Texas Sheet Cake

I finally made this cake and it was an instant hit.  My uncle is really picky and pretty much only eats his favorites and he told me I can make this cake for him any time.

Thanks Dessert for Two!  This was quick, easy and delicious.

Texas Chocolate Quarter Sheet  yields 4-6, so pretty sure I doubled the recipe

PREP TIME20 minutes

COOK TIME20 minutes

TOTAL TIME40 minutes

Ingredients

• For the cake:
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
• 2 heaping tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• For the frosting:â?¨7 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 heaping cups powdered sugar

Instructions

2. Preheat the oven to 350.
3. Lightly spray a quarter-sheet pan with cooking spray. A quarter-sheet pan measures 12x10-inches.
4. First, make the cake. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.
5. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter.
6. Once melted, stir in the cocoa powder and boiling water.
7. In a measuring cup, stir together the buttermilk, egg, baking soda and vanilla.
8. Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture, following by the boiling water mixture.
9. Stir together all cake ingredients very ell, and then pour into the prepared pan.
10. Bake cake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
11. While the cake bakes, make the frosting. In the same saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat.
12. Stir in the cocoa powder, buttermilk and vanilla until well-combined.
13. Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the powdered sugar.
14. Immediately when the cake comes out of the oven, pour the frosting over. Use an off-set spatula to spread the frosting to the edges of the pan.
15. Let the cake cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Boston Cream Pie

My dad had a big birthday this year and since he was going to be in town afterwards I asked what he wanted for his birthday cake.  He requested Boston Cream Pie and I happily obliged.

Reviews for the Saveur recipe were consistently good so I made the cake a day or two before, put it in the freezer, and made the pudding the day before.  Assembly was quick the next day and the chocolate ganache on top was spot-on.  It was the surprise hit of the party.

Thanks, Saveur!

Boston Cream Pie

SERVES 10

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CAKE
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
1½ cups flour, plus more for pan
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. kosher salt
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 eggs
⅔ cup buttermilk

FOR THE FILLING AND GLAZE
1 cup sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
½ tsp. kosher salt
½ vanilla bean, seeds scraped and reserved
6 egg yolks
1½ cups milk
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 oz. 60-percent bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup heavy cream

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Make the cake: Heat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 9″ round cake pan; set aside. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; set aside. In another bowl, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed of a hand mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each, until smooth. Alternately add dry ingredients and buttermilk in 3 batches, beginning and ending with dry ingredients; beat until just combined. Pour into pan; smooth top with a rubber spatula. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes, and then invert onto a wire rack; let cool completely.

2. Make the filling: Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, and vanilla seeds in a 4-qt. saucepan; add yolks, and whisk until smooth. Stir in milk, and place pan over medium heat; cook, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and add butter one cube at a time, whisking until smooth; stir in vanilla extract. Transfer pudding to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap; chill until firmed, at least 2 hours.

3. Make the glaze and assemble cake: Place chocolate in a bowl. Bring cream to a boil in a 1-qt. saucepan over high heat; pour over chocolate and let sit for 1 minute. Slowly stir chocolate and cream until smooth and shiny; set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Using a serrated knife, split cake horizontally into two layers so that the top layer is slightly smaller than the bottom. Spread chilled pudding over cut side of bottom layer and cover with top layer; pour chocolate glaze evenly over cake, letting it drip down the side of the cake. Refrigerate cake until glaze is set, at least 30 minutes. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Brownies

Around the holidays Nestle came out with a chocolate chip mixture of chocolate chips and mint chips.  I bought it because I love chocolate-mint-everything and then proceeded to forget about it.  I was organizing my pantry and found them, and the stars must have aligned cuz I also came upon this recipe from a friend's blog.  It's from Allrecipes.com, but I'll give you the link to her site.  She's very creative!  AND she has great taste in brownies.  I ended up using the bag of chocolate chips/mint chips as part of the recipe and thus made mint brownies.  My sister and I have probably eaten a quarter of the pan already cuz they're refreshingly delicious.

Thanks, Ilene!  

Brownies (recipe at the end of the post)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used my mint/chocolate mixture plus regular semi-sweet chocolate chips)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease an 8×8 inch square pan.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter and water. Cook over medium heat until boiling. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the chocolate mixture. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies set up. Do not overbake! Cool in pan and cut into squares.

Chocolate Souffle Cupcakes

Yesterday we invited people over for dinner, and I promised dessert.  I was already obligated to make cupcakes for W's coffee break at work, so I tried to find the perfect cupcake recipe.  It was impossible!  There are five hundred billion recipes for cupcakes!!

Finally at 5pm I decided to check one of my favorite websites: Smitten Kitchen.  I looked at a couple recipes and then saw this one: Chocolate Souffle Cupcakes with Mint Cream
Happy Valentine's Day to me!  It was love at first sight.  And at first bite.  *happy sigh*  One friend ate three of them. 

I didn't have enough time to make the mint cream so I served it with Bailey's Whipped Cream instead.  It was delicious, and the extra whipped cream went well with strawberries.  W's work cupcakes were dusted with powdered sugar since he felt funny about bringing in something with alcohol. 

As much as I enjoyed the challenge of finding a great recipe, the best part was sharing dinner and dessert with friends.  Thanks for sharing Valentine's Day with us!  And thanks to Smitten Kitchen and Cupcake Project for posting recipes.


Chocolate Soufflé Cupcakes courtesy of Smitten Kitchen
Makes 12 cupcakes

Chocolate Soufflé Cupcakes
6 ounces (170 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) (86 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Heaping 1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) espresso or instant coffee powder
3 large eggs, separated
6 tablespoons (97 grams) sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 9 standard-size (3-ounce) muffin cups with paper liners. Stir chocolate, butter and espresso powder together in heavy medium saucepan over low heat mostly melted, then remove from the heat and whisk until it is fully melted and smooth.  Cool to lukewarm, stirring occasionally.

Using electric mixer (a hand mixer, rather than a stand mixer, actually works best here because the volumes are so small) beat egg yolks and 3 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl until mixture is very thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Briefly beat lukewarm chocolate mixture, then vanilla extract, into yolk mixture. Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 3 tablespoons sugar and all of the salt, beating until medium-firm peaks form. Fold whites into chocolate mixture in 3 additions. Divide batter among prepared cups, filling each three-fourths of the way.

Bake cakes until tops are puffed and dry to the touch (some may crack, embrace it) and a tester inserted into the centers comes out with some moist crumbs attached, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in pan on a cooling rack, where the cupcakes will almost immediately start to fall. It will be all the better to put your mint cream on them.

From Cupcake Project:
Bailey's Irish Cream Whipped Cream

• 2 C heavy whipping cream
• 2/3 C sugar
• 2 T homemade Baileys Irish Cream (yes, store-bought would work just fine)

1. Whip heavy whipping cream until it looks like whipped cream.
2. Mix in sugar and Baileys Irish Cream until just combined.