Cookies n' Cream Chocolate Cake

It's been a very long time since I last wrote a post, and before that my posts were few and far between. Most of you who follow my posts are likely aware that my lack of attention towards blogging was due to being in school and being rather busy. Well, I am happy to announce that I officially finished my Masters of Social Work degree at the end of June. Yippeee!!!! No more school for a bit [and yes I say a bit because I may pursue further studies down the road, who knows!]. As for the last month, I've started a new job as a Researcher Assistant [which really means a glorified student that gets paid -insert sigh and eye roll], although it allows me to work from home, hours are completely flexible and it's not full-time, which is absolutely wonderful for the summer. Come the fall I will likely look for an additional part-time job, but for now I'm enjoying the downtime. I've also gone through some significant personal changes in the last month that have thrown things a little topsy-turvy for me, so I'm just trying to get back into my groove now. Hopefully that means more blogging!

But enough about me, let's talk about this Cookies n' Cream Chocolate Cake, now there's an alliteration for ya. I've made the chocolate cake base that I used here several times now, and would say that it's tried and true. I made a small adjustment this past time because I didn't have espresso powder, and everything turned out just as delicious as always. The dark, rich and moist chocolate cake paired perfectly with the sweetness of the frosting, which by the way, deserves a platter on it's own. Now I love all frostings (although some are a bit too sweet for me), but this one tasted exactly like cookies n' cream ice cream, which I haven't had in years and years and now I'm craving... hmm that gives me an idea! Topped with a satiny chocolate glaze, swirls of frosting and oreos and you've got yourself one decadent cake.

Ingredients:
For the cake:
1 1/3 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
heaping 1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened to room temp
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temp
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temp
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon sour cream, at room temp
1 oz melted bittersweet chocolate
1 1/2 tablespoon milk

For the buttercream frosting:
10 oreos
1 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temp
4-5 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons whipping cream (1/2 & 1/2 or milk works too) depending on how stiff frosting is

For the chocolate glaze:
5 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup butter

Additional oreos for decoration

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 6-inch round cake pans with butter or shortening. Line the bottoms with parchment paper, grease the paper, dust the pans with flour, and knock out any excess flour.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. In a separate small bowl, combine the buttermilk, sour cream and melted chocolate. On low speed, add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture into the creamed butter in thirds, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix the batter only until blended.

Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a spatula. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (my oven seems to bake things slower so my cakes often take a little longer). Cool for 10 minutes on a rack, remove from the pans, and allow to finish cooling.

To make the frosting, beat the butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and smooth. Add the powdered sugar to the butter and mix on low initially (to avoid a poof of sugar in your face), and gradually increase speed. Beat on medium high until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.

In a food processor, gently pulse oreos until they are broken down into fine pieces (not crumbs). Alternatively, you can chop by hand. Combine the chopped oreos, vanilla and 2 tablespoons of cream into the whipped butter. If the frosting is too stiff, gradually add 1 tablespoon cream into frosting until it reaches your desired consistency.

To assemble the cake, level the tops of both cakes, and then cut each layer in half, resulting in 4 layers. (At this point it helps to freeze the cake layers for 20-30 minutes to make it easier to frost). Frost the top of the first layer with the buttercream. Place the next three layers on top, repeating the first step. Once all 4 layers are assembled, frost the sides and smooth over. Reserve 1/2 cup of frosting for decorating.

I like to use a rotating cake table to decorate, found here, as well as an angled spatula for the tops, such as this one, and a flat spatula for the sides, like this.

Refrigerate cake. In the meantime, roughly chop the bittersweet chocolate and place in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave chocolate in bursts of 20 seconds, stirring after each time, until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into small cubes and add into melted chocolate, stirring until all of the butter is melted. Let cool for 5 minutes.

Remove cake from fridge and spoon chocolate glaze over top, allowing it to drip over the edges. Once glaze is on, return to fridge for 5-10 minutes. In the meantime, fit a piping bag with a decorative tip of your choice, and fill with remaining frosting. Once the glaze has set on the cake, top with decorative swirls and an oreo on each swirl.

