Peppermint Mocha Cake

This cake is. so. good. A deeply chocolaty mocha cake with smooth, fluffy, and almost whipped cream like peppermint frosting. I decorated the cake with mini candy canes, peppermint pop rocks, and peppermint rolled wafers. It’s perfect for Christmas.

Ingredients: Mocha Cake

2 cups granulated sugar

1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)

1 tablespoon espresso powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling coffee

Espresso Syrup (I omitted the rum)

Peppermint Flour Frosting (adapted slightly from here)

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon peppermint extract

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

Recipe: Mocha Cake

Heat oven to 350F. Grease, line with parchment paper, and flour two 6-inch round baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.

Add eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes.

Beat in boiling coffee. Pour batter into prepared pans- you will have left over!

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes. Then remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely before brushing on syrup.

Peppermint Flour Frosting

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be very thick, almost like a paste.

Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. It must be completely cool before you use it in the next step.

Stir in the peppermint extract.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy, about four to six minutes.

Then add the completely cooled milk/flour mixture and beat heavily. If it looks separated, you haven’t beaten it enough! Beat it until it all until it almost resembles whipped cream, about six minutes.

Enjoy!

 

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Chocolate HoHo Snack Cake

Do you remember Ho Ho’s? The small chocolate creme filled cakes? Well, I loved those and decided to recreate it in snack cake form. I define snack cake as any cake which either doesn’t have frosting or looks like this cake. A moist and fluffy chocolate cake, topped with a copy-cat Ho Ho creme filling, and covered with chocolate ganache. This cake is delicious. You will not be able to stop eating it, I can promise you that.

Ingredients: Cake

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg, room temperature

1 and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup boiling water

Creme Filling

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon water

1 and 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Ganache Frosting (from here)

8 ounces chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

Recipe: Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9×13 pan.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Add the egg, vanilla, buttermilk, and butter. Beat on medium-high speed until combined well, about three minutes.

Stir in boiling water, the batter will be pretty thin- don’t worry about it.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Creme Filling

Beat sugar, shortening, vanilla, milk, salt and water for about 7 minutes. It should be white and smooth.

Add powdered sugar and beat for 5 more minutes until creamy and smooth.

Ganache Frosting

Place the chopped chocolate into the bowl of a food processor.

Heat the heavy cream in a quart-sized, microwavable container and microwave for 3 to 4 minutes on high, or until it just begins to simmer; be careful not to allow cream to boil over.

Pour the cream over the chocolate and let stand for 2 minutes. Process by pulsing several times until chocolate mixture is smooth. Pour over cake and refrigerate until set or overnight.

Enjoy!

 

Chocolate Skillet Cake

This cake is really good. Like really good. It’s also really simple. Just the best chocolate cake ever baked in a cast iron skillet (!!) smothered with melted Nutella on top and covered with a sprinkling a chopped hazelnuts. I made this simple cake to test out my new cast iron skillet. To see if it would, you know, really work. It did. I am officially positive that all cake’s taste better when they’ve been baked in a skillet. Also, I made this cake last night and it’s up this morning. That’s how badly everybody wanted to dig their forks into this cake. 😀

Ingredients: Chocolate Cake

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg, room temperature

1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup boiling water

Optional: Nutella

Optional: Chopped Hazelnuts

Recipe: Chocolate Cake

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9 inch cast iron skillet.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

Add the egg, vanilla, buttermilk, and butter. Beat on medium-high speed until combined well, about three minutes.

Stir in boiling water, the batter will be pretty thin- don’t worry about it.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

While cake is still warm frost Nutella over it and then sprinkle chopped hazelnuts over it. Then eat it 🙂

Enjoy!

Nonpareil Chocolate Cake

This chocolate cake is amazing! Seriously, it’s fudgy, moist, slightly dense, and super chocolatey 🙂  And the frosting is creamy, fluffy, and sweet. Nonpareils were the theme of the cake, as you can tell.

Ingredients: Cake

2 cups granulated sugar

1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, room temperature

1 cup whole milk

1/2  cup unsalted butter, melted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

Frosting

2 and 1/2 sticks salted butter

6  cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon whole milk plus 1 teaspoon

blue food coloring

pink food coloring

yellow food coloring

nonpareils (for decoration)

Recipe: Cake

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour, and parchment paper three 6-inch round baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour,  baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, butter, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes or until smooth.  Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin).

Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Frosting

Whip butter for about three minutes until it lightens to an ivory color. Mix in the powdered sugar until creamy. Beat in the milk. Keep beating until light and fluffy. Separate frosting into three parts and color each a different color. Frost the cake!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Pound Cake

Rich, soft, chocolate pound cake with a semi-sweet chocolate ganache and fluffy funfetti whipped cream. I saw a chocolate pound cake recipe HERE  and it looked delicious, so I decided to try it along with the chocolate sauce. I also love funfetti things, and whipped cream is the perfect tool to balance out rich chocolate. The whipped cream is not in the picture below but is in the one at the bottom.

Ingredients: Chocolate Pound Cake

1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 and 1/3 cups granulated sugar

1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 large eggs, room temperature

Chocolate Glaze

1/3 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons light corn syrup (so it doesn’t get stiff)

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Funfetti Whipped Cream

1 and 1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 cup colorful sprinkles

Recipe: Chocolate Pound Cake

Heat the oven to 350F. Grease an 8×5 or 9×9 loaf pan cover the bottom with a small piece of parchment paper.

Place the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a boil and whisk to combine and aerate it (create air, basically) and set aside. Place the cocoa powder in a heat proof bowl. While whisking constantly (you might want to enlist someone else’s help) pour the boiling water into a 1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons and into the cocoa. Whisk until smooth and combined; set aside.

Place the butter and sugar in a medium bowl and mix until fluffy and lighter in color (about 5 minutes.) Occasionally scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the vanilla and cocoa mixture and beat on medium speed until combined (about 1 minute.) Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Again, scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Mix on slow speed and slowly add the flour mixture. Mix until the flour is just combined. Stir any remaining flour streaks by hand, make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and make sure it’s an even layer. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Set out a wire rack. Cool for 15 minutes then remove the cake from pan and let cool for 15 minutes on the wire rack. (Turn the pan upside down. When the cake comes out, pick up the pan. Now, roll the cake over gently until it’s sitting up straight. Let cool for 45 more minutes.

Chocolate Glaze

Put chopped chocolate in medium bowl. On the stove, in a medium saucepan, heat heavy cream and light corn syrup until simmering. Then pour over chocolate and mix until smooth and combined. Pour (spoon) over cake.

Funfetti Whipped Cream

Chill bowl and paddle or blades (of whatever mixer you have) in the freezer for 10-15 minutes.

Whip cream, vanilla, and sugar. Gradually add the sprinkles and continue whipping until reasonably stiff.

Serve with the cake.

Enjoy!

German Chocolate Cake Bars

I love German Chocolate Cake, but I’ve only had it once and I wanted to make it in bar form. They are awesome! I have to say I’m very impressed with myself 🙂 Though, I should clarify that it’s technically a rectangle cake with unfrosted sides, but whatever- if you cut it it bars their bars.

The cake part comes from

Ingredients: Cake

2 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate (I used semi-sweet)

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate

6 tablespoons water

1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 and 1/2 cup sugar (divided)

4 eggs, yolks and whites seperated

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling

1 cup butter, softened

1 and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

8 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Frosting (from Country Living)

1 cup sugar

1 can (12 ounce) evaporated milk

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 and 1/3 cups (7 ounce package) shredded coconut

1 and 1/2 chopped pecans

Recipe: Cake

Preheat oven to 350F. Chop chocolates and melt them with the water in a bowl for 30 seconds, mixing until smooth. Let cool to room temperature. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Beat together the butter and 1 and 1/4 cups sugar for for five minutes. Mix in the chocolate. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, beat well after each addition. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in half of the flour mixture. Add buttermilk and vanilla mixing until combined. Now add rest of the flour mixture.

In a seperate bowl whip the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Now add 1/4 cup sugar and whip until glossy peaks form. Slowly fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter. Fold the rest of the egg whites in until you can’t see any.

Divide the batter into two 11×7 inch pans greased and cover in parchment paper. Bake for 30 minutes.

Filling

Mix softened butter and vanilla until throughly combined. Add powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and the heavy whipping cream. Beat until creamy. <—– very easy Flip a cooled cake and smooth the frosting on one of them. Use about half the frosting.

Frosting

Melt butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, and egg yolks in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until thickened. About 5-10 minutes. Add coconut and pecans. Pour in with the rest of the frosting, mix and cool to room temperature.

Stack the unfrosted cake on top of the frosted one. Frost with the coconut-pecan frosting.

Cut into bars and enjoy!