Double Chocolate Pound Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Hi everybody!
                                           
Here's the recipe I promised last week when I was still unpacking. We had so much fun this week trying new recipes and making cakes, but I'll share those in the coming weeks. For now, it's double chocolate pound cake!
But first...

 It's apricot season!! Oh my yum. These are so delicious. We can pick twenty lbs and they're gone in days. Okay, we do share them but still... So much fresh deliciousness!
                                               
And I love this picture. I had a reluctant reader who decided he WOULD NOT READ. I believe in leading kids to education, not shoving it down their throats, so I told him that was fine. He was only six after all. And so the months went on and he repeated how he would never read and didn't want to. But it happened anyway. You just can't NOT read when you're read to for an hour a night (oh, the wonderful books we've read!), spend hours in a library every week, live in a house where books outnumber people 100-1, and are surrounded by people reading ALL THE TIME. So, I had to snap this picture of my reluctant reader who now reads at a fourth grade level. In fact, he was reading the Redwall series by Brian Jacques last night. Makes my mama heart happy. :)

 So, the cake. A friend sent me her recipe after I tasted it at a BBQ. It was SO GOOD.

You'll need these ingredients:

 1 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

 1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp espresso powder

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup milk

1 cup plus 2 tbs flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

 1/2 tsp baking soda

For the ganache topping:

3/4 cup heavy cream

4.5 oz dark chocolate

Sorry I don't have pictures of the process. I know I took some, but I was also cleaning out my phone from the trip and somehow... That's why I love facebook. At least there was one photo of the cake!

Mix the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla together. Mix all dry ingredients. Mix sugar butter mix and dry ingredients together, then slowly add sour cream and milk. Cook at 350F for about 40-50 minutes. Check often because the color is so dark you won't be able to tell by looking and that last ten minutes can make or break a cake!

So, here's our recipe for next week! Goes right along with Ruthy's Christmas in July collections!

 Orange buttermilk pound cake in a Cathedral pan.
                                               
We actually checked out the pan from our library. How cool is that??

But a word of warning... it doesn't like all cakes. This poor lemon blueberry buttermilk cake was super delicious but not fit for company, hahahaha.

OK, see everyone next week! I'm at the end of a deadline and I ALWAYS cook like crazy. Stress relief... unless it looks like the cake above!

Stay cool and keep cooking!

Chocolat Swirl Bundt Cake

Hello, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I must admit that the title was click bait. There is no cast iron in this post. It's actually CAST ALUMINUM.

 

This one is called "Jubilee". Isn't it beautiful??

 And yes, there is a big difference. I'm part of a facebook group called "Anonymous Cast Iron Bundt Cake Bakers" and it's a huge, lovely group of people who collect and bake (you guessed it) in cast iron bundt cake pans.

                                                        
 (This is the one I finally decided on, although I really wanted the Cathedral pan. This is called Heritage.)
Some bundt cakes are way beyond my abilities, even with step by step instructions and some nice cookware, but I saw a really fun cake on a blog called LivForCake.com. It's the "two-toned cake tutorial".

 

Isn't that pretty?? So, I decided when my latest book was finished, I'd buy a fun pan and make this cake! (I used to reward myself with shoes but I have limited closet space, so I moved to purses, but then my teens started "borrowing" them, and so... here we are at cakes. LOL. At least they won't take up any closet space and they make everybody happy!)

Ingredients: two cake mixes and 9 TBS of Hershey's cocoa powder
(How easy is that??)
Preheat your oven to 350F

 Now, in the tutorial here she uses pound cake and there's a reason for it. It sticks to the sides better, since it's denser. I didn't know this so I used cake mixes I had on hand.
(I never have cake mixes. It's not something I ever buy. BUT, strangely enough, a friend brought me two boxes after I mentioned that I'd used a boxed mix just a few times in my life. I said they tasted funny and she was determined to prove me wrong!
The verdict is: they do have a weird "boxed cake" taste, but they also were very yummy. So, I won't avoid them as much. Anyway, that's the story of the cake mixes that are in this post. :D )

Divide the mix into three portions.

 Add three TBS of cocoa to one third.

 Add six TBS of cocoa to another third. Leave the last third plain vanilla.

 With a piping bag (or batter in a plastic bag with a hole cut in the end) spread some chocolate in one line of the pan AFTER greasing and flouring every little crevice.

 Repeat in a pattern with each batch of batter.

 Don't do this. I went all the way up the sides, then realized the cake mix only fills the pan about 3/4 of the way full, so then I had to wipe it off.

 Fill in the center with what's left. We made most of ours vanilla, but if you've split the batter equally, you can simply swirl the inside and it will be a pretty marble.

 Bake for 45-55 minutes. I was VERY worried this wouldn't come out of the pan, but after I let it cool for twenty minutes and then carefully flipped it over, it popped right out!

 It's SO pretty, but not as pretty as the tutorial web version. It definitely spent a little too long in the oven. (Not burned, but too dark to show off the pretty stripes.) Still, I loved the shape!

 There ya go! Have a slice with a big cup of hot coffee!

Until next week!

Oreo Truffles and summer musings

 

Hello, everybody!

 On our porch, the morning glory is pulling down the sunflowers! A good lesson there. A small, thin vine can take down a seven foot sunflower given enough time. :)

                    Our summer reading program had the most awesome end-of-the-program cake! The "jewels" are broken up life savers. Great Job, Lacey!

 

The maker said that at the last minute, the poor dragon fell apart and they lost a whole top tier. But you'd never know it, right?

