Oreo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't really know what to call these. They exist in the baking world, they're not an original idea of mine, but what on earth do you call them? My initial thought went to the movie Inception. I don't think my brain can take the amount of screwing-over this movie allegedly provides, but I've heard of the whole "dream within a dream" thing and how  "x within a x" has itself become a "thing." And that's exactly what this is! A cookie within a cookie, cookieception if you will.

These are unashamedly... shall we say, indulgent. I appreciate a more euphemistic tone over "food that will make you fat and stuff." These are living proof that it is in fact possible to make chocolate chip cookies/oreos even better than they already are, and aren't all that difficult to make.

The recipe I used was the same chocolate chip cookie dough as one featured in one of my other posts, I'll post it again anyway, though.

There isn't much else to say about these so here's the recipe!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Adapted from spicy icecream)

• 240g (approx two scant cups) plain flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sea salt (table salt is fine)
• 140g soft unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 110g (just over half a cup) caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 250g milk chocolate chips

Additionally

• One packet of oreos

1.  In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and baking powder.
2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy (around 3-5 minutes) with an electric mixer on medium speed.
3. Add in the egg, mixing until it is well incorporated.
4. Add the vanilla and mix briefly to combine.
5. Add half the flour mixture, mixing on low speed to combine.
6. Repeat with remaining flour mixture.
7. Fold in the chocolate chips with a large metal spoon.
8. Form the mixture into a dough with your hands, ensuring the chocolate chips are well distributed throughout the dough.
9.  Roll the dough into a large ball, wrap twice in cling wrap and place in the fridge to chill for at least twenty minutes.
10. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 175 degrees and roll the dough out into a cylinder with your hands.
11.  Using a sharp knife, cut off two small portions of dough; enough to encase your oreo.
12. Sandwich the oreo in between the two pieces of dough, pushing it all together so that the oreo is completely covered and no longer visible.
13. Repeat with remaining dough/oreos, placing them on a greased and lined baking tray with enough room for the cookies to spread.
14. Bake in the oven for approximately fifteen minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.
15. Cool cookies in baking tray for five minutes, before easing them off the baking paper and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Somehow, almost a whole month has passed since I last posted a recipe, which is admitedly quite a while although not something I will apologise for (although I do sort of apologise for the picture; I forgot to take one prior to cutting). The past month has yielded some of the most important events in any teenager's life, and in fact in any adult's. The last few weeks of highschool came about, with both the obligatory tears and the outpouring of sentimental emotion. The grade's Facebook page was almost unrecognisable, the usual sporadic posts about homework help and assingments replaced with long, thoughtful and heartfelt messages filled with the realisation that six years of schooling together has come to an end. It's a strange thing to finally be a high school graduate, but it's inevitable that we too would eventually be exposed to the big, wide world. While it is definitely sad to be leaving behind something which became such a large part of us (whether we liked it or not!), we must keep in mind that there is so much more ahead of each and every one of us, and that the memories we created will never be lost. Also, we have a HSC to focus on! (She says as she blogs about cake).

Graduation aside, I also had my eighteenth birthday a few weeks ago. Celebrated with a bunch of my favourite people and continuing into the night with a small yet enjoyable sleepover, the day marked my transition into adulthood. I know everybody says it, but I honestly do not feel anywhere near that old! I still remember the day my (now 20, soon to be 21) year old brother turned eighteen, and he seemed so much.... older. I'm aware that this is something said mainly by middle-aged women trying to cling onto their last shreds of youth, but you are only as old as you feel! I suppose that voting responsibilites and legal standing aside, I won't truly feel like an adult for many years (or at least until uni starts!)

Now onto the actual baking bit! (I should've put a disclaimer at the start so people could just skip to the baking bits). I baked a variety of desserts for my birthday party, including this cheesecake which I have had my eye on for quite a while. It comes from Nigella Lawson and, although I feared this wouldn't turn out well, I decided to give it a try since my attempts at her Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake yielded such wonderful results.
Using what I think of as one of the best combinations ever, this cheesecake tasted amazing even before being baked, and came out of the oven retaining the same quality. It also wasn't all that hard to make, which is always, always a plus.

My only issue was with the base. Nigella favours digestive biscuits for her cheesecake bases, which I have no problem with, but I also followed her addition of chocolate and peanuts to it. I couldn't taste the chocolate at all so it seemed redundant, and the peanuts made the base rather oily. Next time I make this, I'll definitely stick with just the biscuits. I think I might just take this opportunity to talk about how great digestives are! They sound unpleasant but the fact they are sweet but not overly so make them very enjoyable to eat, and a perfect balance for the rich and decadent cheesecake filling/topping.

