Sour Cream Fudge Layer Cake

The world outside is waking up, and new beginnings are everwhere. Just yesterday I saw robins, worms and the dreaded wasp, all going about their busy lives.  I love Spring, to me it's a new start and I'm energized by the sun and warm days to come. I made this cake recently to celebrate a birthday and it was a beautiful cake, easy to make and delicious!  The sour cream gives this cake its smooth, rich chocolate taste, dense yet it melts in your mouth. So go ahead, try a new hue, switch out an accent piece in your home, fill a vase with fresh tulips and make a turquoise frosted chocolate cake, you'll be glad you did.

Sour Cream Fudge Layer Cake
Serves 12

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups AP flour
1 cup cocoa (I used Hershey's)
2 tsps instant espresso or coffee powder
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tsps vanilla extract
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I use Kosher)

Directions:
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease two 9 -inch round cake pans and cover the bottoms with parchment paper. Grease the parchment rounds and dust the pans with flour, tapping out the excess.

Mix the cocoa and instant espresso powder in a small bowl; add the boiling water and mix until smooth. Cool to room temperature, then stir in the sour cream and vanilla. Beat the butter in the bowl of a standing mixer at medium-high speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds. Gradually sprinkle in the sugar; beat until the mixture is fluffy and light yellow, almost white, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs 1 at at ime, beating 1 full minute after each addition.  Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. With the mixer at the lowest speed, add about a third of the dry ingredients to the batter, followed immediately by about a third of the cocoa mixture; mix until the ingredients are almost incorporated into the batter. Repeat the process twice more. When the batter appears blended, stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Return the mixer to low speed; beat until the batter looks satiny, about 15 seconds longer.

Divide the batter evenly between the pans. With a rubber spatula, spread the batter to the pan sides and smooth the tops. Bake the cakes until they feel firm in the center or when a toothpick comes out clean, 23 to 30 minutes.  Transfer the pans to wire racks; cool for 10 minutes.  Reinvert the cakes onto additional racks; cool completely before frosting. *To avoid doming and bake perfectly flat cakes, wrap the cake pans in wet but not dripping towel strips. Works everytime.


Rich Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Makes about 4 cups

Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tsps vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
4 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool,
each stick cut into quarters
Americolor Turquoise

Directions:
Combine the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer; place the bowl over a pan of simmering water. (Do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water.) Whisking gently but constantly, heat the mixture until it is thin and foamy and registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.

Beat the eggs mixture at medium-high speed until light, airy and cooled to room temperature, about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium and add the butter, one piece at at time. (After adding half the butter, the buttercream may look curdled; it will smooth out with additional butter.) Once all the butter isadded, increase the speed to high and beat 1 minute until light, fluffy, and thoroughly combined. Add drops of Americolor Turquoise gel coloring until you get the desired color you are looking for. (The buttercream can be covered and refrigerated up to 5 days.)

Assembly of the Sour Cream Fudge Layer Cake:

Place bottom layer face-up on a cake or thin cake board. Spread and smooth 1 cup frosting using a small palette knife. Repeat with second cake layer.

Spread a thin layer (also known as a crumb coat) all over cake using an the offset palette knife for the top and straight palette knife for the sides. Then, using a bench scraper, gently scrape off excess frosting from the cake, for a smooth finish. This works best while slowly spinning your rotating cake stand with one hand and holding the bench scraper with the other.

Refrigerate your cake for at least 30-60 minutes. Use remaining frosting to decorate your cake. Using a 1M tip and frosting bag make designs on your cake that make you happy. Add sprinkles or any other decorations that make you happy!

Source: Baking Illustrated

peach cherry pie for Pi day

 

It’s March 14 and I have one thing to say - I remembered Pi Day! Every year I completely forget about Pi Day, honestly, I forget every food holiday except Thanksgiving. But this year I remembered because I had to bake a pie for a special event I was attending, so I made sure to take at least one picture.

For those of you who still have no idea what I’m talking about, pi is a Greek letter that stands for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It starts with 3.14 (hence March 14) and then continues infinitely without repeating. Anyway, enough about math, I can't stand math. Now back to pie not pi. This pie was made for an event that I'm attending, an auction to raise money for literacy awareness. The pie has not been baked yet because the event will be held on 3.15, hence, why you see the pie in a aluminum pie plate. It will be given away to a lucky bidder.  I'm hoping this pie taste good because it sure does look good. And I hope it gets a lot of bids to raise money. I used frozen peaches and cherries because obviously they are not in season yet but I'm pretty certain, this pie tastes outta this world. Maybe the winning bidder will let me taste a slice?


Peach Cherry Pie
Ingredients for the Pie
Yield: 1 pie serves 12

For the pie filling:
3 cups peaches (sliced)
2 cups cherries (stemmed, pitted, and cut in half)
3/4 - 1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt

For the pie dough:
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
1/2 cup buttermilk, cold
1-2 tablespoons vodka or water, cold

Directions:
Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add the cubed butter and toss to coat. Dump the mixture out onto a clean surface and use a rolling pin to roll the butter into thin sheets, combining it with the flour. Use a bench scraper (you could improvise if you don't have one) to scrape the rolling pin and to bring the mixture back into a pile as necessary. Continue until all of the butter is incorporated into the flour. Mixture will be very flaky. Return mixture to the bowl and place in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill the butter.

