Chocolate Cake with Creamy Caramel Ganache

Last Thursday I realized how much this blog has become part of not only my life, but David's as well. I took the day off to cook a Cuban Pork roast which involved hours of marinating and then basting in citrus juice. It was David's Birthday and the dinner was a surprise as he was at work all day. The dinner turned out amazing. As we were getting ready to eat David asked if I was going to photograph our meal. I honestly had no intention of using the dinner as a blog post. It was his Birthday and I wanted us to be able to sit down and enjoy it. When I first started this blog, getting the camera out always resulted in pacing and eye rolling. Now, it is just assumed that there will be photos when there is something good to eat. For this meal I did insist that we sit down and eat, no photos.
I did however sneak in a few shots of the cake. If you have been following along here for a while you will remember that I am Birthday Cake challenged. This year for the first time I actually managed to pull off a really good cake on David's Birthday. I asked if this made up for the other three years of flops and the reply was, "Only if you make three more of these before my next Birthday". Sounds like I have a busy year ahead of me!

Lemon Poppyseed Cake

High expectations. That was the only thing wrong with this cake. When I read about it, I expected it to be different than the other poppy seed cakes I have had. Really, at least in my experience all poppyseed cakes are pretty much the same. Lemon Poppy seed or Almond Poppy seed, that is about as varied as it gets. I really like your average lemon or almond poppy seed cake. I was really hoping to find something new and different in the poppy seed realm. It is pretty with all those poppy seeds. Had I been presented this recipe as a standard poppy seed cake I would have said it was good.
I'm thinking maybe I just screwed something up, maybe I mixed it too long, or baked it too long. So just go over here, where it got rave reviews. If you make it let me know what you think. Maybe it is just me.

Super Easy Chocolate Cake

I recently started reading The Happiness Project. I still haven’t decided whether or not it is for me, but the task last weekend was to Toss and Organize. Believe it or not all my clothes closets were pretty organized. There is however one cupboard in my kitchen that has been driving me crazy. It is worse than the junk drawer, it is the junk cupboard. To make matters worse, I would really like to store my baking supplies there, so from time to time I have also added baking supplies to the mix. To say the least I never know what I might find in there.Well, what I found out I had was a lot of chocolate!! Milk, Mexican, Semi-sweet, White, Cocoa Powder of various Dutchness, and more bags of Ghirardelli Bittersweet chips than I could count! I go through phases with things I become obsessed with stocking up on, it seems to go along with sale items. Things like beans, tomato sauce, and obviously Ghirardelli Chocolate Chips are always purchased on sale. The problem is that I purchase them every time they go on sale.
As a reward for my hard work, I decided to give Molly’s chocolate cake another try. I actually made this cake a few weeks ago and it must not have stayed in the oven long enough and never set up. This is why I call it Super Easy Chocolate Cake. It seems that anything with words like simple or easy in the title mean I will certainly screw it up. Honestly, I have faith that you can do much better. This time I added five minutes to the baking time and this time, topped with a little Grand Marnier whip cream it was perfect!!
Super Easy Chocolate Cake
adapted slightly from Orangette

7 ounces good quality dark chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli Bittersweet)
7 ounces unsalted butter cut into small cubes
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and butter an 8-inch round cake pan. Line the base of the pan with parchment, and butter the parchment.

Melt the chocolate and butter gently with the butter in a double boiler or in the microwave, stirring regularly to combine. Add the sugar to the chocolate-butter mixture, stirring well, and set aside to cool for a few moments. Then add the eggs one by one, stirring well after each addition, and then add the flour. The batter should be smooth and dark.

Pour batter into the buttered cake pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until the center of the cake looks set and the top is shiny and crackly-looking. Let the cake cool in its pan on a rack for 10 minutes; then carefully turn the cake out of the pan and revert it, so that the crackly side is facing upward. Allow to cool completely. The cake will deflate slightly as it cools.
Serve in wedges at room temperature with a dollop of whipped cream (a little Grand Marnier makes it really good).
BTW…I had a little help cleaning out the cupboard. Brody cleaned up the half empty peanut butter jars!

Lemon Chiffon Cake

This month the Cake Slice Bakers chose this Lemon Chiffon Cake. I substituted Meyer Lemons. Are you surprised? This was a really delicious cake and would be just as good with regular lemons.  It was a great way to celebrate spring, although I must say it felt a lot more like spring two weeks ago when we ate this cake than it does today, the first day of spring.

Sweet Potato Cake

I have joined another online cooking group. The Cake Slice Bakers are baking one cake a month for the next year from from the Sky High Irresistable Triple Layer Cakes Cookbook. I bought this cookbook a few months back and I thought joining this group would give me motivation to use the cookbook. This was another great selection. The cake was moist and the orange cream cheese filling was a nice addition. I highly recommend this cookbook. I won't give out all the recipes on this site, but I will share some highlights from the baking process...

Persimmon Cake with Spicy Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

It was so nice to spend the day puttering around my kitchen after a crazy week of frozen pizza and other not so great menu selections. The last two weeks I have had persimmons in my CSA and I have been trying to figure out what to do with them. I was at a party Friday night and many people there have the same CSA and we all agreed that the persimmons are very pretty, but nobody had used them yet. I searched the internet for a while and was inspired by this recipe for Persimmon Spice Cake. I wasn't really up for converting everything from grams to cups, so I decided to go out on a limb and make it up. I usually don't do this with baking, but now I am thinking I should do it more often. Once the cake was complete I decided it needed some frosting. This is very similar to carrot cake with a little zip. It is even better the next day. 

