Wow guys.. I just have to start out by apologizing for being such a suckface when it comes to being consistent with my posts. I hate to give excuses, but February was a busy month. I got a job (UPS catering, woop woop!), joined a sorority (Gamma Phi Beta), joined a community group at my church (they're wonderful), joined an intramural volleyball team, and I also really should have been smarter about taking on such a stinkin’ reading-intensive course load knowing how slow of a reader I am. So.. spreading myself a little thin right now, but I’m not regretting any of it!It’s been a fun semester, and I’m finally getting a feel for balancing out all these new things I’m trying. There have, however, been some great opportunities to bake/cook for my wonderful friends, and of course I wanted to document those for my loverly readers. So here is the first good we baked last month, well, some pictures of it at least. Enjoy!
First up is the Chocolate Peanut Butter Love Cake. Why “love”? Silly question. Why not love?? It’s a love cake because when you usually see someone purchasing this particular size of a cake (two layers, maybe 5 inches in diameter, typically a 2-serving dessert) at a bakeshop or grocer, it’s for one of three reasons:
- They’re really craving cake.
- They know someone else who is really craving cake.
- They’re buying it to share with their lover on one special holiday or another during which they’re apparently supposed to love their partner more than they usually do.
So anyway, it’s meant to be shared by two. But since the L.C. gang and I are all madly in love
with one another, this cake was shared by.. I think maybe 7 people or so. It was funny, the pieces were something like 2 bites worth of cake. Despite the small servings and rather disorderly distribution of the "slices" (which were more like piles), the massive amounts of love packed into this confection made up for any shortcomings in size, and sweet-tooths were definitely satisfied because the frosting is like.. something illicit that I really shouldn't say on this blog.
It was fairly easy because we used
Trader Joe’s boxed cake mix.I did, however, make my own frosting, and that is what made this cake so nommable. Well, and the TJ's cake mix wasn't too shabby.
Just a little side story: As I was searching for the frosting recipe I used (which took foreverrrr, but was totally worth it because this frosting is scary good and I can’t not share the joy) I came across pages and pages of debates over the ingredients that are supposed to go into the different types of buttercream frosting (Italian buttercream, Swiss meringue buttercream, American buttercream, Pâte á bombe, etc. Do you think there’s a “Mexican buttercream”? If not, dibskys on that invention.)
Anyways, hundreds of people just couldn’t resist the urge to assert their opinion on what exactly you put in a frosting before you can call it “buttercream”. I mean, I really shouldn’t be surprised to see trolls roaming the food blog world, but really, in the end, if the food tastes good then the cook must not have screwed up. This is kind of like those people who argue about what genre some new DJ’s music is (dubstep? house? trance? crunk? frapjam?) But c’mon! If you’re that
passionate about the music itself and not the idea of that genre, or the idea of being someone who listens to that genre, then why are you wasting your breath when you could be dancing, singing, doin’ the tippitay-tap? Snap yo fingers, do ya step. You can do it all by yo self, let me see you do it! Ayye!
So point of the matter: if it tastes good, then you got the recipe right. Recipes are made for us noobskys who need some guidance for getting all the proportions correct; so that all the chemical reactions and stuff like that can work out to hopefully produce something edible in the end. If you’re so knowledgeable about what goes into a good buttercream, then why were you on teh interwebz researching buttercream recipes in the first place, huh? Huh?
Here was my favorite comment:
“On May 10, 2006 at 05:00 PM, spacial_k (guest) said...
Subject: American Buttercream
Just so you know, the above recipe is totally WRONG. I graduated from culinary school so I know how to make buttercream. First off, buttercream frosting NEVER contains egg yolks.”
Subject: American Buttercream
Just so you know, the above recipe is totally WRONG. I graduated from culinary school so I know how to make buttercream. First off, buttercream frosting NEVER contains egg yolks.”
Well, Mr. “Spacial_k”, I guess you never will get to experience the deliciousness that is THIS FANTASTICALLY SCRUMBDIDDLYUMPTIOUS PEANUT BUTTER BUTTERCREAM FROSTING. But it’s okay because you graduated from culinary school, so all the best things you’ve tasted and will ever taste are things you made yourself so there is no need to branch out and take a chance on someone else topping your master skillz.
