Valentine’s Cake (Chocolate Cake with Whipped Cream, Strawberries, and Chocolate Ganache)

O yeah, I am just putting it out there.  Make this cake for your Valentine.  Today or any day of the year.  They will thank you.  My husband’s second piece yesterday was all the thanks I needed.

Chocolate cake.  You saw a wonderful chocolate cake up on this blog yesterday.  Here is a completely different one but with some of the same components and it makes for a completely different cake.  There are a couple of things that, no matter what the recipe, must be in my chocolate cake.

1. Buttermilk (I discovered this little gem in my Cake Doctor days)

2. Coffee or espresso powder (just DO it)

This particular recipe had both and it also had cake flour!  It just kept getting better and better…

First layer of strawberry filling…

So, I broke down and made it for my aunt’s birthday a few weeks ago and paired it with Joy’s Best Chocolate Buttercream Frosting.  My aunt was in heaven!  And I was impressed that with how light and perfect this cake was, it held up to travel, a sturdy frosting, and a baker who forgot to use wax paper in her cake pans when she was greasing. (OK, it did kinda fall apart upon cutting because of that last part but it made it there and tasted wonderful.)

I knew I would be making this cake again.  But in what capacity?  Hmm…

The only other cake that I ever dreamt about and just had to get up the next day and make it was this one.  So I took my inspiration from there.  I switched the chocolate whipped cream for vanilla.  Since I was going to use less strawberries on the cake I made sure to cram a few extra into the filling.  The chocolate ganache is just a bonus.

My GeekyLink today is iGameMom.  She writes reviews and recommendations for educational children’s apps.  I love this site and have been following it for a long time and have found many an app through her.  My 9 year old even won a science experiment kit from the site.  Well, guess what?  I am going to begin reviewing apps for her as a guest blogger!  I think this is gonna be pretty cool.

Now go make some cake!

Sundays with Joy/Zucchini Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This cake was one that I knew, flipping through the cookbook waiting for Joy at Vroman’s so many months ago, was going to be made.  Little did I know that before I made any recipe from it, that I would happily commit to making EVERYTHING in it but that is another story.  I knew that the cake would be a lovely way to repay my neighbor for pretty much all the zucchini and tomatoes I want for every summer since we have lived here.  I always try to bake something for him with whatever he gives us.

This cake is by no means good for you, even with the addition of the zucchini.  Like most zucchini breads, this cake has a bit of sugar in it and this one in particular also has a bit of butter (and when I say “bit” I mean the opposite).  The effect is a delicious cake that for me was so simple and lovely.  In the book, Joy pairs it with a Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting.  But I have to tell you, now brace yourself…I am not a fan of cream cheese frosting.  I will make the frosting at some point, though(she also pairs it with another recipe in the book), because I do love it when Joy pushes me past my comfort zone.  With cream cheese frostings, I feel like the flavor interferes with the flavor of butter and sugar that I feel should be a frosting.  The thing is, I LOVE cream cheese.  Pour salsa over it for a savory corn chip dip or jam over it for a sweet butter cracker dip and every time I have more than my fair share of cream cheese on my chip or cracker.  It took me a good 30 years or so to figure out what an “acceptable” amount of cream cheese on a bagel should look like, about 1/2 of what I had been using until then.  Also, I was out of cream cheese.  I used the last one I had IN the cake.

That is not the only reason I didn’t put anything on it.  I had thought of a browned butter frosting but changed my mind.  There is already a lot of butter and sugar in the cake and I just couldn’t bring myself to add anything else to it.  It is hot!  When it is hot, you want to eat lighter.  You just do.  I had no choice.   Besides, it has been so hot who knows if a frosting would have even set up right for me.  If I was taking it anywhere, I may have put something on it, I don’t know.  The cake doesn’t really need it, though.  It could fully stand on its own.  It was so moist and yet incredibly light.  Joy described it as dense and I guess it was but I didn’t realize it till after the two slices made it all the way to my belly.  It feels like a light summer cake as it passes your lips.  A frosting would have changed that.  I just dusted on the powdered sugar for the pictures.  The rest of the slices will be eaten plain and enjoyed thoroughly.  As always, with this series, if you want the recipe you have to buy the cookbook.  I say “have to” but c’mon, at this point, what are you waiting for?

