Tag: cakes

Flourless Chocolate Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our fun with interfaith baking continues, as both Passover and Easter are upon us!  I’m no Torah scholar, so I’ll leave the explanation of the symbols, foods, and rituals of Passover to the fine folks at www.chabad.org.  As a baker, though, I can speak to the creativity that Passover requires; observant bakers turn to matzoh meal, potato flour, and all manner of unleavened ingredients to produce cakes, cookies, and other treats for this special time of year.

Tomorrow night, Mike and I will celebrate the beginning of Passover with a Seder, and for the next eight days, Mike won’t eat chametz, or anything that contains leavened grain, like bread, cereal, pasta, even beer.  I don’t abstain from chametz for two reasons; as a Catholic with Eastern European roots, Easter bread is an important component of my faith tradition, and (to be totally honest) I’m nowhere near disciplined enough.

This cake is an excellent flourless option for Passover; it is very rich, so I recommend slender slices served with fresh whipped cream.  You can omit the espresso powder if you don’t have it and use unsweetened American-style cocoa powder instead of Dutch-process, but if you’d like to stick to the traditional recipe, you can get both ingredients from King Arthur Flour; Williams-Sonoma also carries Dutch-process cocoa.

A note about the chocolate glaze: mine didn’t turn out as smooth as I’d like, which means I need to spend more time stirring it once the chocolate has melted to make sure all of the tiny bits of chocolate are incorporated evenly.

Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup butter
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon espresso powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease a round cake pan; line with parchment paper and grease the parchment.

Cut butter into chunks and combine with chocolate chips in a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl.

Microwave in 30-second intervals until butter melts and chips become very soft, stirring after each interval.  Stir to melt chips completely and transfer to a mixing bowl.

Add sugar, espresso powder, and vanilla and beat until just combined.

Add eggs and beat until incorporated.

Add cocoa powder and beat until just combined.

Gently pour batter into pan and bake for 25 minutes, until the top of the cake has formed a crust.

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes; loosen edges with the tip of a knife and invert onto a cake stand or serving plate.

Allow to cool completely before glazing.

Garnish with toasted sliced almonds, if desired.

Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients

  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup heavy cream

Preparation

Combine chocolate chips and heavy cream in a saucepan and heat until cream is very hot, but not simmering.

Remove from heat and stir until completely smooth.

Pour over cake, allowing to drip over the sides.

Allow the glaze to harden for several hours before serving.

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Yesterday was Mike’s birthday, and he requested a carrot cake (with raisins and walnuts) for his birthday cake.  I don’t really believe in mixing vegetables with dessert, but who am I to refuse my husband’s cake wishes on his birthday?

Cream cheese frosting is incredibly rich and sweet, so I chose to frost only the top of this cake.  Carrot cake isn’t complete without something indicating that it is, in fact, carrot cake, so I’ve chosen simplicity and gone with one single frosting-piped carrot in the center.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups canola oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups peeled raw carrots, shredded
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.

Peel and grate carrots; set aside.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy.

Add canola oil and vanilla, beating well.

Add flour mixture and beat until combined.

Stir in grated carrot, raisins, and walnuts.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the top of the cake is firm.

Cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • Orange and green food coloring, if carrot decorations will be included

In a mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese and butter.

Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating after each addition.

Add vanilla and beat well.

Frost top of cake, adding carrot decorations if desired.

Store cake in refrigerator to be on the safe side.  We are talking about cream cheese, after all.

 

Bundt Cake with Lemon Vanilla Glaze

I wanted to bake a King Cake yesterday in preparation for Mardi Gras, but I didn’t have the patience to make brioche.  Since bundt cakes are similar in shape to King Cakes, I decided to bake this one and decorate it with a lemon vanilla glaze and some fun green, yellow, and purple colored sugar.

This was a very quick and easy recipe, yielding a rich, dense, almost pound cake-like texture that goes well with coffee or tea.  Though the recipe calls for lemon juice, the lemon flavor bakes out; for a true lemon bundt, I’d look for a recipe with lemon extract or lemon pudding mix in the batter.

Bundt Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, slightly softened
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 5 eggs
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Generously grease and flour your bundt pan.  I use Wondra flour, which is a superfine flour used for gravies and sauces; it coats grooved pans much better than all-purpose flour.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add lemon juice and beat until combined.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beating until combined.

Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan.

Bake for 50 minutes.

Lemon Vanilla Glaze

Ingredients

  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2-4 tablespoons water

Preparation

Combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons water in a large, 4-cup glass measuring cup.  Continue adding water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency; glaze should be drizzly, but not too thin.  If you make the glaze too thin, just add a few tablespoons of powdered sugar to thicken it.  Pour over cake, allowing glaze to drip down the sides.

Sprinkle with green yellow, and purple sugars if desired.

Go Giants! New York Style Cheesecake

The Super Bowl is tomorrow, and because we’re rooting for the Giants in our house, I’ve prepared a New York style cheesecake to celebrate.  I’m not sure what makes a cheesecake “New York style,” but this was fairly easy to prepare, except for the crust.  This was my first graham cracker crust, and I definitely improvised and deviated from the original recipe to get the consistency and amount I needed, but it turned out just fine.  The true test will be if it tastes good, but we won’t know until tomorrow, as cheesecake must be refrigerated overnight before serving.  We’ll add some fresh whipped cream, blueberries, and strawberries tomorrow.

Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients

  • 18 graham crackers
  • 12 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Melt butter in a saucepan or microwave.

Break graham crackers into smaller pieces and place in a food processor, then process to crumbs, with no large pieces remaining.

Mix graham cracker crumbs and sugar together, then stir in butter until the mixture is evenly moistened.

Press crust mix up the sides and along the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.  I used my hands and the bottom of a glass to get the crust as flat as possible.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Cool completely on a wire rack before adding filling.

Cheesecake Filling

Ingredients

  • 3 packages cream cheese, 8 ounces each, softened
  • ¾ cups sugar
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • ¼ cup milk

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a mixing bowl combine cream cheese and sugar, beating until fluffy.

Add flour and vanilla, beating until well combined.

Reduce speed to low and beat in eggs and yolk, one at a time, until well combined.

Add milk and beat until just blended.

Pour batter into prepared crust and bake for 55-60 minutes, until set but slightly jiggly in the center.

Cool completely on a wire rack, then refrigerate overnight before serving.