Although some family members had reservations about the peanut butter and chocolate combination (I sincerely believe age has diminished their tastebuds!), this cheesecake gained positive comments, including one which I am sure is aimed as a compliment but translates as something accidentally insulting ("It was so good, I had difficulty believing you made it!). However I do think my favourite one was being asked by a friend if I'd marry him and bake him this cheesecake every day, whilst I was seated between both his girlfriend and my own boyfriend. Good times.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake (adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe)

For the base

• 200g digestive biscuits
• 50g salted peanuts
• 100g dark chocolate chips
• 50g soft unsalted butter

For the filling

• 500g cream cheese, softened
• 3 medium eggs
• 3 medium egg yolks
• 200g caster sugar
• 125mL sour cream
• 250g smooth or crunchy peanut butter

For the topping 

• 150mL sour cream
• 50g milk chocolate chips
• 30g soft light brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius and grease and line (only line the bottom) a 20cm springform tin.
2.  Place the ingredients for the base into a food processor and process until fine and mixture starts to clump together.
3. Line the bottom and sides of the pan with the mixture, pressing down with the back of a spoon to ensure a smooth surface. Chill in the fridge while you make the filling.
4. Wipe the inside of the food processor until clean and fill with the ingredients for the filling.
5. Process on medium speed for thirty seconds or so, until the mixture is smooth, thick and glossy. If you have lumps in the mixture from the cream cheese, process for a few more seconds. This will get rid of some extra lumps, but any small remainders won't hurt the cake.
6. Use a rubber spatula to pour the mixture into the prepared tin.
7. Cook for approximately fifty minutes, or until the top of the cake is set and dry to the touch (the middle will still be a little wobbly).
8. Take the cake out of the oven (leave it on) and prepare the topping by melting the brown sugar, chocolate and sour cream on a saucepan over a low heat. Stir constantly until melted and combined.
9. Allow to cool for about a minute, before gently spooning topping over the cheesecake. 
10. Put cake back into the oven for ten minutes. 
11. Remove the cheesecake from the oven, allow it it cool completely in its tin.
12. Cover with plastic wrap (I then put the tin into a plastic bag to ensure it was well covered) and leave in the fridge to set overnight.
13. When the cake is to be served, remove it from the fridge (only for a few minutes; you don't want it to start melting) and cut with a sharp knife. Smaller slices are advised as it's quite rich!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I actually don't really know what to say about this recipe. It's cupcakes. They're red. And velvety.

I've made this recipe several times now, including a few times last year, before I got adventurous with my baking. Come to think of it, this recipe actually says a lot about the way my baking has....evolved(?). The first time I attempted these, they came out absolutely terrible. They refused to bake properly and were sticky and mushy. This was due to the fact I didn't have baking soda at home, and thinking it would be okay, substituted it with baking powder; it wasn't.

The next time I tried them, I again forgot that I would need baking soda. Instead, I did some reading on the internet and decided to try substituting it with baking powder, and also switching the buttermilk to normal milk; this worked wonderfully.

Granted, the last batch I made wasn't my favourite (I ran out of caster sugar so it was a liiitle under in terms of flavour), but the fact this is now something I can make easily, to me, is something I can compare to the first time I made these and be proud.

My favourite part of these is the frosting, cream cheese is absolute boss. The cake is also moist but not heavy on sweetness or a strong flavour, so the pair work really well together. Below, I've included the original recipe (no baking powder/soda switchover). I've been told by some of my friends that they prefer these to the ones you can buy at popular cupcake stores; if that's not inflation for my baking ego, I don't know what is.

Red Velvet Cupcakes (Adapted from taste)

For the cupcakes:

• 300g (2 cups) plain flour
• 30g (1/4 cup) cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 315g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
• 250ml (1 cup) buttermilk
• 200g unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 1 tbs white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbs liquid red food colouring

 For the frosting:

• 250g pkt cream cheese, at room temperature
• 300g (approx 2 cups) icing sugar
• 60g butter, at room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line two 12 hole muffin trays with patty cases.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda into a large bowl. Whisk in the sugar.
3. In a smaller bowl, whisk the buttermilk, butter, eggs, vanilla and vinegar until combined.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the wet mixture, stirring to combine.
5. Stir in the food colouring, making sure the batter is a deep, rich red. Use more than the specified amount if required.
6. Bake cupcakes in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool in muffin pan for five minutes, before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. When cupcakes are completely cool, prepare the frosting; place the cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and vanilla into a bowl, beating with an electic mixer until light and fluffy.
9. Pipe or spread onto cupcakes.

