Chocolate Overload Cake

Whether or not you’re a fan of the holiday, Valentine’s Day is always a great excuse to eat inordinately large amounts of chocolate. Currently in my house, I have half of an Edible Arrangements chocolate-dipped fruit bouquet, chocolate-dipped, candy-crusted pretzels, chocolate-dipped peanut butter pretzels, maple crème eggs, marshmallow chocolate hearts, and the list goes on…

Despite the fact that most of this was around on Monday, I still wanted to make a special dessert to go with the fancy dinner I cooked for Eric and I. Going with the chocolate theme, I picked this cake because it sounded so over-the-top chocolatey that I couldn’t resist it.  Although I made a couple changes, you can find the original recipe for the cake here and the glaze here.

Chocolate Overload Cake

What You’ll Need

Cake:

• 1 package Devil’s Food Cake mix
• 1 small package fat free, sugar free instant chocolate pudding
• 1 cup fat free sour cream
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup Egg Beaters or egg substitute (or 4 regular eggs)
• ½ cup warm water
• 2 cups (equivalent to 1 bag) semisweet mini chocolate chips

Glaze:

• ¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 ½ tbsp butter
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• Confectioner’s sugar for decoration

Preheat your oven to 350F. Generously grease a Bundt pan or two 9-inch cake pans.

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the dry cake mix and instant pudding. Add the oil, applesauce, eggs, and water.  Mix well until no clumps remain. The batter will be slightly thick and stiff, but fluffy.

Dump in the mini chocolate chips, and mix until thoroughly distributed.

Transfer the batter to the greased cake pan (I used a bundt pan, and I’d recommend using this shape if possible as it holds the glaze well later on).

The original recipe said to cook this for 50-55 minutes, so I set my timer for 53 minutes.  Apparently my oven resides on the planet Sucktastica, because at that point the top looked cooked but it was still visibly liquidy when I tapped it with my finger. It took me another 10-15 minutes for a toothpick to come out clean when I poked a couple different places – if you use this method, just be aware that you might poke a melty chocolate chip. There is a difference between uncooked batter and melted chocolate on your toothpick – you don’t want to overbake the cake! Regardless, I don’t think this an issue with the recipe, more just with my oven, so try the suggested time before changing what you do.

When I took the cake out, it had risen to about the top of the pan and smelled amazing.

It’s important to let this cool for AT LEAST an hour before you flip it out of the pan.  To do so, place a cutting board or large plate over the pan, then invert it.  My cake popped out with no problem whatsoever – this is where liberal use of your nonstick cooking spray really comes in handy.

While this is cooling for another 5 or 10 minutes, make the glaze. Place the chocolate chips and butter into a microwave safe bowl, and heat on high for 45 seconds.  You’ll note that I didn’t include the corn syrup listed in the original recipe. mostly because I didn’t have any at home and I forgot to buy some at the grocery store.  I didn’t miss it at all, and will omit it in the future.  Mix the chips well after microwaving them once. Add the vanilla, then microwave for another 30 seconds until the chocolate is smooth.  My chocolate chips are related to my oven and also reside on Sucktastica, so they didn’t melt so much as turn into a spongy chocolate mass.  I thinned them out with some milk and it tasted great.  I drizzled the glaze all over the top of the cake and let it drip down the edges, then dusted the top with confectioner’s sugar.

The glaze will harden almost immediately, forming a shell over the top of the cake. When you cut into this cake, the first thing you’ll notice are the myriad of tiny chocolate chips scattered throughout.

This is where it’s crucial to use the mini chips, and not the regular size.  Regular chips are too heavy, and the batter can’t support their weight while baking, so they will sink to the bottom. While still tasty, it won’t let you get little pops of chocolate in each and every bite!

This cake is unbelievably moist, and I’ve tried to make it as “healthy” as possible by subbing out half of the oil and all of the eggs the original recipe called for, as well as using fat free sour cream.  You could easily use applesauce for all of the oil without changing the consistency or texture of this cake. It’s rich, so you won’t want to serve giant slices, but it is delicious and was the perfect way to end our Valentine’s Day with.  Make it for your next party, church social, or for a special treat in the middle of a stressful work week!

Cake Wreck

At this point, you might be wondering why, after so many successful recipes, I decided to call this blog The Recipe For Disaster.  Wonder no more.

Remember this?

How it was so pretty, and white, and WHOLE?

