Chocolate Peanut Butter Heaven Cake

To celebrate a friend's time spent in Richmond before she leaves for the almost great white north, I decided to make a cake. Not just any cake, a cake that makes a statement. The evening was planned at a friend's bar,  my sister lauren came up with an awesome dance mix, we planned a surprise burlesque show and a special 2nd surprise guest, involving a lot of zebra spandex that literally knocked her shoes off. I knew this cake had to be a show stopper, or get out shined by the other madness. What better way to make the evening perfect than bringing the world's perfect couple to the party, Peanut Butter and Chocolate.

There are very few things in this world that make people act like total crazies; boy bands, porn and Reese's peanut butter cups. I guarantee you every Halloween party you have ever been to has had Reese's cups, and you know they always go first. You can never make them better home made, and their smell lingers around your head after, like you just made out with them.  The genius that is the marriage of chocolate and peanut butter is transformed into a sexy, glossy and classy cake, hoping to emulate the perfection of the Reese's peanut butter cup.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Heaven Cake


Yellow Wedding Cake
Yellow butter cake recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Baking Handbook and my grandmother's own yellow cake recipe.
You will need 1 10x3 cake pan


3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
2 cups cake flour (not self-rising
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups heavy cream with 1/4 cup milk added to the cream


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place the rack in the center of the oven. Butter the 10x3 round cake pan; line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter parchment, and dust with flour, tapping out excess; set aside. Into a medium bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 10 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla. Beat for another 5-10 minutes until the mixture is light, fluffy and smooth. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the cream and beginning and ending with the flour; mix on low until combined after each addition.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans, and smooth. Tap the pan a couple times on the counter to remove any excess bubbles. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until cake is golden brown and a cake tester/bamboo skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 60-70  minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool 30 minutes. Invert cakes onto the rack; peel off the parchment. Re invert cakes and let them cool completely in the fridge for at least 4 hours, top side up.

Peanut Butter Frosting
This filling would also be excellent as a filling for a cookie.

6 ounces room temp Philadelphia cream cheese (seriously- don't mess around with other brands)
1 cup smooth/creamy peanut butter- preferably Skippy. Do not use natural peanut butter because it will separate.
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons heavy cream


Cream the cream cheese and peanut butter on high for 2-3 minutes or until combined. add in the powdered sugar, vanilla, salt and cream and mix well. use immediately. if the mixture is too soft, add more powdered sugar. if the mixture is too hard, add more cream.


Chocolate Ganache
The corn syrup can be omitted if need be, but it really does add a nice gloss to the final product. 

16 ounces semi sweet peanut butter chips
1/3 cup clear/light corn syrup
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 tsp salt

In a heavy sauce pan, bring the cream to a simmer, being careful not to scorch the cream. add the corn syrup, salt and chocolate and let sit for 5-6 minutes. stir well, and strain if needed. let the mixture sit in your fridge for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally until the mixture is thickened, but pourable.

Decoration
Unwrap and freeze 12 Reese's Peanut butter cups (substitutions are not recommended) in a large plastic zip top bag. Once frozen, smash the pb cups with a mallet or the bottom of a large mug until you have tiny chunks. Place back in the freezer until you are ready to use.

Assemble the cake

Using a large serrated knife, cut the top off the cake, making it flat. Cut the cake through the middle, creating 2 even layers. Using the middle of the cake as the bottom, and the bottom (flattest side) of the cake as the top, generously top one layer ("the ugly layer") of the cake with the peanut butter frosting, and place the 2nd layer on top using the bottom of the cake as the top of the cake (the smooth un-cut side). Using that peanut butter frosting you have left, smooth out the sides of the cake, filling holes or gaps that may exist for smooth sides. Once you have smoothed the sides, let the cake rest in the fridge for 2 hours. This may seem like a long time, but it is absolutely necessary. Keep the ganache on the counter so it remains pourable.

Move the refrigerated cake onto a wire baking rack that is placed on top of a jelly roll/cookie pan.

