Chocolate Easter Cake with Ganache Frosting

Attention all chocolate lovers: this cake might put you over the edge. Two dense layers of chocolate cake, rich and creamy ganache frosting, topped with shaved milk chocolate (Cadbury, to be exact) and the smoooothest little chocolate eggs you've ever had. (Again, obviously Cadbury... I'm a little obsessed.) I'm usually a fruity dessert lover, but to appease the chocolate eaters in my family I made this rich chocolate cake for Easter dinner back home. Dylan came home with me for the holiday and I have no doubt he was happily fed the whole trip. He's always astounded by how much my family eats. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing...

Posing with the cake

Easter Sunday

Dyeing eggs with Dylan and my sister Megan

Another exciting part about the weekend was that Dylan and I got to celebrate our 2-year anniversary! We've been living 8 hours apart since January, so seeing each other in general is reason enough to celebrate. Back in Boston we would cook together most nights, so we decided to make a nice dinner for the occasion. We had caprese salad, paprika-spiced flank steak, and beer-battered coconut shrimp. Expect to see that coconut shrimp recipe on here soon - it was amazingggg. Then again, how could you go wrong beer-battering anything?

Set-up in the dining room

Caprese salad

Paprika-spiced flank steak and coconut shrimp

Getting back to the cake, I found this recipe on marthastewart.com, which has yet to steer me wrong. This cake was spongy and moist, giving it this awesome sensation of both soft and heavy. The Cadbury chocolate on top is what pushed me over the edge. Dylan introduced me to these chocolates, which are only sold once a year around Easter and are his absolute favorite. This cake would be great to make all year round, but the chocolate egg nest make it particularly adorable for spring. Enjoy! :)

Chocolate Easter Cake with Ganache Frosting (from Martha Stewart)
Serves: 10-12  Prep: 1 hour  Total: 2 hours, 15 minutes

Ingredients
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup butter
1 tbs instant espresso powder
3/4 cup water
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tbs vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tbs corn syrup
8 ounces milk chocolate
Cadbury eggs for garnish

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Coat two 8-inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray, cover in parchment paper, spray again and sprinkle with cocoa powder, shaking off excess.
Melt butter in a large pot and whisk in water, cocoa powder and espresso powder until dissolved. Whisk in sugar and remove from heat. Add the remaining wet ingredients first, then dry ingredients, and mix until fully incorporated. Pour into cake pans and bake for 45-50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
When the cake is done, remove and let cool in pans for 20 minutes. Remove from pans and let sit until cool to the touch. Cut off the rounded tops of both cake layers to make them flat. Place one layer cut-side up on a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet. Spread a little less than half the frosting in the center of the cake. Cover by laying the second half cut-side down and spread remaining frosting over the top and sides. Refrigerate for 15 minutes or until frosting is firm.
Melt semisweet chocolate, heavy cream and corn syrup together in a heat-proof bowl over boiling water. Let cool for several minutes before pouring over cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Before serving, shave milk chocolate with a large knife and garnish on top of cake with Cadbury eggs.

Cranberry-Raspberry Chocolate Cake Truffles

 

Happy Valentine's Day! What better way to celebrate this wonderful/terrible holiday than by sharing these cake truffles with your significant other/eating them alone while sobbing and watching a romantic comedy? Whether you are a lover or hater of the holiday, you're probably a lover of delicious sweets and that is why these cake truffles are the perfect treat. :)

I was lucky enough to share these yummy cake truffles with many people I love in my life. My roommates here in New Jersey got the first taste. Then I mailed a box to Dylan in Cleveland as an early Valentine's Day gift. (If you have any doubt about how good these are, he got the package on Saturday afternoon and they were gone by Sunday night... I gave him six...) Finally, I got to spread the love with some beautiful Boston friends I stayed with this weekend. These rich little truffles go a long way, so sharing them with loved ones is easy.

Cranberry-Raspberry Chocolate Cake Truffles
Makes: 40 truffles  Prep: 15 minutes  Total: 24 hours

Ingredients
1 box white cake mix
*3 eggs
*3/4 cup vegetable oil
*1 1/4 cup cranberry juice cocktail
2 8-ounce cream cheeses
1/2 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup raspberry jam
20 ounces chocolate chips (white, dark or milk)
Pink and white sprinkles

*Ingredients depend on box directions. The important part is to replace the water with cranberry juice.

Directions
Mix boxed cake as directed, replacing the water with an equal amount of cranberry juice. Bake as directed and let cool. Crumble cake into a large bowl.
In a mixer, combine cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Add cream cheese frosting and raspberry jam into the crumbled cake and mix until fully incorporated. Roll into 1-inch balls and lay on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Refrigerate overnight.
Remove cake truffles from fridge. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between. Dip balls in chocolate, lay on baking sheet and cover with sprinkles. Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve.

Merry Christmas Cake Pops

I made four different desserts for Christmas Eve dinner last night and these cake pops were the overwhelming favorite. They were super rich and chocolate-y, perfect for anyone with a major sweet tooth. I made the cake and frosting the night before, froze the pops, and decorated them the next morning with the help of my brother and sister.