I have a few unrelated to each other Doctor Who GeekyLinks for you all.  While we still don’t have a start date, the clock seems to be ticking away with Doctor Who and Nerdist specials on BBC America every Saturday for four weeks so far and at least one more week to go.  If you haven’t yet, please watch and catch up.  I have the biggest crush on Chris Hardwick and Matt Mira and being able to watch them on TV is a thrill especially up until this point since I usually only listen to them on the Nerdist Podcast.  Onto the Doctor Who stuff… Sir Derek Jacobi is confirmed for Gallifrey One 2013.  While I still don’t know if I can attend (it will all depend on my kids’ school schedule) I am optimistic and super excited.  I, Claudius was my first Masterpiece Theatre that I elected to watch all by myself at probably around 10.  I have been a big fan ever since.  His episode Utopia is the first return of the Master in the reboot and one of my favorite episodes (Captain Jack is in it, duh).  Also to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, BBC America has announced a Doctor Who TV Movie.  It will address how the series got made in the first place.  Next, for any crafty fans out there, Don’t Blink! because here is a tutorial on how to make a Weeping Angel from a Barbie doll.

Chocolate Love: Chocolate Cake with Strawberries and Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting

My family, for all the years and all the parties, is usually big buttercream fans.  However, every once in a while my grandma or my aunt would switch it up and have a whipped cream cake with strawberries.  I don’t know if it was the season or they just wanted to change it up, but us kids were never really happy about it.  Whether the cake itself was white or chocolate was about a 50/50 chance.  Now that I am older, though, and bake more I have certainly come to appreciate a good whipped cream (really, it isn’t that hard to appreciate).

All the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl. Someone came running when she smelled the cocoa powder.

One day last week, I just really wanted cake.  Strawberries were on sale, I knew I needed them to try something but I couldn’t remember what it was (getting old, ugh), so I figured I would make a cake with a whipped cream frosting and add the strawberries in the filling.  I wanted to eat it at home alone with my husband and my kids and basically just hoard the thing.  Then my aunt called.  She said my cousin, who is a Marine Reservist, was shipping out next week and we were going to get together the next day to wish him well and send him off.  I baked the cake (I ended up choosing chocolate), put it in the fridge, and decided to save it for the family.

Chocolate Whipped Cream

I slept, not knowing what exactly I was going to do for the frosting.  I did want to still do whipped cream but sometimes whipped cream can be so temperamental.  I mean, you have to do it just right and I don’t think I have ever frosted a whole cake with it before.  Did I want to add anything to it to try and help it hold up (I did not), vanilla or chocolate (chocolate obviously), granulated sugar or powdered sugar (granulated had been working for me so I used that but then ended up adding some powdered sugar to taste)?  In the end, it turned out pretty fantastic if I do say so myself, I just wish I had added a few more strawberries in the filling.  Even my sister, a lifelong hater of whipped cream frosting, really liked it.  I also wish however, that I was able to take a better picture of the sliced cake.  I did take some cake home but my son and I got into the leftovers before it even occurred to me to take another picture. It was good, sue me!

The Filling! There should have been no spaces in between the strawberries. I should have even overlapped them. I know for next time!

So with all that family talk my GeekyLink this week is something for my sister and brother.  We were big Growing Pains fans back in the day and I bought the first two of many compilation books of the Walking Dead for my sister for Christmas (OK, kinda for me too but that’s how we roll).  This speaks to both of those things The Walking Dead Season 2 Alternate Title Sequence.

Even with the crappy picture, it still looks pretty tasty.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake (Robert’s Third Birthday Cake)

I guess I should tell you a little bit about my little man.  He is just so handsome and so happy and just so darn well, my husband calls him “Hurricane Bob”.  That seems to describe him pretty well.  He always puts the rest of us in a better mood whenever he is not exasperating us and although he is talking so much more lately, I do thank the Lord that he is not as verbal as his sisters are (or maybe he is and I just don’t notice over the sounds of the girls ALWAYS talking).  My dad and Robert are pretty close, maybe it is because he knows he is the last of his grandchildren or just because Robert is the kind of boy that he is.  Anyways, grandpa brought over the first cake at 11am on his birthday along with my nephews that grandpa was watching that day.  The kids had a blast.  Who wouldn’t with cake for brunch, ice cream cups (the sundae kind with a chocolate or strawberry swirl and come with a wooden spoon!), and a bit of Just Dance 3 thrown in for good measure?

Brown butter bits AND vanilla bean seeds, anyone?

So the bar was set pretty high.  I settled on my theme pretty easily but kind of winged it when it came to putting it together.  I settled on a brown butter cake and I changed out some of the sugar for brown sugar and I thought the taste really resembled a chocolate chip cookie (just don’t over bake it like I did, it was only for maybe two minutes and I knew when I should have taken it out but I left it in there anyways.  I need to listen to my instincts more).  The filling was really just a dryer version of an eggless chocolate chip cookie dough that was later mixed with the buttercream frosting when that was made.  The only thing I would have changed was that I went a little crazy with the chocolate chips throughout.  I put chocolate chips in all the components of the cake.  To be fair, I did have half empty bags to get rid of.  However, next time I will probably just put them in the filling and maybe in the frosting or just sprinkled on top (so it is easier to frost mostly).

