Chocolate Sour Cream Cake

This cake has been quite a while in the making, in a lot of ways. I turned 21 last week, and had decided to make my own cake (it saves me from complaining and turning up my nose and making faces), so I knew I wanted to make something rich, indulgent and chocolate-y.

But I get ahead of myself. The idea for the topping came from over a year ago, in the sleepy back row during lecture for a class called "Science and Cooking" at school. We had a guest lecture that day by Bill Yosses, the White House pastry chef. He had some interesting stories from his work, casually mentioning the chocolate cookies that were Sasha and Malia's favorites, but I'm afraid I found the majority of his presentation thoroughly uninspiring. Mr. Yosses spent the majority of our 90 minutes discussing the history of electricity (which I'm sure did somehow relate to the culinary arts, but I definitely wasn't paying close enough attention make the connection). 

The one part I do remember is watching him play with melted sugar, carefully shaping it to make a delicate candy apple. It looked like blown glass, and there was something so beautiful about how ephemeral it was, to be eaten or to melt from the moisture in the air. (You can see him make the apple here).

So the idea of melted sugar decorations had been bumping around in my head for a while, and I thought they would be perfect perched on a cake, especially against the contrast of a chocolate one.

The cake itself has also been waiting to be made for a while. At my desk one October afternoon, I looked up from Pinterest (my go-to form of procrastination, though ModCloth is a close second), turned to my roommate and announced that I really wanted to make a chocolate cake. Helen responded with something like a sad shake of the head at the things that occupy my brain before returning to her physics homework, but despite my preoccupation, the cake never happened last semester. 

To be honest, I've always been sort of reluctant to tackle fancy layer cakes. They're hard to photograph, and making even cake layers and smoothing the frosting--and worse, cutting the cake--have always kind of stressed me out. But if not for my birthday, then when?

The chocolate cake is lovely, dense, rich, and extremely chocolate-y. It's simple, and a perfect go-to basic chocolate cake. I thought I had adapted it from Magnolia Bakery's chocolate cake recipe, but as I opened my can of Hershey's cocoa powder to make the cake, lo and behold, there was the almost exact same recipe. (Feel free to go off the Magnolia version, if it makes you feel classier. I promise not to tell!) 

However, it's definitely the frosting that steals the show in this cake. The richness of the chocolate (almost a pound of it!) is tempered by the sour cream, which gives it a faint tartness. Fudge-y and smooth, it's almost like frosting your cake with chocolate truffles. Believe me, this is a hundred times better than that awful too-sweet buttercream. 

Putting all of these elements together, this cake was definitely worth the wait.

Stay warm,
-Caroline

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Chocolate Sour Cream Cake

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe
Yields one 8-inch cake
Adapted from Hummingbird High

Ingredients
For the Chocolate Cake
2 cups cake flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup strongly brewed hot coffee

For the Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
12 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped (you can replace some of it with semi-sweet or milk chocolate if you prefer a sweeter, less intense chocolate frosting)
½ cup butter, cubed
2 tablespoons honey
½ cup sour cream
2 tablespoons milk

For the Spun Sugar Decoration (optional)
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup water

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans.

Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs and white and brown sugars until smooth. Mix in the vegetable oil, and then the vanilla extract and buttermilk. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and gently whisk until combined. Whisk in the coffee. Pour the batter into the two cake pans (try to distribute it evenly), and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cakes cool for an hour, unmold, then let them cool completely. 

Make the frosting. Place the chocolate, butter, and honey in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water (make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water). Stir constantly until the chocolate is melted and smooth. 

Take the bowl off the heat, and stir in the sour cream and milk. Let sit for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the frosting thickens in consistency and is spreadable.  

Place one of the cake rounds, domed side up , onto a cake stand or serving plate, and spread a thick layer of frosting over the top. Place the other cake round, domed side down, on top of the frosting. You can cut off the domes to level the cake layers before assembling them if you wish, but I didn’t find this necessary.

Spread the frosting over the top of the cake, then on the sides. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth--frosting swirls give this cake a certain appeal. If the frosting becomes too hard, re-heat it over the water bath, and it will soften again.

When you’re ready to serve the cake, make the spun sugar decoration, if desired. Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Gently stir over medium heat until it comes to a bowl. Let boil until the sugar turns a golden color. (Once it begins to boil, stop stirring or the sugar might seize and crystallize). 

Let the sugar cool until it thickens slightly. If you insert a fork into the sugar, it should trail thin threads of sugar as you pull it away. 

As you wait for the sugar to cool, grease the handles of 4-5 wooden spoons (chopsticks work as well), and tape them to your kitchen sink (or to a countertop) so that the handles are hanging over the sink (or over a newspaper-covered floor). 

Dip the fork into the melted sugar and gently flick it back and forth over the spoon handles, trailing sugar threads over the handles. Repeat until you get the desired amount of spun sugar. (If the sugar become too hard, heat it on the stove again until it softens.)