In light of the holiday, I'll fill this post with photos instead of words. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Conor and Megan showing off their decorating skills.

Merry Christmas Cake Pops
Makes: 30-40 pops  Prep: 1 hour  Total: 24 hours

Ingredients
Boxed chocolate cake (or favorite chocolate cake recipe)
2 8-ounce cream cheeses
1/2 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Red and green candy melts
30-40 lollipop sticks

Directions
Bake cake as directed and let cool. Crumble cake into a large bowl and set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese and butter until smooth. Slowly add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar at a time and stir until incorporated. Add vanilla and whip for 2-3 minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy.
Combine the cream cheese icing with crumbled cake and stir until the mixture is smooth. Form into 2 inch balls and set onto a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place sticks into the center of the balls so they look like upside-down lollipops. Refrigerate overnight.
Place candy melts in the microwave for 1 minutes. Remove and stir, and microwave again at 30-second increments until fully melted. Dip cake pops into the melted candy and decorate with additional frosting. Store pops in an airtight container until ready to serve.

Grandma's Apple Cake

When my friends find out I can cook or taste my food for the first time, it's pretty common that they ask if my mom or grandma are also good cooks. I guess people assume every good home cook has good (but most likely better) home cooks in their family. My mom's recipes are the reason I started cooking in college in the first place, but many of her best dishes come from her mother, my grandma.

Last year I moved into my first college apartment with a full kitchen and I asked my grandma (who has lived 5 minutes down the road from me my whole life) if I could take some of her recipes to school. She happily obliged, and not only filled out these adorable recipe cards, but also went through her own kitchen and gave me tons of extra pots, dishes and accessories to stock up my kitchen. When someone digs through my kitchen cabinets and makes a joke about my 60's-looking casserole dish, retro spoon rests, or tea bag holders (see below), I charmingly reply that they were once my grandmothers and she passed them down to me along with her recipes to keep our family cooking alive.

I've made my grandma's apple cake twice in the past week because it keeps disappearing between friends and roommates who want a "taste". If you have a lot of apples lying around your fridge or want a classic fall dessert, try this cake recipe and I bet you'll be baking a second very soon.

Grandma's Apple Cake
Serves: 8  Prep: 15 minutes  Total: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 medium apples

Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees.
Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add eggs, vanilla and oil into the batter and mix well. Cup up the apples into slices, then into small cubes. (Peel the apple skin if desired, but I prefer to leave it on.) Add the apple into an 8x8 inch greased cake dish and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out dry.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Every time a birthday rolls around in my family and the birthday boy or girl is asked what they want for their birthday dinner, they always ask for carrot cake. My mother has been making the same carrot cake for birthday dinners since I was born. This cake goes down as her signature recipe, and I will defend it to the grave as the best carrot cake I have ever had. For years I refused to try it ("Carrots in a cake?" my skeptical 8-year-old self thought) but this recipe turned a carrot cake hater into a fanatic.

I decided to transform this family favorite into cupcakes. The original recipe has a homemade cream cheese frosting with pecans and coconut, but much against my belief that all sweets should be 100% homemade, I cheaped out and bought the $3 can of Betty Crocker frosting. Still, the end result was as phenominal as always. The secret is in cake; one bite of this moist, decadent treat and you won't look at carrot cake the same way again.

Enjoy! :)

Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Makes: 24 cupcakes  Prep: 15 minutes  Total: 35 minutes

Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
3 cups grated raw carrots
1 can Betty Crocker cream cheese frosting

Directions
Sift all dry ingredients. Add oil and vanilla and mix well.  Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each. Grate carrots in food processor, add and mix well. Pour into greased cupcake tins.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Cool completely before icing.

Thursday Fiests: October

This year, my girlfriends and I started the tradition of Thursday night dinners. Sometimes we stay in and make food, and sometimes we go out in search of new restaurants in the city. This past Thursday, I wanted to try a recipe I found in October's Bon Appetit magazine. It looked a lot harder than anything I'd made before, but I really wanted to tackle it. Four hours and several sliced fingers later... ta-da!

Click Here to try it!

Ok, so this is clearly not my picture but I couldn't get a great one while cooking and I was having too good of a time with my friends to worry about capturing it. Even though I spent hours in the kitchen that I should have spent writing a paper, it was well worth it. My friends raved about this dish the entire evening, and not gonna lie I did a pretty damn good job. I think I'll appreciate homemade pasta way more now after making it myself. The only bad thing about this recipe when it comes to college cooking is it called for a potato ricer. (I still don't really know what that is.) But with a little Google searching I decided that it looked like a garlic press for turning potato into pasta, so I ended up chopping the potato into little cubes and pushing it through our garlic press. Time consuming but it got the job done. Another key to this recipe is in the Parmesan. I made sure to get the freshest grated Parm possible, and it definitely made a difference. So, if you have a day with not much to do and are feeling ambitious, I certainly recommend you try this out! The final product is rewarding and absolutely worth the effort.

Oh, and to top it all off, why not a four layer pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting?

We might need to institute Friday night gym dates next...