Mother's Day--A Pleasant Poundcake Recipe

It's been awhile. Sorry that I've been away for so long to all of my 10 fans who told me they miss my blog posts and wish that I had new recipes for them, but guess what--I'm back!

 I tried a new recipe a little while back for Mother's Day, a holiday annually filled with barbecues and cookouts. My family of course, who would never break from tradition (the way I like it), had a barbecue like the rest of the world. The recipe I tried was for a vanilla poundcake. I mostly wanted to try it out because I had cream cheese in the fridge and needed something to go with my favorite cream cheese icing, but this cake also served another purpose, one I secretly didn't realize i need it to serve. This cake is suppperr rugged. It's not too elegant...it's nothing fancy..but it tastes pretty good!

 If I have any regrets with this recipe, it's that I insisted on making it in two 9" rounds. This wasn't the best idea, because the cake dried out slightly. Ideally, this should be made in a loaf pan or at largest, a bundt.

 Ingredients are as follows:
 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
 2 cups granulated sugar, divided
 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
 3 cups all-purpose flour (I substituted 2 and 3/4 cake flour to keep it lighter)
 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
 1 teaspoon kosher salt
 3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature (or 1 cup milk with a tablespoon white vinegar if you forgot  buttermilk at the store, like me :()
 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (You can definitely up this a little, to get a vanilla flavor I used about a tablespoon)
 Preheat the oven to 350. Grease up two 9" rounds (although as I said, this made it a little too dry so if you'd rather, use 1-2 loaf pans. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy (3-5 minutes depending on your mixer). With the mixer on, beat in the eggs, 1 at a time. In another large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another small bowl, combine the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the creamed sugar/butter batter, trying to begin and end with the flour. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, and bake for 26-38 minutes (check it occasionally, you never know). If you use loaf pans instead, it'll be more like 45 to an hour.

When the cakes are done, let them cool for 25 minutes.
Proceed to FROSTING! If you're a longtime Teenwithtaste fan, you'll know that this recipe is the same as the one I use for my Red Velvet Cake's cream cheese frosting. Sucks to have one good recipe, doesn't it? ;)
However, there's one twist. Going into this Mother's day, my sous chef (my sister), and I knew that my mother has a strange taste for jelly. So, we frantically tried to figure out how to put a layer of raspberry jam in the middle of our vanilla cake! Turns out, the internet (which knows everything) gave us two helpful hints:
1: Whip the jelly with a whisk in a bowl first. It thickens it slightly, to keep it from flowing all over.

2: Create an icing ring around the edge of your lower layer. Then, when you pour the jelly in the middle layer, it wont flow out the sides of your cake.

ALRIGHT: Continue with your frosting of cream cheese once your done the middle layer extravaganza. Ice it like you would any normal cake, and get your helpful older sister to decorate it like a madwoman. Cream Cheese Frosting:
 1 pound cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Then, add the sugar, mixing for anywhere from 3-6 minutes on high, scraping the bowl down occasionally, in order to make it smooth. Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally).

Slight credits to Ina Garten for trying to make a good poundcake recipe, but not really doing it right. ...and the jelly/icing is all me. :)

RECIPE--Red Velvet Cake w/ Cream Cheese Icing

"Did someone say...CAKE?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmLFmp5kJCk&feature=related (Paste into search bar, Blogspot is a natural link-killer)

As the youtube clip above of my favorite children's cartoon shows, everyone, (including the grumpy teacher Mr. Ratburn)loves a good piece of cake.
The other day, a good friend of mine was approaching a very important birthday--her 16th. In order to make it special, I asked her if she could have any flavor birthday cake she wanted, which would it be? She said "red velvet" and thus, I went to the internet to look for a red velvet cake recipe.
I came across the following recipe courtesy of "Cake Man Raven," world renowned southern baker and confectionery king. I made small amends/additions to the recipe, changing parts of the process that I thought weren't quite right, but overall, I was pleased with the recipe, and as you'll see by the pictures below, the cake turned out great.

