Chocolate Cake

Aaaaaand we’re back!  Julie is home from Denmark and I (Mary) am on summer break, which means we have time to reignite the foodie flame! 

It’s been way too long, but we’re going to come in strong with a bunch of new posts.  I have a bunch of books to read for my MFA program this summer, and that means a bunch of food to cook from them!

I’m going to start out with a classic dessert: Chocolate Cake.  But don’t turn away just yet!  Everyone who tried this recipe told me it was the best chocolate cake they’ve ever had.  It’s moist, but light, and chocolatey, but not cloying. 

I found chocolate cake in a New York Times bestselling Young Adult novel, Divergent, by Veronica Roth.

  

Riding the Hunger Games wave (more like tsunami), Roth's book takes place in a dystopian society with the people segregated by a controlling government.  But this is not a Hunger Games rip off – it’s actually a great book in its own right, and if you aren't a fan of the gore of Hunger Games, this is a good way to get a thrilling YA without so much blood and guts.  The 3rd book in the trilogy, Allegiant, comes out this October, and the Divergent movie comes out in 2014.

16-year-old Tris Prior lives in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, where the city is divided into 5 factions to prevent government corruption: Abnegation (for the those who believe that selflessness is the solution to corruption), Candor (for those who believe telling the truth would solve everything, Amity (for those who find kindness to be the panacea for the world), Erudite (for those who value learning and knowledge), and Dauntless (for those who value bravery as the fix).

Tris switches from Abnegation, where everyone eats really plain food because eating food that tastes good is considered self-indulgent and therefore non-abnegation, to Dauntless.  At Dauntless headquarters, Tris marvels at all the flavorful food she has never tried before.  The food she repeatedly dwells on is chocolate cake.  This is probably due to her mother’s recommendation, who tells Tris: “‘Have a piece of chocolate cake for me, all right?  The chocolate.  It’s delicious’” (Roth 187)

As I was reading the book, I was wondering what chocolate cake might taste like to someone who has never had it before.  I decided to make it to help me ponder over it. Because, you know, chocolate helps you ponder.

Confession: I normally make chocolate cake from a box.  Gasp!  I know, scandalous.  But it’s the only thing I bake from a box – I’m a total food snob** about everything else.  And lately I’ve been cooking a lot of made-from-scratch cakes, so I am going to be kicking that boxed cake mix habit to the curb.  This was a decision I made after eating this 100% homemade chocolate cake.

Chocolate Cake

Recipe from RealSimple.com

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into pieces, plus more for the pans

2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Creamy Chocolate Frosting

Heat oven to 350º F. Butter two 8- or 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each with a round of parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter and 1 cup water and bring to a boil (the butter will melt). Add to the flour mixture and, using an electric mixer, mix until combined. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the sour cream and vanilla.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pans for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

Transfer one of the cakes to a platter and spread with ¾ cup of the frosting. Top with the remaining cake and spread with the remaining frosting.

Flour/cocoa mixture.  You could sift it, but I didn't and it was lump-free.

boiling water and butter

Creamy Chocolate Frosting

1 1/2 pounds (24 ounces) semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (3 sticks), at room temperature

Melt the chocolate in a medium bowl set over (but not in) a saucepan of simmering water, stirring often, until melted. Let cool to room temperature (do not let it solidify).  [Note: I just heated the chocolate chips in a glass bowl for 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each heating, until they were melted.  Whenever I do the double boiler method explained above, I end up getting a tiny splash of water in the chocolate to seize and become useless.  It's infuriating!  The microwave is foolproof for me]

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy. With the mixer running, slowly add the chocolate and beat until combined and smooth

Chocolate almost completely melted, before letting it cool and adding it to the butter

There you have it!  It was so completely delicious.  I will be making chocolate cake using this recipe from now on.  I love how simple yet delicious it is!

**Side note: While some people may think it’s bad to be a food snob, they never complain when I make stuff from scratch with real ingredients.  Basically, being a food snob is a good thing.  And because I’m a food snob, you should know that when I say a recipe is good, it’s truly good.

Cauldron Cakes

“Tonight’s the night.  Let’s live it up!  I’ve got my ticket -- let’s all dress up!  Go out and smash it, like Harry Potter.  Jump on your broomstick.  You know you wanna!” 

Not quite as cool as the Black Eyed Peas version, but the point is, the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 movie opens tonight at midnight!!!  I don’t think reality has quite sunk in for me yet.  I watched DH part 1 last night, though, so I’m getting pumped!  I’ll be munching on my Licorice Wands and sipping Butterbeer while I’m standing in line.  It’s going to be AWESOME!

Today is my last Harry Potter post to this blog.  After this, HP haters can stop rolling their eyes at me, and HP lovers will have to look to other sources for various wizarding world treats.  It’s a little sad, yes, but we have done quite a lot of Harry Potter food on this blog, and Anna still has another post tomorrow.  Enjoy it while it lasts!

