Best Chocolate Cake Recipe I Have EVER Tried!

I have been on a non-blogging roll lately! But here is by far the best chocolate cake recipe I have tried! It's incredibly moist and decadently rich! I made this cake for my husband Poata's birthday, hence the happy birthday Poata on the cake ;) For the frosting I actually used 3 different kinds. Between each layer of cake are a layer of cream cheese frosting (recipe in previous posts), a layer of chocolate ganache (recipe also in previous posts) and then the frosting on the outside of the cake is a super rich and thick fudge like chocolate frosting (recipe follows). This recipe makes A LOT of cake!!

 Chocolate Cake:
2 sticks butter-melted
2 cups warm water
1 cup canola oil
4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract


Melt Butter, add the water and oil. Set aside. In a large bowl (at least 6 quarts) add flour, sugar and cocoa powder. Whisk until there are no lumps. Add butter, water, oil mixture and mix until just blended. This will be very thick. Then add the eggs one at a time. Pour in buttermilk, baking soda, salt, and vanilla. Mix until you have no lumps. Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes. I made 6 layers but this could also make 3 thicker layers (bake for about 35 minutes at 350) or 36 cupcakes (bake for about 20-25 minutes at 350)

Fudge Frosting:
2 sticks butter, softened
12 oz. chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)
6 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
3 tablespoons coffee
1/2 cup milk or cream
In your electric mixer cream butter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Melt chocolate chips in microwave, if there are still little pieces unmelted stir until they melt so that you don't burn the chocolate in the microwave. Add the chocolate to the butter and beat until incorporated. Add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder slowly, the mixture will be VERY thick. With your mixture on low speed add the coffee and milk or cream, I used cream. Beat about 5 additional minutes. Add more or less milk depending on the consistency you desire.

Enjoy!

Tips and tricks #1

Okay first of all I need to apologize for being the worst blogger ever! I haven't posted for a while!! But I have been baking a WHOLE LOT!! So I will be posting some recipes soon! But for now here is a little tip. I hate buying cake flour. I don't know about you but at my lame grocery store (foodland) they only have a tiny box of it and it's way more expensive than all pupose! And I buy a huge bag of all purpose so I would like to just use it for all purposes! So I do! So to turn all purpose flour into cake flour this is what you do: for every 3/4 of a cup of flour add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. That's it! It's that simple! No more buying expensive small boxes of cake flour! Yipeee!

Coconut Haupia

Do you love it as much as me when a cupcake recipe yields more than 24 cupcakes? I think it's pretty awesome, the more the better! Especially when they are this good! This recipe makes 30. These are coconut cupcakes with haupia (Hawaiian coconut pudding) filling, topped with cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut. I think these are a unanimous favorite among my family and neighbors.

Cupcakes:

Coconut Cupcakes (adapted from Ina Garten and dobetter)

• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut

In a large bowl mix the oil and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix in the vanilla and almond extract. Turn the mixer on low and add the flour, one cup at a time. Then add the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix on medium until well combined. Turn the mixer back to low and pour in milks. Then mix in shredded coconut.
Using a cupcake scoop, fill a prepared cupcake pan. This makes 30 cupcakes. Bake at 350 degrees for 22 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes then cool completely on a cooling rack.
You can fill the cupcakes with the haupia (recipe follows) two ways. The first time I made them I used the cone method and I think I prefer that way because you get a nice big dollop in the middle and when you bite into it it's pretty amazing. The second way to do it is to use a piping bag and just insert it to each cupcake and squirt as much haupia as the cupcake can handle (which isn't very much) and release. This way is definitely quicker which I like but I think the cone method is worth the extra time. You don't get a very full center of haupia but nonetheless it is still mouth watering.

Haupia: (via about.com)

• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1 cup whole milk
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 5 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp vanilla (if desired)

Directions:

Pour one cup of coconut milk into a saucepan. Combine sugar and cornstarch stirring into coconut milk. (Add vanilla is desired) Heat over low stirring consistently until thickened. Add remainder of coconut milk and whole milk and continue to heat until thickened. Let cool completely to room temperature but do not chill (it will harden and you won't be able to pipe it into cupcakes). Fill each cupcake with about a little more than a tablespoon of haupia.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 package (8oz.) cream cheese (room temp.)
2 sticks butter (room temp.)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup toasted sweetened shredded coconut for garnish

Beat cream cheese and butter together until fluffy about 3 minutes. Add Vanilla. Slowly add powdered sugar. Beat an additional 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Top each cupcake with a big swirl then finish with toasted coconut.
Enjoy!

Super Yummy Mango Bread

This recipe makes two loafs of bread, maybe... After trying this bread I contemplated scarfing an entire loaf to myself before my husband got off of work and lying to him, telling him that the recipe made only one loaf and I hadn't tried it yet. But I was a good little wifey and did not lie, but I did scarf half a loaf! And it was delicious! Moistest best bread ever! My mom has a mango tree in her yard that is bearing way more mango's than anyone can consume so lucky little me got a couple of buckets full! I obviously couldn't eat a couple of buckets worth of mango's and I didn't want them all to spoil and I was planning on making banana bread the day she brought over the mango's so change of plans, swap the banana for the mango and viola... mango bread. The first time I made this bread I topped it with coconut and the second time I baked it with crystalized ginger, I couldn't tell you which one I prefer, they were both de-lish. I will say the coconut added a whole other aroma to my house. I love when you bake it makes the entire house smell amazing! Anyways here is the recipe.

Best mango bread EVER!: (That's actually the way I have it written down in my little recipe notebook)
 Adapted from a pillsbury banana bread recipe.
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups ripe mango's pureed (about three medium sized mango's cut and then pureed in a blender)
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of sweetened coconut flakes or 1/2 cup diced crystalized ginger
Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 loaf pans. Mix sugar and butter until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add mango, mix. Add buttermilk, mix. Add vanilla, mix. Slowly add flour then baking soda and salt, without over mixing. Pour into prepared pans and sprinkle the tops of the batter with coconut or if using ginger, fold ginger into batter before pouring into pans. Bake for 55 minutes.

* mango can be substituted for banana and is almost as delicious. If you use banana you can add 1 cup of walnuts or chocolate chips or both.

Enjoy!