Guinness Chocolate Cake with Baileys Frosting

Chocolate cake is not my friend.  Really, it's cakes in general--I find them all rather temperamental, moody little things that throw a fit and refuse to come out right if I mis-measure by even a quarter of a teaspoon.  

Actually, strike that.  I have measured and followed a recipe exactly, sifting when sifting is required, counting hand strokes for mixing (really) and carefully making the high altitude adjustments and I still don't have a chocolate cake recipe that I adore except my favorite chocolate ganache cake which starts with a box mix.  

Recently, I embarked on a journey to find the PERFECT homemade chocolate cake recipe.  I started with a recipe for Chocolate Heaven cake from the Back in the Day Bakery.  Five star bakery in Savannah, five star cookbook, and rave reviews for this cake, I was sure I'd finally found the go-to cake recipe.  

Cake flour, eggs and sour cream and room temp and unsweetened chocolate bars...you would think this recipe is on it's way to the winners list. 

I always give myself a pat on the back when I use more than one pan for a cake. 

And then an extra pat on the back when I pull out a pastry bag and pipe anything.  Piping is sometimes fun, sometimes annoying.

Alas, I was able to screw up a cake recipe that everyone else seems to be able to nail.  My version was dense, not chocolatey enough, and well, dense.  Maybe the problem is that I expect cakes to be fluffy.

Chocolate cake number two was a Pinterest recipe that was touted to be the world's best sour cream chocolate cake.  

Surely cream cheese buttercream (yes both) chocolate frosting is the secret to perfect chocolate cake.  

Or not.  This cake was a  lot fluffier but that frosting was killer sweet and there definitely wasn't enough chocolate in the cake or the frosting.  It was more like a "kind-of chocolate" cake.  

I should have mentioned that the chocolate cake by which I gauge all other cakes is Cheesecake Factory's Chocolate Tower Truffle cake which is probably more truffle than cake.  

Strike two. 

After all of the effort of the two prior chocolate cakes, I went back to one of my standards--Nigella's Guinness chocolate cake.  I would categorize this as an overall fantastic cake rather than a fantastic chocolate cake.

Best part is that it's super simple and made right in the saucepan.

I know I posted this recipe 4 years ago when I made it into Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, but while not the perfect truffle-like chocolate cake, it's a pretty delicious cake....definitely a keeper recipe for when you want to throw together something super quick and easy.

Only one saucepan and  one baking pan to clean up.

Chocolate Guinness Cake
Adapted from Nigella Lawson Feast

1 cup Guinness stout
1 stick unsalted butter, sliced
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1.5 cups sugar
¾ cup sour cream
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2.5 teaspoons baking soda

Baileys frosting
-8 ounce cream cheese
-1 cup confectioners’ sugar
½ cup Baileys

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line bottom with parchment paper.
2. Pour Guinness into a large saucepan, add butter and heat until melted. Whisk in cocoa powder and sugar. In a small bowl, beat sour cream with eggs and vanilla and then pour into brown, buttery, beery mixture and finally whisk in flour and baking soda.
3. Pour cake batter into greased and line pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack.
4. When cake is cold, gently peel off parchment paper and transfer to a platter or cake stand.
5. Place cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a mixing bowl, and whip with an electric beater, until smooth
6. Add cream and beat again until you have a spreadable consistency.
7. Ice top of cake, starting at middle and fanning out, so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

Denver Broncos Orange Crush Cupcakes

I have to admit that post-season games always get my blood pressure up.  Playoffs have been causing trepidation and fear ever since the days of Elway, Mecklenburg, the Three Amigos and Rulon Jones (who I had a really big girlie crush on mostly because he was 6-6 and that sure sounded like the most perfect height. Indeed.)   Those playoff games were always so close and then so disappointing that part of me just can't shake that post-season fear.

Fingers crossed for no disappointment Sunday.  It's been quite awhile since I've posted a game day eats recipe.  With the big playoff game coming up on Sunday, it seemed appropriate to post a recipe that had a bit of orange or blue in preparation for  game day.  I say double points here for not only bringing in the orange and blue, but for adding a little extra team spirit to the recipe. 

We call this Rocky Mountain champagne.  Now if you can actually drink the stuff, you are badder, tougher and cooler than me.  But it is the official drink of game day, (okay beer probably is) so you have to have it on the table at least as an offering.   OR, you can put it in the cupcakes.

