Category: Baking

Baking, Celtic Thunder

A Very, Very Happy “Chocolate Overdose Cake” Birthday to Me

Emerald Thunder

Yesterday was my 21st birthday, and I celebrated by going to class all day, coming home and napping, doing homework, and watching the first disc of The Tenth Kingdom. I fell asleep before 1am and didn’t even consume my first legal drink. I know, I’m SUCH a party animal. My birthday wasn’t all boring though, because the night before I went to the Hellogoodbye concert with one of my friends, and it was AMAZING.

Yes, we were on the side, but it was still great, nonetheless.

Because my week has been so hectic and short on free-time, and because I knew back in January that it would be like that, when I first went back to work I told my teacher that I would not be coming in on this date. I chose to designate this day as my “Epic 21st Birthday Cake Baking Extravaganza” day (I just named it that today). This way I could relax and actually enjoy the process, even though I didn’t know what I would be making at the time.

Enter the Chocolate Overdose Cake I found on Beantown Baker’s blog.

This cake has been by no means inexpensive for me to bake. I would not have been so bad if I already had a springform pan, but at least I have one now (although I would have liked for it to be deeper, oh well). I think I’ve spent nearly $30 on supplies for this, but I already know it will be worth every single penny.

I started this process by taping all of my ingredients/instructions/timings to the cabinet doors to keep them in sight, but out of the way. Then I cleared off the counter and moved everything to the tables. There’s so little counter space here that it just wouldn’t have been possible to make the cake with everything still out.

With my iPod playing my Damian and Keith playlist, the extravaganza began.

I started with the brownie layer, so I put some water on to simmer and sifted together the dry ingredients while waiting.

Note the green highlighter I’m using to cross out ingredients and steps on my printed out recipe. I’m so prepared.

Then I chopped up the unsweetened chocolate until it was rather fine. When they say unsweetened, they really mean unsweetened, because I got some on my fingers and tried it. No thank you. I won’t be doing that again.

Then I put the butter and chocolate into a bowl to put over the simmering water in order to melt it down and make it super smooth.

Then I added the sugar and mixed it all together. Then I prepared the springform pan to let the chocolate cool for a bit before I added the eggs.

Next came the dry ingredients.

Bit by bit I mixed it all together.

Until it looked like this and was ready for the pan.

Then it went into the oven for about 30 minutes and I commenced washing my bowls and utensils so I’d be ready to make the cake part. When I stuck a fork in them to see if they were done, I did as any normal person would do, and ate the moist brownie crumbs that came out with the fork. Oh My God. It was absolutely HEAVENLY. I cannot wait to dig into that layer of my cake. I’ll probably have to make these brownies just by themselves sometime.

I started prepping ingredients for the next part while the brownies were still in the oven.

I chopped more unsweetened chocolate.

This time into large-ish chunks.

I didn’t actually chop on top of the simmering water. This position just had better lighting and was less blurry.

Then there was more dry ingredient sifting.

Now the chocolate, cocoa and water melting/mixing could begin.

Once I added the sugar it looked much better and mixed much easier.

Then I mixed the buttermilk and vanilla and set it aside.

Out came the hand mixer so I could mix the eggs and sugar until it was all nice and fluffy.

I was amazed when I took a couple of pictures with the flash on as I was mixing because I swear the mixer is on in both of them. It doesn’t even look like the beaters are moving in the second picture. Aren’t I easily amused.

For some reason I failed to take pictures of mixing everything together, but it really just wasn’t that interesting. I added the chocolate to the eggs and sugar and alternated adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk/vanilla mixture.

Then everything went into the prepared cake pan to bake for nearly 40 minutes. The recipe said 30 minutes, but I guess my oven is colder so it took longer than expected.

After the cake was out and the dishes were washed again, it was time for a break to let everything completely cool before I started on the mousse. At this time I also put a bowl, my whisk, and the beaters in the freezer because they’re supposed to be “well-chilled.” I figured about 2 hours would be enough time in the freezer.

I had a slight mishap while making the mousse. I didn’t look at the recipe and so I poured both pints of heavy cream into my bowl. As I was whipping it, I kept thinking “This is so much mousse for the middle of the cake.” And then I remembered that I only needed ONE pint of it. *sigh*. At least I remembered before it got completely whipped and the chocolate was added. I just took out half and put it in a bowl so I could use it for the ganache later. I also failed to photograph the mousse-making process, but it was just melting chocolate, whipping cream and adding them together.

