Its Been a Year?!!?

So am I the only one who can't believe that a year has gone by since I last posted? I mean, it surely amazes me that I went ahem A YEAR between posts, but also just thinking back on all that has happened in my life since then too, also amazes me.
I don't want to use this post to wax nostalgic, unless it involves food of some kind, so I'll go on with this...

I AM SO SORRY.

I so cruelly fell off the blogging world in the middle of one of my best desserts, and the thought of any chocolate lover languishing in agony because the chocolate butter cream icing recipe is absent...well let's just say the guilt was ALMOST enough to keep me up at night. So in order to sleep well tonight, while also trying to forget the upcoming Step 2 CS exam I will go ahead and post the icing recipe tonight. One year late. Thank you for your mercy fellow foodies.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:
4 sticks butter, softened
Powdered sugar-at least 1 lb.
Unsweetened cocoa powder-I use Scharffen Berger
Optional: Vanilla Extract

Steps:
1. Beat the butter with hand mixer, or in stand mixer, till smooth and creamy.
2. Add powdered sugar a little bit at a time while beating butter to desired creaminess/stiffness. I can't stress how important it is to do this small bits at a time, TRUST ME. The last thing you want to do is go over on the sugar and dry out your icing. It seems there is some magical line where whoa stop it! should be obeyed, or your icing will leave the eater's mouths feeling like they just ate cotton balls.
3. When icing is of desired smooth creaminess, I get mine to where it can just barely hold a small peak when the spatula is pulled out, add cocoa 1 Tbs at a time and mix to desired chocolate flavor depth.
4. At this point to make things more interesting you can also mix in a couple teaspoons of vanilla extract. This will give the frosting more of that red velvet cake like flavor complexity.

Happy eating! I've missed you.

Dark Chocolate Cake

My Secret Love and yes his name is Chocolate, part II of III.

Now that our raspberry filling is cooling, and being stirred occasionally, lets get started on that cake!

Dark Chocolate Cake
inspired by Marg (CaymanDesigns), modified and improved by yours truly

Makes enough for 1 9x13 or 2 9" rounds or #? cupcakes
Recipe designed for creation in stand mixer

Ingredients:
2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
3/4 cup organic dark baking cocoa unsweetened (I used Scharffen Berger Natural Cocoa Powder)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs, room temperature-gives you 30 min to get everything else out and measured
1 cup milk, 2%
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract, pref Mexican
3/4 cup boiling water- I just zapped ~1 cup water in pyrex measuring cup in the microwave to boiling and then measured.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F, sit eggs on counter for 30 min. Also set out 1/3 cup butter for the frosting.
2. Grease and flour your pan(s) of choice, use baking cocoa instead of flour if you don't want white showing on your cake.
3. In large mixer bowl, stir together your dry ingredients with mixing paddle.
4.Add eggs, milk, oil, vanilla and beat on medium speed, or 4, for 2 minutes. Please be sure to not over-beat the cake batter! Time it!
5. Stir in boiling water, recipe says by hand, I did it on stir and setting 2. Cake batter will thin out and should be homogeneous in color. Now you can scrape the sides down and make sure everything is incorporated.
6. Pour your batter into your prepared pan(s).
7. Bake 30-35 min for 9" rounds or 35-40 min for a 9x13.

Tip: whenever baking someone else's recipe always start check the cake 10 min before it is supposed to be done. Everyone's oven is different and it would be a tragedy to get this far and burn it! So babysit it! One of my quick tips for checking cakes without poking a million holes in them is to wiggle the rack they are baking on. When the middle is set you won't see it jiggle. When your cake pan(s) are jiggle free, pull them out and then test with toothpick, cake tester, or knife.

8. Set pans on wire cooking rack for 10 minutes to cool. Take a plastic knife or very thin hard plastic spatula-I use the plastic one that came with my food processor its PERFECT for this as its very thin, blade is perfect size and it won't scratch your pan-and carefully run it around the side of your cake pan to free up the borders. Scrape the side of the cake pan, not the cake, when you do this. Then flip the pan upside down on the wire cooking rack. Try a test lift of the pan. The cake should plop out onto the cooling rack. If it doesn't you can A. rescrape the sides or B. wait another five minutes and try again. Sometimes you might need to give that pan a gentle shake. Mine however plopped out rather nicely after just a side scrape so let's hope thats the trend.

9. Cool cakes completely on wire cooling racks. While cakes are cooling, along with raspberry filling, we will get started on our frosting!

That is in part III :D.

My Secret Love and yes his name is Chocolate, part I of III-Homemade Raspberry Filling/Glaze

I have been searching long and hard for a truly CHOCOLATE cake. As in, the chocolate reaches taste dimensions you had not realized were even possible, and makes you wonder after one slice if you will ever be so satisfied mind/body/heart by any other food. Well, I have finally found such a recipe and after some tweaking of my own, I combined it with a raspberry filling/glaze and chocolate buttercream icing which takes this fabulous chocolate cake recipe to places its creator may not have even imagined. For the most time efficient baking, make the raspberry filling, then the cake, and then your frosting.

