Chocolate Birthday Cake
May 23, 2011
It is birthday season in our family. By some lucky roll of the dice, almost every member of our family was born between April and August. We celebrate the birth of someone every couple of weeks, usually with the a candle topped Chocolate Birthday Cake.
This cake began as my own personal favorite. I, like many, am a huge fan of chocolate. I am fairly certain that my birthday cake was chocolate for at least the first 25 years of my life (perhaps longer). About 5 years ago, I came across this recipe for chocolate cake from Ina Garten. Since then, I have made it countless times.
Imagine my delight when this cake became a favorite for my family as well! This year already, I have made it five times. In fact I have made it so much that I was reluctant when asked to make the most recent batch. I thought- Hadn’t we already eaten that cake enough this season? There are so many other good cakes to try. But then I whipped up the batter, baked the cake, and tried a sample crumb, shhhhh. This cake tastes sooo good! I would happily sign on to many more years of baking this exact cake.
Chocolate Birthday Cake is rich, chocolately, and incredibly moist. The buttermilk gives it a pleasant tang and the last minute addition of brewed coffee deepens the delightful chocolate flavor. As with any chocolate dish, it will be as good as the cocoa you use. I prefer Ghiradelli or Scharfen Berger. The frosting choice will create the identity of the cake. Mocha Buttercream is the frosting I most often pair with the cake. I have also made it with vanilla buttercream and strawberry buttercream. Really, you cannot go wrong. This cake is absolutely decadent and delicious. The very definition of a chocolate cake. It is perfect for a birthday or any time you need a good chocolate fix.
Chocolate Birthday Cake
from Ina Garten
makes 1 8-inch layer cake
Parchment paper for lining pans
Butter for greasing pans
1 3/4 cup all- purpose flour, plus more for dusting pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I use Ghiradelli)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 2 8-inch round cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment. Dust pans with flour.
Sift together the dry ingredients into a large bowl: flour, sugar cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until just combined. Pour in the hot coffee and mix until it is incorporated. Be sure to scrape down sides and bottom to ensure all the flour mixture is thoroughly moistened. Batter will look very thin.
Pour batter evenly into the 2 prepared pans. Slide pans in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Place pans on a cooling rack and let sit for 10 minutes. Slide a knife around the inside edge of each pan to loosen the cake, then invert onto the cooling racks. Peel the parchment off the bottom. Let cakes cool completely before frosting.
Lay one layer, flat side up on your cake plate or stand. Spread a layer of frosting over the top. Place the second cake round on the frosting, flat side up. Apply a generous amount of frosting to the top of the cake. Spread the frosting over the top and down the sides. Finish by filling in any places where the cake is exposed and smoothing the top and sides with a spatula. If the frosting is too loose, put it in the refrigerator and allow it to set up before spreading. The frosted cake can be kept on the counter until ready to serve. If it is a very hot day, keep it in the refrigerator to prevent the frosting from weeping.
Note:
Unfrosted cakes can be made ahead and frozen. After they are completely cool, wrap tightly in plastic and freeze for up to three months. Be careful not to place anything onto of the cakes. Even though they are frozen, then are still delicate and will crush easily.
For a larger cake and crowd, you can double the recipe. I have done this successfully many times.
Mocha Buttercream
adapted from Mollie Katzen’s Vegetable Heaven
makes enough for 1 8-inch layer cake
1 cup butter, at room temperature
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup fresh coffee, cooled
Cream the butter. Add the vanilla and mix. Sift in the cocoa and sugar (Do not forget to sift. If you add lumps in at this point, they are almost impossible to remove). Add the coffee and beat. It may appear curdled or separated at first. Continue beating frosting until it is fully incorporated, light, and fluffy. Spread on cake.
Here is a printer-friendly version of the recipes:
Chocolate Birthday Cake and Mocha Buttercream
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Satsuma Vanilla Upside-down Cake
Dandelion Vinegar
April 8, 2011
It is time to tap into the gatherer within! While there is a significant movement pushing people to develop their own victory gardens and support local growers, we still tend to ignore the wild plants volunteering all around us. Dandelion, Taraxacum officional, grows wild across much of the United States and so is accessible to just about anyone. Though you probably think more of Round-up than of salad when you see a dandelion, I am here to change that perception. Dandelions are delicious! Dandelion is often wrongly perceived as a foe to the garden and rarely considered an edible treat. Dandelion is both beneficial to the garden, highly nutritious, and tasty.
Dandelions help the garden in multiple ways. Dandelions send down a tap-root that breaks up heavy soil. The root also helps draw nutrients from down deep and then deposit them on surface as the leaves decay. They are also beautiful. It would be hard to find a child that is not in awe of the snowy globes of dandelion seed.
The name, Dandelion, comes from the French, dent de lion, or tooth of the lion. This is a nod at the serrated leaves of the plant. Identify dandelion by its serrated, hairless leaves, its non-branched flower stem, and its milky sap. Dandelion is highly nutritious. It boasts vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, calcium, iron, and more. Well stocked produce markets offer dandelion greens, but those are a cultivated variety. Most people do not realize that the garden weed is edible. The heavy rains of winter mean a beautiful crop of dandelion growing, with any luck, right outside your door! Harvest dandelion in the spring when the leaves are long, bright green, and fleshy. Since dandelion is often the target of toxic sprays, make absolutely certain that the dandelion you pick is from an area that is free from harmful chemicals.