The I assembled the cake in the springform pan, covered it in plastic wrap, and let it chill in the fridge for an hour.

The ganache came together very nicely, even given the slightly whipped consistency of the cream. Most of the air came out of it after it was brought to a boil and then taken off the heat, so thank goodness my lack of attention to detail did not have any ill effects.

I have never used to much chocolate in one day. Let’s tally it all up: 5 1-ounce Baker’s unsweetened chocolate squares, 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, and 6 4-ounce bars of Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate. That’s about 30 ounces of chocolate, which is nearly 2 POUNDS! Paired with the sugar in this cake, it’s sure to be a rich chocolate coma and sweet sugar rush to remember.

Doesn’t that look SO good already? I wanted to eat it then and there, even without the ganache.

Dripping and oozing down.

Boy did I make a big mess.

I let it chill in the fridge for about an hour and a half to set up and for the ganache to harden a bit.

STRAWBERRY TIME!

I am happy with my ganache-ing skills and especially pleased that the cake is nice and flat and as straight as I could ask for. I’ll be sure to make another post detailing the demolition of this delicious-looking (and hopefully wonderful tasting) cake.

Now it’s all wrapped up to chill in the fridge until tomorrow afternoon when I can finally dig in with some friends. It’s going to be a long, long night. . . .

At this point–and before having even tasted the final product–I think I can honestly say that this is one of the creations I’m most proud of making. It may have taken me from 10am to 7:30pm, but I would happily make this again and again, as long as I do not have to rush the process. This was the best birthday-cake-making day I could have asked for.

Baking

WIN!!

Emerald Thunder

When I compiled my list of bonanzas, I did not know that fresh pomegranate season would soon be at its end. For a few days this put a kink in my plans to make the Pomegranate White Chocolate Chunk cookies for Valentine’s Day. I thought I would still be able to get them fresh at Trader Joe’s, since I had seen them there many times, but the seasonal quality of them just didn’t click for me until I read about it online.

I went there today, hoping to find these important (and pricey) seeds with the rest of the produce, but I was sorely disappointed (and not just about the pomegranate–there were no good apples or oranges left either *sadface*). However, I swung around to the frozen fruits and VOILA! Frozen pomegranate arils! I will live with the frozen if I can’t have the fresh, as long as I can still make these cookies. They will certainly be a wonderful break from my Chocolate Overdose Birthday Cake.

Saying that name just makes my mouth water! I finally have most of the necessary ingredients, save for the pan and chocolate I’m waiting on from Amazon and some extra granulated sugar because once again TJ’s didn’t have any (what’s up with that anyway, where is all the sugar you used to have?). They also didn’t have brown sugar or powdered sugar, but I don’t need that for my cake–I’m just running low and I want to make sure I always have some in my cabinets.

Anyway, I haven’t quite been refraining from baking, but I have been terribly lax in terms of photo documentation. Last Wednesday night I was itching for something chocolatey, and so I made my go-to brownie recipe. I must say, they absolutely hit the spot, and my friend almost dropped to the floor after a bite the next day. They were super fudgey and moist and chocolatey–perfection. Unfortunately they seem to have disappeared before a proper picture could be taken. Alas, I’ll guess I’ll just need to make them again sometime in the future.

I have also been lax in my proper food purchasing, and so I’ve been subsisting on cereal, peanut butter, oatmeal cream pies (only 1 left!), and pasta. I finally broke down and defrosted some chicken cutlets I had in the freezer, breaded them, and pan-fried them. Then yesterday I boiled up the end of my spiraly pasta (the name escapes me), and mixed in chopped up chicken, marinara sauce, minced garlic, and shredded mozzarella cheese to make my trusty pasta bake. I ended up eating it for both lunch and dinner yesterday, and now I’m craving some crunchy fruits or veggies after all that. I definitely chose the wrong time to go to Trader Joe’s today, because the produce department was sorely lacking because it was insanely busy there. I should have waited until after the Super Bowl started, because it would have been a ghost town after kick-off like one of the employees said. I’ll try again sometime soon, but right now I would kill for some apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, celery, carrots or anything healthy, really. Wow, I never thought I’d say that on here. I think I should get some strawberries on Wednesday for the top of my cake, but NOT cover them in chocolate. I’m definitely gonna need the freshness to cut all the richness–and some fruit-consumption wouldn’t hurt either.

