cakes

Half-birthdays and enchiladas

By in cakes, family, parties

Normally, I don’t condone half-birthday celebrations. They seem like a gateway to third and quarter birthdays, and if you open that door, your cake situation is going to get totally out of control.

However, normal went out the window for us 41 days ago (not that I’m counting). So when Rose asked if we could celebrate her half birthday with enchiladas for dinner, I said “Sure! I’ll even make you half a cake.”

Enchiladas are new to our repertoire but they’re an appropriate pandemic food because of all the canned goods that go into them. I’ll post my recipe below.

Per usual, we had our favorite Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake (recipe here). I halved the recipe (even though halving 3 eggs is tricky), frosted it with cream cheese frosting and topped it with 6 and 1/4 candles. We sang half of the happy birthday song with my aunt, uncle and cousin who dropped in via zoom.

Happy 12.5 to my girl. Hang in there, folks.

• Bean & Cheese Enchiladas •
serves 4-6

6-8 flour tortillas
Two 14oz cans enchilada sauce (we use one mild and one medium)
15oz can vegetarian refried beans
15oz can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
4 cups grated cheddar cheese (3.5 will do too)
Sour cream and cilantro leaves for topping
(Avocados would be nice if you can get them)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the beans, 1 can of enchilada sauce and two cups of cheese in a bowl and stir to combine.

Pour some enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 9″ x 13″ baking dish. Roll about 3/4 cup of bean and cheese mixture in a tortilla and place in the baking dish. Repeat until your bean mixture is gone. Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the tortillas and top with remaining grated cheese. Bake for about 30 minutes until bubbling.

Let sit for 10 minutes or so and serve with sour cream and cilantro.

Crumb cake for lunch

By in cakes 3 Comments

Sometimes you just want to be that mom who wakes up early on Sunday, goes for a run and then comes home and bakes something special for her family to enjoy for breakfast.

But really, you are that perennially sleep-deprived working mom who wakes up at 10am to realize that her 5 year old has been entertaining himself for 3 hours, and her tween won’t be up for several more hours. And you’re not a runner.

You make Martha Stewart’s Classic Crumb Cake anyhow, and everyone has it for lunch. And that’s ok, because what you are is that mom who’s doing her best.

incredible 3 (or 4) ingredient flourless chocolate cake

By in cakes, dessert 2 Comments

When my kids grow up, I’m pretty sure they’ll tell people that whenever they were bored, I would say “Well why don’t you draw, or bake something?” And that will be the reason they became artists or bakers… or lawyers, depending on how things go.

This weekend was a good one for baking done by Rose, who’s 11 now. Saturday morning she made biscuits and gravy, and today she made this totally amazing, utterly moist, pretty much to-die-for, 3 ingredient chocolate cake*.

I had bookmarked the cake because I saw one of those time-lapse videos on Epicurious (I am a real sucker for time-lapse cooking videos) and it seemed like the perfect to lay on Rose the next time she complained of boredom.

So here it is, highly recommended. It’s so easy, your kid can make it. And it’s gluten free too, if that’s how you roll.

*Rose argues that salt is technically an ingredient.

• 3 or 4 Ingredient Flourless Chocolate Cake •
from Epicurious

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
8 large eggs
16 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Special Equipment
A 9 or 10″ diameter springform pan

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease springform pan with butter and line bottom with parchment.

Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat eggs in a large bowl until doubled in size, about 5 minutes.
Place chocolate chips, salt, and 1 cup butter in a large microwave-proof bowl. Microwave on high in 10-second bursts, stirring between bursts, until smooth and pourable.

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold one-third of the whipped eggs into chocolate mixture until incorporated. Fold egg and chocolate mixture back into remaining whipped eggs until incorporated.

Transfer to prepared pan; cover bottom and sides of pan completely with foil. Set springform pan inside a large roasting pan; add hot water to a depth of about 1″.

Bake cake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and sides of cake begin to pull away from pan, 30–40 minutes. Let cool before serving.

New favorite vegan cupcakes

By in cakes, Vegan

“Are you vegan now?” My friend asked after I Instagrammed these cupcakes. Hells no! But I don’t want anyone to have to go without delicious, normally-textured-and-flavored chocolate frosted cupcakes just because they’re not into butter. Know what I mean?