My post today is on Cauldron Cakes.  Cauldron Cakes are a staple treat in the Harry Potter world, much like Pumpkin Pasties.  They are another invention of J.K. Rowling’s imagination, so there’s no set recipe.  I love it when that happens!  It’s so fun to make stuff up!

Cauldron Cakes have their fifteen minutes of fame in Goblet of Fire, while the gang is riding the Hogwarts Express.  “The lunch trolley came rattling along the corridor, and Harry bought a large stack of Cauldron Cakes for them to share” (Rowling 167).  Soon after, Malfoy comes in and causes his usual ruckus, insulting Ron’s family and in general picking a fight.  Hermione chided: 

“Don’t let Malfoy get to you, Ron –”

“Him!  Get to me!?  As if!” said Ron, picking up one of the remaining Cauldron Cakes and squashing it to a pulp. (170)

That is the best description Rowling provides for Cauldron Cakes.  From this, we can conclude that they are stackable and squishable.  Oh, and they’re cakes that resemble cauldrons.  Where to go from here?

I don’t live on the east coast anymore, so I haven’t had the chance to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter down in Orlando, Florida.  But as I’ve researched the various foods I’ve been cooking, I’ve seen lots of pictures crop up from that amusement park.  One of those pictures was the lollipop sugar quill that I posted – not exactly as accurate as sugar quills would be in the real Hogsmeade.  And while I’m sure they get some things right, in my opinion, they messed up on Cauldron Cakes, too:

 I have no idea what those white things are.  Is that suppose to be smoke?

While these things look delicious, they don’t look like they are very stackable.  The handle gets in the way, and the frosting on the cake doesn’t look like it would withstand much.  Maybe I’m just a total Harry Potter snob (I can hear you guys snorting: “Maybe, Mary?”), but I wanted my Cauldron Cakes to be as loyal to the books as possible.  And seeing as there’s so little description, it just doesn’t seem that difficult to do.

My inspiration for the Cauldron Cakes came from zebra cakes produced by Little Debbie.

I know, it’s sad to be inspired by Little Debbie, but when I pictured Cauldron Cakes, I pictured something like a zebra cake: soft cake covered in chocolate (or white chocolate in the zebra cake’s case), and filled with sweet cream.   Zebra cakes are definitely both stackable and squishable, so all that’s left is to make them look like cauldrons.  I didn’t do my Cauldron Cakes just like the Little Debbie treat, but I mine did have those characteristics.  Well, they may not be a very balanced stack, but they are stackable.

These cauldron cakes are a fairly big production.  Although it’s all pretty easy, it’s time consuming and takes up a lot of space.  Don’t undertake this project unless you have several hours to work on it!

Cauldron Cakes

Cupcakes:

1 chocolate cake mix

Other ingredients as listed on the box (most likely eggs, water, and butter)

Mix up cake according to package instructions.  Grease cupcake pans thoroughly and pour cake batter into pans.  Bake cupcakes according to package instructions.

By the way, cake is pretty much the only thing I’ll use a mix for.  I love homemade cake, but those butter recipe cake mixes are pretty darn good, and so easy.

When the cupcakes have been removed from the oven and cooled completely, you have two options.  You can make the cakes more rounded, or you can allow them to retain their cupcake shape. 

If you want them to retain their cupcake shape, all you have to do is cut a hole out of each cupcake.  I did so like this:

And then you can cut out more of the cake if you’d like, depending on how much filling you want to be in the cake.  Make sure to keep the tops of your cupcakes with their matching bottom – you will use them later.

If you would like rounded cakes, you have to stack two cupcakes like a sandwich, so that the wider parts are in the middle.  You’ll notice, however, that they don’t really stack very well.  You have to level them.  Taking a serrated knife, gently level the cupcakes by shaving off the rounded tops.  Use the line around the cakes from the rim of the pan as a guide for where to cut.   

Once you have leveled your cupcakes and sandwiched them, you can then take the top halves of each sandwich and cut a hole in the middle, so that it looks something like a doughnut.

Be careful to keep the “doughnut hole” center with the cupcake it was cut out of.  You’re going to use it later.

Next, you need to fill the cupcake with filling.

Filling:

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup shortening

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 pinch salt

3 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

A few drops almond extract

Food coloring (optional).

In a large bowl, beat butter and shortening together until smooth. Blend in confectioners' sugar and pinch of salt. Gradually beat in milk, as well as the vanilla and almond extracts.  Add food coloring, if desired (I dyed half of it purple, half yellow).  Beat until light and fluffy.  It will have the consistency (and color, if you didn't dye it) of homemade whipped cream.