I'd bookmarked a Mountain Dew cupcakes recipe awhile back because I'd planned on making some for my Mountain Dew addict brothers but never got around to it.  I mixed it up a bit and swapped out the Dew for some of the Rocky Mountain Champagne and was surprisingly pleased. It's not a full on chocolate cupcake with chocolate truffle frosting, but it's definitely a fun game day food.

I opted to make the cooked flour frosting that I'd made earlier this year, minus the dried ground strawberries.  Every time I say "cooked flour frosting" people turn up their nose and every time I make a cake with it, people ask for the recipe.  If you've never had it, I'd describe it as being really just a stabilized whipped cream type frosting.  It's basically the same core make up (butter is extra, extra whipped cream yes?) except with the flour which stabilizes it all so that you can frost cakes and leave them out.  

Make sure you cool the cooked flour mixture before adding to the butter.  Current weather conditions can be used to your advantage here.  I'd suggest pressing plastic wrap all the way down on the flour mixture to prevent a skin from forming.

Don't the little mini helmets just make you smile?  These are fully painted/printed so you can wash and reuse them if you are so inclined, but I've found that they tend to disappear with the guests.  

Here's hoping for a Sunday full of orange and blue magic and some good Orange Crush defense.

Orange Crush Cupcakes

adapted from Forkful  of Comfort

For the Cupcakes
Ingredients
1 cup butter (2 sticks) softened
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest

1/2 tsp orange extract
4 large eggs at room temperature
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups Orange Crush soda

1 batch of Cooked Flour Frosting(minus the strawberries) 

Orange Sprinkles

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In stand mixer beat butter until light. 

Add in sugar, orange zest and beat until fully mixed and fluffy. 

Add in eggs on at a time. 

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. 

Starting with flour mixture, add 1/4 flour mixture then 1/3 Orange Crush alternately to the butter mixture, mixing to combine after each addition. 

Pour evenly about 2/3rds of the way up in a paper lined muffin tin. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned and tooth pick comes out clean. 

Remove for pan and allow to completely cool on wire rack before frosting and dipping in sprinkles.  

Eggnog Crumb Cake

I know the very mention eggnog sends a visceral shudder through some people.  I am not one of those people--I think eggnog is a grand thing really.  I don't think I could just chug some of it down in a glass but eggnog in baking, or even a splash in coffee once in awhile is okay by me.  Coming from a girl who hates sugar or flavored creamers of any kind in her coffee, that's a statement.  

I especially love one big fat cup of eggnog in a super-fat-crumb-topped coffee cake.  Yes indeedy. 

Does anyone else pass on the big KitchenAid mixer often for the quick convenience of a hand mixer or is it just me?

The eggnog flavor comes through pretty nicely in this coffee cake and those rich brown sugary crumbs are the perfect addition.  I still swear by the crumb topping from the New York Times recipe years ago.  When you melt the butter first and mix in the flour to make a moist crumb that you can aggressively squeeze  pinch into big fat crumbs in a delicate and lady-like manner, well, you have the perfect crumb cake. 

Crumb cake should be served with coffee.  As should everything really. 

Eggnog Crumb Cake

Ingredients:
For the Crumb Topping:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter, melted
1 1/2 cups flour

For the Crumb Cake
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar

2 large eggs
1 cup eggnog
1 cup greek yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
2 1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the Eggnog Icing

2 tbsp butter melted

3 tbsp eggnog

1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a tube pan. 
2. In a large bowl, beat together together butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in eggs one at a time. 
3. Beat in the eggnog, yogurt, nutmeg and vanilla extract.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. 
5. Add dry ingredients into into wet ingredients and stir until just blended.
6. Spread the batter into the greased pan and tap on counter to remove air bubbles. 
7. Make crumb topping. In a medium bowl, whisk sugars, spices and salt into melted butter until smooth. Add flour and stir thoroughly.  (Can make earlier but may need to reheat prior to remelt butter...melted butter creates a damp crumb that can easily be crumbled into big crumbs)
8. Crumble crumb mixture into big pieces over top of batter. 
9. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
10. Cool on rack for 5 minutes.  Place a plate on top of the cake and flip the cake over onto the plate.  Place serving plate on bottom of cake and flip cake over to right-side up. 
11. For icing whisk together butter and eggnog in a small saucepan over low heat.  Bring to a simmer for 2 mins, whisking constantly.  Cool and whisk  in confectioners sugar.  (Can skip the simmering of the eggnog if you are going to be refrigerating the crumb cake)
12. Drizzle icing over completely cooled cake

