep for a minute, then drain and pat dry. If the figs are large (bigger than a bite), snip them in half.
Whisk the polenta, flour, baking powder, and salt together.
Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the ricotta and water together on low speed until very smooth. With the mixer at medium speed, add the sugar, honey, and lemon zest and beat until light. Beat in the melted butter, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until the mixture is smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are fully incorporated. You’ll have a sleek, smooth, pourable batter.
Pour about one third of the batter into the pan and scatter over the figs. Pour in the rest of the batter, smooth the top with a rubber spatula, if necessary, and dot the batter evenly with the chilled bits of butter.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. The cake should be honey brown and pulling away just a little from the sides of the panm, and the butter will have left light-colored circles in the top. Transfer the cake to a rack and remove the sides of the pan after about 5 minutes. Cool to warm, or cool completely.

TWD: Bills Big Carrot Cake

Generally, I don’t like surprises. Well, I should probably preface that statement with the following disclaimer: I do like surprises. But only if I have no idea that it’s coming. On the otherhand, if I know about something that is coming up… but it’s a surprise. I freaking HATE that. I’m the type that overanalyzes everything and so knowing that I’m going to be surprised by something in advance… drives me absolutely crazy. And not in a fun way… but in an irritable, cranky, and annoying way.

So, when I’m culinarily surprised by something… I tend to not like it. For example… let’s take sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are a vegetable and supposed to be like a potato (at least by their name). That means, to me they should taste like a yukon gold potato. They should be served alongside steak with lots of salt and butter. But, no. No, they are sweet and should be served for dessert not for dinner. You see.. that’s the problem.. I don’t want sweet food for dinner. I want savory food for entrees and sweet foods for dessert.

It is because of this rule I have about food, that I had never had carrot cake previous to my friend April’s wedding last year. I mean… first of all, I don’t even really like carrots and second of all… a carrot isn’t supposed to be sweet. It’s a vegetable. Someone mentioned to me that a carrot cake really just tastes like a spice cake. That you can’t taste the carrots. I started thinking… I do like spice cake. And lord knows I love cream cheese frosting. So, at Aprils wedding, I tasted the grooms cake which was a carrot cake and loved it! That was the first and last time I’ve had carrot cake… so I was pretty excited about this latest Dorie recipe.

When does a single gal need a whole cake? Well, sometimes… but, not this weekend.. so, I opted to Quarter the recipe and came out with 6 cupcakes. The cake was absolutely delicious! So moist and tender and full of flavor. I loved the addition of the nuts (I used pecans). And actually… I think I’ll make this recipe as muffins. I mean, the cake part was by far my favorite part (which usually, I’m a big frosting fan) and I think with some whole wheat flour they would make healthy, delicious muffins.

This was a definite winner for me and it will become my go-to carrot cake recipe from now on. Hooray for carrots. Thanks to Amanda from Slow Like Honey (you should check her blog out anyway, it's awesome) and be sure to check out all the other Carrot Cake posts over at Tuesdays with Dorie

Bill's Big Carrot Cake
Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Yields 10 servings

Ingredients:

For the cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
3 cups grated carrots (about 9 carrots, you can grate them in food processor fitted w/ a shredding a blade or use a box grater)
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
½ cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden) or dried cranberries
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 large eggs

For the frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick ( 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 pound or 3 and ¾ cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract
½ cup shredded coconut (optional)
Finely chopped toasted nuts and/or toasted shredded coconut (optional)

Getting ready:
Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter three 9-x-2-inch round cake pans, flour the insides, and tap out the excess. Put the two pans on one baking sheet and one on another.

To make the cake:
Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir together the carrots, chopped nuts, coconut, and raisins.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the sugar and oil together on a medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one by one and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear. Gently mix the chunky ingredients. Divide the batter among the baking pans.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point, until a thin knife inserted into the centers comes out clean. The cakes will have just started to come away from the sides of the pans. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes and unmold them. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.
The cakes can be wrapped airtight and kept at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to 2 months.

