Bert's Chocolate Cake: Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday. All good birthdays involve chocolate cake. Using the transitive property, if A=B and B=C, then A=C, today involves chocolate cake. Now don't laugh. Don't call me pathetic. Yes, I baked my own birthday cake. But before you judge me, hear me out. Three reasons why it makes perfect sense that I made my own:

1. I love baking and this was an enjoyable project.
2. It is a tradition in my family to have this specific chocolate cake recipe, and with my mom (the one who normally makes it for us kids) living 400 miles away, I can't expect her to show up at my doorstep with the cake.
3. This is the chocolate cake recipe to outdo all other chocolate cake recipes. Why settle for a bakery's cake when I can have my grandma Bert's?

This is a very special recipe. It's the cake made at every single birthday in my family. I make it for my sister now that we live in Los Angeles. Growing up, four of the five of us in my immediate family had birthdays in January. That meant my mom would make 4 of these cakes in January. I am not kidding. And we never tired of it. Well, maybe temporarily by January 31st.

So here goes, the best chocolate cake on the planet. And happy birthday to me!


~Bert's Chocolate Cake~

1 (4-oz.) German chocolate bar (Baker's)
1/2 c. hot water
1/2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 c. cake flour, sifted
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla

Blend chocolate into water and set aside to cool. Cream together the butter with the brown and white sugars. Add the eggs, one at a time. Now add chocolate carefully so it doesn't splatter. Mix the flour, soda, and salt together. Add these dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix well. Add the vanilla. Pour into two well-greased and floured 9-inch round pans or a 9x13" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. To remove from the pans, put hot pans on cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then remove from pans and put onto rack to cool right-side up.


~Elegant Chocolate Frosting~

1 1/4 c. sugar
1 c. evaporated milk or heavy cream (I prefer cream)
5 (1-oz.) squares Baker's unsweetened chocolate
1/2 c. butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine sugar and milk in large heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat; simmer 6 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat. Add chocolate; stir to blend. Stir in butter and vanilla. Chill until mixture begins to thicken (or if you're short on time, place the bowl over an ice bath). Beat until thick and creamy. Makes enough to fill and frost an 8- or 9-inch layer cake.

Out-of-this-World Hot Fudge Sauce

Baking streak, here I come! Last night I made Caremelita Bars. Tonight, I went big. I started off the evening with a new challah recipe by Marcy Goldman in her A Passion for Baking cookbook. She calls the recipe Traditional Moist and Feathery Challah. She is so good at nomenclature! It came out of the oven so moist and feathery! I haven't cut into it yet (waiting for tomorrow night's meal) but I already have the x-ray vision I need to know that this will be one of those breads where when you pull a piece off, it creates a big tear with a "train" of bread. And it looks so different from the Beth Hensperger challah I made in my last challah post. I'm going to have a lot of fun sharing challah photos on here since I keep trying new recipes.

I also made hot fudge tonight. That's because tomorrow the dessert is hot fudge sundaes. I almost did the vanilla ice cream myself to make this a truly homemade dessert, but all ready with the David Lebovitz recipe, I backed out because of time. I'll save that for another day and post his vanilla bean ice cream when I do it....because it's only a matter of time. :)

Here's the hot fudge recipe. You're going to love me for sharing this family recipe with you. And your thighs are going to hate me.


Hot Fudge Sauce

2/3 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. light corn syrup
1/3 c. dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 c. unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 oz. fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), finely chopped
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla

Bring cream, corn syrup, sugar, cocoa, salt, and half of chocolate to a boil in a 1 to 1 1/2 quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until chocolate is melted. Reduce heat and cook at a low boil, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes, then remove from heat. Add butter, vanilla, and remaining chocolate and stir until smooth. Cool sauce to warm before serving. Makes about 2 cups.

Cook's Note: Sauce can be made 1 week ahead and cooled completely, then chilled in an airtight container or jar. Reheat before using.

Caremelita Bars

I have a million cookbooks. Ok, not quite, but I do have hundreds and hundreds. Tonight, I almost reached for one of my favorites, a Carole Walter or a Marcy Goldman maybe, and probably because I've used them before and trust them completely. But midway through the arm reach, I paused, retracted the arm, took a look around my bookshelves, and did something risky: I grabbed a community cookbook I had never used before. It's called Amish Country Homestyle Cooking and I bought it in Volant, Pennsylvania, on a recent trip. When I found a recipe for a gooey bar (yet totally different from Blondies), I zeroed in. This was a risk well worth taking. I made a few minor adjustments to the recipe, and it came out great! Delicious and easy, which is the perfect combination. You will definitely enjoy!! And I will definitely start using more of my cookbooks!!


Caremelita Bars
adapted from a recipe by Ella J. Shetler

1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 c. oatmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. brown sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 c. butter, melted
1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1 c. chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix everything but the sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips until crumbly. Press 2/3 of this into a 9x13 ungreased pan. Bake 8-12 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Spread the milk on top and add chips, if desired. Sprinkle remaining crumbs on top. Return to the oven and bake for about 15 minutes more or until golden and the surface doesn't move when you shake the pan.

Mi Blondie Es Su Blondie

I'm having a little trouble here. I start writing about my grandmother's blondies, and then I erase everything. Then I begin again, then erase. That's because these blondies really belong in the Top Secret Family Recipes file. But feeling especially altruistic this evening, I will go ahead and share with you what is to my large extended family, one of the most fabulous recipes on Earth. Don't worry, Mars and Jupiter, you could (maybe) still come up with something better.

