A Gilt Nutmeg

In trying to pick this week’s PPQ recipe, I chose these little cake loaves thinking they might be nice for Mother’s Day Brunches.  What I didn’t realize was that I might come across one of my new favorite recipes from The Pastry Queen.  These little loaves are super moist yet they have a great crunchy-chewy crust and the nutty spicy apple flavor is just phenomenal.  The cakes are not too sweet and perfect for any time of the day…which is bad news for me because it means I’ll be eating them morning, noon and night if I can.  You can bake it as one big cake instead, but mini loaf pans are super cheap at Sur la Table and I think they’re totally worth the few dollars investment (especially around the holidays).

I only made two changes to Rebecca’s original recipe: first, since I had limited time and only 2 loaf pans, I made a half recipe.  The Boyfriend loves spice more than anything so I dutifully used the original cinnamon and nutmeg measurements instead of halving them and they turned out so well that I will absolutely be doubling the amount when I make a full sized batch next time.  I almost worry about the lack of spicy flavor there could have been if I had followed the original recipe.  Second, I didn’t feel like hunting down a bottle of Calvados (an apple brandy), so instead of the 1 Tablespoon of Calvados, I subbed 1 Tablespoon of apple juice and 1 Tablespoon of normal brandy and just let it boil off a little longer.  I think the result was just as good as the original.

Really, I can’t say enough about how much I love this recipe.  It strikes exactly the right chord of sweetness, crunch, nuttiness, and soft moist cake texture.  Since we finished the two mini loaves I made today for Mother’s Day within minutes, I am absolutely coming home from the office tomorrow and using up the rest of my apples on another batch.

Be sure to check out the other Project Pastry Queen-ers versions here!

Mini Apple-Cinnamon Loaves with Apple-Brandy Glaze
Adapted from The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather
Makes 5 Mini Loaves

Loaves:

• 1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 large apples, peeled, cored and diced (I used Granny Smith apples)
• 1 cup pecans

Glaze:

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp light corn syrup
• 1 Tbsp apple juice
• 1 Tbsp brandy

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 5 miniature loaf pans (sized approximately 6″ x 4″ x 2″) and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla until thoroughly combined.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt.
4. Add the flour mixture to the oil mixture until fully incorporated.
5. Rebecca helpfully pointed out that the batter will be very stiff at this point, not very liquid, so it will be a little difficult to mix in the apples and pecans, but it works.  I didn’t want to use my stand mixer in case it broke up the apples into mush, so I pulled the bowl off the mixer and stirred the apples and pecans in by hand with a wooden spoon.  Mix in until they’re evenly distributed.
6. Press the batter into the loaf pans so that the pans are about 3/4 full and smooth the tops out with the back of the spoon.
7. Bake for 55-60 minutes; an inserted toothpick should come out clean and they should be a light golden brown on top.
8. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then take the loaves out of the pan and let them finish cooling on a wire rack.
9. While the cakes are cooling, melt the butter in a small saucepan whisk in the brown sugar, corn syrup, apple juice and brandy.  Let it simmer for 5 minutes so it can thicken and then spoon a couple of spoonfuls of the glaze over each loaf.
10. Let the cakes fully cool and the glaze dry for at least an hour before wrapping them–if they even last that long!  Enjoy!

Lots of people tell me that baking is hard for them, but I’m always right there assuring them it’s not as hard as it seems.  With baking being so daunting, many people are only willing to attempt the back of a cake mix box; “Add”, “Stir”, “Bake”.  This recipe has just a few extra steps beyond that and it looks beautiful, but guess what?  It’s the first recipe a child in France is given to try.  If they can do it, you certainly can too, right?

The cake itself is very close to a pound cake–a close cousin, if you will–yet with a distinctly lighter texture and a very bright tangy lemon and yogurt flavor.  It’s perfect for spring and the various brunches that are always popping up around this time.  Make it for friends, or, if yours is a family that enjoys baking regularly, give it to your child to try making on their own.  It’s the French way, after all!

**Edit: I made this cake Thursday night and just got home today, Friday, from work to find nothing but CRUMBS.  Between me, The Roommate and The Boyfriend, this cake was clearly a huge winner–lasting less than 24 hours has to be a sign!