To make the frosting:
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the frosting is velvety smooth. Beat in the lemon juice or extract.
If you'd like coconut in the filling, scoop about half of the frosting and stir the coconut into this position.

To assemble the cake:
Put one layer top side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. If you added the coconut to the frosting, use half of the coconut frosting to generously cover the first layer (or generously cover with plain frosting). Use an offset spatula or a spoon to smooth the frosting all the way to the edges of the layer. Top with the second layer, this time placing the cake stop side down, and frost with the remainder of the coconut frosting or plain frosting. Top with the last layer, right side up, and frost the top- and the sides- of the cake. Finish the top with swirls of frosting. If you want to top the cake with toasted nuts or coconut, sprinkle them on now while the frosting is soft.
Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes, just to set the frosting before serving.

Serving:
This cake can be served as soon as the frosting is set. It can also wait, at room temperature and covered with a cake keeper overnight. The cake is best served in thick slices at room temperature and while it's good plain, it's even better with vanilla ice cream or some lemon curd.

Storing:
The cake will keep at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. It can also be frozen. Freeze it uncovered, then when it's firm, wrap airtight and freeze for up to 2 months. Defrost, still wrapped, overnight in the refrigerator.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cake with Cream Cheese and Butterfinger Frosting

My family never celebrates anything on the correct date. Like, seriously, my immediate family is allergic to pre-set schedules. I don't even think my parents own a calendar. It kind of drives me crazy in a way, but I'm used to it by this point. Their constant spontaneity has turned me into a little bit of an OVERplanner.

It's refreshing in a way. To know that they live life by their seat of the pants. A lot of people are too scared to do that (me). A lot of people like to know when they aren't going to be in town in advance so they can pre-plan the previous weeks in preparation for the trip(me).

Anyway... long story short. My family celebrated Easter one weekend after Easter. Ham, deviled eggs, the whole bit. Strangely missing were easter baskets, but whatever. I'm 28, I'm not going to complain about that. Too much.

So, family get togethers are awesome for me, because I get to make a full-size recipe of something decadent. I searched through my recipe folder and came across this recipe. It was noted as being from Bon Appetit originally. But, I'm sure I got this recipe from someone else's blog. Unfortunately, I didn't put that blog link on the recipe (like I usually do).

I really enjoyed making this cake. I made it in about 3 different stages in about 3 different days and I eagerly anticipated the final day... putting all the delicious components together. But, I think I had overloaded on all the individual components to the point where the final product wasn't as awesome as I had expected it to be. It was delicious, don't get me wrong. But, not quite as delicious as I thought it was going to be.

A few notes on the cake: It's supposed to be a 3 layer cake, but I only have two cake pans, so I made it a two layer cake. For whatever reason, I didn't split the filling recipe in half though, which is why my filling is SO thick. But, it was good that it was thick, because it wasn't too rich at all. My cakes seriously feel in the centers, as you can tell by the cake. I probably should have ran my knife along the edges as soon as I pulled it from the oven and I probably should have leveled the layers out with a serrated knife. Life and Learn.

Anyway, this cake is really good (the peanut butter cake is very light in peanut flavor, I think I would add more peanut butter next time, but it's so moist!) and though it seems kind of daunting, it's totally not.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Cream Cheese and Butterfinger Frosting

Begin preparing the cake one day before.

Filling:
2 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
12 oz bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used semi sweet chips)
1/2 cup old-fashioned (natural) chunky peanut butter (I used smooth JIF)

Cake:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
10 tbsps unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup old fashioned (natural) chunky peanut butter
1 pound brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Frosting:
1 1/2 8 oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature (basically 12 oz of cream cheese)
2 cups powdered sugar, divided
6 tbps unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
Butterfinger candy bars, coarsely chopped

For filling:
Bring cream and sugar to simmer in saucepan, whisking to dissolve sugar (this took me a LONG time, I dont think I had the heat up enough to start). Remove from heat. Add chocolate; let stand 1 minute. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in peanut butter. Chill uncovered overnight.

