There is something to be said for making someone’s eyes roll to the back of their head as they bite into something you have lovingly crafted. The closed eyes and quickened breath revealing the joy they are experiencing so publicly.

It makes the hours spent in front of the hot stove in our record breaking heat wave worthwhile to witness that kind of ecstasy.

It’s birthday month again at my office. It’s been one full year since I started baking cakes for my colleagues, wanting to make their birthdays a little more special with a homemade treat made just for them. I work in a large office and had limited it the folks in my group. However, word is getting out and it’s hard to have enough cake for the people who want to partake. I may need to move this to once per month and make a couple of larger cakes to satisfy more people and include more birthdays. The downside is that it makes it a little less special to not have a cake made special for you, but the positive is that I won’t exclude anyone, either.

This cake was mainly for my colleague Steve. However another Steve shares his birthday and one of our student employees has a birthday this week, too. So this German Chocolate Cake hybrid is for the three of them.

I took Ina Garten’s lovely chocolate cake that has become my gold standard and Cooks Illustrated’s topping for German Chocolate Cakeand combined them in a decadent, succulent cake that pleased all, even coconut haters. The cake is delicate, so splitting the layers was a bit of a challenge. I experimented using a flexible cutting mat to slip the cut layer onto. This worked very well and I’ll use that again.

I was even able to shave off a small slice for Dave. Poor thing had to suffer me heating up the house, he deserves a little sugar.

I feel very fortunate that I’m not allergic to peanuts. I really love nuts of all types, although technically peanuts are legumes and not nuts. Who doesn’t love the combination of chocolate with peanut butter? After all, they’re “Two great tastes that taste great together.”

My best friend requested a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting for her birthday last month. I have already found a perfect recipe for chocolate cake and started searching for one for peanut butter frosting. I have found that I prefer ones without a lot of sugar. 1 cup of confectioner’s sugar seems to work well. I found an easy recipe that is quite tasty. It called for 2 cups of sugar, but I cut back as I don’t like things too sweet. This frosting goes very well with the Mocha Double-chocolate cake recipe.

I made cupcakes for a birthday at my husband’s office this week. I frosted half the cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and half with chocolate. I topped the peanut butter ones with shaved chocolate and the chocolate ones with chopped, toasted almonds.

Peanut Butter Frosting

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar (4 oz)

DIRECTIONS

Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes or until fluffy.

Update: June 4, 2007

This cake has proven to be very popular at my work. I have made it as birthday cake four times. I’ve also made it twice as cupcakes. Once I made a peanut-butter butter cream frosting for the center. That was very good. My husband has asked me to make it with all peanut butter frosting sometime. This last time, I chopped the almonds up a little to help them stay on when cutting. This worked very well.

I’ve had great success using Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder and semi-sweet chocolate. Trader Joe’s carries the semi-sweet chocolate in chunks that is quite a cost savings. I got the cocoa powder at Whole Foods.

Yesterday was our anniversary. We usually have Fridays off, but unfortunately Dave had to work that day. I decided to make him a nice dinner and wanted to have a sinful dessert to go with it. He loved the chocolate cupcakes I made a few weeks ago, but I didn’t want to have that many cupcakes in the house.

I’ve been intrigued by the chocolate cakes that ooze yummy goodness when you cut into them. They go by different names; lava cakes, fallen cakes, molten chocolate cakes, etc. The cake was originally created by master chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and is popular in restaurants. King Arthur Flour and Trader Joe’s had mixes to create this cake at home. I wanted to try making one from scratch for this special occasion. One nice thing about this recipe is that you can make it ahead of time and bake it when you are ready. This would be perfect for a dinner party.

I chose to use the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. It is similar to others I saw online, including the original recipe for Molten Chocolate Cake from Jean-Georges Vongerichten which is published on Food & Wine magazine’s web site.

Some type of electric mixer is must as you need to beat the eggs at a very fast speed until they triple in volume. This was a breeze with my KitchenAid stand mixer. It might be tedious with a hand mixer, but still doable. You then gently fold the egg mixture into the melted chocolate and butter. You have to work gently so that you don’t remove all the volume you created with the mixing.

