Black Forest Cake

For the next few weeks I am going to do a mini theme; that theme is cake! Who doesn’t love cake? Over the Summer and time at home, I have been trying out cakes that I haven’t had time for before. One of my absolute favorites is Black Forest Cake. I love the whipped cream mixed with the dark chocolate cake. I’ve never had the time to make one before so I thought I would give is a try. Here we go…

Make sure you have time to do this as there are lots of steps.

You will need…

Filling

2 cups of canned cherry filling

Whipped Cream:

¼ cup of sugar

1tbsp. of cornstarch

3 cups of heavy cream

1 ½ tsp. of vanilla extract

Cake:

I used my go to chocolate devil’s food cake recipe for this…

½ cups of cocoa powder

1 ½ cups of boiling hot water

1 tsp. of baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. of salt

1 ½ cups of flour

½ heaping cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp. of instant coffee

10 tbsp. of softened butter

1 ½ cups of brown sugar

3 eggs

½ cup of sour cream

1 tsp. of vanilla

Butter and powder with cocoa powder, two 9 inch cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all of your dry ingredients in one bowl.

Then in a glass measuring cup, add in the boiling hot water, chocolate chips, instant coffee, and cocoa powder and stir until all is melted and dissolved.

In your mixer's bowl, cream the butter and then add the sugar until fluffy. Slowly add in the eggs one at a time. Then add in the sour cream and vanilla and beat until it is all incorporated.

Now on low, add in a third of your flour mix, then half of the chocolate repeat until all is added. Give it a final stir at the end to make sure everything is mixed in.

Divide evenly into the cake pans and bake for about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

For this cake, I needed three layers so what I did since I only had two pans was pre divide the batter three ways and then I baked the first two. After they came out I washed the pan and re-powdered and buttered and lined it and baked the  third layer. They will be a bit thinner than your regular cake but put together it will look like a big layer cake.

Now back to the Black Forest Cake.

So after baking the cakes and letting them cool completely, I started on the rest of the cake elements.

You can be super elaborate with your filling. I wanted to keep it simple so I bought a can of cherry pie filling and I strained the cherry goo from the cherries. I had a measuring cup of cherry syrupy goo and then a bowl full of mashed cherries with a little bit of syrup on them.

On all of the layers of the chocolate cakes, I poked some holes (not all the way through) with chopsticks and I brushed on some of that cherry goo and I really saturated the layer especially the middle and bottom ones. Let those sit.

For the whipping cream, I whisked the sugar and the cornstarch together in a small saucepan and then I whisked in ½ cup of cream. Bring to a simmer whisking it constantly. Once it thickens take the mixture off the burned and allow it to cool about 30 minutes.

                                     

While that is finishing cooling, whip 2 ½ cups of cream and vanilla on low speed until frothy looking. Then increase the speed and whip this mixture until it starts to thicken. Now slowly add in the cooled cornstarch mixture until soft peaks begin to form.

                                     

Now to assemble the cake. This can be a bit messy. On your plate or platter, place on of your layers of cake down. Spread ½ cup of the whipped cream on it and then on top of that spoon half of the mashed cherries. Now place another layer of the cake on top of that one and repeat the same process but use up all of the cherries.

               

Once all of your layers are on, use the rest of the whipped cream to “ice” your cake. You can shave some chocolate or what I did was melt semi-sweet chocolate chips the day before and cut it up into little bits and put them all over the side of the cake.

Top the cake with some more of the chocolate, I made a little circular mound (about 6-8 around the cake) and then topped that with a maraschino cherry.

 Slice and serve. You want to eat this sooner rather than later so the whipped cream doesn’t lose it’s stiffness.

Extreme Chocolate Birthday Cake

Hello, it’s Nicole here! So, it was my birthday not too long ago…now, my husband hates shopping at the best of times, let alone right now with everything that is going on. So being the thoughtful husband that he is (albeit, with some ulterior motives :P), and knowing how much I love chocolate, and cake, and chocolate cake, and spending time with him…but mostly chocolate cake…he suggested that we bake a big multi-layer chocolate cake together for my birthday. Of course I said yes, and thought I’d share it here too.