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter three 9 inch diameter cake pans with 1 1/2 inch high sides. Line bottoms with Parchment paper (I then buttered the parchment paper, too). Sift first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and peanut butter until blended. Beat in sugar. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then vanilla. At low speed, beat in flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions.

Divide batter among pans and spread evenly. Bake cakes until tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool cakes 5 minutes. Turn out onto racks, peel off parchment paper. Cool cakes completely.

For frosting:
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Whisk whipping cream and 3/4 cup powdered sugar in bowl until mixture holds medium-firm peaks. Fold into cream cheese mixture in 3 additions; chill until firm but spreadable, about one hour.

Place one cake layer, bottom side up, on a 9 inch round tart pan bottom. Spread half of filling. Place another layer, bottom side up, on work surface. Spread with remaining filling; place atop first layer. Top with remaining cake layer, bottom side up.

Spread frosting over top and sides of cake. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome; chill. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours before continuing). Press candy onto top and sides of cake.

Makes 12 servings
Bon Appetit

Tuesdays with Dorie: Gooey Chocolate Baby Cakes

This weekend, my friend April came to visit me!

How serendipitous that this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was the perfect thing to make for her visit!

Now, I’ve had Chocolate Molten cakes before at like Chili’s or Ruby Tuesday’s or somewhere equally as crappy. But it wasn’t something that I ever considered making myself. I mean… it seemed like the perfect “only when you go out to a restaurant” type of dessert. Ya know? Lord knows some things I should never attempt on my own. Particularly an easy and delicious recipe like this one!

The timing worked out perfectly, also… I knew that April was having dinner with her family and then would be at my place around 8:30/9:00pm. So, I started making these cakes at about 8:10. By 8:40ish, I was pulling these out of the oven and going downstairs to meet her.

By the time we got around to eating them… around 9:00, they weren’t hot, but they were lusciously oozy and gooey and delicious. Perfect with a glass of milk. I even had one the next morning and it was delicious then, too!



Later on in the weekend (after we had already eaten the all the cakes), I saw someone make little cakes like these on television and then I realized.... ohhhhhh.... right, you're supposed to turn the cakes over upside down to serve them! I forgot to do that. Oh well. I'm not a very good food stylist, apparently. I was too busy preparing to eat these suckers!

Soundtrack: Ummm.. well, I was flipping television channels between NCAA basketball and TLC’s What Not to Wear, sooo… no soundtrack this time.

Recipe Notes:
I halved the recipe and ended up with 4 baby-cakes that I made in a regular muffin pan.

I also used different ratios of chocolate (because I’m not a huge dark chocolate fan, although I knew that April was…) I used ½ bittersweet, 1/4 semi-sweet, and ¼ milk chocolate.

This is April... modeling a piece...

Thanks Leigh aka Lemon Tartlet ! This was a great choice!

Gooey Chocolate Cake
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate,
4 ounces coarsely chopped,
1 ounce very finely chopped
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
6 tablespoons of sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. butter (or spray – it’s easier) 6 cups of a regular-size muffin pan, preferably a disposable aluminum foil pan, dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. Put the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Sift the flour, cocoa and salt together.

Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, put the coarsely chopped chocolate and the butter in the bowl and stir occasionally over the simmering water just until they are melted – you don’t want them to get so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the pan of water.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and yolk until homogenous. Add the sugar and whisk until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add the dry ingredients and, still using the whisk, stir (don’t beat) them into the eggs. Little by little, and using a light hand, stir in the melted chocolate and butter. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle the finely chopped chocolate over the batter.

Bake the cakes for 13 minutes. Transfer them, still on the baking sheet, to a rack to cool for 3 minutes. (There is no way to test that these cakes are properly baked, because the inside remains liquid.)