Baking

Bonanza #1 — Oatmeal Cream Pies

Emerald Thunder

After the past few days, I have needed to bake like nobody’s business, so I started my Bi-Weekly Baking Bonanza a bit early. I wasn’t able to make my brownies Thursday night because I wrongly assumed that my suitemates would be clearing out of the common room. That’s what you get when you assume things. . . .

For my first entry in my Bi-Weekly Baking Bonanza, I wanted to make the Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies that I found on Beantown Baker’s blog, which she found on How to Eat a Cupcake. I thought I was so prepared, and I went to the store with a list of ingredients I needed (gelatin, light corn syrup, baking powder). I got those, and it turns out that I only had half of the amount of the most important ingredient! Silly, assuming me thought that I had more than enough quick-cooking rolled oats, but once again, I thought wrong, and therefore this time around I failed part of the bonanza.

This baking is not only supposed to get me to try out new recipes and techniques, but to also teach me to be patient and take the time to run down all the ingredients required and physically check to make sure I have the necessary amounts. In the end I decided to substitute in the other half of the rolled oats with steel-cut oats. I was a bit hesitant to do that, but in the end it worked out fine. I never ever want to have to do that again though, so the first thing I’m putting on my next shopping list is ROLLED OATS (and all-purpose flour, because I’m now running *really* low). I still can’t believe I didn’t have enough; usually I have rolled oats coming out my eyeballs! I guess it’s punishment for not checking before I had EVERYTHING all mixed up and ready to go into the oven.

The first thing I want to note about this dough was that it was extraordinary thick and hard to manipulate. I had a heck of a time mixing in the oats at the end. I think I must have done something wrong, but I really don’t think I mixed the flour too much and developed too much gluten. I didn’t see anything on Beantown Baker’s blog about this issue, so it must have been something on my end, I just don’t know what.

The overwhelming stiffness of the dough resulted in a VERY puffy first batch of cookies. I think maybe the baking soda and water mixture didn’t get sufficiently mixed into the dough, so there was nothing to counteract the baking powder that was sifted in with the flour. The cookies did not spread out at all like in the pictures on those other blogs, which rather disappointed me. For the second batch I only put three on the pan and I flattened them down myself before I put them in. Those ones came out much better, but they still didn’t look like the other bloggers’. So for the next batch I turned the temperature down to 400 degrees, put two tablespoons of dough together and patted them down into thinner disk shapes. I was very pleased with those results, and they were finally starting to look like everyone else’s–still a little on the thick side, but much improved.

Those other batches didn’t go to waste though, because the cookie itself is delicious both by itself AND with an added spread of peanut butter–they just weren’t suitable to be turned into the “ideal” oatmeal cream pie that I was going for.

It’s a good thing I wrote this first half of the entry before I started making the filling, because I would not have been nearly as happy after the fact. That darn filling nearly killed me and my little mixer (it did actually kill my shirt though, because I got so much stuff all over it). I should have known that this baking attempt was not going to be entirely pleasant just from how stiff the dough was and how dissatisfied I was with the initial cookie outcomes. Before I even started heating the ingredients for the filling I failed another aspect of the “Bi-Weekly Baking Bonanza” by not reading the ingredient amounts properly. Rather than mix 4 teaspoons of gelatin with 1/3 cup of cold water, I mixed the gelatin in 3/4 cup cold water; I accidentally read the 3/4 of a cup as water, rather than as sugar. Because of that mistake, I wasted nearly two packets of gelatin, and no, that stuff is not terribly cheap. Thank goodness I bought the four-pack.

Once I got it mixed with the correct amount of water, I heated up the sugar, corn syrup, and water. That went fine, as did mixing in the gelatin/water mixture. The trouble came after I was beating all of that up to make it marshmallow-y. As I was adding the powdered sugar, it was getting so thick that my little hand mixer couldn’t handle it. The filling was going up the beaters and toward the motor, greatly slowing it down. In the end I mixed it a bit with a knife, but I had to torture my poor mixer one more time when I added in the shortening. I didn’t plunge it all the way down to the bottom, so I had to go back and mix it some more by hand to make sure the shortening was well-incorporated.

