Chocolate Cake with Mocha Icing

At Sofra we make a cake that I like to call a mayo cake. We whip eggs and sugar together then we whip in olive oil very slowly creating an emulsion very similar to an aioli. The resulting cake is amazing. It's moist with a beautiful crumb structure.

The emulsion in that recipe reminded me of some of the older cookbooks I have which contain recipes for cakes with Mayonnaise. Never one to fear mayo, I decided to try out a chocolate cake recipe fromThe Wooden Spoon Dessert book. I tweaked the recipe a bit, but mainly stayed true to it. It's a great recipe to make if you're in a pinch and need to whip up something fast (as is the following icing recipe from the same book). The cake tastes lovely and you would never know the "secret" ingredient.



Chocolate Cake adapted from The Wooden Spoon Dessert Book by Marilyn Moore
Preheat oven 350F
Grease a 9x12" pan (I used mini bundt pans)

Sift together:
2 cups AP flour
4 Tablespoons cocoa powder (I used Vahlrona)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

In another bowl mix together:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar

Add alternately (3 dry:2 coffee), blending after each addition
reserved dry ingredeints
1 cup cold coffee (I had instant espresso, so I made 1 1/2 cups of hot espresso; chilling one cup and reserving the other half for the icing)

Fold in:
3 oz 70% chocolate (I used Lindt)

Bake in a 9x12 pan fro about 30 minutes or in mini bundt pans for 23.

Quick mocha frosting
again adapted from The Wooden Spoon
Sift into mixing bowl:
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

whisk together, then add

4 tablespoons soft butter
pinch salt
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons of warm espresso (from extra brewed for cake)

I wanted this icing to be runny, so I increased her recipe from 2T coffee to 4T espresso.

TWD Cinnamon Squares

Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures chose Cinnamon Squares as this weeks TWD recipe. Visit her blog to find the recipe.




I've spent the last two days traveling back and forth from Boston to Vermont, so I thought there was no way I could fit this recipe in. Well, after a quick look at just how easy it was to make I decided there was no way I couldn't make this recipe. Essentially, you mix your dries together, then add your wet ingredients, then follow by folding in some cooled melted butter. I think all together it took me about 10 minutes to assemble my ingredients, make the batter and get the cake in the oven. That was fast.

Since this cake is all about cinnamon, I decided to head over to my local Penzeys store in Arlington, MA and pick up some special cinnamon. I bought their Extra Fancy Vietnamese Cassia Cinnamon ($7.65 for 4 oz). It has a lovely aroma, and a powerful cinnamon flavor. It was the perfect spice for this cake.

I followed the recipe as written except I halved it, and baked it in a 4" round cake pan. It took 40 minutes to bake at 350.





Instead of making the chocolate frosting, I decided to make a simple cinnamon glaze. For the glaze I put confectioners sugar, a dash of milk and a big pinch of cinnamon in the bowl and whisked together till smooth.

Gingerbread

This past week I made gingerbread from Beth Hensperger's The Bread Bible. Her recipe calls for a combination of maple syrup, brown sugar and molasses. I grew up in Vermont, so any recipe with maple syrup as a sweetener is bound to peak my interest. All in all this was a fun easy recipe to make. The recipe calls for adding baking soda to boiling water and then adding that to the batter. It turns into a neat example of chemistry in action.

As far as gingerbreads go, this was great. I like it better than Dorie Greenspan's gingerbread which was a bit too bitter because of the espresso chocolate edge. This gingerbread was moist with a medium spice level. I love spicy gingerbread, so next time I make it I will add come finely chopped candied and fresh ginger. I made an 8" cake and a baby gingerbread loaf. As soon as it cooled I froze the 8" cake. I hope to make a layered cake with it sometime soon.

Here's the recipe:

Gingerbread from The Bread Bible by Beth Hensperger

Makes one 9" pan or twelve 3" round cakes.

Preheat oven to 350 and grease cake pan

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups AP Flour

2 Tbsp instant espresso powder

1 Tbsp ground ginger (increase this if you want a bold ginger flavor)

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

½ tsp grated nutmeg

¼ tsp ground black pepper

Grated zest of 1 lemon (I omitted this because I didn't have one on hand)

8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter

½ Cup light brown sugar

½ Cup unsulfured molasses

½ Cup maple syrup

2 large eggs

2 tsps baking soda

1 cup boiling water

Method:

Combine Flour through lemon zest in a large bowl and mix well with a whisk.

In a small saucepan combine the butter through molasses. Stir frequently over low heat till butter is dissolved.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the hot butter mixture. Add the eggs and quickly beat with a wooden spoon till smooth. Combine the baking soda with the boiling water. Pour over the batter and stir gently to evenly incorporate.

