A Festive Chocolate Cake

At this time of year you are often asked to bring a potluck dish or a dessert to a gathering, especially if people know that you are a good baker. Here is a good choice. Almost everyone likes chocolate!

This cake is a single layer or can be a loaf cake. It's a pound cake with a fairly tight crumb. The intensity of the chocolate flavor depends on the cocoa you use. This time I used Trader Joe's cocoa and it was delicious but mild. For a deeper chocolate flavor I've used King Arthur Flour's XX cocoa. I also went off recipe as usual and added just a touch of espresso powder (1/4 teaspoon added to the dry ingredients) to deepen the flavor profile.

This cake goes together fairly quickly. If you bake it in a decorative, flatter pan as I did, it's also fairly quick. I think it took 35 minutes to bake. In a loaf pan it takes longer, just over an hour. That's the recipe I'm giving below.

If you bake it in a loaf pan, drizzle the mint icing over the top and sprinkle the crushed peppermint candies over it. For the snowflake pan I put the icing into a ziploc bag and cut off the tip and piped it over the snowflake pattern, then added the candies to just those areas.

Hope you find some time to make this delightful cake!

XO, Elle

Chocolate Cream Pound Cake
Makes one 9x5 inch loaf cake(Recipe from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman)

Ingredients
6 tbsp unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
¼ cup heavy cream
1 cup plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup (1stick) unsalted butter, softened
1½ cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

MethodHeat the oven to 325F. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and dust with flour.

Sift the cocoa powder into a heatproof bowl. Place the cream in a microwavable bowl and heat for 30-60 seconds until just boiling. Pour the hot cream over the cocoa and stir and mash with a spoon to make a thick paste. Set aside to cool.

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary. Beat in the cocoa powder paste until smooth.

With the mixer on medium-low speed add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.

Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture, ½ cup at a time, scraping down the sides after each addition. Add the last addition, mix for 30 seconds on medium speed.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake until it is firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Invert it onto a wire rack and then turn it right side up on the rack to cool completely. Slice and serve, or decorate with icing and crushed peppermint candy canes:

Mint Icing
Heat 2 teaspoons milk in the microwave or over the stove for a few minutes until just hot. Add two drops mint extract.

In a small bowl sift 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Add the hot milk, a little at a time, mixing with a small whisk or a fork, until consistency desired. There may be milk that is not used; discard.

Drizzle icing over loaf cake with a fork or put into a sealable bag and cut tip and use to pipe a design. Immediately sprinkle with peppermint candy that you have crushed in a disposable bag using a rolling pin. 

Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Little Lemon Cake

Fortune smiled on one of my sisters many moons ago when she met and later married her Sweetie. He is a good man and they love each other dearly and he takes such good and gentle care of her. He looks kind of like a Roman emperor and gets better looking with age. He says that is because of going bald. We just returned from a visit to their beautiful home. It was a great visit, especially meeting their new cat Foxy. We enjoyed the cake and tea. Those beautiful plates and cups are part of a set from his mom. It's a breakfast set and includes egg cups, but makes a great tea set, too.

One of the things I like to do when I visit this family is to bring something baked to go with tea. My sister's Sweetie really appreciates these goodies and I like making something different each time to see if he enjoys it. I know that Natashya enjoys the treats, too, but I often don't know how to let her hubby know how much I appreciate him and how happy he makes her, so this is one way.

This time I brought a small lemon Bundt cake, flavored with Meyer lemons from my own bush. It had an intense yellow color from the farm eggs brilliant egg yolks. One of our neighbors gave me the eggs and they really do taste better than eggs from the store.

This is a simple to make cake that can be stirred together with a wooden spoon. It is a variation on one in the Great British Baking Show cookbook I received for Christmas. They baked theirs in a loaf pan and iced it with a confectioner's sugar icing. I baked mine in that small Bundt pan, used melted margarine instead of olive oil, and did a poke cake style topping, using zest and lemon juice and sugar and spooning it over the top of the skewered cake until it was absorbed. That kept the cake fairly moist and certainly elevated the lemon flavor.

