Chocolate Cake (well, sort of)

I've made chocolate cake before with vanilla frosting, but never with chocolate frosting. Recently, it was my brother's birthday and I decided to make him a nice, simple chocolate cake and then dress it up on the top. Well, on my long and hard search for a recipe (haha...not really...I just clicked on the first website in the search), which was basically Googling "Best Chocolate Cake Recipe," I came upon this: Beatty's Chocolate Cake Recipe from the Food Network. Since this recipe had thousands of good reviews, I thought I'd give it a try. I have 2 things to say. First, this cake has an AMAZING texture...just how a cake should be...soft, moist, and tight-crumbed....the kind you get when you use a mix, but of course this is all made from scratch. I think the fact that it uses oil instead of butter as well as buttermilk has a lot to do with it.

The interesting thing about this recipe is that it uses coffee as part of the flavoring in the cake and the frosting, which brings me to the second point. In the cake, you can't really taste the coffee and it's used to actually bring out the chocolate flavor more. However, for the frosting, it turned out to be more of a strong coffee-flavored buttercream than a chocolate one. Now me being a coffee lover, that's not a problem at all. But for people who aren't, this may pose a problem. So then, I would just recommend omitting the coffee. What confuses me then, is why label this recipe a "Chocolate Cake" recipe? The title is certainly deceiving. But, other than that, I have no other criticism, so enjoy making it because it will definitely be my go-to chocolate cake recipe from now on.

Oh...can't forget my own touch that I added to the cake...when decorating, make it more delicious by adding white and/or milk chocolate curls! I also added decorating pearls and gold flakes to make it look fancy. To learn how to make chocolate curls/shavings, watch this video How to make chocolate curls OR this video Making chocolate shavings. I use the method from the second video, but I tend to angle my metal spatula in a way that will allow me to get more curls than shavings. White Chocolate is much harder to deal with because of its texture, and you're probably going to end up getting shavings more than curls like I did.

Ingredients

• Butter, for greasing the pans
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
• Chocolate Buttercream, recipe follows

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 8-inch x 2-inch roundcake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubberspatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.

Chocolate Frosting:

• 6 ounces good semisweet chocolate (recommended: Callebaut)
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

Cookies N' Cream Brownies

So for awhile now, I've been craving a rich and chocolatey brownie. I also happened to get my hands on The Taste of Home Baking Book. This book has a great selection of brownie recipes which I can't wait to try. As I flipped through, my eyes landed on a particular recipe since it has one of my favorite ingredients: Oreo Cookies. To be honest, I think that you simply can't go wrong with anything that has Oreos because they are just so darn good. My mind for the first choice was made up. The good news is that the brownies turned out great! They are moist and not too sweet. On the downside, I didn't really taste any Oreo flavor. So if I make these again, I will definitely be adding an Oreo topping of some sort, which will also add a nice touch.

Ingredients:

• -1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• -1/4 cup sugar
• -1 egg
• -1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
  BROWNIE LAYER:
• -1/2 cup butter, melted
• -1/2 cup sugar
• -1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• -1/2 cup baking cocoa
• -2 eggs
• -1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• -1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• -1 teaspoon baking powder
• -12 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed

Directions:

• 1. In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth; set aside.
• Tip: Make sure you scrape down the bowl while beating the cream cheese mixture AND the brownie mixture. You don't want any lumps leftover inside each of the mixtures before you pour them into the pan. At the same time, don't beat the mixtures too much because it can ruin the texture of the brownie. 

2. For brownie layer, combine the butter, sugars and cocoa in a large bowl. 

• 3. Beat in eggs.

4. Combine flour and baking powder; gradually add to cocoa mixture. 

5. Stir in cookie crumbs.

6. Pour into a greased 11-in. x 7-in. baking pan.

• 7. Spoon cream cheese mixture over batter; cut through batter with a knife to swirl. 
• Tip: Don't cut through the batters too much because you don't want to mix up the batters completely. The layers should stay separate - you just want to create a swirl effect for design.

• 8. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs. 

9. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Store in the refrigerator.