 There used to be a restaurant in town that my parents like to go when I was growing up, and they had this delicious 7 layer chocolate cake that my dad absolutely loved. The restaurant shut down, and years later my dad finds out someone he knows used to work there and gave him the recipe! The original recipe was for 12 cakes, but has been cut down for one so that’s why some of the measurements may seem a little funny.  (I also included the measurements we used to make two ¼ sheet pans).

 We decided that this was the chocolate cake we were going to bake, and frost it with my favourite chocolate frosting recipe from my mom (we doubled it), and fill between the layers with Samantha’s chocolate mousse, which we have blogged about here. Since we wanted more than two layers, but only had two cake pans, we decided to do two sheet pans (took 3 single recipes) and cut them both in half for a rectangular four layer cake.

 

Without further ado…here’s our cake:

 

Chocolate Cake

Makes one 10” round cake

(Amounts in brackets, for two 12”x17” sheet pans)

 

Ingredients:

1 cup Sugar (3 cups)

¼ cup + 2 tsp. Cocoa Powder (¾ cup + 2 Tbsp)

½ cup + 2 Tbsp. Oil (1¾  + 2 Tbsp.)

½ cup + 2 tsp. Hot Water (1½ cup + 2 Tbsp.)

2/3 cup Mayo (2 cups)

1¾ cups Flour (5¼ cups)

1 tsp. Baking Powder (1 Tbsp.)

1½ tsp. Baking Soda (4½ tsp.)

2/3 cup Buttermilk (2 cups)

3 Eggs + 1 Egg White (9 Eggs + 3 Whites)

 

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300°F

In a mixer with the whisk attachment, mix the sugar and cocoa, until blended. Add the oil and blend until smooth, then add the hot water and mix well. Add the mayo and blend until smooth.

Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and buttermilk.

Mix on low until all dry ingredients are wet – make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Now mix on high to get rid of any lumps – do not over mix.

Add eggs and mix on medium speed until well blended – do not over mix.

Pour batter into greased & lined 10” pan put in the preheated oven right away (do not let them sit out). Bake for 50-60 mins.

Let cool before filling and frosting.

Mousse

(We made 1 1/2 recipes)

Recipe here

 

Chocolate Frosting

(We doubled this recipe)

Ingredients:

½ cup Sugar

½ cup Water

¼ cup Cocoa Powder

6 oz Dark Chocolate

6 oz Unsalted Butter

 

Directions:

Heat sugar, water and cocoa in a saucepan, stirring until smooth and sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate and butter to the pan and whisk until both are melted and mixture is smooth.

Chill for at least an hour in the refrigerator. Mix on high speed in mixer until fluffy.

 

Once all the components were ready, we trimmed the edges of the cake then measured and cut them both in half so we had four equal sized layers. We decided to build it on a sheet pan because we didn't have any other plates or trays that were big enough! We split the mousse into three equal parts. Put the first layer of cake down an covered it with mousse, followed by the second layer of cake, then mousse then cake, then mousse, then cake.

    

We then put this in the freezer to harden up the mousse a bit before frosting it. 

We had a bit of a mishap when layering the mousse on. The second layer of cake broke in half when we put it on, and then when we put it in the fridge to harden the mousse up a bit, it slid and the top layers started falling off and getting mousse everywhere. We were able to fix it, but next time we would probably surround each layer with an frosting ‘dam’ along the edges to hold the mousse in. The weather was also fairly warm, so that probably didn’t help. In the end, we put it in the freezer once we fixed it, so that it would be easier to frost. This also made the tray messy, but thankfully that doesn't change the flavour!

It was delicious, and chocolatey…and GIANT…and heavy! Now I understand why in all those cake shows on TV they talk about how heavy their fancy cakes are!! There was so much cake that we shared some with my family, my husband's family and still had extra that we put in the freezer so we could enjoy it again later.

Marbled Bundt Cake

Time for a Father’s Day treat. My dad is always asking for a marbled something when it comes to baked goods so we tried this one out and it was a huge success so give it a try for your dad this Father’s Day. I know I couldn’t stop eating it when we baked it!

You will need...

