Two weeks ago, we had the last night of beginners cake decorating at the Cake and Wedding Cottage.

basket weave!

The evening was bittersweet. The class was fantastic, and I had so much fun. It was great to meet the folks in the class, and I learned so much more than I ever expected. Although I may not do the over-the-top fancy decorating that we did for many of the cakes in the class all of the time, I learned so many tips that will make me a better decorator, even for simple cakes. I think I will take the second course in the series, just not right away. My weeks were more than a little bit crazy the first two months of the year with all of the baking required for class–so I need a chance to catch my breath before I go at it again!

rope border

But the evening was also bittersweet because we were working with chocolate icing for the first time. Amazing, super chocolatey icing, done up as a basket full of flowers. And since the evening had a chocolate theme, I decided to go chocolate all the way, with a triple chocolate fudge cake from the Sky High Cookbook. It made for a fantastic chocolate evening, with a delicious day to follow.

so beautiful, and it's all icing

But before we get to the recipe, a note about basket weave. Of all the techniques we learned in class, it is hands down my favorite. In fact, I would go as far as saying I’m a little bit in love with basket weave. It’s easy to put on, it looks FANTASTIC, you can use it to cover less than perfect icing or cake surfaces, and–the best part–you can use it to apply the so called *dessert* icings, real butter buttercream and cream cheese. Two of my favorites!

basket weave and flowers!

Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake
Adapted from Sky High

This recipe makes a seriously HUGE cake–three super tall 8 inch layers. Since I knew we were going to be piling a ton of beautiful roses on top of the cake, I decided to only do two layers and make some cupcakes with the rest of the layers. I ended up with about a dozen cupcakes and two big layers of cake. So when you make this, be ready for a big cake with an awesome flavor. The cinnamon and coffee give this cake a different and unexpected twist that will please the chocolate lovers in any crowd.

Ingredients:

  • 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
  • 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 ¼ tsp baking soda
  • 1 ¼ tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 ½ ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 1 cup milk (I used skim)
  • 1 ¼ cups hot, strongly brewed coffee
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup mayonnaise (I used low fat with no effect on the cake)
  • 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 ¼ cups sugar

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. Line the base of each pan with parchment.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

Put the chopped chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Bring the milk to a simmer over medium heat. Pour the hot coffee and milk over the chocolate. Let stand for a minute, then whisk until smooth. Let the liquid cool slightly.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the eggs, mayonnaise and vanilla until well blended. Beat in the sugar. Add the dry ingredients and mocha liquid alternately in 2 or 3 additions, beating until smooth and well blended. Make sure you have the shield on your blender when you do this, because it really makes a mess! Divide the batter among the prepared pans.

Bake for 25 to 28 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out almost clean. You want those few crumbs to cling, so the cake still has a fudgey character. Let the cakes cool in their pans for 10-15 minutes before turning onto a wire rack and carefully peeling off the paper. Leave to cool completely before icing.

Ice with your favorite chocolate icing. This is a death by chocolate cake, so no chocolate is too much!

mile high devil's food cake

{ 9 comments }

Whole Wheat Muffins

by Beth on March 5, 2010

Do you ever come across a recipe and think, “Now this is just too good to be true?”

key ingredients

That was the first thing that popped into my brain when I first read this recipe, on Wednesday, February 5, the fifth day of the Snowmageddon/Snoverkill lockdown. “Even Bittman can’t come up with a good, doesn’t-turn-into-a-rock-the-second-its-cool 100 percent whole wheat muffin,” was the second. You have to use some white flour to get a little lift. Or at least some vital wheat gluten. Or something else magic.

liquid ingredients, mixed

But I was intrigued enough that on Thursday, February 6, I was whipping these up for breakfast. What can I say, being snowed in for a sixth straight day gives you time to follow spontaneous muffin urges!

needs more milk

And you know what, Bittman was right! These WERE good. Like a white flour muffin, not overly sweet, with a good crumb. As I mulled my shock over a muffin, it hit me–there was a secret ingredient! Mashed or pureed fruit. Not to lend flavor or sweetness so much as to give these muffins that extra lift. I’m so used to using fruit to give flavor, that it hadn’t even occurred to me at first that these muffins used fruit for texture and moisture, with the flavor almost fully masked by the nutty goodness of whole wheat. That Mark Bittman, he is a clever man!

mini muffins=perfect size!

Whole Wheat Muffins
Adapted from Mark Bittman’s The Minimalist column in the New York Times

I’m really a little bit in love with these muffins now. They were so easy to make, they’re so tasty, and I’ve been happily snacking on them out of my freezer for almost a month now! I can’t wait until June, when the blueberries come in and I can mix a fresh pint into this batter–yes I’m already dreaming about the Farmer’s Market. It’s March now, and with only 8 weeks to go until opening weekend, I’m allowed!

Really, there’s no reason for you not to make these for breakfast this Saturday morning. Snow or not, they won’t disappoint.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
  • 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 to 1 cup sugar, depending on sweetness of fruit (my experience was the muffins were a bit too sweet with 1 cup and pumpkin, so go easy on the sugar if you don’t want them too sweet!)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup mashed or puréed banana, sweet potato, apple, zucchini, cooked or canned pumpkin, or other fruits or vegetables (this is a great way to use whatever you have around!)
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup skim milk with 1/2 tablespoon of white vinegar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray one 12 cup muffin pan or one 24 cup mini muffin pan. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, stir together the melted butter, your fruit or veggie of choice, egg and buttermilk. Fold wet mixture into dry mixture and stir until just combined. If the mixture seems too stiff (mine did) add a bit more milk.

Fill muffin pan; bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until muffins are golden and puffy. Serve immediately, with a bit of melted butter. If you have any leftovers, these freeze beautifully, especially the mini muffins, which will thaw in about 30 minutes on the countertop.

perfect with a bit of melted butter

{ 7 comments }

The Mayan Ruins of Kohunlich

March 4, 2010
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WARNING: This post contains no food. Not even a sad picture of the half squashed peanut butter sandwich I ate at the ruins. So for those of you coming here looking for food, I’m sorry, you might want to navigate away now. But if you have a minute, you might want [...]

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Wordless Wednesday 3.3.2010

March 3, 2010
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For more Wordless Wednesdays, go here.

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Smith Island Cake

March 1, 2010
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On the last weekend of the month of February Noel, we had a party. And a party needs a cake. And since the party was for Noel’s 40th, it was a special cake! But really, do we make any other kind?

If you’re not from Maryland, you’re probably wondering what the heck a [...]

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Eating Round the Caribbean

February 26, 2010
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I love when vacations are not only wonderful fun, but also wonderfully delicious.

I mean sunsets and beaches are nice and all…

…but a vacation isn’t something truly memorable unless there’s food. Lucky for me, the Caribbean was full of food, and most of it was fantastic.

From fine French in a dining [...]

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Wordless Wednesday 2.24.2010

February 24, 2010
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For more Wordless Wednesdays, go here.

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The Rose

February 19, 2010
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When Beth first asked me to post a guest blog I thought I would get really creative and make a traditional Puerto Rican dish, pastelon, or possibly make a traditional Puerto Rican pastry, quesitos. (My husband is Puerto Rican.) However, in the past two weeks I’ve had some overwhelming family stuff going on, so I [...]

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