Chewy Chocolate Nut Cake

Cake Slice Baker time!  

The Cake Slice Bakers bake from one cake cookbook each year.  Each month we are offered three or four choices from the book and we vote on which to bake.  The current cookbook is Great Cakes by Carole Walter.  We have recently voted on what book to bake from in the upcoming year and I am not able to reveal it until it the group reveals it at the same time but I am so looking forward to baking from the new book.  ;)

If you would like to join our group please head over to http://thecakesliceblogroll.blogspot.com/ and drop a note to one of our awesome staffers and they will get you started.

This month we had the choice of Banana Nut Cake, Sesame Almond Swirl, Chewy Chocolate Nut Cake and Blueberry crumb squares.  The Chewy Chocolate Nut cake sounded a bit different so that was our choice this month.

We start off by making the chewy chocolate nut mixture.

All I had on hand was pecan halves, not pieces.  It was a bit sad to chop them up so.

Once the pecans, cocoa, sugars, salt, butter and corn syrup were all mixed up, half of it was pressed into the bottom of a springform pan.  The other half set aside to be added as a layer later.

The key to a good cake batter is getting the butter sugar mixture super creamy and light.

Half of the batter is spooned over the crust layer.  Then you add the chocolate in a crumble all over and top with the second half of batter.

I spooned the batter over the crumble layer but left about two tablespoons in the bowl.  That way once it was smoothed out I could add more batter to that area to cover nicely.

I baked this cake for an extra 10 minutes before the tester came out clean.  The cake came out very puffed up but slowly sank as it cooled down.

The instructions tell you to invert the cake onto your serving platter.  That covered up the sunken top.

Upside down looked good but It didn't cut nicely.  And this was at room temperature.  I don't think it would fair well if chilled at all.

The cake served up ok.  The cake part was light and had good flavor.  The chocolate part was good also and the nuts gave the cake a much needed texture boost.

Check out all of The Cake Slice Bakers @ the blogroll, the links below & like us on Facebook.

An InLinkz Link-up

:)

Enjoy!

Zach's Chocolate Marble Cake

Hello dear readers!  Yep it is that time again - Cake Slice Bakers!  

It should have been the 20th that I posted but well I am just behind.

This month our choices were Zach's Chocolate Marble Cake, Hungarian Poppy Seed Kugelhopf, Golden Peach Cake and the Very Berry Roulade.  I chose to make the marble cake due to the tastes in our house.

The Cake Slice Bakers bake from one cake cookbook each year.  Each month we are offered three or four choices from the book and we vote on which to bake.  The current cookbook is Great Cakes by Carole Walter.  We have recently voted on what book to bake from in the upcoming year and I am not able to reveal it until it the group reveals it at the same time.  I just got my copy and there looks to be some yummy recipes in it.  ;)

If you would like to join our group please head over to http://thecakesliceblogroll.blogspot.com/ and drop a note to one of our awesome staffers and they will get you started.

Let's get marbling!

I chose to make my cake in a simple pan rather than a textured bundt pan.  I sprayed the pan and laid in a piece of parchment in the bottom - flipped so that it is greased on both sides.

This recipe had you make up the chocolate mixture - melted chocolate, shortening, honey, baking soda, and espresso - and set it aside.  The mixture set up.... a bit more than I would have liked because when mixed with the batter it was very grainy and there were bits left unincorporated.

The cake batter went together well and the vanilla batter had a very nice texture.

You layer in your two cake batters.

Once you have layered in your batters, take a knife and kind of smoosh around to create your marbling.  Once done with that into the oven it goes for about an hour.

The cake comes out a lovely golden brown and smells delightful.

Now to just let it cool and decide if I am going to top it with the glaze or not.

My boys decided to forgo the glaze and eat it straight up.  Personally I think they were just getting antsy ha!

My cake didn't have as much "marbling" as I think we expected but really liked the bands of light and dark cake.

This cake has a very nice texture and came together quickly.  I felt that the chocolate flavor wasn't very present - in fact I could taste the honey more than the chocolate.  And I think that the glaze would have given the cake just the right boost to make it a very tasty cake.

Check out all of The Cake Slice Bakers @ the blogroll, the links below & like us on Facebook.

An InLinkz Link-up

Enjoy!

:)

Absolutely the Best Yellow Cake...?

cake
noun
a sweet, baked, breadlike food, made with or without shortening, and usually containing flour, sugar, baking powder or soda, eggs, and liquid flavoring.

Or as I would define it...

CAKE!
nounom nom nom nom

I have been on a quest for the basics.  I want recipes in the front of my binder that are my 'go tos'.   A chocolate cake that I know will always be just the right amount of chocolate, a lemon bar that makes you pucker then mmmm as you take another bite, a coconut cream pie that is so good that you don't care if you have a little sumtin' on the edge of your lip because you just shoved a huge bite into your mouth.  And a yellow cake that can be delicate and delightful but at the same time hold its own when filled or topped.

