Thursday, June 12, 2008

Chocolate and Cherries!!

Last weekend my friends and I went to go visit my officemate who just had a beautiful baby girl 3 weeks ago. I asked the new mom what she wanted me to bake and she requested my Devils Food with Comstack Cherries and Chocolate Frosting Cake, I made this cake for work and it was a big hit!

This one was very good too except I didn't have time to let it set in the refrigerator after I frosted it. Since it was almost 100 degrees on Sunday and it sat in the car for awhile it did not look pretty by the time it reached its destination, it split in 1/3 and the chocolate frosting was very melted, but other then not looking pretty it still tasted delicious!!







The Devils Food Cake recipe is the same recipe as my Delicious Ice Cream Cake ; however, this time I baked it in 2 round pans for 25 minutes.

DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE RECIPE
(Source: allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups water
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

- In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Remove from the heat.
- Stir in sugar and butter until butter is melted.
- Add eggs and vanilla; mix well.
- Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add to butter mixture and mix thoroughly.

Pour into 2 round pans for 25 minutes.


CREAMY CHOCOLATE FROSTING
(Source: allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS
2 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
6 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons evaporated milk (I used 2%)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
- In a medium bowl, sift together the confectioners' sugar and cocoa, and set aside.
-In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with evaporated milk.
- Blend in vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.


ASSEMBLY

A cool trick I learned is to take some of your frosting and make an edge or a dam on the perimeter of your inside layer to keep the Cherries or any filling from oozing out. Then take a can of cherries, Comstack and Lucky Leaf are popular brands, and spread it around on the inside layer. Then after you assemble the second layer on top frost with the Creamy Chocolate Frosting, for this recipe I ended up making 1 1/2 batches of frosting and I had a little left over.

3 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Dear Stressed Baker,

What is the difference between cake flour and all-purpose flour? (Besides the fact that cake flour is obviously supposed to be used for cakes?)

Thanks,
Sugar Fiend

Rambler said...

Sugar Fiend,

That's a great question. I found some different sites that describe it but this is what I figured out:

The "crumb" is the texture of the cake or baked good. The more gluten something has, the chewier it is going to be. Different flours have different amounts of protein/gluten, and you get the best results for baked goods when you use the most appropriate flour.


Cake flour has a 6-8% protein content and is made from soft wheat flour. It is chlorinated to further break down the strength of the gluten and is smooth and velvety in texture. Good for making cakes (especially white cakes and biscuits) and cookies where a tender and delicate texture is desired. Cake flour will produce a more tender cake than all-purpose.

All Purpose Flour has a 10-12% protein content and is made from a blend of hard and soft wheat flours. It can be bleached or unbleached which are interchangeable. It is between bread flour, which has the most glueten, and pastry flour, which has very little gluten and is used for things like pie crust, which doesn't need to rise at all.

I hope that helps!