Chocolate Cake {Brunch with Babs}

For Michael's birthday this year, I wanted to make a homemade cake.  I went through my cookbooks and found one labeled Perfect Chocolate Cake in the cookbook from the social media hit "Brunch with Babs."

I really enjoy her cookbook - Celebrate with Babs - since it is divided by events like Valentine's Day, Summer Barbecue, and Halloween Festivities.  She gives lots of tips with each recipe, as well as family stories.  

This recipe was very easy, and the cake was rich and delicious.  I frosted it with my favorite Buttercream Icing - you can find that recipe here.

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup coffee (boiling hot)

1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease and lightly flour 2 round cake pans.  The recipe calls for 9".  I used 8" and had a little leftover batter.

2.  In a stand mixer with whisk, add first six ingredients (dry.)  Mix to thoroughly combine.

3.  To the flour mixture, add milk, oil eggs and vanilla.  Mix on medium speed.

4.  Reduce mixer to low and add hot coffee to batter.  Bring speed up to high, and beat for 1 minute.

5.  Put batter into cake pans.  Bake for 30-35 minutes.  Cool in pans on cooling rack for 15 minutes.  Then quickly flip the cakes onto the rack to continue cooling.

Cupcakes Two Ways

 

One of our favorite places to pick up a treat is Sprinkles Cupcakes.  We don't have one around our house, so we usually splurge when we are in town to see a Broadway show or while we are travelling.  

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Icing

We have started a new family-fun night in our house.  You see, Michael loves football.  The rest of us, not so much.  To encourage all of us to have some family together time watching the game, I have added the incentive of a yummy buffet.  This includes some foods that we don't really eat at home on a daily basis.

So far we have watched two Texans games as a family, and all have enjoyed it.  For this week's game, we made some box mix chocolate cupcakes and topped them with Chocolate Cookie Dough Icing.

My friend Kathy made these earlier this week, and they are to-die-for.  They are yummy served chilled, when the icing tastes almost like cookie dough ice cream.  The recipe is originally from the Recipe Critic.

3/4 cup softened butter
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 t salt
2-3 cups powdered sugar (I used 2)
milk, as needed (I used about 2-3 T)
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

In a medium bowl, cream butter cream cheese, and brown sugar until fluffy.  Add flour and salt; mix well.  Add vanilla.  Gradually add powdered sugar.  Add milk to get desired consistency.  Add chocolate chips.

Linking to:  

Momfessionals Recipe Club

Better Buttercream Icing

I made a cake for Judy's birthday this week and tried a new buttercream recipe.  Previously I had posted an icing recipe from my Better Homes and Garden cookbook.  It was good, but very sweet and not as spreadable as I'd like.

I found a different recipe on a new-to-me blog called The Kitchen Magpie.  Click on over to see her great photographs and many, many recipes.  Here's her recipe for buttercream icing.

The main change I made was lowfat milk instead of cream.  Even with regular milk, this icing is very rich and smooth!


-Cream 2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter.  It should be whipped up to a fluffy, almost white appearance.

-Gradually mix in 4 cups powdered sugar.

-Add 3 teaspoons vanilla.

-Add 3-5 tablespoons milk, until desired consistency is reached.


Easy and soooo delicious!  You will not want canned frosting after you taste this.

Dutch Apple Cake

Grace needed to bring an international dish to her girl scout meeting last week.  After much thought, we picked Dutch apple cake.  We have a Dutch friend who makes an excellent apple pie that inspired us.

It was so easy and absolutely delicious.  Grace was very proud to have made the cake herself!

Before baking.  Cooking in your pj's is just the best!

Hot apple cake from the oven

Apple yumminess

• 2 eggs
• 175 g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling (approx 3/4 cup)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 85 g butter (approx 6T or almost a stick)
• 75 ml milk
• 125 g plain flour (approx 1 cup)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

• 1. Preheat the oven to 200C (about 400F). Line the sides and base of a 20 x 20cm square cake tin with parchment paper.
• 2. Using an electric whisk, whisk the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl until the mixture is thick and mousse-like and the whisk leaves a figure of eight pattern (this will take about 5 minutes).
• 3. Melt the butter in a saucepan with the milk, then pour onto the eggs, whisking all the time. Sift in the flour, cinnamon and baking powder and fold carefully into the batter so that there are no lumps of flour. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.
• 4. Arrange the apple slices over the batter. (They will sink to the bottom.) Sprinkle over a tablespoon of sugar and bake in the oven for ten minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 180C/gas 4 and bake for a further 20–25 minutes or until well risen and golden brown.
• 5. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin. Cut into squares and serve warm.

Old-Fashioned Yellow Cake

Yellow cake mix is one of our favorites, but it is very rare to find it here in the UK.  And unfortunately, any cake mix will cost £2-5 (about $3-8!).  So I have been making more homemade cakes, and this one is a real winner.

I found the recipe for this old-fashioned Yellow Cake via Pinterest via Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice.  Be sure to click over to The Cinnamon Spice website as they have some great pictures and other recipes.  This recipe is originally from a McCall's cookbook from over 100 years ago.  It's still delicious today!

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 + 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

• 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.
• 2. In a large mixing bowl sift flour and sugar, baking powder and salt.
• 3. Add butter, milk and vanilla. Beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping sides of bowl.
• 4. Add eggs, beat for 2 more minutes.
• 5. Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally among both. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
• 6. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Turn out and cool thoroughly on wire racks. 

Buttercream Frosting

I tried making some homemade icing for Grace's birthday last week.  It was tasty and very easy!  This is from the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book.

3/4 c butter, softened
2 lbs powdered sugar (8 cups)
1/3 cup milk
2 t vanilla

Beat butter with mixer til smooth.  Gradually add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating well.  Beat in 1/3 cup milk and vanilla.  Beat in additional milk to reach spreading consistency.  (I had to add a little more than called for to get the right texture.)  This will frost a 2 layer cake.

To make it a chocolate frosting:  beat in 1/2 cup cocoa powder into butter before adding sugar.

Semi-homemade Chocolate Cake

Here's a quick tip for getting rid of the "cake mix" taste in a chocolate cake mix cake:  substitute buttermilk for the amount of water called for on the back of the mix.

I used a devil's food mix, and this little trick completely took away the artificial taste sometimes found in a cake mix.  The finished product was rich with a perfect texture.  It also rose up to be a little thicker than it would have with just water.

I picked up this tip somewhere along the way...maybe Hoosier Homemade or The Cake Mix Doctor or Sandra Lee.  Try it...you'll like it!