Chocolate Orange Chocolate Box Cake

Difficulty: Easy

My mom always made tasty cakes, in a short time span. Her trick: doctoring up box cakes. Swap out the oil requirement for butter, and the water requirement for juice. It works for just about any flavor of cake and a variety of different juices. This is for a Chocolate Orange cake, but Lemon Pineapple with whipped cream is pretty amazing too. Experiment!

Ingredients:
Cake

• Chocolate box cake (in this case, Dark Chocolate Fudge)
• Butter (in amount on box cake)
• Orange juice, any amount of pulp (in amount on box cake)
• Other ingredients as listed on box (eggs, etc)
  

Frosting

• 8 oz Baker's bittersweet chocolate (1 box)
• 1 and a half cubes butter
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• about a cup powdered sugar
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup milk
• salt (to taste, I used over a teaspoon)
  

Filling

• 2 or 3 tangerines (or an orange)
• sour cream (small container)

Using two 8-inch round cake pans, make the cake per the directions on the box, but where the directions ask for oil, use the equivalent amount of butter. Where the directions ask for water, use that amount of orange juice. It's usually best to bake it a few minutes less and test the the center of the cake with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out of the cake clean, your cake is done. Let the cakes cool before removing them, about 15 minutes.

For the frosting, melt the box of chocolate and butter over low heat in a small pan. Once chocolate and butter have melted, mix them until smooth, then add the vanilla. In a small jar or cup, mix a small amount of milk with a decent amount of the powdered sugar, to remove lumps. (In a closeable jar, you can just shake the jar vigorously.) Slowly the sugar-milk syrup into the pan while stirring the chocolate. Taste it periodically until you reach your desired sugar level. I prefer it a bit on the tart side. A few generous dashes of salt will cut the sharpness of the bittersweet chocolate.

If you're feeling adventurous, take the fresh tangerine or orange, wash well, and use a cheese grater to grate some fine bits of the citrus peel into the frosting. I demolished 2 tangerine skins. It's best done when the fruit is whole.

Overturn one cooled cake onto a plate, leaving the cake upside down. Using a bread knife, carefully cut it in half. Spread a healthy dollop of sour cream onto the upside down half (I used four to six tablespoons, at least), then spread chocolate frosting on top. Replace the other half on top, and squeeze the fresh citrus juice over this (I used one and a half mandarins of juice), then grate more citrus skin over this layer. Add more chocolate frosting.

Overturn the second cooled cake onto a separate plate, cutting it in half, and placing this cake bottom on top of the pile, adding another sour cream and chocolate layer. Place the last half on the cake, and pour as much frosting as you'd like over it. If you slowly let the chocolate seep over the side, you can use a knife to spread it around the sides. Use a spatula (or your finger, mmm) to clean up any stray drips of chocolate onto the plate around the edge of the cake. The frosting will be soft but solid once at room temperature, and become hard when placed in the fridge.

Buckeyes

My family always made these rich, "crack bombs", if you will for Christmas time when I was a child. One batch makes quite a few depending on how big you make them, and they will take awhile to eat up, so I'd suggest freezing the left overs. (unless you are an absolute chocolate-peanut butter fiend!)

3/4 lb margarine
2 lbs powdered sugar
1 pint peanut butter
12 oz chocolate chips (semi sweet)
1 7oz jar marshmellow creme
1/4-1/2 cake paraffin

Mix first four ingredients well. form into balls . refrigerate for several hours. melt chocolate chips and paraffin in double broiler. Dip the balls into the chocolate with a toothpick. Let cool

Banana Bread

Difficulty: Easy

For this delicious recipe, you want to be using an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan. Feel free to add or omit the lemon, apricots, or nut meat.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift before measuring:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Resift with:
2 1/4 teaspoons double acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Blend until creamy:
1/3 cup of shortening
2/3 cup of sugar
3/4 teaspoons grated lemon rind
Beat in:
1 to 2 beaten eggs
1-1 1/4 cups ripe banana pulp

Directions:
Add the sifted ingredients in about 3 parts to the sugar mixture. Beat the batter after each addition until smooth. Fold in:
1/2 cup of broken nut meats
1/4 cup of finely chopped apricots
Place the batter in a greased bread pan. Bake the bread for ~1 hour, or until done.
Cool before slicing.

That's all there is to it! Quick, easy, and delicious!

Peach Upside Down Cake

This is a very yummy dessert cake, and you can serve it with or without the topping. I've also never had the liqueur on hand, so I've always just added extra pure vanilla extract. Good Luck!

Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients:

4 tbsp. butter

1/2 cup brown sugar large pinch nutmeg (can also use some cinnamon too)

2 cups peach slices (I recommend fresh or frozen, canned are too sweet mushy)

1 tbsp. amaretto or almond liqueur (plus more for topping)

1 1/3 cups cake flour (All Purpose will do, but cake flour is lighter and fluffier)

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. butter, room temperature

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

Topping:

1 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon Amaretto or almond liqueur

1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons slivered blanched almonds

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F. In an 8-inch square or round pan, melt butter; sprinkle with brown sugar and nutmeg, mixing well and distributing evenly.

2. Arrange peach slices, slightly overlapping the slices, evenly over the brown sugar. Sprinkle with the amaretto or almond liqueur.

3. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter. Stir vanilla into milk and stir into the flour mixture.

4. Beat for 2 minutes at medium speed. Add egg, and beat for 1 more minute. Pour batter over peaches.

5. Bake for 35 minutes or until cake tests done with a toothpick.

6. Remove to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before inverting with a sharp thump onto a serving dish. Leave the cake in the pan upside-down for several minutes to help free it from the pan.

Topping: Serve with freshly whipped cream sweetened with powdered sugar and a little Amaretto. Sprinkle whipped cream with slivered almonds. Alternatively, vanilla ice cream may be used as a topping.

Variation: 2 or 3 tablespoons blanched almonds can be ground in a processor and sprinkled over the brown sugar for what eventually becomes the topping after the cake is inverted.

Cocoa Brownies

Rating: Easy (I promise!)

This is one of those recipes you can use to impress a date or just because you don't feel like using a box mix.  This is also one of those recipes where if you're hoping for the best taste or to impress someone, seriously, spring for better cocoa.  I've made these with $2 a box cocoa powder and $10 a box cocoa powder and believe me, the more expensive cocoa was incredibly worth it.  The recipe is so simple with so few ingredients that the ones you use really need to be good because there's no other flavors to cover it up.  Scharffen Berger makes an absolutely fantastic cocoa that you can use here that will give just stupidly amazing results and a single can is enough for two batches - so while the $10 price tag looks hefty, that's about $5 a batch... only a dollar or so more than a cheap box of brownie mix.

But you can still use plain old Hershey's powder and they'll be good!  I've scattered in some photos of the process so if you see a link that will take you to a pic of what that stage should look like.  Because I made these at night some of the photos are not food blog quality so hopefully you'll forgive me.  Follow the link at the end of the post for nicer, fancier, professional photos taken by someone else.


You will need:
10 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon salt if you aren't using salted butter
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (can be skipped)
2 large eggs, cold
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

 Preheat your oven to 325F/160C.  Line an 8x8 pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper and grease the foil with cooking spray or a little butter.  Leave enough foil outside the pan that you can use it to pull the brownies out to cool later.

Mix together the sugar and cocoa powder and butter in a microwave safe bowl (you can also do this with a double boiler if you do not have a microwave).  Microwave it in short bursts, stirring often, until the cocoa/sugar/butter mixture is sort of gritty and is almost uncomfortably hot to the touch if you stick your finger in there.  Let the gritty mix sit until it is warm to the touch but no longer hot (so that you don't scramble the eggs), and then mix in the eggs and vanilla until it is glossy and smooth. 

Add the flour and stir until you can no longer see white streaks in the batter; mix another 40 strokes or so after that.  Pour into the prepared 8x8 pan and bake in a 325F oven for about 20-35 minutes or until they are set on the top and a toothpick or knife inserted in the center comes out moist with batter and crumbs.  I go with 30 minutes as a default and they are generally ready to come out of the oven around that time.  Let them cool completely on the counter or put them in the fridge partway through to help speed it up.  These will be pretty damp, dense brownies that are a little difficult to cut cleanly.  Serve with just about anything, or by themselves.  Two small squares made with the Scharffen Berger cocoa and a glass of nice red wine is a really simple but very impressive dessert for a date night in!

These are from Smitten Kitchen, which if you have a wee tiny kitchen or are trying to get by with not a lot of kitchen tools is a pretty good resource for that sort of thing.  Several of my favorite recipes are from there so that blog will show up again!

Eep's Super Secret Recipe for Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies

There you have it folks, the secret of my amazing chocolate chip cookies has been revealed. "WTF!!" I hear you screaming. Well, it's the truth. I use an only slightly altered version of the recipe that you find on the back of a bag of chocolate chips. So what makes my cookies different? Well, I happen to be the proud owner of a KitchenAid stand mixer and have noticed a major decline in the quality of my cookies when I haven't been able to use it.

Difficulty: Easy

* 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I prefer unbleached)
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 357F/190.5C.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chips and nuts. Place spoonfulls (amount depends on the desired cookie size, mine is a heaping tablespoon) on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 9-11 minutes. Place on cooling rack to try.

If you feel like getting fancy I sometimes flatten out the cookie dough a bit and sprinkle on a little course sea salt.