I cut the recipe in half to make four individual cakes since it was just for the two of us. I baked two last night and will bake the other two tonight. I’m not sure how well the cakes will rise tonight after being refrigerated for more than 24 hours. The cakes last night rose well and were delicious. I served them with a small scoop of Double Rainbow vanilla ice cream. Dave loved them. It was a nice ending to a long day for him.

Individual Fallen Chocolate Cakes

Servings/Yield
8 servings
8 cakes

You can substitute 5 ounces of unsweetened baking chocolate for the semisweet if need be, but you’ll also have to increase the sugar by 6 tablespoons, for a total of 7/8 cup. To melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave oven, heat chocolate alone at 50% power for 2 minutes; stir chocolate, add butter, and continue heating at 50% for another 2 minutes, stopping to stir after 1 minute. If chocolate is not yet entirely melted, heat an additional 30 seconds at 50% power.

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), plus extra for ramekins
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 4 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon table salt
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for ramekins
• confectioners’ sugar or unsweetened cocoa powder for decoration, optional
• whipped cream for serving, optional

Method

1. Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously butter and flour (or use cocoa powder) eight 6-ounce ramekins or Pyrex custard/baking cups; tap out excess flour and position ramekins on shallow roasting pan, jelly roll pan, or baking sheet. Meanwhile, melt 8 tablespoons butter and chocolate in medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of almost simmering water, stirring once or twice, until smooth; remove from heat. (Or melt chocolate and butter in microwave oven. See instructions above.)

2. Beat eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt, and sugar at highest speed in bowl of a standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment until volume nearly triples, color is very light, and mixture drops from beaters in a smooth, thick stream, about 5 minutes. (Alternatively, beat for 10 minutes using a hand-held electric mixer and large mixing bowl.) Scrape egg mixture over melted chocolate and butter; sprinkle flour over egg mixture. Gently fold egg and flour into chocolate until mixture is uniformly colored. Ladle or pour batter into prepared ramekins. (Can be covered lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerated up to eight hours. Return to room temperature for 30 minutes before baking.)

3. Bake until cakes have puffed about 1/2-inch above rims of ramekins, have a thin crust on top, and jiggle slightly at center when ramekins are shaken very gently, 12 to 13 minutes. Run a paring knife around inside edges of ramekins to loosen cakes and invert onto serving plates; cool for 1 minute and lift off ramekins. Sieve light sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar or cocoa powder over cakes to decorate, if desired, and serve immediately with optional whipped cream.

After making the practice cupcakes, I decided to be adventurous and try a new recipe. While the devil’s food cupcakes were really good, I was not happy with the frosting. I was able to salvage the recipe by adding unsweetened chocolate and cocoa, but the consistency was a little off and by omitting half the sugar I wasn’t sure it would be enough for a two layer cake.

Instead I decided to try Ina Garten’s Double Chocolate Layer Cake from Food & Wine Magazine. I read about this fantastic cake on another Food Blog, Dine and Dish. I was intrigued by this cake because it did not call for the usual creamed butter, but used buttermilk and coffee. The frosting only had 1 cup of powdered sugar which was much better than the 3 - 4 cups in most recipes.

The cake batter was very thin, which concerned me a little before baking. One of the layers was a tiny bit lopsided so I trimmed a bit off. This also allowed me a sneak taste, it was divine. My husband thought it was fantastic and he’s not a big cake fan.

The frosting was luscious. I made sure to get the freshest organic butter I could find. The last time I made a butter-cream frosting, I made the mistake of buying whatever butter was on sale. The butter was not great and the taste came through in the frosting. I did add two tablespoons of dutch processed cocoa powder to the frosting in the final mix. It didn’t really need it, but I wanted an extra chocolate punch.