Sources: Cake slightly adapted from Annie's Eats, who adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten and Martha Stewart. Chocolate glaze taken from Tracey's Culinary Adventures. Buttercream by Sweet Treats n' Healthy Eats.
Pin It

Mexican-style Black Bean and Rice Skillet

You know what I'm a fan of? Quick, simple, relatively inexpensive dishes that turn out to be healthy, nutritious, and down right tasty. Now when it comes to desserts, I'm often all about time-consuming and detail-oriented goodies. But this Black Beans and Rice Skillet just happens to be one of those easy and delicious dinners that you can whip out in no time, and have plenty of leftovers for lunches or dinners to come. This dish also just happens to fall perfectly in sync with Cinco de Mayo, which is just around the corner! Fancy that! And nope, I did not plan this at all!

I'm really impressed with how this dish has held up to reheating, and I know for a fact that it will now be in my regular dinner rotations. If you're looking for something to make- especially you Mommys out there with little time and kids hanging off of you... you gotta try this out.

Ingredients:
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 small-medium zucchini, diced
1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
1 can diced garlic & herbs tomatoes
1 can black beans, rinsed thoroughly
1/2 can sweet corn (or about 1/2 cup frozen corn)
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
salt to taste
3/4 cup white or brown rice, cooked as per directions on package (about 2 1/4 cups cooked rice)
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Directions:
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When pan is hot, add zucchini and bell peppers; cook for 5 minutes. Add in cumin and chili pepper, stirring until mixture becomes fragrant; about 1 minute. Add can of tomatoes (including liquid) and rinsed beans. Increase heat to high and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes, or until peppers and zucchini has softened (most of liquid should be absorbed/evaporated at this point). Add in corn and season with desired amount of salt.

Add in cooked rice and stir well. Add in additional seasoning if required. Cook for an additional minute, then remove from heat. Sprinkle with cheese and stir through.


Source: adapted from Ready Set Eat Pin It

Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes with Truffle filling

Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum! I can't even begin to describe how deliciously decadent these cupcakes were. And what's really exciting about these cupcakes is that I imagined and created these cupcakes myself, without any outside influences. That is, I didn't see them on Pinterest or another baker's blog, the idea came from within me. Now that might not seem like a big deal to you, but I think it's a really special step forward to start moving away from already created recipes into unknown territory. I didn't create the cupcake recipe from scratch- I'm no scientist here; but I did adapt and create the rest of the components. Yay for me! I'm going to go do a little happy dance.

 

 

Honestly, you should go make these. They're very simple, despite the multitude of components. And they are sooo good. I brought them to a work potluck and everybody went ga-ga over them. A perfectly rich but light chocolate cupcake, delicious truffle on the inside (and trust me, I'm not a huge fan of truffles but because they're raspberry truffles, they were amazing), topped with light, fluffy raspberry flavoured whipped cream icing and a drizzle of that sweet and tangy raspberry sauce on top. Just fabulous.

 

I made these Black Forest Cupcakes not too long ago, and you can find the recipe for the chocolate cupcakes here.

 

Ingredients:

For the Raspberry Sauce:

2 pints raspberries, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup water

1/2-3/4 cup sugar, or to taste

2 tablespoons cornstarch

 

For the Chocolate Raspberry Truffle

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1/4- 1/3 cup raspberry sauce

 

For the Whipped Cream:

3 cups heavy cream, chilled

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Dr. Oetker's Whip It (Whipped Cream stabilizer that can be found in the bakery section)

1/4 cup raspberry sauce

 

Directions:

To make the Raspberry Sauce:

Crush the raspberries with water in a saucepan; a potato masher works well.Whisk in sugar and cornstarch until completely combined. Heat over medium-high heat until mixture is brought to a boil; make sure to stir constantly to avoid burning. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes. The sauce will have thickened from the cornstarch and will happen quickly, so be sure to remove from heat once it reaches the thickness you desire. Push the sauce through a strainer to remove all clumps and seeds. Refrigerate and save until later. This can be made several days in advance, and is great for other things, such as pancakes, cakes, or these mini cheesecakes.

