Chocolate cake with raspberries and dark chocolate frosting

Hi! Sorry it's been a while. But to make it up to you, I made a cake! A chocolate one! With a secret layer of raspberry jam in the middle, from the raspberries I picked from the yard. Our new house has raspberry bushes like nobodies business. A giant giant one by the front of the house next to the driveway, and two smaller ones out back. I've been picking about a pint a day, yesterday I picked a pint and a half. I don't even know what to do with that many raspberries. I froze a bunch, and have been eating them out of the freezer as a surprisingly delicious snack.

I used a bunch of raspberries to make a jam which I spread in the middle of a chocolate cake, which I then frosted with easy dark chocolate frosting and promptly devoured. Chocolate cake is so good, you guys. I'm going to bring most of it to work so I don't have to eat it all. Because I will. Don't tempt me.

Chocolate cake with raspberries and dark chocolate frosting


Chocolate cake:
this is the same recipe I've used a few times before, here and here. It's easy, you use one bowl, and I always have these ingredients. 


1 3/4 c rice flour mix
1/2 t xanthan gum
3/4 c cocoa powder
3/4 t salt
1 1/4 t baking powder
2 t baking soda
2 c sugar
1 c milk, soured with 1 t lemon juice
1 c strong coffee (I use decaf because I'm sensitive to caffeine at night)
2 eggs
1/2 c oil
1 t vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly grease two 8" cake pans. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, and then dump in all the rest of the ingredients. Stir well, then pour into the cake pans. Bake about 30 minutes. I forget how long my cakes baked, it was something like 30 minutes. When the cake starts to pull away from the pan it is done. Cool on racks in the pan for a few minutes, then turn out and let cool the rest of the way.

Raspberry filling
1 pint raspberries (or whatever kind of berry you want, I guess)
1 T sugar
1 T juice or water (I used pomegranate)

Combine all those guys in a little saucepan. Cook on medium-low until all the berries have broken down into a mush and some of the juice has cooked out. This isn't an exact science, you're not really making jam as much as you're making mashed up cooked berry juice.
Or, you can skip this step and just use raspberry jam you buy at the store. If you do that, microwave it for a few seconds so it's soft so you can spread it without tearing the cake.

When the cake is totally cool, place one layer on your cake plate, or if they're all still packed because you moved a few weeks ago, a regular plate. Don't mess around here with waiting until the cake is mostly cool, I mean it. It's so sad when you work so hard to make a cake and then it slumps all over because the frosting melts and squishes out the sides. Spread the jammy sauce on top of the bottom layer. If you're worried about it spreading out the sides when you put the top layer on, pause here for a few minutes and stick it in the freezer to harden the jam. Then top with the second cake layer.

Dark chocolate frosting
This is adapted from Joy the Baker's recipe for peanut butter blondies with milk chocolate frosting, which I'm drying to make. The frosting is killer. It's an easy, quick frosting recipe and makes exactly enough to frost the sides and top of a cake, but not the middle, so it's a good thing we've got that jam. 


6 T unsalted butter, room temp
3 T cocoa powder
1/4 t salt
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
3 T milk (I used chocolate! I'm crazy!)
3/4 c dark chocolate chips, melted (this might be spectacular with white chocolate....)
1 t vanilla

Beat the butter and cocoa powder and salt together until creamy. Add in 1/2 c powdered sugar and 1 T milk, then beat again. Next, beat in the rest of the powdered sugar and milk. Then dump in the melted chocolate and the vanilla. Now, frost your cake! Then let it sit for a few minutes to firm up, and decorate with raspberries.

New York style coffee/crumb cake

Yaaaaaay! I ripped this recipe out of a magazine and have been looking at it for a few months. I finally made it, and am so glad I did. Back in high school, I used to go to this deli and get sandwiches and coffee cake, and this is pretty close to the coffee cake that I used to love. Hooray! The cake is soft and moist and buttery, and the crumb top is sweet and crunchy and slightly cinnamon-ny.

New York style coffee/crumb cake
From America's test kitchens best-ever recipes

Crumb topping
8 T melted unsalted butter, still warm
1/3 c white sugar
1/3 c brown sugar, packed
3/4 t cinnamon
a pinch of salt
1 3/4 c rice flour mix
1/4 t xanthan gum

Mix together butter, sugars, cinnamon and salt together, then stir in the flour and xanthan gum. Set aside to cool and harden a bit.

