Chocolate Bourbon (Batter Buzz) Cake

I don't like football, or most sports for that matter. The Superbowl is remotely passable if there's a party with friends and even at that, I only actually watch the screen when the commercials come on OR during halftime when the chances are significantly higher that someone will have wardrobe malfunction. (Last year however, the thought of a Tom Petty wardrobe malfunction kept me in the kitchen the entire time with my eyes averted. {{shuddder}}.

You'll remember from my Toffee Crunch (aka Ghetto Toffee) post that I like to bring food fabulousness with me wherever I go. What to bring, what to bring? I thought about making my famous marbled sour cream pound cake, but eh, I'm tired of that one, even if it does rock. Then across the RSS feed comes Chocolate Bourbon Cake from Elise at Simply Recipes. Hmmmmm. It's not the Derby, but I'll stretch those culinary sports alcohol bonds and go with it anyway.

Having said that, if you have a grownup affair to go to, you need to make this cake. I'm not a hard liquor fan at all (at all!), and never would I have thought it was possible to get a "batter buzz" from like, ah batter, but oh yes you can! I didn't even eat that much! This stuff packs a wallop.



Learn from Elise and her dad's experience and use the whole cup of whiskey. The bundt pan will be very full when you put it in the oven - place it on a cookie sheet just in case it decides to flee the bonds of bundtpan-dom. Mine started this abstract art type of thing when the sides cooked faster than the middle and started to flip over. Cool.



When the cake is done, leave it in the pan for the prescribed 15 minutes and then flip it out onto your serving dish. Sprinkle with a little more bourbon. At this point, I covered it and put it in the fridge. I made it on Saturday and was going to serve on Sunday. I've found that most of these bundt pan cakes are so much better the next day. The flavors have had time to meld and the cake is 10 times easier to slice. Dust with powdered sugar before slicing. Use a serrated knife and voila! It's cake.

I also whipped up (tee hee) some whipped cream and added a little confectioners sugar and about a tablespoon of the bourbon to create Bourbon Spiked Whipped Cream to serve on the side. Everyone went nuts over this one and the kiddos were sad that they couldn't have any, but hey, that's why I made the toffee. I think I even spotted one guy eating the whipped cream plain. Winner!

Chocolate Bourbon Cake Recipe
from Elise at Simply Recipes

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, more for greasing pan
2 cups all-purpose flour, more for dusting pan
5 ounces high quality, unsweetened dark chocolate
1/4 cup instant espresso (can use instant coffee)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup bourbon whiskey (can use 1/2 cup), more for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar), for sprinkling

Method
1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a large bundt pan (10 cup capacity), or two 8- or 9-inch loaf pans. Melt chocolate in a microwave oven or in a double boiler over simmering water. Let cool.
2. Put instant espresso and cocoa powder in a 2-cup (or larger) glass measuring cup. Add enough boiling water to come up to the 1 cup measuring line. Mix until powders dissolve. Stir in whiskey and salt; let cool.
3. Beat softened butter until fluffy (2-3 minutes on high). Add sugar and beat until well combined. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract, baking soda and melted chocolate, scraping down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula.
4. With the mixer on low speed, beat in a third of the whiskey espresso cocoa mixture. When liquid is absorbed, beat in 1 cup flour. Repeat additions, ending with whiskey mixture. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes for Bundt pan (loaf pans will take less time, start checking them after 55 minutes).
5. Transfer cake to a rack. Unmold after 15 minutes and sprinkle warm cake with more whiskey (about 1 - 2 Tablespoons). Let cool. (I refrigerated mine at this point). Sprinkle powdered sugar through a mesh sieve over the cake before serving.

Marbled Chocolate Orange Sour Cream Pound Cake (and thanks!)

This sad, sad little slice is the one that almost got away. I almost forgot to take a picture of this test sample it before applying it directly to my hips. (Hello, it IS called pound cake for a reason.)

"Obligation baking" forced me into the kitchen last night to whip up something for a school event this morning that I promised I'd send something in for last week; last week before I became congested nasal ditsy zombie girl. (My illness is/was a sinus infection, by the way. I got some super duper antibiotics today - more on that later - and I’m hoping they work fast. Thanks for all your well wishes! They really helped brighten my soggy spirits!)

Back to drool. This is my go-to recipe when I need something easy, fast and fabulous. I almost always have all the ingredients on hand and I can add in different flavors or mix-ins so that it has a different spin every time.

