7 posts tagged “cake”
I haven't had chocolate cake (you know it's my favorite food from a previous post) since my blogiversary in April. And to get technical, I didn't actually eat my blogiversary cake on the actual day. It was a week before, so it's been a while.
We stayed in a lovely villa last week on our vacation. It came complete with our own private cook. The food was delicious! Every night was a four course dinner. Each evening I asked myself, "Is it going to be chocolate tonight?" No. It didn't happen. She could have thrown a little cinnamon in and called it Mexican Chocolate Cake. I didn't care. When the craving hits, I'm not picky. (I've been known to eat a spoonful of cocoa in a pinch).
So this week, guess what was on my to do list? Chocolate Cake. I found a new recipe, set aside Monday afternoon, and then realized no baking soda was to be found. (I had used the last of the box when I washed towels. Helpful hint: Add 1/2 c. baking soda to your rinse cycle to freshen up towels. This works magic folks). Maybe it exists, but I couldn't quickly find a chocolate cake recipe without baking soda. Defeated, I hoped that a little butter and sugar would help me forget about my chocolate craving. I had peaches, so pound cake was the direction I went.
This recipe from Nancie McDermotts' Southern Cakes, is a geniune pound cake: equal weights of butter, sugar, flour and eggs. I halved the recipe and made a 1/2 pound cake. Caution: This does not make it any more low-fat or low-sugar. It's just a smaller cake.
1/2 Pound Cake
Adapted from Waddad Habeeb Buttross's Classic Pound Cake of Southern Cakes
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 pound (about 1 1/2 + 1/3 cups) confectioner's sugar
3 eggs
1/2 pound (about 2 cups) sifted flour
1/2 t. vanilla
Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease one 9x5 inch loaf pan.
IN a large mixing bowl, beat the butter at high speed, scraping down the bowl once, until creamy and smooth, about 1 minute. Add the confectioners' sugar and continue beating to combine well, scraping down the bowl often, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating just enough each time to mix the egg into the batter.
Add the flour and beat at low speed, or stir with a large sppon, until it disappears. Stir in the vanilla, and then scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until the cake is golden and springs back when touched lightly in the center, and until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen cake with a knife and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely top side up.
P.S. Problem solved. Husband and I went out to eat last night and there was a delicious bite of chocolate cake in my bento box.
As of tomorrow, April 25, 2008, Tabicakes turns one! It's my blogiversary! Believe me, I'm as surprised as anyone. Honestly, I don't have the best track record at follow through. Let's see, I have yet to really start the family cookbook I said I would put together a couple of years ago, the dining room chair covers I made (three years ago) are on the chairs but have never been hemmed, and I could go on.
When I first started this blog, it was on a whim after I viewed a lot of food blogs. I saw some really wonderfully inspiring ones - Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and Tartelette - and some really terrible ones. Aiming to fall somewhere in the middle, I had a new camera, and nothing to loose. Are there future plans for my blog? I don't know. All I know is that in this moment, I enjoy it. Happy Birthday Tabicakes!
Normally I don't encourage "healthy" desserts for special occasions, but Husband and I still have that trip to Mexico next month. (Yikes! We better get busy). Besides, Tabicakes isn't a real person anyway. She'll be fine with a lighter cake.
This cake was delish! From Martha Stewart Living Magazine, Double-Chocolate Cake, was advertised as "You can have your cake and eat it too." Per serving: 261 calories, 8 g. fat, and cholesterol free.
My changes:
1. So there was a limited supply of leftovers, I halved the recipe and baked the batter in ramekins.
2. I cut the sugar in half again, so there was only a 1/4 of the sugar originally called for in the cake.
3. I used unsweetend chocolate in the glaze, so that was a little less sweet too.
Husband and I don't like super sweet desserts, so we thought these were fine changes. They made for an intense chocolate flavor.
I attended some sort of "leadership" retreat as a freshman in high school. I think all class officers from my school were in attendance. We did a lot of different games, met in focus groups, brainstormed...you know, activities that really got things accomplished and bettered the student body.
In one such activity I do remember having to answer a series of ridiculous questions. I'm not sure what the answers were used to prove. It could have been simply to "break the ice" or get us acquainted. The one question I remember was "What is your favorite food?" I easily answered, "chocolate cake." I noticed a few eyebrows were raised. Should I have said, "Pizza or Tacos," like everyone else?
Now when I think about that question, I wonder what I would answer. I definately love chocolate cake!, but I love a lot of different foods too. I think an artist friend put it well, when he was asked, "What is your favorite color?" His answer, "Of all the colors, I can't possibly pick one." Of all the foods....