This past week, I decided to make the snowflake cake for a coworker’s goodbye party. The cakes, a cinch. The frosting? Not so much.

I started out by making the pudding frosting as before. This time, though, it didn’t set well – I think I overbeat the Cool Whip and it lost its consistency.  After putting some in between the two cakes for the middle layer, I was wary of putting it on the top and sides of the cake, for fear that it would all slide off.  I tried adding more pudding mix – no go.  After much cursing and hair-wringing, I decided to just make a regular vanilla buttercream icing using butter and confectioner’s sugar.

I iced the cake on the top and sides, and breathed a sigh of relief.  The cake looked perfect.

And then.

AND THEN.



A giant seismic cakequake caused the entire top layer to break in two and slide to opposite sides of the plate.

COMMENCE FULL ON PANIC. I tried to reposition the two halves and fill in the gap with more frosting so that it might stick together.  It almost worked, until the two halves had a fight and decided to split up.



By now, hysteria had set in.  It was almost midnight, and this cake was supposed to be eaten for a work function in a mere 12 hours.  Eric was extremely supportive, exclaiming how it was fine, NO ONE WOULD NOTICE, and I should bring it in as is. HAHAHAHA. How cute.

Accepting defeat, I decided that the ultimate solution lay in the above average bakery at my local ShopRite.  Not wanting all my hard work to go to waste, I decorated the “cake” with the raspberries and white chocolate snowflakes I had on standby.



This caused Eric to gleefully state that I should mess up cakes all the time, because then we get to eat the mistakes! And in truth, he’s right – despite looking like a raspberry volcano, this was just as delicious as the first successful version.

So, in closing, always remember when reading this humble blog to pay heed to the subtitle – “Results may vary".  Things might fall apart, but at least they’ll (almost) always taste good!

Winter Wonderland

I made this as a special dessert on Christmas Day since the picture I saw online was so pretty and festive.  Even though this has a decidedly wintry theme, you could easily adapt it for any season by making different shapes for the topping.

Snowflake Cake
What You’ll Need

• 1 package Devil’s Food chocolate cake mix
  
• 1 package fat-free/sugar-free vanilla pudding
  
• 6 squares (1 bar) Baker’s white chocolate
  
• 1 small tub fat free Cool Whip
  
• ¼ cup powdered sugar
  
• 1 cup cold milk
  
• 1 small can raspberry pie filling, warmed and strained
  
• Wax paper

Start out by baking the cake in two 9-inch round pans according to package’s instructions.  I’m not going to go through that or show pictures because really, we all know how to make a boxed cake.
While the cakes are cooling, cut two pieces of wax paper large enough to cover cookie sheets. Also get some scrap paper, and using a Sharpie draw snowflake and/or star shapes ranging from between 1-3 inches.



Slip these sheets underneath the wax paper so you can trace over them.



In a small mixing bowl, break the white chocolate squares into small pieces.




Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler according to the instructions on the package.  I went with the microwave route and nuked the chocolate on medium heat for short bursts, with lots of mixing to make sure it blended evenly. After there are no chunks remaining and the chocolate is smooth, let it cool for 5 minutes.  Do NOT skip this step!



After the chocolate has cooled, use a spatula and scrape it into a Ziploc bag (sandwich size works best).  If you’re uber fancy, you could use a pastry bag, but who really has those laying around?  Snip the very edge of one of the bottom corners off of the bag to create a small opening. Using both hands, gently squeeze the chocolate onto the wax paper, tracing over the shapes on the paper.  After you’ve finished, freeze (or refrigerate if you don’t have room) the snowflakes for 10-15 minutes, or until they have hardened.



Be generous with your shapes – the thicker the lines, the easier they will be to remove and the more sturdy they will be on the cake! This definitely takes practice, as you can see by some of my skinny and sloppy snowflakes.  I filled two large cookie sheets with large and small snowflakes, which left me with plenty of extras once I started to decorate the cake.  My suggestion is to err on the smaller side as they are easier to pull off the paper and less likely to snap in half.  On the other hand, when that happens, you get to eat your mistakes!

To make the frosting for the cake, mix the pudding, confectioner’s sugar, and milk with a whisk for 2 minutes, or until the pudding is completely dissolved and the mixture is smooth.



Using a spatula, gently fold in the entire container of Cool Whip.



Mix the frosting until there are no white streaks remaining, but not to the point of breaking down the consistency.  The texture should be light, fluffy, and creamy.