Pour into greased pan. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Chocolate Amaretti Torte

Today's TWD recipe 15 minute chocolate amaretti torte was chosen by Holly of Phe/MOM/enon.

I went to Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, MA looking for Amaretti cookies. Formaggio is one of the places I've been trying to go to for a while, but because of parking issues haven't. The weather on Saturday was pretty bad, so I decided to take my chances and park in a resident only spot. I have found that in Cambridge there is a direct correlation between weather and parking tickets. Good weather = tons of tickets. Bad weather = less tickets. I knew I would be in and out quickly, so I wasn't too worried. They had an assortment of amaretti cookies, but not the ones Dorie suggested. I purchased Doria Amaretti cookies, and I'm glad I did. I am surprised how much I liked these little cookies. They are so crisp and slightly over baked; in the extra-caramelized-kind-of-way that I love. The back of the bag suggests dipping the cookies in red wine. We tried this, but decided they are much better alone or dipped in milk. We like our red wine without cookie crumbs.

The torte truly lived up to it's name. From start to finish it was in the oven in 15 minutes. Making it reminded me of why I splurged on a food processor last year. It made the whole "process" so easy. The recipe says the cake takes 25-30 minutes to bake. My cake ended up baking an extra 4 minutes (34 total) with a knife coming out with some streaks.


The next morning I made the chocolate glaze, which was easy too. I love that the recipe suggests putting the chocolate in a "pourable" container. It makes glazing the cake so easy.

Overall, this was a delicious cake. Since I knew it would be extremely rich; I cut the cake into 12 slices. The portion size was just perfect; anything bigger would have resulted in leftover cake on plates (ugh!). As far as cake goes, I prefer traditional cakes to tortes. To me, traditional American style cakes (think devils food with vanilla butter cream) are more satisfying because you can eat more! That being said; I will make this cake again because other people loved it; and well, it's not always about me.

 

 

TWD Mixed Berry Brown Butter Crumb Cake

Sihan of Befuddlement chose Blueberry Crumb Cake as our weekly recipe from Baking: From my home to yours.

Today is Joe and my anniversary, so I thought this would be a lovely way to start the day. The recipe is simple. First you make the crumb topping, then the cake. I decided to make a brown butter crumb topping because I love the combination of berries and brown butter. To make the topping, I simply followed Dorie's directions for the crumble except I browned the butter, poured it onto the dry ingredients and mixed it by hand.



Then I crumpled it up with my hands and laid the crumbs out on a plate which I put in the freezer. For the cake, the one thing I omitted was the lemon zest because Joe hates lemon zest. Usually I'll add lemon zest anyway because I love it so much, but since today is all about our love for each other; I decided to leave it out. I used the fancy berry mix from Trader Joe's instead of just blueberries. It contains blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. I find this brand of frozen berries to be consistantly good. One of my favorite ways to eat the mix is to microwave ½ cup of it in a bowl, then top it with Greek yogurt and a little maple syrup. It's heavenly.




Back to the cakes.



Originally I had grandios ideas of making a two tiered crumb cake as kind of a faux wedding cake. I divided the cake mix into one 4" round and a 6" round. After 55 minutes in the oven, I was glad I had made a 4" cake because it was done way earlier than the 6". I think the 6" cake ended up in the oven for at least an hour and 10 minutes. Joe and I are very impatient people. Especially when we've already had our coffee hours ago, and are staring at a very pretty 4" cake.



With cake aroma swirling around us, I decided to forgo the 2 tiered cake idea and dig into the little guy. We were glad we did because it was lovely warm.

Just another delicious recipe from Dorie Greenspan. I loved the contrast between the berries, the soft cake and the crumble. This is something I will make again.

TWD French Yogurt Cake with Brown Sugar Yogurt Mousse and Quince Marmalade

This recipe has been on my radar for some time. Finally two great reasons to make it; I had friends to bake for at a ski house in Vermont this past weekend and it's this week's TWD recipe. Thanks to Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction for picking such a fun recipe to play with.

I decided to bake the cake in a round rather than loaf pan since I wanted a classier presentation. The cake was so fast to make, I kept rechecking my ingredients because I felt like something was missing. Once I realized it was actually THAT easy; I baked it for 38 minutes.