 

Sugar Cookies

Last Valentine's Day, I thought I'd try my hand at some sugar cookies. Armed with a seemingly easy recipe from rasperri cupcakes (all it contained was butter, flour and sugar!), this ended up taking me a ridiculous amount of time, with my only solace coming from my mother, whose experience with various amounts of dough (because making roti every morning is the same as working with cookie dough, right?) allowed her to help me combat the sticky butter-laden dough. The cookies came out okay in the end, but the recipe was resigned to the deep-dark graveyard of recipes to never again be revisited.

While trawling through Joy of Baking one day, I came across a new sugar cookie recipe, which despite requiring more ingredients than the previous one, seemed much more reliable. I've used this recipe a few times now, and the results are always amazing. The cookies are light and crispy and the dough yields heaaaps of cookies (I'm talking 80+ using a regular sized cookie cutter). I never make the cookies all in one batch, I generally use half - two thirds of the dough in one go, and refrigerate the rest to use a few days later. If you don't need that large of a batch I suggest halving the recipe when making it so as not to waste much. 

As for the topping, I find just dusting them with icing sugar works well, but I experiemented with some royal icing on the second batch and this was also quite excellent... even if I do say so myself. Which I do.

Sugar Cookies (Adapted from Joy of Baking)

• 3 cups plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tsp vanilla essence

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (approx. 2-4 minutes).
3. Add the eggs and vanilla essence, beating to combine.
4. Add in the flour mixture and beat mixture on low speed until mixture begins to combine.
5. Turn out contents of bowl onto the counter-top and knead until a soft, pliable dough is formed.
6.  Divide the dough in half, covering each half in cling wrap before placing in the fridge.
7. After chilling for at least an hour (can be left for a few days if you don't wish to bake the cookies on the same day), roll dough out onto a lightly floured surface into a thickness of approx.1cm (I usually do mine a little thinner as this produces a crispier cookie).
8.  Use a cookie cutter to press dough into shapes, placing cut-out cookies on a greased and lined baking tray as you go.
9. Place baking tray in the fridge for ten minutes (this prevents the cookies from losing their shape while baking) and preheat oven to 180 degrees.
10. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes (be mindful of the thinner cookies as they will brown easily).
11. Allow cookies to cool on baking trays for five minutes before moving onto wire racks to cool completely

** If desired, dust the cookies with icing sugar once out of the oven. Royal icing can be added once the cookies are completely cool.

Red Velvet Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Last week saw one of Mounty County's finest transition into adulthood. One of my old Maccas buddies, Rachel, turned 18 and for once the choice of cake was very clear. An avid fan of red velvet cake, I knew four layers of reddy-brown moistness sandwiched with cream cheese frosting was the only way to go. 

I have previously stuck to one red velvet cupcake recipe (which I will blog about later), but decided to look up a new one for the purpose of this cake. The method wasn't too difficult and the cake was delicious; moist but not too sweet, perfect for countering the sweetness of the cream cheese icing. As with any layer cake I make, this took quite a while due to the fact I own several different cake pans, no two of which are the same diameter. Therefore each layer had to be cooked one at a time. However this time, I was baking some sugar cookies for my sister to take to school (recipe to come later), so I figured out an efficient rotation system between cookies and cakes which limited time wasted from the oven being on between batches. (Cool story, I know).

The only thing I was slightly disappointed about was the icing in between the layers. Despite knowing the cake wasn't very sweet, I didn't want the frosting to become too overpowering so I was rather sparing with it. This resulted in it soaking up into the layers and made the cake look like one big layer instead of four distinct ones separated by the frosting as I had hoped. Nevertheless, the taste remained unaffected and I was still very happy with the result. Oh, and as you may have noticed from the picture, the cake didn't look as pretty as I had hoped. The sides were rather difficult to ice and after a car trip covered in uneven glad wrap, that was what was left. Still, it's not like I was baking for the CWA, everyone knows taste > everything, right?

Red Velvet Layer Cake (Adapted from Best Recipes)

For the cake:

• 2 1/2 plain flour, sifted
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 120g soft unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• Few tbsp red food colouring 

For the frosting: 

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 60g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 cups icing sugar, sifted
  

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease and line one round 20cm baking tin (or as many as you have).
2. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa and set aside.
3.  In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (approx 3-5 minutes).
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Add in a third of the flour mixture and beat well to combine.
6. Add in half of the buttermilk and beat again to combine,
7. Repeat, alternating between the flour mixture and the buttermilk, ending with the flour mixture. Beat well after each addition.
8. In a small bowl, mix together the vinegar and baking soda until foaming. Add into the batter and mix well with a rubber spatula or large spoon.
9. Add in the food colouring, a few drops at a time, until mixture achieves a desired shade of red.
10. Divide cake mixture evenly into four bowls, with the mixture of one going into the baking pan and into the oven. Cover the other three portions with cling wrap and put aside.
11. Bake each layer for 10-15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
12. When layers are cooked, let cool in tin for five minutes before transferring to a rack for further cooling. Reline/regrease tray and repeat with each remaining portion of batter.
13. When all layers are completely cool, prepare the frosting by beating together the butter, vanilla and cream cheese together until light and fluffy (approx 2-4 minutes). Add the icing sugar and beat until mixture is light and creamy.
14. Sandwich each layer together with icing as well as covering the entire cake in it. Add extra decorations to the cake if desired (I used coloured sugar).

