Devils Food with a little less sin.

I never knew just how much I loved Chocolate cake until recently when I began experimenting with devil’s food cake.  I have been playing with different cake recipes and I have enjoyed every bite of it.  I have yet to be disappointed with these heavenly desserts.  What’s ever better is that I have been working on making them a little less sinful- swapping applesauce for oil, reduced fat sour cream for original, that sort of thing, with wondrous results. 

There are two recipes that are fairly similar, the biggest differences being the sour cream and oil ratios as well as the size of dry pudding mix used.  I have baked them both within the last few weeks and found that I couldn’t really see the difference.  This cake was perhaps the moister of the two however, so I am posting it first. 

The original recipes that I found using Devils Food cake mix called for either boiling water, strong brewed coffee or coffee liquor.  With this cake I went with Irish Cream Liquor.  Why?  Well mainly because I bought a bottle at Christmas for my friends and family to partake in Irish Cream Coffee and then never got around to actually making the hot dessert beverage.  Maybe next year.  But alas, a whole bottle of Irish Cream, I thought it couldn’t hurt.  It didn’t.

When making this cake I did use a lot of reduced fat or less fat options, however those were to suite my preferences.  I have also made this cake using the ingredients in parenthesis with just as amazing results only with a little more fat.

Heavenly Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

1 package Devils Food cake mix

1 (5.9 oz) package Instant Chocolate pudding mix

1 cup reduced fat sour cream

1 cup applesauce (or oil)

1 cup eggbeaters (or 4 large eggs)

1/2 cup Irish cream liquor

2 cups (1 package) mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350* degrees.  Spray a 10 inch Bundt pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl (or using your electric stand mixer bowl) mix cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, applesauce, eggs and liquor with an electric mixer for 30 seconds.  Mix on medium speed for two minutes.
3. Stir in chocolate chips and pour cake mix into prepared pan.  Bake for 60 minutes.
4. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.  Remove cake from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

Taste A Rainbow

 

Today is the first day of Spring, in celebration of the Sun passing over the Earth’s equator, we made Rainbow Cupcakes.  Using just a regular box of yellow cake mix and a box of food coloring we were able to turn a batch of cupcakes into a bright and colorful afternoon snack.

After making your cake mix according to the package directions separate the batter equally into 5 small bowls, then proceed with the following chart to make each color.

To make each color you will need:

Purple: 9 red drops, 6 blue drops

Blue: 12 blue drops

Green: 12 green drops

Yellow: 12 yellow drops

Red: 18 red

After you have made each color divide the batter equally into muffin pans.  You will probably get one or two less cupcakes than your package says you will get.  Bake in the oven for 20 minutes and then…

taste a rainbow (with your favorite icing of course).

Welcome, Springtime!

Black Magic Cake

Once upon a time, for a brief moment or two, I wanted to be a cake decorator.  I even bought a kit at Michael’s and marked the date of their next decorating class on my calendar. 

Then I made a boxed cake and went to town with a simple tub of Pillsbury or Betty Crocker icing, hoping to make an aesthetic dessert for my family.  I can’t remember exactly what happened but I do recall quite a bit of cussing and possibly a bit of foot  stomping.  I switched knives and spatulas a few times.  I got icing in my hair and on my shoe.  It was a mess. 

And a learning experience.  I won’t ever be Martha Stewart. Or Bakerella.  I will however continue to make cake.  And eat it too. 

Now I have a different approach.  I aim to make so tasty a cake that it isn’t around long enough for anyone to even take notice of what it looks like. 

On Valentine’s Day every year we celebrate our Golden Retriever’s birthday.  He’s a big dumb lug that we brought home, or rather I brought home, when we were in the midst of trying to start our family.  I was desperate for something to hold and love and a particular mutt with a waggley tail (and it turns out, a fair bit of neurosis) got my attention.  The couple who gave him to me said he was six weeks old to the day.  I have a feeling they were lying about a few things, namely his purebred parents, but I went straight home and counted back six weeks.  Valentine’s Day.  Ever since we mark the silly dogs birthday on the calendar on the same day as my least favorite holiday of the year.  This year, because we have a house full of two year olds who think singing “Happy Birthday” is as much fun as going to Disney, I made a cake for the dog.  Except the dog wasn’t allowed to have any.  I hear chocolate is lethal to dogs.  I wouldn’t want to risk his life on the very day we celebrate it.