3 cups of flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¾ cup of buttermilk

1 Tbsp. vanilla

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 ¼ sticks of butter

2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

3 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips

2 Tbsp. of butter

2 Tbsp. of unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare your bundt cake pan by greasing it and then flouring it.

In a two separate medium sized bowls, mix/whisk your dry (flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda) and wet (buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon juice) ingredients separately.

Now beat the sugar and the butter with your mixer.

Add in the eggs one at a time followed by the one yolk.

On low, add in one third of the flour mix followed by half of the wet mix and then repeat with remaining dry and wet ingredients.

Separate the batter evenly into two bowls.

Now it’s time to make the chocolate part of the marble cake.

Melt the chocolate chips, butter, and cocoa powder in the microwave until smooth and fully melted.

Stir the chocolate mixture into one of the bowls of batter.

It’s time to marble!

I put a dollop of each batter side by side until the bundt pan is full. That is one layer. Then on top of each dollop, put the opposite flavour for the top layer. Swirl it all around with a butter knife until you get your desired marbledness. You can also layer one flavour on the bottom and one on the top and swirl. I tried that the first time I made this cake but it didn't get as marbled as I wanted it. 

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes. It usually takes the full 60 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool for at least 10 minutes in the pan and then slide it out of the pan and allow to cool about 2 hours before eating.

You can eat it plain or you can make a glaze or icing to put on it (the second time around we made a caramel glaze). You can put whipped cream or ice cream and even some berries on top if you like.

Now it’s time to enjoy!

*You might have noticed that the last few final steps have no pictures. We were so excited to eat this cake that we got distracted and forgot. Next time!

Texas Brownies

It’s been a cold snowy week here and nothing is more comforting than a nice glass of milk or cup of tea and an ooey gooey brownie, so that’s what we are making this week, brownies. We’re not making just any brownie, we are making Texas brownies. Don’t ask me how they go their name, maybe it’s because “everything is bigger in Texas” and these brownies are bigger and better than most or maybe it’s the buttermilk, I don’t really know.  I do know that this one recipe makes a lot of brownies, so you’ll have brownies to last you a long time!

This receipt was at the bottom of my mom’s recipe box and we never thought to try them before. They were from a co-worker of my dad who used to make them for luncheons and parties, so that’s why it makes so much (feel free to cut down this recipe if you’re not feeding dozens of people).

Texas Brownies

You will need...

2 cups of flour

2 cups of sugar

1 cup butter or margarine

1 cup of strong brewed coffee

¼ cup of unsweetened cocoa

2 tsp. vinegar

½ cup of milk (if you have actual buttermilk then use that instead, but if you don’t you can make your own with the vinegar listed above)

2 eggs

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

How to...

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Butter a 17 ½ inch x 11 inch jelly roll pan. You can line the pan with tin foil like we did if you have an older pan that might stick or if you want less cleanup.

Mix the flour, baking soda, and sugar in a large bowl. Set aside.

If you don’t have buttermilk on hand and need to make some, add the vinegar to the milk and let sit for about 5 minutes. If you have buttermilk skip this step and ignore the milk and vinegar ingredients. 

In a heavy saucepan, combine butter, coffee, and cocoa. Stir and mix well. Heat until boiling.

Once the mixture boils, pour over the dry ingredients.

 Add the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Mix well, making sure to get rid of as many lumps as you can and make sure the flour mixture is thoroughly incorporated. 

Pour into the prepared jelly roll pan and spread evenly. 

Bake the brownies for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

While the brownies are baking...you can make the icing.

For the icing you will need, ½ cup of butter or margarine, 2 tbsp. of cocoa, ¼ cup of milk, and 3 ½ cups of icing sugar.

In another heavy saucepan, combine the butter or margarine, cocoa, and milk. Heat until boiling, stirring constantly. Once it comes to a boil, take it off the stove.

Mix in the icing sugar and vanilla and stir until smooth.

Pour the warm frosting over the fresh from the oven brownies and let sit. You can put them in the fridge if you want to speed the process along or you can let them sit out until they get firm and the icing hardens.

Finally, cut them into bars and enjoy.