What’s Black and White and Yummy All Over?

This is one of those recipes that I originally made a reallly long time ago, but was definitely worth the wait before it made its starring appearance here on the blog. I brought these to a birthday party at work and they were a big hit.

Black Bottom Cupcakes (adapted from here)

What You’ll Need

White Filling

• 1 (8 oz.) package fat free cream cheese
• 1 egg (or ¼ cup egg substitute)
• ⅓ cup sugar
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Black Filling

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup water
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

What To Do

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a muffin tin with Pam or butter, or, alternately, line with paper cups.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the ingredients for the white filling (cream cheese, egg, sugar, and salt.) Fold in the chocolate chips afterwards.

In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients for the black filling (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.)

Gradually add the wet ingredients (water, vinegar, oil, vanilla) to the dry mix. Mix well; the batter will be thin.

Fill the muffin cups ⅓ full with the chocolate batter. Top with one large spoonful of the white filling.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

You’ll know these are done when the white portion of the cupcakes starts to turn a slight golden brown.

Although it may be sacrilege to say this, I’m not a huge cheesecake fan. I find its richness to be overwhelming, and I can usually only get through a bite or two of the pure, unadulterated versions. I do, however, love the flavor when there’s something else to cut through the creaminess of cheesecake, and these were a perfect example. The strong but not overpowering chocolate portion is a great counterpart to the cheesecake portion, and the chocolate chips provide enough texture to keep these from getting too mushy of a texture.

On top of the great taste, they look pretty darned impressive when you’re eating them. Everyone you share them with will be sure to think you spent much longer slaving away in the kitchen than you actually did – don’t spill the beans that these are a cinch to cook!

Birthday Cake, Part 2: Best. Cake. Ever. Edition

To be honest, I don't really like cake. There are a few exceptions to this rule, namely cakes of the ice cream variety, but for the most part, I prefer pie. But there is one cake that I will happily eat at any time, and that is the cake that has been our family's birthday cake for two generations. This cake is from a cookbook from the 1950s, so it's as unhealthy as it is delicious. But I figure that if you are going to pick a day to eat something unhealthy, that day should probably be your birthday, and this cake is well worth the calories.

1-2-3-4 Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting

What You'll Need:

-For the cake:

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

3 cups flour (cake flour works best; this cake can be dry)

4 eggs (Have you figured out how they came up with the name yet?)

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 tsp almond extract

-For the frosting:

4 tbsp butter

2 cups powdered sugar

3 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

Note: You normally have to double this recipe to yield enough frosting to cover a 13x9x2-inch cake. If you double the amount of milk, however, the frosting will be very thin. When I doubled the recipe, I only used four tbsp of milk instead of six, or just enough milk to achieve frosting consistency.

What To Do:

Preheat your oven to 350F if you are baking a 13x9x2-inch cake or 375F if you are baking two round cakes. Grease and flour your cake pan(s).

As you can see, I chose to use the waxed paper method I used when I made the chocolate cake since that cake came out of the pan so nicely.

Cream the butter and sugar together before beating in the eggs. Sift and add the dry ingredients to the batter, alternating the dry mixture with the milk and almond flavoring.

I will admit that I definitely did not sift the ingredients out of laziness, and the cake came out fine, so I don't think this is a vital step, although it would probably make the cake less dense.

Lastly, the recipe instructs you to pour the batter into the cake pan(s) and bake the 13x9x2-inch cake for 45 minutes or the two round cakes for 25 minutes. Since this cake can be dry, my goal was to get it out of the oven just as it was ready so that it wouldn't overcook, so I set the oven timer for 35 minutes instead of 45. By 30 minutes, the cake smelled done, and when I took it out of the oven at 35 minutes, it was definitely ready to come out of the oven and might have been slightly overdone. For that reason, I would definitely recommend that you keep a close eye on this cake when it is baking. This recipe is from my grandmother so I can't vouch for cooking times or temperatures -- 375F seems high and we literally always make a 13x9x2-inch cake, so I've never tested her directions for round cakes -- but I don't think there has ever been such a disparity before, so it might just be that my oven runs hot.

My definitely finished and possibly slightly overdone cake.

Anyway, once the cake is out of oven, you can start making the frosting while you wait for it to cool. If you are doubling the recipe like I did (and really, why wouldn't you, since there is no such thing as too much frosting), start by creaming the butter and gradually adding two cups of the powdered sugar.

Mmmm, sugary butter.

Next, beat in the flavoring. Once those ingredients have been combined, gradually add the rest of the sugar and the milk until the mixture reaches frosting consistency.

Admit it, you totally want some of that in your belly.

In order to add some extra whimsy to our birthdays and holidays, my mom and I usually dye the frosting a very bright color when we make this cake. I had Halloween-related plans, so I decided to dye my frosting a green that resembled grass. However, I soon discovered that this would take way more time and food coloring than I expected (I lost count at twelve drops of food coloring) so I gave up when the shade was sort of close to what I wanted.

