Well, I almost didn't make this because I wasn't in the mood to make TWO batters. Then I read the P&Q and everyone said it was amazing. So I got a burst of energy this afternoon and while child #1 was coloring in her new $1 coloring book from Target and child #2 was sleeping, I whipped these babies up. The concept is a layer of brownies (sans nuts for me) topped with a layer of chocolate chip cookies (I made butterscotch-toffee). Everyone in the P&Q said not to overbake, so I was (overly) cautious. Mine ended up being basically cookie dough in the middle, even though the tester didn't come out batter-y. The outside pieces were fabulous- crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The brownie layer and cookie layer separately were SO good, and together.... well, you'll have to make these to truely experience the goodness! Check out Beth's blog for the recipe!
Ok, I was pretty excited to make this month's Cake Slice Bakers cake because I am pretty sure I could live on chocolate cake. And who knows, maybe this could be the cake I would chose to live on? I had my doubts, though, because my all-time, #1 favorite cake pretty much takes the cake.
This cake is a devil's food cake made with brown sugar and cocoa powder. I halved mine and misread the amount of butter (I thought it said 9T instead of 9 oz. whoops). The cake was still great, if a little dry. The frosting is a brown sugar italian meringue buttercream, where the sugar is cooked and added to whipped egg whites. I was underwhelmed by the frosting; I'd much prefer chocolate frosting! :)
Mile-High Devil’s Food Cake
From: Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes By Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne
Makes an 8-inch triple layer cake:
·1 cup of unsweetened cocoa NOT DUTCH PROCESSED
·1 and ¼ cups of hot water
·3 cups of light brown sugar; packed
·2 and 2/3 cups cake flour
·1 and ½ teaspoons baking soda
·¾ teaspoon of salt
·9 ounces of unsalted butter at room temperature [2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons]
·3 large eggs
·1 and ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract
·¾ cup of cold water
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper and grease the paper as well.
Place the cocoa in a medium bowl and add the hot water. Whisk until smooth and let it cool to room temperature.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low blend to combine. Add the butter and the dissolved cocoa. Then raise the mixer to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, vanilla, and cold water until combined. Add this liquid to the batter in three additions scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions. Divide the batter among the three pans.
Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a cakes tester inserted into the almost comes out clean. There should be a few crumbs attached still. Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes. Then invert and remove parchment paper and cool completely on a wire rack.
Brown Sugar Buttercream
5 egg whites
1 and ¼ cups of packed brown sugar
¼ cup of water
1 pound of unsalted butter (16 ounces) at room temperature
Place all the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer; set aside.
In a heavy medium saucepan combine the sugar and water. Cook over medium heat stirring to dissolve the sugar. Then bring to a boil without stirring and cook until the syrup reaches 238 degrees F on a candy thermometer.
Begin beating the egg whites on medium low speed. Slowly pour in the syrup making sure not to hit the beater. Increase the mixer speed to medium high and beat until the meringue has cooled to body temperature.
With the mixer on med-low add 1-2 tablespoons of butter at a time. When all the butter has been added increase the mixer’s speed to medium and beat until the mixture looks curdled or separated. Continue to beat until the icing comes together again looking like soft smooth whipped butter.
Assembling the cake:
Place one layer flat side down and cover it with 2/3 cup of the frosting. Top with second layer and repeat process. Top with third layer and frost the sides of the cake.
Well, I'll admit that the only reason I made this was because my husband LOVES mangoes. Seriously, LOVES them.I'm not a fan, and since I have pregnancy taste buds, mango tastes like carbon paper to me.This is a quick and easy bread that comes together in minutes- the baking time is quite long. I underbaked mine so it was a little loose on top. The mango flavor wasn't really all the present in mine. The ginger overpowered everything- if I ever make it again, I will cut the ginger way down or omit it completely. I also made mine without the raisins. It's definitely worth a try- a departure from the regular banana or zucchini bread! My husband and our friends enjoyed the bread- it was moist and flavorful. Check out Kelly's blog for the recipe!