Once out, I let it cool completely and then I started playing around. At Sofra we make a quince marmalade that is to-die-for. The smell of it is so intoxicating; I could almost be happy just breathing in its aroma. Our marmalade isn't as thick as store bought brands though, so I decided to cook it down some more. I cooked it for about 15 minutes on a pretty steady simmer until the liquid reduced to a thick syrup; stirring it frequently. Quince marmalade has a wonderfully floral fruity taste to it, but none of the bite of a "normal" marmalade. To get a bit of "bite" back into this recipe, I made a yogurt mouse with just a bit of brown sugar. Essentially what I did was I whipped some cream, and then added some labne (very thick yogurt) and a tiny bit of brown sugar. Labne has a great tang to it, so it balanced the sweetness of the cake and the quince marmalade.

Overall, I loved this cake. I especially loved the presentation because it looked très French. I hope everyone liked this cake as much as I did. I will certainly make it again.

 

TWD Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

Do you remember a Stevie Nick's song with these lyrics?

"I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait. What can I do when I'm crazy for you?"

Insert "I'm crazy for you" with "I want to eat you", and that's how I felt while waiting for my fresh ginger and chocolate gingerbread to "cure" for a day. Seriously painful! So painful in fact, that I only made it about an hour before I tried a piece. Luckily I made two 4" round cakes and one baby loaf pan.


The gingerbread loaf was immediately sacrificed, I just had to know what it tastes like, but we'll get to that later.

While reading the P&Q section on TWD, I was surprised by how many people said they thought the recipe called for too much ginger. Too much ginger? Is that even possible in a gingerbread cake? Does a fruitcake ever call for too much fruit, or a chocolate cake call for too much chocolate? I guess, but I'm all about excess; so I thought the amount of ginger in this recipe was appropriate. I even candied some of the fresh ginger I had left over to garnish the cake.

Joe and I don't have any plans to see people this week, so I halved the recipe. The only ingredient I couldn't find was the stem ginger. For chocolate I used Scharffenberger 70%, which is a favorite of mine.


It is kind of pricey, but it has always proved itself to be worth the splurge in baked goods. The recipe was easy to follow except Dorie doesn't say what to do with the 1 tbsp of sugar (I used 1 ½ teaspoons). I assumed it was to put on the finely chopped ginger to extract it's flavors, so that's what I did.

The recipe says that the cakes will rise, but not to worry because they'll level out once they come out of the oven. Mine rose, but stayed nice and tall. I think it may have something to do with the fact that I used such small cake pans. I love the look of domed cakes, so they are fine with me. Plus, what really matters is the taste.

As I said earlier, I had to try a piece once it came out of the oven, and I wasn't that impressed. The chocolate was still warm and I was having a difficult time picking out the chocolate flavor in the cake. A few hours later, I tried it again, and again, and again. The cake was so good plain that I considered not frosting it, but that would be just, well… wrong. Once frosted the cake was delicious. The ginger and the chocolate played off each other beautifully. All together the cake and frosting weren't a sweet as I had thought, so that was nice. I think the bittersweet chocolate is what makes this cake exceptional. Thanks to Heather of Sherry Trifle for choosing this recipe which I will certainly make again.

 

TWD Caramel Peanut Topped Brownie Cake

How fabulous is this cake?

1. I've made it 4 times in the past year.
   
2. Peanut butter, caramel and chocolate.
   
3. Beautiful, shiny caramel topping for extra sparkle.
   
4. It's impossible to have just one piece.
   

Someone had to pick this recipe, and I'm glad that Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy did just that. I can't wait to see how much the other TWD'ers loved this recipe.

The recipe is very straight forward. I have a few pointers to help anyone who is going to make this cake based on my own experience.

1. Make sure to not overcook your cake. When you think about it, it's a brownie cake, and honestly; who doesn't love a brownie that's a little underdone? I made the mistake of drinking a little too much vino while making the cake for Thanksgiving last year. Oops, I left it in the oven a little too long. It wasn't burned, but it was too dry for my liking.
   
2. Watch your caramel very closely. It can go from beautiful amber to bitter black very quickly. Also, never add cold cream to a caramel. It results in major caramel eruptions. Instead, slightly warm the cream, or at least make sure it's room temp. The caramel will still sputter when the cream is added, but not nearly as much as it would if adding cold cream.
   

I hope everyone enjoyed this cake as much as I have in the past.

Birthday Cupcakes

My friend's birthday party was this weekend, so I made some cupcakes for the big event. First, I made coconut cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut "sand".








I also made chocolate cupcakes with Dorie Greenspan's chocolate frosting recipe. I don't have the book in front of me right now, but it's the frosting she uses on the chocolate cupcakes. I love the way these cupcakes looked with the silver dragees.



Lastly, I filled some of the cupcakes with nutella, and then I topped them with chocolate icing and candied hazelnuts. They were my favorite of the three cupcakes.



