The Chocolate Eyestravaganza

The gorgeous eyestravaganza

My brother's birthday theme was eyes. And his cake request was chocolate.

So I'm gonna call this cake the Chocolate Eyestravaganza.

Seriously. If you want a truly chocolate cake, this is for you.

The cake is no mere chocolate cake. It's an American Mud Cake. That means it tastes like a cross between a brownie and a cake. It's moist, it's chocolately, but that doesn't make it too rich.

The filling is whipped ganache. Whipped ganache, folks. It tastes like a cross between moose and a truffle, and it just melts on your tongue.

And the frosting is just regular ganache. (Hehe! As if any ganache is just run of the mill!)

Man, this cake was so fun!

Chocolate Zuchini Bread

Anyone who is familiar with growing Zucchini, knows that the zucchini plant is a wild, attention grabbing cross between a vine and a bush. And when you turn your back on it for a minute you'll have five new, rather large zucchinis on your hands (this year, one accidentally got to 5 Ibs!)

And one can only handle sautéd zucchini for so long before one gets bored. (Although these Zucchini Fritters are delicious).

For now, I'm just gonna tease you with pictures of the Chocolate Zucchini Bread that I made. This is because I didn't find the recipe on the interwebs. The recipe was given to me by my great grandma... it's a family recipe. I just got so excited about the final product that I had to add the pictures to my blog!

Happy Baking, Y'all!

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake (From Scratch!)

I have been meaning to try baking a cake from scratch for a little while and I finally did it! It was awesome! So, without further ado...

Ingredients:

• 2½ cups flour
• ½ cup cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup hot, strong coffee (I used some of Mom's chocolate coffee!)

The first step is to combine all of the dry ingredients (but not the sugar) in a bowl and set aside.

Next, cream all of the wet ingredients (but not the coffee) together with the sugar. 

Once they are creamed together, slowly add the dry ingredients.

When the dry ingredients are all incorporated in the mix and when your coffee is brewed, slowly pour the hot coffee in against the side of the bowl while mixing. This is kind of like pastry cream, you DO NOT want to cook the eggs! Also, this batter will be thin, so don't worry!

Pour the batter into two, 8" rounds (make sure you spray the pans) and bake at 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes. A knife should come out clean when inserted in the middle indicating that they are done.

Now you can finish this up however you'd like. This is what my brother and I did...

So, to do the cake justice, I added some raspberry jelly to the frosting and only frosted in between the two layers. 

And my brother makes an excellent Ganache, so, we drizzled ganache on top and down the sides until we agreed that it was perfect!

This recipe gets 5 out of 5 cat whiskers! It was simple and amazing. And it was sooooo moist. It's definitely better than a box mix and just as easy!

I found the recipe here.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER!

I know... That title is so over-used. And yes, I know that you are more than likely skeptical  that they are the best chocolate chip cookies ever, after all, taste is subjective.  But seriously! These are the-best-chocolate-chip-cookies-ever!

Just look at it... Does that not look delicious? They are moist, soft and so chocolatey. These cookies are cake-like, but they aren't... They ARE so soft. And best of all, these cookies are fantastic fresh out of the oven and fantastic when they are cooled.

Would you like to know the secret? (I'm just going to assume you said yes!) It's cream cheese. Yes. That magical ingredient that makes bagels fantastic, eventually makes cookies magical too. 

Ingredients:

• 1 stick of butter, softened
• 1/4 cup of cream cheese
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• 2 teaspoons of cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 2 1/4 cups of  flour
• 2 1/4 cups of chocolate chips
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt (it's optional)

In your mixing bowl, you want to combined the cream cheese, butter, egg, vanilla, and sugars. Mix them until it's light and fluffy.

Next, you add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt.) You mix it until it's just combined. I forgot to take a picture of the next couple of steps.

After it's all combined, you add the chocolate chips! Then, you scoop the dough onto cookie sheets. But, it's not time to bake them. You let them chill in the freezer for a little while. The recipe said to let them freeze for at least 2 hours, but being the non-patient person I am, I let them freeze for a little more than an hour. They still turned out excellent! Perhaps next time, I'll investigate if they puff up more the longer they've been in the freezer.

Anyway, after they have been chilling however long you can wait, they bake in an oven at 350°F for 8 to 9 minutes. They are done when the edges are slightly golden.

This recipe gets 5 out of 5 cat whiskers! I found the recipe here.

Chocolate Tart

So, you have just encountered a Dementor, you were able to cast the Expecto Patronus Charm, but the Dementor zapped your energy a bit and you feel sad. The perfect way to combat these side effects is with a slice of this gorgeous Chocolate Tart!

The filling:
The filling is pretty much chocolate ganache, with 2 eggs. The eggs help the filling form a solid consistency, instead of a liquid consistency. This is a tart filling that bakes with the crust.

Ingredients:

• 11/4 cup whipping cream
• 8 oz semi-sweet chocolate 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs

First, you put the whipping cream in a sauce pan to simmer. While its simmering, it's a good time to crack the eggs in a heatproof bowl. Meanwhile, occasionally stir the whipping cream so that it doesn't form a film on top.