We’re big on celebrating birthdays at work and one of my colleagues is vegan, so when it’s my turn to bring the treats I like to challenge myself to make a vegan treat that can pass for “normal.” I mean no offense by that, it’s just that some people—my husband for one—kinda balk when you say “vegan dessert”.

Anyhow.

This recipe via the Canadian Food Network (who knew they had their own?) is my new go-to. That is, until I get bored and decide to mix it up again (this was my old go to)

Enjoy!

• Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes •
via The Food Network, Canada

Ingredients

Cupcakes
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
¼ cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
pinch ground cinnamon
1 cup almond milk (the recipe calls for unsweetened but I only had sweetened vanilla and it worked just fine)
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (apple cider works too)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Frosting
⅓ cup coconut oil
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup Dutch process cocoa powder, sifted
2 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons almond milk

Instructions

Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line muffin cups with 12 paper liners.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon into a large whisking bowl. Add the almond milk, oil, balsamic vinegar and vanilla and whisk well, until the batter is smooth. Spoon the batter into the paper cups (and ice cream scoop makes tidy work of this) and bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes, until a tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.

Frosting
For the frosting, beat the coconut oil and brown sugar well until smooth. Add the vanilla and cocoa powder and beat well. Stir in 1 cup of the icing sugar, beating until smooth and then add the almond milk, followed by the remaining 1 cup of icing sugar, again beating well until smooth and fluffy.

Spread or pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and chill until ready to serve.

 

Kit Kat M&Ms ice cream cake

By in cakes, parties

A few weeks ago we were at a birthday party and they served a Kit Kat m&ms cake. This is apparently a thing, but I didn’t know that at the time. Do a google image search and you’ll see what I mean.

When Rose saw the cake she said “I want THAT for my birthday.” I asked if I could make it for her and she hesitated. Having grown up in a family that likes to cook from scratch, Rose covets all things store-bought. I knew she was wanting the supermarket cake, plastic cover and all.

I offered to make it for her with ice cream instead of cake, and it was a done deal. The cake is surprisingly easy to make, it has a lot of parts but none of them are tricky or take long – not even the hot fudge. I’m excited to share it with you!

recipe and process updated 10/20/19 

• Kit Kat M&Ms Ice Cream Cake •
makes one 8″ cake which serves about 16

Ingredients:
Cake & Assembly
2 quarts of good quality ice cream*
1 approx. 1lb bag m&ms
10 4-stick kit kat bars

Chocolate Crumbs
36 Famous Chocolate Wafers
4 tablespoons butter, melted

Hot Fudge (adapted from the New York Times)
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

*We used Chocolate and Coffee Cookies n Cream from JP Licks. The cheaper store bought kinds are probably too airy to make good ice cream cake layers.

Equipment:
Two 8″ cake pans
One 8″ springform cake pan
Parchment paper

Make the ice cream cake layers. Line the bottoms of two 8″ cake pans with parchment paper. Leave your ice cream out until it gets soft, but not too soft, about 20 minutes worked for us. Mush the ice cream into the pans, one pan per quart and flatten it as much as you can. Freeze until rock hard, for several hours or overnight.

On the day you want to serve the cake, make the chocolate crumbs. Crush your 36 famous wafers into fine crumbs and mix with the 4 tablespoons of butter. Set aside.

Make the hot fudge. In a small saucepan, combine cream, butter & sugar. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Simmer 45 seconds. Add chocolate chips, and whisk to dissolve. Remove from heat, add cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Return pan to low heat, and simmer sauce until glossy, whisking constantly, 20 seconds. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla. Set aside to cool to lukewarm/room temperature.

When ready to assemble the cake, grease an 8″ springform pan and press half of the chocolate crumbs into the bottom. Take one of the ice cream cake layers out of the freezer and carefully run a knife dipped in hot water around the edge, flip the cake pan onto a plate and tap the bottom, the cake should pop out. Peel off the parchment and lay the ice cream cake layer on top of the crumbs in the springform pan. Pour the rest of the chocolate crumbs on top of your ice cream cake layer. Remove the second cake layer from the freezer, remove from pan (as above) and place it in the springform pan on top of the crumbs and first layer. Press the whole cake down firmly into the pan using a piece of parchment, to kind of congeal it together and pop it back in the freezer for at least an hour.