The dandelion root and leaves produce a wonderful herbal vinegar. To make dandelion vinegar, harvest the root and leaves from a dandelion plant or many (you will be “weeding” at the same time!). Wash the dandelion carefully, remove any flowers or flower stems. Mince the plant and cover in balsamic vinegar. The dandelion infuses the vinegar with deep, earthy flavors and nutrients. Strain the vinegar and serve in salad dressings, add to a soup for a delightful acidic burst, or use anytime you would use plain balsamic vinegar. The flowers are beautiful added to salads.
Dandelion Vinegar
dandelion leaves and roots
balsamic vinegar
Wash leaves and roots. Remove any flowers, flower stems, or dried leaves. Mince. Place in a sterilized jar and pour balsamic vinegar over the top so that the herb is submerged by 1 inch. Cover and let sit for 3 weeks. Strain the vinegar and use as you wish.
Here is a printer-friendly version of the recipe: Dandelion Vinegar
Chipotle Salsa
March 2, 2011
Abandoned on a desert island with just one food to eat for the rest of my life, salsa would be my number one pick, hands down. I am a salsa fanatic. In the spring, I choose which tomato plants to grow in my garden with salsa in mind. Through the summer months, our refrigerator is filled with various forms of salsa: pico de gallo, roasted tomato salsa, green tomatillo salsa, peach salsa, you name it. In the winter, I make salsa with canned tomatoes freshened up with fresh cilantro and lime. There is almost no dish that cannot be improved by some sort of salsa.
Frustration over the mediocre quality of most commercial jarred salsas and the exorbitant cost of most commercial fresh salsa inspired the creation of Chipotle Salsa. It is really easy and inexpensive to create great tasting salsa with basic pantry items. This recipe uses canned tomatoes, chipotle chiles, garlic, onion, cilantro, and lime. Blend the ingredients until they are somewhat uniform, but still slightly chunky. Serve the salsa over eggs, with tacos or quesadillas, pour it over chicken and bake, or eat it with chips. There are unlimited uses for this salsa.
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Satsuma Vanilla Upside-down Cake
February 18, 2011
This is definitely one of my favorite winter cakes. Every year, I watch our satsumas ripen and dream of this dessert. I invent reasons to gather with friends, just so I can share this cake. I am not to be trusted with this buttery, tangy, orange vanilla cake without many mouths with which to compete. It is that good. Make it quick, while satsuma mandarins are in peak season! This cake would be great with any tangerine or mandarin. We have an overabundance of satsumas so that is what I use.
Upside down cakes are a new thing for me. Nothing against the legendary pineapple upside-down cake, but it has never really captured my attention. To be honest, I have a hard time veering from chocolate when choosing a dessert to make, especially in the winter. This cake is so incredibly flavorful, moist, and buttery that I really don’t miss the cocoa (If someone has an idea of how to make this better by adding chocolate, please let me know. Though as is, I think it may be perfect.) Using real vanilla scraped from the pod infuses the cake with a serious dose of deliciousness.
To make this cake, start by thinly slicing the satsumas. It is easiest to use a mandoline, but if you don’t have one you can use a knife. Be sure to make the slices as even as possible. Blanch the satsuma slices and then dry on a cloth. Melt the butter, vanilla, and part of the sugar in the cake pan, then arrange the satsuma slices.
Gently layer on the cake batter and bake in the oven until the top is browned. This batter is fabulous with other toppings as well. I recently made a cranberry upside cake with this base and it turned out delicious! This cake is best eaten the day it is made. It is delicious the next day as well, but the top gets a bit moist.
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Caramel Apple Tarts
December 20, 2010
Oh, it is a good thing to have a refrigerator full of caramel sauce. When I set out last week to make a pot full of caramel sauce, I truly intended to pass it on to well deserving friends and family. As the days wear on however, I can see the supply dwindling. The problem is… it is really good! (If you don’t yet have a fridge full, check out my post on Edible Gifts! Chocolate and Caramel Sauces. ) First was the obvious, caramel over ice cream (which has possibly converted this chocolate faithful to the caramel side of the ice cream shop), then apples dipped in caramel (it’s OK to eat it as a snack then, right?), and then putting it all together for one holiday worthy dessert. Tonight’s dessert was part apple crisp, part caramel apple, entirely decadent and yet homey, the caramel apple tart.
This recipe has been sitting in my “someday I want to make” pile for over a year. It was originally published in Bon Appetit magazine, May 2009 by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito and originates at the restaurant, Baked, in New York. Here is the concept: individual tart crusts, baked off in advance, then layered with caramel sauce, sauteed apples, and crisp topping. These tasty tarts are then baked again until the sugary syrup bubbles up and the topping browns. The original recipe suggests pairing these with Cinnamon-Rum ice cream (and provides a delicious sounding recipe- you should check it out on Epicurious). I couldn’t manage the extra prep, so I topped it with good ol’ vanilla and a drizzle of caramel sauce. No complaints.
My Pantry Shelf 
