Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Great moist cake and sugary sweet frosting! By the time I realized we should take pictures we had eaten most of the cake...out of the baking pan! Next time...

Yellow Cake
adapted from Allrecipes.com

makes one 8in cake

½ cup butter

¾ cups white sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 8 inch round pan or 9x9 baking pan. 

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time. Stir in flour mixture and milk, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until tops spring back when lightly tapped. Cool 15 minutes before turning out onto cooling racks.

Chocolate Frosting

Adapted from Allrecipes

Makes about 2 cups of frosting

2 ¾ cups confectioners' sugar

6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

6 tbsp butter

5 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Sift together the confectioners' sugar and cocoa, and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture and milk. 

Blend in vanilla. 

Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.

Yellow Cupcakes and a Classic Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

The last two cupcakes...

Birthday Party! I made some yellow cupcakes and a chocolate butter cream frosting.

The cupcakes were dense, similar to a pound cake. I would use that for a short cake type of cupcake, but not for a frosted type cake... Because these cupcakes were so dense they did not rise a lot, so fill them 3/4 of the way.

However, since I made coffee cake with the sour cream, I think that I mixed the sour cream in too soon/over mixed the batter. The coffee cake was very light and fluffy, so I feel that the cupcakes should have been as well. Anyone want to be a taster for me for my next batch?

The chocolate butter cream was delish! However make sure the butter is softened and been at room temperature for at least an hour. Otherwise the butter pieces will stay chunky and the frosting won't be as smooth.

Perfect Yellow Cupcakes
(adapted from Can You Stay for Dinner )
makes 12 regular size cupcakes or 24 mini + 3 regular

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup sour cream
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12 cup standard sized cupcake tin with paper liners.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a standing electric mixer. Add butter, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. Beat at medium speed until smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl and mix until smooth and no clumps of flour are visible.

Evenly divide the batter among the cups in your prepared pan. Bake until cupcake tops are pale gold and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the pan carefully and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

Adapted from Savory Sweet Life

Makes 3 cups

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or ½ pound), softened (but not melted!) 

3 - 3 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
½ cup cocoa powder
½ teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon almond extract
4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

Cream butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Turn off the mixer.

In separate bowl combine powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl. Turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the dry ingredients do not blow everywhere) until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter.

Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes.

Note: If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time.

Swirly Coffee Cake with Greek Yogurt

Here is a coffee cake that you will just adore! It is almost dense enough to be considered pound cake. One of the best parts of this recipe is you can make it ahead of time. A great coffee cake for breakfast or brunch. Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, thanks for another great recipe!

I have tried this recipe before and the dough smelled wonderful! However, I didn't have the proper pan. Using the right pan actually does make a difference. I had used a glass 9x9 baking pan, but the cake is so dense that the middle did not cook in time for the edges to not dry out.

I did make some changes to the recipe. I used 3 large eggs instead of 3 extra large eggs, equal quantity of Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, all purpose flour instead of cake flour, and I semi doubled the streusel topping. I say semi doubled because I didn't think it needed that much extra butter or flour.

Next time I would put more streusel in the middle so it would have a nice swirly line. I used about 1/2 cup I think. I would use closer to a full cup. Its coffee cake! Live a little! :)

I would also consider making it without the streusel and using blueberries and lemon or raspberries in the cake.

Update: 5/28, made this using the sour cream. This was a softer cake compared to the more pound cake texture the Greek yogurt cake. What would I make next time? I don't think you can go wrong either way!

Layer 1

Top layer! I almost forgot to take a picture haha

updated 10/13/2015: This is one of my new baking pans and we have a new camera that I wanted to try out! Below, I halved the amount of cake and kept the amount of streusel the same, delish!

Swirly Coffee Cake

For the cake:

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups plain Greek yogurt or Sour Cream
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

For the streusel: (this is doubled already!)
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch pan that has the hole in the middle.

Cream the butter and sugar in the mixer with the paddle attachment for 4 to 5 minutes, until light.

Add the eggs 1 at a time, and then add the vanilla and Greek yogurt.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Finish stirring with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.

For the streusel, combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and butter in your food processor (or in a bowl and mix with your fingers) until it forms a crumble. Mix in walnuts, if desired. 

Pour half the batter into the bottom of the pan, layer with streusel, top with the rest of batter and remaining streusel.

Cook 50-60 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Let cool before removing from pan. Serve at room temperature. 