French Yogurt Cake
Adapted from Bon Appetit, May 2012

When I asked my friend Anna what cake she wanted for her birthday last week, I didn’t know what to expect.  I think, at least, I had expected a request that I had experience in making, so when she immediately asked for a Tres Leches Cake, I knew two things: a) I had never made a Tres Leches Cake and b) you can’t let the Birthday Girl down on her birthday.  So off I went in the name of research.  A coworker mentioned she didn’t like Tres Leches Cake because it was too mushy; I made a mental note to make sure my cake was creamy, but not cake mush.  Anna had also requested fresh fruit on top, so I tried to do some research into what fruit is traditionally used.  The Pioneer Woman said maraschino cherry, but Anna (and Martha Stewart) said any sort of fresh fruit is the way to go, so I found fruit that would not only taste good together but also look nice with lots of vibrant colors–it was her birthday, after all, and she deserved a beautiful cake.

Wouldn’t you know, despite it being my first time making it, everyone loved it!  I’m so pleased that my first Tres Leches was a success and now I’m looking forward to trying other recipes for Tres Leches, just to see how they vary.  This one, courtesy of Martha Stewart, was an eggy sponge cake.  The milks it was soaked in added a creaminess that lingered on your tongue but that didn’t disintegrate the cake (so that you were definitely eating cake and not mush) and the whipped cream and fruit on top gave the cake a deceptively light, fresh feel.  One of the keys here was fresh, ripe pineapple, a flavor that went very well with the cake and had a beautiful golden yellow color.  I think a dash of cinnamon would be fun to add next time–Churro flavored Tres Leches Cake, anyone?

Tres Leches Cake
Recipe Adapted from Martha Stewart

In my house, carrot cake and I have a very notorious love/hate relationship and it’s exactly this love/hate relationship that made me choose this recipe for Project Pastry Queen this week.  Love because while I certainly enjoy carrot cake’s spicy, moistness, The Boyfriend LOVES carrot cake and things are always more fun to make when you know the person receiving it is going to love it.  Hate because I have never found a carrot cake that works out according to the recipe.  Long story short: no matter what carrot cake recipe I try (even Cooks Illustrated’s recipe!), the bake time for me is always almost double what the instructions call for.  Pastry Queen’s recipe is no different.  (I might add that this phenomenon only happens to me with carrot cake–my oven bakes everything else exactly according to the instructions!)  I let the carrot cake bake longer than the suggested time, took it out to cool when I thought it was done and cut into it, found it was still cake batter in the middle, and had to put it back in the oven.  I thought I had ruined the cake and went to bed very angry that night, but woke up the next morning, tasted the cake, and to my delight (maybe just relief) realized that it turned out just fine.

That all said, this is one outstanding cake.  Truly it is!  Instead of just a spice cake with flecks of orange in it, this is a cake packed with ingredients–pineapple, coconut flakes and macadamia nuts make this one incredible cake with a very tropical flair.  There’s even cream of coconut in the frosting.  Despite baking for so long, the cake didn’t dry out at all.  And to amp it up just a little more, I added some toasted shaved coconut to the top of the cake as well.  I think that, now that I’ve figured out to just leave the cake in the oven for as long as humanely possible, I’ve finally found a carrot cake recipe that I can stand behind!  Check out the other PPQer’s takes on the recipe here.

Notes: The cake above is a half recipe, baked in two 6″ cake pans, but was frosted with a full recipe of frosting.  If you make a full recipe of cake (which, in true Pastry Queen style, makes a BIG cake), I suggest doubling your frosting recipe.  I found the shaved coconut at my local co-op: they were selling a small package of it on the shelf next to the other coconut products for $3.95, but I found shaved coconut in their bulk aisle and filled a giant bag, twice as much as I needed, for 60 cents.  I’ve learned my lesson in creative shopping and deal hunting!

Tropical Carrot Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather

Carrot Cake

• 1 cup macadamia nuts
• 3 cups flour
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon (I doubled this in my recipe)
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I doubled this in my recipe)
• 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups canola oil
• 1 1/2 cups shredded carrots (Pre-shredded carrots from Trader Joes are a time saver!)
• 1 1/2 cups canned pineapple pieces (I roughly chopped them into smaller bits)
• 1/2 cup sweetened cream of coconut, such as Coco Lopez (found in the alcohol section as a drink mix-in at my grocery store)

