I Blog What I Bake

I realize there have been many “Baking Shorts” lately and not too many full posts. Things have been a bit hectic. But I will get back to doing full instructional posts with lots of pictures soon.  For now, the shorts will be it.  It’s okay though, there is not much to say about these cookies other than that they are awesome chocolatey, espresso-y (yeah, I am making up adjectives now) goodness. Enjoy!

Cappuccino Cookies

6 ounces of good quality semisweet chocolate chopped
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of dark chocolate cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of instant espresso plus on tablespoon hot water
1/2 cup confectioners sugar for rolling

In a double boiler melt together the chocolate and the butter, whisking frequently. Combine the espresso and hot water together until the espresso is dissolved and add to the chocolate and butter. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a medium bowl combine the cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and flour.

In a large bowl beat together the eggs and the butter. Add the vanilla. After the chocolate mixture has slightly cooled, beat into the butter and egg mixture.  Slowly stir in dry ingredients.

Cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours or until the batter is stiff.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Scoop out tablespoon sized balls and roll in confectioners sugar. Place on baking sheet lined with a Silpat or parchment paper and bake for approximately 10 minutes.

Printable Recipe: Cappuccino Cookies

I am a klutz. After years of dance training one would think I would be graceful. No.  I drop things all the time, walk into walls and trip over my own feet. I fall UP stairs.  So when things like red food coloring come out I always proceed with caution. Despite all my best efforts I get red food coloring all over the kitchen and myself (and to think I want a culinary torch!).  Word to the wise, should your food coloring drip, spatter or spill WIPE IT UP IMMEDIATELY. This will save you from permanently staining your lovely granite countertops. Your clothing. Your cat. Whatever.

The cake portion is yet another Magnolia recipe. It’s been a solid Red Velvet cake recipe. I have made a couple of my own edits over the years, but by and large it’s Magnolia’s.  I got a little funky and instead of doing a cream cheese frosting over the entire cake, I only put the cream cheese in the middle and decided to pour white chocolate ganache over the top. I should have let the ganache cool for a little longer than I did so it could thicken. It was still too molten when I poured it on the cake and didn’t quite have the effect I was going for since it thinned out so much (and dripped all over the place). I also used vanilla extract in the ganache, omit this. It changed the color of the ganache and gave it a brown tinge. Ick.  If you don’t like ganache or don’t want to make it you can just double the cream cheese frosting recipe and cover the whole cake it it. You can also make this into cupcakes. Just adjust the cooking time to 15-20 minutes instead of 30-40 minutes.

Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting & White Chocolate Ganache

CAKE (adapted from Magnolia Bakery Red Velvet Cake)

3 1/2 cups of cake flour (not self-rising)
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups white granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 small bottles of red gel food coloring (I use Spectrum brand)
3 tablespoons good quality unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk, well shaken
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

CREAM CHEESE FILLING

1 8oz block of cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of half and half, milk or heavy cream
3 cups confectioners sugar

WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE

1 11oz bag of good quality white chocolate chips
1/2 heavy cream
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

In a medium bowl sift together the cake flour and the cocoa powder. Set aside.

Using a hand held mixer, in a large bowl cream together the sugar and the butter until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Beat in red food coloring.

Combine buttermilk and salt in a measuring cup.

STIR in the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk mixutre. Do not use beaters, this will make the cake very dense. I prefer light and fluffy. Do as you wish.

In a small bowl combine the baking soda and cider vinegar and watch the 3rd grade science experiment unfold (you’ll see what I mean). Stir mixture into batter.

Distribute batter evenly amongst the two prepared pans and bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool in pans for 15 minutes, turn out of pans and allow to cool completely on a baking rack.

While this is cooling make the cream cheese frosting and ganache.  For the cream cheese frosting beat on 8oz block of cream cheese, half a stick of unsalted butter and a quarter cup of sour cream together in a medium bow. Add half of a teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup heavy cream and beat. Slowly add approximately 3 cups of confectioners sugar. Spread frosting over one layer of cake. Place remaining layer on top.

For the ganache, melt together an 110z bag of white chocolate chips and 1/2 cup heavy cream in a double boiler. Stir constantly. Once smooth and melted take off of heat and had 2 tablespoons of butter. Stir until melted. Allow to cool and thicken and pour SLOWLY over cake. You may not need all of the ganache.

To assemble the cake; once cooled, apply cream cheese frosting to one layer. Top with other cake layer and pour thickened ganache slowly over the top, letting the ganache make it’s own way down the cake.