So I tested out a recipe I found on Allrecipes.  As I was measuring out the cocoa I noticed the recipe for Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake.  Turns out the only difference in the cake I was making and the one the Hershey’s company has been promoting for quite sometime was buttermilk instead of milk, coffee instead of boiling water and the swapping of half a teaspoon of baking powder for baking soda.  I use to make the “Perfectly” Chocolate Cake, it was good.  Very good in my opinion.  And then I made it one hot August for my in-laws (before they were my in-laws) and on the trip to their house for dinner it got so hot in our unconditioned car that the top layer slid away from the bottom.  It wasn’t pretty and I was scarred from ever making it again. I was already in the midst of making the cake on Sunday however, so I continued on. 

But even this cake baking experience wasn’t without a tale of it’s own.  You see I’d bought a heart shaped pan to use and I failed to read the instructions that clearly read ‘do not fill more than halfway full’.  I filled it more than half way full.  I filled it more like two thirds of the way full. And baked it for 40 minutes before finally worrying that the outer edges were going to be overdone before the center ever finished cooking.  So I removed it from the oven and watched it, and my heart, sink. 

There is a possibility I’m just not cut out for cake baking either. Probably won’t stop me from trying though.  This cake, regardless of it’s appearance, was rich and moist.  The center was a little undone but we just cut around the center.  In the future when I make a heart shaped cake I will make sure to fill it no more than halfway full.  I will just use the extra batter for a few cupcakes. 

But then again, what good would a cake be without its own story?

I can, however, whip up frosting without incident.  I topped this cake with a Butter Cream frosting that I came across when making cupcakes for the twins second birthday.  The recipe is from Wilton and it is my favorite. And even though there is little value in it nutritionally it’s mighty tasty on the top of a cake.  It makes a lot, more than you would use for 24 cupcakes or a sheet cake but it can be stored in the fridge for two weeks. If you’re like me you’ll save the frosting in Tupperware for two weeks because you won’t want to waste it before finally accepting the fact that you’re not going to make a cake just to use up the last of the frosting. 

Then, three days later, out of boredom or because the cat is turning twelve, you’ll make more cake and more frosting.

Black Magic Cake

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup brewed coffee

1 cup fat free buttermilk

1/2 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour cake pan(s).
2. In large bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa,baking soda, baking powder and salt. 
3. Add eggs, coffee, buttermilk, oil and vanilla to dry ingredients. Using an electric mixer beat batter for two minutes on  medium speed. 
4. Pour into prepared pans and bake for 30 to 40 minutes depending on your cake pan.  After 30 minutes test cake with a toothpick.  Cake is done when toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack and frost with your favorite frosting.

Sock It to Me Cake

You may have heard of a Sock It to Me Cake, until this week I had not. Turns out it's a pretty popular cake. I was looking for a pecan cake to make in my bundt pan and this is what I kept finding. So alas, I decided to use my only yellow cake mix in the pantry, make a few alterations to the recipe and give it a try.

The toasting and chopping of the pecans were the worst thing about this cake. I personally hate toasting nuts. All too often I burn my nuts and have to start over and nuts are not cheap. So if I'm not burning my nuts I am under-cooking my nuts where the whole process is probably pointless. And I hate chopping nuts. I buy my nuts in bulk at Sam's because I like to save money, but chopping nuts causes a little anxiety attack to begin because my OCD mind gets frustrated with the vast difference in my nut pieces. But I made this cake even with the toasting and the chopping. The cake was good but I think in the future I would chop my pecans even smaller and maybe skip the whole toasting process altogether.

Sock It To Me Cake

Ingredients

1 package yellow cake mix

1 cup light sour cream

1/2 cup applesauce

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

1/2 cup eggbeaters

1 cup toasted and chopped pecans

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup confectioners sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.) Grease bundt pan. Toast pecans for 8 minutes at 350 degrees. Chop pecans.

3.) Blend cake mix, sour cream, applesauce, sugar, water, eggs, and eggbeaters. Beat on high 2 minutes. Pour 2/3 batter into greased bundt pan.

4.) Combine pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Sprinkle oven batter. Spread remaining batter evenly over sugar mixture.

5.) Bake 45-55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 25 minutes.

6.) Mix confectioners sugar and milk. Remove cake from bundt pan and drizzle with glaze.