Vegetable oil for the pans
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (BUT I used around 2 and 3/4, 3 cups of Cake flour, it makes the cake lighter and more moist.)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon cocoa powder (I used around 2 teaspoons, 1 gives nearly no chocolate flavor in the end)
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons red food coloring (1 ounce)(really just enough to turn it red, don't let a recipe tell you how much you need, put in a little, mix, and evaluate.)
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe follows

Below, the greatest food coloring set ever. Gels>liquid drops.

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil and flour 3 (9 by 1 1/2-inch round) cake pans.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In another large bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla.

Using a standing mixer, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined and a smooth batter is formed.

Divide the cake batter evenly among the prepared cake pans.

Place the pans in the oven evenly spaced apart. Bake, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking, until the cake pulls away from the side of the pans, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes.

Remove the cakes from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen them from the sides of the pans. One at a time, invert the cakes onto a plate and then re-invert them onto a cooling rack, rounded-sides up. Let cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 pound cream cheese, softened
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand-held electric mixer in a large bowl, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Then, add the sugar, mixing for anywhere from 3-6 minutes on high, scraping the bowl down occasionally, in order to make it smooth.

Reduce the speed of the mixer to low. Add the vanilla, raise the speed to high and mix briefly until fluffy (scrape down the bowl occasionally).
`
Yield: enough to frost a 3 layer (9-inch) cake

FINAL CAKE: (garnished with red sugar and a classy red "happy birthday.")

Recipe: Peanut Butter, Chocolate & Jessie

Hey Guys!
So today is the first recipe/experience post rather than restaurant review.
This Sunday is my older sister Jessie's birthday, so I decided to make a cooler, more exciting cake than usual. A few weeks ago she requested a cake she had found online, a peanut butter chocolate cake that looked beyond delicious. The recipe was a little tough and called for some ingredients I didn't have in my kitchen, but after a run to the supermarket and stringing on an apron, I got to work. Thankfully, as you can see by the picture, everything turned out great. Also with the pictures of the cake is a picture of a cupcake of the cake I made with extra batter. The recipe for this delicious looking (and tasting!) cake is below.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Layer Cake

1 3/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs plus 2 large egg whites
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 cup Dutch-processed cocoa
2 tsp espresso powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray cake pans with cooking spray and flour generously.

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla with mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Scrape down bowl and beaters.

In a separate bowl combine flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda and salt. Beat into creamed mixture alternating with the buttermilk. Scrape down bowl and beaters and continue mixing on medium speed for one minute. Pour into prepared pans.

Bake for 28-30 minutes and until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. This actually ended up being about 35 minutes in my oven with the 6"x2" pans.

Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes before removing from pans to cool completely on cooling rack. You may have trouble getting the cakes out of the pans, but remember to scrape a knife around the edge of the rounds and loosen them up before trying to de-pan the cakes.

Peanut Butter Filling (the best part)

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup marshmallow creme (Fluff)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream, chilled
Pinch salt

Mix all of the filling ingredients together with a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scraping down the bowl as necessary.

NOTE: I used the frosting for both the inside of my two layers of cake as well as the sides. I think it gives it a peanut buttery good taste to have it on the sides and makes the cake all around better. If you want a plainer cake, you can just use the peanut butter in the middle of the layers.

Chocolate Ganache

1 1/3 cups (8 ounces) chocolate chips or chopped semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy or whipping cream
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Combine the above in a microwave safe bowl and heat in 15-20 second increments until cream is hot enough to melt the chocolate. Stir until chocolate is melted and ganache is smooth.
While still warm, drizzle the chocolate on top of the cake. Make sure you have a plate under the cake so that all the chocolate doesn't drip on the ground, but let it drip down the sides of the cake and on to the plate. As soon as you are done drizzling the ganache, put the cake in the fridge so it can solidify.

Ease of Recipe--6 on a scale of 1-10, 1 being easiest and 10 being hardest.

credits to Theothersideoffifty.blogspot.com for the chocolate cake and pb icing recipe, and to King Arthur Flour Co. For the ganache recipe! Thanks for helping me build my recipe and interpret yours!