Persimmon Cake with Spicy Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake Ingredients:
4 to 6 very ripe, soft persimmons, yeilding 1 1/4 cup pureed pulp
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 cups unsifted flour
1 tsp cinnamon (Vietnamese if you want an extra kick)
1/2 tsp each fresh nutmeg and ground cloves
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tsp Grand Marnier

Frosting Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. Vietnamese Cinnamon (regular cinnamon will work, but not be as spicy)

1 tsp. Grand Marnier

Cake Directions:
Puree persimmons until smooth and strain through a mesh sieve. Stir in baking soda. Mix well. This will cause the persimmons to set to a hard gelatinous consistency. This is normal and kind of cool.
Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and persimmon mixture. Combine flour and spices and add to mixture. Blend well, stir in nuts and Grand Marnier. Spoon into a 9 inch greased cake pan. Bake at 350 for about 40 or more until knife comes out clean.

Let cool completely before frosting. 

Frosting Directions:

Beat cream cheese, and powdered sugar until well blended. Add Grand Marnier, and Cinnamon and blend until smooth and color is even throughout. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

I have been promising David for two years that I would make him a homemade Birthday cake. The first year was a matter of logistics and just didn't have a place to bake one, so I bought a perfectly good cake from a bakery in Victoria and promised that I would make a "real" cake later. Well, by last March (his birthday month) I still had not made his cake from the previous year yet. So, I knew that I would have to make one for sure. Then disaster struck, the cake he picked was a total failure. He wanted those chocolate molten lava cakes. Well, actually he wanted the cake his mother used to make, but that is another story for another post. Anyway... the lava cakes were problematic as you are supposed to wait for them to harden in the fridge before you bake them and well...I didn't. David's Birthday cakes were a big gloppy mess! So it appears that I now owe him two birthday cakes and if I don't get on it, three in March. When one of my co-workers brought in this Peanut Butter Chocolate cake that his girlfriend had made for a reception at work, I knew it would be the perfect cake for one of David's birthday cakes. He let his girlfriend know and she directed me to Smitten Kitchen for the recipe. This past weekend I baked the cakes and like everyone warned they were incredibly soft. I also knew that we probably were not up to the 3 layer version, so I only made two layers and a few cupcakes as well. I wrapped them in plastic and put them in the freezer. Last night when I got home from work I made the frosting. After dinner I removed the cakes from the freezer and spread the frosting. This seemed to work really well as I had none of the crumb problems that other people had mentioned. The only problem I had is once the frosting was on we really wanted to eat this cake. I was barely able to get a photo. So, we skipped the ganache altogether. If I was taking this cake somwhere I would probably use a little ganache for decoration, but not nearly as much as the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake post on Smitten Kitchen. Although it is a beautiful picture, this cake is really rich without the ganache and I think it might just be over the top for us. So, finally I think I have one birthday cake down, one to go! Happy Birthday David! Thanks for being so patient!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake
from Smitten Kitchen
Makes an 8-inch triple-layer cake; serves 12 to 16
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup neutral vegetable oil, such as canola, soybean or vegetable blend
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

1/2 cup coarsely chopped peanut brittle

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch round cakepans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk to combine them well. Add the oil and sour cream and whisk to blend. Gradually beat in the water. Blend in the vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs and beat until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure the batter is well mixed. Divide among the 3 prepared cake pans.

3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. Let cool in the pans for about 20 minutes. Invert onto wire racks, carefully peel off the paper liners, and let cool completely. (Deb note: These cakes are very, very soft. I found them a lot easier to work with after firming them up in the freezer for 30 minutes. They’ll defrost quickly once assembled. You’ll be glad you did this, trust me.)

4. To frost the cake, place one layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or large serving plate. Spread 2/3 cup cup of the Peanut Butter Frosting evenly over the top. Repeat with the next layer. Place the last layer on top and frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. (Deb note 1: Making a crumb coat of frosting–a thin layer that binds the dark crumbs to the cake so they don’t show up in the final outer frosting layer–is a great idea for this cake, or any with a dark cake and lighter-colored frosting. Once you “mask” your cake, let it chill for 15 to 30 minutes until firm, then use the remainder of the frosting to create a smooth final coating. Deb note 2: Once the cake is fully frosting, it helps to chill it again and let it firm up. The cooler and more set the peanut butter frosting is, the better drip effect you’ll get from the Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze.)

5. To decorate with the Chocolate–Peanut Butter Glaze, put the cake plate on a large baking sheet to catch any drips. Simply pour the glaze over the top of the cake, and using an offset spatula, spread it evenly over the top just to the edges so that it runs down the sides of the cake in long drips. Refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 30 minutes to allow the glaze and frosting to set completely. Remove about 1 hour before serving. Decorate the top with chopped peanut brittle.

Peanut Butter Frosting
Makes about 5 cups

10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2/3 cup smooth peanut butter, preferably a commercial brand (because oil doesn’t separate out)

1. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.

2. Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Glaze
Makes about 1 1/2 cups

8 ounces seimsweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup half-and-half

1. In the top of d double boiler or in a bowl set over simmering water, combine the chocolate, peanut butter, and corn syrup. Cook, whisking often, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

2. Remove from the heat and whisk in the half-and-half, beating until smooth. Use while still warm.