Slice and enjoy! This cake is huge, share with many friends!

Who doesn’t love chocolate chip cookies?  They are about as traditional as you can get in the kitchen. Well, except for Apple Pie. I have been making the same chocolate chip cookie recipe for YEARS.  I have stuck to the old school Nestle Tollhouse back-of-the -bag recipe. Never fails.

But every now and then it’s good to change things up and when I saw this recipe on My Baking Addiction I had to make the leap. There were two reasons this cookie intrigued me. One, this is not your average cookie. It’s 4 ouces!!  If you are from NYC and have been to Levain Bakery you know what a 4 ounce cookie feels like. It can feed you for a day. Diet be damned. Two, the recipe calls for cold butter which I have never seen in a cookie recipe.

Just a note, I made one batch of these smaller, about 2 ounce and they didn’t turn out quite as great. They were too dense. So to stick the gigantic cookies!

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies

Courtsey of My Baking Addiction

2 sticks cold and cubed unsalted butter
1 cup granulated suagar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 /1/2 cups good quality semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
1 cup of walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until well blended and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mix in vanilla and beat until well incorporated.Add flour, salt, baking soda and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips.

Transfer the dough to a clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients.
Weigh out the dough into 4 ounce portions and gently roll into a ball.

Place each on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven with 15-20 minutes, until very lightly browned.
Let cool on a rack. Or eat them nice and hot!

Printable Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

When I started this blog I said that I would post my failures as well as my successes. Well, here ya go. My Brown Butter Banana Cake debacle. I had some bananas that I need to either use or throw away. I didn’t want to make yet another banana bread so I decided to do something different. I had seen a few recipes using brown butter lately so I Googled Brown Butter Banana Cake to see if there were any for a cake. I found what looked like a really good one and got started.

There are two things that went wrong here.

One, I used a 30 year-old bundt pan. Why? The recipe called for a bundt pan and I don’t have one. My mom was nice enough to rummage around in the basement and find a pan from 1979. I floured and buttered this thing within an inch of his life and it still did not want to come out! I am now convinced that bundt pans are the reason non-stick was invented.  Second, I messed up the recipe and forgot 1/3 cup of flour. Disaster. Instead of being fluffy the cake was dense and overly moist. Good taste, HORRIBLE texture.

There you have it. My Brown Butter Banana Cake debacle. I will try this again once I have my own pan. For now, I have posted the recipe below so you can try it. If you do, send me pictures and I will post what this poor little cake was supposed to look like.

Brown Butter Banana Cake with Chocolate Chips
Source: www.finecooking.com

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup finely mashed ripe bananas (2 medium banans)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cups mini semisweet chocolate chips

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 10-cup bundt pan. Tap out excess flour.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Once the butter is melted, cook it slowly, letting it bubble, until it smells nutty or like butterscotch and turns a deep golden hue, 5-10 minutes. Remove the pan from thereat and pour browned butter through a fine sieve into a medium bowl and discard the bits is the sieve. Let the butter cool until it is very warm rather than boiling hot, 5-10 minutes.

Using a whisk, stir the sugar and the eggs into the butter. Whisk until the mixture is smooth, about 1 minutes. Whisk in mashed bananas, vanilla and salt. Sift flour and baking soda directly into the batter. Pour the chocolate chops over the flour. Using a rubber spatula, stir just until the batter is uniformly combined. Don’t over-mix.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly with the spatial. Bake until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Set the pan on a rack and cool for 15 minutes.. Invert cake onto rack and remove the pan. Let cool until just warm and then serve immediately or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to five days.

Brown Butter Banana Cake Recipe

This just was released and I thought I would share for those of you who love food blogs. The text below is copied directly from the 55 Knives page.

“The 55 Knives book is a collaborative project from some of the web’s top food bloggers in a simple, easy to download format.  The authors included in the project were picked not only because of their expertise in the kitchen but also because of their ability to write well about food.

Each of the 55 bloggers will have a chapter where they will present one or two of their favorite recipes.  Some recipes will be simple and some might be more complicated (Individual Beef Wellingtons!).  Don’t worry though, the complicated recipes will have crystal clear instructions.

In addition to the recipes, each chapter will have a story explaining why that recipe is important to that author.  Some of the recipes have been in families for generations and some are newly created.  I think you’ll find the stories to be touching, funny, sincere, and above all else, entertaining!”

