Recipe #19: Intense Chocolate Cake

Recipe #19: Intense Chocolate Cake

Posted by Unknown

We had a little birthday get together for my husband this past Saturday night. I attempted to make him a cake that ended up overflowing in the oven like a volcano (more on that later). So I ended up making him the buttery cupcakes which I knew were amazing along with vanilla buttercream frosting. We also had another friend coming over who just celebrated her birthday a few days prior and she can't eat gluten so I thumbed through the dahlia bakery cookbook and found this gluten free cake.

I haven't baked anything like this before (not just because there is no flour) but because it sits in a water bath when you bake it. I was sure the cake would turnout to be a flop based on the technique and the fact that I was making this Saturday morning before taking my husband out to a lunch and movie for his bday. My backup plan was to run up to the met market and pick up a cake if this didn't turnout.

Oh and I forgot to mention I finally got my KitchenAid!! What a world of difference it makes. For this recipe you have to whip up egg whites for about 5 minutes so I was able to wash some dishes while the mixer just went to town. So awesome!

Warning: if you plan to make this you will need most the day. Making the recipe and baking the cake doesn't take much time but once it's baked you let it sit in the water bath for about an hour and then you let it sit on a wire rack for another 3 hours.

Then you carefully flip it over onto a plate and it should slide right out (and luckily mine did). Presentation on this can be a little tricky because it's rather flat. So I sprinkled it with some powdered sugar and then sliced it into pieces which made it look a little more appetizing.

The result: a velvety moist cake and packed with chocolate. You would NEVER know this was gluten free. I have tried many gluten free desserts and they are quite dry. Everyone enjoyed a piece of this and I am continuing to enjoy it several days later (and it's still so good). I picture myself making this when my husband goes out of town, renting some chick flicks and eating the entire thing.

You can serve this with whipped cream and I imagine some fresh berries would be a nice compliment. I ended up passing around a bowl of leftover vanilla buttercream from the cupcakes and that was a hit. Enjoy!!

For full recipe see page 288 in the Dahlia Bakery cookbook.

Recipe #14: Devil's Food Cupcakes with Chocolate Flake Buttercream

Recipe #14: Devil's Food Cupcakes with Chocolate Flake Buttercream

Posted by Unknown

We hosted a little Superbowl gathering at our home this past Sunday and I decided to make a couple different kinds of cupcakes for the dessert. I chose this recipe and the buttery cupcakes (which I will write about in a separate post).

The recipe is a bit daunting and the most complex cupcake recipe I have ever made. I honestly thought they probably wouldn't turn out. After sifting the dry ingredients you take egg yolks and mix with brown sugar and then slowly drizzle in oil as if you are making mayonnaise. I know this in itself is an art form and you have to be patient and make sure to not add the oil too fast. Once again, I am reminded that I need a KitchenAid mixer.

And then things got tricky for me... you whip up some egg whites to the point where they form soft peaks which went well and then fold them into the batter - being very careful when doing so as you don't want to deflate the whites. You fold the egg whites in 3 parts so I folded in the first 1/3 and then got distracted by my adorable 8 month old son. I came back to my whites and thought maybe they lost some of their "umph" and decided to place the beaters back in the bowl to re-whip to soft peaks. #EPICFAIL. The egg white mixture fell apart and turned back into a liquid. So... I quickly took 2 eggs out of the fridge, added the whites to the bowl with sugar, and whipped up but nothing happened! I was just beating the mixture for what felt like days. I looked back at the recipe and realized the eggs needed to be at room temperature which I had done the first time around so I took out 2 more eggs, placed them in warm water for a few minutes to bring to room temp, and then whipped up the whites again. This time they whipped up quickly and now I had to fold in the whites two more times and guesstimate approximately 2/3 of the remainder of the whites the recipe called for since I already folded in 1/3. I finished up and scooped the batter in the cups, shut the oven door, and hoped for the best.