Put the Lime in the Coco-nut...Cupcake

Put the lime in the coconut and drink it all uppp! Coconut cupcakes! I did lots of research prior to making these. Do you include lime, or not. Do you toast the coconut, or not. Do you use coconut milk, or not. Almond extract, or not. Extra large egg is how many large eggs... How much butter for the frosting?!

I took the regular cupcakes recipe from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, and looked at her cake recipe too. I looked at random recipes online and different techniques. I prefer making cupcakes so I can taste one before bringing them places. Folks would notice a slice of cake missing!

In the end, I used the basis for the cupcake recipe. I used toasted the coconut as that is supposed to enhance the coconut flavor. Reviews listed coconut milk to help with the coconut flavor. And since I was feeling creative I added some lime to half the recipe to try it out. I omitted the almond extract because I didn't have any. Some used coconut extract with the vanilla extract. Since I was halving the recipe (5 eggs originally) I used 3 large eggs.

First toast the coconut. Easy, just put your desired amount into the frying pan. I put it on medium heat and it took about 2-4 minutes. Stirring a bit. 

Next, combine sugar and room temperature butter until its creamy and combined.

 Add in eggs 1 at a time. The batter should be wet.

 

Alternate adding in the dry mixture with the wet. Fill in the cupcake tins 2/3 of the way. I had a little overflow so I made a few mini ones!

Aren't the mini ones so cute?! Keep an eye on them towards the end of the time to ensure they don't burn.

I let them cool completely before frosting them and dipping/sprinkling them into the toasted coconut.

 

I halved the recipe, but the recipe below is the full one. Half the recipe makes about 14 cupcakes.

These were not very coconut-y but they very moist and light cupcakes. Next time I would consider adding in an extra tsp or tsp and a half of coconut extract. I added about half of a lime's worth of juice to the frosting but I add as much as you want.

Other variations I'd like to try include omitting the coconut flakes in the cupcake and adding in orange or lemon extract with respective zest.


Coconut Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 7 ounces sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
• Optional: zest of 2 limes, 2 tbsp of lime juice; add in when adding in extract

For the frosting:

• 1/2 - 1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 pound confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 6 ounces sweetened shredded coconut
• Optional: 1 tbsp lime juice, zest of 1 lime; add in when adding in extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

In the mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until fluffy. Add the eggs 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl after the additions. Add the vanilla extracts.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk to the batter in 3 parts, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Fold in the coconut with a rubber spatula.

Line a muffin tin with the paper lines. Fill the liners 2/3 way to the top with the batter. Bake 12-15 minutes for mini muffins and 23-26 for regular size. Keep an eye until the tops are starting to get brown and the toothpick comes out clean. Allow them to cool and then let the cool on a baking rack.

Frosting

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla extract on low speed. Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until just smooth.

Frost cupcakes and top with additional coconut.

Molten Lava Cakes for 2

My friend made these cakes before, I thought it was the greatest! I found the recipe online here, it is also a video. So I made them once before but I wasn't focused and since they didn't come out right, you can safely assume I didn't follow the directions. This time I did. This time they came out like lava cakes! These are the easiest lava cakes you can make. Total time? Maybe 15 minutes. 10 minutes of that is it baking.

I melted the chocolate and butter in the microwave. Normally I do this on a stove top. Once the butter was melted I stirred until the chocolate squares was also melted. My oh my, it starts to smell yummy!

Next I added in the egg and egg yolk.

Since I wasn't at my apartment, I had already combined the powdered sugar and flour. So, I added that to the chocolate mixture and it turned into cake batter! Don't over stir, just stir until combined.

Divide cake batter into the greased custard cups. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes. If you want you can flip them out of the cups (directions below), but it was just easier to eat them in the cups. Just be careful because the bowls are HOT! 

Next time? I am thinking of adding in peanut butter chips, or walnuts, or raspberry compote, or fresh strawberries, or vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream...

This was a great base but the addition of something else would make it amazing.

Lava Cake

Makes 2

2 squares Baker's Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3 Tbsp. flour

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Nonstick spray 2 small oven safe bowls. Place on baking sheet.

Microwave chocolate and butter in a bowl for 30 seconds or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted.
Stir in sugar.
Stir in egg and egg yolk.
Stir in flour.
Divide batter among prepared custard cups.

Bake 10 minutes or until sides are firm, but centers are soft. Let stand one minute. Carefully run a small knife around cakes to loosen. Invert cakes onto dessert dishes. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!!