Line a cutting board with a silicone baking mat or parchment or wax paper, and, after the 3-minute rest, unmold the cakes onto the board. Use a wide metal spatula to lift the cakes onto dessert plates.

Guinness Chocolate Mini Cake

You know what's frustrating? When you have the perfect idea and everything goes great, and you get so excited that its going to be complete and utter awesomeness and then its time for the finale and it goes straight to hell. Well, at least presentation-wise? Yeah, welcome to my baking adventures this past weekend.

I had some leftover Guinness from my St. Pattys Day shindig and since I try not to drink much booze while marathon training, I decided to use some in a cake recipe instead! (I can swear off booze, but I can't swear off sugar... interesting, huh?).

I bought these cute little mini-pans ages ago and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use them. Well, that opportunity presented itself this weekend, when I had a chocolate craving and nobody in town to share a cake with.

I decided to use Ina Garten's Beatty Cake recipe that I printed out ages ago and instead of using hot coffee in the recipe... I'd use Guinness... Guinness in cake, you say? Brilliant! (I couldnt resist).

I ended up quartering the recipe. Which turned out to fit perfectly in the three little cake pans. They were each 4 inch cake pans. As they were baking, I was trying to decide what type of frosting I wanted to use... I decided I wanted something creamy and chocolatey, but that I'd also like to use some Guinness in the frosting as well. So.... I decided to adapt a cream cheese frosting recipe into a chocolate cream cheese guinness frosting. Yes, you read that right.... Chocolate. Cream Cheese. Guinness. Frosting. Oh my.

So, you can see where the excitement came from. I was so excited to taste this chocolately, booze-y, decadence in cake form... that I didn't even consider the fact that the cake was actually taller than it was round (since it was in petite form) or doing a crumb coat with the frosting and then chilling the cake in the fridge for a bit. Noooooo Sir... I immedately went to frosting that whole blame cake eagerly awaiting the moment that I could slice into it and produce the most beautiful tantilizing piece O' cake you've ever seen.

And thats when this happened.

The whole thing basically fell completely apart. Into a giant chocolatey mess on my maternal Step Grandfather's first wives China.

Sigh. At least it tasted brilliant! Soooooooooo delicious once chilled and the flavors melded. Yum. I will definitely make this in regular size at some point.

Cake Recipe follow exactly, except instead of 1 cup of Hot coffee use 1 cup of Guinness. I also used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa.

Guinness Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2tbsps Cocoa
2 tbsp Guinness
1 16 oz package of powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter at low speed until creamy. Add vanilla, cocoa, and guinness and beat till mixed. Slowly add powdered sugar until creamy and fluffy.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Almost Fudge Gateau

It's kind of weird when you can't pronounce the name of what you've cooked. I found myself telling people about this cake and I had to always spell the Gateau part. I knew I should have taken french instead of Latin. Dumb dead language.

Anyway, this cake came together like a dream! There was lots of folding involved in mixing the batter, but I found it kind of soothing in a strange, OCD type of way. For my first Tuesdays with Dorie post, it was awesome!

One thing though... I don't like bittersweet chocolate. I don't really care for any dark chocolate to be honest with you. I know, milk chocolate is like the ugly red headed step child of the chocolate world. But, I can't help it. It's sweet and creamy and delicious. Blame it on my mom. All the sweets we had in the house were made from milk chocolate.

So, I didn't really care for the flavor of the cake. I used some semi-sweet chocolate in the glaze, hoping to sweeten it up a bit, but it was still pretty bitter. The texture of this cake is amazing though! So, if you love bittersweet chocolate, this is the cake for you! And you can come over anytime in the next 2 months and I'll defrost a piece for you!

When I originally started this blog, I wanted to incorporate the music that I listened to while I baked, but for whatever reason, I bailed on that part. So, I'm going to make it apart of my Tuesdays with Dorie Posts.

This cake was made while listening to Holopaw's self-titled album: Holopaw. (Which is fitting, because I actually don't know how to pronounce Holopaw either).

Enjoy!