Quick post today. No TWD post because I don't care for the banana bread recipe that was selected. My friend made it a while back, and we both thought it was just okay.

TWD Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake

Caitlin of Engineer Baker chose the Fluted Polenta and Ricotta Cake as this weeks TWD recipe. Essentially it is a tea cake containing honey, polenta, ricotta and dried Mission (in my case) figs baked in a tart shell. I love all of the above ingredients, so I was more than willing to try this recipe. In fact, a few weeks ago I was thumbing through Baking From My Home to Yours, and I secretly wished that someone would select this cake soon. Clearly Caitlin is a psychic fairy godmother of sorts.

As far as ingredients were concerned, I bought some beautiful organic cornmeal at whole foods. The scent of corn when I opened the bag was heavenly.



My dried Mission figs were purchased at Trader Joes, as was the ricotta. The figs were super moist, so there was no need to soak them. I did halve the figs though because I prefer to eat small bits of dried fruit over large ones. Also, I knew that if I halved them, I would get a nice distribution of figs throughout the cake. Finally, I had some Orange Blossom honey in the cupboard, so I decided to use that.


I found the recipe simple to follow. The only questionable section was whisking the ricotta and water until “very smooth.” My ricotta never did get all that smooth. I mixed it for 5 minutes on low, and decided that it was as smooth as it was going to get. I considered pushing the water/ricotta mixture through a chinois to make the ricotta particles smaller, but I thought that might be a great example of just how “Type A” I really am. My batter was extremely thin, but it baked beautifully. I didn’t have a 10 1/2” tart pan, so I used my 9” and I filled 4 little molds that I have with the rest of the batter.

Here are some pictures of the baking process.

First my thin, but beautiful, batter:



The tart pan and mini-cakes half full with the figs layed out:





The cakes right before they started to bake:



The orange blossom honey in the cake made my whole kitchen smell like orange blossoms while it was baking. It was amazing. I took my mini-cakes out of the oven at 35 minutes, but I left the 9” in for about 15 more minutes. I was surprised by how raw it was in the middle at 35 minutes of baking. The mini cakes ended up looking pretty cute.



The little layer of cake over the fig half got stuck to the inside of the molds, so the cakes ended up looking kind of like flowers with the exposed fig. The 9” was beautiful as well. It became a nice golden color after baking.






I plan on making this cake again. I think it will be a lovely addition to my arsenal of recipes under the subject “perfect winter dessert.” The cake itself was a little too sweet for my liking, but I know that my French Canadian relatives would love the level of sweetness. Maybe I should put it under the subject of “perfect for a person with sweet-tooth.”

Here's the recipe:

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 Bill’s Big Carrot Cake

Okay, I have to admit that I played around with this recipe a bit. First off, I decided to lighten it up. Summer is quickly approaching and if I ever want to see myself in a bathing suit (gasp), something's got to give! I cut back the oil and sugar in this recipe by 25% (¼ cup and ½ cup less respectively). I also subbed half the flour with whole wheat. I don't care for coconut, and I hate raisins in baked goods, so those were out as well. Due to the reduction in oil, I increased the carrots by ½ cup for extra moisture.

Even with all the changes, I really liked the resulting carrot cake. It was moist with great carrot and pecan flavor. I ended up making cupcakes, which I'll forever think of as Michelle's Big Carrot Cup Cakes, because they were huge! I baked the batter in 12 individual sized panettone wrappers (I like to think of them as upscale cupcake papers). The cakes rose so nicely that they were almost too tall to eat. The icing was nice, though next time I'll use vanilla extract and not lemon juice. I thought the lemon overpowered the cream cheese flavor a bit.

As a garnish, I candied some carrot strips and attempted to make ribbons out of the strips. Next time I'll use longer carrots because my strips were so short, it was difficult to tie the ribbon. I ended up breaking up some of the candied carrot strips and using them as confetti, which looked cute.

Luckily, my official taste tester was around to see if my changes to the recipe would result in an inferior product. After eating his first cupcake, Joe said "so, if they have less fat and whole wheat flour in them, I can eat another; right?" I'll call that cupcake success.

Pictures and recipe below. The changes I made are in italics.

Bill's Big Carrot Cake

Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

¾ teaspoon salt

3 ½ cups grated carrots (about 10 carrots)

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup canola oil

4 large eggs

I didn't include: 1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)

I didn't include: ½ cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden) or dried cranberries

For the frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat), 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

Candied carrot garnish

Getting ready:

I sprayed 12 cupcake liners with release spray and put them on a sheet pan. If you're making cakes, do this:

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.