Filling before I dyed it

Filling the Cakes:

Using a pastry bag, full the cupcakes until they are about 2/3 of the way from the top of the hole. Be careful not to overflow your cupcake with filling – scoop some out with a spoon if you have to much.  Also, be very gentle when filling your cupcakes, because the cake will tend to crack under the pressure.  If that happens, you can kind of glue it back together using a little more filling.  For the sandwiched cupcakes, you also need to add filling into the middle of the two cupcakes, to glue them together. 

Once you’re done filling the cakes, you can put the tops back on.  You only need the very top of the top, so cut off a thin portion of the tops, and gently push them back into the holes.   They should go down below the outer edge.  Be careful not to push too far and crack the cake wall!  You can snack on the remains of the tops while you do this.  There might even be some leftover filling to dip them in.

Half have the tops squished into them, half do not

Chocolate:

4 of those big Hershey Bars – the biggest ones they sell in a regular grocery store.

1 tbsp shortening

Black food coloring

I used part milk and part special dark chocolate, but you can use whatever % cacao you want.  I broke the bars into pieces and stuck them in a glass bowl on the stove.  While the oven was one for the cupcakes, the chocolate gently melted without risk of burning.  I stirred occasionally.  When it came time to using the chocolate, I heated it up in 10 second intervals and stirred a ton until it was completely melted.  I then mixed in the shortening until melted.  I also dyed my chocolate with a TON of black food coloring.   You don’t have to do that, but I thought that black made the Cauldron Cakes look more cauldron-like.  When the chocolate is complete melted and the desired color, you are ready to coat your Cauldron Cakes.

I bought the Hershey bars because I didn’t want to worry about tempering chocolate.  I found out that if you melt your already tempered chocolate at a low temperature, you don’t have to temper it, and it will harden nicely.  The problem with chocolate chips is they don’t have that nice hard snap when they’re are melted and harden again.  I didn’t want the outer coating of my cauldron cakes to be melty and soft, so I used the Hershey Bars. 

Coating the Cakes in Chocolate:

Cover a cookie sheet with wax paper.  Set a cauldron cake on the corner of a spatula and hold the spatula over your chocolate.  Spoon chocolate over Cauldron Cakes, careful not to fill the hole at the top.  Using a rubber spatula or fork, gently coax chocolate-covered cake off the spatula and onto the wax paper.  Be careful not to let it tip over!  Repeat this until all of your cakes are covered (you may need to reheat the chocolate a little bit if it starts to thicken – only do ten second intervals).   The chocolate may be very thick on some cakes, especially around the bottom. You can run your finger gently around each cauldron cake to wipe off some of the excess chocolate.  Put the chocolate on your finger back into the bowl.  When you are finished, place the cookie sheet full of Cauldron Cakes in the freezer.

Putting Potion in your Cauldrons:

1 square of vanilla almond bark, of equivalent of white chocolate

1 tsp shortening

Food coloring

Heat almond bark according to package instructions.  When it is completely melted, add desired food coloring (I also dyed this purple).  The almond bark won’t like the dye much and will start to seize up and thicken.  Add the shortening and stir until it is integrated and the almond bark smooths out again .  You can heat it another ten seconds and add more shortening if needed.

Take the Cauldron Cakes out of the freezer.  Using a spoon, carefully dollop small amounts of the almond bark into the dips in the cauldrons.  This will make it look like your cauldrons are filled with potion.  Pop back into the freezer for a few minutes to harden.  

Once it’s hardened, you’re done!  Enjoy your Cauldron Cakes.   They’re deliciously chocolaty, and the touch of almond extract in the filling makes them positively divine.  If you dyed your chocolate black, beware!  Your tongue will be black for hours to come.  :)

What they look like on the inside

 I really like the sandwiched cupcakes for their rounded quality, but in hindsight, I wish the opening had been a little bigger.  Next time I will cut off part of the top cupcake, so that the cauldron can have a wider hole.  That was the benefit of the non-sandwiched cupcakes, I suppose.  You can pipe on a rim around the top your cakes with any remaining chocolate, if you’d like.

Rims added

I hope you all enjoy the final installment of the Harry Potter series!  I know I will!

Chocolate Frogs and Peppermint Toads

So when you first think of candy in Harry Potter, you probably think of Chocolate Frogs and with the final movie coming out you’re going to need to bring a supply to the theater. I'm going to have mine with me at midnight tomorrow! I'm really excited, I'm currently watching the first half of Deathly Hallows in preparation.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not REAL frogs, are they?" (Rowling 102).

Hogwarts train scene part with chocolate frogs, 1:17-1:55. Oh the first movie, classic.

Chocolate Frogs Recipe:

It’s really simple, just follow the melting directions on your bag of chocolate, whether you choose to use the microwave or double boiler.

Spoon it or pipe it into the molds with a plastic bag. You don’t have to put it in super nicely, it’s melty and if you pick it up and drop it gently and it will fill in everywhere.