Break your kit kats into two-stick pieces. Take the cake out of the freezer and carefully remove the sides of the springform pan, leaving the cake on the bottom of the pan. Put the cake on a serving dish (don’t use a tall cake stand unless you have a lot of vertical space in your freezer) and glue each pair of kit kats vertically to the side of the cake using a thick shmear of hot fudge to adhere them. Once the kit kats are glued all around the outside of the cake, drizzle the remaining hot fudge over the top layer and pour in the m&ms. 

Freeze until ready to serve. You will need to use an ice pick or other sharp, pointy object to make holes for the candles.

Enjoy!

Chocolate stout cake

By in cakes, parties

Labor Day is our last big hurrah at the Cape, not the end of the season per se but the last big weekend when everyone will for sure be around. It’s also my sister’s birthday. Historically we’ve had a big celebratory meal and cake. This year was really not much different than other years, big meal, nice time, cake.

We almost had to go to plan B when Shane who had the steak and potatoes in his possession, but was still in Boston, wasn’t able to leave because one of our cats wouldn’t come in. This was strikingly reminiscent of another birthday when Shane decided to go out for a kayak right before a hurricane.

Fortunately, we procured backup potatoes and Shane arrived in the nick of time with steak. There was never a concern about the cake not happening.

I like to make something a little special for my sister’s birthday. She said I could make whatever I wanted, but that what she really likes is chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. Rather than doing our family favorite Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake, I mixed it up a little with a Chocolate Stout Cake (recipe below). The cake was nicely dense and had a sophisticated flavor that I think it got from the stout. We made the frosting pink, because we could.

Happy (it’s still) summer!

• 3 layer Chocolate Stout Cake with Vanilla Frosting •
from Sweetapolita

Cake Layers
1 1/2 cups (12 fluid ounces) stout or dark beer (we used Guinness)
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 cup sifted Dutch-process cocoa
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup sour cream, at room temperature

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease three 9-inch round pans, line bottoms with parchment paper circles, then grease circles, dust with flour and tap out excess. Set aside.
2. Place the stout and butter in a large, heavy saucepan and heat on medium heat until the butter melts, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat, and whisk in the sifted cocoa powder until smooth. Pour into a large heatproof measuring cup or bowl and let cool.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the eggs and sour cream on medium speed (#4 on KitchenAid) until well combined, about 3 minutes.
5. Add the cooled cocoa mixture, and mix on medium speed (#4 on KitchenAid) until combined, about 1 minute.
6. Add the dry ingredients slowly and combine on low-speed (#2 on KitchenAid) until blended, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of bowl, and then mix for another minute.
7. Divide batter into prepared pans evenly. Place cake pans on middle oven racks and bake until toothpick inserted into centre comes clean, about 35 minutes.
8. Let cakes cool on wire racks for ~10 minutes, loosen edges with knife or small palette knife, then gently remove from pans to cool completely.

Whipped Vanilla Frosting
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
3 3/4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
4 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 
pinch of salt
a few drops of red food coloring (optional)

Directions
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter for 8 minutes on medium speed (#4 on KitchenAid). Butter will become very pale & creamy.
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix on low speed for 1 minute, then on medium speed for 6 minutes. Frosting will be very light, creamy, and fluffy.
3. Frost cooled cake layers and serve as soon as possible

 

Summer birthdays, sushi, new cake recipe

By in cakes, cape meals, parties

I start every post these days with: I know, I haven’t posted in so long. It’s true, I don’t really know where to go with the blog. Should I find a way to keep up with it, if only to have it as a resource for my family (who actually uses it a lot)? I don’t know.

What I do know is that when it’s my parents’ birthday and there’s a whole ton of delicious sushi and a brand new cake recipe, I for one am going to want to remember it—and find that cake recipe easily. So here goes.

As you may remember my parents were born a day apart, in August. Which means a celebration on Cape Cod can never not happen.

