Category Archives: Baking

Chocolate Root Beer Bundt Cake with thick Fudgy Frosting

April 11, 2012 – 6:00 am

Don’t you love when you have low or no expectations and then something just completely blows you away? It’s so much better than when your expectations are too high and lead you to be let down and disappointed. I often have much too high of expectations for movies, for example. I hear from everyone how great a movie is and it gets all built up in my mind and then I leave the theater thinking “What did I miss?”

I had no expectations for this cake. To be honest, I was just looking for one more recipe from Baked to make before reviewing the cookbook. I was intrigued by the addition of root beer to both the cake and the frosting but having nothing to compare it to, I didn’t have it on a pedestal with high hopes. This was one of those amazing times when my expectations were completely blown out of the water and far surpassed! What a pleasant surprise!

This is one of the most dense and moist chocolate cakes I have ever tasted. And the thick, fudgy frosting completely puts it over the top into chocolate-lovers’ heaven.

Another great thing about this cake is how easy it is to throw together. Perfect for a last minute dessert to bring to a dinner party or make any weeknight meal a little more special.

Root Beer Chocolate Bundt Cake

by Mercedes Porter

Keywords: bake dessert chocolate cake

Ingredients (1 10-inch bundt cake)

For the cake

2 cups root beer (not diet)
1 cup dark, unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs

For the frosting

2 oz. (~1/3 cup) dark chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup root beer
2/3 cup dark, unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

For the cake

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Spray inside of 10-inch bundt pan liberally with nonstick cooking spray.

In a small saucepan, heat root beer, cocoa powder and butter over medium heat until butter is melted. Add sugars and whisk to dissolve. Remove from heat and pour into a large bowl to cool.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

Whisk the eggs into the cooled cocoa mixture.

Fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture just until incorporated. Mixture will be lumpy.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

Place cake pan onto wire rack and cool completely before removing from pan and frosting.

For the frosting

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth.

Recipe from Baked by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

*Note: I found it easiest to heat the frosting for 15-20 seconds before spreading onto cake.

for the cake, in a small saucepan, combine root beer, cocoa powder and butter and heat until butter is melted

add sugars and whisk to dissolve

pour into a large bowl to cool; once cool, whisk in eggs, then fold in dry ingrediets

pour into prepared pan

cool completely before removing from pan and frosting

for the frosting, combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth

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Hoppy Easter Cupcakes

April 8, 2012 – 6:00 am

A couple of years ago, the Easter Bunny brought me this book:

Have you seen this book? It has some of the most adorable cupcake creations I have seen. The materials and details that are put into each cupcake design are incredible. Although I think the cupcakes in this book are so cute, I have been too intimidated (lazy?) to spend the time making any of them myself. Until now.

With spring having sprung, and Easter right around the corner, I have green grass, flowers and baby animals on the brain. I could no longer resist these little cotton tails

peaking out of grassy egg-filled patches.

I tried a new chocolate cupcake recipe from Sweetness Delicious Baked Treats for Every Occasion by Sarah Levy (which was super moist and chocolatey) and stuck with my favorite vanilla buttercream frosting from Magnolia Bakery.

For the bunny cupcakes, I frosted cupcakes with buttercream and then dipped the frosting in crushed Oreos. The bunnies’ feet are cut out from the flat Kraft Stacker Marshmallows, with jellybeans and chocolate covered sunflower seeds for the “pads” of the feet. The tail is a mini marshmallow coated in thinned out buttercream and rolled in decorating sugar.

For the grass cupcakes I used a Wilton #104 icing tip and topped the frosting with Whopper Eggs.

Supreme Chocolate Cupcakes

by Sarah Levy

Keywords: bake dessert cupcake

Ingredients (16 cupcakes)

2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup boiling water
1 cup cake flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs, room temperature
1 Tbsp + 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line 2 muffin pans with paper liners.

In a small bowl, combine boiling water and cocoa powder, set aside.

In a large bowl, combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add butter and cocoa mixture. Mixture will be dry and lumpy at this point. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.

Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full with batter.

Bake for 18 minutes.