Chosen by Nikki of Crazy Delicious

Almost-Fudge Gâteau
5 large eggs
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup of sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons coffee or water
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt

For the Glaze (optional)
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons light corn syrup

Getting Ready:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, butter the paper, dust the inside of the pan with flour and tap out the excess. Place the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Separate the eggs, putting the whites in a mixer bowl or other large bowl and the yolks in a small bowl.

Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and add the chocolate, sugar butter and coffee. Stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are melted; the sugar may still be grainy, and that's fine. Transfer the bowl to the counter and let the mixture sit for 3 minutes.

Using a rubber spatula, stir in the yolks one by one, then fold in the flour.
Working with the whisk attachment of the mixer or a hand mixer, beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until they hold firm, but glossy peaks. Using the spatula, stir about one quarter of the beaten whites into the batter, then gently fold in the rest. Scrape the butter into the pan and jiggle the pan from side to side a couple of times to even the batter.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the cake has risen evenly (it might rise around the edges and you'll think it's done, but give it a few minutes more, and the center will puff too) and the top has firmed (it will probably be cracked) and doesn't shimmy when tapped; a thin knife inserted into the center should come out just slightly streaked with chocolate. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let the cake rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

Run a blunt knife gently around the edges of the cake and remove the sides of the pan. Carefully turn the cake over onto a rack and remove the pan bottom and the parchment paper. Invert the cake onto another rack and cool to room temperature right side up. As the cake cools, it may sink.

To Make the Optional Glaze:

First, turn the cooled cake over onto another rack so you'll be glazing the flat bottom, and place the rack over a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper to catch any drips.

Put the chocolate in a small heatproof bowl.

Melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water or in a microwave oven – the chocolate should be just melted and only warm, not hot. Meanwhile, bring the cream to a boil in a small sauce pan. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir very gently with a rubber spatula until the mixture is smooth and shiny. Stir in the corn syrup.

Pour the glaze over the cake and smooth the top with a long metal icing spatula. Don't worry if the glaze drips unevenly down the sides of the cake – it will just add to its charms. Allow the glaze to set at room temperature or, if you're impatient, slip the cake into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. If the glaze dulls in the fridge, just give it a little gentle heat from a hairdryer.

Caramel Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

Meet my parents. They just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary a couple weekends ago and since they were out of town for the actual date, I decided to host a dinner party in their honor this past weekend to celebrate.

They have quite possibly the cutest love story I've ever heard. You wanna hear it? Okay, I'll give you the short version.

Basically, My mom was 16 and my dad was 23 and just gotten home from his stint in the army. They had a mutual friend who introduced them at the county fair. That was probably in August/September. At the time, my mom had a boyfriend, so even though the mutual friend had given my dad my mom's phone number, he didn't call her. Fast Forward a few weeks, and they're all hanging out at the town square, cruising around and whatnot. Now, my mom is riding in the car with her boyfriend, sees my dad in his car and she gives him a little wave. That wave is why my brothers and I are even here, folks. That one little wave sparked a relationship that is 40 years long and still going. He took that wave as a sign and finally called her. They were married a couple months later in January. Talk about a whirlwind romance. They probably only really dated for 3-4 months and got married. Not engaged. Married.

It's a great story. And ever since I've been little and dreamed of my future husband, I always kind of think that it's going to happen like that. That there is just going to be this immediate connection with someone, where you know it's right. I don't think it happens that way for everyone... but, I have a feeling it's going to happen that way for me. It's in my blood ;)

So, yeah, back to the dinner party. I wanted to make a cake to celebrate and I saw this cake on Jennifer's awesome blog a few weeks ago and when I saw it, I immediately bookmarked it for this occasion.
I did alter it a bit, though. Instead of making the caramel filling, I cheated and used caramel in a squeeze bottle. I squirted it over the bottom layer, put it in the freezer for a bit to harden up and then I put some of the frosting over it. I doubled the frosting to make sure I'd have enough and I still have a ton of the frosting left that I need to figure out something to do with. But, oh my god, y'all. This frosting is amazing! Honestly, the cake part sucked. It was really dry and flavorless (maybe I overbaked it?), but the frosting.... ohhhhh the frosting. It made up for the tasteless cake part. And I mean, honestly.. isn't the cake just a vehicle for the frosting?