I really love the taste of almonds with chocolate. I toasted some almond slivers in the oven and added them to the side of the cake. I finished off the top with some chocolate shavings from a bar of Scharffen Berger Semi-sweet chocolate. This is the same chocolate I used in the frosting.

The birthday girl was out sick on Monday, so we are saving the cake for today. My hope is that it will still be moist and delicious after being refrigerated for almost 48 hours. I’ll update later today with more comments and hopefully more photos of the cut cake.

Update

Well, the birthday girl is still out but she wanted us to eat the cake and save her a piece. Boy, was that difficult. This cake is amazing, even after two days. I had a line of colleagues out the door begging for a piece. A few people commented that they are very picky about their baked goods and that this cake was divine. It’s not difficult to make and the results are spectacular. One person who hates chocolate (I know, hard to believe) ate the crumbs off the cake round. So, if you need to make a chocolate cake for an event, try this one. The almonds on the side worked very well. For future cakes, I might chop them a bit smaller. They fell off the cake during cutting.

Double-Chocolate Layer Cake

MAKES ONE 8-INCH LAYER CAKE

“This is the most fabulous chocolate cake that I’ve ever made,” says Ina Garten, host of Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa. “It’s so easy and so moist and light. There’s buttermilk and a cup of coffee in the batter! The frosting is just buttercream and a little coffee.”

Ingredients

CAKE

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

FROSTING

• 7 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I added 1 more ounce of chocolate.)
• 2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
• 1 tablespoon of dutch cocoa powder (My addition)

Directions

MAKE THE CAKE: Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans and line them with parchment paper; butter the paper. Dust the pans with flour, tapping out any excess.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, mix the flour with the sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt at low speed. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk with the oil, eggs and vanilla. Slowly beat the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients until just incorporated, then slowly beat in the hot coffee until fully incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then invert the cakes onto a rack to cool completely. Peel off the parchment paper.

MAKE THE FROSTING: In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the chocolate at high power in 30-second intervals, stirring, until most of the chocolate is melted. Stir until completely melted, then set aside to cool to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter at medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat for 1 minute, scraping down the side of the bowl. At low speed, slowly beat in the confectioners’ sugar, about 1 minute. In a small bowl, dissolve the instant coffee in 1 tablespoon of hot water. Add 1 tablespoon of dutch cocoa powder and stir. This will help the cocoa “bloom” and create a more rich chocolate flavor. Slowly beat the coffee and the cooled chocolate together and then add into the butter mixture until just combined.

Set a cake layer on a plate with the flat side facing up. Evenly spread one-third of the frosting over the cake to the edge. Top with the second cake layer, rounded side up. Spread the remaining frosting over the top and side of the cake. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before slicing.

MAKE AHEAD The frosted cake can be refrigerated for 2 days. Let stand for 1 hour before serving.

Update: April 9, 2007

I made this recipe a second time this past weekend as cupcakes. They were amazingly good and were a huge hit at my work and my husband’s work. The cake batter is really thin, so pour it into a liquid measuring cup to fill the cupcake tins about 3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a few cupcakes comes out clean. I made 28 cupcakes with this recipe. With the frosting, they are about 200 calories and 10 grams of fat. Not too bad for the delicious richness. I’d take this over a Krispy Kreme any day.

We have another birthday in my office next week. I asked the birthday girl to name her favorite type of cake and her answer was chocolate with chocolate frosting. I decided to take a practice run to make sure I had a good recipe. I hate making something for the first time for an audience.

I looked through my cookbooks and decided to try a Devil’s Food Cake from the King Arthur Flour “Baker’s Companion”. I cut the recipe in half and made cupcakes. It was a little difficult to cream the small amount of butter in my 6 quart KitchenAid mixer, but in the end it worked out well. Rumor has it that KitchenAid is coming out with a smaller bowl with a new attachment sometime in Spring. I’ll be on the lookout for that.

The cupcakes were very moist and delicious. They had the light, moist quality of a boxed cake mix but with all natural and mostly organic ingredients. I used organic all-purpose flour from King Arthur, organic natural cocoa powder from Trader Joe’s, organic milk and organic butter.