Pretty much ganache

Once the whipping cream is simmering, turn the heat off, and add the chocolate, just like you're making ganache. When the chocolate is incorporated, slowly add it to the eggs - like with pastry cream. Make sure you keep mixing it so that you don't cook the eggs and everything is nice and smooth.

Chocolate/egg mixture

The crust recipe I used was the same one for the Pastry Cream Tart. That crust is baked in two phases: 15 minutes with foil on top, and then 12 minutes without the foil. 

This time, since the filling has to cook with the crust, the crust gets 15 minutes in the oven with the foil and then when you take the foil off, you pour the chocolate filling in the crust. You'll bake it until only the center of the tart is a little wiggly, which is about 18 to 20 minutes. Just please be careful when you put it in the oven... the filling moves very easily and could spill out.

Once it's done, let it chill for 10 minutes. Then take the tart ring off, and let it chill in the fridge.... Depending on how patient you are, let it chill for at least an hour, but more is better for a firmer texture.

My Thoughts:
This was even better than the Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake. It was good warm (because you know, when it comes to chocolate it's alright to be too impatient to wait) because it was creamy like the Pastry Cream Tart. But it was GORGEOUS when it cooled completely. In fact, when it's completely cooled it needs to be cut into smaller pieces because it is so rich.... In fact, it's a lot like a chocolate truffle candy wrapped in a sugar cookie. It truly is delicious!

This gets 5 out of 5 cat whiskers :-)

Recipe adapted from here.

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Are you ready for this?

This recipe is chocolate with chocolate and then even more chocolate! I mean it's so chocolatey that if you don't smile when you take a bite, there could quite possibly be something wrong with you.

This bundt cake is a chocolate sour cream cake, which is good, but what takes this over the top and knocks your socks off is the ganache and the cake together.

The cake

The extra

The cake
You will need 1 cup (Plus extra for dusting the pan) cocoa powder, 7 1/2 oz. of semisweet chocolate (finely chopped or chocolate chips, for melting), 1 cup boiling water, 2 1/4 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1 1/4 tsp. salt, 20 Tbsp. (2 1/2 sticks) of butter, 2 1/2 cups brown sugar (firmly packed), 5 eggs, 4 tsp. vanilla, 1 1/2 cups sour cream, 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips. They all must be at room temperature.


The first thing to do is to grease the bundt cake pan* and dust with the extra cocoa powder. I tapped out the excess over a bowl.

Dusted pan

Boil some water. While you wait combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl, and whisk it together.

Next, combine the cocoa powder and 1 cup boiling water in the bowl you tapped the excess in. Once the cocoa powder is dissolved add the chocolate for melting, and whisk until the mixture is smooth.

Chocolate, cocoa powder, boiling water mixture.

Now it is time to beat the butter until it's creamy. Once it's creamy, add the brown sugar. The combination should be light and fluffy before you add the eggs one at a time. Then add the vanilla.

Brown sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla.

Then, while at a low mixing speed, add the sour cream and flour mixture. You want to alternate between the two, starting with the flour mixture and ending with it.

Once that is combined and mixed well, it's time to add the chocolate mixture. Mix it until you can see no white streaks. Finally, add the chocolate chips.

The batter.

Now, you pour the batter in the pan. You only want to fill the pan 3/4 of the way. I baked both the bundt cake and the loaf* for 57 minutes @ 325 degrees. Once it's done, let it cool upright for 15 minutes, then flip it over and lift the pan off the cake. You have to let the cake cool completely, which is at least an hour.

While the other dogs took naps, Luna was in the kitchen the whole time with me :)

The Ganache 
You'll need 6 oz. of semisweet chocolate, 2 Tbsp. of butter and 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream. Put the chocolate and the butter in a bowl. Pour the whipping cream in a sauce pan, and bring it to a boil. Once the whipping cream is boiled, pour it in the bowl with the chocolate and butter. Whisk it until smooth and ganache-like. 

Ganache

Pour the ganache over the bundt cake, make sure  the ganache runs along the sides.

Before the ganache.

After the ganache

My thoughts:
This is the kind of desert that you have to have with a glass of milk or water. This is the kind of desert that they play the funny music for on Unique Sweets, It is very delicious. I think that it has to have the ganache, because the cake by itself was alright... but just by itself it tasted like it was missing something. This recipe is 5 out of 5 whiskers.

Einstein

*A thing to note is that this recipe is orginally from Williams-Sonoma, and the recipe was made for their anniversary bundt cake pan, which holds 15 cups. So if you don't use that cake pan, like me, you will have extra batter. I put the extra batter in a loaf pan, but you could put it in cupcake pans. Whatever you do, just make sure you grease the additional pan too.

The recipe is from here.  

No cats or dogs ate any chocolate in the construction, consumption or photography of this desert . This was strictly a human desert. In fact, the cats seemed rather offended that I placed this by them to take pictures.