Happy Anniversary mom and dad! Before you know it, you'll be celebrating your 50th!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

I love cake. I know I've mentioned that a few times before, but seriously... cake is the ultimate tongue pleaser. It's moist (if you're lucky), it's sweet, and it's topped off with an even sweeter, creamy topping.

Now, as much as I love cake, I'm not a huge cupcake fan. For a couple of reasons... mainly, I find cupcakes hard to eat. I could probably fix this problem, by breaking out a plate and a fork, but it's cupcake... it's supposed to be portable, right?? I'm supposed to be able to pick it up and chow into it. And that's exactly what I do. And I wind up with frosting all over my face, chin, and down the front of my shirt. Brilliant. I also find cupcakes to usually be duller than their big cake counterparts. They are usually drier and there isn't that nice center layer of icing that permeates into the cake layers... thats my favorite part of the cake, the parts around the center layer of icing. Yum.

But, since I don't have a cavalry of kids (yet) or co-workers to dole out slices of cake to, the cupcake is a good option for me to test out cake recipes and icing recipes. So, in the coming weeks, I plan to teach myself about the different types of frostings out there.

Friday night was my first venture. I decided to go for a very basic cupcake recipe and then try multiple types of frosting to go with it. The recipe I chose was Amy Sedaris' Vanilla Cupcakes. I love Amy Sedaris, too, so it was fun to test one of her recipes!

When the cupcakes first came out of the oven, they were terrible! Seriously, they tasted like crap (I snuck some crumbs off one of the cupcakes) and I was so disappointed. But, after they completely cooled (till the next day) they turned out to be really delicious. A really excellent vanilla cupcake.

I went ahead and first tried the icing with the cupcake recipe. It's basically a vanilla icing made of powdered sugar, half and half and vanilla and I was not a fan. Too sweet, too grainy, not creamy enough. Luckily, I only made enough for 2 cupcakes, so the rest of my cupcakes sit in my kitchen awaiting further frosting experimentation. Yay!

Especially Dark Chocolate Cake

My parents have taken a couple of european extravaganza trips the past couple of years and one of the places that they visited was Versailles. Now, they took about 13 thousand pictures on that trip, but the pictures of Versailles and the stories they had to go along with it was incredible. It is now at the top of my list. Definitely.

So, that started a little interest in Versailles and the French Revolution... now, I'm also a really big Sofia Coppola fan and after a recommendation from my friend April, I checked out the movie Marie Antoinette. And now, I want to read this book. I mean, I'm pretty sure I know just about everything about Marie Antoinette, cause I'm sure the movie is completely historically accurate, right? Of course!

Okay, so I know... who cares that I'm into this french history stuff, right? Well, when I think of cake, I always think of Marie Antoinette.... Let them eat cake! (Which according to the movie, she actually never said... which contradicts my 7th grade history book which emphatically said that she did say that). Regardless... I love the quotation, because I love cake. And I'm loving it more and more the more I make it.

Seriously. Cake has to be the easiest baked item to make. Easier than the box, even! As I've mentioned before, I dont get the opportunity to make cakes very often, as you kind of need a big crowd to bake a cake for(although, stay tuned, I'm working on changing this). And I had just such an occasion this week! Hooray!

I hosted an Ugly Christmas Sweater Dinner Party for my family! And I decided to bake a glorious chocolate cake!

First of all, let me just say, that I'm probably going to get killed for posting this picture, but I can't resist, we just all looked so damn snazzy in our Christmas Sweaters...

So, for the cake, I decided to just make the recipe on the back of the Hershey's Cocoa Special Dark box.