I set up filling shop on the two tables in the common room and proceeded to use a rubber spatula to glob piles of filling onto the cookies. I think that must have been the easiest process of the entire afternoon. I ended up with 9 acceptable sandwiches and some open-faced ones of various sizes. Not quite the 24 sandwiches the recipe said it yielded. I did, however, use twice the amount of dough to make each acceptable cookie since they wouldn’t spread, so that explains the shortage.

After sitting overnight in my microwave and wrapped in plastic wrap, they’re not quite the soft cookies that I was told they’d be. They’re a bit on the crunchy side, but they’re still really good. The filling isn’t quite how I remember the packaged pies to be, but that might just be because I haven’t had one of those in YEARS. All in all it’s a good treat, but unless I can learn from my mistakes this time around (and can get a stand mixer), I probably won’t be attempting these again anytime soon. It was just too much work, which resulted in a mess of epic proportions and a very filled sink.

One thing I definitely learned from this experience is that I really want to take pictures of the ENTIRE process and not just the finished product. I generally like posts in other blogs better when there are a lot of photos, so why wouldn’t I post the same way? I also love photo-by-photo instructions, so why not give it a go myself. If only I had better lighting in the kitchen, but I’m still going to attempt this. In fact, I’ll add it to my list of goals with these baking challenges.

GOALS OF THE BAKING BONANZAS:

1. Read through the ingredient list and physically check that I have EVERYTHING in the proper amounts.

2. Read through the instructions at least once before taking anything out.

3. Pre-measure ingredients.

4. DON’T MAKE SUCH A HUGE MESS! (This one’s really important.)

5. Take LOTS of photos of the ENTIRE process, from start to finish.

6. SLOW DOWN and ENJOY the baking process.

Baking, Celtic Thunder

Chaos and Insanity

Emerald Thunder

My first week of the semester wasn’t quite what I expected. For starters, I didn’t think it would only entail two days of classes. You have to hand it to Mother Nature for making my school close down on the day I have three classes. Kudos to her, but missing classes means the course work has to be made up somehow, which brings me to my main complaint. I just had to rework the days that I would hand in assignments in one class, and it did not make me happy one bit, especially the fact that a paper due date was moved to the same day as for another paper. This semester is going to test my abilities to stay on task more than ever before, which means I need to learn how to NOT PROCRASTINATE. I have so many assignments in all of my classes that there is absolutely no wiggle room whatsoever. If I don’t stay on top of everything, it’s going to be disastrous, and I wish that was just an exaggeration.

In preparation of this week, I decided to not honor my decision to avoid baking for a little while and made some blueberry muffins to eat for breakfast as I’m going out the door in the morning. I made the To Die For Blueberry Muffins on Allrecipes.com, and I must say that they really are “to die for.” This also marked the inaugural use of my new muffin tin.

I made some of my own alterations to the recipe, and they turned out wonderfully. I did not use the cinnamon/sugar/butter topping the recipe suggested, but I did sprinkle a tiny bit of sugar on top before I put them in the oven. I also subbed in a half cup of whole wheat flour, and I couldn’t even notice that I did that. Next time around I will probably use half all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour, just to make them a bit healthier and more filling. I didn’t have it at the time, but I’ll also use applesauce in place of the vegetable oil, just because.

Unfortunately, the recipe only yielded 11 muffins, probably because I tried to fill the cups too high. I also wish they could have had a more golden coloring, but I didn’t want to leave them in the oven, for fear of drying out. I’m not sure how long I left them in, but any longer and I would not have been happy because they would have been dried out. I took them out at the perfect time to obtain maximum moisture, so in the end the coloring is just an aesthetic thing.

This snow day also yielded additional unfortunate news, beyond the changing due dates. I went to check on Fishy this afternoon to find him floating immobile on his side. He had a good long life, for a little fish, but I will miss him swimming around in his bowl on my desk, blowing bubbles up at the surface along the sides and then popping them. RIP Fishy, May 2010-January 2011.

After today, I really want nothing more than to listen to some Celtic Thunder and bake up some Best Cocoa Brownies, which I think I’ll do as soon as my suitemates clear out.