 

To make the Chocolate Raspberry Truffle filling:

Place finely chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until simmering, then pour it over the chocolate. Let sit for one minute and then whisk until smooth. If the chocolate is not completely melted, place the bowl over a double boiler or give it a very short burst in the microwave (15-20 seconds). Add the butter and stir until combined. Set aside and allow to cool for 20-30 minutes before stirring in the raspberry sauce. Add raspberry sauce to taste (I can't remember exactly how much I put in, but I know I kept adding more and more). Refrigerate truffle filling and save until later.

 

At this time, make the cupcakes. Recipe can be found here. Once cupcakes have cooled, use the cone method to cut out a hole in the cupcake. Spoon raspberry truffle filling into a piping bag (should be relatively soft, unlike an actual truffle). Pipe truffle filling into the centre of each cupcake hole, and then replace top of cupcake.

 

To make the Raspberry Whipped Cream:

Start by cooling your stand mixer, either by placing it in your fridge or freezer for a few minutes; this helps to whip the cream faster. Add the heavy cream, powdered sugar and Whip It to the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium-low speed for 30 seconds before increasing the speed to medium-high. Whip the cream until stiff peaks form, being careful not to overbeat. Spoon in 2 tablespoons of raspberry sauce and whip on medium speed until incorporated. Add in additional 1 tablespoons at a time until you've reached your desired taste.

 

Transfer whipped cream into a piping bag fitted with a tip of your desire. Pipe whipped cream on top of cupcakes. If wanting to drizzle with raspberry sauce, transfer sauce into a squeeze bottle for easy application. *Note: if you are not serving the cupcakes for awhile, do not drizzle with sauce until half an hour or so before serving; I made my cupcakes a day prior to serving and by the next day the drizzle had stained the whipped cream, making them appear as if they'd been sitting for a lot longer than they had.

 

Source: cupcakes from Annie's Eats, Truffle adapted from this post. Raspberry sauce and Whipped cream a Sweet Treats & Healthy Eats original.

Pin It

Easter Sugar Cookies

Happy Easter everybody! Well, Happy Easter in a few days at least. I can say that this is possibly the most I have ever looked forward to Easter, which is quite sad considering the reason. My placement is closed on Friday and Monday, meaning I have two days off work, which means that I have two whole extra days to devote to school assignments! Am I excited for that? Yes. Is that depressing? Incredibly.

And while I was looking forward to creating this batch of Easter cookies for a couple of lovely ladies who asked to order some after seeing my Whoo do you love? Valentine's Day and Kiss me I'm Irish! St. Patrick's Day sugar cookies, I was also dreading it. Don't get me wrong, I love love love making cookies, it is just a very busy and stressful time for me. And considering I don't know when to stop (i.e. too many cookies and colours), it just adds up. But now that I'm finished, I'm tickled pink with the set and very pleased at how they turned out. I used ribbon roses for the first time AND got to try out my Kopykake projector that just came in the mail last week! Can you tell, can you tell? Well... the only thing that I used it for were the fonts for 'Happy Easter' but I'm super stoked about it. In fact, I couldn't stop staring at how beautiful my writing came out. Already my KK is a win in my books.

That writing is just beauteous. Yup, beauteous. Aside from those though, I think the bunnies were my favourite, they were so cute with their little pastel sprinkly tails! And here they are all packed up and ready to go tomorrow!

 

 

If you are interested in the cookie recipe that I use, check out my post on Baby Shower Cookies. For an added spring touch, I changed up the flavour of my royal icing just a tad: I used 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and closer to 2 teaspoons of orange extract. Yum! I actually enjoyed it a lot more than my normal recipe.

 

Check out my post here on Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes to see what I made for Easter last year.

 

Have a fantastic Easter weekend everybody! Chocolate Caramel CupcakesChocolate Caramel Cupcakes

Pin It

Hidden Gold Cupcakes

Well, St. Patrick's Day is less than two days away now, what are every body's plans? I know what mine are: stuck at home and locked in my office, forcing myself to get some serious school work done. And so since I can't enjoy the holiday, I'll enjoy these amazing cupcakes in honour of St. Patrick.

