Tag: Chocolate

Cakes · Chocolate

Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Cake

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Do not let this Title scare you. Recently I have had several young moms ask me to post simple recipes that don’t have a lot of ingredients because that scares them out of trying the recipe. They simply don’t have the energy or time to shop for all of the items that so many of the recipes call for. So this is an easy dessert, but so gorgeous, and oh so yummy.

One Duncan Hines plain yellow cake mix

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teas cinnamon

2 medium sized bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)

1 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

2 teas banana extract (or you can use vanilla if you don’t have the banana)

Peanut Butter Frosting

Fudge Frosting

Grease 2 (9′) cake pans, then lightly dust with flour. Shake out excess flour. Set pans aside. Place cake mix, brown sugar and cinnamon in large mixing bowl. Add mashed bananas, water, oil, eggs and extract. Blend with mixer on low speed for 1 min, then scrape sides of bowl and beat for 2 more minutes.

Divide the batter between the 2 pans and bake in a 350 degree oven until middle of cake springs back when touched or a toothpick comes out clean after placing in middle of cake.

Cool on wire racks while you prepare the Peanut Butter Frosting.

1/4 cup softened butter (1/2 stick)

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 teas vanilla

1/4 cup milk (add this not all at one time, as mixture just needs to be spreadable, so you might not need all of this)

Blend powdered sugar, butter, peanut butter, vanilla and mix with milk, which you are adding slowly to just make the frosting spreadable.

Place one of the cake layers on a plate and spread the peanut butter mixture on top. Place other layer on top and frost with remaining peanut butter frosting. Do not frost the sides of the cake. Set aside and make the Fudge Frosting

Fudge frosting:

3 cups powdered sugar

1 stick butter, softened

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 teas vanilla

1/3 cup milk (once again, do not add all at once, as you might not need all of this)

Combine  all ingredients and slowly add milk (a few tables at a time) until frosting is easy to spread on cake. When you have beat all ingredients until smooth, frost sides of cake and then use remaining fudge frosting to top the cake. Do not worry if some of the peanut butter frosting swirls with the chocolate, just makes it that much more yummy. Store in Fridge, covered until ready to eat. Take out about 1 hour before serving.

Chocolate · Cookies · Desserts

More Chocolate for Valentines-Chocolate Strawberry Thumbprints

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In my new Food Network Mag for March, it had a whole section called the United States of Chocolate and lists lots of places where you can go for chocolate meals, candy factories across the states or spas where you can have chocolate facials…..so this is now on my bucket lists, to go to every “chocolate Event” before my cholesterol gets to high for me to eat chocolate…before this happens, I will be baking with chocolate at any given opportunity. These are from the Martha Stewart Cookie Cookbook and are simply put….DIVINE!

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teas salt

2 oz semisweet chocolate

1 stick unsalted butter, room temp (I wonder, if I used salted butter, could I eliminate the 1/4 teas salt) I think I will be daring and try it sometime, but not for Valentines, how awful for me to serve Romeo chocolate cookies tonight and he would look at me and say, “you don’t expect me to eat these, do you, they have no salt”?

1/4 cup plus 6 1/2 teas sugar

1 large egg yolk

1/2 teas vanilla

4 oz room temp cream cheese

2 tables powdered sugar

4 oz strawberries, (about 6 medium, stemmed and finely chopped)

Sift flour, cocoa and salt into a bowl. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring until smooth; set aside. ( I nuke the chocolate in 15 sec intervals)

Put butter and 1/4 cup granulated sugar into the bowl of a mixer and mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy (I think you can guess what you can use as your model on this one)

Mix in yolk, vanilla and chocolate. Reduce speed to low. Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Refrigerate covered for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350. Put 6 teas granulated sugar into a small bowl. Form dough into 3/4″ balls, roll in sugar to coat. Space 1″ apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Press center of each ball with your thumb. Bake 10 min. Press centers again with end of a wooden spoon, making 3/4″ indentations. Bake until sightly cracked and set, about 5 more minutes more.

Cool completely on racks. (Unfilled cookies can be stored in airtight containers for up to 3 days at room temp or frozen up to 1 month)

Stir cream cheese and powdered sugar in a bowl. Toss berries with remaining 1/2 teas granulated sugar in another bowl.

Spoon cream cheese mixture into centers of cookies; top with berries, dividing evenly.

Place on a red valentine doily and Happy Valentines Day to all of YOU!!!!

Chocolate · Desserts

Chocolate Buttermilk Pie (Micah, this is just for you)

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I couldn’t help but post this. One of my favorite pies is buttermilk. I don’t like buttermilk, but you never know this pie is made with it in there, for all the butter and eggs. I just saw this on Just A Pinch web page and it will be the next pie I bake this week.

 

2 unbaked pie shells
2 stk butter, room temperature

get recipes @ goboldwithbutter.com
3 3/4 c sugar
1/2 c flour
1/3 c cocoa powder
6 eggs
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c plus 2 oz. buttermilk

Combine sugar and butter and mix until well blended. Beat in the eggs and mix well. Whisk in flour, cocoa and salt until mixture is blended. Add vanilla and buttermilk stirring until all is blended. You can mix all of this by hand or hand mixer if you desire. Pour into pastry shells and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. Cool before slicing and adding delicious whipping cream to the top.

Breads · Cakes · Chocolate

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

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Went to a brunch this morning and had the most delicious and moist coffee cake I think I have ever had. The middle of the cake had melted chocolate chips, combined with sugar and cinnamon and it looked like it had a layer of fudge right there in the middle of the cake. So naturally I had to come home to see if I could find a recipe that sounded like what I just ate. So after surfing the web, (maybe if I surfed in the water, I might loose a pound or two) AllRecipes.Com had this one that sounds and looks just like the one we had. So am sending it your way. Am going to bake it and take to art class on Friday. Am so excited to make it and well, actually I’m a little more excited about having a whole one to myself than making it, but will share it with others since I really do only surf the web.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and soda. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and 1 cup of sugar. Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Mix well.
  4. Add the flour mixture and combine. Batter will be thick.
  5. In a separate bowl, combine chocolate chips, 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
  6. Spread half of the cake batter in prepared 9×13 inch pan. Sprinkle half of the chocolate chip mixture over the batter. Repeat with the remaining batter, and then the remaining chocolate chip mixture.
  7. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.