Remove from freezer and add the buttermilk. Use a spoon and then your hands to stir the mixture until it comes together into a ball. If mixture is too dry, add the water or vodka a tablespoon at a time. Divide the dough in two and flatten into disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least one hour.

When ready to roll out, let the dough rest at room temperature for five minutes. On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a rough 13 inch circle. Dough should be about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer dough to pie plate. Fill pie with desired filling (filling below). Repeat with the second disk of dough. Cut dough into strips and make a lattice over the filling. Brush with egg wash but only the lattice and crust portions of the dough, not the filling.

Directions for the pie filling:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the peaches and cherries with sugar, flour, lemon juice, and salt. Pour pie filling into prepared pie crust (see above). Place on foil-lined baking sheet in lower third of oven.  Bake until fruit bubbles and crust browns, about 1 1/2 hours. If topping begins to brown too quickly, tent with foil. Let cool 6 hours.

 Sources: Pie filling from Beantown Baker; pie dough from Completely Delicous.

Cook's Illustrated Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone I know loves chocolate chip cookies. Of course, I prefer oatmeal raisin cookies. They are my absolute favorite cookies with tons of raisins! Now, back to these delicous cookies. I saw the recipe in my Cook's Illustrated magazette, yes, I said magazette. It's my opinion that C.I. is a cross between a magazine and a booklet. Anyway, you know these cookies have to be delicious and one of the ingredients incorporated into the recipe is brown butter. How can you go wrong with brown butter? Cooks Illustrated takes a portion of the butter in this recipe and browns it to enhance the depth of flavor in their cookie. It works. They also amp up the flavor by using dark brown sugar.

Cook's Illustrated Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1¾ sticks) unsalted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)


Preparation:
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

Heat ten tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl.

 Stir remaining four tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted. Add both sugars, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about thirty seconds. Let mixture stand for three minutes, then whish for thirty seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking two more times until mixture is thick and smooth. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about one minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using, I did not), giving dough a final stir. Arrange cookie batter two inches apart on prepared baking sheets.

Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10-14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving. Serve with a cold glass of milk!


 Source: Cook's Illustrated Magazine

Chocolate Chip & Rainbow Cookies

 

 

Cookies! They're America's sweet treat, ideal with a mug of cold milk, a cup of hot coffee, a tall glass of lemonade or just by themselves. My husband likes to eat his cookies with milk, my daughters love to dunk their cookies in milk and I like my cookies with coffee or orange juice. I suppose all those years of growing up a latchkey kid and eating graham crackers with orange juice at my local day care center have left their imprint on my soul. But no matter how you eat your cookies, there is no wrong way. Cookies are fun, delicious and bring out the child in every adult.  These cookies are crisp and gone too soon. And the best part is you can mix by hand or use a hand mixer or stand mixer.

By the way, the best way to eat a cookie is eating them with the ones you love and as cliche as that may be, it's the truth.

 

 

 

  

Chocolate Chip & Rainbow Cookies

Yield: 4 dozen cookies

 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 stick butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 tsps vanilla

1 egg

1 3/4 cups AP flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup mini rainbow chocolate candies

1/2 cups chopped nuts or sunflower seeds (optional)

 

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt, mix well. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, sugar, butter and shortening; beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg; blend well. Stir in flour mixture and blend.  Stir in chocolate chips, rainbow chips and nuts (if desired) and blend. Drop dough by teaspoonsfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.



Source: Pillsbury- The Complete Book of Baking

Yellow Cupcakes & Pink Frosting

Happy New Year! I've received many emails from loyal readers wondering where I've been lately and why the lack of posts. I apologize for the absence, the entire month of December I was not feeling well and I was tired a lot. Sometimes, you just need a little vacation to rest your mind, body and spirit.  I'm feeling good again, getting back into the groove of things and keeping myself positive.

These cupcakes are a great start to getting to happy! I made this for my youngest daughter, they are mini yellow cupcakes with globs of pink frosting and heart shaped confetti.  Aren't they just cute? Of course, you can't stop with just one but two or three should do it. The cake is moist, not dry and the frosting is just a typical buttercream tinted pink. Throw a handful of confetti and you have happiness, at least in your tummy! These are also great for St. Valentine's Day!  Enjoy.

Yellow Cupcakes
Yield: Serves 24 miniature, 12 regular size

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, (room temp)
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs (room temp)

For the Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk or heavy cream
A couple of drops of pink food coloring
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sprinkles, for decorating

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; line the cups of 24 cup mini muffin pan with paper or foil liners. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a liquid-measuring cup, mix milk and vanilla; set aside.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer on low speed, add half of dry ingredients, followed by milk-vanilla mixture, then remaining dry ingredients. Do not overmix.

Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean 12- 15 mins. Cool cupcakes five minutes in tin, then remove and cool completely on a rack before frosting.

Prepare frosting:

In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter, confectioners' sugar, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth. Mix in up to 1/2 cup more sugar or a few more teaspoons of milk as necessary to achieve a spreadable consistency. Add a couple of pink drops of food coloring to achieve color you are happy with. Makes enough for 12 cupcakes. You can pipe on the frosting using a star shaped tip.

Frost cupcakes; decorate with heart confetti or any confetti in your cupboard before frosting dries to ensure that they stick.


Source: Martha Stewart