Grilled Peaches and RolyPoly Cake

Hopefully you've all had your share of grilled veggies and fruit this summer because grilled produce is awesome.  Some of my favorite grilled fruits are our Colorado colossal super fantastic Palisades peaches that I pick up EVERY weekend at the local farmers markets when peaches are in season.  They are phenomenal all by themselves but when you need a little variety because you've been eating peaches nonstop for weeks, throwing them on the grill is a great way to mix it up.  I've been using the Tyler Florence "recipe" I posted eons ago--a drizzle of oil and some fresh rosemary.  A few minutes per side on a medium high grill and voila, you are good to go. 

The same recipe can be turned into a nice clean summery dessert with a little help from greek yogurt. Of course, this recipe works without the rosemary--I just fell in love with the peach and rosemary combo so always throw them together if I'm grilling peaches.  I served these after the Tandoori chicken I made so thought it would be nice to incorporate a little eastern flavor into the dessert as well......mmmmm cardamom and honey.

For the yogurt you simply mix 1/4 tsp finely ground cardamom(or you could use cinnamon) and 1 tsp vanilla extract into 2 cups of greek yogurt.  I tend to like my food less sweet so I opted for no honey in the yogurt itself, but if you are sugar peeps, drizzle a big glob of honey into the yogurt.  Mix well, and spoon onto warm grilled peaches  Drizzle with honey and serve.

A little Peanut turned not so little this year...5!!! Oh I'm so weepy.  And again, instead of humoring her aunt with a princessy girly cake, she's decided to love bugs...rolypolys in particular.  Since I'm a believer in encouraging what people love, I thought a rolypoly cake might be fun....that is until I realized that no one in all of internet land had ever posted a photo of a rolypoly cake they'd made.  Or at least I couldn't find one.  Crikey.  Turns out it wasn't so hard with a little chocolate fondant and a loaf cake.  

Yes, the cakes are getting lazier over the years.  I might just stick a candle in a Sara Lee pound cake and call it good next year.  Just kidding Peanut. 

Happy Birthday little Peanut.  You are this auntie's favorite 5 year old superhero. 

Puppies always know how to get in on the action.

Chocolate Orange Loaf

This chocolate loaf recipe is originally from Nigella's cookbook Feasts.  It has four kinds of chocolate and the result is a super moist, dense, chocoholic's dream.  I especially love the sticky, dense, almost rich frosting texture that the top of the cake gets when you pour the chocolate syrup over it...all without the uber sweetness of frosting.  As a result,  I used to make it ALL THE TIME.  When I started back at my former company, now current company, several coworkers wasted no time in asking when this cake was coming back too.  

I used to make many of the chocolate cakes from this cookbook quite often, so much so that the cookbook falls open to the chocolate cake section (Guinness chocolate cake page to be precise).  Not sure why I stopped there for awhile.  Nigella's cake making style is pure rock star since is all about making cakes as easy and fuss-free as possible. Love Nigella and love this cookbook...it's one of my most used. The Guinness cake all goes into a pan on the stove...melt the butter, pour in the Guinness and add the other ingredients.  This recipe is almost as simple. 

While the butter is not melted and you do have to bring all of the ingredients to room temp, to make this cake you simply put  the ingredients to the food processor and pulse, blitz, mix. I've made this recipe a bazillion times and have tried variation upon variation.  You can add mint extract, Oreos instead of chocolate chips, chopped up candy bars (especially Reeses PB cups), coconut and coconut extract or just about any extract you can think of. It's all good.

I'd recently seen a recipe for an orange chocolate loaf in a cookbook that I couldn't stop thinking about but couldn't remember which cookbook I was looking through at the time.  Very often the case.  I figured that the chocolate loaf in the recipe I saw in passing probably couldn't hold a candle to this chocolate loaf so I made this with an orange variation. If you are not making the orange version, you would replace the orange juice with 1/2 cup of boiling water. 

Cocoa powder, chocolate chips, chocolate syrup and chocolate shavings. 