Pour the ganache slowly over the center of the cake, using an off set spatula to guide the ganache to the sides, and patch holes as needed. If the ganache seems too runny, place the ganache and the cake back in the fridge for another hour, and try again, whisking the ganache vigorously after refrigeration to remove any lumps. Working slowly, use all the ganache, place the cake back in the fridge for 20 minutes. Using the palm of your hand, press the Reese's cup peices into the sides of the cake, working quickly and being careful to avoid the top. Refrigerate for another 4 hours, and serve to your drooling guests.

Salted Caramel Corn

For a long time, my sister and i have had a love affair with popcorn.


We grew up in a poor single parent family with 4 kids in a struggling neighborhood in South Richmond. Latch key kids with TV as the babysitter. As an adult i credit my cooking skills to Martin Yan and Julia Child. They were my every day after school babysitter, and while i was too young to appreciate their skill, their knowledge doled out in 30 minute segments seeped into my young and malleable brain, creating the perfect foundation for a budding foodie.


Not a day went by when we were kids that we didn't make a big bowl of popcorn for our after school snack when we were old enough to be trusted in the kitchen alone. I remember dutifully cutting cold butter into small bits to stick in the amber butter melting cup that went on top of the white and black whirling, hot air spewing popper that always sat on the counter. My sister and i would take turns flavoring, and measurements were never taken into consideration. We had a "feel" for popcorn flavoring. My brother, sister and myself would then go and munch on an embarrassment of riches (of popcorn) to our hearts content while watching the tube until mom got home. Cheap and tasty, it is still my favorite snack. While i doubt 10 year old versions of ourselves would have ever created anything this intense- i can guarantee we would have eaten it.

Salted Caramel Popcorn with Peanuts and Dried Cranberries.
Dark, chewy, crunchy, salty and sweet. If you have an air popper- pop the kernels in there and omit the oil.
1/3 rounded cup white popcorn kernels
2 tbs vegetable oil (do not use butter. it will burn)
1 stick unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon kosher (or better) salt, plus more for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup peanuts (preferably lightly salted or unsalted)
1/2 cup dried cranberries


In your largest stock pot (like a pasta cooking pot or soup pot) heat the vegetable oil on medium heat. once the oil starts to shimmer/smoke a little, pour in the popcorn and put a lid on the pot. shake the pot vigerously until all the kernels are popped. (hint- if more than 3 seconds goes by between pops, its done. don't burn the corn!) set the popcorn aside uncovered.


Line the bottom of a large cookie sheet (with a rim) with foil and spray liberally with vegetable oil. set aside.


Using the same pot, melt the butter on medium. once the butter has melted add the brown sugar and corn syrup mixing together with a long handled wooden spoon. Boil the butter and sugar mixture on medium until a thermomiter reaches exactly 300 degrees. Do not stir the mixture. test the temperature frequently( You will need a good quality candy thermomiter- the unbreakable kind, or a digital probe thermomiter for this)

Once the temperature reaches exactly 300 degrees, REMOVE FROM HEAT and add the salt and baking soda and stir well with a wooden spoon. NOTE-- It will look like you messed up here because everything will look bubbly and brown and gross and chunky. hang tight, its about to get awesome, I promise. QUICKLY after adding the baking soda and salt, add the peanuts/cranberries and then the popcorn and stir quickly and thoroughly to mix well.


Pour the molten popcorn mixture onto your prepared cookie sheet, and spread out quickly. while the mixture is still hot and sticky, sprinkle with a little extra salt. let set for 30 minutes to an hour uncovered until it is cool. Break the popcorn apart and store in an air tight container. Doubling this recipe is not reccomended unless you have a ridiculously large pot.


Enjoy.

Red Velvet Celebration Cupcakes

In honor of my friend Kelly's birthday, i decided to make her something really special. inspired by Martha's Birthday Cake in the Martha Stewart Baking book

A special shout out also goes to my friend Kat, who surprise mailed me an adorable little cupcake stamp with pink and black ink a while back! She knows me so well! Kat and her boyfriend Harris are known for their thoughtful natures- always sending notes, cards and small presents in the mail to their friends. They make me want to be a better friend!