Cake
1 1/4 c rice flour mix
1/4 t xanthan gum
1/2 c white sugar
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
6 T softened butter, cut into slices
1/3 c greek yogurt
1 whole egg plus 1 yolk
2 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 325. Line an 8x8 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Whisk the flour, xanthan gum, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in the bowl of a mixer. Add the butter, one slice at a time until mostly incorporated. Add in the yogurt, eggs, and vanilla and beat on medium-high until batter is light and fluffy. Scrape into the pan, and smooth the top with a spatula. Break up the crumb mixture with a fork, leaving as many pieces that are about the size of a dime as you can. Spread the crumb mixture over the top of the cake, and bake for 40-45 minutes on the shelf on the top third of the oven. Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 9 servings.

Just a reminder

I was going to make a new recipe for a cake but then I remembered this one, and made it again. So, no new recipe today, but instead here are some pictures to remind you of how delicious this cake is. Chocolate root beer cake, whaaaat!

Oh and, you can make it as a sheet cake, just bake for a little less time, about 35 minutes instead of 45.

Looking for the recipe? It's here.

Mocha pudding cake (vegan!)

So this eating healthy thing is going pretty well. Obviously. The thing about this cake/mess is that I accidentally made it vegan in addition to being (obviously) gluten free. We are trying to drink things like milk alternatives (this week it's coconut milk) and I use Earth Balance instead of butter most of the time because it's easy to spread. This is pretty quick to whip up, should be eaten warm, with ice cream on top. I forgot the ice cream, but didn't feel too bad about it.

Mocha pudding cake
Recipe from here, posted on the Tasty Kitchen site


3/4 c sugar
1 c flour mix
1/4 t xanthan gum
2 t baking powder
a pinch of salt
3 T cocoa powder
3 T Earth Balance or butter alt.
1/2 c milk of your choice, I used coconut
1 t vanilla
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
4 T cocoa powder
1 1/4 c strong coffee (decaf for us!)

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease an 8x8 pan. Combine the first five ingredients and set aside. Melt the Earth Balance and stir in the 3 T cocoa powder. Combine this and the milk and vanilla, then stir into the flour mixture. Spread into the pan - batter will be thick, but that's fine. In a small bowl, mix together the remaining brown sugar and white sugar with the cocoa powder, and sprinkle over the top of the cake evenly. Pour the coffee over the top (seriously), and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Chocolate tres leches cake

Remember a few months ago I made a tres leches cake? Ever since I've been thinking about it, but wondering if I could make it into a chocolate cake. Oh boy, I sure could! It's (obviously) a totally different flavor profile, but still just as good as the regular one. I searched all over the internet and couldn't find a recipe that sounded like the one I was looking for, so I just winged it. I wanted a dark chocolatey cake, a chocolatey milk mixture, and chocolate whipped cream. I settled on one of my favorite cakes, Richard's chocolate cake. The rest I fudged. Ha!

Chocolate tres leches cake
I'm not going to post the whole cake recipe, but here's the process. 


1 recipe Richard's famous chocolate cake
1 can condensed milk
2 oz chocolate (I used dark but I might use unsweetened next time)
1 can evaporated milk
1 pint heavy cream
2 T sugar
2 T cocoa powder


Bake the cake according to the instructions. When it's cooled, poke holes all over the top with a fork. Don't worry if it's messy, the top to this cake is a little sticky. You're going to cover it with whipped cream anyway. 


Combine the condensed milk and the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heat for a minute or two in the microwave, until the chocolate melts in the warm milk when stirred. Add in the evaporated milk and 1/4 c heavy cream. This is going to make about twice as much milk as you need, but just go with it. Save the extra chocolate milk for hot chocolate or adding into your coffee. Slowly pour over about 2 cups of the chocolate milk mixture and let sit. 


To make the whipped cream and finish the cake, combine the rest of the cream with the sugar and cocoa powder and whip until thick. Spread over the top of the cake and serve. Store in the fridge, this cake is even better the second day. Or the third. 

Tres leches cake

Back to business! This cake is killer. I just remembered that I love condensed milk in my coffee, then I remembered I should probably do other things with it besides just stirring it into coffee. Somehow I remembered this recipe, and it's been on my mind for days. 

So I went out and bought a can of evaporated milk and some cream, since I had everything else. I got out of work early, and even though it was 90 degrees (still? Isn't summer over?) decided it was a good idea to bake a cake. I was right. It was a good idea to bake this cake. I should have gone with my gut and halved this, because it's a real big cake. At my house, it's just me and Alex. Even if we eat a lot of cake it will take us a long time to finish this. I might freeze half. 