Cool completely before frosting.

Recipe adapted from Sweetness Delicious Treats for Every Occasion by Sarah Levy

combine cocoa powder and boiling water

combine dry ingredients in large bowl and add butter and cocoa mixture

add eggs and vanilla and mix well

pour batter into cupcake liners 3/4 full

bake, then cool completely before frosting

Vanilla Buttercream

by Adapted from Magnolia Bakery

Keywords: no-bake dessert frosting

Ingredients (Enough frosting for ~16 cupcak)

1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbsp) butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup + 1/8 cup milk
5 cups powdered sugar
food coloring (optional)

Instructions

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream butter and vanilla together.

Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, alternating with milk a little at a time after each powdered sugar addition.

Add desired food coloring if using.

If frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If too thick, add more milk.

Happy Easter!

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Tags Candy, Chocolate, Cupcakes, Frosting | Comments (2)

Lemon Poppy seed Mini Bundt Cakes with Blackberry syrup

April 5, 2012 – 6:00 am

I told you last time that lemons are one of the ingredients that I think of when I think of spring cooking and baking. When you incorporate lemon into any sweet or savory recipe, the food instantly tastes refreshing and clean. Also, I purchased a mini bundt cake pan and a flower-shaped petite four pan a couple months ago and have been dying to use them. So when I was invited to a dinner last week, I used this opportunity to make a nice dessert for others as an excuse to break out the new pans.

It’s funny how sometimes when I make something to share with you, I envision these absolutely gorgeous photos that I will post. Then I actually take the photos and am so disappointed. I live in a condo building with windows facing the north and therefore, lighting for photography is an issue to say the least. But, I do my best. Playing around with my camera and lenses is part of the learning process and I know that I just need to be patient and work with what I have for lighting at least until I can convince my neighbors upstairs to let me cut a hole through my roof and theirs to use as a skylight. But at least I always have this willing (?) subject to test my lighting and camera settings on.

Gotta love the macro lens for torturing the animals .

Ok, back to the cakes. These cakes are so light and delicate and the reason I knew they were something truly special is because my husband could not stop eating them. I have told you before that because I bake so often, he doesn’t get terribly giddy about many treats, so when he does, I pause and take a moment to relish in my success.

I chose a blackberry syrup mostly because I thought the contrast in colors would be gorgeous. And it was, but you could certainly use raspberries or blueberries as well.

This cake recipe is adapted from the America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book and these cakes would make a lovely dessert or tea time snack for Easter or Mother’s Day.

Lemon Poppyseed Bundt Cake

by Mercedes Porter

Keywords: bake dessert snack lemon cake

Ingredients (1 12-cup bundt or 16 mini bund)

Nonstick cooking spray
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
2 1/4 sticks (18 Tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs, plus 1 additional egg yolk, room temperature
2 Tbsp poppy seeds

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Generously spray bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In medium bowl, combine, flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest.

In a large bowl and with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time mixing after each addition.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredient mixture and mix to incorporate, followed by half of the wet ingredient mixture, mixing well after each addition. Follow with dry, wet then dry mixing to incorporate after each addition. Add 2 Tbsp poppy seeds and mix.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

For 12-cup bundt pan bake 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

For mini bundt pan, bake about 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove pan from oven and place on wire rack to cool. Invert the pan onto a serving plate and jiggle lightly to remove the cake from the pan.

Recipe adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

cream together butter and sugar

add eggs one at a time

alternate incorporating dry and wet ingredients, then add poppy seeds

pour batter into prepared pans and bake

to make the blackberry syrup, combine 1 cup sugar with 1 cup water in a small saucepan

stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves

add 1 cup blackberries, turn heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes

allow syrup to cool slightly before serving over cake

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Tags Berries, Lemon | Comments (11)

Deep-dish Peanut Butter Cookies with M&M Peanut Butter Eggs

March 27, 2012 – 6:00 am

Ever since my trip to Chicago, I have had deep-dish everything on the brain! I love big, bakery-sized cookies and the best way that I have found to make my cookies maintain size while baking is to use a muffin top pan. I also knew that I could not resist many times walking down the Easter candy aisle before a bag or two, or five found their way into my cart.