I used the stamp and one other coffee cup stamp i had laying around to decorate the boxes and make them special. (coffee and cupcakes- my friends know how serious i am about those things!) I got these delightful magenta boxes from Sur La Table, and at 1.50 per box, its an inexpensive, and a great way to gussy up a cupcake and make the birthday girl feel extra special. each box fit 9 or 10 normal sized cupcakes.

I think these may be the best cupcakes i have ever made, in style and in taste.

Red Velvet Celebration Cupcakes
I'll be honest. I'm not a huge fan of red velvet. When I think of red velvet- my mind immediately goes to sitting on the zebra couch with my grandma and watching Steel Magnolias. While the color is festive, the cake itself is usually dry and the resemblance to blood kind of grosses me out. for this cake, i added some extra cocoa to make the red velvet cake darker and more sophisticated, and topped it with an adapted version of Swiss meringue-- one of my favorite fancy icings. You make it sort of the way you make marshmallows- but without the gelatin, and there is something so appealing, special and exciting to me about using science to make something so delicious and fancy. The Swiss meringue is decadent and sweet. Mimicking a regular pie style meringue, but without the foamy jiggle. (Kelly's special cupcake had extra) You can use this icing without bruleeing the tops-- and it makes an excellent super white and fluffy icing for any cake. I've just bought some A&W Root beer syrup-- so my next cupcake will be root beer float cupcakes-- and I'll probably use this icing again.

A friend at the birthday party summed up everyone's collective feelings on the cupcakes in a pretty funny and naughty way,

"mmmmmmm..... I want to cover my bed in it and roll around in this icing with a lady."

wow... you don't say? ;)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I adapted the Joy of cooking's Buttermilk Layer cake for this.

2 1/3 cups cake flour
4 tablespoons buttermilk powder (why always buttermilk powder? well i hate drinking buttermilk- and i don't use it enough to justify buying it and then throwing it away. so i use this for added richness and flavor, and just keep buying the skim milk i know I'll use)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons dark chocolate cocoa powder
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 small bottle of red food coloring (about 2.5 tablespoons)
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp--- if your butter isn't at room temp-- just mix it with the paddle in the mixer for a couple extra minutes- starting on low- and moving to high for a couple minutes.
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 cup skim milk

Preheat oven to 350

On top of some parchment paper (for easy mixing) Sift together the cake flour, cocoa powder, buttermilk powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a 2 cup measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, skim milk, red food coloring, and vanilla extract.Using a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and on medium/high speed , beat the butter until creamy- adding a 1/3 cup of sugar at a time until the mixture is light yellow and really fluffy. once its all fluffy, alternate 1/3 of the liquid with 1/3 dry scraping the sides of the bowls between incorporations until the mixture is smooth, but don't over mix!

Using a 3 ounce disher (that's a fancy ice cream scoop, y'all!), or a ladle, or a measuring cup with a spout (the possibilities are endless) portion the batter into festive paper cupcake cups (i used red stripes) filling about 3/4 full. this recipe should make 20-24 cupcakes.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or about 14-16 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes, then take the cupcakes out of the metal cupcake tin, and set on a cooling rack. You'll want the cupcakes to be completely cool before frosting.

Swiss Meringue

Adapted from Martha Stewart Baking

8 large egg whites (or 1/2 cup of liquid egg whites)
2 cups sugar
2 drops almond extract
2 tablespoons room temp unsalted butter (very important that it be smooth and room temp)

Directions
In the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer, combine egg whites, sugar, and almond extract. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly until the sugar has dissolved and whites are hot to the touch, 3 to 5 minutes. You'll want the sugar to be completely dissolved- so the icing isn't "crunchy"- unless yo ulike that sort of thing.