I tried to make the Chocolate Buttercream recipe from the King Arthur cookbook, but found that it was far too sweet for my taste and not nearly chocolatey enough. Luckily I tasted it before adding all of the sugar. I added some more unsweetened chocolate and that improved the taste considerably. I also added a tablespoon of unsweetened dutch process cocoa powder. That addition made a delicious frosting, full of dense chocolate flavor without being overly sweet. I’m not posting the recipe for the frosting yet as it was purely experimental.

Devil’s Food Cupcakes

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks, 6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups (12 1/4 ounces superfine or granulated sugar)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup (2 1/4 ounces) natural cocoa powder
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) milk, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350º F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, salt, baking soda, and vanilla until fluffy and light, at least 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and cocoa. If lumps remain, sift the mixture.

Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. Slowly blend 1/3 of the flour mixture into the creamed mixture, then 1/2 of the milk, another 1/3 of the flour, the remaining milk and lastly the remaining flour. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally throughout this process.

Line a muffin tin with paper liners. Fill cups 3/4 full and bake for 20 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean. Cool for ten minutes in the tins and then remove and cool completely on a wire rack. Spread with chocolate frosting of your choice.

Makes 24 - 26 cupcakes.
168 cal | 7g fat | 3g protein | 9g complex carbohydrates | 14g sugar | 1g dietary fiber

(Modified from Alton Brown’s Instant Pancakes)

These pancakes are so good that I’ve become very picky about the ones I have in restaurants. Restaurant pancakes just don’t live up to the possibility, often times they are tough and flavorless. This recipe is actually quite easy. I usually already have everything except the buttermilk. AB recommends making the “mix” (the dry ingredients) in bulk so that you only have to add the wet. I did this for a while, but our waistlines didn’t like eating pancakes that often. This recipe is modified to make the pancakes without the “mix”.

Pancakes

• 2 cups/10 oz/284 g of all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon/2g of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon/6g of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon/8g of table salt
• 2 teaspoons/10g of granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, separated
• 2 cups/488g of buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons of melted butter

Heat an electric griddle or frying pan to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and sugar. Whisk together the egg whites and the buttermilk in a small bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the butter and egg yolks. Add the yolks and butter to the egg whites and buttermilk, whisk until combined. Pour the liquid ingredients on top of the dry ingredients. Using a whisk, mix the batter gently to combine. Stop as soon as you don’t see any more flour. The lumps will cook away.

Check to see if the griddle is hot by placing a few drops of water on the griddle. The griddle is ready when the water dances across the surface. If it evaporates immediately, it’s too hot. Turn the griddle down and try again in a few minutes. Electric griddles work very well for this because you can set the temperature. I have a Cuisinart Griddler. A very nice appliance for under $100.

If your griddle is non-stick you may not need to butter it. If you are not sure, lightly butter the griddle and wipe off the extra with a paper towel.

Gently ladle the pancake batter on the griddle. I like to use a 1/4 cup disher or ice cream scoop. When bubbles begin to set around the edges of the pancake and the underside is a golden brown, gently flip pancakes. Continue to cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the pancake is set.

You can freeze the leftovers by placing them on a baking sheet and freezing individually. When they are frozen through, place them in a zip lock bag or use your FoodSaver.

Last September, I decided it would be nice to make birthday cakes for the people in my group. I work in a large department, but my group is only 8 people. It turned out that 3 of those people all have birthdays in September, so I was busy that month.

Bob’s favorite is German Chocolate. It turns out that it was Steve’s favorite too, but I didn’t have time to make one from scratch for him. Steve’s cake was a Duncan Hines mix. It was good, but not too chocolate-y. Bob was my first try at making one from scratch. I used the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated.

Differences Between the From Scratch Version and the Box Mix Version
I was quite pleased with the cake made from scratch. The cake had a deep chocolate taste, which the box mix was lacking. The pecan filling was sweet and nutty and did not have that artificial taste. There was also enough for all four layers. The tub of pecan frosting from the store was barely enough for two layers. I also had less doming with the from scratch version. The boxed cake domed terribly.

