The Best Chocolate Cake

This past weekend, I made a chocolate cake from a recipe I found on Epicurious. This turned out to be the best chocolate cake I have ever baked and eaten. It was right at the cusp of becoming a brownie, but still crumbly enough to be a cake. It was chocolaty and delicious, I just had to share this recipe find.

Chocolate cake with fresh whipped cream

As a request, I layered and frosted with a whipped cream filling, but I am excited to try this cake out with a ganache filling and Swiss meringue buttercream frosting as well.

Double Chocolate Layer Cake (Adapted by Epicurious)

This recipe yields two 10 inch layers, or three 8 inch layers
Printable Recipe

Chocolate Cake

• 5 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate (I used Ghiradelli dark chocolate morsels)
• 1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee (this can be made with 1.5 cups water and a teaspoon of instant coffee)
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup coconut or vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Let's Bake!

1. Preheat oven to 300°F. and grease pans.
2. Line bottoms with rounds of wax or parchment paper.
3. Finely chop chocolate and in a bowl combine with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
4. Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held mixer).
5. Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.
6. Divide batter between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Bake between 1 hour - 1 hour and 10 minutes. I checked at 45 minutes, and then again at the 1 hour mark. I allowed my cakes to bake the full 70 minutes.
8. Cool layers completely in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto racks. Carefully remove paper  lining.
9. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well in plastic wrap, at room temperature.
10. Layer cake with filling and frost with buttercream or icing

If using whipped cream, keep refrigerated and allow to sit at room temp for an hour before serving. If using buttercreams or icing, the cake can sit at room temperature without refridgerating.

Corn Chowder with Shrimp and Bacon

  

This dish was something I had on pinned on my Pinterest board for a while, and finally decided to make it! I served this chowder with a jalapeno and parmesan corn bread, and it was so delicious!

I had to make some adaptations with what I already had on hand, and also because my dinner guest has an allergy to onions. I swapped out onions with shallots, and still used onion powder because strangely, she is not allergic to either of those.

Jalapeno Parmesan Corn Bread
Printable Recipe

• 1 box cornbread mix
• 1 Jalapeno, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, or more if you like

1. Follow mixing and baking instructions on the box
2. Add in jalapeno and cheese, mix well
3. Place in a muffin pan, or small loaf pan
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Check to see if a knife comes out clean to make sure it is done. (While the cornbread is baking, start working on the chowder)
5. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan
6. Remove cornbread from pan (slice if needed) and serve.

Corn Chowder Recipe (Adapted by Bev Cooks - 2 servings)
Printable Recipe

• 2 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (Heck, I cooked 6 slices of bacon)
• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 3 Shallots (you can replace with 1 onion)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 TBSP smoked paprika
• 1 TBSP Old Bay seasoning
• 1 TBSP onion powder
• 1 pinch crushed red pepper (I added about 1.5 teaspoons)
• 3 cups frozen corn, thawed
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce (or you can use with 1/2 cup canned tomatoes, it gets pureed later on)
• 1/2 cup half and half or cream
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• Avocado Slices

1. You can season your shrimp with a little salt, pepper, and smoked paprika, set aside, but this is optional.
2. Heat a medium-sized pot over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until crispy. Remove bacon from the pan and set aside on a paper towel to drain. Drain all but 1Tbs. bacon fat, if you have that much in the pot.
3. Raise the heat to medium-high. Add the shrimp to the pot and sear on one side for 2 minutes. Flip and sear 30 more seconds. Remove shrimp from pot and set aside.
4. If you need to add a little oil (or bacon fat) to the pot, do so. Add the shallots to the pot until translucent. Add the garlic, paprika, crushed red pepper and a pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté another minute.
5. Add the corn to the pot and toss to combine.
6. Add the stock, cream, and tomato sauce to the pot. Stir to combine. Keep on a low simmer for 15 minutes. Taste it. Need a little salt and pepper? Add a pinch or two.
7. If you have an immersion blender, place it in the pot and pulse it a few times until about half of the soup becomes creamy, still leaving whole kernels as well. If you don’t have an immersion blender, ladle about a cup and a half of the soup into a blender and pulse until creamy. Pour back into the pot and stir to combine.
8. Serve chowder with the shrimp and reserved bacon crumbles.
9. Garnish with some parmesan cheese, avocado slices, and serve with cornbread

This soup was delicious and hearty. The cornbread gave a nice kick of heat, I will definitely be making this again!

Salted Caramel Buttercream

I decided to doll up some leftover vanilla buttercream. Like I mentioned in my last post, I came across a jar of Fleur de Sel during a random trip to ROSS, so I instantly thought of salted caramel.