Coconut-Cream Cheese Frosting

• 3 packages (8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup sweetened cream of coconut, such as Coco Lopez
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spread the macadamia nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven for 7 to 9 minutes.  Leave the oven on.
2. Evenly space your oven racks so that one is 1/3 from the bottom of the oven and the other is 1/3 up from that.
3. Line three 9″ cake pans with circles of parchment paper  and spray with non-stick baking spray.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, coconut and macadamia nuts.
5. In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, oil, carrots, pineapple and cream of coconut.
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until thoroughly combined.
7. Evenly divide the batter amongst the three cake prepared cake pans and arrange the pans in the oven so that two pans are on one rack, the third is on the other rack, and that none of the pans are directly above or below the others.
8. Bake for 30-35 minutes (or, in my case, closer to an hour–put some tin foil over the top if it starts to darken too much, but before taking it out, make sure that the center is fully set and that a cake tester comes out clean and not sticky whatsoever.)
9. Cool the cakes on a wire rack for 5 minutes still in their pans, then invert them and cool completely before frosting them.
10. Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar together in a large bowl until combined and creamy.  Add the whipping cream, cream of coconut, and salt and beat until combined and smooth.
11. Frost the cakes according to your desire– the cake layers did sink just a little bit so I added a bit of extra frosting to make them sit evenly on each other.
12. To make the toasted shaved coconut, set your oven on broil, spread 1-2 cups of the coconut in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast for 2 minutes, stir the coconut so that it is redistributed for even browning, and toast for another 2 minutes until golden brown.  Let cool before sprinkling it over the top of the cake.  Enjoy!

Rebecca notes: “The cake can be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated up to 4 days.  Let it cool in the refrigerator about 1 hour before covering to ensure the frosting has hardened and will not stick to the plastic wrap”.  I can add that I hate hate hate cake in the fridge because it dries out and doesn’t taste as good, but this cake is so moist and flavorful that it was great straight from the fridge even.  If serving a whole cake to friends, though, I’d let it warm up 30 minutes or so before serving.

Happy Day Before St. Patrick’s Day!  Continuing with our love for the various gifts of food and drink Ireland has shared with us over time, I give you Chocolate-Baileys Cheesecake.  Having made it, I’m pretty sure that this will not just be a St. Patrick’s Day tradition, but a year-round tradition because it’s just that good.  The chocolate and Irish Cream meld together perfectly for a dessert that will keep you sneaking forkfuls from the fridge when you think no one is looking (but since my roommate is out of town this weekend, the only one around to judge me sneaking to the fridge are the kitchen cabinets and, frankly, I don’t care what they think).

And just when you think the combination of Baileys and chocolate couldn’t get any better, there’s a touch of cinnamon thrown into the crust which just sends this dessert over the top.  The original recipe calls for chocolate wafer cookies and everyone in the comments on BHG insists that they’re easy to find, but I didn’t find a single plain chocolate cookie in my store but one: Teddy Grahams.  And I love Teddy Grahams, so I was happy to use them.  I used the 1 1/2 cups of crumbs the recipe called for, but I didn’t get the tall perfect crust like BHG does, so I suggest using the whole box of Teddy Grahams.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!

Chocolate-Baileys Cheesecake
Adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

• 1 box of chocolate Teddy Grahams, ground to fine crumbs
• 7 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 3 packages (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1 container (8 oz) sour cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 oz semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup Baileys Irish cream liqueur
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Heat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Combine the cookie crumbs, melted butter and cinnamon in a small bowl until thoroughly combined, then press the crumbs into the bottom and up the sides of a 9″ springform pan.
3. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and chocolate together on medium speed until smooth.
4. Add the eggs and beat on low-medium until just combined.
5. Add the Baileys, cream and vanilla and stir in with a wooden spoon (I suspect this is because using an electric mixer here would splatter EVERYWHERE)
6. Pour the filling into the springform pan and bake for 50-60 minutes until the center is just set.  It’s hard to describe exactly what that looks like, but I guess the only way to say it is that even though the top was baked, it jiggled around when I shook it as if the top were sitting on something slidey.
7. Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes, then slide a thin sharp knife around the edge to separate the crust.  Let it cool for another hour and then stick it in the fridge for at least 6 hours.  I made mine the night before so it was ready for the next day.  Enjoy!

If you don’t like rum, then this is not the recipe for you: this is a VERY rummy pound cake.  I’m not sure why exactly my cake turned out so very dark–I baked it to the time Rebecca suggested and it didn’t seem overbaked on top, so I was quite surprised to see it pop out of the mold this color.  The cake sure tasted fine and was certainly the right buttery color on the inside, so I’m not too worried.