This cake is somewhat moist with a looser crumb than a pound cake. The cake itself isn't too sweet, but with either icing or topping it is sweeter...you can choose to serve it without those if you prefer a less sweet cake. The recipe said that the flavor is better after 24 hours. We had it about 20 hours after it was made and it really was flavorful and delicious! Do try it yourself. I hope you have a kitchen scale for weighing the dry ingredients...I don't know the substitutions to make it cups. The glaze is my own, so I used cups there. Hope it isn't too confusing.

Lemon-Yogurt Small Bundt Cake
A variation of the Greek Lemon-Yoghurt Loaf Cake in
The Great British Bake Off - Great Cakes and Bakes to Make at Home 
Serves 8

150g All-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
50g ground almonds
200g granulated sugar
finely grated zest of one large lemon
3 eggs, room temperature
125 ml yogurt (I used Russian style, they call for Greek style)
125 ml non-dairy margarine or butter, melted & cooled (or use mild olive oil)

Lemon Glaze
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F after you have gathered and measured your ingredients and the butter or margarine has cooled.

Grease and flour a small Bundt cake pan. Set aside.

Put the flour, baking powder, salt and ground almonds into a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

Put the sugar and the lemon zest into a bowl and use clean fingers to rub the zest into the sugar. The mixture will resemble damp sand when you are done. Stir into the flour mixture. Make a well in the center.

Re-use the lemon-sugar bowl to whisk the eggs, then add the yogurt and mix, then the melted butter or margarine or olive oil and whisk to thoroughly combine.

Pour the wet ingredients into the well in the dry ingredients, then stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined.

Scrape the mixture with a spatula into the prepared pan and spread to even the top. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40 minutes, then check every 5 minutes until well risen and a deep golden brown; a skewer inserted into the widest part should come out clean.

Towards the end of the baking time make the lemon glaze so it's ready when the cake is done. In a small bowl mix the lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

Once the cake is ready, remove from the oven and set on a wire rack. Cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto the wire rack. Place a plate under the rack to catch any drips. Use a skewer to poke the cake all over, then use a teaspoon to slowly drizzle the glaze over the top of the cake into the skewer holes. Keep going around the cake and drizzling until the glaze is used up. Leave the cake until it is cool and the glaze has set.

To store, wrap well in foil or plastic wrap or store in an airtight container. Eat within 4 days. The flavor and aroma will be even more lemony a day or so after baking.

So Long For Now Cake Slice Bakers

I've really enjoyed baking with the Cake Slice Bakers each month for the past few years. Some of the recipes have become favorites, others have led to new skills or knowledge and it's always fun to see what the other bakers have baked.

The time seems to have come to take a break, both because I'm being supportive of Sweetie's new way of eating, and because I can stand to lose a few pounds myself. I'm sure that I'll still bake something delicious now and then, but not on a regular basis, and that regular basis is crucial for belonging to a baking group.

This month I baked one of the selections from The European Cake Book by Tatyana Nesteruk. The Marbled Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake takes advantage of the citrus season that is coming to a close and it was a delicious treat that I shared with others at a memorial service for a friend who had died. The combination of chocolate and orange is delicious. I did go off recipe a bit by rubbing the orange zest into the sugar before creaming the sugar with the butter, plus I substituted non-dairy butter and soy creamer for the butter and milk, changed how I put the batter into the pan, but otherwise I mostly followed the recipe. I did add some chocolate chips (not melted) to the chocolate batter for a little extra chocolate flavor. This recipe made a delicious, tender cake with lots of flavor, even without the glaze, which I skipped since it wouldn't keep for the memorial service. This is a lovely cake! Do try this for yourself.

Not sure how long I'll not be baking with the CSB group, but I want to commend Felice for her leadership and grace. She has picked some awesome recipes over time and has made every effort to have this be a delightful group to be a part of. Au revoir.

Marbled Chocolate Orange Bundt Cake

 From The European Cake Cookbook by Tatyana Nesteruk

Zest from 1 orange
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened (I used non-dairy margarine)

4 large eggs,

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon orange oil

1 cup milk (I used almond milk)
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup white chocolate chips, melted and cooled
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled

Preheat the oven to 335 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch Bundt pan with baking spray, or butter and flour the pan.

In a large mixing bowl, use your fingers to rub the orange zest and sugar together until sugar is moistened and looks like damp sand. Add the butter to the bowl and cream until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, thoroughly combining before adding the next egg. Scrape bowls and beaters as necessary.