Also, this was another one of the few things that I have made that my husband just wolfed down.  He came downstairs right before work.  We sang Happy Birthday and I thought he wouldn’t have time to eat it.  However, it turns out he didn’t need any.  Before everyone was finished being served and I sat down to eat mine, his was gone.  The first thing he ate when he got back in the morning?  More cake!

My new favorite buttercream!

My GeekyLink for this week is Spaced.  It is streaming now on Netflix.  I have heard great things about this show above and beyond the fact that it stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and is directed by Edgar Wright.  It was only on for two seasons (14 episodes total) so it is completely plausible that I can finish watching these sometime soon.  I only have four episodes of Firefly to go plus Serenity (which if any “nerdy” people have issue with Zack Efron, he was in an episode of Firefly so get over it, he is OK in my book).  I also want to finish the first season of Downton Abbey (which is So Soapy and Scandalous and I am only four episodes in, I love it and I need to get caught up so I can watch the second season which is just starting to air) as well but we will see how all that goes.

Chocolate chips everywhere!

What I have been doing lately? Baking, I mean it!

Happy Birthday to Jesus

I know, I know, “If you have been baking where are your posts?”, right?  It is just tough, I want everything to be perfect and I just need to get it through my thick head that nothing is or ever will be.  However, some things come close.  Close when you have three kids under 8 and a BIG extended family is just going to have to do.

Just stick an Oreo right in the middle and we are all done here.

Like the Cashew Toffee…I did make my Cashew Toffee for Christmas but o boy was that harder than anticipated and it was all my fault.  Instead of experimenting with a small batch of toffee to try and make it more P-Nuttle like, I did it with a double batch and ruined it.  So off to the store for more butter and cashews.  Then instead of making two double batches so I could more easily control everything, I put all my eggs in one basket so to speak and somehow missed my 300° mark and I could tell that I was losing it (I had added more sugar too, to try and make it less greasy. Perhaps that is why it maybe didn’t make it to 300° before breaking up).  It was starting to separate and I was starting to panic.  I don’t know what made me think to do it, perhaps all my attempts at caramel this year, but I added just a smidge or two of whipping cream and kept stirring till it looked nice again.  The effect made it more like an English Toffee, less buttery brittle like, which was fine by me and totally yummy.  However, just as I thought “crisis averted” as I was dumping my huge pot of toffee on my sheet pan, I got a sugar burn.  Did I have water standing by like they tell you when you are dealing with sugar, no.  Will I from now on?  Hopefully that question can be answered by the soon to be scar on my right wrist.

The bright spot that day, my sourdough!  My sourdough had been giving me problems all year.  I still never gave up on it.  The same day as the toffee, instead of throwing out some of my starter before feeding it again (I must’ve just had a feeling, really, because until earlier that week I hadn’t had a successful loaf in over a month) I put it into a separate container and fed them both.  Later that night, I went for three loaves and they all came out beautifully!  Christmas presents!  I did it again the next day for more Christmas presents.  The only thing I can think of that I did differently is that I used some unbleached flour to feed it.  I found a small bag at the 99¢ store.  I had seen some sourdough recipes call for it and I never needed to use it last year (I still miss that darn starter), I figured that for 99¢ I would give it a whirl and see if that would do the trick.  It sure seemed to.  I can’t wait till vacation is over because I am looking forward to making my weekly sourdough on Monday mornings again.

Three pretty sourdoughs for Christmas!

