Let Them Eat Cake

I'm pretty sure Julie Andrews had it all wrong.  Baby giggles, long naps, and a big ol slice of chocolate cake are a few of my favorite things.  Up until a few years ago I made all my cakes from a boxed mix.  I had yet to realize how easy and delicious homemade cake was, and there is the added bonus of knowing exactly what goes into it.  I always made my own vanilla buttercream but I had yet to find a good recipe for chocolate frosting.  I cant take credit for these recipes.  I found the cake on Hershey's website and the frosting came from my favorite America's Test Kitchen Baking Book.  Let me just say, I adore America's Test Kitchen.  Although some of their recipes require a little extra work and a few more dished, it's totally worth it.  I love knowing that every recipe they publish is tested again and again until it is perfect.

Not only is this chocolate cake the most amazing cake you will ever eat, but it is super easy.  This is the only recipe I have ever memorized because I make it all the time.  Start by whisking together all of your dry ingredients.

Once that is done all all the wet ingredients except for the water.  I happened to have chocolate milk at home so I used that to add even more flavor but regular milk is just fine.  Let me just take a minute here to talk to you about vanilla.  If you are going to splurge on one item in your pantry, splurge on vanilla.  Good vanilla makes all the difference in baking.  I bake a lot so I buy this big ol jug of vanilla bean paste.  You use the paste the same as you would use extract but I just love seeing the little flecks of vanilla beans in your finished product.

This is the kind I buy.  It's about $35ish for this bottle.  I've had this since September and it's over half full and like I said, I bake a lot.

Whisk in the wet ingredients until it's combined.  While this is happening, I microwave the water for 2 minutes.

At this point you should have a batter that is a little bit thicker than a normal cake batter.  Add in the water, it just should be hot, it doesn't actually have to be boiling.

Whisk until the water is incorporated.  At this point you may think you did something wrong because the batter will be very thin and runny.  I promise this is how it is supposed to be.

Pour the batter into two greased 9" round cake pans or one greased 9x13" cake pan and bake at 350 for 30ish minutes.  It's done when the middle is set and bounces back when you push your finger lightly into it.

Let the cakes cool completely before trying to remove from the pan or decorate them.  While the cakes were baking, I made my frosting.

This frosting beats the crap out of anything you can buy in a can and by making it from scratch you know everything in it.  Making this frosting is totally worth the effort.  It's actually really easy, the hardest part is waiting for it to chill before using it.  The recipe calls for using a food processor but I'm sure it would work in a mixer if you dont have a food procesor.  You just want to be sure that your cream is very hot and your butter is very soft so it all melts together.  

Start with your chocolate.  I used a mix of milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate but you can use whatever type you like.  This time I used baking chocolate so I processed it a little first to break up the big chunks but you can use chocolate chips and skip this step too.

Put the cream, corn syrup, and salt in a bowl or measuring cup and microwave for 2-3 minutes.  Pour the cream over the chocolate and all the vanilla.  Process until it's smooth then add the powdered sugar.

Process this again until its smooth.  Add the softened butter about a tablespoon at a time through the feed tube while the food processor is running.

Keep doing this until all the butter has been added and the frosting is smooth.

Just look at that beautiful chocolately deliciousness.  Now comes the hard part where you have to avoid eating it all.  At this point the frosting is too warm and thin to possible decorate a cake with so it needs to be refrigerated for at least an hour.  I left mine in the fridge overnight.  Then I let it sit out for about an hour this morning and then whipped the crap out of it (yes that is a technical term) in my mixer so it was light and fluffy but you can skip the mixing step if you want, just let it sit until it's soft enough to spread.

Decorating a cake can be very intimidating but it's really isn't that hard.  The good thing about this cake is that it tastes so amazing that no one will ever notice any imperfections.

The first step to cake decorating is to even out the layers.  If you skip this step, you will end up with a lopsided cake or a cake that looks sunken in in the middle.  This step also gives you a chance to eat all those yummy trimings to make sure your cake is delicious before sharing it with others.  You can also store all those cake scraps in a ziploc bag in the freezer and use them for cake pops later.

Using a serrated knife, cut into the cake no more than an inch or two all the way around the outer edge.  A turntable makes this job easy but it's not necessary.  Make sure that you keep your knife level to get a flat top.  Once you make a small cut all the way around, you can slowly push the knife through to cut all the way across the top.

You will end up with nice even layers like this.  If you want a taller cake you can even cut each layer in half.  Once you have it cut, place the cake upside down on your cake plate.  You want to use the bottom side because if you frost the cut side you will get lots of crumbs in the frosting and the bottom side is also perfectly flat.