Well, I have to admit, I love tiramisu but I wasn't too excited about making this recipe. Despite all the comments on the P&Q, I knew I was going to be making a lot of subs and/or deletions. First off, the coffee and liqueur- we don't have or drink either and I wasn't going to buy it just for the 1 or 2 tablespoons needed for this recipe. I subbed with cocoa powder and boiling water with a tablespoon of sugar and omitted the liqueur completely. Second, the mascarpone cheese. It's not carried in regular grocery stores and I didn't have time to go searching this week. I found this substitute and decided to try it (please don't hate me).The results were surprisingly good, if not anything like it was supposed to be. I'll admit the espresso would have been fabulous as the cake soaked in the chocolate mixture I made was amazing, and I loved the tiny chocolate chunks in between the layers. The topping/filling was also very good (I omitted the syrup from the topping), but you can't really expect cream cheese to taste as good as mascarpone in tiramisu. It was more tangy than mascarpone, but still really yummy.Head over to Megan's My Baking Adventures for the recipe!
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. I was excited to try this as I'm always up for a good cheesecake recipe. The receipe is very simple and straightforward. There are suggestions on how to modify the cake- various additions of liquers and other flavors but I'm a big fan of plain cheesecake when it's homemade (the Cheesecake Factory is another story), so I kept mine pretty simple. I cut the recipe to a 1/3- with all the baking I've been doing lately (and being pregnant), that last thing I needed was a giant cheesecake in my house. I made little cheesecakes in a muffin pan, and swirled raspberry preserves in the batter before baking.This cheesecake was really good. I didn't bake it in a waterbath since I didn't use a springform. But the cheesecake is really moist and rich. I would say it's not my most favorite recipe- the crust was a little dry and I like my cheesecake a little more dense. Definitely worth a try, though, as it's pretty low maintenance! Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake: crust: 2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs 1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted 2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar 1 tsp. vanilla extract
cheesecake: 3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature 1 cup / 210 g sugar 3 large eggs 1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream 1 tbsp. lemon juice 1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean) 1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake
DIRECTIONS: 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.
Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.
Last weekend was Jeremy's birthday. Last year, we made him a Yo Gabba Gabba!cake. This year, we opted for a surfing Julius cake. The cake is chocolate with chocolate italian meringue buttercream.It's so fun to celebrate Jer's birthday, we wish he had one every month! Happy Birthday, Jer!
This week's TWD recipe for Chocolate Cream Tart was chosen by Scrumptious Photography. I actually made this about a month ago, but didn't have any pictures so I made it again. I don't have a tart pan so I made it into a pie. The custard is simple- whisking egg yolks and sugar, and adding hot milk. Bring to a boil and cook for a couple minutes: Then add melted chocolate and butter to create a (REALLY) chocolatey, rich, smooth custard: The first time I made this, I used the chocolate crust as in the recipe, but I remember thinking that 7 oz. of chocolate seemed like a lot, so I used 5 oz. instead. This time, I used a regular crust, but forgot that 7 oz of chocolate seemed like a lot so I used the entire 7 oz.Normally, I would say there's no such thing as too much chocolate, but the size of the slice in this picture was too big. This was RICH! I can't imagine how chocolatey this was with the chocolate crust, too. I also omitted the whipped cream since we didn't have any. Next time, I would cut back on the chocolate again and include the whipped cream since that would probably tone it down. Check out Kim's blog for the recipe!
The concept is a layer of brownies (sans nuts for me) topped with a layer of chocolate chip cookies (I made butterscotch-toffee).
Everyone in the P&Q said not to overbake, so I was (overly) cautious. Mine ended up being basically cookie dough in the middle, even though the tester didn't come out batter-y. The outside pieces were fabulous- crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. 
The brownie layer and cookie layer separately were SO good, and together.... well, you'll have to make these to truely experience the goodness! Check out Beth's blog for the recipe!