So when somehow a bag of Peanut Butter M&M eggs ended up on my counter I could not wait to think of what to put them in! I have seen so many enticing peanut butter cookies floating around the internet lately, like the Pudding Peanut Butter Tagalong Cookies from Cassie at Bake Your Day, the Peanut Butter Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies from Two Peas & Their Pod, and these Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies from Brown Eyed Baker.

I decided to try a new peanut butter cookie recipe from Baked. And because I promise always to be honest with you, here are my thoughts and tips about this recipe:

On a regular cookie sheet, my cookies spread quite a bit and got very thin which made the M&M eggs protrude out of the regular cookies.
Using a muffin top pan, the cookies were exactly what I had hoped for: thick, chewy and moist.
The recipe says that the dough needs to be refrigerated for 3 hours. I am usually a rebel when it comes to this instruction, however, I played by the rules this time and my cookies still spread out way more than I would have liked with the batch that I used a regular cookie sheet. Lesson: I do not think it is necessary to refrigerate the dough, especially if using a muffin top pan or whoopie pie pan.

Deep-dish Peanut Butter Cookies with Peanut Butter M&M Eggs

by Mercedes Porter

Keywords: bake dessert snack peanut butter cookie

Ingredients (18 large cookies)

1 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup (16 Tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 regular-sized bag peanut butter M&Ms (or eggs)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, sift together, flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl and with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix to combine. Add peanut butter and mix.

Add dry ingredients in 2-3 increments mixing to incorporate after each addition. Add M&Ms.

Drop 1/3 cup of batter into each cavity of a muffin top pan and flatten slightly.

Bake ~15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and centers are just set.

Cool in pan for at least 5 minutes before removing from pan and placing on wire rack to cool completely.

These cookies are wonderful eaten warm.

Recipe adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

cream butter and sugars in a large bowl

add eggs, vanilla and peanut butter

add dry ingredients in 2-3 increments

add M&Ms, drop onto muffin top pan and bake

What Easter candy can you not resist?

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Chocolate-swirled Banana Bread

March 10, 2012 – 6:00 am

How are we supposed to decide what we want to be when we grow up? By our second year of college, we are supposed to have some idea about which profession we would like to pursue to make our mark on the world. Now, even high school students are encouraged to choose a track to set them up for their college careers. We job shadow and interview professionals and we think that these exercises give us some idea of what that professional’s day-to-day life is like. But until we have truly taken on the responsibilities ourselves, we really don’t have a clear sense of all that comes with being a teacher, lawyer accountant or dentist. All the years of studying, researching and working so diligently to earn a degree and a living and do what we think will make a difference only to realize that we lost our happiness somewhere along the way.

Sometimes I wish I could be a professional student. I love the academic environment and find pure bliss in watching a student understand something for the first time and have an “AHA” moment. Nothing makes me feel more fulfilled. Sometimes we don’t discover the paths we are meant to be on until much later than we were “supposed to”, but the revelation is worth the wait.

That is my insight for the day.

Now, onto the sweet of the day.

I love my mom’s banana bread. It is so moist and has the perfect mix of bananas, nuts and chocolate. This is not my mom’s banana bread. This bread is made with white whole wheat flour and has more of a sponge cake texture. I love to heat up each piece that I eat and sop up the melty chocolate chips with the spongy cake. Yum, I am beginning to salivate just talking about it!

Chocolate-swirled Banana Bread

Keywords: bake bread breakfast snack banana chocolate

Ingredients (1 loaf)

1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 overripe bananas
2 large eggs
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl and with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, yogurt, vanilla and bananas and mix well. Add flour, salt and baking soda and mix.

Pour half of the batter into another bowl and add cocoa powder and chocolate chips.

Pour half of plain batter into prepared pan and smooth. Top that batter with half of the cocoa batter and smooth. Repeat once more with plain batter and chocolate batter and smooth top of batter.

Bake about 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of bread comes out clean.

Adapted from Babble Family Kitchen

cream butter and sugar