The Cake Slice Bakers have changed things up a bit and now offer three or four choices to us each month from the current cookbook ~ Great Cakes by Carole Walter.   Our choices this month were Absolutely the Best Yellow Cake, Sour Cream Chocolate Cake, Bing Cherry Kuchen and Streusel Lemon Torte.

You would have thought I would jump at the chocolate cake but I spied that yellow cake and thought that I should give it a go.... would this be THE one?

Well the recipe says that it is the best... let's find out.

Cupcakes again?  Yes, dear.

Cupcakes are easy to give away!  

Plus if you eat a whole cake you just ate one item... if you eat several cupcakes then you just stuffed in your face multiple food items and that is baaaaad.  So yes, cupcakes.

Cream your softened butter and sugar together to form that light and fluffy stuff that you should not dip your pinky into on accident and then lick off because the paper towels are just too far down the counter.

Add in your vanilla extract.  Now you want to add your eggs.

I hate to wash extra dishes but this is one of those things you shouldn't shortcut.... do not crack your egg directly into the mixing bowl.  At some point you will drop a shell.  If you are lucky you will see it, dig it out and just waste time.  Bu there will be that time when you find out because someone you love will crunch down on it and blahhhh!

Instead simply crack your eggs into a small bowl, then dump into the mixing bowl from there.  It is worth the extra dish to wash.

Your creaming items are all fluffy and now to do the wet/dry dance.

Add in part of your dry ingredients, followed by part of your wet then mix until just incorporated and repeat until all your stuff is mixed together.

This batter came out rather nicely and was very silky but I could see that it wanted to break a bit if left to sit.

I made half a recipe and was able to (over) fill 12 cupcakes and had I scrapped the bowl could have filled one more.  Into the 350 degree oven they went.

While they were baking I decided that indeed we needed a bit of chocolate with these cupcakes.... yeah, yeah, I know!  So.....

I decided I would dip the tops into ganache. 

Please tell me you know what ganache is!!  Well in case you don't know what it is I will tell you...  ganache is the chocolate be all end all in my book!  You can do so many things with it other than eating it straight out of the bowl.  And the best part is it is so dang simple to make.

I am using 3/4 cup of heavy cream and 8 ounces of (good)chocolate (chips or chopped) for this round of ganache.  Its a little on the thick side but since I am dipping I wanted that.

Place your chocolate into a heat proof bowl.

Heat your cream on the stove top until the stream just starts to rise and you see little bubbles along the edges.  

Pour the cream over the chocolate.

Wiggle the bowl so that all of the chocolate is covered by the cream.

Now walk away.  Just go... for about 5 minutes.

Time to make magic happen.  Whisk it.

Well that isn't looking so pretty.  Just keep going, I promise it will come together... just... like... that!

Oh yeah.

Timer goes off and the cupcakes are done.

I baked them for about 17 minutes, until they reached 205 degrees internally.

But they are flat and the edges stuck to my pan.  I was hoping for a bit of a dome on top for dipping in.

They smell good and they look good, just flat.

I changed ideas and decided to just spread the ganache on top.

"Oh please don't spread chocolate ganache on top of that cupcake" ~ said no one ever!

Was it the best?  Sadly no.  It was quite tasty!  It has a delicate texture... actually the texture was almost too delicate.  I think that may be one of its downfalls.  Also there was no salt in the recipe and it called for unsalted butter plus it tasted just a bit eggy to me.  I think I may just have to give this one a go again to see if we can get it to be the best.  Keep your eyes peeled for a part two of this adventure.

Check out all of The Cake Slice Bakers @ the blogroll & like us on Facebook.

An InLinkz Link-up

*I didn't publish the recipe because it comes from a copyrighted cookbook.

Malted Milk Chocolate Cupcakes

Wow it has been a year already?!  Yes I am talking about the Cake Slice.  We have spent almost a year baking our way through Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson.  This is our last cake from Vintage Cake - even though I suspect I will revisit the cookbook again in the future. ;)

For our October cake we did not vote for one but rather we all chose what we had been eyeballing to make.  So you really need to check out all the CSBs yummy blogs to see what all the gals made this month.

If you are interested in joining The Cake Slice group please send an email to Paloma at love.for.coffee @ gmail.com for information. It is a great group of gals to bake with!

My pick for October is the Malted Milk Chocolate Cupcakes.  My family and I like malt balls.... ok fine we love malt balls and fight over who gets to eat the last one!  That in mind this was a hands down choice for me to make.

You really need to start off making the frosting because it calls for a two hour refrigeration.  To make the frosting your first step is to make a malted ganache.  After whisking together the cream and malt powder, heat over low heat and make sure to stir and watch it closely.  Even with doing that mine started to burn before the cream was bubbling along the edges.  If this happens to your pot of cream no worries, just don't scrape it out.