55 Knives is available for sale !

Limelight. Once a dark gritty headonistic nightlife mecca , has reivented itself as Limelight Marketplace. The former, church- turned- nightclub, is now a bright, glittery luxury marketplace relpete with specality soap shops, botique lingere stands, clothing alcoves and, of course, lots of cute little dessert stations. My how times have changed.  Once upon a time, I recall stumbling out the door of Limelight after a very long night of…fun. Today I stumbled out the door practically vibrating from the sugar  extravaganza I just indulged in.

I’d heard about all of the dessert stands that had opened up in their “Sweet Room”, paticularly the Cupcake Stop, and figured reviewing them for the blog would be a brilliant excuse to go on a sugar binge. So, with Matt (I Blog What I Eat) as my accomplice, I attacked the “Sweet Room”.  Below, I have listed my conquests in the order assault.

Disclaimer: All but two pictures were taken with my iPhone. I had my camera, alas cameras are of no use without a battery.

THE CUPCAKE STOP

The Cupcake Stop, which usually is just a truck that drives around Manhattan and parks in different locations everyday, has secured a stationary spot in Limelight. And I am sooo glad they did.  I have had cupcakes from dozens of NYC bakeries, they are trendy little confections after all, and I must say these are among the best.  I ordered a Mexican Chocolate cupake and a  Nutella Crunch.  They both had great consistency and smooth frosting. The Mexican Chocolate was the winner of the two. The Nutella Crunch was good, but didn’t have as much flavor. Honestly, if you try these you will never eat a Magnolia Bakery cupake again. Okay, onto the next…

BUTTERFLY BAKESHOP

Isn’t that a pretty little Red Velvet Cake? I thought so too. That’s why I bought it.  It had really nice flavor and a good cream cheese frosting (maybe a bit too sweet), but the consistency was…well…odd. It was like the cake had been soaked in a simple syrup mixture. Yes, the cake was wet.  I’m not sure what the reasoning was here. Maybe to keep it moist past it’s prime? I was a little suspect. I wouldn’t advise to steer clear of the place, maybe just try a alternate selection. It was pretty. I ate the butterfly.

MARIEBELLE CHOCOLATES

Please forgive my wacky formatting with the images. It’s late and I have had some wine.

Anyway, Mariebelle’s Chocolates. This shop was a little challenging to find, even though you can see it as soon as you walk into the Marketplace (they also have a cart on the first floor). It’s in a space that is sort of between floors. I should add that Limelight Markeplace is a bit of maze and you feel like Alice in Wonderland trying to navigate the place. There are little half staircases that lead to dead ends and various nooks and cranies that can have you very turned around. What made the nightclub version so interesting , can make a shopping trip feel like falling down a rabbit hole. After we found Mariebelle’s, I was excited to try their off-beat artisan chocolates. Of all all the flavors, I selected Saffron and Whiskey. At first I wasn’t so sure about the Saffron chocolate, but it grew on me and I am now determined to use Saffron in one of my recipes. The Whiskey flavor did not dissapoint. It was like taking a chocolate shot of Jack Daniels. I will certainly make a return trip to try flavors like Cardamon, Earl Grey and Passion Fruit. Oh, and a quick note, they serve real food. You can sit down at one of the little tables and order lunch. Cute.

WANNAHAVACOOKIE

Wannahavacookie? More like Wannahavadevildog.  I wouldn’t really classify this as a cookie. Round does not a cookie make.  This is a round Devil Dog. They call it a Whoopie Pie and offer different flavor variations. I choose the Chocolate Mint variety. It’s light, fluffy and had a good mint flavor but it’s just not a cookie. Their website www.wannahavacookie.com does have actual cookies, but Whoopie Pies are their main business.  If you are a fan of Devil Dogs, this is your product.

By this point a was on sugar overload and had to call it a day. There is a Gelato stand I will have to go back and visit and some other food stops, like the cheese shop and bread baker that are a must try. In the next few months the restaurants and wine bars will also be open and that will certainly warrant a return trip. Overall, it was a great trip and I really enjoyed trying all the different offerings. I am still skeptical about the non-food based shops and I am curious to see the sustainability of the marketplace as whole. If you are in the neighborhood (6th Ave & 20th in NYC), I would highly recommend stopping by.  That’s it for now, below are a few pictures I took of the interior.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Aimez-vous le champagne ? Aimez-vous le chocolat ? If so, this is your cupcake baby. Rich dark chocolate cake and light fluffy frosting both spiked with champagne transform an ordinary cupcake into a dessert that is simultaneously indulgent and playful.