Doming Mishap (Box Cake)
I forgot that you had to even out the layers before icing. I iced it the night before and went to bed. The next morning I came down to find the cake in three pieces. I was ready to pitch it and go buy a cake when my husband suggested cutting it up before hand. It looked intentional that way and no one was the wiser.

Overall, it was worth the effort. I like the taste of box mix cakes, but I would rather know what was going into the cake using real whole foods and not a lot of chemicals. However, I’d still take a homemade cake made from a box over a grocery store cake any day.

German Chocolate Cake with Coconut-Pecan Filling

When you assemble the cake, the filling should be cool or cold (or room temperature, at the very warmest). To be time-efficient, first make the filling, then use the refrigeration time to prepare, bake, and cool the cakes. The toasted pecans are stirred into the filling just before assembly to keep them from becoming soft and soggy.

Serves 12 to 16

Filling
4 egg yolks
1 can evaporated milk (12 ounces)
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3/4 stick), cut into 6 pieces
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups sweetened shredded coconut (7 ounces)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans (6 1/2 ounces), toasted on baking sheet in 350-degree oven until fragrant and browned, about 8 minutes

Cake
4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate , chopped fine
1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa , sifted
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (10 ounces), plus additional for dusting cake pans
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar (about 4 3/4 ounces)
3/4 teaspoon table salt
4 large eggs , room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sour cream , room temperature

1. FOR THE FILLING: Whisk yolks in medium saucepan; gradually whisk in evaporated milk. Add sugars, butter, and salt and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until mixture is boiling, frothy, and slightly thickened, about 6 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl, whisk in vanilla, then stir in coconut. Cool until just warm, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until cool or cold, at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. (Pecans are stirred in just before cake assembly.)

2. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine chocolate and cocoa in small bowl; pour boiling water over and let stand to melt chocolate, about 2 minutes. Whisk until smooth; set aside until cooled to room temperature.

3. Meanwhile, spray two 9-inch-round by 2-inch-high straight-sided cake pans with nonstick cooking spray; line bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. Spray paper rounds, dust pans with flour, and knock out excess. Sift flour and baking soda into medium bowl or onto sheet of parchment or waxed paper.

4. In bowl of standing mixer, beat butter, sugars, and salt at medium-low speed until sugar is moistened, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until mixture is light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down bowl with rubber spatula halfway through. With mixer running at medium speed, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down bowl halfway through. Beat in vanilla; increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 45 seconds. With mixer running at low speed, add chocolate, then increase speed to medium and beat until combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down bowl once (batter may appear broken). With mixer running at low speed, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream (in 2 additions), beginning and ending with dry ingredients, and beating in each addition until barely combined. After final flour addition, beat on low until just combined, then stir batter by hand with rubber spatula, scraping bottom and sides of bowl, to ensure that batter is homogenous (batter will be thick). Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans; spread batter to edges of pans with rubber spatula and smooth surfaces.

5. Bake cakes until toothpick inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes, then invert cakes onto greased wire rack; peel off and discard paper rounds. Cool cakes to room temperature before filling, about 1 hour. (Cooled cakes can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 1 day.)

6. TO ASSEMBLE: Stir toasted pecans into chilled filling. Set one cake on serving platter or cardboard round cut slightly smaller than cake, and second cake on work surface (or leave on wire rack). With serrated knife held so that blade is parallel with work surface, use sawing motion to cut each cake into two even layers. Starting with first cake, carefully lift off top layer and set aside. Using icing spatula, distribute about 1 cup filling evenly on cake, spreading filling to very edge of cake and leveling surface. Carefully place upper cake layer on top of filling; repeat using remaining filling and cake layers. If necessary, dust crumbs off platter; serve or refrigerate cake, covered loosely with foil, up to 4 hours (if refrigerated longer than 2 hours, let cake stand at room temperature 15 to 20 minutes before serving).