Carefully remove the sugar from the spoon handles and place on top of the cake. Serve immediately. (The spun sugar will melt in a few hours).

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Persimmon and Pomegranate Tea Cakes

This blog has been looking a little gray recently...not in a bad way, mind, with chocolate and golden-brown pastries. But still, a little too earth-toned. It makes me miss summer desserts like cobbler and ice cream, light (okay, light is a pretty subjective word here), fresh, and bursting with fruit.

Winter brings its crop of fruit, but I've always found that it takes a lot more effort to incorporate them into desserts, beyond the basic cranberry relish and citrus zest. I was thrilled to get a shipment of seasonal fruit from Melissa's last week, challenging me to use them in dessert. It's nice to get a little pop of color on the blog.

I used some ripe persimmons to create mini almond sponge cakes, something of a cross between a financier and a Madeleine. For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, persimmons are a plump, tangerine-sized fruit (no, that's not a tomato you see there). When they're ripe, their flesh becomes very soft and sweet, almost honey-like. The color fades in the oven, but the fruit makes the batter a wonderful bright orange.

The persimmon pulp and almond meal makes the cakes incredibly moist, and the persimmon glaze provides additional sweetness and color. I think the pomegranate seeds make them extra cute--they're practically begging you to make them and throw a tea party.

Enjoy!
-Caroline

Melissa's provided me with a free sample of their products to review. All opinions are my own.

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Persimmon and Pomegranate Tea Cakes

Click here for the printer-friendly version.
Yields: about 24 tea cakes

Ingredients
For the Cakes
½  cup finely ground almonds (almond flour)
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
⅛ teaspoon salt
2 persimmons, very ripe
2 eggs
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons butter, melted

For the Glaze
2 tablespoons pomegranate juice*
½ teaspoon cream of tartar (optional)**
1 cup powdered sugar
pomegranate seeds, to decorate

Notes
*You can either use store-bought pomegranate juice, or press about ¼ cup of pomegranate seeds through a fine mesh strainer.
**The acid in cream of tartar will allow the glaze to keep its reddish color. It can be omitted, but may make the glaze become more of a purple color.

Directions
In a large bowl, whisk together the ground almonds, flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. 

Place the persimmons, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract in the food processor, and blend until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. You want to beat the eggs enough that the mixture becomes thick and foamy. Add the melted butter and blend again.

Fold the persimmon/egg mixture into the flour mixture. Refrigerate the batter for 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease 24 tea cake molds (you could also use muffin tins or even a madeleine pan) with vegetable oil. Fill the molds ¾ of the way full with batter, and place them on a cookie sheet.

Bake the cakes for 12-13 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, and the cakes are golden-brown around the edges. Let cool for 20-30 minutes, then carefully release them from the molds and place on a cooling rack to cool completely.

Make the pomegranate glaze. Mix together the pomegranate juice and cream of tartar, then mix in the powdered sugar. Dip the cakes into the glaze, and place a few pomegranate seeds on top of each cake. 

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Chunky Monkey Ice Cream Cake

My brother and I were both born in the middle of winter, but we've long had a strange tradition of ordering ice cream cakes for our birthdays. I have a lot of fond memories of picking out ice cream flavors for my cake at near-empty shops as it snowed outside. (The local Maggie Moo's used to offer free scoops if more than an inch of snow had fallen.)

I've come to associate celebrations with not just cake, but specifically ice cream cake. It's not decadent if there's no ice cream.

I tried my hand at making an ice cream cake at home this year. It wasn't terribly hard, just fussy and requiring frequent trips to and from the freezer. The trickiest part was working quickly enough to keep everything from turning into a melty puddle.

I definitely recommend giving this one a try. Yes, now, in the middle of winter. There's something about making your on ice cream cake that makes you feel so accomplished. Maybe it's just from frantically shoving the cake into the freezer as cream begins to ooze down the sides.

The flavors of this cake is inspired by one of my brother's favorite ice cream flavors from Ben and Jerry's, Chunky Monkey, featuring banana ice cream, walnuts, and chocolate chunks.

You can, of course, swap in whatever ice cream flavors and add ins you want. A few notes, though, on ice cream cakes:

• The frosting: You'll need something that won't freeze solid, so don't use buttercream or whipped cream. Cream cheese works well, as does (forgive me for saying this) Cool Whip. Whatever fake milk thingy is in that stuff keeps it nice and fluffy even in the freezer.
• The cake layers: I've included makes a fairly thin cake (I've always liked a higher proportion of ice cream to cake), so it's a little hard to slice into layers. Here's a great tutorial on how to get even layers (unlike mine). You could also cut it into two layers instead of three, so that your top layer will be ice cream instead of cake. 
• The ice cream: you'll have an easier time spreading and slicing the ice cream if you use an airier one (or, in technical terms, an ice cream with higher overrun. Read all about that here.), such as Breyer's. Since Breyer's has some three times the air pumped into it than something like Haagen Dazs, it make the final cake much easier to slice through. But by all means, break out the premium ice cream if you'd like, you may just need to let it thaw a little bit before you spread it on the cake.