Transfer the bowl to the electric mixer. Using the whisk attachment, mix on low speed, gradually increasing to high speed, until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 8 minutes. add in room temp unsalted butter, and mix on high again for about 3 minutes Fill a pastry bag with the meringue. Using a star tip on your pastry bag, pipe the frosting on each cupcake in little dots-covering the surface of the cupcake top- pulling upward as you go. Putting a little bit of pressure on the bag on the upturn creates little spikes all over the cupcake. Using a torch, brulee the tops until you have a good amount of caramelization on the tops-- do this to your liking. If you don't have a torch, preheat your broiler (must be a top broiler) to high for about 5-10 minutes, with the oven rack in the upper middle, lightly brown the tops of the cupcakes carefully-- it can go from looking like a perfectly toasted marshmallow to incinerated pile of ash in a matter of seconds- so like a good ninja, don't turn your back. these cupcakes will keep at room temp for 6-8 hours. after that- they just don't look as awesome.

v day icing overload

In honor of valentine's day, me and a couple friends went over to play Wii and experience the loving feelings of competition (wii boxing) and embarrassment over the game Boogie. Not unlike real, bonified, cupid -inspired love, the beginning parts were nervous and polite but ended up resulting in various members of the party pairing up and trash talking others.

Since it was a friend's birthday as well, i made some snacks to keep up our energy. Because i'm really weird- i didn't like the way the first icing turned out. the butter was slightly too cold- and it was grainy textured.... so i started over and ate some of the reject icing- which felt really great later when i was drinking off the v-day haze with friends and new friends. Note to self- do not mix sparks and reject icing. Let your roommates lick the beater.

Chocolate Cupcake Surprise with milk chocolate butter cream (2.0)
i used the joy of cooking recipe- with some changes in green. I think the caramel truffle addition really added something special to the cupcake. Even though it was valentines day, i only received 1 marriage proposal because of the cupcakes. significantly lower than my usual number, but I'll chalk it up to their nervousness from my extreme wii skills.

Cocoa Devil's Food Cake, from Joy of Cooking, 75th Anniversary edition © 2006
2 c sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking soda ( i used an extra 1/2 a teaspoon-- because I've had that box for a while. i don't really know if that's what you're supposed to do-- but i figured what harm could it do)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 c sugar
1 c buttermilk or yogurt (I used buttermilk powder- and instead of 2 tbl to 1 c water- i used 3 tbl to 1 c water for an extra creaminess)
1/2 c non alkalized cocoa powder ( I used dutch process cocoa)
1 tsp vanilla ( i used 2 tsp vanilla)
1/2 c unsalted butter
2 large eggs ( i used organic eggs)
28 frozen caramel truffles or your favorite candy

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Whisk together in small bowl: cake flour, baking soda, and salt.
Whisk together in a separate bowl: 1 cup of sugar, buttermilk or yogurt, cocoa powder, and vanilla.
Beat butter in large bowl until creamy, about 30 seconds.Gradually add the other cup of sugar and beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Beat in eggs, one at a time.
On low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the buttermilk mixture in 2 parts, beating until smooth and scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary. Spoon into baking cups. Insert 1 frozen truffle into each cupcake and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Makes about 28 cupcakes.

Milk Chocolate Frosting
3 ounces melted good quality milk chocolate chips at room temp
2 sticks room temp butter
2 tsp vanilla- but i bet a nice liquor would be tasty too.
2 tbl whole milk
about 3/4 of a pound of powdered sugar
pinch salt

in a mixing bowl, whip the butter until its creamy and smooth. add melted chocolate, milk, salt and whip. With the beater on low, slowly add the powdered sugar. taste the icing frequently. depending on the kind of chocolate you use- it could go from yummy to cloying in an instant.




Easy white bean and garlic dip for a crowd
2 cans white cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
1 lemon- zest ed and juiced
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup good olive oil
2 tbl dried mint or 1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped finely chopped
salt and pepper
bag of your favorite corn chips or unseasoned pita chips-- i like the lightly salted variety.

put everything in a blender or food processor (except the chips) and blend. taste- adjust flavor if needed and serve. if it gets too thick- add a little water. This dip is equally nice with the addition of goat cheese, avocado, hot sauce, artichoke, peas or even roasted red peppers.

happy cooking. don't forget the bread.