The result: They could not have turned out better and they even look just like the picture in the book. Even though they are packed with chocolate they are not overly chocolatey (if that's even possible). I topped some with vanilla buttercream and some with chocolate flake buttercream (which was amazing and will write up in separate post since I am considering it a separate recipe). Both devils food and buttery cupcakes pictured below.

Recipe #13: Chocolate Truffle Cookies with Crackly Crust

Recipe #13: Chocolate Truffle Cookies with Crackly Crust

Posted by Unknown

I made these cookies last week as I had about 30 extra minutes on my hands before relieving the nanny. Instead of throwing in some laundry I decided to cruise through a recipe and bake these cookies. These have been haunting me ever since we went to the Book of Mormon as they were being served at the Paramount.

I hurried through the recipe and was in awe of the amount of chocolate that goes in these bad boys. A pound plus 4oz of bittersweet chocolate AND then 2 cups of bittersweet chocolate chips get mixed in at the end.
I read that whipping the batter well as you incorporate the eggs will give that crackly top - in hindsight I would have spent more time on this step.

Baking the cookies took the most time because as I've mentioned in previous posts I can only bake 6 cookies at a time in my small oven and in this recipe you turn the cookie sheet halfway through plus you can't refrigerate the dough so you need to commit to the baking process once the dough is made.

The result: A packed with chocolaty goodness cookie. Not all of the cookies turned out to have the crackly crust that makes the cookie so desirable. The taste was still there but next time I really need more then 30 minutes to whip this up and I need to use a bigger ice cream scoop.

Recipe #11: Prizewinning Pecan Brownies

Recipe #11: Prizewinning Pecan Brownies

Posted by Unknown

Well it's been over a week since I have been able to bake something due to catching the worst flu that is spreading like wildfire over the nation. Now that I have fully recovered it is time to get my bake on! I am baking a couple recipes today and have chosen two that do not require a mixer since I am still bitter about my KitchenAid mixer getting stolen.

I had a run in with a Dahlia cookie yesterday when my husband and I attended the Book of Mormon at the Paramount. They were serving a couple of different cookies and the infamous coconut cream pie. I asked my husband to pick what we would share and he chose the chocolate chunk cookie. I secretly wanted him to go with the chocolate truffle cookie because I knew I was going to attempt that recipe soon but I respected his choice. I was happy to discover the flavor profile matched the cookies I made recently.  A couple of differences I noted which I will make sure to change next time is the size of the cookie and the size of the chocolate chunks (the difference being the size and chunks need to be bigger next time).

We have a great view of the water and ferry boats from our place in West Seattle and this morning is unusually foggy. Definitely a great day to bake up some goodies and turn on some Radiohead (The King of Limbs Album - so amazing). But first things first - I read over the recipe, cleaned the kitchen, and prepped my ingredients (including all cookware and utensils). I cannot stress the importance of doing this - it just makes everything so much easier along the way.

I put my new apron on that my husband bought me for Christmas from Anthropologie - they have the cutest aprons and he selected the exact one I wanted without even pointing it out. This one to be exact: http://anthrpl.ge/UIPbzh. Hilarious to discover it's supposedly a "kids" size.

The best part of making this recipe was stirring in the melted chocolate and butter. The mixture was so shiny and mouth watering - it reminded of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I just zoned out on the chocolate and imagined myself basically bathing in it.

The only snafu I had with this recipe was my oven.... yep, hate my old ass oven. I ended up baking the brownies about 20 minutes longer then the recipe called for but followed Tom's advice and was waiting for the top to appear dry. In the end I probably could have gone 5 minutes less.

The result: very rich and chocolatey (not sure if that's a word but I like to make up words sometimes so there it is).  And you better like pecans because there are a lot of them. Next time I make the recipe I think I will opt for topping the brownies with the pecans but not mixing them in. They were also so rich that they reminded me of fudge and the first or maybe second taste to hit my tongue was salt. All in all a success.


For full recipe: See page 141 in the Dahlia Bakery cookbook.