Homemade Raspberry Filling
inspired by Arpam, modified and improved by yours truly

Makes about 3-4 cups filling when complete, more then enough for our cake and plating decor.

Ingredients:
2 12 oz packages of frozen raspberries, NOT packed in syrup
1 1/3 cups water
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 Tbs lemon juice
5 Tbs cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 cup water

Directions:
1. In lg or 3 qt saucepan on stove top combine raspberries, sugar, water and lemon juice.
2. Bring to a boil, watch it for boiling over!, and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Raspberries should be broken down and you should see a dark red syrup forming that smells fantastic. Be sure to stir every 2-3 minutes during this step, scraping the sides and bottom, as its easy for this to start sticking as it simmers.
3. Place fine mesh strainer over a 4 cup or similar sized bowl and strain your raspberry syrup. Occasionally you might need to dump out the seeds and solid matter that will slow this up but be sure to press out all the syrup with the back of a spoon before you do!
4. Once all of your raspberry mixture is strained and seed/pulp free you should have about 3 cups of syrup.
5. Add the syrup back to your saucepan.
6. Using a small whisk, dissolve your cornstarch into your 1/2 cup water if you haven't done so already. Be very diligent in getting out those clumps and getting an even consistency! Whisk this mixture into your saucepan with raspberry syrup.
7. Bring to a soft boil for 5 minutes. This will look nothing like water boiling as the syrup will be very thick. You will see bubbles come up but they will be smaller and take time to actually pop at the surface. Stir frequently during this point as it will want to stick to the bottom/sides of your pan. The syrup will begin to thicken.
8. Pull pan off of heat and stir occasionally till completely cool. This will take a good 2 hours or so. Be sure to remember to stir it so as it thickens so it maintains a smooth consistency. While this is cooling we will get started on our cake!

In Part II that is... :-D.

Beginnings and Yeast

Hello big wide world via the internets!

I cannot wait to share my passion for delicious food sans fancy restaurant, snooty waiters and budget breaking prices with you all! I plan on writing about my cooking and baking adventures-recipes included-with the occasional post concerning cooking for large groups, themed meals, kitchen gadget must-haves, healthy options, and other various and sundry topics of my choosing mixed in.

As this is my very first time blogging, I will keep this first entry short so I can go back to figuring out all the ins and outs of this website.

There are few things that I cook or bake that truly make me think the word "homey" in a Norman Rockwell kind of way. One of those items is fresh baked bread, of really ANY kind. I love fresh bread! When I was a freshly minted newlywed, one of the first things I wanted to learn was to make homemade whole wheat bread. I had really no idea where to begin other then my trusted Better Homes and Garden cookbook, which had a short tutorial. Overall, their instructions are quite good, and they included some pictures to help guide you along. As my first attempt in bread making resulted in some very delicious tasting bread, but not very fluffy, I have chosen yeast as my first topic.
One of the most important, let me emphasize IMPORTANT, steps in breadmaking is what temperature water you mix into your yeast. Yeast are living organisms like you and me, and just the same way we prefer a certain temperature range to live in, they do as well. From various personal breadmaking experiences, yeast are happiest at temperatures from 120-129 Fahrenheit (exception maybe being my Kitchenaid dill bread recipe?). If you hit 130 ABORT, do not add your yeast, just stir your water till you hit the happy point. To reiterate-water that is too hot will scald your yeast-and I can't imagine why we would expect anything other than creatures living in deep sea vents to replicate and metabolize when being scalded. If you do not get up to 120F your yeast essentially will want to stay in bed. However, if you are close to 120 and don't feel like overheating the water and spending time stirring it to cool, you can always factor in MORE rising time as a smaller amount of yeast will be activated and it will metabolize more slowly. This is another reason why many recipes of the very helpful/novice friendly variety tell you a rising time, but then also how much you should expect your dough to enlarge.
The size of your dough after rising is something you should always pay attention to. Its your backup to "Oh no what if the water was too hot? or my yeast was old? Is this even close to right??. If you are relatively close to doubling...or whatever the recipe indicates you should be...then forge ahead!
Three more points:
1. Rapid Rise Active Dry Yeast is NOT the same as Active Dry Yeast despite very similar packaging. Pay attention to which one your recipe calls for, some have rising times dictated for both.
2. Pay attention to the expiration date on your yeast. This is why my first batch of bread was great tasting but not the desired consistency. Yeast die in time just like all other lifeforms. I just didn't have enough living yeast to produce enough CO2 to make fluffy cloud-like bread. I'll discuss this process-how yeast works and why-in another post.
3. Some of you might be wondering how I can get so particular about temperature measuring. No, I'm not using the thermometer in my medicine cabinet, but rather a digital cooking thermometer. Actually its a digital meat thermometer that my grandmother gave me amongst other gadgets post college graduation. I recommend digital as it takes out all the guessing, just be sure to not touch the sides/bottom of your water container and swirl it around the water while it measures for a more accurate overall temp. Wait till the numbers quit changing for your final temperature reading.

Ok so this was SUPPOSED to be short. I apologize for keeping you so long. Hope this was helpful though, and best of luck in the kitchen!