Okay I’m stopping myself there. I’m really not as mean as this post might make me sound..
Moving on: here is the frosting recipe! (ugh finally, Kirsten. Took for-stinkin-EVER!!)
You really should try it sometime. Or ask me to make it for you! It’s so good you might even just want to eat it out of the bowl with a spoon. .err..I mean, like I totally didn’t do cause that’s so unhealthy! Mmm
It looks complicated but it really doesn’t take that long and its totes worth it.
(from SugarLaws at http://www.sugarlaws.com/chocolate-peanut-butter-cake)
1/2 cup peanut butter (not crunchy) <--I used creamy natural Skippy PB
1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces, softened
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Bring a pot of water to a simmer on the stovetop. In a separate bowl over the simmering water, beat together the egg yolk and 1/2 cup of confectioners’ sugar, until the mixture is hot to the touch, about 5 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes (or transfer the mixture to a new bowl), and then beat in the peanut butter, and then the butter. Beat in 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar and set aside.
In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream with 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar until the whipped cream forms stiff peaks. Add the whipped cream to the rest of the frosting and beat until combined. Chill in the fridge until the cake is ready to be frosted.
So, you may have your go-to frosting recipe, but this one is definitely worth taking a step out of the box. And don’t be intimidated by the double boiler if you’ve never tried it before. It’s really just a fancier way of heating stuff up than simply using a microwave and it gives you more control over the cooking/heating process. This frosting recipe is pretty versatile, too. If peanut butter ain’t yo thang, you can totally mix anything into this frosting instead of PB! I feel like this would work really well for a vanilla recipe, especially if you used vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract. I’ve never tried using the paste before, but I’ve heard that you get a way better vanilla flavor, plus you get the pretty vanilla bean specks :)
1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces, softened
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Bring a pot of water to a simmer on the stovetop. In a separate bowl over the simmering water, beat together the egg yolk and 1/2 cup of confectioners’ sugar, until the mixture is hot to the touch, about 5 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes (or transfer the mixture to a new bowl), and then beat in the peanut butter, and then the butter. Beat in 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar and set aside.
In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream with 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar until the whipped cream forms stiff peaks. Add the whipped cream to the rest of the frosting and beat until combined. Chill in the fridge until the cake is ready to be frosted.
Note: At the stage where you mix the granulated sugar + yolk with the confectioners’ sugar (I think this will be difficult if you’re not using an electric mixer of some sort).. you might look at it and wonder how the heck such a funky looking substance is going to turn into frosting; it’ll look kind of like dried out peanut butter play-dough. However, once you mix in the whipped cream and beat it for while, it will all magically fall into place and you will end up with a beautiful light and silky-smooth buttercream
And in the end, we frosted the cake and dressed it up by pressing chopped up Reese’s into the sides. Although this looked really cute, I have to be honest: as good as Reese’s cups might be on their own, on this cake they were only a distraction from the blissful harmony of the TJ’s chocolate cake mix (which was very good, btw) and the light yet luxurious PB buttercream.
So, you may have your go-to frosting recipe, but this one is definitely worth taking a step out of the box. And don’t be intimidated by the double boiler if you’ve never tried it before. It’s really just a fancier way of heating stuff up than simply using a microwave and it gives you more control over the cooking/heating process. This frosting recipe is pretty versatile, too. If peanut butter ain’t yo thang, you can totally mix anything into this frosting instead of PB! I feel like this would work really well for a vanilla recipe, especially if you used vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract. I’ve never tried using the paste before, but I’ve heard that you get a way better vanilla flavor, plus you get the pretty vanilla bean specks :)
Well that’s all for now, friends. Thanks so much for reading and hopefully I’ll get my next post up soon.. (you may or may not have reason to get mad stoked for this.. but I’m just gonna say it.. I made cakepops!! :D )
Oh and this is for you, Nelly.
luv u bbgrl.
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