More like clover green, and clover is kind of like grass, so yes, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I INTENDED ALL ALONG.

I wanted the frosting to resemble grass because I wanted to use candy pumpkins to make the cake resemble a pumpkin patch! I asked my very wise and former art major sister to help me with this, and she promptly took the pumpkins from me and dumped the bag on top of the cake. While I initially cringed, the cake came out great. Behold!

This is truly the perfect cake for someone with a fall birthday, if I do say so myself! My baking time must have been close to perfect because this cake was light and moist. In fact, it was so good that it could have been eaten without any frosting at all. The combination of cake and frosting is wonderful, though, because the frosting enhances the almond flavor of the cake and adds a bit more sweetness to the dessert. This cake has become a favorite of every friend I have introduced it to, and I'm sure you'll love it too. The next time someone you know has a birthday, let them eat 1-2-3-4 cake!

Birthday Cake, Part 1: Chocolate Edition

As I mentioned in my last guest post, I am making my family's traditional birthday cake for Tia and myself this weekend. Since one of my manager's birthdays is the day before mine, I also promised to bring some cake to work this week. I figured I'd make a chocolate cake today since a. the cake I'm making this weekend is a vanilla cake and b. the cocoa powder in our cupboard expires at the end of the month. I found this recipe in one of my mom's cookbooks and thought I'd give it a try, and it turned out great!

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

What You'll Need:

-For the cake:

3/4 cup butter, softened

3 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups milk

-For the frosting:

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

8 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

milk

Note: The frosting recipe yields enough to frost the tops and sides of two 8- or 9-inch layer cakes, so you are instructed to halve it to frost a 13x9x2-inch cake, which is what I did.

What To Do:

Start by preheating your oven to 350F and setting the butter and eggs on the counter so that they start to approach room temperature (the recipe says to leave them out for about half an hour, which is roughly the amount of time it takes to grease the pans and get the rest of your ingredients assembled).

Ingredients on the counter and ready to go.

If you are planning on removing the cake from the pan before serving, such as for layer cakes, or in my case, to put into another container for travel, grease the bottom of the pan and then line it with waxed paper, like so.

Then grease the bottoms and sides of the pans and lightly flour them, or, since you're making a chocolate cake, use some cocoa powder in place of the flour, which is what I did today. These steps probably sound tedious and seemed that way at the time, but my cake came out of the pan really easily and looked absolutely perfect, so they were worth the time and effort. If you're planning on leaving the cake in the pan, you can just grease it and skip the waxed paper and flour steps.

Cake pan greased and lightly coated in cocoa powder.

You should then combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set it aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add the sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined (about three to four minutes). Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat the mixture on medium speed for two minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition (about one minute total). Then beat in the vanilla.

Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk to the butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined. Once you are finished, beat the batter on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more. I will note that at this point, I was mildly concerned, because the batter seemed very runny, although it smelled marvelous.

The batter, which was approximately the consistency of pudding.

My guess is that although the recipe doesn't specify the type of milk you are supposed to use, it wants you to use whole milk, so since we only had skim, that might have had an impact on the consistency. Thankfully, this didn't appear to have any negative impact on the cake. Your final step is to spread the batter evenly into your prepared pan(s).

Bake the cake(s) for 35 to 40 minutes (for 8-inch pans or a 13x9x2-inch pan), 30 to 35 minutes for 9-inch pans, or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for ten minutes before removing it and peeling off the waxed paper.

While you are (impatiently) waiting for the cake to cool on a wire rack, you can start making the frosting. Start by beating the butter until smooth in a large mixing bowl. Beat the cocoa powder into the butter before gradually adding two cups of the powdered sugar, beating well. Slowly beat in the 1/4 cup milk and the vanilla. Then gradually add the rest of the powdered sugar and just enough milk so that the frosting reaches spreading consistency (it doesn't take much; I added approximately another 1/8 cup and a tbsp of milk for the halved recipe). This recipe yielded more than enough for me to frost the cake as well as eat enough to make me feel sick to my stomach, although I partially blame that on my family members' unwillingness to spoil their diets by licking the bowl. It's a sad, sad day when people turn down bowls containing chocolate buttercream frosting, let me tell you.

A photo of the finished cake, which I decorated with orange sprinkles because, as my mother said, "People like that."

This cake was delicious, and that's saying something since I don't really like chocolate cake. The cake itself was moist and had a great chocolate flavor, and since it wasn't very sweet, it paired really well with the sugary frosting. You definitely get a lot of chocolate in one bite, so this would be a great cake for the chocoholic in your life. You could also pair this cake with a vanilla buttercream or cream cheese frosting to tone down the chocolate a little bit, but really, why would you want to do that?

If you make this cake, please let me know how thick your batter ends up being! I'm curious to see if it's supposed to be thinner than normal like it was for me.