Baking

My Bi-Weekly Baking Bonanzas

Emerald Thunder

With the semester and all of the work that goes with it looming on the horizon, I’ve been reading baking blogs like crazy and stockpiling countless recipes for future use. I’ve also been searching for the perfect cake recipe to bake up for my 21st birthday next month. I’m never content to just have a couple of options. I always need to have too many options to count, which ultimately poses a problem when it comes to finally narrowing things down and making a decision. In the last day alone I have found so many things I want to try out, and I just don’t know when I would be able to find the time to tackle even half of them; which brings me to the topic of this post. Inspired by Yarn Harlot’s own Self-Imposed Sock of the Month Club, I will be doing the same with my baking, except I will make something every other week, since doing it weekly would be insane, given my schedule. I think the hardest part of this entire endeavor will be to actually narrow down all of my options to about 7 or 8 must-make recipes–just enough to last the semester, since I don’t know what my summer plans will be or if they will include a kitchen. They need to be things whose ingredients I won’t lose interest in if they’re not chosen until weeks from now–ideally classic recipes, but with a twist. There always needs to be a twist. It’s the twist that differentiates one recipe from another and makes it extra special. I want the twist to be included in the recipe, because it will also be a test of my ability to follow what’s written and to check that I actually have everything I need before I start.

With that in mind, during these blog explorations, I think I found my birthday cake. It fits me perfectly, in that the woman that posted about it wrote “There are just quite a few components to this cake, so it takes some time. Be sure to read through everything before you start this project.” It seems like it was written to me, because I’m notorious for not checking for ingredients and just diving in based on my own assumptions of what I have. Beantown Baker’s Chocolate Overdose Cake greatly resembles a cake my school serves at its Sunday brunch. I haven’t had it since the end of my freshman year because I haven’t had a meal plan since then, so I’m itching to make it, but I must wait. I know I said I didn’t want to alter recipes, but I want to make it resemble the dining hall cake even more by adding a crunched up Oreo cookie layer on the bottom. I hope I can get that to work, because I think it would be amazing!

Edit:

Well, that was a lot easier than I thought. It only took me a few minutes to pick and choose, and here is what I will be making as part of my “Bi-Weekly Baking Bonanzas”. I really need to get a better title for this, too, because this one is just too gosh darn long.

1-30 (actually 1-28) Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies — Beantown Baker

2-13 Pomegranate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies — Two Peas and Their Pod I think this one will be one to make around Valentine’s Day, simply because the colors coordinate.

2-27 Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting — Beantown Baker EDIT 2/20: I’ve decided to change this one for a couple of reasons. 1.) Two of my main treat eaters can’t eat bacon. 2.) I want a chocolate break after eating that INSANE birthday cake. No more heavy heavy desserts for a while, in order to prepare myself for the chocolate extravaganza that will ensue shortly after this. I’m replacing it with Oreo Cupcakes — Beantown Baker. It’s one of her most popular recipes, so why not give it a try.

3-13 Irish Car Bomb Cupcake — Beantown Baker This one will have to wait at least a few weeks, so that I can legally obtain the copious amounts of alcohol required.

3-27 Homemade Hobnobs — Cookie Madness

4-10 Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Cake — Baking Bites

4-24 Deep-Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes — Grace’s Sweet Life

5-08 Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes — Big Black Dog This one will definitely brighten up a cold winter’s day (or rather a sad stressful finals weekend with two papers due that week) with thoughts of spring/summer and freedom.

I think I’m going to take a pass at making something this coming week because I’ve just been baking so much lately. I will at the beginning of February with the Oatmeal Cream pies, which will help me to not be overloaded with all the chocolate I will be consuming with my birthday cake I’ll be making that next week. Then it will be the Pomegranate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies the week after. After that is up in the air at this point, but at least I have my options narrowed down to a select few sure-to-please recipes.

There’s also something of my own creation that I’m dying to make come St. Patrick’s Day. I recently bought a shamrock cookie cutter, and I was thinking that I will bake up a single layer, thin-ish chocolate cake, frost it with green frosting, and then cut out little shamrock cakes. I think the final product will be adorable, and I’m only posting about it right now so that I don’t forget, because I know I’m going to if I’m not making it for a while.