Sunday, June 27, 2010

Hershey's Chocolate Cake for the Chocolate Lover

At 3 am, Faye and I slaved away to make this cake. After messing up and pouring granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar, we had to make a trip to CVS where the creepy security guard who had encountered us previosuly in the tgifridays parking lot and offered his semi-personal bathroom a week before and recognized us. I digress, but point is, that this cake was a very early morning ordeal. We opted not to make the mocha cake we planned for Elliott (sorry), which called for 3 lbs of powdered sugar anyways. The cake sat out all day at the party, probably not the best idea, especially for the strawberries. The ghiradelli touch was from Richie who suggested covering the whole cake with the squares Aaron always eats from work.
DSC05979
HERSHEY'S "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" Chocolate Cake


from Hershey's Kitchen


Ingredients:


2 cups sugar
  • 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING(recipe follows)
Directions:


  • 1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. 

    2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans. 

    3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings. 

    "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING

    1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
    2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
    3 cups powdered sugar
    1/3 cup milk
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.
    DSC06031


    DSC06033





Ingredients:

Directions



Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Dirty Bananas

Having extremely ripe bananas, to the point where they are no longer brown, but blackening, so old that they no longer have their usual texture but are slimy and stick to the peel, I decided to channel my inner Martha Stewart (I usually don't make any of her recipes) and make a couple banana recipes to save waste and be resourceful.  The first was a banana walnut chocolate-chip cookie, which spread out way too much when it was baked.  It had a really cake-like texture, and the taste was pretty bland.  My conclusion: they were shmehh, but I would probably never make again.  Not very proud to take them to work/share.  The second recipe was a banana cupcake, which was supposed to have honey-cinnamon frosting, but unfortunately I delayed the frosting process, and never got around to making it.  So they remained plain banana muffins more-or-less.  In a smell test, these proved to have a stronger banana scent than the cookies.  And they had a nice texture, a good interior, which a slightly crunchier top.  I would probably try making this again with the addition of the frosting.  Until next time I let my bananas get to their worst...

DSC05815
Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large)
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into 1/4-inch chunks
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (about 2 ounces), toasted

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together flours, salt, and baking soda ina small bowl; set aside. Put butter and sugars into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add egg and vanilla; mix until combined. Mix in banana. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in oats, chocolate chunks, and walnuts.
2. Using a 11/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set, 12 to 13 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers up to 2 days.

DSC05827
(my pictures are definitely not as clear as they used to be)
Banana cupcakes, sans frosting
from Martha Stewart
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not overmix). Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Repeat Favorite

Chock-full of Chip Cookies
DSC05534
Best cookies ever if you love lots of chips. These appear to have gotten even more chocolate chippier.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Yoda Pizza

My friend London found this picture of a Yoda pizza on geekologie.  Since I have a mild obsession with Yoda, and a slight attraction to his wrinkly, old-manish figure, I decided to take on the challenge and make this pizza for the bros: London and my fellow Yoda/Star Wars lover, Spencer.  My first intention was to try having the cooks make it at work, but then that fell through and I decided to buy the ingredients and try sculpting it myself.  I think it turned out well for the first time doing pizza art.
Raw:
DSC05749
Cooked:
DSC05750
Me, Yods, and Pizza:
DSC05753