I decided to use a raspberry jam to fill this cake but you can let your imagination go wild here.  You can you use just frosting, any flavor of jam or jelly, frosting and crushed up cookie crumbs, or any other yummy sweet of your choice.  If you are using a jam, make a dam around the edge like I did here with the frosting so it doesn't ooze out the sides when you stack the layers.

Place the top layer of cake right side up (I made 1.5 times the recipe so that's why I have 3 layers of cake).

Put a lot of frosting on top of the cake.  Like an obscene amount of frosting because you will be pulling from the top to cover the sides.  If you want to be really perfect you can cover the whole cake with a really thin layer of frosting first to seal in all the crumbs and then go over it with a thicker layer later.  I didn't care about perfect today so I just did one coat.  

Use a flat or offset spatula to pull the frosting from the top down the sides and spread back and forth until the sides are covered.  Then smooth out the top the the spatula. and voila, you have the most perfectly delicious amazing chocolately cake you could ever imagine.  If your cake isn't perfect you can easily hide any imperfections with sprinkles, chocolate curls, candy, or any other yummy thing you can think of.

Store this cake in the fridge because the frosting can get too soft if let out a room temp for too long.  I usually leave it out for about 30 minutes to an hour before serving it.

Perfect Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350.  Whisk together the dry ingredients until incorporated.  Add all remaining ingredients except the water and whisk until combined.  Add the boiling water and stir until batter is smooth.  Pour the batter into two greased 9" cake pans or one greased 9x13" cake pan.  Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Chocolate Frosting

10 oz chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup corn syrup

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/3 cup powdered sugar

2 1/4 sticks butter (very softened)

In the bowl of a food processor, process the chocolate until its broken down to small pieces.  Heat the cream, corn syrup, and salt in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.  Pour the cream mixture and vanilla over the chocolate and process until smooth.  Add the sugar and process until combined.  With the food processor running, add the butter a tablespoon at a time until all the butter is incorporated and the frosting is smooth.  Transfer the frosting to a bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour until it is thick enough to frost the cake with.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

It's been almost 2 years since I've logged in and written a new blog post.  I guess you could say I've been a little busy over the last 2 years.  Since then I finished culinary school (almost), spent weeks of my pregnancy on bed rest with no access to a kitchen, gave birth to the most amazing twins, Henry and Hope, and moved into a new house.  I now have to time my cooking around naps and what I can get done while trying to keep two toddlers from climbing onto the table and trying to reach in the oven.  I decided it was finally time to dust off the old blog and start posting a few recipes again.

I set out to make meatball subs yesterday with fresh homemade bread, fire roasted tomato sauce, and delicious cheesy meatballs.  And as often happens in the kitchen, disaster struck.  My bread that I spent all day making turned out hard as a rock.  Since my love affair with carbs is equally split between bread and pasta, I rolled with the punches and made some pasta to accompany my meatballs and sauce.

I started my day making sauce.  I refuse to buy pre-made sauce anymore because its so easy to make it from scratch and this way I know exactly what is in it.

I just have to say that I absolutely love cooking on a gas stove.  When we first moved into this house there was an electric stove and I hated it.  I was never so happy as the night when our entire from scratch dinner was ruined because that oven wasn't working right and we got to go shopping for a new gas stove.  Now that I am cooking with gas again I can do this first step of roasting my red pepper.

If you don't have a gas stove you can roast your pepper in the oven.  Once your pepper is good and charred, put it in a bowl and cover with plastic so it can steam and is easier to peel all the black off later on.

While the pepper is steaming I started on the roasted tomatoes and onions.  Preheat your oven to 375 and slice your tomatoes in half and your onion into about 1/4" slices.  The size doesn't really matter because it's all going to get blended up later.  Put all your veggies on a sheet pan and sprinkle with olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper.  I didn't measure here, just use enough to coat them lightly.

Bake the tomatoes and onions for 25-30 minutes, until the onions are soft.  While they are baking, peel all the black skin off of the red pepper, remove the stem and seeds and roughly chop.

Look at that roasted deliciousness!  You could always just cook all your veggies in the pot, but there is so much more flavor when they are roasted first.  

Now it's time to get out your favorite pot, and assemble the rest of the ingredients for your sauce.

Throw all your veggies (make sure you get all the juices from the pan), tomato products, spices, and vinegar in the pot.  I like my sauce tangy so I use quite a bit of balsamic vinegar but you can totally cut back or omit the vinegar if you want.