Add the vanilla, orange oil, and milk, then mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the batter and mix just until they are combined.

Divide the batter in half; remove half to a separate bowl. Add the melted and cooled white chocolate to one of the bowls and stir to combine.

Add the melted and cooled dark chocolate to the other bowl of batter and stir until combined.

Spoon alternating scoops of dark and light batter into the prepared pan. once all the batter is in place, use a knife in a zig-zag pattern to swirl the batters together. Don't over swirl.

Bake in a preheated oven for 55 to 60 minutes. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the thickest part comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and cool in pan for 30 minutes. Invert onto serving plate and cool completely.

Glaze:

1/4 cup heavy cream or milk
1 cup confectioners' sugar
Zest from 1 orange

Whisk together the cream, confectioners' sugar, and orange zest. Adjust the amount of cream to make a thinner or thicker glaze. Pour over the cake. Let set for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Cider-Glazed Apple Bundt Cake for Fall with #theCakeSliceBakers

Can you tell that I love the fall of the year? In our area things like tomatoes and roses do really well in October, plus there are the fall fruits like figs and quince, persimmons  and, of course, apples.

I missed baking with the Cake Slice Bakers last month, but this month I was able to bake one of the recipes, Apple Bundt Cake. I used my Bundt pan that has four small cake molds so that I ended up with four very cute little cakes. The cider is easy to reduce in a wide skillet and only took about 20 minutes, so plan ahead to create your apple reduction in advance. It really adds to the apple flavor to have it in the batter, brushed over the warm cakes, and in the sweet drizzle that decorates the tops.

This is an easy cake to make because you don't even need a mixer...it is all mixed by hand. The dry ingredients go in one bowl, the wet ingredients, vanilla and brown sugar in another one. They get mixed together and then the apples are stirred in...it's as easy as that. The most time consuming part is peeling and shredding the apples and waiting for the cake to bake...if you bake one cake in a full sized Bundt pan it's over an hour of smelling wonderful fragrances of apple and brown sugar and butter.  If you like you can decorate the baked, drizzled cake with seasonal decors...I used a Harvest blend.

Worth the wait for the cake to bake, because the final cake is moist and delightful, almost like a pound cake with apples, but with a more open texture due to the technique used for mixing the batter and due to the shredded apples. Here is what a cut piece looks like (with no decorations or drizzle).

It just so happens that this recipe is available at the American Test Kitchen website, so you can try it and see why you should really buy the book. Every recipe I've tried has been perfect.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through.  This year it is The Perfect Cake from America's Test Kitchen #atkcake.  We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes, or visit our blog where the links are updated each month. If you are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

An InLinkz Link-up

Cake Slice Bakers Orange Cake with Cranberries

I love it when we get to the third week of the month and it's time for the Cake Slice Bakers.We usually have four recipes to choose from and it's fun to imagine baking one, then another, and often all four of them. Still, Sweetie continues to drop the pounds from his frame and has asked me to keep the baking down to just a few, so I do have to choose.

This month I chose the Blueberry-Nut Loaf Cake, but the blueberries at the market were going for $5 a basket, so I decided to substitute dried cranberries and to soak them for a while in the fresh orange juice to soften them up. I love the flavor combo of orange and cranberry, so why not?

This is a fairly light cake with a delicate crumb and I enjoyed it a lot. The pecans added both crunch and flavor and the cranberries and assertive orange flavor played well together.

I baked the batter in a combo Bundt pan so I got two smaller Bundt cakes in two different designs. We each had a piece after dinner while the cake was still a little warm. Delicious! There is a lot of orange zest in the batter, so large parts of the finished cake are a pretty orange color, which looks nice with the cranberries.

Because I didn't use fresh blueberries, my directions are different than the original recipe, but this is really an easy cake, so just follow along and you, too, can have a nice little cake to enjoy in the afternoon with tea or coffee or as a dessert later in the day.

Cranberry - Nut Bundt Cake

1 1/4 cup pecans
2 large, deep colored oranges
1 cup dried cranberries (Craisins)
grease and fine dry bread crumbs for pan
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (I used a butter substitute with no dairy)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg at room temperature

Coarsely chop the pecans. Set aside.