 

Every year the end of the program is the "reptile man". I find him VERY entertaining. Not so much for the snakes and lizards and tortoises, but for his great delivery. The guy should have been a stand up comedian! 

  

So, my dad likes to go to Coscto. Anybody else go to Costco? I've been twice before in my life and I just remember it had EVERYTHING. And it was huge. Anyway, he likes to go and buy treats for my kids. (Some day I'll put in an order for avocados and fresh raspberries, lol.) This is what he brought back from this trip. An enormous box of Oreos. The kids were thrilled.

 What else could we do with Oreos than those delicious truffles? (Recipe is 40 Oreos, one pack of cream cheese. Soften the cream cheese and mix with crushed Oreos. Chill, roll, and cover with melted chocolate.) Don't just say "eat them" because my kids would LOVE to eat 100 Oreos with milk. It would probably take them less than two days. Breakfast, lunch and dinner!

 MMMMMM..... dark chocolate.
                                            
 We decided to make different flavors this time. But then how would we tell them apart?
                                                       
We dipped the plain in white chocolate for a "cookies and cream". The raspberry we dipped in dark chocolate and white chocolate. The orange we dipped in milk chocolate. The mint we dipped in both dark and milk chocolate. The sprinkles and so the visitors and the kids could pick their favorite flavor.

 After appropriate chilling, their ready to be presented. I hope everyone is having a wonderful beginning to August. We alternate between running full speed and lazing around the house. Perfect summer activities!

 

Until next time, my friends!

Easy Cream Cheese Brownies For The Chocoholic!

Hello, everybody! I have a delicious little recipe a friend passed on to me. It's probably the usual cream cheese-brownie recipe but this one has MORE chocolate. How can we go wrong?
You'll need to preheat the oven to 350F.
Ingredients are:
1 package cream cheese
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup chocolate chips, dark

1/4 cup butter
another cup of chocolate chips, dark
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
 2/3 cup flour
1/2 baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

 So, soften your cream cheese and blend with one egg, and a 1/4 cup sugar.

 See? Just so. (Ignore the lumpy cream cheese on the sides.)

 Blend 1/2 cup sugar and two eggs together/ Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together. Mix. At this point, I was a little skeptical. This did not look like enough for a batch of brownies.

 Melt the butter and cup of chocolate chips in a pan. When all mixed, add to the batter.

 Like so.

 Put the brownie batter in the pan first, then add the cream cheese mixture. Oh, so pretty!

 At this point, I review the recipe and realize I've forgotten to mix in the other cup of chocolate chips into the cream cheese batter. *SHHHHH* We will tell no one.

 Bake at 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

 Gratuitous random brownie shot. I knew most of my kids would not appreciate me messing with perfection so I actually made two batches.

 Here they are, living peaceably, side by side. Why can't we all just get along??

Close up of the cream cheese version and the chocolate chips inside. As of this writing, it's been 40 minutes and they're all gone. Having on ravenous husband, two teens, two preteens, and two preschoolers is good for my health. No leftovers to tempt me in the midnight hour!

 Until next time everyone!

St. Valentine's Day Double Chocolate Truffle Cookies !

Hello, everybody! I have a delicious recipe for St. Valentine's Day. It seems this whole week was FILLED with chocolate here at the cafe and I'm loving all the beautiful photos! I definitely have to try and make Ruthy's cake. That's just too much deliciousness in one cake to pass up.

Before we start, here's a little link to WHO St. Valentine is. He's a lot more than hearts and cookies so in this house we celebrate him by going down to the nursing home and handing out home made valentines. If all my six kids make five, and I make ten, we can cover a whole wing of older folks! Sometimes we sing a little, too, since the little guys always think it should be like Christmas caroling. Of course, we don't sing Christmas carols because that would be CONFUSING.  (I'm not really into singing publicly but the residents seem to enjoy it so we just go with it. nobody has complained. YET.)

 Ok, let's begin.
You'll need:
 four squares of good chocolate.
2 cups of chocolate chips, semi-sweet
6 TBS butter
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
4 TBS cocoa powder
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

 Here are the chocolate chips. Sooooo pretty. Yum.

 My helpers are very excited to see these cookies. They have CHOCOLATE.

 Butter. Where all good recipes begin.

 Eggs. I miss our free range eggs but we just can't get our girls to lay in the winter. So, they're on vacay until spring and we're stuck with store-bought eggs.

 Melt the squares, the butter and ONE CUP of chips in a pan over low heat.

 Oh my. We all had to taste this to make sure it wasn't bad. I'm happy to report it's perfectly fine.

 I missed a picture but the eggs, vanilla, and the sugar need to be whipped until light and frothy. Then fold in the chocolate. This picture is after that happened.

 Mix the salt, baking soda, flour, cocoa powder together

 Pour the chocolate-egg-sugar mixture into the flour.

 He says, "I have faith in this recipe. It doesn't look like much right now, but I BELIEVE."

I thought this was a fail shot but my kids loved it, so here is the five year old looking like Barry Allen (The Flash) stirring the cooking. Speedy!

 So, after chilling the dough for an hour, add the other cup of chocolate chips.

 Eleven minutes later at 350F, we have... super chocolaty goodness! While they were warm, I stuck some candy hearts in the center just for fun.

 MMM, I wish you could smell them.

And a shot of the underside, which remains fudgy and very much like a truffle. Lots of smooth chocolate taste. 

                                                     
I think they passed inspection! Now, to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
                                    Happy St. Valentine's Day everybody!