Devils Food Cake with Buttercream Icing

Cakes with lots of frosting are one of my favorite desserts, especially a good chocolate cake. I have several "go to" chocolate cake recipes but I have never made a devils food cake. When I was perusing my cookbooks I came across this recipe from Cooks Illustrated, after all I have never made anything from their books that has not been great. 

This classic cake  is rich, dense, almost like a cross between a brownie and a cake and delicious. 

Devils Food Cake 

Recipe from Cooks Illustrated

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate chopped

1/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder

11/4 cups boiling water

3/4 cup unbleached flour

3/4 cup plain cake flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

11/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 2 9" cake pans with cooking spray and line with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a bowl combine the cocoa powder and the unsweetened chocolate. Pour the boiling water over this mixture and whisk until smooth. Set aside to cool.

In another bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda and salt, set aside. 

Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium until light and fluffy. Then add the brown sugar and beat in hight for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl then add the eggs one at a time on medium speed. Add the sour cream and the vanilla and mix 1 minute. Then add the 1/3 flour mixture, 1/3 chocolate mixture, repeat with 1/3 of each, then again ending with the flour mixture. Beat just to combine, do not over mix. Remove bowl from mixer and scrape the sides to be sure everything is combined. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Remove to wire wrack let cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove from pans and let cool completely. Once cooled frost with your favorite frosting. 

Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar

1 stick softened butter

3-4 tablespoons heavy cream

11/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. almond extract

In the bowl of your mixer, mix all of the ingredients on low until combined then mix on medium/high until light and fluffy. About 5 minutes. You can add more cream to get the spreading consistency that you like. 

Enjoy!

Linking to
Savvy Southern Style

National Chocolate Cake Day

I love a holiday and if it includes chocolate even more so. Today is National Chocolate Cake Day, yes there is such a day as well as National Cream Puff Day, National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day and more.

To celebrate National Chocolate Cake Day I made a scrumptious Chocolate Banana Cake with Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting. 

Chocolate Banana Cake

Recipe from The Joy of Baking

2 cups of white sugar

13/4 cup flour

3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

11/2 tsp. baking powder

11/2 tsp. baking soda

2 eggs

1 cup mashed banana( about 2-3 bananas)

1 cup of warm water

1/2 cup of milk 

1/2 cup of oil(canola, safflower, corn)

1/12 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder. Set aside. In another bowl whisk the eggs, bananas, water, milk, oil and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and whisked until combined. Pour batter into prepared 9 x 13 inch prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes. 

Let cool and then frost

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

From the Savory Sweet Life

2 sticks of unsalted butter softened

31/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. salt 

2 tsp. vanilla

4 tablespoons of heavy cream

In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment cream the butter for a few minutes. Add the powdered sugar, salt  and the cocoa powder and mix on LOW until incorporated. Increase mixer speed to medium high and add vanilla and heavy cream until desired spreading consistency.

Did you make anything for National Chocolate Cake Day? If so please share you recipe I would love to try it. 

Have a great week. 

Joy the Baker Chocolate Brownies with Whipped Butter Cream Frosting

Yes, another brownie recipe. I have been frantically pinning on Pinterest and I have noticed a disturbing trend, all of my recipes are either filled with sugar or cheese. Obviously this one is filled with chocolate and sugar.



I have been a follower of Joy the Baker for some time now and see her beautiful recipes and creations all over blog land and Pinterest. After seeing these brownies countless times I decided to order her beautiful cookbook and then to make a few things, these brownies are the first recipe I tried.

If you like chocolate, and I think you might because otherwise you would not be reading a blog called Once Upon a Chocolate Life, you will LOVE these brownies. They are chocolaty, filled with chocolate chips and then over the top with whipped chocolate butter cream frosting.

Chocolate Brownies
adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of butter
3 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Buttercream Frosting:

3/4 cup of butter softened
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
21/2 to 3 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup malted milk powder (Kraft, Ovaltine, etc)

Directions:

Grease a 8x8 inch baking pan. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt.

In a over a double boiler, melt the butter and the chocolate. Once melted stir to incorporate. Remove from heat, add brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Mix. Add eggs, and yolk and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour mixture and FOLD together until well incorporated. Do not over mix. Then fold in chocolate chips. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes until skewer in center comes out clean. Cool completely and then frost.

Frosting:

In a stand mixer, cream together butter, cocoa powder and sugar. Mix for 3 minutes on medium.

Turn off the mixture and add the powdered sugar, turn mixer on slow otherwise you will have the powdered sugar everywhere. Add milk and vanilla. Scrape down side and continue to mix. In separate cup, add your malt powder or Ovaltine to the heavy whipping cream. Add slowly to the mixture to desired consistency. I did not use all of the cream.

Use 1/2 of the frosting to frost the brownies. Save the rest for another project.

These brownies are scrumptious! I loved them, and the frosting is creamy, rich and has a hint of malt. If you do not like malt than leave it out.

Do you have a favorite brownie recipe? I would love to hear it. I am always looking for new recipes. Thank you to all of those who send me emails to say they have tried the recipes. I am not the source of the recipes, and I always site the place I found the recipe, but I love when you come back and tell me you made something you saw here or on my other blog Pine Cones and Acorns or what changes you made.

I hope you have a great day! Enjoy a little chocolate!

P.S: Joy's cookbook is available on Amazon and her BLOG is beautiful. I am in awe of her wonderful photographs and her sunny personality.

