Cakes 26 and 27 - Nigella's Chocolate Truffle Meringue Cake Twice

This shows the gorgeous dinner which preceded
the chocolate cake.  My talented bro-in law made
this meal, and it was every bit as tasty as it looks.

      If you want to make a delicious, beautiful, and elegant dessert, grab a copy of Nigella Lawson's Feast, page 294.  The first one delighted a bunch of my girlfriends a at a summer luncheon.  N. commented, "It truly does taste just like a truffle!"
      The second  assault on this project occurred when my sweet middle sister and I were together in my large southern home state on a particularly sultry summer day.  We truly longed to make chocolate cake, but it had to be one with a minimum of actual baking; the day was just too hot.  For Truffle Meringue Chocolate Cake only the meringue  has to bake, so that was our clear choice.  We did Nigella's cake, but we did the large southern state version of the meringue:  crunchier and much larger.  Like ladies hair in that particular state during my upbringing, this meringue was enormous, airy, and fluffy, reminiscent of thunderclouds or cotton candy. My sister and I thought this extra meringue was a premium idea.  When we enjoyed this version of truffle cake after the excellent  meal her husband prepared for us, her family agreed: more meringue = good!
   This is my sister's recipe for making all this meringue, and I'm not sure where she got it, but she sometimes serves this as a cookie, by itself.

Joan's Amazing Meringue

3 egg whites at room temperature

1 tsp good Mexican vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 pinch of salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
Beat the egg whites and all ingredients except sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until they form soft peaks.  Gradually add sugar and vanilla, still beating.  Stop when the mixture forms stiff peaks, careful not to overbeat.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Day 25 - Emergency Chocolate Ice Cream

   Not at all cake, but certainly chocolate!  A Cuisinart ice cream maker bucket  in the freezer saves many a summer evening, and on this particular occasion we would have been completely dessertless without it.  Here's my recipe.

Emergency Chocolate Ice Cream

1 pint  half and half

8 ounces good semisweet chocolate melted and cooled

1/2 cup sugar

1 shot orange liqueur

Mix briefly and freeze according to the instructions with your ice cream maker.

#24: Wacky Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Peanut Butter Frosting, David's Cake

     David turned 20 today, June 10, so a quick cake needed to move in his direction.  This little cake took only 12 minutes to assemble; you mix right in the pan. I used one of those aluminum pans you get at the grocery, the kind with the plastic lid to survive the ride.  The Wacky Chocolate Cake is on page 63 in Michelle Urvater's amazing book, but as she notes this recipe appears under various aliases elsewhere. The frosting was pretty much a recipe rewrite, since there was such a press for time and since no cream in the house and only crunchy peanut butter.  Butter and skimmed milk substituted for cream, then extra peanut butter and confectioner's sugar to firm up the texture, and voila!  A lovely little chocolate cake is frosted and tasting like Reese's Peanutbutter Cups!

   Here is the recipe for my version of Crunchy Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting.  Bring 3/4 cup Adam's 100% Natural CRUNCHY Peanut Butter, 1/2 stick unsalted butter, and 1/2 cup of milk to room temperature. Sift 2 1/2 cups  confectioner's sugar with 1/2 cup Hersey's Special Dark (100% cacoa) Cocoa. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer of any kind, blend the peanut butter, butter, and milk with at least 2 tsp good Mexican vanilla.  Add the sugar and cocoa, and beat vigorously.  Play with the texture if it is less than perfect.  Add a little milk if it's too stiff or a little sugar and peanut butter  if it's too thin.

  While this is no buttercream frosting in the same way that Dan Quayle is no John F. Kennedy, it is so delicious that I would eat it on almost anything.

Days 23 - Margie's Cowboy Cookies Go Down the Arkansas River

    This is the amazing Cowboy Cookie for which Margie Lapanja is famous, and righteously so.  She graciously, generously revealed her recipe in Goddess in the Kitchen: 201 Heavenly Recipes, Spirited Stories, and Saucy Secrets. If you are reading this blog right now, and you have somehow never read Goddess in the Kitchen, switch off your computer immediately.  Tear off down to your local library or a bookstore near you, and lay hand on a copy, for it is a superbly entertaining read. 
   I've been baking Margie's cookies since 2000 when I was on a quest for the ultimate cookie recipe.  When my family tasted this one, we knew the search was over.  Since then both children and adults ask for this cookie by name.  My sisters refer to it as THE cookie, like this:  "I'll be out to see you next week.  Will you be making THE cookie?" 
   My favorite river rat asked for Cowboy Cookies, arguably the ultimate high energy snack with all that coconut, oatmeal, and chocolate. It's blasphemous to change this particular recipe, but I still adjust it slightly for altitude .  My family loves coconut, so all the nuts are coconut when I make these.  Watch these vigilantly so they don't burn.  The old Whirlpool bakes them to perfection in about 8 minutes.
   In conclusion Margie's Cowboy Cookies were a hit on the Arkansas.  People who normally won't eat carbs, especially sugar, indulged and were glad they did.

