Grasshopper Cake

I know, I know. I've said many many times how I just don't like making cakes. A lot of it is because the stress of making it look pretty, something I've never been able to master. But this new trend of "naked" cakes, where you don't have any frosting on the sides, are making me feel a little better because I can make a delicious cake that doesn't have to look pretty...and let's face it, this one is kind of ugly looking...in an ugly yet delicious pepperminty chocolately kind of way.

So what had me craving cake? Probably the fact that my newest issue of Food Network Magazine (one of the best magazines out there) had a whole section of different types of cakes. This Grasshopper one caught my eye, partly because it was one of those "naked" type of cake, plus it's chocolate and peppermint, which I've been in a major chocolate mode lately for some reason. So I figured, what the hell, I might as well make myself a cake.

I started by preparing my 8inch pans by spraying them with Baker's Joy and then cutting out circles of parchment paper to put in the bottom of the pans. That was one of those tricks I learned when I was preparing to make my friends' wedding cake. It makes it so much easier to get the cake out of the pan, and not lose a big chunk of the bottom.

Since I was making a chocolate cake, I had to prepare the chocolaty part! I whisked together 1 cup of cocoa powder and 1.5 cups of boiling water. I then set it aside for the very end of the batter prep so it could cool.

This was a very different recipe than I'm used to when it comes to making a cake. I had all the dry ingredients and then added all the wet ingredients into them to finish it off. I always feel like it's the other way around, so I'm doing something wrong. But this was not wrong and so very easy.

I combined 2.5 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1.5 tsp baking bowder, 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp salt together. Just whisking them so they were mixed together evenly.

Then I added in 3 room temperature eggs, 3/4 cup vegetable oil, 1/2 cup sour cream and 2 tsps vanilla extract.

Once all those ingredients are mixed together for a few minutes on medium speed, you slow it down to low speed and slowly add in the chocolate! Mix for a minute or two and then finish off by mixing with a spatula. And then you're ready to pour the batter into the pans!

Of course, you have to pick up and drop the pans onto the counter to pop all the air bubbles. I did it many times just because air bubbles kept coming up to the top! But it's good practice to make sure there are no holes in your cake. Luckily, I did not end up with batter on my ceiling (which has happened before). I then baked the cakes for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees! When I took them out to cool, I tried a little Pinterest trick I had seen, where you put a piece of bread on top of the cake while it cools to keep the top of the cake soft. I don't know what does it, but the bread keeps the tops soft and the bread literally feels like it was toasted. It was AWESOME. Science at work people. 

Meanwhile, I went ahead and prepped the filling for in-between the layers. You start by bringing 1.5 cups of whole milk to a simmer in a heavy saucepan. 

 Then in another bowl, you'll combine 1/2 cup of sugar, 3 tbsp cornstarch, 3/4 tsp peppermint extract, 1 egg and 1 egg yolk.

Once the milk has simmered, add half to the rest of the ingredients in the bowl, mix together and then add back to the saucepan. You'll then bring that to a boil while whisking constantly for 2-3 minutes. 

Once that's done, pour it into a new bowl, add in 3oz (or 3/8 cup) of white chocolate and 1 drop of green food coloring to give it that "natural" minty color.

Then cover with plastic wrap (pushed all the way down to the top of the mixture) and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

[Side note: at this point, I went to a yoga class and when I came home, I walked in and was hit in the face with the smell of chocolate cake. It was pretty much the most amazing thing ever because sometimes I don't notice the baking smell since I'm around it the whole time.]

So back to the cake and putting it all together! I sliced off the top of the bottom layer using my fun little cake leveler tool that I love. 

Then I mixed in a bunch of mini chocolate chips into the middle minty mixture and poured it onto the bottom layer.

When I put the second layer on top (which I decided not to level because I kind of wanted to go for the dome look), I realized I clearly put too much of the minty filling on because it started exploding out the sides. Whatever! It'll still be delicious and gave it a....uh....unique look to it! Right, unique. We'll go with that.

For the topping, I made homemade whipped cream by combining 1.5 cups of cold heavy cream, 1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar, and 1/8 tsp peppermint extract. I plopped that on and then went a little overboard topping it with some mini chocolate chips.

It doesn't look pretty by any means, but it sure does look delicious, and it tastes amazing too!! Craving satisfied.

[Final Side Note - which is more of a question: How is it that someone who can bake a cake can NEVER seem to be able to bake a potato all the way through, no matter how long it bakes for??? Serious FAIL.]