This year our dear Drew took the weekend off from his latest business venture to make, oh, 150-or-so pieces of fresh, homemade sushi for us all with help from whomever wasn’t wrangling kids at any given time. My mom hates to not help, so even though it was her birthday weekend she made an asian salad and an edamame salad. I threw in some baked tofu with miso sauce and my sister and I took on a brand new cake recipe.

Dinner was crazy, to say the least. We had little kids who were totally wound up, tweens who were sleepy and bored (but kind of wanted to make frosting), torrential rain and a ton of folks in the kitchen all day. But it was ok, it was exhausting but good.

Ok maybe I need an extra day off.

But anyhow. For all you chocolate and Nutella lovers out there, here’s the cake recipe:

• Chocolate Nutella Layer Cake •
from sweetapolita

Ingredients
For the Cake:
2 1/4 cups 285 grams all-purpose flour
2 1/3 cups 470 grams superfine sugar
3/4 cup 90 grams dark Dutch-process cocoa powder 
2 1/2 teaspoons 12 grams baking soda
2 teaspoons 10 grams baking powder
1 teaspoon 8 grams salt
1 1/4 cups 300 ml buttermilk
3/4 cup 180 ml brewed coffee or espresso
2/3 cup 160 ml vegetable oil
3 eggs room temperature
1 tablespoon 15 ml pure vanilla extract

For the Frosting:
4 1/2 cups 565 grams confectioners’ sugar
1 1/2 cups 340 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup 280 grams Nutella (or other hazelnut spread)
3/4 cup 180 ml full-fat sour cream
11 ounces 330 grams best-quality dark chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1 tablespoon 15 ml pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Instructions
For the Cake:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare three 7-inch round cake pans with nonstick spray and parchment rounds.
In bowl of electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, sift all dry ingredients, including sugar. Combine eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla in a measuring cup and beat lightly with a fork.
Add milk mixture to the dry ingredients mix for 1 minute on medium speed (you may need the plastic splash-guard that comes with mixer). Divide batter evenly among prepared pans–each pan should contain about 600 grams of batter.
Bake the first 2 layers for 20 minutes and rotate pans in oven. Continue to bake until toothpick or skewer comes almost clean (a few crumbs), about 5 more minutes. Cool on wire racks for 20 minutes. Repeat with remaining layer, and then gently invert onto racks until completely cool.

For the Chocolate Frosting:
Put all of the ingredients in a food processor, and pulse until smooth and glossy, about 1 minute. The frosting will be very soft. Refrigerate the frosting until it thickens slightly, about 15 minutes.

Assembly of the Best-Ever Chocolate & Nutella Layer Cake:
Sweetapolita’s assembly can be found here. We just did a traditional quick icing. A blob on the cake plate and a blob spread between each layer. Then we gently frosted the outside of the cake with the remaining icing and refrigerated until ready to eat (it was in the 80s so refrigeration was necessary)

 

Carrot cake 101 and other birthday things

By in cakes, parties

It’s Shane’s birthday today! We celebrated over the weekend so the plan for tonight was just a nice dinner with the family, and cake.

Shane requested a carrot cake, which is not something I’ve made before. I got out Perfect Cakes and was surprised to find a carrot cake recipe that called for a can of crushed pineapple. Weird.

I looked in New Basics, yup pineapple. Joy of Cooking? Pineapple too. Does everyone know this already?

So I went with it, and the cake came out amazingly well. Super moist, not at all pineapply in flavor. Pretty much perfect, like the best carrot cake you ever had (scroll down for the recipe).

Per Shane, we also had steak (which he graciously grilled himself), our very favorite Macaroni & Cheese and an endive and orange pepper salad because those are two vegetables Shane seems to kind of tolerate.

Rose set the table on her own and even took the initiative to put out pitchers of water and juice. This delighted us because it means she knows the unspoken rule about no bottles on the table for special occasions!

Aside from the usual dinnertime shenanigans it was a lovely meal.

Happy Birthday Shane!

