But even when it isn't birthday season, who wouldn't go for a piece of cake?
I have found great success with the cakes found in The Cake Doctor cookbook (I LOVE those books--I have all of them--there are three cake doctor books, one cupcake doctor book, a dinner doctor book, and a potluck/what should we bring doctor book--and I hope there are many more to come!).
I am going to share two great cake recipes that I just recently tried (one last month and one we just had yesterday). I might have to do another cake post tomorrow to post two of my old favorites from this book that I have been making for a few years now.
These two cakes are similar, yet opposite. They both have chocolate frosting, but one is white chocolate and one is regular chocolate.
They are fantastic. Pair them with a glass of cold milk or a scoop of your favorite ice cream and you will have a dessert that is to die for!
Deeply Chocolate Almond Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
Solid vegetable shortening for greasing the pans
Flour for dusting the pans
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped (see notes below)
1/3 cup water
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain devil's food cake mix
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil, such as canola, corn, safflower, soybean, or sunflower
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below), made with pure almond extract
Directions:
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening, then dust with flour (or you can use cocoa powder if you want to make it even richer). Shake out the excess flour. Set the pans aside.
Heat the chopped chocolate and water in a small saucepan over low heat until melted, stirring constantly. Set the pan aside to cool for 10 minutes.
Place the cake mix, buttermilk, oil, eggs, almond extract, and melted chocolate mixture in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more; scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look thick and combined. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven side by side.
Bake the cakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger and just start to pull away from the sides of the pan, 28-30 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert each onto a rack, then invert them again onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. Cool completely, 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.
Place one cake layer, right side up, on a serving platter. Spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer, right side up, on top of the first layer and frost the top and sides of the cake with clean, smooth strokes.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon pure almond extract (or pure vanilla extract--see notes below)
4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
Directions:
Place the cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine. Add the cocoa powder, extract, and confectioners' sugar and blend with the mixer on low speed until the ingredients are moistened, 30 seconds. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting is fluffy, 2 minutes more.
Use at once to frost the top and sides of the cake of your choice.
Note: If you don't like almond flavoring, or if you simply want a good old fashioned chocolate cake instead of almond chocolate, substitute vanilla extract for the almond extract in both the cake and the frosting. Also, if you want to save some time, use Pam for Baking rather than greasing the pans with shortening. It works just as well and it is a lot less messy! Finally, I melted the chocolate in the microwave rather than in a pan on the stove (checking and stirring at 30 second intervals).
Source: The Cake Mix Doctor cookbook
Bride's Cake with Raspberry Filling and White Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients:
Solid vegetable shortening for greasing the pans
Flour for dusting the pans
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white cake mix
1 cup whole milk
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
White Chocolate Frosting (recipe below)
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam (see notes below)
1 cup fresh raspberries, rinsed and drained (see notes below)
Directions:
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pans aside.
Place the cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look well blended. Divide the batter evenly into the prepared pans, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven side by side.
Bake the cakes until they are light brown and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 27-29 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of the cakes and invert each onto a rack, then invert them again onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. Allow to cool completely, 30 minutes more.
Meanwhile, prepare the White Chocolate Frosting.
Place one cake layer, right side up, on a serving platter. Spread the top with a thin layer of the White Chocolate Frosting, then spread with the raspberry jam, spreading the jam with a spatula up to 1 inch from the cake edge. Place the second layer, right side up, on top of the jam. Spread frosting on the top and sides of the cake with clean, smooth strokes.
Garnish the cake with the fresh raspberries. Slice and serve.
White Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients:
6 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped (see notes below)
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted (see notes below)
Directions:
Place the white chocolate in a small saucepan and melt over low heat, 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat and let the chocolate cool.
Place the cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until well combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine. Add the melted white chocolate and blend on low for 30 seconds. Add the vanilla and confectioners' sugar and blend on low speed for 30 seconds more. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until the frosting is fluffy, 1 minute more.
Use to frost the top and sides of the cake of your choice. Refrigerate the frosted cake until serving time.
Notes: I made this cake for my mother's birthday. She just wanted a white on white cake and declined the raspberries. Having now tasted this cake, I can say that it was fabulous without the raspberry jam and fresh raspberries, but I am sure that it would be fantastic with the raspberries as well (not to mention a very pretty and decorative addition). Also, I melted my chocolate in the microwave (checking it at 30 second intervals and stirring until it was melted to avoid burning). It was just faster that way and I'd rather get a bowl dirty than a pan. The last change I made was that I added much more powdered sugar to the frosting than the recipe called for. The frosting looked great as followed by the recipe, but it was a little wet for my tastes. I kept adding powdered sugar until the frosting was fluffy and creamy--I probably added about 6 cups of powdered sugar (I eyeballed it). The frosting was still moist and delicious--there was just more of it and it was a little fluffier than the original frosting.
Source: The Cake Mix Doctor cookbook
No comments:
Post a Comment