Chocolate Brownies

There are times when we wonder how life got so hard. Trying to change into a lane where you're not trailing behind a massive truck on the Great Western. Writing an essay about the differing historian's views on Tiberius Gracchus. Trying to figure out why that even matters. Finding the perfect pair of shoes on the sale rack and then finding out they don't come in your size. Oh yeah, things get pretty tough in that little thing we call life, and sometimes all you really need is a good brownie (or four) and a nice cup of tea. So that's what I made myself to deal with such struggles encountered in my daily doings. Yeah okay so not really, I made these weeks ago in a completely leisurely context. But like... whatever.
So here we go, a quick and easy brownie recipe which I promise you, yielded the most delicious, soft chocolately clouds of deliciousness ever to grace this earth. And they're so easy to prepare. Seriously.
The recipe is the same as what I used for my Chocolate Brownie Cake a few months back, but halved and baked in a square cake tin. It's a pity they only yield nine average-sized slices, they're perfect for sharing but they barely make enough for even my immediate friendship group. Sad, but at least there's no remorse at not sharing them ;)
So here's the recipe, enjoy and eat responsibly. Brownies are far too addictive for their own good.

Chocolate Brownies (Adapted from raspberri cupcakes)

• 200g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 100g dark chocolate,broken into pieces
• 2 large eggs
• 100g (approx. half cup) caster sugar
• 100g (approx. one scant cup) plain flour

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease one square cake tin (I'm not sure how big my one actually is, I'll add the measurement when i find out..)
2. Melt the chocolate and butter together by placing them in a bowl over a pot of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally. 
3. Beat eggs and caster sugar with an electric mixer until thick and pale (about 3-5 minutes).
4. Fold through chocolate mixture then fold in flour until just combined. 
5. Transfer batter into the cake tin and bake for 20-25 minutes  or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool for five minutes in its tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar if desired.
7. When completely cool cut into nine equal slices (or whatever your preference)

Chocolate-Chip Cookies

I know, I know. It's been a really long time since I last posted. I'd cite exams as the reason but there was more than enough time inbetween giggling over a guy called "Franz Bumm" and writing half-finished essays about Sulla's mulberry face. (I don't know, that somehow translates to studying in my language).
Basically, I couldn't be bothered. Not to do the posts, nah, rambling about my baking woes and how delicious freshly-baked brownies are is something I never hesitate to do. I think it was more the recipes. While all my baked goods do stem from some sort of recipe, there's every chance I've altered it in some way while baking, and even if not, it feels a little silly to just copy/paste the recipe instead of acknowledging and then adapting the original one to my blog. Hence my ramblings about my baking woes and how delicious brownies are were forced to find a new host, namely in the form of me complaining expressing to my friends at school. Hey, baking gets pretty stressful sometimes.
So anyway, on to the actual subject of this post, chocolate chip cookies! I've blogged these before, but what kind of baker (or y'know, human...) can resist re-making such a delicious classic. I did, however, use a different recipe this time, opting for the New York Times recipe I found on spicy icecream. The batter resulted in actual cookie dough (as opposed to the runnier, batter-like result from the previous recipe I used), which was to be chilled and then rolled into balls. Actually, the recipe said to use an ice-cream scoop to put the dough on the tray, but where's the fun in that? If you're making cookie dough, you might as well roll it up and mould it by hand, no?
I also noticed that the original recipe advised to cover the entire bowl of dough and place it into the fridge for twenty-four/thirty-six hours before baking. What kind of willpower do these people have!?! I mean, chilling the dough is in fact neccesary to get it to a firm consistency, making it much easier to shape/bake, but waiting that long means that 1. You have to wait much longer to eat your cookies 2. Run the risk of tempting yourself (or others in the house) to run stick their sticky little fingers into the dough and enjoy some good ol' raw cookie dough.
I've made two small batches so far, one was made with dough which had been chilling in the fridge for around forty minutes, and the other after almost a whole day. Both turned out absolutely wonderful, so I see no need for lengthy chilling time. There's just under half the total batter left, which I have wrapped in baking paper, cling wrap and put inside a ziploc bag in the freezer (who am I kidding, it'll be gone within the next few days).
The recipe made cookies with crispy edges and a slightly softer centre, and turned out absolutely delicious.