Pumpkin Spice Latte Bundt Cake with Espresso Whipped Cream

I love fall. I love the colors the leaves turn. I love the crisp air as I watch football. I love mums. I love apples and warm spices. I love the NC State fair. I love boots and sweater dresses. But most importantly, I love PUMPKIN. Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes, International Delight Pumpkin Spice creamer, Krispy Kreme pumpkin donuts, pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins (not pumpkin cream pasta sauce though...attempted to make that once and it was a disaster, so never again!), pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin bread, pumpkin butter bars, etc. You kind of get where I'm going with this.

So, while trolling Pinterest I found a recipe for a Pumpkin Spice Latte Bundt Cake recipe, that included a recipe for homemade espresso whipped cream. My mouth instantly started watering. I love a simple bundt cake...way easier than a regular cake, plus it has a fun shape to it. And this one, my friends, was a winner. Most importantly, hours later, my apartment still smells of delicious pumpkin and spice.

You start by combining 2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, and 2 tsps pumpkin pie spice in a medium mixing bowl.

In your mixer, combine a softened stick of butter (1/2 cup) and 1 cup sugar for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.

After adding in two eggs, you'll add in 1 cup of pure pumpkin puree.

Then add in half the flour mixture, 1 cup milk, and then the rest of the flour mixture, mixing until incorporated after each addition.

Once your batter is prepared, pour it into a greased bundt pan, and pop it in the oven at 350 for 50-55 minutes! Easy peasy!

The espresso whipped cream was the easiest thing to make too. You just combine 2 cups cold heavy whipping cream, 3 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons ice cold coffee (I used some Starbucks...it's not technically espresso, but it's what I have ha), and 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder.

Just mix with your whisk attachment on your mixer on high speed for 4-5 minutes (tip: start on a low speed and as it stiffens, increase the speed).

And then you slice yourself a piece and top it with some whipped cream and OH.EM.GEE.

Seriously amazing. It really does taste almost like a PSL (with a hint of cocoa from the whipped cream). The cake is dense, yet moist, the absolute perfect texture. I kind of wish I hadn't told one of my coworkers I was bringing it in to the office tomorrow morning because I would totally have kept it and eaten all of it myself all week!

Nutella Swirl Bundt Cake

For Christmas this year, one of the gifts my parents got me was a bundt pan! I've been wanting one for awhile, and saving up recipes for when I finally got one. I also did a little pinterest hunting for more recipes too so that I could get as much out of the pan as possible!

And with my lifelong love of Nutella, I stumbled across a Nutella Swirl Bundt Cake, and that sprang to the top of my baking list! Now mine was baked in a 10 cup bundt pan. The recipe I had was for a 6 cup one, so I did 1.5 of the recipe for 9 cups of batter. However, the one problem with this was that it didn't quite fill my pan the way it would have had it been the better amount of batter, but what can you do? So if you have a 6 cup or 12 cup, just do the math accordingly!

Start with 2 cups cake flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, and a pinch of salt.

In your electric mixer, beat 12 tablespoons softened butter with 1.5 cup sugar. You'll want to beat it for about three minutes under it's nice and fluffy.

Then after scraping down the bowl, add 1.5 tsp vanilla extract.

And three large eggs, one at a time, mixing for about 20 seconds between each addition.

You'll then add 3/4 cup milk and the flour into the batter. You'll want to alternate...starting with milk and ending with flour, and divide everything into thirds to make sure it's all well incorporated.

Now to create the Nutella swirl part of the cake!

You'll want to mix about 1/2 a cup of Nutella (I guestimated whether or not that was 1/2 a cup) with one egg to loosen up the nutella so it's easy to combine with some batter.

You'll then want to mix about 1/3 of your cake batter with the Nutella/egg mixture. I accidentally poured too much in with the Nutella, but oh well, that just means the Nutella section was bigger!

Then after spraying your pan with Baking Joy so it'll be easy to pop the cake out in the end, you'll layer a section of plain batter, then Nutella batter, and then the last of the plain batter.

And then take a knife and create the swirl!

You'll want to bake it at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes (until a knife stuck in the cake comes out clean) and cool it in the pan for 15 minutes before popping it out and letting it finish cooling on a rack!

I didn't get a good angle of it, but my cake puffed up kind of funny on the "bottom" part, so it looked a little like a UFO!

Mmmm just look at that swirl! I brought some to some of my friends, and then took the rest of the cake to work. I take the fact that it all pretty much disappeared by 10 in the morning as a good sign that it was delicious to people other than me!