I got a wonderful cookbook for Christmas: Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. It looks like it's going to be delicious! The other night, I tried Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Cookies. My "favorite food" in bite size pieces. I'm really excited. I've put some in the freezer, so now when I crave chocolate cake, I'll pull out a cookie or two and mmm, craving gone!
Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Cookies (adapted from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan)
2 1/4 c. flour
2 T cocoa
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 stick unsalted butter, at room temp.
1 1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. dried sour cherries
375 degrees. Whisk together first 5 ingredients.
Beat the butter until creamy and smooth. Add sugars and beat for 2 minutes. Add eggs one by one. Beat for another minute until smooth and satiny. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the vanilla and melted chocolate. With mixer still on low, add dry ingredients and sour cream alternately, begining and ending with dry ingredients. Mix only until incoporated and batter is smooth. Mix in cherries.
Drop batter onto baking sheets (I used a smallish cookie scoop), leaving 2 inches between spponfuls.
Bake 10-12 minutes.
It's been a snowy December! Last year at Christmas time, I fell in love with a snowman cake pan from Williams Sonoma. Unfortunately, it was not among my packages under the tree. :( Not able to give up on owning this very cute pan, I ordered at the first of the year on sale. This Christmas, I brought it out of storage to make my very own Frosty.
Working with this cake was much like working with snow...not so easy. The medium is tricky and not easy to manipulate! What's so special about this pan is that you fill two halves of the snowman with batter, a front and a back. After baking, you stand up the two halves together and viola!...a 3-D cake!
You do not need glasses. My cake is lying down. In the assembly process, Frosty's head popped off one of the halves, melting (pun intended) my dream of a real life snowman. I think he still turned out pretty cute.
I used Classic Coconut Cake recipe from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott (a birthday gift cookbook). It's a pretty tasty cake, so whether you have a fancy pan or not, try it.
Classic Coconut Cake (adapted from Nancy McDermott-Southern Cakes)
3 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
1 cup coconut milk
1 c. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2 9-inch cake pans with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Using a fork, mix them together well. Stir the vanilla into the milk.
Beat the butter with a mixer at medium speed until creamy. Add sugar and continue beating until mixture is light and evenly combined, scraping sides occasionally. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, until mixture is smooth and thick.
Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the batter and beat well at low speed. Then add about 1/2 of the milk to the batter, beating well. Continue beating as you add another 1/3 of the four mixture, followed by the rest of the milk, and then remaining flour, beating well each time until the batter is very thick and smooth.
Quickly scrape the batter into the prepared cake pans, dividing it evenly, and place them in the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the cakes are golden brown, spring back when touched lightly in the center, and begin to pull away from the sides of the pans.
Frost. (I used a normal frosting recipe, substituting coconut milk for milk. Sprinkle coconut on the frosted cake before frosting has time to harden).
Frosty's remnants were turned into a blueberrry trifle for the next Christmas gathering.
I wasn't home when I received the call late in the afternoon from husband. We had dinner plans. I LOVE having dinner plans! After a few phone calls back and forth, we had decided that we would invite the couple to our house for dessert after dinner. I had just a couple of hours before husband and our guests would arrive home to go to dinner. The house was a mess, and I volunteered to make dessert! Teamwork. While I finished my errands, husband looked up a dessert online and gave me a list of ingredients that I would need. I stopped off at the grocery store (my favorite place) on the way home.
Thankfully, Spiced Pumpkin Cake was a breeze to mix together. I followed the recipe, except for my substitutions of pecans for the walnuts and dried cherries for currents. I was even able to pick up the house while it baked. I topped it off with a regular cream cheese frosting instead of the one provided with the cake recipe. As I was in a time crunch, I didn't frost the whole cake. Frosting just between the layers and on top looked rustic and was much faster to put together. It was delicious!
I had a birthday this past weekend. A BIG one. A MATURE one. In fact, I'm so old that I received two cakes this year! I think every one had the ending of Happy Birthday in their mind, "..and many more..." The Classic Devil's Food Cake, above, was made by my loving husband. It was his first attempt at baking a cake. Good job. Very delicous. It looks nice, doesn't it? Applause!
My father made my second cake, Double Chocolate Layer Cake (left). This recipe is so good I have requested it two years in a row! Although, he has made cakes before, I think this was the most involved of them. Applause!
Thanks boys!
Yesterday was my dad's birthday. He and my mom came to town for a celebratory lunch. Though we went out for lunch, I made the cake for the occasion. It is a longtime family favorite: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cake. For those of you who love the irresistible combination of chocolate and peanut butter, this is for you! Happy birthday Dad!