OKAY enough talking, here's the recipe!

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Adapted from spicy icecream)

• 240g (approx two scant cups) plain flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sea salt (table salt is fine)
• 140g soft unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 110g (just over half a cup) caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 250g milk chocolate chips

1.  In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and baking powder.
2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy (around 3-5 minutes) with an electric mixer on medium speed.
3. Add in the egg, mixing until it is well incorporated.
4. Add the vanilla and mix briefly to combine.
5. Add half the flour mixture, mixing on low speed to combine.
6. Repeat with remaining flour mixture.
7. Fold in the chocolate chips with a large metal spoon.
8. Form the mixture into a dough with your hands, ensuring the chocolate chips are well distributed throughout the dough.
9.  Roll the dough into a large ball, wrap twice in cling wrap and place in the fridge.
10. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 175 degrees and roll the dough out into a cylinder with your hands.
11. Use a sharp knife to cut the dough into appropriate sized pieces (see picture), and roll into small, thick, slightly flattened discs. Add extra chocolate chips to the top of cookies if desired. Place on a baking tray lined with greased baking paper, leaving enough space for cookies to spread (I only cooked five cookies at a time, so you may have to do them in small batches to avoid overcrowding the pan).
12. Bake in the oven for approximately 10-15 minutes, or until lightly golden.
13. Cool cookies in baking tray for five minutes, before easing them off the baking paper and placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate-Chip Buttercream

Last Monday, our tiny five-person Japanese class had a party to signify our last lesson with our on/off Japanese teacher who was going on maternity leave. As these weren't my usual taste tasters, I decided on something simple yet effective; yes, another chocolate cake! I knew the Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake recipe was a reliable one, but I decided I would instead use this opportunity to try out a recipe for Devil's Food Cake. I have never made one of these before (or indeed, eaten one), so I was intrigued by what this recipe, which included half a cup of coffee, would produce.
The result was a cake with a deep, dark chocolate flavour (yeah, nine tablespoons of cocoa powder tends to do that :P), and was less rich/sweet than the chocolate cakes I was used to making. The large amount of cocoa powder, as well as the coffee, made the cake a beautiful, deep, dark chocolate colour to match its flavour, and I thought the white buttercream would be a good contrast.
This recipe is David Lebovitz's, but the one I directly used was from raspberri cupcakes. I didn't make the icing mint flavoured, but I liked the idea of a buttercream speckled with chocolate.
The cake itself was lovely, but I think next time I would try a regular chocolate ganache (like on Lebovitz's original recipe), as the buttercream seemed out of place on this cake.
I wish I'd had gotten a picture of the inside of the cake when we had cut it, the contrast looked really good.
Oh well, here's the recipe, folks! 

Oh! And as always, I made the buttercream quantities based on my own judgement, but I'll include the measurements from raspberri cupcakes... Although it seems to be a lot more than I used.

(Adapted from David Lebovitz's Devil's Food Cake recipe)

For the cake: 

•  9 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour (you can just measure out that amount of plain flour and replace three tablespoons with cornflour instead)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 115g soft unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup strong coffee
• 1/2 cup milk

For the chocolate-chip buttercream

• 280g soft butter
• 500g icing sugar
• 150g dark chocolate, grated
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease two 20cm cake tins (I only have one so I had to do them one after another).
2. Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, salt, bicarb soda, and baking powder in a bowl.  
3. Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined.
5. Mix together the coffeee and the milk.
6. Pour in half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, stirring to combine.
7. Add the coffee and milk into the mixture.
8. Finally, add the last of the dry mixture and stir untl combined.
9. Divide  mixture between the two tins (if only using one, reserve half the mixture in a small, covered bowl).
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes  or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. 
11.  Allow cake to cool for five minutes in its tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
12. (If using one tin, put other half of mixture into tin after removing the cooked cake and repeat) 
13. When cakes are completely cool, prepare the buttercream by mixing the butter and the vanilla essence  with an electic mixer until smooth and creamy.
14. Sift in the icing sugar, a cup at a time, beating after each cup until all the icing sugar is used and the buttercream is fluffy and thick. 
15. Add the grated chocolate to the mixture , giving it a quick whiz on low speed to distribute the chocolate into the buttercream.
16. Sandwich cakes together with icing and then cover entire cake with icing; decorate top of cake with additional grated chocolate if desired. 

Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream

 

(and sprinkles!)