Last night I decided to do orange. I’ve never made one this way, but I do love those chocolate orange slammer thingies that come out at Christmas; you know it looks like an orange made out of chocolate, where you whomp it on the table and all the sections of “orange” come falling out into individual slices of deliciousness? Mmmm. (Just for you, right now I googled “orange whack chocolate foil” and lo and behold: these are Terry’s Chocolate Oranges. Look for them on your grocer’s shelves soon. The Dark Chocolate ROCKS!)

But I digress. But just so you know, in my book, Orange + Chocolate = YUM.

Excavating Digging in the back of the fridge for the sour cream part of the program, I passed a huge vat carton of Fat-Free Vanilla Yogurt that a friend had given me and was yet unopened. After going to a lecture the other night by She/He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Until-I-Write-The-Post, I was inspired to swap out half the sour cream with the yogurt. This is not unusual, as I usually do most of my recipes using the guinea pig method: I deliver the results to the unsuspecting victims and wait for feedback that way. So far, so good.

As for this cake? I loved it. LOVED. IT. I am so making this one again, as there were no leftovers to gorge myself on since I sent it off to school. Of course, as you saw in the pitiful photo, I did officially have to test it, just in case, and of course I did it for You. You, so I could faithfully report my findings and so You could see the photos. I don't mind. You're worth it.

The ironic part of the official testing part all goes back to being sick. I got sick right at the time that I had my regular physical scheduled for, which was today. The Good: one co-pay (yes!), The Bad: you know how you're not supposed to eat or drink anything before a physical? Like how they call and give you the drill (say it with me now): "Nothing to eat or drink after midnight the day of your appointment except for dry toast and black coffee" and I'm thinking who the hell eats dry toast and black coffee on a good day? Um, remember how I said I was whipping this decadence up last night? (You know where I'm going with this, don't you?) Picture me as a rabid wolverine: snarfing down my test sample(s) at 11:55 pm, chugging milk straight out of the jug to go along with it, crumbs flying everywhere - I think I even got it in my hair. I didn't care. Man it was sooooo good. And oh yeah, the yogurt thing? Couldn't tell the difference at all. I took samples from everywhere, just to be sure, just for You.

As for the physical (thanks for asking), well.... hmm. I've done the weight/scale thing two different ways in the past: 1) I tell the nurse that I am wearing 10 pound shoes (each), or 2) I do it like we did it at Weight Watchers: you've waited in line for 20 minutes and finally it's your turn to be weighed, electronically, to the ounce. You step up to the counter, (hello, how are you, fine) give them your papers, casually approach the scale, and since you don't want to hold up the rest of the line, BAM! you whip into a frenzy, frantically stripping down to almost naked in the middle of the place, taking off your shoes, socks, belt, jewelry, watch, earrings, sunglasses, ballcap, hair clip, while at the same time emptying your pockets of keys, phone, tissues, gum and Splenda packets, dumping them all on the floor in a heap, making sure you went potty right before it was your turn to jump on the scale and drop most of your dignity (hold my place in line, 'kay? I'll be right back), exhaling deeply while sucking in your gut at the same time, and holding it all in place before stepping up on the platform, praying they'd get the measurement before you passed out from not breathing. I had on 10 pound shoes today. It was too damn cold to go thru all that work, when I know I well deserved whatever the evil thing had to say.

After all that, in case you are inspired to try this creation, here's the recipe. I don’t know where I got my original one from, but I did find its maternal grandparents on the Nestlé’s site. Enjoy.

Marbled Chocolate Orange Sour Cream Pound Cake
Adapted from Nestlé’s recipe found here

Ingredients:

1 cup (6 oz.) Nestlé Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels (I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao chips)
1 pkg. (18.25 oz.) yellow cake mix
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream (I used ½ cup sour cream and ½ cup fat-free vanilla yogurt)
1 cup water
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. orange extract (or insert other extract flavor here. It’s good without any extras too.)
Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Directions:
Position rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 375° F. Spray 10 inch/12 cup Bundt or tube pan with cooking spray or Baker’s Joy spray.

Microwave morsels in medium, uncovered, microwave-safe bowl on HIGH (100%) power for 30 seconds; Stir to blend. Morsels may retain some of their original shape. If necessary, microwave at additional 10 to 15-second intervals, stirring just until morsels are melted. Set aside.

Combine cake mix, eggs, sour cream, vegetable oil, water, granulated sugar and extract (if using) in a large mixing bowl. With an electric mixer, beat on low speed until moistened. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes.