It is delicious! So moist! So chocolatey! So rich! Yum. And, it's pretty forgiving, too. I left out a full cup of sugar and didn't realize it until I had already poured it into my two baking pans. I happened to taste the batter before I put it in the oven and I thought... hmmm.. that isnt very sweet at all. So, I referred back to the recipe and realized... I only measured one cup! Yikes! So, I put a half cup in each pan and stirred it around in the pan. I was a little nervous that it wouldn't dissolve very well, since it hadn't been mixed with the mixer. But, you couldn't tell!


Now, that's my kind of recipe.


The only change I made was I used buttermilk in the cake instead of regular milk.

Hershey's Especially Dark Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water (I think some people use hot coffee)
Especially Dark Chocolate Frosting (recipe follows)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9 inch baking pans.
Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes.
Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared Pans.
Bake 30-35 minutes (I think I only baked mine for about 25 minutes, so start watching it at 25) or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely and frost. Serves 10-12

Especially Dark Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup Special Dark Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk (might need more)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to a spreading consistency. Add small amount of additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups of frosting.

Thanks Jason for the photos!

Italian Cream Cake

My mom’s birthday was Friday.

Happy Birthday Mom!

And so a couple of weeks ago, I asked her what she wanted for dessert for her birthday. She really didn’t hesitate at all, but said… Italian Cream Cake. I had no idea what the hell an Italian Cream Cake was, but I was very excited because it had the word “cake” in the title.

Ever since I’ve started this blog I’ve wanted an excuse to bake a cake. But, you can’t really ship cakes and the idea of making a cake for just me… well, its kind of sad (but that alone wouldn’t have stopped me, trust me) and its also just too calorically tempting to have a whole cake sitting around begging to be consumed.

So, finally… a cake!!! I started off by googling Italian Cream Cake and then I realized that it’s basically a cake for those of us who love pecans, cream cheese, coconut, and moist cakes. Jackpot.

I did further research and found that Jennifer at Bake or Break had used the southern living recipe and hers looked awesome! So, I printed the recipe and read through it and don’t forget the icing recipe

It sounded really easy.

Now, let me preface this by saying, I’ve only made two cakes from scratch before. One was a coconut cake for Christmas (which was VERY difficult and required lots of strange ingredients, but very tasty) and the other was Martha Stewarts Red Velvet Cake (which, again, I remember being kind of hard to make, but yummy!!!!) for Thanksgiving one year. So, I kind of expected Cakes in general to be difficult to make.

This one was a breeze! Really… from the batter to the icing, it was really easy. And even though I couldn’t make this in my kitchen (still no fridge), I did get to use my housewarming gift from Steph & Justyn!!!!!! My new mixer!!!! See how pretty she is?? I named her Betty.

Betty is my 9 speed kitchen aid mixer (she also has matching bowls!!!!). And Betty kicks some major ass in the mixing department. I used her for both the batter and the icing. Awesome.

Okay, so back to the recipe. It is delicious. It’s not a super moist cake, it’s more of a dense, thick cake. Very mild flavor, but incredible. Normally, I hate cold cake, but I actually like this cake straight out of the fridge instead of after it’s been sitting around for awhile. This is definitely going to be made again. Yum.

By the way… I have a guest photographer for this entry, my brother Jason took the pics of the cake. He better watch out, or I’m going to be calling him over twice a week to take photos for me!

Sour Cream Pound Cake

So, what’s better than spending an afternoon baking all day?

Doing it with your best friend!

Saturday, My friend Steph (formerly known as SQB… hey, I try to be careful with people’s online identities and make sure it’s okay with them before I use their name… so, back off) and I decided to have a baking party! Well, it was more like a baking date. I think the rule is you must have at least 3 people for a party… two and it’s just a date. So, Baking Date!

We decided on making a Pound Cake recipe that she had and then we each picked a cookie recipe to make, too!!

3 recipes in one day!!! Were we crazy?? Maybe, but it was really fun!