I did come out of the holidays with some great recipes.  For Angela’s school party, I made these really interesting cookies that I will share with you soon.  I actually didn’t think they would go over well, but I heard the kids couldn’t get enough of them and all of us sure liked them.  I made three cakes for Christmas because we were celebrating three birthdays: my brother, my cousin, and baby Jesus of course.  None of which I technically got to eat because we didn’t have dinner with my family but I mean, I baked them, I pretty much knew how they tasted.  For my brother it was a Cookies and Cream cake which I heard was a little on the sweet side and I probably should have made it with just chocolate cake instead of cookies and cream cake, that probably would have helped.  However, I came out of that with a whole new buttercream recipe and technique which I will share with you soon.  I loved it and have never had a more whipped creamier buttercream.  For my cousin, I made a chocolate cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting.  I have to be honest, I am not a fan of cream cheese frosting so I cut down on that a bit and switched it out for some whipped cream and there is a secret ingredient in this frosting which just boggled my mind.  I will make this frosting again and share.  The cake was awesome, so moist!  However for me as the baker of it, that made it a bit temperamental and I had to do it twice (it could be because the recipe was for a three layer 8 inch cake and I made some cupcakes and was going for just one 8 inch cake).  I am still searching for the perfect chocolate cake.  For Jesus, I just made a vanilla bundt with a chocolate glaze.  I heard this one was too sweet and that was my fault, I made the glaze more sweet than the recipe called for.  I was making it as if I was going to eat it, instead of how it was supposed to be and how I know my family would like it.  I also came upon a really good apple cake recipe that would have been great if I hadn’t added so many apples.  The recipe called for 3 apples.  Well, I had some BIG apples.  It just made it impossible for it to cook in the middle, although you could tell that the cake itself was lovely and the outsides looked AMAZING!  It was just a nice little cake.  I am going back to that one and will let you know the exact amount of apples, in cups.

Fan out a fresh strawberry on top and we are done here.

So no recipes today.  I just wanted to let you know that I haven’t been sitting on my hands.  I do have things I want to share I just want to do it in the best way possible.  Not perfect, but close.  My next post is my son’s 3rd birthday cake which will have that new buttercream technique I told you about.

Cupcakes for the kiddos!

My GeekyLink this week is in regards to Doctor Who.  The Christmas special was good.  Nothing too great but not awful that is for sure.  Perhaps they make us wait so long so no matter how it is, we think it is good.  My one qualm is that (“spoiler alert”) the dad lived.  I mean I know it is a Christmas special and all but lately there haven’t been many deaths on Doctor Who.  I mean there used to be so many references about how many deaths he was responsible for and some we would even see, some minor side character that was there for one episode or something.  Which is why this headline distresses me, Doctor Who’s Amy Pond set for “heartbreaking” exit.  I love Rory till the end of 2000 years and Amy is OK too.  I am ready to move on in companions, though.  In fact, I wouldn’t be sad if they left pretty much at the beginning of the new season.  However, I am wondering if the lack of peripheral deaths on Doctor Who will make them want to kill off one or both of the current companions and that distresses me.  I can deal with a parallel universe like Rose or just leaving like Martha (I thought they did but apparently not) but please no deaths or no Donna heartbreakers.  I hope the “heartbreaking” they are speaking of is just the fact that they are leaving and not the way they will leave, but I sincerely doubt it.

P.S. Happy New Year!

Chocolate Malt Cake and Despicable Me Cupcakes, Keeping Me Busy

Both these treats were what I was working on over the last two weeks that either caused me to post late and/or not post at all.  Blame my wonderful nephews.

First up, is the Chocolate Malt Cake.  It just so happens that my nephews go to my grade school alma mater.  As it is a private school, along with tuition, fundraisers are a big part of the whole process.  So every year, in October, they have a big one called Family Fun Day.  In my day it was a weekend festival, which some former students think is better but I have to say with the exception of confetti eggs, this one is better.  I love the bingo they play for prizes in the hall and the classroom raffles are really good.  I never spend as much money on my kids playing games, face painting, food and sweets, or playing on different inflatable contraptions than I spend on raffle tickets and bingo games (some years we even win a few things, but this was a bad year, not one thing).  Another thing they have every year is a Cakewalk.  So one afternoon, I get a call from my sister asking, ” You are gonna make a cake for the cakewalk right?”  To be fair, I had made one for every year since I can remember, but I was trying to sort out my schedule in my mind to make sure I had the time and before I could answer her, she says, “Cause I signed you up.”

Before Ganache

Yay!  The only issue I had was not the time to make the cake but what cake to make?  It took me two days of looking and then I saw this cake and knew instantly.  I used her recipe exactly so I won’t post it here except I did use the ganache recipe that I had used in my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake.  Her ganache looks a bit glossier but mine did too when I first poured it.  I didn’t get to take good pictures till later in the day after I had refrigerated it a bit (this was when my lights still weren’t working).  The cake itself baked up so nicely that maybe, if I can adapt it without the malt, it might just be THAT chocolate cake.  We shall see…

The only recipe you are gonna get from me this week is for the frosting for these cupcakes.  I thought it was a little odd that an 8 year old would ask for a mint frosting and I almost asked him to change it, but it was what he wanted so I went with it.  Did I mention not only is my daughter smart, my nephews are too?  He was so right!  The chocolate cupcakes with the mint frosting were spot on.  The kids weren’t put off by the mint at all and of course the adults loved them.  It was a great idea and I look forward to doing it on a more refined scale over again.  The chocolate cupcakes were my standard Buttermilk Devil’s Food Cake Doctor cake that I use all the time and also used for my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake.