Spoon 2 cups of batter into the bowl with the melted chocolate. Use the mixer and completely mix the batter with the chocolate to make chocolate batter. You now have two bowls of batter: one chocolate and one yellow. Spoon batters into prepared pan, alternating/layering them, beginning and ending with yellow batter. I usually get just one layer of chocolate sandwiched in between the 2 yellow, but sometime I can slip in a small chocolate one as well.

Bake for 55 minutes or until wooden toothpick (I use a bamboo skewer) inserted in cake comes out with only a few crumbs sticking to it. (Very “clean” toothpicks sometimes equal an over-dry or over done cake.) Cool completely in pan. (Yes, completely). Unmold onto either cutting board or serving platter. This cake needs to be refrigerated overnight in order to create beautiful, clean slices. If you have a good quality electric knife that works great! Slice and serve as desired: chilled, room temperature or warmed slightly in microwave. Optional: dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Variations:
You could add peppermint extract, lemon extract (and/or use a lemon cake mix), you could do chocolate cake mix with chocolaty swirl (I’d bump up the quantity of chips for this one), pecans; the list is endless.

Cheater’s Apple Cake

Yes, I admit it. I take shortcuts. I do. I melt chocolate in the microwave, I've used store-bought pre-chopped mirepoix (carrots, onions and celery) and (gasp!) I occasionally use boxed cake mix in lieu of scratch cakes.

Before we left for New York, I had a ton of apples to use up. (I was afraid to come home to this if I didn’t). I’d recently seen a whole crop of apple cake recipes (tee hee – crop, apples) pop up on the blogosphere in recent weeks and knew that this was the final destination for mine.

Culling thru all the different recipes, nothing jumped out at me saying:

I AM EASY. MAKE ME AND USE UP ALL YOUR APPLES TONIGHT, DO NOT WASTE FOOD, AND BY THE WAY YOU STILL HAVE A LOT OF LAUNDRY AND PACKING TO DO AND WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE ALL YOUR TRAVEL SIZE LOTIONS AND POTIONS SO THAT AIRPORT SECURITY DOESN’T LOSE THEIR MINDS AND HAVE TO DO A FULL PAT DOWN ON YOU, EVEN THOUGH YOUR UNDERWIRE THAT LIFTS AND SEPARATES WILL STILL MAKE YOU RING LIKE A 5 ALARM FIRE, SLOW DOWN THE LINE AND THEN YOU’LL GET HATEFUL LOOKS FROM THE GRAND POOBAH LA DE DAH MEDALLION MEMBERS WHO HAVE NOW MISSED THEIR FLIGHT SITTING IN FIRST CLASS WITH FREE PEANUTS AND HEADPHONES BECAUSE OF YOU AND THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT APPLE CAKE AND IF YOU MAKE IT CAN YOU SEND IT INTO WORK WITH DH SO THAT IT DOESN’T GO BAD AND THAT THEY WILL THEY EAT IT AND LIKE IT AND NOT MOCK YOU IN FRONT OF THEIR INFLUENTIAL FRIENDS.

Nope, hard to believe but I didn’t see anything like that.

So, what I did was… I cheated. and kept my fingers crossed. I used a yellow cake mix and then added yummy things to it.

Put me on double secret probation if you need to, but I refuse a foodie pat down. It goes without saying that the underwire is non-negotiable - I’ll nip you with my baby nail clippers if you try anything funny.

Cheater’s Apple Cake

Tube cake pan or bundt pan
Baker’s Joy spray (yes, another vice) or Pam cooking spray

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
Eggs, oil and water per box directions
6 apples, peeled, seeded/cored and chopped
Zest and juice of one orange (yes, it was languishing on the counter)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Pinch cardamom (optional)
1/4" cup brown sugar, packed

Pre heat oven as described on cake mix.

In a large bowl, combine the apples with the orange zest, orange juice, cinnamon, sugar and cardamom (if using). Leave it to macerate (ohh, big word) while you start on the cake.

Open the box of cake mix. Clip off any Box Tops for Education and throw in your junk drawer so that when your kid comes home telling you about the school contest du jour, that you can toss a couple his way and not be wracked with guilt.

Prepare the cake mix per box directions.

Pour ½ of the cake batter into a greased tube pan or bundt pan. Take the apple mixture and gently spoon it over the batter. Pour the remainder of the batter over the apples. Gently thump the pan on the counter a few times to get out any air bubbles.

Bake as directed on package or until center is set. Be sure to test after required time as this may take longer to finish due to the apple content. I like to use a bamboo skewer to test for doneness.

Cool for 15 minute before removing from pan. Finish cooling on wire rack.