Anyway, this cake is pretty easy, as long as you're not afraid of beating egg whites. You make a quick sponge cake, let it cool, pour a bunch of milks all over it, and top with whipped cream. As long as you have a stand mixer, this cake is, well, cake!

It is delicious, I must say. I was pretty sure I wouldn't like it, since I don't like soggy things. Don't get me started on soggy cereal. Ugh. I did like it! So much that I might even forget to eat dinner and eat another piece. 

Tres Leches Cake

Adapted from the Pioneer Woman

1 c flour mix

1/2 t xanthan gum

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

5 eggs, separated

1 c plus 3T sugar, divided

1 t vanilla

1/3 c milk

1 can condensed milk 

1 can evaporated milk

1 pint heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350, and grease a 13x9 pan. Stir together the flour mix, xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt. Beat the egg yolks with 3/4 c sugar until light yellow, then stir in the milk and vanilla. Stir into the flour mix and set aside. Beat the egg whites until it holds soft peaks. Add in the 1/4 c of sugar, and beat to stiff peaks. Fold the whites into the yolk-flour mixture gently and spread into your greasy pan. Bake 30-40 minutes, until the cake starts to pull away from the edges of the pan, it's golden brown, and a toothpick comes out clean. 

Cool the cake, then prick all over with a fork. Combine condensed milk, evaporated milk, and 1/4 c cream in a bowl. Pour about 2 cups of the mix over your cake, slowly, letting it absorb. 


Here's where I disagree with the Pioneer Woman - she says to toss the rest of the creamy mixture, I say keep it and stir it into your coffee in the morning. 


Anyway, let the cake stand for half an hour or so. It will absorb almost all of the liquid, if not all. Dump the rest of the cream into a mixing bowl with the remaining 3 T of sugar. Beat on high for a minute or three until the cream and sugar turn into whipped cream. Plop the cream on top of your cake and spread around over the top and down the sides. 


Eat. 

Angel food cake

I was so sure I had posted about angel food cake before, but turns out I've only ever posted about chocolate angel food cake, which, while delicious, is just not the same. I made this to be a base for this insane cake-berry-cream thing, which I will finish posting about soon. But first, this angel food cake is just too good not to share.

Heads up- it takes a ton of egg whites. All those eggs were separated and whipped to fluffy peaks. The yolks went into two things. A few of them went into lemon curd (coming soon!) and the rest of the yolks went into a soup I made for Alex. Egg yolks are a great way of making a soup super creamy without using cream (or dairy). Temper the yolks by adding them slowly to a small bowl of hot liquid you are stirring, then slowly pour the hot egg mix into your pot of soup once you've turned off the heat.

Angel Food Cake

Adapted from the Joy of Cooking

1 1/4 c sugar

1 c rice flour mix

1/4 t xanthan gum

1/2 t salt

10 egg whites, room temperature

1 t cream of tartar

1 t vanilla

1 t almond extract

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the salt and xanthan gum with the flour and 1/4 c sugar, set aside. Beat the whites until they're foamy, then add the cream of tartar and continue beating until stiff. Fold in the vanilla and almond extracts, then the sugar. Fold in the flour mix, and pour batter into an ungreased tube pan. Bake 35-45 minutes. Cool upside down, and try not to open the oven more than you have to.

Serve however you wish, I like to top angel food cake with whipped cream, or hot fudge, or fruit, or even top with ice cream. Or you can just eat it as is.

Richards famous chocolate cake (and kahlua whipped cream)

My mom's boyfriend makes this fabulous chocolate cake. He hasn't made it gluten free yet, so I did to prove it's possible. This is a good cake. It's not too sweet, quick to whip up, and serves a crowd. You should use some good quality cocoa, but if all you have is something crappy that's fine too. I used Hershey's. It was fine, but could have been better.

Richard's famous chocolate cake

1 3/4 c rice flour mix

1/2 t xanthan gum

3/4 c cocoa powder

3/4 t salt

1 1/4 t baking powder

2 t baking soda

2 c sugar

1 c milk, soured with 1 t lemon juice

1 c strong coffee

2 eggs

1/2 c oil

1 t vanilla (or kahlua)

Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan (I use glass). Mix together the dry ingredients, and then in another bowl mix together the wet ingredients. Fold together, pour into the pan, and bake 45-50 minutes until the cake starts to pull away from the sides a little and a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.

Kahlua whipped cream

1 c heavy cream

1 t kahlua

1 T confectioners sugar

Combine ingredients, and beat to stiff peaks. Serve on top of chocolate cake.