Blondies are similar to brownies in that they're bar cookies, made in either a 9x9 or a 9x13 pan. But in taste, they are completely different. They are essentially brown sugar bars, and once baked, they come out a golden blondish color, hence the name. My mom's mom was an incredible baker and these blondies are one tiny glimpse into her abilities. They're easy to make, taking only 10 minutes to put together, and using limited dishes (woohoo!). Choose from one of the following two recipes, based on the size of the pan you are planning on using.


TIP: Be sure NOT to overbake these. When you test for doneness with a toothpick, a little bit of crumb should come up. In fact, the top should look slightly undercooked and pale. Gooeyness is inevitable and the only way to go!

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Blondies (Large Pan)
2/3 cup (10 2/3 tablespoons) butter
2 cups brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
2 cups flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup walnuts, optional
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat and add brown sugar, mixing well with a wooden spoon. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well. Add walnuts and vanilla. Pour into 9x13 or slightly larger well-greased pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips over top of batter. Bake for 16-19 minutes. Do not overbake! You want the center to be slightly gooey. A toothpick into the center of cookies will have a tiny bit of batter stuck to it when the toothpick is removed.

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Blondies (Small Pan)
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan. Remove from the heat. Add brown sugar and mix until well blended with a wooden spoon. Stir in unbeaten egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients gradually and the nuts. Pour batter into a greased 8x8 or 9x9 pan. Top with chocolate chips. Bake for 14-18 minutes.

Bundt Pan Paranoia

If there is one cake that makes me nervous, it's the bundt. Not because the cake won't taste good; it will (usually). I get nervous because the pan the cake is baked in has so many frickin' grooves that if you don't grease and flour every nook and cranny, when you go to invert the cake onto the serving tray, it might fight back. There is nothing worse than a perfectly good cake stuck in a bundt pan. I've experienced this, and cried over this, one too many times. You can't take a knife and cut the cake loose. Who owns a special knife that slides down the sides of the bundt in the exact design of the ornate pan? No one. And so it goes, time after time: bundt pan paranoia.

But as a truly determined baker, I will not let the bundt pan win. I've recently mastered the art of greasing and flouring the pan. I take a pastry brush, dip it into my shortening, and grease that sucker of a pan until it shines from every angle. Then I spoon flour into the pan and shake it around until it covers all surfaces. Not only does the flour assist in getting the cake to come out, but it also tells you if you've greased the pan well. If flour doesn't stick somewhere, you've missed greasing a spot. Touch-ups may be required.


This time around, I made a Lemon-Glazed Buttermilk Bundt Cake by Lou Pappas in her Coffeecakes cookbook. A coworker had given me some meyer lemons and I'd be foolish to let them go to waste. The cake was very easy to make and the batter was beautiful and thick, a signal to me that the final baked good was going to be A-OK.


Once out of the oven, it looked great, in a light golden hue. It tasted great, too.


But best of all, I won the battle against the pan. It came out in one giant piece!


Victory is mine!

Chappy Go Challah

Dear Scared of Breadbaking,
I'd like to share with you two reasons you should not be scared of breadbaking, using challah I made tonight to illustrate these reasons.

Reason #1: Not all breads are nitpicky. Challah is a great bread to make when you're learning because aside from its deliciousness, it is quite forgiving. You see, it is an egg bread, and that means yeast isn't the only thing helping it rise; egg is a leavener. So, not that you should be scared of yeast, but if you can't seem to get over that fear, just remember that egg can be your Prince Charming and come to the rescue.

Reason #2: Bread can be made in an evening, and without stealing the evening. I am living proof that bread can be made, from beginning to end, on a single work night, and you can still get plenty of other things done around the house and get a good night's rest. You're not actually working on the bread the whole evening. You're preparing the dough, letting it rise, shaping it, letting it rise, adding an egg wash, and then baking it. There's a lot of free time in there. Allow me to rewrite that schedule another way...

preparing the dough = preparing the dough
letting it rise = Marni watches TV and talks to friends
shaping it = shaping it
letting it rise = Marni pays bills online, reads a chapter of her book
adding an egg wash = adding an egg wash
baking it = Marni vacuums, reads another chapter of her book


I dare you to bake some bread in the middle of the week!

Sincerely,
Marni
p.s. My challah recipe comes from the incredible master breadbaker Beth Hensperger in her cookbook Bread Made Easy.

Brunchiness

Isn't brunch just wonderful? Bagels and lox are pretty typical fare, and we'd be remiss without them, but it's all that extra homemade goodness that makes brunch really special. Things like hash brown casserole, oven-baked french toast, and veggie frittatas all induce drooling. When I heard my mom was going to host a brunch a couple of days ago, I got excited. First, she's an excellent cook and anything she makes is great. Second, this is BRUNCH! But also, my mom likes to try new recipes. After all, she must have a few thousand cookbooks lying around. So while we might expect the hash brown casserole, and every once in awhile we're spot on, she had other ideas for this brunch.

Here's a sampling of this latest affair. I was a very happy taster.

Chocolate-filled Babka. Recipe by Mollie Katzen in her Sunlight Cafe cookbook.



Muffins That Aren't, or as my mom likes to call them, Unmuffins. These are actually frozen lemon yogurt cups with fruit cocktail and sliced bananas inside. Recipe came from the food section of the San Jose Mercury News.



Savory Vegetable Cheesecake. Similar to a frittata, this is an impressive dish made in a springform just like a cheesecake, and chock full of veggies, egg, and ricotta cheese. Recipe also by Mollie Katzen in her Enchanted Broccoli Forest.



And yes, bagels and lox. They were there, too.