Let"s All Eat Cake!!

  Look! It's not a pie. Weird right?? Yes, I admit it feels odd baking a cake. But sometimes you just have to break out. Sometimes, you have to bake a chocolate cake. And that is precisely what I did today. I baked a chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese icing for no reason. And it felt good.
  Probably, this cake making craziness had to do with the fact that I attended a family reunion yesterday. Let me paint a picture for you.... I get in the car and drive an hour to my dad and stepmother's home. I get out of my car and into their car. We drive two and a half hours to somewhere in Indiana. Actually, we drove to a family style restaurant of the Indiana family's choosing. I must admit that the three of us were quite scared that the food would be horrible but it was surprisingly good. At this lunch, I learned that one of my father's cousins is a Bloody Mary fan. In fact he has mastered his own mixer recipe. He offers to fill me in on his Bloody Mary secrets and even make a bottle for me to take home. Score! Things are looking up!!
  We get back in the car and drive a few miles to the Bloody Mary Master's home. Here, we spend some quality time with my father's extended family. I learn about button collecting and competing from the Bloody Mary Master's wife. This is actually pretty interesting. It always amazes me what people chose to collect. Who knew that buttons could be such a hot topic? Not this girl. The Bloody Mary master whips up some of his famous mixer....which is very good. I acquire a bottle to take home and a copy of the secret recipe.
  Yes, there were desserts. One of which was a chocolate cake purchased at a store. I did not try this cake but heard through very good authority (my step mom, who is an amazing cook) that it was very bad. This is probably what made me think of making a cake.
  After the Bloody Mary making, the button tour and hours of hanging out with the fam, we get back in the car and drive two and a half hours. I get out of the car at my folks and get in my car and drive another hour. It was a very long day but surprisingly fun.
  And today I baked a chocolate cake. The cake recipe is one from David Lebovitz. I did not use the ganache recipe but chose to do a chocolate cream chess frosting (I had cream cheese that had to go.)

I love these vintage cake pans that my friend Amy gave me upon her mother's passing. 

Sift away!! A suggestion - make sure you are using a really good cocoa powder.  I use this great Italian brand that we carry at Williams Sonoma.

Like many other chocolate cakes this one calls for coffee...and milk and eggs and sugar...and butter.

Yum!!! 

Here we go....

I was pretty proud. The cakes came out like a dream. I love parchment paper!

Now for the serious stuff. Chocolate cream cheese frosting. This is not for the faint of heart.

Here is the recipe...
(from David Lebovitz)

For the cake:

• 9 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1½ cups cake flour (not self-rising)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1½ cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• ½ cup strong coffee (or water)
• ½ cup whole or low-fat milk

1. Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Butter two 9″ x 2″ cake pans and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.

3. To make the cake layers, sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.

4. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, or by hand, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. (If using a standing electric mixer, stop the mixer as necessary to scrape down the sides to be sure everything is getting mixed in.)

5. Mix together the coffee and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, the add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients.

6. Divide the batter into the two prepared cake pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Here is the frosting...

Ingredients

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups sifted powdered sugar (You can decrease this amount if you don't care about it being as stiff for piping)
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 
  

Instructions

1. Mix cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.
2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time.
3. Mix in cocoa powder.

 Now, let's all eat cake!!

Try it again. You may like it

  I just returned from my annual road trip to Montana to visit my mother. And something very exciting happened during my stay at her home! Are you ready for it.... I baked a cake!! Yes, you read the words correctly. I said a cake.
  Now I realize that I have been away from this blog for a long time, over two years in fact. And what happened during that time? Well, a whole lot and very little has happened. But one thing has not changed...I am still a pie gal at heart. When faced with the inevitable choice - pie or cake - I will almost always choose pie. Notice I said ALMOST.
  Well, here's what happened... When I travel to Montana, I take a collection of recipes (most of them from Cook's Illustrated) that I have not had the chance to try yet.  I enjoy having some free time away from the list of to dos in my own home to experiment. And this year was no different. I happily toted five issues of Cook's and the current issue of Sweet Paul across the country. Add to this, the fact that my mother had a new stove delivered (a convection oven with an induction range) after just a few days of my stay. Let's just say, I could have stayed inside in that kitchen all day, every day, joyously cooking and baking.
  So we planned several items for meals. And somewhere in there my mother mentions her difficulty with making cakes in the higher altitude. This lead to much discussion and research on the subject. She also mentioned that she would like to make a German Chocolate Cake. This cake was a favorite of hers as a child. My grandmother made it regularly for birthdays. What I remember is not liking it. But as I have gotten older my tastes have changed. And I quickly came to see this cake as a challenge. Not only would we take the convection oven for a spin and overcome the altitude issue but I will like this cake dammit!!
  Next, I did some mad searching for the perfect recipe. The recipe I chose to follow was from Brown Eyed Baker The Recipe. She adapted her recipe from David Lebovitz. I felt like it was going to be the right choice...and it was. I mean Brown Eyed Baker and David Lebovitz, how could I go wrong.
  There was a lot of rigmarole altering ingredient amounts slightly and changing bake time and temperature for higher altitude convection baking. What I did seemed to work beautifully. If you need a resource for such things, I would suggest taking a look at King Arthur Flour's website.
  Anyway, the end result was AMAZING! That being said, this is not a cake for the faint of heart. Slice the pieces a little smaller than you would normally and have a tall glass of milk on standby.  You are going to need it!!

German Chocolate Goodness in every bite!