Overall, I’m not the biggest fan of rum, but if you want an adult cake for an adult gathering, this is certainly a recipe you should give a try.

Shawnda picked this recipe and you can see how the other PPQ’ers liked the recipe here.

Totally Rummy Pound Cake
from The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather

For the cake:

• 1 1/2 cup pecans
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup dark rum

For the glaze:

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup dark rum

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 10-12 cup bundt pan.
2. Spread the pecans out on a baking sheet and bake them for 5-7 minutes.
3. Take 1/4 of the pecans and coarsely grind them in a food processor.  Keeping the rest of the pecans separate, roughly chop them and put them aside.  Use the 1/4 cup of coarsely ground pecans to dust the inside of the greased pan.  Shake the pan around so that it’s evenly coated in pecans.
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter for 1 minute.  Add the sugar and beat for 2 additional minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl down with a spatula.
5. Add the eggs and beat for 2 minutes.  The batter should be light yellow and well incorporated at this point.
6. In a separate medium bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking powder and mix together.
7. Add approximately one third of the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture and beat on low until the flour is fully incorporated.  Add half the sour cream and mix.  Repeat with the next third of the flour, the rest of the sour cream, then the rest of the flour mixture.
8. Finally, add the vanilla and rum, beating until thoroughly incorporated, then gently mix in the chopped pecans that were set aside.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake about 1 hour 20 minutes (although I wonder if that time is too much–keep checking yours and pull out as soon as the top seems done and slightly springs back when pressed).
10. Let the cake cool 15 minutes then invert it onto a wire cooling rack and let it cool for an hour before serving.  In the meantime, make the glaze.
11. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add the water, sugar, lemon juice and rum.  Bring it to a boil for one minute before taking it off the heat.
12. Poke the cake repeatedly all over with a toothpick or wooden skewer and then pour the glaze all over the cake.  The instructions say to pour all of the glaze over the cake, but there’s so much of it, that I poured only about 2/3 of it before I decided that it was just too much glaze.  You can use your best judgement over how much glaze you want to use.
13. Rebecca suggests that the pound cake flavors will mellow overnight, so  try baking it a day or two before you plan to serve it.  Enjoy–but try not to get drunk off two slices!

Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone!  Though I am not currently in New Orleans sipping on a hurricane, that doesn’t mean I’m not partaking in the traditional gluttony of the day, namely in the baked form known as King Cake.

I’ve always been hesitant to try making King Cake because it’s a brioche dough and goodness knows I have issues with yeast doughs.  It’s not the yeast that’s the problem, it’s “the dough is really sticky, do I add more flour?  Did I add too much flour and now it’s too dense and heavy?  Will the dough ever come out from under my fingernails?”  I was shocked at how easy this came together.  It’s a great beginners recipe for yeasty recipes!

While researching for this post, I read a lot of recipes over the last few days and found some great ones.  This is a pretty simple straightforward one, a sweet delicious brioche dough and a cinnamon cream cheese filling.  It’s so satisfying (especially with coffee) that I really wouldn’t mind if I used only this recipe for the rest of my life, but I can’t wait to make it again soon with additions to the dough like nutmeg and lemon zest.

Tradition states you hide a tiny plastic baby in the cake; the person who finds it gets good luck for the entire year but also has to bring the King Cake to next year’s party.  I didn’t have a tiny plastic baby on hand on such short notice.  If I had my wits about me, I would have hidden a pecan half in there somewhere since it’s an edible object, but I wasn’t thinking so I brought the cake to the office sans good luck charm.  The ruckus everyone made made it very clear that I made a huge mistake and so, without anything better, I resorted to pushing a nickel up from the bottom of the bread and just had to cross my fingers that no one broke a tooth or choked (we’re all safe, thankfully).

Eat up–the one I brought into the office went quickly–and enjoy this day of excess by having another slice!