I originally started off this post with "There isn't too much to say about this cake", but I quickly scratched the whole past to start again after I remembered what actually happened. Making this cake was absolutely terrible!
After very much enjoying the cake made from the Women's Weekly recipe (see post below), I decided to re-bake it so I could take it to school and share it with my friends. The batter was easy enough to whip up, but once cooked, it yielded a very obvious problem; the cake was about half as high as a normal cake should be. I had once before had this same problem when using a too-large springform pan, but I did not expect this to happen with the smaller-sized springform pan I had since purchased and was using for this cake.
Nevertheless, a cake only a few centimetres high resulted, as my infamous baking-panic set in. The only viable option was to bake another cake, so I proceeded to do so, opting to sandwich the them together with some buttercream.
But of course, the second cake would not be without its fair share of dramas. I had used up the last of the greaseproof paper for the first cake, and assumed a large greasing with ghee would suffice. Nup. The soft cake stuck to the bottom of the pan, and I was forced to salvage what I could and stick it all together. The good news however,was that I don't think this was noticable at all when the cake was actually served.
I quite liked the pairing of the vanilla buttercream with this cake, and a dash of sprinkles gave it a birthday-cake type of quality which is always nice. Despite the drama I experienced, it was a tasy and a very easy to prepare cake which I will definitely be using again. 

The recipe below is for one single, unlayered cake. It can be either split and cooked in two batches (if using a smaller pan), or can be doubled, if a double-layer cake is desired.

Also you might already be aware of my inability to quote how much buttercream is required, so I apologise. Just have as look at the cake and judge how much you'll need. Sorry :(

(Adapted from the Australian Women's Weekly recipe)


Rich Chocolate Cake

For the cake:

• 200g (1 1/3 cups) self-raising flour
• 50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
• 125g soft butter
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 275g (1 1/4 cups) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 160mL (2/3 cup) water

1.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a 20cm baking pan.
2. Sift the flour and cocoa into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and mix with an electric mixer on low speed until combined.
4. Raise mixer speed to medium and beat for a further three minutes (the mixture should be smooth and creamy, and the colour should lighten slightly)
5. Pour mixture into cake tin and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Allow cake to cool for five minutes in its tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

I used some of the batter to make a few cupcakes, too. They were excellent and confirmed the fact this same recipe can be used to make cupcakes, which is always awesome.

Cookie Monster Cake

The fact my cousin was turning two was more than enough reason to bake another cake, and more importantly, this cake. Despite the fact she's too young to say much more than "dada", let alone understand what the cake was supposed to be, I regarded it the perfect oppurtunity to try a cake which I had wanted to for a while. I'd always had intentions of trying out the Cookie Monster Cupcakes I saw somewhere, but decided I'd attempt those another time, as a cake was much more suitable for a birthday. 

Google Images shows up elaborate creations when "Cookie Monster cake" is searched, but I figured a simple cake covered in blue icing with Cookie Monster's eyes and mouth made out of fondant would suffice.
A difficulty I encountered with this particular cake was trying to figure out how to colour the fondant black; i've never seen black food colouring at the supermarket, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on some "proper" gel/paste food colouring which I'd hardly ever use. The only solution was trial and error, which luckily, worked out on the first run. Trialling it out first on some buttercream, a few massive tablespoons of cocoa got the icing to a very dark colour, but, as expected, not completely black. I hoped for the best as I poured in some red and blue food colouring, and the result was an unmistakable black. Success! Transferring it into fondant was easy enough, and made an excellent mouth for my cake. I also made a fondant cookie, experimenting with cocoa and colouring the cookie as well as the fondant chcolate chips. Of course a real cookie would be fine to use, but I didn't have any on hand and I think the fondant cookie suits the rest of the cake better.I used marshmallow fondant for my cake, but I see no reason that store-bought, ready-made icing would not work.

The cake itself was made from a recipe from an Australian Women's Weekly cookbook and was incredibly easy to make as well as delicious. I was actually quite skeptical that a cake with little more direction than to put everything in a bowl and mix it for a few minutes with an electric mixer would yield anything extraordinary, so I was incredibly impressed with the result. You could substitute the cake for any other chocolate cake recipe, or indeed, any other type of cake, but hey, who doesn't love chocolate cake?
Below is the recipe for just the cake I used on the inside. I will also attach how I created all the other parts of the face, but be aware that I tend to do things in strange ways and they may not be the best instructions to follow. However I'm sure the photo is pretty self explanatory anyway, so...sweet as.

(Adapted from the Australian Women's Weekly) 

Rich Chocolate Cake

For the cake:

• 200g (1 1/3 cups) self-raising flour
• 50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
• 125g soft butter
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 275g (1 1/4 cups) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 160mL (2/3 cup) water

1.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease and line a 20cm baking pan.
2. Sift the flour and cocoa into a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and mix with an electric mixer on low speed until combined.
4. Raise mixer speed to medium and beat for a further three minutes (the mixture should be smooth and creamy, and the colour should lighten slightly)
5. Pour mixture into cake tin and bake for approximately 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Allow cake to cool for five minutes in its tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the face:

1. Cut out two uniform circles from white fondant icing using the rim of a stainless steel cup (or circle cookie cutter or what have you)
2.  Colour a small amount of fondant black, then roll it out on a flat surface before using a sharp knife to cut out the mouth shape.
3. With the remaining black fondant, roll into two equal sized balls, flattening them slightly to form the eyeballs.

