My Favorite Chocolate Cake

Hello everyone! It's time that I share with you all the most incredible chocolate cake recipe that you've ever tasted...

It's no surprise that one of my favorite cake recipes of all time comes from one of my favorite culinary ladies of all time - Ina Garten! This recipe, my friends, is one of those tried and true-keep for your entire life-everyone asks for it everytime you make it recipes. 

This particular cake was made for no real "special" occasion, but it had been long over-due since it was made last. The making of this delicious piece of chocolate heaven actually came about because Patrick needed something to shoot for his photography class, hence the gorgeous pictures we all get to gawk at to go along with this gorgeous recipe. Thanks Patrick! Your pictures are always, always welcome on this blog...

Anyways, I guess I better give you the recipe after all that hype, hey?

Beatty's Chocolate Cake

Recipe from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa at Home

butter for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup 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 temp
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter two 8 inch round cake pans.
Line with parchment paper, then butter, and then flour the pans.
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an eletric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.
In another bowl, combine the butter milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.
With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.
With the mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35-40 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. 

Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
Place one 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

Recipe from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa at Home

6 ounces good semisweet chocolate
1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temp
1 extra large egg yolk, at room temp
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup 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 temp.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with 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 speed, gradually add the confectioners sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping the bowl as neccesary, until smooth and creamy. 

Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 tablespoons 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 onto cooled cake.

And there you go! If you're worried about the copious amounts of coffee in this cake - don't worry! You can barely taste it, and the coffee is just in there to enhance the flavor of the chocolate and make the cake really moist. And boy does it ever...

The cake - and the photos - turned out beautiful!

Thanks to the master photographer and wonderful helper.

Patrick has a bunch more photos of the baking extravaganza on his blog - 1hundo. - so definitely check those out! I hope you all enjoy this cake as much as we did (and always do)!

xoxo

Mariel

More Oats???

Hello! So, I had oats, again. But in a whole new way, again. I can never do repeats of bowls of oats, ever, no matter how delicious they turn out! This morning's bowl was one of the tastiest creations yet (almost up there with the Christmas oats, from December). I'm not quite sure what to call this bowl, but I will tell you what I loaded into it!

The inspiration for this bowl was the box of Family Digestives I found lurking in the pantry!

I have had the BIGGEST sweet tooth lately, so of course the thin layer of chocolate on the cookies was not enough to satisfy my craving. To sweeten up my oats even more, I loaded on the cashew butter, chocolate hazelnut spread and one of my favorite things ever, dulce de leche.

And of course, almond milk!

The cookies in the oats were so delicious, they sopped up the almond milk and were all soft and melty and amazing!

The excess of chocolate and rich caramel did not hurt either! Yum. Anyways, enjoy your monday everyone!

xoxo

Mariel

I Love Food Blogging...

Hello everyone! I've got almost a full day's meals worth of photos and recipes for you today (minus lunch, due to my sleep-ins during no classes breakfast IS lunch)! Let me start with breakfast! I was in a real risk-taking mood this morning, and decided to try some crazy oatmeal...I have decided to call it Christmas Oatmeal! The idea for the oatmeal was a bit of a sketchy one...it could have been wonderful, or horrible, but lucky for you it turned out absolutely delicious and you should all try this...

First of all I just made some plain old oatmeal with plain old rolled oats, then really jazzed it up with the toppings!

Christmas Oatmeal

1 part rolled oats to 1 1/2 parts water

eggnog

brown sugar

cinnamon

nutmeg

chocolate chips

white chocolate chips

dried cranberries

You can make the oatmeal stove top or in the microwave, it turns out just fine either way! Just heat the oats and water until the oats have absorbed all the water and are softened. Now the trick to making the oatmeal is loading up the cooked oats with brown sugar (a given for any bowl of oatmeal) and EGGNOG instead of milk! I know what you're thinking...eggnog?!?! Trust me, I was a little scared too...but it's sooo good! I don't think I can ever use regular milk for my oatmeal ever again! Then you just toss in as many other delicious toppings as you'd like! The chocolate/nutmeg/cinnamon/cranberries combo tasted especially festive...like a big warm bowl of Christmas. Mmm!