As it WAS an 8 year old’s birthday, I needed to add Despicable Me Minions to the cupcakes.  I got this idea from pluckymomo.com (sorry no link, it wouldn’t work for some reason).  She credits Confessions of a Cookbook Queen for the idea but I like pluckymomo’s version better.  It seemed simpler overall and didn’t require me to buy an edible ink pen or black licorice whips (eew).  I just had to buy the Twinkies, Smarties, and black gel color which I was able to use for the grey and black buttercream frosting for the goggle details.  I also drizzled it on top of the frosting later because I was thinking the frosting tip I used (which is my favorite for cupcakes, maximum coverage without piling on the frosting) made them look a bit girly.  Drizzle some grey and black stripes on top, problem solved.  The Minions would have looked nicer if I had more time than the hour and a half between my daughter’s soccer game and the party to make them.  The recipe said the Twinkies would dry out but also said the kids wouldn’t care.  I should have listened and just done them earlier.  Especially since I kept them sealed in Tupperware and that is how I transported them to the party, it probably wouldn’t have mattered.

My GeekyLink this week is The Guild – a web series about gamers.  I have heard so much about this show and the show’s creator Felicia Day.  She is virtually on any cool podcast out there, is around at all the Cons, and overall is like Nerd Princess of the World right now.  I had heard so much about this show and was interested but didn’t make the effort until last week.  Which really wasn’t that much effort, I checked if it was streaming on Netflix.  The first four seasons (the fifth just ended and not available on Netflix yet but is online and I haven’t gotten to it yet) are SO FUNNY and so short (a whole season lasts about an hour) that it is SO worth the effort.  Check it out, you will not be dissappointed!

Crumb Cake, Bad Lighting, and 13 Years

Have you ever had a block of time that you wish would never have happened?  When things just go down and make you feel yucky for a good amount of time?  Yeah, well that time is now.  Plus, this whole time is falling on my 13th wedding anniversary!  It all started last week when I read the blog about the Mexican cookies.  I really took it personally and it took me a few days to get the downer feeling off of me.

Crumb Topping

I was ready for that feeling to be gone and to make this New York Style Crumb Cake from Brown Eyed Baker for my husband for the morning of our anniversary when I literally went into the kitchen at 11:55pm the night before.  The lights didn’t come on.  Actually, the last two beams that hadn’t gone out completely flickered sadly and wouldn’t stay on.  Five minutes later, exactly on our anniversary, my husband comes home from work and I give him a kiss and give him the news.  No biggie right?  Except for the fact that he wouldn’t watch Breaking Bad with me, it was a nice night and I knew that I probably wouldn’t make the crumb cake in the morning because it would be a Home Depot day.  So the next day I buy a big box of fluorescents, right size and wattage and everything, and head home.  Justin was eager to get the new lights in, then we flip the switch, and NOTHING happens!  Are you kidding me!  We still don’t know what is wrong, have no idea what to do, and we would rather not call an electrician because, well, we have three kids to feed.  So after realizing then that my anniversary was going to suck (we weren’t going to celebrate that day anyway and homeowner issues really ruin the mood), the next thing I thought about was my blog.  I know my blog doesn’t have the best pictures, but I also know that the best pictures that I can take don’t use the flash from my camera.  Seeing as my kitchen is dark with a small window, I just went into a funk thinking that I couldn’t post anything.

Just before I cover the entire cake with crumbs.

You know what finally got me out of my funk?  This cake!  As soon as I was finished making it, even before I tasted it, I knew things would be alright.  I knew I could just tell you why my pictures would be crappy for a couple of posts and just trust that you would give me a pass.  Hopefully, sooner rather than later, everything will be fixed and not only will I have usable light in my kitchen but good light.  Also, when my husband came home last night, he said, “Oooh, is that crumb cake?”  That went a long way for me in reigniting the anniversary mood and seeing as we are supposed to celebrate today…fingers crossed!

Crumb Cake Baked!

GeekyLink for today is a Fringe reference.  Seeing as I completely glossed over the season premiere of one of my favorite shows, I figure I owe it to them to give a shout out.  This T-shirt just cracks me up My Two Dads!  Also, for my money RedBubble has some of the best nerdy T-shirts out there in terms of variety.  There are plenty more sites and I may reference them in the future but at least compared to a site like CafePress, RedBubble has more interesting Fringe and more overall Dr. Who shirts.  As for the episode, if I don’t get more than one cumulative minute of Joshua Jackson in an entire episode, I am gonna freak out!  Seth Gabel will do for now, I guess.