Mix it all up and let it simmer over low heat for about an hour.  Then it's time to bring out one of my favorite kitchen tools, the immersion blender.  If you don't have one I highly suggest it.  You can get one for about $30 and they can be used for all kinds of stuff.  I have a Cuisinart one that came with a little food processor type bowl attachment and I use it often for little kitchen projects.  

Blend up all that yummy roasted goodness until its nice and smooth.  You can use a regular blender, just be careful blending a hot sauce.  Now the most important thing to do when cooking is to taste your food.  So be sure to taste your sauce and adjust the seasoning until it's perfect to you.

When I go through the trouble of making sauce I always make a big batch.  I had enough for dinner and to fill two bags to freeze for later meals.  If you are like me, freezer space is hard to come by so make sure you freeze your bags flat so you can easily stack them.  I took advantage of the sub-zero Midwest temperatures and throw them outside my door so they can freeze flat on the front step and then squeeze them into the freezer.

Once the sauce was complete I started in on the meatballs.  In a large bowl combine the beef, pork, grated onion, garlic, balsamic, parm, and spices.

The only way to really mix up meatballs is with your hands so get in there, get messy, and mix it all up until all the ingredients are equally distributed.  Once it's well mixed, start forming the meatballs. This is where I use another of my favorite kitchen tools, portion scoops.  I love for things to be even and symmetrical so whenever I need to portion things out like cookies, cupcakes, and meatballs, I use my Pampered Chef scoops.  If you don't have any of these scoops I highly suggest getting a few.  They are pretty inexpensive and can be used for all kinds of kitchen tasks.  I try not to invest in a tool unless I can use it for multiple things.  

Scoop them all out and then roll them lightly to make sure they won't fall apart when you are cooking them.  If the meat sticks to your hands when you are rolling them, just get your hands wet and it won't stick anymore.

Once your meatballs are made you can start frying them (you can bake them too but I had the rock hard bread disaster in my oven at the time).  Lightly coat the bottom of your biggest frying pan with olive oil and make sure it's hot.  You want your meatballs to sear and get that lovely brown crust on the outside.

Be sure you don't overcrowd your pan or they will never sear and you'll end up with that nasty grey looking meat.  I had a 12" skillet and had to cook my meatballs in two batches.  Cook them for a couple minutes per side.  You want them nice and brown on the outside but they don't need to be cooked all the way through at this point.  Remove the meatballs from the pan and discard all the oil from the bottom of the pan.  Reduce your heat to low and add all the meatballs and cover with about 2-3 cups of the sauce.

Let this deliciousness simmer away for 20-30 minutes until the meatballs are cooked through.  At this point you can serve them up on a sub bun and top with cheese or over your favorite pasta.  I cooked up some corkscrew pasta because the kiddos like it and any pasta with a texture on the outside will hold the sauce better.

Of course I topped mine with some shaved parmesan, because what good is pasta without cheese on top.

Although it wasn't how I intended my dinner to turn out, it was delicious.  Sometimes kitchen disasters happen.  Sometimes recipes don't work.  As long as you can roll with the punches in the kitchen everything will turn out just fine in the end.

Fire Roasted Tomato Sauce
1 red pepper
3 cups cherry tomatoes (any type of tomato would work, this is just what I had on hand)
1 red onion
6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato sauce
1 large can crushed or diced tomatoes
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp italian herbs
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 375.  Roast, peel, and coarsely chop the red pepper.  Slice the tomatoes in half and the onion into about 1/4" slices.  Place on a sheet pan and lightly coat with olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper.  Toss the veggies so they are evenly coated and bake 25-30 minutes until the onions are softened.

Place all the ingredients in a large pot and stir to combine.  Simmer over low heat for at least one hour, stirring occasionally.  Using an immersion blender, blend the sauce until smooth.  Taste and adjust the seasonings accordingly.  Reserve 2-3 cups and freeze the rest for future use.

Cheesy Meatballs
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp italian herbs
1/3 cup parmesan
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Use a small grater or microplane to grate the onion, garlic, and parm into a large bowl.  Add all the remaining ingredients and mix until well combined.  Shape into golf ball sized balls.  At this point you can cook to use now or freeze to use later.  Lightly coat a large skillet with olive oil and fry the meatballs over medium high to high heat, about two minutes per side to get a nice brown crust on the outside.  If you are making all the meatballs, you will need to fry in at least 2 batches so you don't overcrowd the pan.  Once they are all seared, drain the oil from the pan and return all the meatballs to the pan.  Cover with sauce and simmer 20-30 minutes until they are cooked through.