Daring Baker's Challenge: August - Tubular and Coiled Treats

This month's challenge was Tubular and Coiled Treats.

What?!?!

Sounds cool, right? So, of course, I wanted until September 1st to try it. But even though the month was over, it really sounded fun. So I still wanted to give it a shot.

And it WAS fun! The kiddo loved it. Especially the cinnamon-sugar part. It was a lot like a cinnamon roll or a pretzel. Easy, fun, yummy... I admit, I almost forgot to take a picture because we were enjoying eating them. So I only got half of the last one, while little miss eats...

Recipe:

Chimney Cake:
adapted from Pearls of Baking

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups Flour
2 tsp. Instant Dry Yeast
2 Tbsp. Sugar
2 Egg Yolks
42 g. Melted Butter
125 ml Warm Milk
Oil for greasing molds
3 Paper Towel cartons (from center)

Topping:
Pecans/Walnuts
1/2 cup Sugar
2 tsp. Cinnamon

Directions:
1. Make the chimney cake molds by cutting paper towel cartons (from the center of the roll) in half. Cover each with foil and then grease with oil/cooking spray.
2. Dissolve yeast in milk and set aside for 20 minutes. Then combine all ingredients for dough and knead about 10 minutes. Place in bowl and let rise about an hour, or until double in size.
3. Divide dough into 6 pieces and roll into ribbons/snakes, about 2 feet long. Wrap the ribbon/snake around the mold, from the bottom and working upwards, creating a spiral. Repeat with all the pieces.

4. Combine topping ingredients in a shallow dish and roll cakes to cover. Place vertically on a baking tray, let stand 10 minutes, and then bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 for 15 minutes, or until done.

5. Remove from oven and slide off molds. Enjoy!

Daring Baker's Challenge: July - Surprise Inside Cakes

The theme of this month was to make a cake with a surprise inside. I didn't have an event to make something super showy but I did have a zebra patterned bundt on my Pinterest recipes to try, so went with that. The final product was pretty cool--it really does look like a zebra pattern! And it was yummy, too!

Recipe:

Zebra Bundt Cake:
adapted from Bakers Royale

Ingredients:
Cake - 
3 cups Cake Flour
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 1/2 cups Sugar, divided
1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
6 Tbsp. Water
1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
5 Large eggs
1/2 cup Whole Milk

Glaze -
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and prepare a bundt pan. Sift together baking powder, salt, and flour and set aside.
2. In another separate bowl, combine 1/2 cup of sugar, cocoa powder, and water, whisking until the mixture is smooth. Set aside.
3. Mix melted butter and remaining sugar. Add vanilla, then eggs, one at a time. Beat until light and fluffy.

4. Add flour in three additions, alternating with the milk (2 additions) and mixing until just blended. Add 2 cups of the final batter to the chocolate mixture and stir until blended.

5. Use an ice cream scoop and start with vanilla, adding to a slightly tilted pan. The scoops (do 2) should be added to the bottom of the tilted pan, not fully covering the bottom of the pan. Alternate between chocolate and vanilla, such that you add in the same spot and the batter slowly pushes out into the remaining parts of the pan.

6. Bake the cake 50-60 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes because inverting and cooling completely. 

7. To make glaze, heat the cream over low heat, adding chocolate and stirring until melted. Cool for 10 minutes and drizzle over cake.

A Minnie Mouse Birthday

My daughter requested a Minnie Mouse party for her 4th, complete with PINK cupcakes! Well, I'm a chocolate girl, myself, and I don't think any birthday is complete without chocolate cake. So I made her both--pink cupcakes, pink frosting, chocolate cupcakes, chocolate frosting--and mixed and matched.

 For the pink cake and pink frosting, I used a raspberry cake and raspberry buttercream recipe. Both were okay--again, I'm a chocolate girl.

 For the chocolate, I used my default, go-to, straight-from-mom recipe I've been making and eating for years. It is always amazing, even when you screw it up. I eat the batter by the spatula-full, and the frosting won't last long in a container on my counter. Usually I'm good and sick by the end of the process.

 The finished result was darling! I spent several days molding pink candy bows in a mold I bought on Etsy (using pink white-chocolate candies), and paired them with semi-sweet baking discs for Minnie Mouse ears.

