Wasted Chocolate Cake

Yes! This happened! I saw a picture of this cake and needed to make it. The amount of chocolate used is both overwhelming and incredible! My friend and I brilliantly used a different cake recipe from the original (Art of Dessert) and followed the design. The best chocolate cake EVER is of course, Barefoot Contessa's Chocolate Cake. It's so good that to eat another chocolate cake seems like a waste of chewing energy and calories. To say the least, this was the BEST chocolate cake I have ever had. 

Barefoot Contessa's Buttercream Frosting is unbelievable BUT since we were covering it up with chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate, we decided to use store bought icing since it is mainly being used as a delicious glue. 

Recipe

Barefoot Contessa's Chocolate Cake

Ingredients 

Butter, for greasing the pans

1 ¾ cups All-purpose flour, plus more for pans

2 cups sugar

¾ cups good cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1 cup buttermilk, shaken

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee 

Ingredients (for the rest of the cake)

2 cans of chocolate frosting (store bought)

2 bags (600g) of semi sweet chocolate chips

2-3 tbsp heavy cream

assorted chocolate candies for the top of the cake (we used coffee crisp bites and maltesers)

Directions 

1) Preheat the oven to 350. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.  

2) 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.

3) 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 rubber spatula.

4) 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.

5) 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.

6) With your hands cover the sides of the chocolate cake with semi-sweet chocolate chips and cover the top with assorted chocolate candies. 

7) In a double boiler, melt 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips with 3 tbsp heavy cream and drizzle it over the top of the cake and let it drip down the sides.  

Coffee Cake

 

I made this cake for dessert to my Passover feast! It is definitely NOT kosher for Passover but either am I so it worked great! This cake is light and really delicious! I'm not going to say it's low fat but it's definitely not high fat. There's only 1/2 a stick of butter and 1 cup of sugar in the entire cake (plus the topping but let's not focus on that). I got this recipe from "The Best Thing I've Ever Made" from Alex Guarnaschelli. It's the perfect ending cake to a big meal. It goes great with fruit or applesauce (and coffee, of course!)

Coffee Cake

Ingredients

TOPPING:
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 granulated sugar
1/3 light brown sugar
2 teas ground cinnamon
1 teas kosher salt
5 tbsp butter, melted

CAKE:
1/2 stick (4 tbsp) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 cups, all purpose flour
1 teas baking powder
1 teas baking soda
1 teas kosher salt
1 1/2 cups sour cream (I used low fat)
Zest of 1 lemon

Directions

- For the topping: Prepare a baking sheet fitted with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine the nuts, flour, sugars, cinnamon and salt. Stir to blend. Stir in the butter. The topping should form sandy clumps. Sprinkle the topping onto the baking sheet to break it up into smaller clumps. Refrigerate.

- For the coffee cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Use butter to thoroughly grease the bottom and sides of a 13-by-9-inch baking pan. Set aside.

- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, "cream" the butter and sugar together until light yellow and smooth, 5 to 8 minutes. Alternatively, this can be done with an electric hand mixer. Add the eggs, one by one, and beat until thoroughly integrated.

- Remove the topping from the refrigerator so it has a few minutes to come to room temperature before baking. Meanwhile, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the sour cream until smooth. Turn the mixer on low and alternate adding some of the flour mixture with some of the sour cream. Add the lemon zest. When all has been mixed, give the sides and the bottom of the bowl a scrape and blend to make sure the batter is thoroughly integrated.

- Transfer the batter to the greased baking pan and "tap" it lightly on the sides so it falls evenly in the pan and removes any air bubbles. Liberally sprinkle the cake with all of the topping. Take care to cover the whole top. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 22 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Orange & Coconut Cake

When I first saw this recipe, it didn't jump out at me. There's no chocolate in it so I was about to scroll past it. Luckily, I kept reading. Shez, from One Bite More, described this cake as the best cake she has ever made. I had to give it a try. I'm not a baker so I was not looking forward to screwing up this recipe. It's rare that I make delicious baked goods. An hour and a half later it was out of the oven. It smelled amazing. I waited for it to cool and drizzled some glaze over it along with some coconut. It was delectable! The cake was moist and light, kind of like a sponge cake. It had the chewy texture of the coconut inside and the sweetness of the glaze. It came out PERFECT! That says a lot coming from me. Try this cake. It will not disappoint.

Recipe

Ingredients
225g butter
1 3/4C sugar
2tbsp raw cane sugar
4 eggs
1/4C orange juice
2tbsp orange zest
250ml natural yoghurt
1 1/2C plain flour
1C shredded coconut
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup icing sugar
orange juice (just enough for the glaze)
1/4 shredded coconut (topping)

Directions
1. Let the butter come to room temperature. Chop it into fat cubes and toss it in the large bowl of a stand mixer with the sugar and grated palm sugar. Beat until it is light and fluffy and pale. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, a hand held mixer or a wooden spoon + enormous biceps will do the job too).
2. Zest the orange and then juice it. I got slightly less than 1/4C of juice. Toss the juice, zest, eggs and yoghurt into the butter mixture and stir well to combine. It will look lumpy and curdled but that is ok.
3. Sift the plain flour and baking soda into the bowl then toss the shredded coconut in as well. Stir well to combine.
4. Tip the mixture into a well greased kugelhopf tin and bake it in a 170C oven for an hour, checking at 50 minutes to see if it’s done. A skewer poked through the middle of the cake should come out with a very light crumb attached. Let the cake cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before upending it onto a rack to cool completely.
5. Add a little bit of orange juice to the icing sugar until you get the consistency of a glaze. Drizzle it over the cake and sprinkle some coconut on top.

Food For Thought: It would also be really good if the oranges were replaced with lemons! Lemon and coconut is a good combination... OR limes!