Milk made from butter

My Dad recently had his birthday (although out of town without me) and I can never turn down an excuse for cake making, so I decided to embark on this recipe. I was nervous about the amount of coffee considering what a bad Seattlelite I am (hot chocolate any day), but this cake was so good and so moist and so did not taste like coffee that it was clearly worth it. So instead of doing the mountains of homework I have, I adapted this cake recipe. It originally called for a ganche frosting, but I decided to go head over heels with chocolate and pair it with fresh whipped cream instead.

Fun anecdote of the day: When I was shopping for buttermilk (which I did not find as the recipe below reveals) I asked for the help of a friendly Safeway employee. His reply, verbatim: Is that milk made from butter?
Also, it turns out that I suck at cake decorating. This is so structurally unsound and the first cake came out of the pan more in crumbs than a cake form. And by the time the cake had been frosted for half an hour three serious cracks had appeared. So I would follow Smitten’s advice on the parchment/wax paper because she clearly had a point.


Double Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Cake Layers
3 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Brew coffee and cover chocolate chips with it, stirring until all melted and smooth. This takes a little while. In the meantime, beat the three eggs into a consistent mixture. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Add in all other ingredients. Grease three round pans (I had enough batter to fill two eight inch and one ten inch which was the best I could with available cookware) and line with wax/parchment paper then fill with batter. Bake at 300 for 50 minutes to an hour and ten minutes.


Raspberry Filling
12 oz frozen raspberries
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Thaw the raspberries and then blend (I had to add about a fourth cup of hot water to get a more liquidy mixture), push through a sieve (or whatever mesh you can improvise) into a pot to get rid of seeds. I found the back of a spoon pretty helpful. Add in the sugar and cornstarch and bring to a boil, letting thicken. Wait to completely cool to spread between layers.

Frosting
1 carton heavy whipping cream
Sugar to taste

Combine and mix until fluffy. Use to frost outside of the cake (I used as filling for the second layer to mix things up and put more raspberry on top).

This is really good. Like, maybe the chocolate cake I've ever had even if it is super ugly. Seriously, go make this, right now.

The best kind of family heirloom

Remember in elementary school when everyone got a chance to bring in cupcakes on their birthdays? I never did, because no matter how many times teachers promised an end of the year party for all summer birthdays it never happened. So maybe I’m overcompensating in that now even though I’m in college I’m still bringing baked goods to class. At least this time it was for a potluck.





I love my Mom for many reasons, and while most of those are unconditional support, love, etc, another is these bars. These bars are like crack to me, and an instant hit anywhere (proof, they were completely gone less than six hours after cutting into them), and so easy that its almost embarrassing. Because everyone wants to know what’s in them, and when you reveal that it only has 5 ingredients it just doesn’t seem so impressive. But that doesn’t matter because it is still damn tasty.

Adapted from my Mother who adapted it from her mother, etc

ChocoCoco Bars

8 oz of coconut flakes
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
10 graham crackers
8 teaspoons butter
1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Crush the graham crackers. I do this using a fork in a bowl, but I’m sure there are easier less labor intensive ways. Melt the butter (and the more you use the more these will stick together, their major flaw is being so crumbly) and mix it in before pressing the crackers into the bottom of an 13 by 9.5 pan (though this is pretty easily interchangeable).
Spread coconut flakes over graham cracker crust. Spread chocolate chips over this. Open the can of condensed milk, and dump it evenly over the entire creation. Bake for 20 minutes.

Cautionary tale: These are so crumbly that you will just help yourself to little morsels until you realize you’ve eaten half the pan. So I highly recommend that you wait until you’re at a place filled with people before starting to eat.