Thank You to my husband

After giving my first class in May (Buttercream Basics- Cake Decorating), I made my husband a "Thanks" cake to let him know how much I appreciated his support. 

One of his favorites is chocolate, so it was a chocolate cake topped with cocoa frosting. I baked a 6 inch cake (15.2 cm) using a modified Whimsical Bakehouse Chocolate Butter Cake recipe.

Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
125 ml coffee (1/2 cup)
51 g of cocoa powder (1/2 cup)
125 ml low-fat milk (1/2 cup)
156 g all-purpose flour (1 1/2 cups) (zeeuwsebloem)
24 g corn starch (maizena)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
165 g unsalted butter (1 stick, or 1/2 cup)
262 g sugar (1 1/4 cups)(fijn crystal suiker)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Heat oven to 350 degrees F or 177 degrees C. Using butter, grease the bottom of a 6" (15.2 cm) round cake pan that is about 3" tall (7.6cm). Cut a parchment circle to fit into the bottom of the pan(it will stick to the butter), and then grease and flour the parchment bottom and also the sides of the pan.

Combine the hot coffee and cocoa powder, whisking until no lumps. Add the milk to the coffee/cocoa and set this aside to cool a bit. In another bowl, combine the flour, corn starch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside the dry ingredients. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Beat well, and then add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix to combine. Add about 1/3 of the dry ingredient mixture (flour, etc.) and mix to combine.  Add about 1/3 of the wet ingredient mixture (coffee, etc.) and mix to combine. Continue to add the dry ingredients, mixing to combine, alternately with the wet ingredients (coffee, etc.) in about three additions each. You will have about 965g of batter. 
Pour 630g of batter into the prepared pan. Cupcakes can be made with the remaining batter- it makes about 5 cupcakes, fill the cupcakes about 60% of the way to the top.

Bake the cake for about 25-35 minutes. The best way to check the cake to see if it is done is to use both the tooth-pick test and the spring-back test. Insert a wooden tooth-pick into the center of the cake and it should come out clean (with no crumbs). Next, lightly press your finger into the center of the cake and it should spring back a bit (if it just leaves a dent, the cake is not done). (The cupcakes take about 20 minutes to bake.)

Take the cake out of the oven, run a knife around the edge to separate the cake from the pan, and then cool the cake for about 10 minutes in the pan, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, frost with Cocoa Frosting from the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts:

Cocoa Frosting
300 g powdered sugar (2 2/3 cups)
75 g cocoa (3/4 cup)
87 g unsalted butter (6 Tbsp)
80 ml milk (1/3 cup)
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
Combine all ingredients on low speed until blended. Increase speed to high and whip until smooth and glossy. Add a bit more milk if necessary to achieve your preferred consistency. 

Assembly:
First, I placed a dollop of frosting on the cake board (I often reuse the styrofoam circles that refrigerated pizza at AH is packaged on!) so that the cake won't slide around.

Next, I leveled the top of the cake and then torted the cake (cut it in half horizontally).

 

The cocoa frosting as a filling makes life simple (and is tasty!)

 I placed the second layer of cake on top and then remembered that I should have used the bottom (the part of the cake that is in contact with the pan) as the very top to make frosting the cake easier (fewer crumbs).

Oh well! I frosted the top and sides of the cake with the cocoa frosting.

I trimmed the edge of the foam to get rid of the unsightly frosting (this was tricky to do, and I have a better method I'll share involving baking paper around the edge of the cake, which is removed after you frost it.) A cake turn-table is essential for me when decorating, otherwise my wrists have to contort in all sorts of weird ways to get the borders even.

And I decorated with the Basic Buttercream icing that tastes amazing and looks divine.

My husband has supported me throughout our time together, and this adventure is no exception. Keeping our Dina occupied with fun things to do while I plan, blog, and bake is not easy. She's always interested in helping her mommy bake and decorate (and 'clean' up the extra frosting.)

I love that Dina is excited about my passion for baking. And I love that my husband is, too. Thank you so much, MJM!

Stay tuned for the next date for my Buttercream Basics Cake Decorating class, on a Sunday afternoon in mid-August. In addition, I'm planning a new class: Cupcakes in Buttercream, which will be a Tuesday night in late-August.

 Everybody loves cupcakes...

 

 ...especially my Dina!

Hot Chocolate - no sugar - no artificial sweetners

The snow is finally here in the Netherlands! The day we returned from Austria it snowed about 6 inches, causing the last 3 km (of our 900 km trip) to take 1 hour instead of 10 minutes. The roads and trains were all a mess, but the beauty and fun that is snow made it all worth it the next day when we woke up to this:

We even got to skate on our local pond! The Dutch are crazy about skating, and so am I. Unfortunately, my 32 year old skates finally bit the dust. They had belonged to my mom when I was a child, and she used them to skate on Keuka Lake. I used them in college when I took skating as a gym credit, and on Rochester's Manhattan square park ice rink. The skates have been in storage (out of the sun) for the past few years we've lived here and when I tried to put them on, they just fell apart.

I was lucky my friend Inge was also skating with her boys and our timing was perfect- she was finishing up when we arrived, so she loaned me her skates.

On the first Sunday since the super cold temperatures have hit us here, I think the entire village showed up to skate on the pond. Some people were playing hockey, some people were pulling their kids on sleds on the ice, some were having hot beverages at a table set up on the ice. Gezellig!

The hockey game even had uniforms of sorts!

Even the dogs had fun on the ice:

When we got home, I was craving hot chocolate. While I can't say I'm actively trying to eliminate sugar from my diet, I am trying to reduce my sugar intake. A sugarless hot cocoa search on the web gives you lots of artificial sweeteners and pre-made packets, but why not use a natural sweetener like honey?

Confession: I forgot to take a photo until there was just a half cup of cocoa left. It reminded us of melted chocolate ice cream. Rich, thick, hot and pure chocolate.
Next time, if I'm shooting for a vegan version, I think I will try this with oat milk, as that seems to be the closest thing to milk without that tell-tale soy flavor.

Hot Chocolate (sugarless, no artificial sweeteners)
Makes three 5 oz (155 ml) servings
2 cups low-fat milk (475 ml)
1/4 cup packed (30 g) Dutch processed cocoa (regular cocoa is probably okay to use, just use a quality brand)
2 1/2 Tbsp honey (75 g)

1. Bring milk to a simmer over low heat on the stove. Add cocoa, whisking to combine for several minutes. Add honey, and stir until completely combined.

Personally, I found that slightly less honey (about 1 tsp per 1/2 cup of the cocoa/milk mixture) was enough for my tastes, but my daughter liked about double that level of sweetness, which is what this recipe calls for. I even enjoyed the cocoa/milk mixture unsweetened and also liked it added to my coffee.

Doesn't this photo remind you of one of the old Dutch masters' paintings?

I sometimes feel like I'm living in the past, but in a good way.