Good luck, and enjoy!
-Caroline

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Chunky Monkey Ice Cream Cake

Yields: one 9-inch cake
Cake adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Click here for the printable recipe

Ingredients
For the Cake
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cocoa powder
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil*
¾ brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 medium bananas, very ripe, smashed
½ cup whole milk

For the Ice Cream
½ gallon vanilla ice cream**
1 medium banana, very ripe, mashed
¼ cup mini chocolate chips
½ cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

For Assembly
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 medium banana, sliced

Notes
*Don’t use butter here. It’ll make the cake very hard when you freeze it.
**I’d recommend Breyers. It’s airier than most, so it’s easy to scoop, spread, and slice.

Directions
Read the entire recipe before getting started. But actually.

Make the chocolate cake. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until well-combined. Whisk in the oil, vanilla, and mashed bananas. Whisk in the milk.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined. Pour the batter into a greased 9-inch springform cake pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool completely, then refrigerate for several hours, or overnight.
The next day, cut the cake into three even layers. Re-assemble the springform pan. Line the sides with plastic wrap or wax paper for easy removal of the cake so you don’t have to saw the edges of the cakes later on. 

Place the top layer (the domed one) of the cake on the bottom of the cake pan. (You’ll spread a thick layer of ice cream on top of it so that this way, the top of the cake won’t be domed. Alternately, if you really want to make your layers even, cut off the dome before layering your cake.)

You’ll need to work quickly for this next part. Add about 4 cups of vanilla ice cream, half of the mashed banana, and half of the chocolate chips and walnuts to a mixing bowl. Mash them together with a wooden spoon. It doesn’t have to be perfect, its more important that the ice cream doesn’t melt. Spread the ice cream over the layer of cake at the bottom of the springform pan. Place the pan in the freezer for about 30 minutes, so that the layer of ice cream is firm.

Place another cake layer on top of the ice cream. Repeat the the step above with the remaining ice cream, banana, nuts, and chocolate chips. Top with the final cake layer. Freeze the cake for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Make the frosting. Whisk together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. 

Remove the cake from the springform pan. Spread the frosting over the cake, and decorate with banana slices. If the cake starts to melt while you’re frosting it, return it to the freezer for another 30 minutes.
Cut the cake with a sharp knife run under hot water, and serve!

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Plum Torte

I came across this recipe for the "Originial Plum Torte" on the New York Times website, and it included a brief anecdote. It was published annually in the Times for several years in the 80s, but the editors eventually decided to do away with it. The last year it was published, “the recipe was printed in larger type than usual with a broken-line border around it to encourage clipping," according to the the creator, Marian Burros. 

It sounds rather foreign and quaint now, the idea of actually clipping out a recipe from a newspaper and clipping it to your fridge, or perhaps copying it out by hand to give to your friends.

Reading this recipe, it sort of struck me just how new what I'm doing is. The oldest websites that we'd consider food blogs are only six or seven years old; food blogging simply wasn't a concept before then. We used to share recipes through magazines, cookbooks, or handwritten index cards (I remember having to make cutesy recipe holders for Mother's Day in the third grade; even then, it seemed a rather outdated concept). 

Two years ago, one of the dorms at Harvard made T-shirts themed around Epic Mealtime, a Youtube channel about...well, I'll let you look it up. It's fascinating that an Internet cooking channel as become part of our everyday entertainment to the point that it can be a cultural reference.

I think the Internet has changed our culture of eating and sharing food more than we might think. Restaurant review sites like Yelp are surprising recent developments (well, surprising to me anyways), and our culture (especially among young people) of looking at restaurant ratings and carefully picking out a place to eat is very new. (I read a fascinating article about that here.)  Words like "food porn" or "foodie" are products of the Internet, and would have sounded so bizarre only a few years ago. 

And that's without getting started on Instagramming your meals or Pinterest.

It's easy to get caught up in the daily grind of food blogging, the scramble to get a post done for Monday morning, the submissions to Foodgawker, the comment frenzy, the social media push. Yet what we're doing is actually incredibly exciting and new; food blogging has expanded the breadth and depth of food knowledge available out their, and our ability to access it. It has helped shaped the new culture around food.

Plus there's simply something amazing about being able to peek into the kitchens of people around the world, to see their photographs and hear their stories.

-Caroline

Plum Torte

Click here fore the printer-friendly recipe
Yields: one 9-inch cake
Lightly adapted from The New York Times

Ingredients
½ cup butter, at room temperature
¾ cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
12 small or 6 large plums, halved and pitted
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamo

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Whisk together the butter and ¾ cups sugar until light and fluffy. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the butter and egg mixture.
Pour the batter into a greased 9-inch pan and spread evenly. Toss the plums in the lemon juice and place them on top of the cake, cut side down.

Mix together two tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top of the cake. Bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

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