one bowl chocolate loafcake

Hello, world!  Long time no update this blog.  But then, long time no cooking.  I moved across the country this summer, and for a few months I was in a situation where I was sharing a very small apartment with too many people.  Plus, and it kills me to even think about this, I had to leave most of my kitchen behind.  Actually ... pretty much all of it.  I won't lie, I died a little.

We have some more space now, though, and I finally was able to fill some cabinets with baking goods and get some things in the oven.  I wanted to do a chocolate cake, but my standard recipe is complex and I forgot I don't actually have cake pans yet.  So I turned to my list of "some day" recipes, and I found smitten kitchen's "everyday chocolate cake" right at the top.  One bowl, loaf pan?  Perfect!

one bowl chocolate loafcake
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup alkalized cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Oven to 325; prepare a 9x5 loaf pan.

Cream butter, add sugars, then egg, then buttermilk & vanilla.  Sift in flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt; stir.

Now, I baked mine for 60 minutes and it got a little crunchy around the edges.  It isn't burned, per se, but it is overcooked.  (Some buttercream frosting made it all better.)  Your mileage may vary; I seem to be having some trouble getting used to this new oven.  Not that it's a bad oven.  on the contrary I think it might be the first good oven I've worked with in ages.  We'll see.  Basically just keep an eye peeled; if you know from cake you shouldn't have any trouble.

two day pound cake

I found this recipe on 17 and Baking some time ago, and I set it aside because I knew a cake would never survive untouched for two whole days in my house. We had a party last weekend, though, and I was called upon to make a non-chocolate cake option, and since my better half was out of town, I figured I'd go for it and hide it in my closet.

I've been asked to post the recipe, so I am doing so. Everyone who tried this cake raved about it ... except for me. It really didn't do anything for me. It's not like I don't enjoy a good plain pound cake, either, so I have no idea what my problem is. So I post this without my own endorsement, but with the recommendation of a half-dozen people who worship at the altar that is this cake. Your mileage may vary.

Buttermilk pound cake
1 1/2 cups room temperature butter
3 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cultured buttermilk (or 1 tablespoon lemon juice then fill to 1 cup w/ milk)
1 lemon worth of juice (if you're lazy like me it's 2-3 tablespoons of the bottled stuff)

Preheat oven to 300°. Grease & flour bundt pan.

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda. Cream butter, adding sugar slowly. Add one egg at a time, mix thoroughly after each. Add vanilla. Add flour & milk in alternating parts, mixing thoroughly after each. Stir in lemon juice.

Bake 75-90 minutes. Cool 20 minutes in pan, then on rack. Put in cake carrier or equivalent, then hide cake away for about 48 hours. Serve.

my family's cake

I've been meaning to post this recipe for ages now. The story of its origin gets a little blurry, but my understanding is that my great-grandmother came up with this during the Depression as a way of not wasting spoiled milk. It seems a little strange to make an entire cake to avoid throwing out a little milk, but it's also the kind of crazy "logic" my family has been known to practice.

At any rate, this makes an excellent cake. It's a very mild flavor, with a dense texture. The only problem is I can't get the damn thing to come out solid enough--assuming I can get the cake out of the pan without it tearing in half, it often crumbles while I'm frosting it, and I make the frosting nice & fluffy just to avoid that. So I don't know. Any advice would be welcome.

I've also included my favorite frosting recipe, which is incredibly simple, but I love the outcome. You may remember it from the chai frosting experiments of yore. It came from here originally.

Depression-era sour milk cake
1 cup boiling water
2 squares bitter chocolate
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs (separated, but you do use both parts)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sour milk (if not available, use 1 tablespoon vinegar & fill to 1 cup w/ milk)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Stir chocolate into boiling water until dissolved, set aside.
Combine flour, salt, baking powder - set aside.
Cream shortening, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients and sour milk in alternating parts.
Add baking soda to chocolate (must wait until cooled), stir.
Blend chocolate in to batter.
Beat egg whites, fold in to batter.
Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, two round cake pans.

Buttercream frosting
1 lb. confectioners' sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. milk

Combine. Add more milk until you're happy with the outcome.

baked ice cream cake

So, I found my way to this entry on Omnomicon recently, discussing a method of making cake with a box of mix, three eggs, a cup of water, and two cups of ice cream. I found this very intriguing, and I decided to try it. It's goofily easy, as you would imagine--combine ingredients, 350 for 45 in a bundt pan, enjoy.

And oh. My. Yes.

The final product reminds me of a cakey pudding, or perhaps a puddingy sort of cake. It also kind of reminds me of jellied cranberry sauce, only chocolate and bready instead of ... cranberry and ... the metaphor breaks down, but seeing the partitioned ring of cake quiver when I slice in to it really sells it.

We did a chocolate fudge mix with "Forbidden Chocolate" flavor ice cream, and the result is a damn fine bit of chocolate. We also bought some nice light strawberry frosting, but frankly it doesn't need to be frosted. Next time I'm going to try a chocolate cake with a mint chocolate chip ice cream; Silver wants to try Butterfinger.

So. Healthy? No. Classy? Not really. Delicious? Oh yes. Oh my, yes.

Click through to the original for some excellently illustrative pictures as well as a very well-written food blog. You know. If you're in to that sort of thing.

chai frosting

Because moving always seems to involve people showering me with things from the back of their pantry that's about to expire, I am in possession of a few boxes of cake mix that are not long for this world. On a whim a few nights ago, I decided to make one, and combine it with a theory that we've had for a while. Essentially the theory is this - standard buttercream frosting can be flavored with cocoa during the creation period, so why not use instant chai?

So we did. The end result is not at all unpleasant, although I'm not sure I'd do it again. The flavor is more like the smell of the chai powder than the taste of actual chai. Although it did occur to me later that this results in a caffeinated cake, which may have a certain appeal. I recommend giving it a whirl if you're in to that sort of thing.