I don't really now how to explain how I made the cookie (sorry!), so either develop your own method, use an actual chocolate-chip cookie, or just omit it completely; it's not entirely necessarry. 

Then just cover your cake in some blue buttercream and position the eyes, eyeballs, mouth and cookie (if using one) on the cake, as shown in the photo.

Chocolate Cupcakes

The Chocolate Brownie Cake I made a few weeks ago yielded a large amount of leftover ganache, leaving me with a few options: throw it away, bake a matching cake, or pass it off to a certain male sibling to eat. The first option was out of the question and hey, any excuse to make a cake, right? Out came the trusty Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake reipe and into the oven went twenty-four cupcakes in brightly coloured cupcakes cases.
What came out of the oven was a sight which can only really be described as hideous. The last time I made this cake, while not affecting the taste in any way, it did sink in just a tiny bit, and the same thing happened to many of these cupcakes. Far from the lovely, domed cupcakes which are ideal, these were some of the ugliest cupcakes I had ever seen. Needless to say, I was sent into the infamous panic mode I adopt during the creation of almost everything I bake. Twenty four cupcakes isn't exactly a number that you can just throw away, so it was all up to the icing to fix things. Luckily, (cupcake) justice prevailed and the cupcakes proved to be nothing that a good dollop of ganache couldn't fix.
I thought that the original recipe would not make enough cupcakes, so I mentally calculated the amounts of the ingredients and used the equivalent of one and a half batches worth of ingredients. They tasted delicious in the end and I comtemplated for a brief second as to why I didn't do four unit maths. Mentally calculating cupcake ratios surely qualifies me for that kind of stuff, no?
Ahem anyways.

As a result of this, I'm not entirely sure how many just one regular quantity will make, but eh, you can figure it out on your own :P. The recipe is exactly the same as the one I have blogged before, just in cupcake form. They will more like likely end up hideous, so be sure to apply generous amounts of ganache.

Oh and just a side note, I wasn't able to cook with eggs that day so I had to use egg replacement powder. That stuff is actually pretty awesome in cakes, just as good as real eggs and particularly helps cakes stay moist. :)
 
(Adapted from Nigella Lawson's Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake recipe)

For the cake: 

• 200g plain flour
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 40g cocoa
• 175g soft unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla essence (use extract if you have it)
• 150 mL sour cream

For the ganache: 

• 75g unsalted butter
•  175g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
•  300g icing sugar
• 125mL sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a muffin tray with patty cases.
2. Put everything into a food processor and blitz until you have a smooth, thick batter. (Seriously, that's it. I usually get scared that the batter is too thick, so i splash in a bit of milk while I'm blitzing it).
3.  Bake for around 20 minutes or when until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean.
4. Allow cupcakes to cool for five minutes in the muffin tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. When  cakes are completely cool, prepare the ganache. Melt the chocolate and butter together by placing them in a bowl over a pot of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally.
6. When the mixture has finished melting, sift the icing sugar  into a small bowl while the chocolate mixture cools. Add the sour cream and vanilla and then the icing sugar into the chocolate mixture, whisking while the icing sugar is added to prouduce a silky smooth concoction.
7. Frost the cupcakes. Yay.

Edit: I just realised that almost every post on here has been about a chocolate recipe, with many consecutive ones in the past few weeks. Unfortunately, I can't break that with my next post, but I am hoping to do so after that!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are photos at the end, I promise! 

I don't have much to say about this recipe, chocolate chip cookies kinda speak for themselves, don't they?

This recipe was adapted from the "Foolproof Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe" from raspberri cupcakes. Putting the word "foolproof" in the recipe's title is a big call, and I've had issues with recipes from this blog before so I was a tad anxious.However, the recipe looked easy enough, and the cookies did in fact turn out very well.

I'm yet to meet a person who isn't sold on the deliciousness of Subway Cookies, and I, like many others, have found myself converted to soft, chewy cookies over the crunchy ones. These cookies can be baked for longer to make them crunchy, or taken out of the oven when they are just cooked to keep them chewy/soft.

The recipe on the blog speaks the truth - the cookies will spread quite a bit. I made some of mine too big and ran out of space on the trays, so some of them did get stuck together.