Day 22: Chocolate Blitz Torte

   Awake at 2:00am for not special reason, possibly because of weirdness at work, could be the snoring dachshund or unsettled summer plans, might be that extra Arnold Palmer with a shot of Southern Comfort at the end of my evening - who knows why?  Regardless of what wakes you, the wee hours of  morning can be the best time for baking cake layers, such a cool and quiet part of the day.  Except for using the darkest cocoa I could find and adjusting for altitude, I made Michelle Urvater's Chocolate Blitz Torte exactly by the precise recipe.  It's on page 160 in 150 Chocolate Cakes.  This one piqued my interest because Michelle marked it as a favorite and because I felt like making layer cake.  Layers cooling on the rack, back to sleep for the baker. 
  Later that morning, looking at these layers with rested eyes and fresh perspective - the meringue tops are lovely.  Already it's easy to see how this might be a favorite.
  Rather than following Michelle's recommendation for filling and frosting, I went for Wicked Chocolate Frosting, p. 298, which is really a buttercream on chocolate steroids.   To make sure it was thick and sturdy enough, I skimped on milk. Once the between-the-layers filling was applied, I whipped in more milk to ice the sides thinly, leaving the gorgeous meringue top uncovered.   My home-from-college-for-summer son said it was the most beautiful cake he'd ever seen.  My dear friend and cooking cohort was a little under the weather, she ate some Chocolate Blitz Torte, and she recovered almost instantly due to the recuperative powers of extreme chocolate.
   Rich with eggs and butter, the torte must be stored in the fridge.  To me it's much more delicious @ room temperature, but  two men I know prefer it straight out of the icebox.

Cakes 19 and 20: Michelle's Pound Cake in Nigella's Trifle Goes to the Wedding Shower

   "Is there alcohol in the dessert?"
   "Would you want it any other way?"
   Who on earth ever knew flight attendants aren't supposed to have alcohol, even the scant two teaspoons or so in a serving of Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Cherry Trifle (page 406, Feast)?  I wonder whether that rule applies pilots and air traffic controllers.  Neurosurgeons?   Good thing Michelle Urvater's Marbled Chocolate Pound Cake affords such an abundance of leftover cake, even after the trifle is assembled, that plain cake can be offered right alongside the uber decadent, creamy, brandy-laced trifle.   This recipe makes 4 pounds of  cake, and one of those pounds is pure unsalted butter (page 108, 150 Chocolate Cakes).  This is pretty cake, too, with the marbling effect, although next time I might up the contrast by skipping the cocoa powder in the light batter.  Oooh,  what  would this be like if  the light batter were white chocolate pound cake?  Just one way to find out....

The Miracle and Cakes 18 and 21

Tropical Chocolate Cake
with White Chocolate Ganache Frosting
 and Coconut on Top

   Mysteriously, miraculously my very own copy of 150 Chocolate Cakes has appeared in my mailbox!  Couldn't be more pleased or more grateful.  I have no idea who did me this gigantic kindness, but whoever you are, thank you very, very much.
    We had Rastafarian Friday at work, so I made Nigella Lawson's Tropical Chocolate Cake, page 284, in her Feast book.  The book is incidentally an excellently superb resource to have on one's shelf, supplying ideas and recipes for just about any occasion.  Nigella flavors her delightful chocolate cake with rum, but making it for work, fruit juice had to do instead.  She describes the cake as flat, so I added an extra egg.  And I decided to make cupcakes this time, just because.  The pineapple in this cake gives it a moist, fresh flavor that I love. The frosting was a little out of my depth.  Although I made it twice, the texture remained a little on the runny side, a frosting-maker's skill issue, to be sure.  Even so, no one complained, and Chocolate Cake #18 went well with Reggae music and a sweet island menu including jerk chicken wings, coconut bread, pineapple upside down cake, and a red hibiscus drink. Overall, a good day to show up in the break room.
  Cake # 21 - Tropical Chocolate Cake, again, because I just can't quite leave this one alone.  This time I did include the coconut flavored rum just like Nigella, and like Nigella, I thought it was a great ingredient.  This is definitely a make-again recipe.  For the frosting, this time it was Michelle Urvater's White Chocolate Ganache sprinkled with coconut, which worked well for me on the first try.    I'm soft for a frosting with a butter or cream base and can't wait to make this cake again  and ice it just this way.  It's the perfect confection when you are longing for the tropics.