As you can see from the lovely new additions on the top and sides (especially the lovely fat Madame Pusheen), I have added tabs to make it easier for people to navigate by posting links to recipes and useful tips as well as links to all my favorite blogs in the world. I assure you, it by no means is complete, it's just the ones I can think up of on the spot. I will be adding to it as I go. Hopefully.
Anyways, onto the CAKE.
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| Screw da germs. |
I'll admit it, I'm not the hugest fan of cake, in general. Don't get me wrong, I do like it and I'll eat it when I see it, but the only type of cake I'll ever truly love is the fluffy, softer-than-chinchillas (only soft animal I can think of, sorry) spongecake I see only at Asian bakeries. I mean, it's the cake of my childhood. It's the cake my parents have bought for nearly all of my birthdays. It's even what I ate for breakfast sometimes (my mother had some very generous friends who gave us the most delicious sponge cake rolls from LA). It's a cake I often dream about eating and making and every time I head into an Asian bakery at home or in NYC, it's something I have to have. You get the point, right? It's truly, nothing short of magical.
So...about this Chocolate Buttermilk Cake I am going to talk about today. While it's nothing like the cake of my dreams, fortunately, it does come pretty close.
Since I'm not home most of the year (going to school in the East Coast sucks), obviously I don't get many chances to see my family and friends. So when I am home, the first things I always try to do are 1) spend quality time with my parents and 2) spend quality time with my best friend, TC (trying to keep it anonymous). She is truly the prettiest, the smartest, the funniest, just about the best person I have ever met, and we have been friends for forever, since around 6th grade. She shares my love of baking and is really the only person I would ever spill all my secrets to. She's simply just an amazing individual and I am so privileged to have her as my friend.
So...this cake (I keep getting off-track). We decided to make this cake randomly one week (because TC really wanted to make cake) and so after summer class one day, we headed over to her house to make it. We didn't even have all the ingredients but it worked beautifully and the cake we produced was absolutely delicious, a real keeper.
Here's the recipe, copied from the Little Teochew (which is an amazing blog, go check it out!):
Chocolate Buttermilk Cake
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup cake flour - we used plain flour
1/2 cup Dutch-processed (alkalized) cocoa powder - we used Hershey's
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup Dutch-processed (alkalized) cocoa powder - we used Hershey's
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk - TC couldn't find buttermilk at Target so we had to make the buttermilk from skim milk and ~2 Tbsp lemon juice from the one random lemon growing on her family's lemon tree. Let it sit for 5 min, to thicken up.
2 tablespoons Kahlua - didn't use this
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 ounces finely chopped bittersweet chocolate or 3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate morsels bittersweet
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk - TC couldn't find buttermilk at Target so we had to make the buttermilk from skim milk and ~2 Tbsp lemon juice from the one random lemon growing on her family's lemon tree. Let it sit for 5 min, to thicken up.
2 tablespoons Kahlua - didn't use this
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 ounces finely chopped bittersweet chocolate or 3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate morsels bittersweet
DIRECTIONS:
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously grease the interior of a 6-cake Bundt-lette pan (it's best to use shortening here). Dust the molds with flour and tap out the excess. - we used disposable aluminum loaf pans and greased using butter.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed for 2 minutes, until very creamy. Gradually beat in the sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 3 minutes, until the mixture is well blended and light. At medium speed, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
4. In a small bowl, stir together the buttermilk, Kahlua (or rum), and vanilla extract. If your mixer has a splatter shield attachment, attach it now. At low speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating it with the buttermilk cream mixture in two additions, and mixing just until blended. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and stir in the finely chopped chocolate or miniature semisweet morsels. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake molds, dividing it evenly and smoothing the tops.
5. Bake the cakes for 25 to 30 minutes (took about 35 min for us), until a cake tester inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pan set on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
6. Invert the cakes onto the rack and cool completely.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed for 2 minutes, until very creamy. Gradually beat in the sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 3 minutes, until the mixture is well blended and light. At medium speed, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
4. In a small bowl, stir together the buttermilk, Kahlua (or rum), and vanilla extract. If your mixer has a splatter shield attachment, attach it now. At low speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating it with the buttermilk cream mixture in two additions, and mixing just until blended. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and stir in the finely chopped chocolate or miniature semisweet morsels. Scrape the batter into the prepared cake molds, dividing it evenly and smoothing the tops.
5. Bake the cakes for 25 to 30 minutes (took about 35 min for us), until a cake tester inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pan set on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
6. Invert the cakes onto the rack and cool completely.
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| What a gorgeous little beauty right there. |
This makes for an incredibly soft and fluffy cake, with lots of chocolate flavor and chocolate bits inside. I personally didn't like the chocolate chips in it as much, as it made it too much like a cakey brownie but it was still insanely delicious and better than any store-bought cake. Or maybe things just taste better when you make them yourself.
TC and I had such a fun time making this cake, it was so awesome having nothing to do but bake and eat with your best friend. We make a great team. Too bad we have other career interests at the moment or else I'd propose co-opening a bakery with her haha.
Thanks to TC for proposing this project and buying the ingredients and helping out! You are simply the best <3.
Here's today's tip, guys: as always, don't freak out when you don't have the right ingredients (as a good baker, you really should though). There are sometimes easy-fix solutions out there and you just need to find them.
And that's it, folks! Have a great weekend and go noms on some cake!
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| I'm so jealous, Pusheen. *sob* |
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