• Carrot Cake •
from Nick Malgieri’s Perfect Cakes

Makes one 8-inch three-layer cake
About 16 servings

Ingredients:

Cake Batter:
2 cups all purpose flour (spoon flour into dry-measure cup and level off)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil, such as corn or canola
2 cups peeled and finely grated carrots, (about 4 large carrots)
One 8-ounce can crushed pineapple in juice
3/4 cup (about 3 ounces) pecans, coarsely chopped

Cream Cheese Icing:
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup (about 4 ounces) pecans, coarsely chopped and lightly toasted (optional)
6 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted after measuring

Method:

Three 2-inch deep 9-inch cake pans, buttered, with bottoms lined with buttered parchment or wax paper

1. Set the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees.

2. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a bowl, mixing well.

3. Whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in the sugar and continue whisking briefly until light, about 1 minute. Whisk in the oil in a slow stream.

4. Stir in the carrots, the pineapple with its juice, and the peacans, then fold in the dry ingredients. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans and smooth the tops.

5. Bake for about 45 minutes, switching the position of the pans, top and bottom and back to front, once during baking, until the cake layers are firm and golden and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean.

6. Cool the cake in the pans for 10 minutes, then invert onto racks to finish cooling. Remove the paper before icing.

7. To make the icing, in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla on medium speed until soft and light, about 5 minutes. Decrease the mixer speed to low and gradually beat in the confectioner’s sugar. Once the sugar is incorporated, increase the speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes longer.

8. To assemble to cake, place one layer on a platter or cardboard round and spread with one-third of the icing. Top with another layer and spread with another third of the icing. Place the last layer on top. bottom side up, and using a large offset spatula, frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining icing. If using, sprinkle the toasted pecans on top of the cake, and press into sides.

Storage: Keep under a dome at room temperature.

Day 21: Another birthday

By in 30 days of posting challenge, cakes, parties

So today is my birthday. Shane, as always, orchestrated something amazing. The table was gorgeous, the food spectacular and perhaps most imporatantly, my living room is packing box-free!!!

My folks came over (ie: upstairs) for dinner. Shane chose and shopped for an Ina Garten potato leek soup which my mom prepared. The recipe’s got a lot of steps and you could tell because it was more delicious and complex tasting than an ordinary potato leek soup, even Rose at it and she’s not a soup gal.

The main course was something like penne alla vodka (but a little different) from one of our favorite Italian cookbooks, Trattoria Cooking, which I picked up at a yard sale in the 90s when I lived in Tucson, AZ. We still love it, so that’s something.

Salad was a last minute addition, to the tune of: “Nina, I didn’t think you’d want salad because there are already two courses” “Shane, I always want salad.”

For a change of pace, I requested a flourless chocolate torte for dessert, and that’s what I got along with a hefty dose of drama from my kids. Turns out, kids these days have no idea how to use matches. Rose almost “burned her entire arm off” and Sid ran around frantically screaming “pause, pause, pause!” when he realized she was lighting matches and he didn’t have his guitar to accompany the happy birthday song.

Shane, who was a seasoned smoker by the time he was Rose’s age was appalled by our kids’ complete lack of match-lighting skills and gave them a quick how-to. When Rose complained about the risk being posed to her life, he persisted with “just keep going, light the candle, light the damn candle!”

Our cat just jumped out of the 3rd floor window as I was writing this. He’s fine, but there’s some real chaos surrounding the birthdays in our family this season. The cake was delicious, I’ll leave it at that.

xoxo

 

Beautiful birthday

By in cakes, family, parties 1 Comment

“Do you want to have dinner on your birthday?” Shane asked me on the evening of Rose’s birthday (which happens to be exactly a week before mine). “In general, I like to have dinner every night.” I replied.

“Would you like pasta primavera for your birthday dinner?” he asked a little while later, as he perused the cookbook Rose gave him for Father’s day. “I would LOVE pasta primavera.” I said. “Let’s do dinner at my parent’s house. With the usual people. And early, so that Sid will be less likely to melt down. I know! A non-sit down dinner at a non-meltdown time!” Oh, I’m good.

Oh… I have good intentions.

Despite Sid’s numerous meltdowns, it was a lovely birthday dinner because the pasta was amazing and all of the salads were amazing and the cake—which was cut so fast I couldn’t get a picture—was my grandma’s recipe made by my mom, and had lots of chocolate in the middle and extra chocolate on the side. And most importantly, the people I love were there.

And we played Pictionary.

Happy birthday to me. xoxo

 

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