And for the recipes:

Recipes:

Raspberry Cake
adapted from Sugar and Cloth

Ingredients:
1 cups Sugar
1 cup Butter
3 cups Cake Flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs, room temperature
3 egg yolks, room temperature
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 cup raspberry jam
Pink food coloring

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Sift together cake flour and baking soda and set aside. Combine milk and vanilla and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, then add raspberry jam. Add dry ingredients and milk in alternating batches (at least 3), beginning and ending with the dry. Add food coloring and fold batter a few times to be sure everything is incorporated.
3. Pour into prepared pans (recipe makes 3 cakes) and bake 17-22 minutes.

Raspberry Butter Cream

Ingredients:
2 lbs. Powdered Sugar
1 lb. butter, room temperature
1/2 cup raspberry jam
1 tsp. vanilla
Pink food coloring

Directions:
1. Cream butter until fluffy, and then add sugar, two cups at a time.
2. Add vanilla and food coloring. Whip until good consistency and apply to cooled cake.

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
4 oz. Unsweetened Chocolate
1/2 cup Butter, softened
2 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
3 Eggs
1 cup Sour Cream
2 tsp. Baking Soda
2 1/4 cups Flour
1 cup Boiling Water

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Melt chocolate.
2. Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs one at a time. Add melted chocolate.
3. Stir in sour cream and then add dry ingredients. Add boiling water; you must work quickly once water is added.
4. Pour into prepared cake pans and bake for 35 minutes. Cool before frosting.

Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:
4.5 oz. Unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/2 cup Butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 lb. Powdered Sugar

Directions:
1. Melt butter and chocolate together. Meanwhile, combine milk and sugar in a food processor.
2. Add chocolate and mix until combined. Frosting will thicken as it cools.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cake

A friend of mine gave me this recipe after I oogled over her picture on Facebook. And it's yummy! AND, it uses stuff I regularly keep around the house, so it was easy and fast to make! It looks pretty gooey and rich in the picture, but it has a great texture and taste--I recommend it!

Recipe:

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup Quick Oats
1 3/4 cup Boiling Water
1 cup Granulated Sugar
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Butter
2 Large Eggs
1 3/4 cups Flour
1 Tbsp. Cocoa Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Cinnamon
2 cups Chocolate Chips
3/4 cups Chopped Walnuts

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Place oats in large bowl and pour boiling water over. Slice butter over the top and let stand 10 minutes. Prepare a 9x13" pan.
2. Add sugar and brown sugar, stirring until butter is melted. Stir in eggs, baking soda, cocoa, cinnamon, and flour. mix until combined.
3. Fold in half of the chocolate chips and pour into a pan. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips and nuts.
4. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Double Chocolate Mousse Torte

Time out from the Cheesecake Challenge: I tried out another new recipe called the double chocolate mousse torte. I was looking for something chocolaty that didn't take quite as long as cheesecake. And something different and new, too. This is what I went for:

From Mel's Kitchen Cafe

This cake was YUMMY! I loved how rich is was and also the creaminess of the mousse. But mostly I loved the flourless chocolate/torte like cake on the bottom. Super yum!

Anyway, without further adieu, here is the delicious recipe:

Double Chocolate Mousse Torte
from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Ingredients:

Cake:
8 oz. chopped semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup Butter
1 cup Sugar
5 large Eggs
1 Tbsp. Vanilla
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/4 cup Flour

Mousse:
1/2 cup Butter
4 large Eggs, separated
1/4 cup Whipping Cream
1 Tbsp. Vanilla
8 oz. chopped Semi-Sweet chocolate
1/2 cup Sugar

Topping: 
3/4 cup Whipping Cream
2 Tbsp. Powdered Sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325. Prepare 10" spring-form pan.
2. Melt cake chocolate and butter and cool to lukewarm. Whisk in sugar and then eggs one at a time. Add vanilla, salt and flour.
3. Pour into pan and bake until just rises at center (tester inserted will NOT come out clean), about 30-35 minutes. Cool completely and let chill while preparing mousse.
4. Melt mousse butter in bowl set over saucepan of simmering water. In separate bowl, whisk yolks, 1/4 cup cream, and vanilla and gradually add to melted butter. Whisk constantly for about 6 minutes.
5. Remove mixture from heat and add chocolate. Stir to melt.
6. In separate bowl, beat egg whites and 1/2 cup sugar with a pinch of cornstarch until medium-stiff peaks form. Whisk 1/4 of mixture into chocolate mixture to lighten, then fold in the remaining egg white mixture.
7. Pour mousse over cooled cake and chill until set, about 6 hours.
8. Run sharp knife around edge to loosen and release torte. Beat 3/4 cup cream and powdered sugar in bowl until peaks form. Spread over the torte, garnish, and serve.