The inspiration for the recipe came from a few places. I had seen a few Champagne Cakes and was curious, my friend Leo suggested that I make the cupcakes dark chocolate and the base of the frosting recipe came from Give Me Some Oven. I also played with some decorative frosting . I usually don’t get along well with pastry bags, I need lessons, but I think these turned out pretty well and I didn’t make too much of a mess! Which is surprising, because by the time I got around to frosting the cupcakes I had helped myself to a bit of the champagne. I know, I broke one of my own rules. Don’t drink and bake.  I avoided disaster this time.

My fear was that, once complete, these wouldn’t taste anything like champagne. Admittedly, the cupcakes did not really taste like champagne, but the addition of the champagne made them incredibly light and moist.  The real champagne flavor came in the icing. It has the perfect little punch. SO good. On that note… onto the recipe.

Dark Chocolate Champagne Cupcakes

2 cups white granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups of unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened dark cocoa powder (I use Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 large eggs (room temperature)
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup champagne (I used a semi-sweet champagne, not brut)

Pink Champagne Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
7 tablespoons of champagne
2 drops pink food coloring
Sugar crystals for decoration (because champagne sparkles!)

Assemble your ingredients, pour yourself a glass of champagne and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. What?

Line two cupcake pans with the liners of your choice. I was feeling playful when I made these, so I used black liners with gold swirls. Seemed appropriate. You can buy all kinds of decorative cupcake liners. Looking for an online shop? Go to Bake It Pretty. Fun stuff… some is a little to cutesy for me, but overall they have creative choices.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a lage bowl.

Add the eggs, vanilla, oil and milk and beat until well combined on the medium speed of an electric mixer. Add champagne. Beat on low until completely combined. Next, using a wooden spoon, STIR the boiling water into the batter.  Carefully fill each cupcake liner with the batter. Use just under a 1/4 cup per cupcake. Anything more will produce a mess and your cupcakes will overflow the rim when they bake. Don’t ask how I know this.

Bake for 15 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes. Carefully pluck each cupcake out of the pan and place them on a baking rack to cool completely.

For the frosting cream together the sugar, butter. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in each tablespoon of champagne one at at at time. Add the two drops of food coloring and beat until the color is even.

You can either frost the cupcakes the old fashioned way, with a knife or small offset spatula, or you can get fancy and do any array of pipping.  Once frosted sprinkle the crystalized sugar over the top.

Last but not least, grab your glass of champagne and enjoy!!

Sometimes it’s better when things just don’t go according to plan.

I had no intention of making cookies. As many of you know, I have been trying to make Key Lime pies for about 3 weeks now. But since key limes are nearly impossible to find in New Jersey, I had to let the pies go for a little while for the sake of just baking SOMETHING. I was beginning to go into withdrawal.  So I began to look though my baking cabinet and started randomly pulling out items. There was a container of dried cherries I had  mistakenly purchased awhile back thinking they were cranberries, a bag of white chocolate chips that I had been neglecting and several containers of oatmeal.  Voila! Cookies.

I have to admit, these turned out to be some of the best cookies I have ever made. They were wonderfully chewy and rich. Maybe it’s because I thought the nutmeg was cinnamon and put way more in than usual or maybe it’s because the unexpected just tastes better. Whatever the case may be, enjoy!

RECIPE

White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 white granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 3/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons of half & half

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups oats

1  12oz bag white chocolate chips

1 10oz container of dried cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Beat brown sugar, butter and white sugar in large bowl until creamy. About 3-4 minutes depending on the softness of the butter. Next, beat in the eggs, half & half and vanilla extract until well combined.

In a separate small bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, salt cinnamon and nutmeg.

Using a wooden spoon, gradually stir flour mixture into the butter mixture until well combined.

Add oats, white chocolate chips and dried cherries. Mix together until these are pretty evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Roll tablespoon sized portions of the cookie dough and drop them onto a prepared baking sheet. Bake for approximately 11 minutes. Keep on eye on them. I like to undercook mine just a touch so they stay nice a chewy.

And there you have it!   Oh, and I found key limes 2 days ago. The pies will finally be made this weekend.

In the mood for something different?

Since returning to the full-time corporate workforce I have had minimal time to actually bake. I get really excited if I am able to bake once a week. So, in lieu of recipes I am going to do occasional posts on baked goods I have tried, kitchen gadgets I find useful and the like.  In the spirit of trying something different, I bring you Dark Chocolate Chevre (goat cheese) Brownies from the Vermont Brownie Company.