I also had some issues where greasing was concerned. If you're Indian (or Fijian-Indian like me), you should (almost) definitely be familiar with ghee, which is clarified butter. My mum brushes it onto her rotis, and since her little ghee tin is next to the pastry brush I use to grease my pans, I usually just use the ghee in place of butter. However, we're temporarily out of ghee, meaning I had to use normal butter. The difference the ghee makes was very noticable as most of the cookies were stuck firmly onto the butter-greased baking paper, resulting in cookies with imcomplete looking undersides when I finally pried them off the paper. Hopefully my dad will make another trip to one of the random "Fijian/Indian/Sri Lankan/Pacific Island" shops in the area before I attempt my next batch..

The cookies were still tasty, though, and I shall leave you with the recipe and some.... photos.

(Adapted from raspberri cupcakes' Foolproof Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 125g butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups tightly packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and  line two large baking trays with greased baking paper.
2. Beat the sugar and butter with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.
3. Stir in the vanilla and egg until just combined.
4. Stir in the flour and baking powder until just combined.
5. Fold the chocolate chips through the mixture, aiming to distribute as evenly throughout the mixture as possible.
6. Place heaped teaspoons of mixture onto the baking trays.Ensure there is plenty of space for them to be able to spread while cooking!
7. Cook for 10-15 minutes, or until cookies turn golden (or golden brown if you want a crunchier cookie).
8. Allow to cool in trays before transferring cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

The photos I post are never anything special, they're more just to show what my end product looked like for these posts. This recipe yielded even worse photos than usual, as I only remembered to take a photo for the blog when I had individually wrapped a bunch of them a few minutes before I had to go to school. Soz guise.

 

Oh, and there's also this photo from when they were in the oven. Yep, oven light just helps the whole photo reach a new level of amazingness (*Cough*). Aw come on, you know what a chocolate chip cookie looks like. I'm just here to talk.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies

Looking at the Wikipedia article on Whoopie Pies, I was most amused to read that one of the theories behind the name was that Amish farmers would often shout out "Whoopie!" when discovering their wives had packed these treats for them.
Strangely enough, opening a container full of these at recess caused a very similar reaction from one of my friends. Well, there goes any ideas I had about evolution...
So anyways, as you probably have guessed (what gave it away?), whoopie pies were my latest venture into the baking world. Made in the form of a biscuit with a cakey texture and sandwiched with a filling, whoopie pies first came to my attention after watching Dani cook them on Masterchef (I can't remember exactly what happened, but the internet says they failed HAW HAW...yeah, I didn't like her very much).
Ahem moving on. So yes, I decided I would finally give them a go. They turned out just as described and were tasty without being too sweet. I was also very impressed with how the mixture puffed up into perfect circles after being put in the oven, and there were only a couple of mismatched halves left after I had finished icing them (I felt like some strange cake matchmaker, seeking out similar-sized halves to stick together).
A dash of sprinkles and voila! Wonderfully woeful* whoopie pies.
Here's the recipe. I tend to make icing based on observations (read: whatever feels right)  rather than measurements from a recipe, but I've included the Donna Hay filling recipe so there's something to follow should any readers feel the urge to bake them. I also used milk chocolate instead of white chocolate, as that's all I had in the house.
Also, the dough will be very, very sticky. I had to re-wet my hands in between every few spoonfuls, so it does get a little tedious, but it's nothing unhandleable (that's totes a word...), I promise.

(Adapted from Donna Hay's Rainbow Whoopie Pies recipe) 

Whoopie Pies

For the pies:

•  250g soft butter
• 175g (1 cup) brown sugar
• 165g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 375g (2½ cups) plain flour, sifted
• 50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder  

 For the filling:

• 150g marshmallows
• 30g butter, cubed
• 60g white chocolate, broken into pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees and line two large baking trays with greased baking paper.
2. Beat the caster sugar, brown sugar and butter with an elecric mixer on medium speed until pale and creamy.
3. Add in the eggs, one at a time, and mix until just combined.
4. Add the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
5. With damp/wet hands, roll one heaped teaspoon-ful of mixture into a ball and place on baking paper, flattening slightly.
6. Repeat with remaining mixture, ensuring enough space around each ball to flatten and spread once in the oven.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of pies.
8. Allow to cool in trays for five minutes before peeling them off the paper and allowing to cool on a wire rack.
9. Once pies have completely cooled, prepare the icing. Melt the butter and marshmallows in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until completely smooth.
10. Once cooled, stir in chocolate until a smooth, sticky mixture has been formed.
11. Pair similar-sized pies and sandwich with icing. If desired, roll in a shallow plate of sprinkles.

 Now enjoy a lovely photo of Minoli and I enjoying some good ol' whoopie pies. :D 

 

* Yeah, they weren't actually "woeful." I just like alliterating...