Cool it for at least 15 minutes in the fridge and then you should be able to pop them out. You might need to shave little extra edges off with a knife. Note: make sure your kitchen isn't really warm or else the chocolate gets melty. Then look at all the yummy chocolate shavings in the bowl!

**Don’t melt too much chocolate at once, you can’t just melt it and cool it over and over all willy-nilly. Also you should know that I made that scarf, yeah I'm pretty awesome.

Peppermint Toads make their first appearance in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I was skeptical at first because I was afraid that I'd end up putting in way too much peppermint, but it had a nice subtle flavor with a pleasant after-taste. "Peppermint creams shaped like toads ('hop realistically in the stomach!')" (Rowling 197). Sorry my toads, don't jump, let me know if you can figure that out.

Peppermint Toads Recipe:

frog or toad chocolate candy mold
white chocolate candy melts
peppermint candy flavoring oil, 2 drops did it for me
chocolate chips or other chocolate (optional)

You can use food coloring to make the white candy melts any color you'd like, since green would be appropriate. OR you can buy some of the white and green melting chocolate to use together.
Melt the chocolate according to the instructions.
Use a toothpick to add peppermint oil drop by drop until you have the desired taste. Be careful, since the peppermint oil is VERY strong!
Spoon the flavored chocolate mixture into the candy mold and let harden in the refrigerator.
When solid, pop out your toads and add the eyes with a small paintbrush and melted chocolate chips.

Look at them, they're so cute! Sorry I forgot to dye my toads green, oh well.

Cockroach Clusters

I’m personally not a big fan of cockroaches, killing many of them living in the freshman dorms. Cockroach clusters are a better alternative to the real thing.

In Prisoner of Azkaban on page 197, we hear about said candy. Ron and Hermione are at Honeyduke’s at Hogsmeade while Harry is sneaking up on them thanks to the Marauder’s Map and the Invisibility Cloak.

Ron and Hermione were... examining a tray of blood-flavored lollipops. Harry sneaked up behind them.

"Ugh, no, Harry won't want one of those, they're for vampires, I expect," Hermione was saying.

"How about these?" said Ron, shoving a jar of Cockroach Clusters under Hermione's nose.

"Definitely not," said Harry.

Ron nearly dropped the jar.

Ingredients:-
6 oz. melted chocolate
6 oz. peanuts (unsalted) OR chow mein noodles OR pretzel sticks
chocolate sprinkles (optional)

(again lots of options, some recipes have raisins in them, pumpkin seeds, corn flakes, so customize it to your liking)

1. Melt chocolate in double boiler or microwave.
2. Stir in peanuts.
3. Drop onto wax Paper.
4. Before chocolate sprinkle the sprinkles onto each cluster...enjoy! Yes I did word it like that on purpose.

**I'm really sorry I have no idea what's going on with the fonts

Trifle

Hey! It's Anna, back to give you the first of many Harry Potter dessert recipes. Trifle is mentioned in several books. The first time is in Sorcerer's Stone, at the start of term feast.
"A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding..." (Rowling 125).
I have a copy of Sorcerer's Stone, like most of you, but in Philosopher's Stone (the British version), instead of Jell-O they say jelly in the UK. The British don't use jam and jelly interchangeably like we do, jam and jelly is jam to them and jelly for them is Jell-O for us. Everything clear as mud now? Good, today we're going to focus on trifle, not Jell-O. I don't know about you guys, but I really like chocolate, so we are going to look at a chocolate trifle recipe.

Ingredients
**Note: You can easily substitute many of these ingredients for something similar, or even add ingredients it doesn't call for like strawberries, get creative! There's already brownies in it, you pretty much can't go wrong!

• 1 (19.8 ounce) package brownie mix
• 1 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix (try cheesecake pudding mix for fun)
  
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed. Feel free to substitute French Vanilla flavored Cool Whip, or even just use whipping cream in it's place.
  
• 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 (1.5 ounce) bar chocolate candy, or use chocolate chips, or chop up some candy bars instead
  

1. Prepare brownie mix according to package directions and cool completely. (I know, I know, smelling those warm brownies right from the oven and not letting you eat them is really mean, but it'll be worth it I promise.) Cut into 1 inch squares.
2. In a large bowl, combine pudding mix, water and sweetened condensed milk. Mix until smooth, then fold in 8 ounces whipped topping until no streaks remain.
3. In a trifle bowl or glass serving dish, place half of the brownies, half of the pudding mixture and half of the 12 ounce container of whipped topping. Repeat layers. Shave chocolate onto top layer for garnish. Refrigerate 8 hours before serving.

Here's my own personal trifle, I added some caramel in the middle and a peanut butter cup on top. My family loved being able to personalize their own cup, but we're all wishing we weren't out of milk! Enjoy!