What's so amazing about them do you ask? Well, to start off, there is a delectably light and airy vanilla cupcake made with buttermilk, topped with a perfectly balanced American buttercream, and when you think that's not enough, well let me just tell you, there is a perfect little 'golden coin' sugar cookie nestled into the frosting. But wait! That's not all, surely you must be wondering where the 'hidden gold' is. Well, that hidden gold is deep within the cupcake, in the form of a luscious vanilla pastry cream! Yum! Now if that all doesn't convince you that you need to make these babies, the fact that I had 6 individuals tell me that it was the best cupcake they had ever had in their life, and 2 marriage proposals- from women! should sell you over.

Despite all the components (minus the cookies), these cupcakes come together really quickly. Two pieces of advice: make sure that you don't let this batter sit and that it goes in the oven right away, and when I say only fill them 2/3 full- only fill them 2/3 full. While I was thoroughly impressed by the texture and flavour of these cupcakes, I must admit that I had a bit of trouble the first round; the cupcakes came out a little flat and had spread [horizontally] quite a bit, and they had gotten a little more brown than I would have liked. This didn't affect the taste, they just didn't look as pretty- certainly not as pretty as Glorious Treats'. I have a few theories for why this may have happened (old baking soda/powder, filled too full, uncalibrated oven temp, etc.), and so I am looking forward to my next opportunity to make them and test some of my theories. Either way, they were wonderful.

Ingredients:
Pastry Cream:
1 cup 2% milk (if you only have 1%, add a small amount of cream)
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 egg (just estimate, when cracking the egg, I try to take half of the white and then break the yolk,   taking half of that as well)
2 tablespoons corn starch
3 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Cupcakes (makes 14-15; however I doubled the recipe. To only make 14-15, reduce pastry cream and buttercream recipes by half):
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup oil (vegetable, canola or extra light olive oil)
1/2 cup buttermilk

American Buttercream:
1 1/2 cups softened unsalted butter, or 3 sticks
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4-5 cups sifted powdered sugar
1-3 tablespoons buttermilk, depending on stiffness preference

Directions:
To make pastry cream:
In a heavy saucepan, stir together the milk and 2 tablespoons sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat.

In the meantime, in a medium bowl whisk together the egg yolk and 1/2 egg. Stir together the remaining sugar and cornstarch into the egg until smooth. When the milk comes to a boil, drizzle it into the egg mixture in a slow thin stream while whisking quickly to temper the eggs (slowly bring them up to temperature and avoid cooking the eggs). Once all of the milk has been incorporated, return the mixture to the saucepan. Slowly bring to a boil, whisking constantly to ensure the eggs don't curdle or scorch on the bottom.

When the mixture hits a certain temperature, it will thicken rapidly. At this time (often when it boils), remove from the heat quickly. Whisk in the butter and vanilla, until the butter is completely melted and blended in. Pour into a heat-proof container and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Chill completely before using. When ready to use, whisk the cream thoroughly to loosen it up and break up any clumps.

To make cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds. Add sugar and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add vanilla and oil and beat until combined.

Add half of the flour mixture and mix on slow. Add half of the buttermilk and mix until just combined. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk is mixed in. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is mixed in.

The batter will be very thin; this is normal. Fill liners no more than 2/3 full. Bake cupcakes for 12-14 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Cool in pan for 1-2 minutes, then remove and allow to cool completely on rack.

To make buttercream:
Place the butter into a stand mixer bowl and using the whisk attachment beat butter until light and creamy, about 3-4 minutes. Add in the salt and vanilla, and mix until combined. Add the powdered sugar in 2 separate amounts, mixing until combined both times. Allow the icing to be beaten for an additional 4-5 minutes to help make it fluffy. Depending on how stiff the icing is at this point, add in enough buttermilk to thin it to the consistency you would like. I used about the full 3 tablespoons. If you don't have buttermilk, heavy or half-and-half cream works as well, but I find that the buttermilk helps to cut the sweetness down a little bit. Beat the icing again for another minute until thoroughly combined.

Sources: pastry cream adapted from All Recipes; cupcakes from Glorious Treats; buttercream from Sweet Treats & Healthy Eats- Cherry Chip 'Rose' Cupcakes Pin It