Seriously good cake. 

Spring has sprung here in Denver.  Hooray!

• Chocolate Orange Loaf
adapted from Nigella Feast

1 cup ap flour
2/3 c whole wheat pastry flour (plus 2 tbsp for high altitude)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups sugar
zest of 2 med-large oranges
1 1/2 sticks softened unsalted butter
2 eggs, room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup greek yogurt, room temp
1/2 cup orange juice heated to almost boiling
1 cup chocolate chips

Syrup:
1 teaspoon cocoa
1/4 cup water

1/4 cup OJ
1/2 cup sugar
chocolate bar grated for topping

candied orange peels (optional)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease and flour large loaf pan
Place  the flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar, butter, eggs, yogurt and vanilla,  into the bowl of food processor and mix until a smooth

Scrape sides with rubber spatula and turn processor back on  

Gently pour the heated OJ down the spout and continue mixing until smooth

Turn processor off, remove lid and scrape sides again with rubber spatula.  Pour in chips and mix well
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-55 mins.  When ready, the loaf will be risen and split down the middle and a toothpick will come out clean
About 15 mins before the loaf is done, put the syrup ingredients of cocoa, water, OJ and sugar into a small saucepan and boil gently for about 5 minutes, until syrup is thickened
Take the cake out of the oven and while still in the pan, pierce randomly with a cake tester or toothpick 

Pour the syrup over the cake
Cool completely before removing from pan onto plate.  Sprinkle the grated chocolate over the top and garnish with orange peels if desired

Lime Yogurt Loaf

With all of the cinnamon and pumpkin deliciousness of the past month, I was kind of in the mood for a little break and what is a better break than a little citrus yumminess?  Barefoot Contessa's Lemon Yogurt Cake is one of my favorite go-to citrus recipes--it's tart, moist and I love that it uses yogurt.  I mixed it up this time and made it with limes....and a little spinach.  My obsession with putting spinach into any many foods as possible probably isn't surprising to anyone who knows me, but in this instance, it wasn't for the taste or the health benefits.  

Nope, it was just for the color. 

Spinach as it turns out, is a fantastic natural food coloring--it's eerily food-coloringesque in the photos right?    I saw a phenomenal looking lime tart just recently (I don't recall the site) and she used a bit of spinach to just make the green pop a little.   Genius.   Even I would admit that spinach and lime flavored cake might be too out there. In this loaf though, the spinach adds the fun green color without even a bit of spinach flavor.  Verily.  

I bumped up the amount of lime zest to a full tbsp but if you like subtle lime, you could use 2 tsp.  I also added lime zest to the glaze because I am a citrus glutton apparently. I think it was the perfect amount of lime.

Lime Yogurt Cake
adapted from Barefoot Contessa at Home

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup yogurt, drained 
• 1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tbsp grated lime zest (3-4 limes)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2-3 tbsp frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove water
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

For the glaze:

• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 tsp grated lime zest

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees f 
2. Grease and flour loaf pan
3. Add oil and spinach to a blender and blend 1-2 minutes
4. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup  of the sugar, the eggs, lime zest and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 
6. Gently stir the spinach oil into the batter and ensure it's fully mixed in. 
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
8. Meanwhile cook the 1/3 cup lime juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.
9. When the loaf is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then remove loaf from pan and cool on cooling rack.  Place baking sheet underneath cooling rack and pour the lime-sugar mixture over the loaf and allow it to soak in. 
10. For the glaze, combine the confectioners sugar, 1 tsp lime zest and lime juice and pour over the loaf and let harden.

Denver Bronco cupcakes

This is Brooklyn's serious Monday night football stance.  Everyone should have one, especially when one of the games in the Monday night season opener happens to be the rivalry of rivalries....Oakland at Denver.  It doesn't get any better than this in my humble Bronco-centric mind.  

There are a few times each year when food coloring might be necessary and football season tops that list in my mind.  I found a place online that sold blue and orange sprinkles--what did we do before the internet? The sprinkles were called navy...they appear more royal blue to me.  I also learned that navy blue cupcake liners become black after baking. I suppose beggars can't be choosers and they are Broncos in spirit.

I'm was so giddy with anticipation I may have gotten carried away with sprinkles on everything...go Broncos!

Same pumpkin cupcake recipe from yesterday.