Adventures in Baking

I love to bake. Yesterday I made a cake for two friends’ birthdays, Mary & Courtney. The cake was super moist and super chocolaty, who doesn’t love that?!? I’m usually a huge fan of frosting and think a cake isn’t really a cake without it but I set my feelings aside and followed the recipe recommendations and it was great. And if I plan to replace frosting with powdered sugar very often, I’m going to need a proper powdered sugar duster. I should have taken a picture but I didn’t think about it until now and I’m not going to take a picture of the mostly eaten cake sitting in my office break room (where all leftovers are devoured). Here’s the recipe:

Too Much Chocolate Cake
Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
• 1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate chips)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan.
3. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate. If desired, dust the cake with powdered sugar.

A few weeks ago, I made another cake for my friend, Vanessa’s birthday. She wanted vanilla cake, which I didn’t really even know existed, so I did some searching and found a recipe. To be honest, it wasn’t my favorite cake but several of the girls absolutely loved it. Of course, I don’t use cake flour so I found the conversion for regular flour online (1 cup minus 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour).

Basic Vanilla Cake
Countryliving.com

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup whole milk

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8-inch cake pan with butter and dust with all-purpose flour. Sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl.
2. Beat in the butter one heaping 1/4 teaspoonful at a time, using an electric mixer set on low speed, until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Beat in the sugar a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture resembles fine damp sand. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla and milk, and beat on medium-high, just until blended. Do not overbeat.
3. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean — 30 to 35 minutes. Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
4. Un-mold and cool completely. Ice with Browned-Butter Glaze.

Here’s the recipe for the glaze:

Browned-Butter Glaze
Countryliving.com

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoon whole milk
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• Zest of 1 lemon

Directions

1. Melt the butter over medium-low heat until golden brown. Whisk the sugar, salt, milk, lemon juice, and zest together. Add the melted butter in a stream while whisking until smooth.

I also made a delicious pumpkin cheesecake for a dinner I went to on Halloween. I love pumpkin.

Pumpkin Cheesecake
MarthaStewart.com

Ingredients

• FOR THE CRUST
• 1 1/4 cups graham-cracker crumbs (from 10 whole crackers)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• FOR THE FILLING
• 4 packages (8 ounces each) bar cream cheese, very soft
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin-pie spice
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs, room temperature

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in center. Assemble a 9-inch nonstick springform pan, with the raised side of the bottom part facing up.
2. Make the crust: In a medium bowl, mix cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter until moistened; press firmly into bottom of pan. Bake until golden around edges, 10 to 12 minutes.
3. Make the filling: With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar on low speed until smooth; mix in flour (do not overmix). Add pumpkin puree, pie spice, vanilla, and salt; mix just until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until each is incorporated before adding the next.
4. Place springform pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Pour filling into springform, and gently smooth top. Transfer to oven; reduce oven heat to 300 degrees. Bake 45 minutes. Turn off oven; let cheesecake stay in oven 2 hours more (without opening).
5. Remove from oven; cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm, at least 4 hours. Unmold before serving.

I read this tip online and followed it exactly: To prevent the top from cracking, be careful not to overmix the batter, and do not open the oven door while the cake is baking or cooling inside the oven. Who wants a cracked cheesecake, right? However, what I didn’t read online was that I need to use parchment paper in the springform pan so that the cheesecake is easy to remove. Result: cracked cheesecake. I was very sad but it still looked pretty darn good and tasting amazing. Seriously, everyone should try this cheesecake.

That’s the end of my baking adventures for today!