Transfer the contents of the raspberry pie filling can to a small bowl.  Microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until warm but not hot.  Using a spatula, scrape the pie filling into a small sieve or strainer.  Use the spatula to push the pie filling through, scrape the seedless extract from the bottom, and place it into a new bowl.



Place one of the cake rounds on a cake plate. Using a bread knife, I cut the top off of mine to get an even surface.



Spread the raspberry filling onto the cake, leaving about ¼ of an inch of the edges free.



Spread about ⅓ of the frosting on top of the raspberry jam, being careful not to mix the two.



Frost the cake with the rest of the frosting.  Carefully peel the snowflakes off of the wax paper and press them lightly into the surface of the frosting.  They will stick, even if it doesn’t seem like it.  Alternate the large and small snowflakes to completely fill the surface of the cake.




This cake was as pretty to look at as it was tasty to eat.  Even though it uses a box cake mix, the use of the fruit filling as well as the light frosting make it taste much more decadent.  The best part is that, besides the eggs/oil used in the cake, there’s no extra fat in the frosting! I will definitely be using this as an alternate to the regular buttercream frosting I whip up for all of my other cakes.  This cake is also very adaptable – the original recipe called for a yellow cake mix, but I felt more like chocolate.  You could easily use any other flavor of cake, or fruit filling, or even frosting. Feel free to tweak this according to your liking, and don’t feel guilty for eating something that looks so pretty!

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!

Making a Dump

HAHAHAHA. Fooled ya!  Here we are, a month into TRFD, and I've lulled you into a false sense of security.  You probably think that I'm a rather proper young lady, what with my propriety and lack of swearing.  What you didn't know is that I swear like a sailor, and my mind is in the gutter 99% of the time. Hence, this post's title.

No, it doesn't refer to poop. In my family, there is a seeming inability to go through a family or holiday dinner without the conversation veering, at one or more points, to poop.  Don't ask.  For our purposes, we're not going to focus on poop, but on a Dump...Cake!  Delicious, delicious dumpyness.

Grandma's Dump Cake
This recipe is courtesy of my grandmother-in-law, who always makes some amazing dessert from a recipe she clipped out of a newspaper at some point in the last 20 years.  I finally remembered to write this down the last time we visited her, only to discover that if I had taken 3.2 seconds and done a Google search I would have found it's a very common recipe, and I could have been making this for the last 6 years.  FAIL.

What You'll Need
1 can crushed pineapple
1 can cherry pie filling (I used the Lite version made with Splenda)
1 yellow cake mix (I used the store brand)
1 stick unsalted butter
Cooking spray

What To Do:
Preheat your oven to 350F. Spray a cake pan thoroughly with the cooking spray, then DUMP the crushed pineapple into the bottom (don't drain them first!).

T or F: This looks like horseradish. 

Next, DUMP the cherry pie filling on top of the pineapple; spread it out into a thin layer so it evenly covers the pineapple.

I was sorely tempted to start eating the cherries.

Then, DUMP the yellow cake mix over the first two layers.  I used my fingers to crumble up the clumpy parts and spread out the powder so that the fruit was invisible.

At this point, I popped the cake pan into the oven, toodled off to do something else, then rushed back because I realized I'd forgotten the butter.

And lo, there was butter, very thinly sliced.

Since my cake had already started to heat up in the oven, the butter melted as soon as I DUMPed it on the cake.

Have you figured it out yet? This is called a DUMP cake because all you have to do is DUMP the ingredients into the pan.  Genius!

After averting the butter disaster, the dump cake baked for about 40 minutes, which was long enough for the top to get a nice, golden brown crust.

For some reason, it looks like I just drizzled maple syrup all over the top of this cake. In reality, the butter melts into the cake mix and it cooks into a soft, puffy top layer. Since the cake was so damn yummy, I dove into an enormous slice and completely forgot to take a picture. Seriously, this cake disappeared in about 3 or 4 days between the two of us.  It's best served warm, and I especially like it with some whipped cream on top.  I think next time I'm going to try this with blueberries, since they're my favorite fruit, but the acidity of the pineapple balances well with the sweetness of the cherries.  This takes about 5 minutes to make, and just as short a time for it to disappear. It's definitely one of my favorites, and if anyone tries making this with something besides cherries, I'd love to hear how it turns out!

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.