So, I’m going to go ahead and post the Pound Cake recipe now... and then she is going to type up an entry for her cookies and then I’ll post my cookies later, too!

So, this is a Sour Cream Pound Cake Recipe from Steph’s friend Julie’s Mom. (Say it out loud and you’ll get it). We decided to break the recipe into 4 mini loaves and use almond extract for 2 and vanilla extract for the other 2.

Things started off well, if by well you mean, having your handheld mixer die on you when you start to cream the butter and the sugar!

RIP........... GE Electric Handheld Mixer

The handheld mixer had a good run. It’s been around for 35+ years. Strangely enough, it was my fault and not old age that led to its ultimate demise. You see, the cord fell out of the base and instead of looking and gingerly placing it back in, I just picked it up and jammed it in back in there. My lack of attention to detail caused one of the prongs to give up and die. After attempting with tweezers to rectify the situation, we bailed and pulled out the cuisinart.

Anyway, the recipe was pretty easy. This was only the 2nd pound cake recipe, I’ve ever made (the other being a cream cheese pound cake) and it easy and straightforward.

The mini loaves made things a little interesting, because we had a hard time making sure they were done. They puffed up a lot and the outside edges got really browned, but the center stayed uncooked. Eventually, they cooked all the way through and I think we pulled them out maybe 3-4 minutes too late. But, regardless, they are delicious!

Sour Cream Pound Cake
1 cup butter
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 ½ tsp extract (vanilla, almond, etc.. whatever you want)
3 cups flour
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
½ pint sour cream

Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar with a mixer (or, in our case, a food processor). Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Add extract.

Add dry ingredients alternating with the sour cream.

Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven in 2 loaf pans for 1 hour. (Our mini loaves took about 40 minutes).

Doesn't it look so pretty???

Low calorie=crap.

Well, that's probably a little too harsh of a title. But this didn't exactly turn out the way I had envisioned.

It was supposed to be a chocolate sponge cake that has like 50 calories per slice. I've never made a sponge cake, so maybe that's to blame... but it turned out to be more like a rubber pancake than a spongy cake.

It kinda looks pretty though doesn't it? The cool whip (I can't say whip without over pronouncing the "h" ever since I saw that episode of family guy) and strawberries tasted good! There's a low cal dessert recipe for ya!

Yeah, no more low cal sponge cakes for me...

The Dump Cake

Yes, yes, the title alone will elicit numerous snickers from your friends and family. That is until they taste it, and then the name never sounds funny. "Did you just say dump cake? Where??? Who's making one??" Dump Cake is no laughing matter.

It's so named because you literally dump all the ingredients (in a specified order) into a 13x9 inch baking dish and in an hour... voila... you have a creamy, buttery, crunchy, healthy (well... okay, so its probably not healthy, but it does have fruit in it) cake. The first time my mom made this, I was a little put off by the idea of cherries and pineapple in a cake. It just didn't sound appetizing to me. Boy, was I wrong.

It's really hard to explain, the only thing I can say is... try it... you won't be disappointed. If you ever need to take a dessert to a potluck dinner, this would be a good one. All the ingredients (except the butter, which I already had) cost me $7.50 and took me about 5 minutes to prepare.

It's better once you let it set and cool. And yes, it's supposed to be a little gooey.

And now... without further adieu... I give you....

The Dump Cake

15 oz can cherry pie filling (I used no sugar added)
15 oz can crushed pineapples (I used no sugar added)
1 box yellow cake mix
¾ cup butter, melted
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350.

Dump the cherry pie filling and pineapple contents into the bottom of a 13x9 inch pan. Spread over bottom of pan.

Sprinkle the box of yellow cake mix over fruit.

Drizzle the melted butter evenly over the top of the cake mix.

Sprinkle chopped pecans over the top and place in oven and cook for about 50 minutes to an hour.

(Don't mind the size in the picture, I made a half cake this weekend).

Yes, it will appear a little powdery on top, thats okay. Mmmm... this is what comfort food is all about.