At the Vermont Brownie Company all of their brownies are made from scratch using local, natural and preservative free ingredients. I came across these curious little brownies watching Throw-down with Bobby Flay on the Food Network. Personally, I love love love goat cheese and was completely fascinated by the idea of dark chocolate goat cheese brownie. The episode wasn’t even halfway complete and I was already online, credit card in hand, ready to order the brownies. That was until I saw that it cost $23.00 for six brownies ($30.00 total with shipping).

Despite the price, I went ahead and bought the brownies. By this time I wasn’t just curious about the goat cheese brownie, but about why a brownie would cost so much. I figured this would probably be the best brownie I had ever eaten. (You all already know where this is headed, don’t you?)

The brownies arrived on Friday and I was as excited as a 5 year-old on Christmas morning.  Seriously, I was so giddy I was practically skipping. They arrived in very cute packaging and I am a sucker for packaging.

Each brownie is individually wrapped to assure freshness. And the whole thing is wrapped in neat crisp tissue paper and stickers. At this point I was assured, at the very least, that I got $23.00 worth of packaging. After taking a few pictures I tore into one of the brownies.

Let me start by saying this is one HEAVY brownie. I should have weighed one.  Now, there are two schools of thought when it comes to brownies. There are those who love thick fudgy brownies and those who love cakey brownies. I am of the the latter opinion. Maybe that was part of the problem.

Anyway, I bit the brownie expecting some kind of outter body experience.

Well… It wasn’t that these brownies didn’t taste good, they did. They were super rich and super chocolatey. So much so that I didn’t even taste the goat cheese, which was disappointing. I also couldn’t get past the density. I stuck it in the microwave for a few minutes to see what they would taste like warm. It was a slight improvement, but they got too moist. Almost like they were under-baked. I loved the big chunks of dark chocolate and visually these are beautiful brownies, but they just didn’t blow my mind in the taste and consistency department.  I also had no idea why they were so expensive. Yes, I know local farm ingredients can cost more because they are not produced in mass quantities, but $23.00 for six brownies?? I just didn’t get it. But since taste is subjective, I have given the brownies to a few friends who I hope will, in turn, post their feedback in the comments section.

The Vermont Brownie Company has a host of different brownie flavors and I encourage you to check them out for yourself. As for me, I am becoming increasingly wary of the Food Network.

“I can resist anything but temptation” ~Oscar Wilde

COCOA BUTTERMILK CAKE

Recipe taken from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine (www.bhg.com)

• 3/4 cup butter
• 3 eggs
• 2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa powder or unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk or sour

COCOA MASCARPONE FROSTING

• 4oz Mascarpone cheese (cream cheese can be substituted)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 16oz of confectioners sugar

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Line 3 8 x 1/2 inch cake pans with parchment paper and light grease and flour the pans.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. In a small bowl, combine granulated and brown sugar. Gradually add sugar mixture, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined (3 to 4 minutes). Scrape sides of bowl; continue beating on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to butter mixture, beating on low speed just until combined after each addition. Beat on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more.

Spread batter evenly into prepared pans. The batter will be thick and a bit sticky. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans for 10 minutes on wire rack.

Remove cakes from pans. Remove parchment paper and let cool completely on wire racks.

In a large mixing bowl, beat mascarpone cheese or cream cheese, butter, unsweetened cocoa powder,2 milk and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until creamy. Gradually add  16-ounce box powdered sugar (and I mean GRADUALLY, if you add too much at once you will find yourself in a cloud of sugar the second the beaters hit the bowl) beating until smooth. Beat in enough additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, to reach spreading consistency. Makes 3 cups. (Basically you want it to look as creamy as at that frosting that comes out of a jar. If it’s too runny add more sugar. If it’s too dry add more milk.)

Assemble the cake a layer at a time. Use just enough frosting to adhere each layer to the next. If you use too much your cake layers are going to go sliding every which way. HOWEVER, if you are a frosting junkie and want oodles of frosting between layers, stick a skewer through the center of the cake. It will act as a support for all the layers until you finish frosting the whole thing and then let it set in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Using an offset spatula frost the rest of the cake. Frosting is a skill. It takes practice. I am working on it.

I added some shaved dark chocolate for a decorative touch. Slice this up an serve. To hell with your diet.

Thanks for reading and check back often! Some changes are coming…