The "Best" Chocolate Cake...two ways

    I know it has been some time since I last posted and I do have a few recipes to share. I have made this particular chocolate cake recipe four times in the last month and just today I did a variation on the frosting, prompting me to finally write the post. This is a chocolate cake recipe that I found in "Quick Vegetarian Pleasures", a cookbook a friend of mine told me about many years ago. In fact, she made this cake for my daughter's 5th birthday while we were visiting them in Seattle in 1996.    

    It is an easy cake to whip up and is nearly foolproof, REALLY! The taste and texture is quite similar to my mom's "Never Fail Chocolate Cake" recipe which was the standard birthday cake in my house growing up. 

    A few months ago I splurged at TJ MAXX and bought two new cake pans. They are 9 inch pans and were of a heavier weight than the pans I had used for years. WHAT A DIFFERENCE they make. My cakes rise much higher now.  For this cake I have adjusted the quantities to 1.5 times the original. This makes the layers nice and thick and it looks great when you cut into it.

"Best" Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
3 1/3 cups flour

2 1/4 cups white sugar

3/4 cocoa(I use King Arthur Double Dutch Dark Cocoa)

2 1/4 tsp. baking soda

1+ tsp. salt

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 1/4 tsp. white vinegar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups warm water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour your cake pans and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the first 5 ingredients. Then make a well in the middle and add the oil, vinegar, vanilla and water and stir until well blended. You do NOT need to use an electric mixer.

Divide your batter evenly between the two pans and bake at 350 degrees for ~30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cakes cool about ten minutes before removing from pans and let cakes cool completely before frosting.

Option #1: Easy Chocolate Icing
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
12 TBS. butter, softened
1 egg

Melt chocolate chips in top of double boiler. In mixing bowl, cream butter until soft and smooth, then beat in egg. Pour in melted chocolate and then mix until smooth. Frost your cake right away and then chill the cake for at least one hour to help the frosting "set". Let the cake sit at room temperature for ~30 minutes before serving.

Option #2: Easy Caramel Icing

1 stick of butter
2 cups of brown sugar(firmly packed)
1/2 cup milk (I used 1/4 cup heavy cream and 1/4 cup skim milk)

~3-4 cups of confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
more milk or cream, as needed
~ 1/2 tsp. sea salt or espresso salt

In a medium saucepan, mix together the butter, brown sugar and milk/cream. Bring to a boil on medium heat and let boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

Then mix in the confectioner's sugar and vanilla. You may want to add more milk or cream to achieve your desired consistency.

   Frost your cake while the frosting is still slightly warm so that it is easier to spread. Sprinkle the top of your cake with sea salt or espresso salt(as I did). Because the caramel icing is quite sweet, the salt adds a nice contrast and it helps to balance the flavors. As the caramel sets, the frosting becomes firm, but not hard, so do not worry if it becomes difficult to frost. You can add more milk or simply put your knife in some hot water and then use it to smooth out the icing on the cake.
   So cut yourself a slice of cake, pour a glass of cold milk and sit down and enjoy.

yours in baking-

p

Amaretti Amore

   Midwinter is always a good time to mix things up and I decided to have an Italian Night....loving to bake as I do I wanted to bake some ridiculously elaborate cake, but decided to try making panna cotta instead(which I did and it was rather tasty). Of course, I still had to bake SOMETHING, so I decided to try my hand at making those delicious little almond cookies I always see in the orange and red tin..Amaretti. I found this recipe online and it seemed deceptively easy, much too easy to taste like the real thing, but they do! I made mine a little larger than the tiny little ones that I have seen before and I think the larger size lends itself to more of the moist chewy inside which I really like.

Amaretti Cookies

4 cups of slivered almonds

2 cups of granulated sugar

4 large egg whites

1 tsp. almond extract

confectioner's sugar

In a food processor, blend the almonds with the sugar until the mixture is very fine. Place in a large bowl.

Whip the egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Add the almond extract, and then fold gently into the almond/sugar mixture. Your "dough" should now look like almond paste...thick with a little sheen.

Prepare three cookie sheets with parchment paper and then place heaping tablespoons of the cookie dough onto the sheet. The cookies spread very little while baking so they can be relatively close together. Dust with confectioner's sugar and let the cookies set until dry(about two hours).

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and bake on the middle rack for 20-30 minutes or until the edges are just startign to turn G, B and D(golden, brown and delicious). Remove to a wire rack and then let cool. I baked only one sheet the first round to make sure they baked evenly, but I was able to bake the remaining two sheets the second round and just rotated the sheets twice during the cooking time. It worked just fine. I made about 40 cookies of the slightly larger than normal size.

These cookies keep well especially in the winter when my house is dry because of the wood stove. They are delicious served alongside a panna cotta or simply on their own with a cup of steaming espresso. 

enjoy-

yours in baking-

p

Grandma Meets Orville

 

POPCORN BALLS!

   If you are looking for an easy and simple treat, these are for you. An old family friend, Ola McAllister used to make these for me and my brothers when we were growing up and would go to visit her in Fryeburg, Maine. She was one of the best cooks I have ever met and she did all of her cooking on a wood stove with a wood fired oven. Her pies and rolls were to die for. Anyway, these are "Olie's" Popcorn Balls and use a traditional Maine sweetener, at least in my family....molasses.

Olie's Popcorn balls 

1 cup molasses (I use Grandma's, obviouly)

1/2 cup sugar

2 TBS. butter

1/2 tsp. salt 

1 (scant) TBS cider vinegar 

3/4- 1 cup unpopped popcorn (hence, the Orville) 

more butter for forming the balls 

First pop the popcorn. I used only 1/2 cup of popping corn(in an air popper) for this batch and I think that they are too sweet so I would increase the ratio of the popped corn to the molasses mixture. I think 3/4 cup should be fine, but you may even want to use the full cup. Remove any unpopped kernels and put popcorn in large bowl.

   On low heat, heat all other ingredients together, stirring frequently. Place a candy thermometer in the pan and keep a close eye on it until the temperature reaches 121 degrees Celcius (hard ball stage). Remove from heat and stir into popcorn mixture until popcorn is coated evenly. Let cool for a few minutes, then rub your hands together and form into balls. Let sit for a bit before enjoying. They should be crispy, sweet and delicious.

enjoy-

yours in baking-

patty