Grate the rind, zest only, from the oranges. Reserve the zest and cut the oranges in half, then juice them. Measure 3/4 cup orange juice. Place the dried cranberries in a narrow container ( a Pyrex measuring cup that holds two cups works well) and pour the orange juice over the dried cranberries. Let sit for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 10 1/2 x 4 x 3-inch loaf pan or a Bundt pan that has two smaller cake pans in it, or a small Bundt pan. Dust with fine dry breadcrumbs and knock out excess crumbs. Set pan aside.

Melt the butter and let cool.

Sift together the sugar, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg just to mix. Add the butter and mix. Drain the cranberries and add just the orange juice to the egg mixture and beat to mix. Set the cranberries aside.

On low speed add the sifted dry ingredients to the egg mixture and beat only to mix. Remove from the mixer and stir in the drained cranberries, the grated rinds and the nuts. If you use a spatula, you can make sure that all is well combined with just a few strokes.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan((s), smoothing the top and knocking the pan against the counter a couple of times to dislodge air bubbles. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester gently inserted into the middle comes out clean and dry. If the cake cracks on the top, it's OK.

Cool the cake on a rack for 10 minutes, then cover the cake with a rack and turn out onto the rack. If using a bread pan, turn cake right side up. If using a Bundt pan, keep it upside down. Move to a cake plate and let cool completely.

To serve, if desired, sift some powdered sugar lightly over the cake.

An InLinkz Link-up

Citrus For Cake Slice Bakers January Cake

It's always gratifying when you make a cake for someone for their birthday and they love it. I did that for the January Cake Slice Bakers challenge by making The Best Damn Lemon Cake in a small Bundt pan for a good friend who is 90+ this year...I won't tell you how many years plus, because a lady doesn't talk about that, right?

Here is what my friend wrote after she and her family had enjoyed the cake, "The lemon bundt cake was without a doubt the best dessert I've ever eaten. It really hit the spot. I think I liked it better than my favorite brownie. I did share it and they all agreed. So much so  - we need the recipe. I can see this as being a household must for all the time."

So there you have it...a cake good enough for a party, but a must for all the time...and it is pretty easy to make, too. The only wild card is that you must have a full ounce of lemon extract on hand...and lemons, of course.

Be sure to visit the other Cake Slice Bakers to see what great cakes they made this month. There were so many good choices that I made another one...which will get posted in a day or so.

An update on Sweetie...he went to the doc this morning and was told that he was healing well and was lucky to have escaped with nothing broken and no impacted disc on his back either. He is feeling much better and back to modeling. Right now he is working on the masts for a wooden ship...really awesome.

The Best Damn Lemon Cake

from Maida Heatter's Cakes

Cake

1/2 cup blanched almonds  (I used 1/2 cup almond flour from King Arthur Flour)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter (I used non-dairy margarine)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk (I used soy milk)

one 1-ounce bottle lemon extract

finely grated rind of 2 extra-large or 3 medium-sized lemons
(most of the juice will be used for the Glaze)

Glaze

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Note: The recipe calls for a 6-cup loaf pan to be used, but I used two small Bundt pans and the batter was about 1/2 cup short in each pan, so they were smaller cakes but still delightful.

Adjust a rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 3/4-inch loaf pan with a 6-cup capacity. Dust it all with fine, dry bread crumbs (I used almond flour put through a very fine strainer), invert over a piece of paper, and tap firmly to shake out excess. Set the pan aside.

The almonds must be ground very fine. It can be done in a food processor or a nut grinder, or use almond flour made from blanched almonds. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, almonds (Maida does not include the almonds here, but folds them in at the end. I also mixed the grated lemon peel into the dry mixture rather than fold it in at the end). Set aside.

In a small, heavy saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. (Can be done in the microwave, too.)

Transfer the melted butter to the large bowl of an electric mixer. Add the sugar and beat a bit to mix. On low speed, beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating only to mix well. (At this point I added the lemon extract and beat it in just to mix.) Then, still on low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients in three addition alternating with the milk in two additions, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating until mixed after each addition. Mix in the lemon extract (if not already added).

Remove from the mixer. Stir in the grated rind and then the ground almonds (if not already added).

The mixture will be a rather thin mixture. Turn it into the prepared pan(s).