Linking to:
DIY by Design
Savvy Southern Style
Stone Gable
No Minimalist

Whopper Brownies with Chocolate Malt Buttercream Frosting

Hello! Happy Friday! I hope you are having a great week! Are you staying cool? It is sweltering here but I did manage to bake these early in the morning before we reached record highs. The good news is that it is supposed to go down a degree or two and now I have these tasty treats to keep me company this weekend.

Malted Milk Ball Brownies
adapted from Cookies and Cups and Eats Well with Others

Ingredients:
1 (11.5 oz) bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
13/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup of malt powder or Ovaltine
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup coarsely chopped malted milk balls

Directions:

* Preheat oven to 350
* Spray a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.
* Melt chocolate and butter in a pan over low heat until the chocolate is melted.
* Remove from heat. Stir in eggs, vanilla, and brown sugar until combined.
* Stir in dry ingredients, the flour, malt powder, baking powder, and salt
* Fold in the chopped malted milk balls
* Spread batter into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean
* Let cool completely and then frost

Chocolate Malt Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup butter softened
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 cups of powdered sugar
* 1 cup of malt powder or Ovaltine
* 1-2 Tbsp of heavy whipping cream

Directions:

* In a mixer, whip butter until creamy
* Add powdered sugar, malt powder, and heavy whipping cream.
* Beat on low speed until desired consistency is reached
* Spread on cooled brownies
* Top with malted milk balls

These brownies are DELICIOUS!!! And the frosting...FABULOUS! I hope you try them! If you do, please come back here and tell me, I want to know what you think!

Have a great weekend! Enjoy!

Linking to:
Stone Gable

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosted Cupcake Recipe

Happy Friday!

 I do not know about you but the weekend is when I love to  try out new recipes, mostly baked goods but also savory eats too. I thought I would share an easy and delicious recipe for chocolate cupcakes with chocolate butter cream frosting that I made last weekend. These cupcakes are delicious! My favorite part was liking the spatula for the frosting, it is some of the best I have ever made. 

The recipe for Chocolate Butter Cream frosting came from a great blog I found while perusing Pinterest, called Savory Sweet Life. The recipe for the cupcakes is the one I always use, you can find it on the back of the Hershey's cocoa can or go here where I wrote about it.

Sweet Savory Life

Butter Cream Frosting Recipe:

INGREDIENTS:
2 sticks of softened butter (Must be SOFT not melted)
31/2 cups of powdered sugar
1/2 cup of cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp of vanilla
4 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream

DIRECTIONS:

Cream softened butter in an electric mixer for a few minutes. Turn off mixer and add the cocoa powder and the powdered sugar, start mixing on low speed otherwise you will have a huge mess. Mix ingredients until incorporated and then add the salt, vanilla and the heavy whipping cream. Mix on high for 4 minutes or until light and fluffy.

I hope you try this delicious recipe! If you do let me know how it turned out and how you liked it. If you have a recipe I should try send it to me, I love learning new things.

Have a fabulous, relaxing weekend.

Linking to:

Faded Charm White Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style Wow Us Wednesday

Ivy and Elephants What's It Wednesday

Primp Your Stuff Wednesday

Designs by Gollum

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Inspiration Friday at the Picket Fence

Friday Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense

Potpourri Friday at 2805

Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

What Have You Redone at Redoux

Common Ground

Ganache 101, Lessons from Martha Stewart

The holidays are a crazy time for everyone, trying to get the presents, wrap, cook, clean, bake, decorate and a myriad of other things. I myself am always looking for shortcuts or simple ideas to save time. In the December issue of Martha Stewart she has a fabulous article title Ganache 101.

Martha explains that with a little chocolate and some heavy whipping cream you have the makings for some delicious and easy but fancy desserts. From these two simple ingredients you can make a frosting, a filling, a glaze, and a truffle.

The Basic Recipe:

Take 8 ounces of quality chocolate and chop into uniform pieces with a serrated knife, place into a bowl. Then take one cup of heavy cream and heat to just a boil. Pour the heavy cream over the chocolate pieces. Let stand for 10 minutes. DO NOT STIR!!!!

Whisk the mixture until smooth and shiny to break any lumps and to emulsify the chocolate and the cream.

Scrape the side and bottom of the bowl to be sure to get all of the mixture incorporated.

To use the ganache:

While its warm you can pour it over a cake as a glaze, you can fill tart shells and make a filling.

At room temperature you can beat the ganache until fluffy and use as a whipped filling or frosting.

And finally once chilled you can use it to make truffles!

All of these are easy and tasty additions to your holiday baking. Do you have any ideas for using ganache? Do you make your own truffles? I would love to hear some of your ideas, please if you would like to share leave your ideas in the comment section.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy your family and friends during this special time of the year. Happy Holidays!

Hershey's Chocolate Frosting

Post may contain affiliate links.

Delicious chocolate cupcake!

This is my "go to" frosting, and I frost everything with it from cupcakes, homemade or from a box, cakes, brownies, cookies, or sometimes just a big dollop on a spoon for me to eat. I promise you, you cannot go wrong with this frosting. I made Paula Dean's chocolate cake mix(more on that another time), into cupcakes and then used this frosting to dress them up.

Ingredients:

1 stick butter melted

2/3 cup of HERSHEY'S Cocoa

1/3 cup of milk

3 cups of powdered sugar

1 tsp of vanilla

Melt butter in large bowl, whisk or use electric hand held mixer to blend in HERSHEY'S Cocoa. Add one cup of powdered sugar, and a little milk, alternating between the two until both are used up and the frosting is creamy. Add vanilla and blend. Then use to frost any treat you feel like.