King Cake
Adapted from Foodie Bride’s friend Erica

Dough

• 1 cup warm water, about 105 degrees
• 1/4 cup sugar (1 tablespoon measured out of that 1/4 cup and set aside)
• 1 pkg yeast
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 cups flour, plus more for dusting work surface
• 1 tsp salt
• Oil or cooking spray, for coating bowl

Filling

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 rounded tsp cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 teaspoon water
• green, purple & yellow decorating sugar OR 3/4 cups plain sugar, divided into three bowls, 1/4 cup sugar per bowl and green, red, blue, and yellow food coloring

1. In a large mixing bowl, add the warm water, that one tablespoon of sugar you measured out, and the yeast.  Let it sit for 10 minutes.
2. Add the melted butter, egg, egg yolk, what’s left of the 1/4 cup of sugar, 3 cups flour, and salt.  Stir with a large wooden spoon until the dough comes together (I added the flour in 3 portions, mixing thoroughly after each).  Have an extra 1/2 cup of flour on hand in case the dough is way too sticky, but I have to say that this is the first yeast dough I’ve ever done where I didn’t have to add any extra flour at all and it was just right.  It should be just a little sticky, and look a little lumpy.
3. Lightly oil a large metal bowl and transfer the dough into the bowl.  Cover with a dish towel and let the dough rise in a warm spot until double in size, about an hour.
4. In the meantime while the dough is rising, clean the kitchen (at least that’s what I did, because I didn’t want to torture my roommate any more), set the oven to heat to 375 degrees and then make the filling.
5. Add cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk, vanilla and cinnamon (that’s everything BUT the melted butter) to a medium mixing bowl and, using an electric mixer, beat on medium until the filling is smooth and spreadable, which won’t take too long.
6. When the dough is done rising, sprinkle a surface (I covered my dining room table with saran wrap) with flour and roll the dough out with a rolling pin until it is a rectangle approximately 12″ tall and 18″ wide.
7. Using a pastry brush, brush the melted butter over the dough, leaving an inch or so of dough along the farthest wide edge dry.
8. Spread the cinnamon cream cheese filling evenly over the dough (leaving that inch of dough dry again).
9. Taking the wide edge of the dough closest to you, gently roll it up and away from you, forming a big giant cinnamon roll log.  Pinch the long seam closed as best you can, then arrange the rolled up dough in a ring shape on a baking sheet, pinching the two open ends together to close the ring.  I tried to stretch it out as best I could so that it would hold a little of its ring shape instead of just baking up into one big ball.  Emeril Lagasse suggests putting a well greased coffee can in the middle there so that the hole doesn’t close up.
10. Bake for 25 minutes until nicely golden brown on top (I prefer my baked goods lighter rather than darker, but in this case I went for the whole 25 minutes to ensure the inside was baked properly and the top was only slightly darker golden than I normally go for).
11. Let the bread cool on a wire rack before glazing.
12. If you are coloring your own sugar, do that now–I highly recommend it because, though it took an extra 10 minutes or so of work, it was worth it because it was free (I already had sugar and food coloring in my cabinets) versus paying $6 for pre-colored sugars.  In the first bowl, I used 3 drops of yellow, in the second I used 3 drops of green, and in the third bowl I used 3 drops of blue and 3 drops of red.  The food coloring will basically just stick to a little clump of sugar, but if you take a spoon and keep jabbing at that little droplet, it will break up and color the rest of the sugar.  The Boyfriend and I (isn’t he sweet to help?) took about 5 minutes per bowl of stirring, tapping and jabbing, but I think the colors turned out nicely!
13. To make the glaze, add all the ingredients in except for the colored sugars into a small mixing bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined and smooth.  The thickness of the glaze is up to you; I wanted one that was pourable but that wouldn’t just drip right over the sides and look messy.  You can add a little water (a little goes a looooong way here) or some powdered sugar to adjust the glaze to your desired thickness.  Save a little glaze to drizzle over the top of the sugar afterwards or just use this now and then later throw together a little sugar and water until it’s drizzling consistency.
14. Let the glaze set for 5 minutes or so before decorating.  King Cakes are usually decorated in alternating stripes of the green-yellow-purple colors, but you can get creative if you want!  Just be sure to lay the sugar on thick, because I tried to go thin on my sugar layer and the white glaze underneath would start to show through (in some cases the sugar dissolved and in other cases the glaze would get heavy with the sugar and start to drip farther down the side of the cake, so there would be white stripes where the sugar had slid down.  Being heavy handed on the sugar solved both of these problems!).  Drizzle with some extra glaze.
15. Serve with coffee and enjoy your Fat Tuesday!

So every once in a special while my friend hosts Taco Night at a nearby bar.  They don’t normally allow outside food in, but Jake charms them and this Polish (yes, Polish) bar lets Jake bring in 100 tacos for his friends to feast on.  So in honor of Tacozawa night, I did this week’s Project Pastry Queen project a little early and was able to bring Mexican Chocolate Cake to go with the tacos.  In a testament to Rebecca’s recipe, the cake got more compliments than the tacos, which I’m pretty sure is a first!