Bake for 65 to 75 minutes, until a cake tester carefully inserted into the center of the cake, all the way to the bottom, comes out just barely clean and dry. If using a pan that is long and narrow, the cake will bake in less time than if it is short and wide. If using two small pans as I did, check after 30 minutes and every two to three minutes after that until cake tester test works. During baking, the cake will form a large crack or two on the top; this is fine and crack(s) will remain light in color.

Two or 3 minutes before the cake is done, prepare the glaze.

Stir the sugar and juice in a small, heavy saucepan over moderate heat only until the sugar is dissolved; do not boil the mixture.

When the cake is removed from the oven, let it stand for 2 - 3 minutes. Then, with a brush, brush the hot glaze very gradually over the hot cake(s). The glaze should not be applied quickly - it should take about 5 minutes to apply it all. (If putting on two small cakes, try to divide it evenly.)

Let stand until tepid, not quite completely cool. Then, gently invert the cake onto a rack. (If the cake sticks in the pan, cover it loosely with foil or wax paper, turn it upside down onto your right hand, tap the bottom of the pan with your left hand, and the cake will slide out.)Turn the cake right side up for loaf pan. Leave with fancy part up for small bundt cakes.

When the cake is completely cool, wrap it in plastic wrap or foil and let stand for 12 to 24 hours before serving. Or place it in the freezer for about 2 hours, or in the refrigerator for about 4 hours, before serving. This is wonderful with fresh raspberries served on the side.

This cake could probably be easily made into a gluten free cake, but I was making it for gifts, so used regular flour. If making with gluten free flour mix, use a long, narrow pan to bake it in and reduce the baking time a bit.

Chocolate Works With Irish

Well, chocolate works with almost anything, really. Still, this recipe is for a dense, moist, decadent chocolate cake made with liquor. Usually I make it with bourbon, but for our party last weekend I made it with Irish Whiskey and Scharfferberg semi-sweet chocolate and baked it in a beautiful star studded Bundt pan. It was so pretty that I left off the usual chocolate ganache topping and just sifted on some confectioners sugar...and it was still a hit.

Bookmark this cake if you want a cake that is easy, impressive, rich, goes together quickly, and...best of all...very, very chocolate. If you make it ahead you can douse it with whiskey and wrap it up in cheesecloth and plastic wrap and it will get even better. Because it is so rich I usually serve thin slices, so it serves quite a few people, too. Once the party was over we didn't want so much temptation sitting in the kitchen, so Sweetie took a nice big chunk of it over to Spoiled Rotten Farm, where it was much appreciated, too.

86-Proof Chocolate Cake
from Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts

Soft butter for the pan
dry bread crumbs (about 1/3 cup)
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
5 oz. unsweetened chocolate (I used semi-sweet and it was fine)
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup cold strong coffee
Cold water
½ cup Irish whiskey
½ lb. (2 sticks) sweet butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sugar
3 eggs (large or extra large)
Optional: confectioner’s sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F after putting oven rack 1/3 up from bottom. Butter a 10 cup capacity Bundt or other fancy tube pan. Dust the whole inside with fine, dry bread crumbs that have been mixed with a teaspoon of cocoa powder. Invert pan over a piece of paper and tap lightly to shake out excess crumbs. Set the pan aside.

Melt the chocolate in the top of a small double boiler over hot water on low heat (or microwave one minute at a time at half power, stir, continue until melted and smooth). When melted, set aside to cool slightly.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

In a 2-cup glass measuring cup place the cold strong coffee. Add cold water to the 1 ½ cup line. Add the Irish whiskey. Set aside.

Cream the butter in a large mixer bowl. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat to mix well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the chocolate and beat until smooth. Scrape bowl and beaters often.

Then, on low speed, alternately add the sifted dry ingredients in 3 additions with the liquids in 2 additions, add the liquids very gradually to avoid splashing. Continue to scrape bowl and beaters often. Inhale the wonderful fragrance of chocolate mixed with Irish whiskey!

Pour into the prepared pan. Level the top. Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or 15 minutes until a tester in the middle of the cake comes out clean and dry.

Cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. Then cover with a rack and invert. Remove the pan, sprinkle the cake with a bit of optional Irish whiskey if desired, and let cool.

Move to a serving plate. If desired, sprinkle the top with confectioners sugar through a fine strainer.

Cake is wonderful as is or can be served with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.