It was my turn to make dinner tonight, and from what we had in the fridge this is what I came up with! I ended up making baked filets of sole smothered with fresh ginger and garlic, and hot chili sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil, baby bok choy with oyster sauce, a green bean salad with chili flakes and soba noodles dressed with rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil and loads of sesame seeds!

Dinner turned out pretty good...it was really easy to make and sort of healthy also! I love asian ingredients...so much flavor.

After dinner I finished off the peanut butter cups I started making yesterday!

To make the perfect little chocolate cups for the peanut butter filling I melted up some bakers chocolate on the stove (I have major issues with melting chocolate in the microwave for some reason...it never turns out for me!) and then spooned it into muffin liners! I used the spoon to move the chocolate up the sides of the liners so that they would turn out more "cup-like".

Popped the chocolate cups in the fridge for a little bit before I spooned the peanut butter filling into them so that the chocolate could set up a bit!

Finished off the peanut butter cups with a little more chocolate and they turned out great! I tried one...and let me tell you, they taste EXACTLY like Reese's! Unbelievable! You must try these out, they are the easiest and most delish things you will ever make, promise! Can't wait to post more pictures tomorrow...this blog is taking over my life! You will probably see me out and about taking pictures of food in public very soon...

xoxo

Mariel

Starting on Some Christmas Baking...

First of all...so excited to be starting a little food blog. I do love to eat, and watch cooking shows, and read recipes, and cook...and bake, so this is just perfect! Also perfect: procrastinating from studying for finals via baking! So that is exactly what I did today. Didn't get too much baking done at all though today (the day was a fairly short one due to a massive sleep in...). I just made some chocolate truffles and started on some home-made peanut butter cups.

The truffles turned out so pretty! And tasty. They were soo easy to make too:

1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese

3 cups of powdered sugar

12 (1 ounce) squares of semi-sweet or dark baking chocolate, melted

1 tablespoon of vanilla

Mix together the cream cheese and powdered sugar. Melt the chocolate and add to the cream cheese mixture, then add the vanilla and pop in the fridge! Once the dough has kind of set up take er out and form into little balls and roll them in whatever you like.

I rolled mine in melted white chocolate, shredded coconut, mini chocolate chips, walnuts, dried cranberries, and crushed up sesame snaps (which...i tried one...particularly delicious). They look so nice and christmas-y together!

Took a little break from baking to have some of Mama F's dinner...soo good. I'm honestly not even sure what exactly it was...some sort of soup/stew/chili thing? Either way, it was fresh tasting and so nummy, and really cut all the sugar I had eaten nicely. Shanks Mom.

She made home-made biscuits too...my favorite (especially when smothered with butter). She always uses my grandma's recipe. It is the perfect biscuit recipe:

"Mother's Special Biscuits"

1/2 cup of soft butter

2 cups of flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

2 tsp sugar

1 cup of half cream, half milk

pinch of salt

Mix well, roll out on floured counter, cut with cookie-cutter. Bake at 375-400 until golden brown. Yum.

                                           

I'm a messy baker.

Filling for home-made peanut butter cups!

I got lazy and didn't end up finishing the peanut butter cups, I will melt the chocolate and put it into the little muffin liners tomorrow... But I did eat alot of this filling...tastes exactly like the Reese's peanut butter cup filling! All that's in it is: equal parts smooth peanut butter (not the natural peanut butter...too oily) and cream cheese, and some icing sugar and vanilla! Very similar to the truffles... Although sometimes simple is the most delicious. I will finish these bad boys off tomorrow and hopefully have time to start some other Christmas baking!

xoxo

Mariel