This was especially easy to make, since I already had about 2 cups leftover buttercream from my last batch. All I had to do was prepare the caramel and mix it in.

Easy Caramel Sauce:

1 cup sugar

4 TBSP water

1/2 cup heavy cream

Fleur de Sel or a flaky sea salt

Medium saucepan or small pot with lid
Whisk (for mixing in cream ONLY)

1. Pour your sugar in your pan and add water

2. On low heat, swirl your pot around until the sugar is nearly dissolved. There should be no bubbling at this point, just enough eat to help. This takes about 5 minutes

3. Yep, I said SWIRL - no spatulas, no spoons. SWIRL that pot/pan! Stirring with a utensil creates condensation and possible contamination - whatever the reason, it risks your sugar of crystallizing and no one wants that.

4. When sugar is nearly dissolve, raise the heat to medium high - allowing the sugar water mixture to bubble and boil.

5. Once it starts to boil, cover the pan with the lid for 2 minutes.

6. After 2 minutes, remove the lid, and swirl the pan frequently until the sugar turns a deep amber color. It is important to be swirling and taking the sugar on and off the heat to prevent burning.

7. Once an amber color, remove from heat, and add heavy cream slowly - this is when you can use your whisk to mix it in. Be cautious, the sugar will spatter and steam because of the the reaction with the cold cream.

8. Once your caramel is mixed, let it sit for about 2 minutes to cool down.

9. Now your caramel is ready to be mixed in with your buttercream! Add as much caramel to your taste - I added about 1 cup of caramel per 2 cups of buttercream - but you don't have to use it all.

10. Add in about a teaspoon of salt to your buttercream, mix, and taste. Add more if you want, but I don't like to add much.

Voila! Salted caramel buttercream ready to be piped onto delicious cupcakes or macarons! Or you can just eat it with a spoon, I won't judge you.

I piped them onto vanilla and dark chocolate mini cupcakes, the dark chocolate really complimented the sweet buttercream. I devoured several cupcakes before I decided I could finally share them.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Today's post will be focused on Swiss meringue buttercream. I have tried to make Swiss meringue buttercream a few years ago and failed miserably, afraid to ever try again.

Well, after eating several french macarons and marveling over how delicious this buttercream is, I felt that I should give it another go in trying to make some myself.

This time, I was going to do research instead of blindly following a recipe. I found that research helped A LOT. Some recipes looked complicated, while others looked very simple. I decided to go with a recipe provided by Three Little BlackBirds blog.

**Update** 

Do yourself a favor and splurge on quality butter/ingredients (Land O' Lakes is a good one). Avoid using Great Value or knock off brands - I used GV unsalted butter and my poor buttercream had a weird filmy aftertaste. 

Also, make sure your egg whites smell odorless before you use them. If they smell like eggs, it will probably taste like eggs ... yep, I ruined another batch by ignoring my senses. 

What I liked about this recipe and blog, was the troubleshooting tips. The best tip I read was on prepping your cooking tools by wiping them down with lemon juice. Lemon juice cuts through any residual grease or oils that are in your bowls, whisks, or mixer attachments. Any amount of grease will surely cause your egg whites to not whip up. Who knew?!

The second tip I loved was using pasteurized egg whites, or liquid egg whites. This made my life so much easier than having to separate several egg whites and not using the yolk right away. No waste, and no more worrying about getting eggshells in anything!

Third, is my own tip, which is to make sure you have a baking or food scale. Getting the measurements down to the grams and ounces make all the difference than having to mess around with conversions.

When mixing the buttercream, TLB's blog mentioned using a stand mixer and paddle attachment, but if you have a powerful hand mixer like my Cuisinart, it works just as well, you are just working out your arms a little more, which is a bonus, because, who doesn't want toned arms?

The only adaptation I would make for this buttercream is adding some more vanilla for my taste, otherwise it came out perfect, TWICE!

I used the Swiss meringue buttercream to frost cupcakes for a middle school girl's lacrosse party to celebrate their season. I made chocolate and vanilla. Coloring the buttercream and decorating was so much fun! I made lacrosse stick toppers out of royal icing, which was made of egg whites, powdered sugar, and vanilla. The icing was piped onto wax paper and I let it dry overnight.



All cupcake decorating and box supplies were purchased from Micheals.
I used a jumbo open star tip to pipe the buttercream.

The buttercream tasted smooth, fluffy, and sweet....but not too sweet! This weekend I scored some Fluer de Sel at ROSS, so I will be using my leftover buttercream to make a salted caramel version sometime this week.

I hope you have the same success as I have had with the TLB buttercream recipe!