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project #26: nutella chocolate cake w/ lemon cream cheese frosting
Ingredients:
for cake:
2 c flour
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa
1/2 c butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c water
1/2 c buttermilk
for icing:
1 8oz package cream cheese
1/4 c butter, softened
2 tsp lemon zest
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 c confectioner’s sugar
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift together flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt. Cream together butter and sugars together.
2. Add vanilla and eggs to creamed mixture. Add in flour mixture in 3 loads with adding water and buttermilk in-between loads. Once flour is all incorporated stop mixing.
3. Pour batter into 2 8-in cake pans evenly. Bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes.
(icing)
4. Zest and juice lemons.
5. Cream together cream cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and butter.
6. Add 1 c of powdered sugar at a time until desired sweetness. Chill in refrigerator until ready for frosting the cake.
7. Add icing to first layer of cake then stack the layers and finish icing all around.
Enjoy!
project cake: nutella chocolate cake w/ lemon cream cheese frosting
when it comes to desserts i shy away from anything that requires artistry or some kind of delicate touch. i’m not sure if its because taste is more important to me than looks, or because i lack the patience/aptitude for it but this has been a big reason i never really tried to make cakes.
but i did anyway.
my brother’s anniversary was coming up so i wanted to make a cake for him & my sister-in-law. i decided to go ahead and use the flavors of chocolate & lemon (never tried it together, but i know they like both) so i found a recipe for a cake and the frosting.
i assembled the ingredients together and began with the cake first:
i sifted all the dry ingredients together (flour, cocoa, baking powder [the recipe actually called for baking soda, but the cake still turned out fine], salt):
then in the mixing bowl i creamed together the butter, brown sugar, and sugar:
after adding vanilla and eggs i then went ahead and added the flour mixture in 3 loads as the recipe said, pouring in water & buttermilk inbetween each step. the batter came out like this:
i poured it into a pan that was greased & floured. i then melted some nutella and then poured it over the batter and made swirls with a toothpick:
then bake it for 30-35 minutes @ 350 F until the toothpick test results in a clean poke:
there was enough batter to make 2 cake layers in an 8-in round pan. so while all of that baking was going on, i went ahead to make the lemon cream cheese frosting:
i first zested and juiced the lemon:
then afterwards i began to cream together the cream cheese, lemon zest, lemon juice, butter, and vanilla extract:
i added the confectioner’s sugar, but i would add that the recipe called for 5 cups. my tongue is not that sweet. instead i went with 3 cups.
once the first cake cooled i flipped it onto a plate (see? i’m not that fancy…) and then put the first layer of icing on it:
once the second layer was cooled, i piled that on as well. then i frosted the entire thing:
i would say that it would be wise if the icing was chilled first. after being at room temperature the entire thing was semi-runny and was hard to apply the icing but once it was firm everything was a breeze.
the final result?
another look:
its taste? not too bad! it was moist and the lemon cream cheese frosting was definitely delicious. the middle layer of icing went out but i think that was because i didn’t chill the icing beforehand so when i stacked the two cakes it might’ve gushed out.
i was fairly impressed though with how nice the flavors were — i even got the hints of nutella in it (although next time i would probably add much more).
all in all, it was a success. note that i didn’t really decorate the cake — well…that might be for another day. today my mission was to accomplish good flavors and a nice cohesive cake.
mission accomplished.
enjoy!
— mk
project #25: ice cream mochi (strawberry)
Ingredients:
(makes 8)
2 oz Mochiko sweet rice flour
4 oz white sugar
100 mL water
cornstarch to cover cutting board
strawberry ice cream (filling)
Directions:
1. Dust cutting board with plenty of cornstarch so dough won’t stick.
2. Mix together Mochiko, sugar, and water in a microwavable glass dish. Stir until all lumps are removed.
3. Cover with plastic wrap loosely and microwave on HIGH for two minutes. Stir mixture and then microwave on MEDIUM for 1 one minute.
4. Scoop rice dough onto cutting board and dust with cornstarch. Begin rolling it with a dusted rolling pin until dough is 2-3 mm thick.
5. With a small bowl, cut circles into the dough once it cools and place onto plastic wrap. Collect roughly eight circles and stack with plastic wrap inbetween. Place it in the freezer.
6. Once the mochi dough is firm scoop ice cream into small balls and place onto the mochi and wrap up into a pouch. Place back into freezer until ready to serve.
Enjoy!