Gooey cinnamon buns

I got a box of Better Batter flour at work. I've been hearing fabulous things, but I really don't use pre-mixed flour mixes much. This morning I woke up late, and wanted to make cinnamon buns. I figured that was a tough test for a flour blend. Cinnamon buns need to be light and fluffy and easily pulled apart; a tough test for any gluten-free blend.

And let me tell you- the Better Batter flour blend passed. I used recipe for gluten cinnamon buns, switched a few things up, and baked them off. Then I might have eaten four, trying to decide if I liked them.

I'm not sure if this recipe will work with regular flour mix, but I will try it eventually. The only differences between my basic flour mix I use for almost anything and the Better Batter mix is that the BB mix has pectin (gelling agent) and potato flour (which I've never used). I bet you could make this with regular flour mix, with maybe 1 1/2 t xanthan gum and then about 1/3 c teff flour too.

Gooey cinnamon buns

I used Elise's recipe for cinnamon buns, with a few changes.

The buns:

1/4 c warm water (around 110 degrees)

1/3 c sugar

1 packet of yeast (2 1/4 t if you don't use packets)

3/4 c milk

4 T butter, melted

1 egg and a yolk

1 t salt

3 c Better Batter flour

Combine the warm water, sugar and yeast in a small bowl and let proof for 5 minutes. Beat together the milk, butter, eggs, salt and yeast mixture. Stir in the flour mix a cup at a time. The dough will be pretty thick.

For the cinnamon filling:

2/3 c brown sugar

1 T cinnamon

4 T butter, melted

Divide the dough in half. Set one half aside, and roll out the other half on a well floured surface. Don't roll too thin, about 1/3" is good. Half an inch is ok too. Brush the top with butter, and sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture evenly over the top. Roll up, and cut with a sharp knife into 3/4"-1" slices. Repeat with the other dough half.

For the topping:

1/4 c brown sugar

3 T butter

3 T honey

1 T corn syrup

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl, and microwave until butter is melted. Stir to combine, and pour into the bottom of a 13x9 glass pan.

Place the sliced cinnamon rolls on top of the sticky sauce, spaced evenly. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise for about 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 while the rolls are rising. Bake 30-40 minutes until topping is bubbling around the sides and the tops are brown. Turn out onto a plate and try not to eat them all at once. Makes about 20.

Cream cheese and blueberry coffee cake

Once again, we're snowed in. Seriously snowed in. The highways are closed, the public transportation system is shut down, and no one has even bothered to start shoveling. It's serious. Although I'll be hurting a little bit if work is cancelled again tomorrow, I've had too many (unpaid) snow days.

I searched high and low on the internet for a recipe like this, and I couldn't find any. I wanted a basic coffee cake, but with berries, a cream cheese layer, and a crunchy streusel-y topping. Why doesn't this exist besides in my mind?

The good news is that my ideal recipe translated perfectly into reality. This is a hell of a coffee cake. The base cake is light and fluffy, the blueberries fit right in between the cake and the creamy layer of cheese, and the streusel topping is thin and crunchy.

Cream cheese and blueberry coffee cake

Cake base and streusel layer adapted from the Joy of Cooking 1975 edition

For the cake base:

1 1/2 c rice flour mix

1/4 t salt

1/4 t xanthan gum

2 t baking powder

1/4 c butter, softened

1/4 c sugar

1 egg

2/3 c milk

1 t vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. In a small bowl, blend together the flour mix, salt, xanthan gum, and baking powder, then set aside. Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg, followed by the milk. Add the vanilla, then stir in the flour mixture. Blend well, then spread into a 8x8 pan or an 8" pie/tart pan.

For the berry layer:

1/2 c to 3/4 c fresh or frozen blueberries (don't thaw them if they're frozen)

1 T sugar

Toss the berries in the sugar, and sprinkle over the cake layer.

For the cream cheese layer:

8 oz cream cheese, softened (I used low fat 'Neufchatel')

1 egg yolk

1/4 c sugar

2 t lemon juice or vanilla

Smoosh the cream cheese together with the egg, sugar, and lemon juice. Beat until smooth, and drop big spoonfuls on top of the berries.

For the streusel layer:

2 T rice flour or almond meal

2 T butter

3 T sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

Mash together all the ingredients with a fork until crumbly. Sprinkle over the cheese layer.

Bake the cake about 45-60 minutes, until no longer jiggley in the center, and starting to brown. Cool completely before serving.