The cake is light in texture but rich in flavor and the glaze is…well, it’s the icing on the cake.  Except for the little problem I had with the glaze seizing up on me (turning super gritty to the point of no return–it was my fault for having the heat on too high) and having to start over on it, this cake is super simple and took almost no work at all.  The cinnamon in the batter makes this a very fun and refreshing change from your normal chocolate cake and at Tacozawa I was even told from someone whose family is actually from Mexico that this cake tasted extremely authentic.  Bring it to your next gathering and it’ll be the talk of the party!

Note: I used E. Guittard Cocoa Rouge for the cocoa powder in this recipe and it was absolutely delicious.  I think it’s the reason my cake almost came out jet-black and so rich in chocolate flavor.  I highly recommend it!

Check out the other PPQers take on this recipe here and thanks, Jen, for a fantastic choice this week!

Mexican Chocolate Cake
From The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather

Cake

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt

Glaze

• 1 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup high-quality cocoa powder
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar (sift first, then measure the 2 cups of sugar out)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and heavily grease a 9″ tube pan or a Bundt pan (this was my first foray into owning a Bundt pan and, as you can see, I went for the vintage shaped pan instead of the more traditional shape).  If you don’t have baking non-stick spray, use butter and then sprinkle the inside with flour, tapping the excess out of the pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat and whisk in the cocoa until smooth.  Add the water to the cocoa butter mixture and whisk until smooth, then turn the burner off.
3. Add the sugar, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla to the cocoa mixture and whisk until ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.
4. Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt all at once and whisk until everything is, again, fully incorporated (Rebecca warns it’s okay if there are some small lumps, but I didn’t encounter any).
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and slide it in the oven to bake for 40-45 minutes, until firm yet springy to the touch and the edges start to pull slightly away from the pan.
6. Take the pan out (leave the oven on) and let the cake cool for 20 minutes in the pan, then invert the cake on to a wire rack to finish cooling.
7. Once you take the pan out of the oven, spread the pecans out on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven for 5-7 minutes.  Let them cool for a few minutes and then coarsely chop them.  I like lots of big pecan pieces so I didn’t chop them up too much.
8. Melt the butter over low heat in a medium saucepan, then turn off the burner.
9. Add the milk, cocoa and powdered  sugar and whisk until glossy.  (Warning:  My glaze seized and turned super gritty at this point so that it was completely unusable, and all of this happened super fast.  I think it was because I accidentally overheated it, which is why I had you turn off the heat in the last step.)
10. Whisk the vanilla, salt and pecans into the glaze.
11. Carefully move the cake onto your desired serving dish and pour the warm glaze over the top of the cake.  Enjoy–and be sure to have a glass of milk on hand!

We’ve had a bit of a cold snap the last few days here in SoCal and I found myself craving hot chocolate–but not the wimpy hot chocolate that comes as packaged dust that you dump out of an envelope.  No, I wanted rich, thick, almost-could-eat-it-with-a-spoon hot chocolate.  Wouldn’t you know, that with just the right recipe you CAN eat hot chocolate with a spoon?

This dessert is baked just long enough so that it forms a bit of a cake-y crust on top, a layer of fudgy pudding like chocolate underneath that, and then at the bottom is molten hot chocolate just waiting to be spooned up out of the cup.  You can certainly toast a marshmallow and put it on top, but this dessert is so rich, you’re going to want a little bit of lightly sweetened whipped cream instead to cut that richness.

Enjoy in front of a fire and with a good book!

Baked Hot Chocolate
Adapted from The Wall Street Journal
Serves 4

• 8oz high-quality semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• topping –whipped cream or marshmallows