Simply pour the heated mixture over your chocolate and allow to sit for a few minutes before whisking until smooth and no more chocolate lumps are present.

Tip - as you can see I put mine into a glass bowl.  This was just fine until I went to transfer it later to the mixing bowl - the set up mixture is very sticky and was difficult to transfer.  If I had known I may have put it in my stand mixer bowl to start with.  Just remember that your bowl needs to be heat proof.

Cover and refrigerate until well chilled and set up. Now time to move onto making the cupcakes.

Start off with mixing together the dry ingredients - including the malt powder.  Mix this together very well to avoid lumps of the malt powder.

Next you melt the butter and chocolate until smooth.  Add in the oil and then add into the dry mixture.  Be sure to scrape down the sides and the bottom a couple of times.  Again to avoid lumps of the malted powder.

Whisk together the milk, eggs and vanilla and slowly incorporate it into the chocolate mixture.  It is a very wet batter.  I usually use a scoop to fill my cupcake pans but that was just becoming a big mess all over the pan.  So I decided to move the batter to a large measuring cup with a pour spout.  Now filling was much easier and cleaner.

*Note - even with all the scraping and mixing there was still lumps stuck to the bowl so I would advise not scraping out the mixing bowl if you transfer like this.

These cupcakes took about 25 minutes to cook and that worried me a bit but baked up just fine.

Once the cupcakes were cooled it was time to finish the frosting.  Transferred the chocolate to the stand mixer bowl and while on low added in pieces of butter.  Once all the butter is added,  turn the mixer up to medium to create a fluffy frosting.

It is interesting - the frosting is quite light at this point through piping it but once it was refrigerated  the frosting darkens up.

Thumbs up from all that ate the cupcakes!

The cake was moist but had that nice little crunch to the top edge.  The frosting was fluffy and tasty.  I liked both components though I am not sure if I liked them together - maybe a little too sweet together.  I might try the frosting on a dark chocolate cupcake next.  

Check out all of The Cake Slice Bakers @ the blogroll & like us on Facebook.

Enjoy!

:)

Happy Birthday to The Cake Slice

Five years and going strong ... The Cake Slice!

This great group of bakers has been baking their way through cake cookbooks for 5 years now.  The cookbooks have included The Cake Book by Tish Boyle, Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman, Southern Cakes by Nancy McDermott and Sky High by Alisa Huntsman, Peter Wynne, Tina Rupp.  I joined this lovely group for this year's book ~ Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson.  We are having a great time trying out these retro recipes with a modern twist.

To celebrate this fifth year we have decided to bake up something special.  I have chosen to try out Black Bottom Cupcakes.  I chose to use the recipe posted by fellow CLBaker Monica at Lick the Bowl Good.

These cupcakes are pretty quick to put together.  I was a little surprised how thin the batter was, but they baked up very nicely.

The BB cupcakes came out moist and so darned tasty!  Everyone at the table asked for a second cupcake.

You can find the recipe for the Black Bottom Cupcakes @ Lick the Bowl Good.

Check out all of The Cake Slice Bakers @ the blogroll & like us on Facebook.

Enjoy!

:)

The Black & White Cake

Running a few days behind here.  But for a good cause.  I have been recipe testing for my sister's tea house.  She is hoping to open the beginning of October.  Fingers crossed for us please!

Now onto the cake.... our June choice for the Cake Slice Bakers is the Black & White Cake from Vintage Cakes.   In case you don't know about Cake Slice Bakers... We are a group of bakers that are baking a cake each month out of a specific cookbook.  This year of baking is being done from  Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson.  It is a great group of gals to bake with!  Be sure to check out all of their yummy blogs.

Rather than run through the making of the cake step by step this month I wanted to share how I used the cake.  One of the things that we will be offering at the tea house is a stacked cake for dessert.  So I thought this would be a good test for stackage!

I baked the cake in a sheet pan.  Be sure to butter the pan, lay down a piece of parchment paper then butter the paper also.  This will ensure that your cake will come out nice and easy.  Get a nice even spread by starting with batter all over the pan then spreading out in an even layer.

After the cake has baked and cooled, I put a piece of wax paper on top, wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap and placed it in the freezer overnight.  The next day I took it out and before it could thaw I cut circles out using a biscuit cutter.

The recipe called for a cooled ganache and a vanilla Swiss buttercream.  I opted for making what some call an American buttercream.

Now to just assemble the cakes.  Which isn't the easiest thing to do with the men folk in the house trying to 'help'.  

Cake, buttercream, cake, buttercream and zigzagged with ganache.

 

Nick wanted more ganache....

This chocolate cake is quite yummy without being overly sweet and has a nice moist firm texture.  This will definitely be a recipe I will use again.

Visit the other Cake Slice Bakers here.

The CSBs are now on Facebook ~ check them out here and be sure to 'like' the page.

Enjoy!

:)