Raspberry buttermilk cake

Today is a friend's birthday, and I'm baking him a cake. Well, really, I'm baking him a cake and one for Alex and I, because there's nothing worse than baking someone a cake and not being able to taste it and make sure it came out OK. So we'll eat ours for dessert tonight, and deliver his tomorrow. I was going to make some elaborate tart, but opted for this easy cake. I used almond meal and some almond extract, because I was craving something almondy.

Then, because I really wanted some, I made a quick vanilla buttercream. I made two small two layer cakes, and yum! I'm not going to post a buttercream recipe, but there are a billion on the web. Or just beat some butter with a whole mess of powdered sugar and vanilla, maybe a splash of milk.

Raspberry buttermilk cake

From Gourmet, June 2009

1/2 c almond meal

1/2 c rice flour mix

1/2 t xanthan gum

1/2 t baking soda

3/4 t baking powder

pinch salt

1/2 stick butter (4T), softened

2/3 c + 2 T sugar, divided

1/2 t vanilla

1/2 t almond extract

1 egg

1/2 c buttermilk (I used soymilk with 1 T lemon juice)

1 c raspberries

Preheat oven to 400, and lightly grease two loaf pans (or one 8x8 pan). In a small bowl, combine the almond meal, rice flour mix, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Cream the butter and 2/3 c sugar together well, then add the vanilla and almond extract, then the egg. Add the flour and buttermilk alternately, starting and ending with the flour in three batches. Divide the batter between the two pans. Place the raspberries around in the batter, then sprinkle with the rest of the sugar. Bake the cakes for 20 minutes, until browned around the edges and firm in the center. Cool in the pan 10 minutes, then remove gently to a cooling rack and cool to room temperature.

Peanut butter blondies

I was going to make brownies today, but I wasn't in the mood for that much chocolate (weird, right?) and plus, all we had by way of chocolate was a half bag of chocolate chips. Blondies were what I made instead. I undercooked them a little bit, which was ok, because they taste just like undercooked chocolate chip cookies (with peanut butter), which is a good thing. I love undercooked chocolate chip cookies. Have I said undercooked chocolate chip cookies enough?

Anyway, go make these, they're easy, quick, and delicious.

Peanut butter blondies

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted them from Mark Bittman

7 T butter, melted

1 c brown sugar (I use dark)

1 egg

1 t vanilla

1/2 c peanut butter

pinch of salt

1 c gf flour mix

1/4 t xanthan gum

3/4 c chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 and butter and 8x8 pan. Mix the butter and sugar, then add in the egg, vanilla, and peanut butter. You might want to heat up the peanut butter in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it so it mixes in better. Stir in salt, flour and xanthan gum, then add chocolate chips. Spread batter into pan, smooth the top, and bake 25-30 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

Daring Bakers August! Dobos Torta

This month, again, I almost didn't make the challenge. Oops! But then I went back and reread the recipe this morning, intending to whipe it up today, and noticed it is a Hungarian cake. Oh! I have a Hungarian husband! I asked him if he knew about this cake, since he grew up over there and all, and he did. He said that the caramel layer isn't how his mom makes it, but I looked in all of our Hungarian cookbooks (we have a few) and all of them included the caramel layer. I decided to skip it, it's too hot to make caramel. We didn't miss it.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Sponge cake

6 eggs, separated, at room temperature

1 1/3 c powdered sugar

1 t vanilla

2/3 c cornstarch

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 400, and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or pan liners, then lightly grease them. Beat the egg yolks with 2/3 c powdered sugar and vanilla for a few minutes until thick and light yellow. Set aside, and clean your beaters. Whip the egg whites until soft peaks form, then sprinkle the remining sugar over the top. Beat another few minute until the eggs hold stiff peaks. Fold a big scoop of the whites into the yolks to lighten them, then fold in the rest, carefully. Sprinkle the cornstarch and salt over the top, and fold and fold, carefully, until everything is incorporated. Divide the batter evenly between the two cookie sheets and spread until even. Place one pan on the top and one pan on the bottom oven shelf, and bake 5 minutes. Switch, then bake 5 more, until lightly browned. Cool completely.

Chocolate buttercream

4 eggs

1 c powdered sugar

4 oz dark chocolate, chopped

2 stick butter, softened

Set a pan of water on to boil to use as a double boiler. Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thickened in a metal bowl. Set the bowl over the boiling water, and beat the egg mixture with a whisk until it starts to thicken further. Whisk in the chocolate, and keep stirring for a few minutes until totally melted, 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

Whisk in the softened butter a few tablespoons at a time until fully incorporated. If your buttercream i too loose, like mine was because it's 90 degrees in my kitchen, just stick it in the fridge it's thickened up a bit.

I edged mine with crushed pistachios.