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat a large pot of water until simmering; place a large metal mixing bowl on top of the pot and dump in the chocolate and butter.  Stir every so often until the mixture is completely melted and smooth.  Set the bowl aside and leave pot of water simmering.
3. In a medium metal mixing bowl, set it on top of the large large pot of water; add the eggs and sugar and mix until thoroughly combined.  Heat it over the simmering water until it’s warm to the touch (I literally just stuck my finger into the mixture and said, “yup, that’s warm” and called it good).  Remove the bowl from the pot of simmering water and turn the burner under the water off, since you won’t need it anymore.
4. With an electric mixer, beat the egg mixture for 5 full minutes.  It should be very light in color and very frothy by the time you’re done.
5. Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate.  It may take a little longer than normally folding in egg whites takes, but you’ll see the egg mixture start to tint brown with the chocolate and you’ll know you’re making progress.  Make sure you scrape the bottom of the bowl thoroughly so you don’t miss any of the chocolate-y goodness.
6. When the eggs are fully incorporated into the chocolate, spoon the mixture evenly into 4 oven proof coffee cups.
7. Arrange the coffee cups in a large roasting pan and fill the pan with water until it reaches 1/2 way up the sides of the coffee cups.
8. Bake for 12-15 minute, until the tops are just baked into a cake like crust.  I know I overbaked mine (I did mine for 20 minutes) a bit, and I think in this case it’s better to err on the less time rather than more time in the oven.
9. When done baking, remove the pan from the oven and place the cups on a wire cooling rack until you can pick the cups up with your hand and not burn yourself.
10. Serve while the cake is still warm, with the topping of your choice.  Enjoy!

With Valentine’s Day on Tuesday, the internet has been flooded with all things either Red Velvet or triple rich chocolate.  Allegedly, before kissing their loved one, people would like for their tongues to be stained red or brown.  Being a fan of neither red velvet OR triple rich chocolate (or having my tongue stained weird colors before planting a kiss on The Boyfriend for that matter), I’m posting what will hopefully be an easy yet elegant alternative to the traditional V-day desserts.

I truly love these little desserts: they’re light sponge cake and smooth custard all in one; they’re a delicious light lemon flavor and made with ingredients you likely already have at home except perhaps the lemon.  I want to say the only thing they don’t have going for them is that they have to chill for a few hours after you bake them so it’s not the fastest dessert, but truthfully that’s a good thing, because it means that, instead of rushing around to finish making dessert after your fancy dinner, you’ve got dessert already waiting in the fridge for you to enjoy.  You can calmly pull it out, plate it and present it, which really gives you points in the “I’m Martha Stewart in the kitchen” department.

Lemon Spongette Cakes
Makes 4 small cakes
Adapted from The Kitchn

• 2 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• juice of 1/2 of one lemon (about 1 1/4 tablespoons)
• zest of 1/2 of one large lemon
• pinch of salt

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and spray 4 ramekins (approx 6 oz and/or 3″ wide) with non-stick spray.
2. In a small metal bowl, beat the egg whites on low first for about a minute, then on high until stiff peaks form and set aside to use later.
3. In another small bowl (or as I did, just straight in the big glass measuring cup the milk was in), add the egg yolks to the milk and beat with a fork until combined.
4. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together.  Normally these would turn into a creamy smooth mixture, but that won’t happen this time since there’s so little butter.  Beat for 2-3 minutes so that the mixture is good and combined.
5. Add the flour, lemon zest, lemon juice and salt to the butter-sugar mixture and mix until thoroughly combined.
6. Pour the milk-egg yolk mixture into the butter-sugar-lemon mixture and beat until well combined.
7. Fold the egg whites into the lemon batter.  Normally I would say “gently” fold the egg whites in, but I had to be a little less than gentle this time since the egg whites didn’t really want to incorporate well.  Instead, they just sort of broke up into little pieces and floated on top of the very liquid batter.  Do the best you can, being a little rougher than normal folding them in until the bits floating on top are pea sized or smaller.
8. Using a measuring cup, scoop the batter out of the bowl and pour it evenly divided into the 4 prepared ramekins (by dipping with a measuring cup instead of just pouring out of the bowl, it ensures you get an equal batter-floating egg whites ratio).
9. Place the ramekins into a large roasting pan and fill the pan with water about 1/2 way up the sides of the ramekins.
10. Put the roasting pan of water and ramekins into the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes.  Instead of turning an even golden brown, mine started to turn dark brown in spots after about 35 minutes so I laid a sheet of tin foil over the top so they wouldn’t burn for the last 5-10 minutes of baking.
11. The tops should feel a little stiff when you poke them.  After the cakes are done, pull them out of the oven and take them out of the water bath, leaving them to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes or so.
12. Move the ramekins to the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
13. When ready to serve, run a knife along the inside edge of the ramekin and flip the ramekin over.  The cake won’t just fall out–with the ramekin still upside down, I gently twisted the cake around back and forth a few times and it released from the ramekin.
14. Place the dessert, cake side down on the plate, pudding side up.  Garnish with fruit and powdered sugar and enjoy!