One Lump or Two?

I have had a hankering to try a root beer cake for quite a while, and being
faced with two recipes, I chose this one because it was larger. It filled a
Bundt pan instead of a snack-cake type one. I figured if the cake
turned out well, I'd want plenty of it around. Most chocolate cakes don't last very
long in our house, and I'd love to blame it on the male population but in a rare
moment of self-confession, I admit that I'm the one with no self-control.
I just can't leave it alone until it's gone--and then I begin plotting anew for the next
dessert to grace my kitchen counter, erode my self-discipline, and increase my self-loathing.

By the way: it really does taste like root beer--chocolate root beer, which is wonderful
and puzzling at the same time--you can find this out if you dip an index finger into
the batter, just to test it, of course. Don't forget this taste-test, because after it's baked, you lose some of the root beer overtones, as it were.


Root Beer Float Cake

(from Joy the Baker)

Ingredients:

2 cups root beer (don't use diet)
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. spray the inside of a 10- inch Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray or butter generously and dust with flour, knocking off the excess.

In a small saucepan, heat the root beer, cocoa powder and butter over medium heat untilo butter is melted. Add sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a small bowl whisk the eggs until just beaten. Then whisk into the cocoa mixture until combined. Gentle fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture. The batter will be slightly lumpy. You can give it a quick whisk if you like, but don't overbeat the batter or it could cause the cake to be tough.**

Pour the batter into prepared pan and cook for 35-45 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking until a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack or cake plate to cool completely.

Sorry there are no pictures for this one, but if you've seen one dark brown Bundt cake, you've seen 'em all. Besides, I forgot to take any pictures before it got scarfed.



**For fear of over-beating, I did not worry about the little lumpies that were in the batter--BIG MISTAKE!!! The finished product ended up with little pebbles of white flour (or something equally nefarious) that my sons were convinced were chunks of mold and thereby refused to eat. That meant more for me--NOT a good situation, as my too-tight scrubs will attest).

****caveat!! This frosting was a little weird. I followed the directions faithfully with no substitutions, etc. but I would do it differently next time. It's a great buttery frosting with a beautiful texture, but very salty! I was puzzled why you would use unsalted butter but then add salt to it. Next time I will use salted butter and eliminate the teaspoon of salt altogether--I mean, I realize that a bit of salt can enhance the chocolate flavor, but this was overpowering, and I only used half what the recipe called for. I'm glad I listened to my gut feeling or it would have been inedible. And for me to consider anything chocolate as inedible...



Try this frosting at your own risk--

Chocolate Root Beer Frosting

2 oz. 60% cocoa, melted
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup root beer
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using an electric hand mixer, beat softened butter and cocoa powder. Once combined, add the melted chocolate, salt, powdered sugar and root beer. Beat together until smooth. Spread on top of cooled cake. slice and serve with vanilla ice cream.

A Major Photography Fail and a Lemony Home Run

If any of you read my previous post recounting my
photographic troubles, you should know that
I have discovered that all those pictures that
I took of all those pictures of all those cookies
are, yeah, pretty much history.
Sucks, huh?
I baked more than a dozen kinds of cookies over the
Christmas holidays (not just for this blog-oddly enough,
I bake that much every year.) Took many mediocre
photos of them all.

And it's all gone. I. Was. Sick.

But who knows? Maybe someday I'll find a way
(or more probably, find someone else who can)
to recover all those pictures.
Right.
By that time, I'll be toothless and locked in a small room, sucking down
M and M's, watching old Get Smart reruns while
swilling cheap wine coolers and mumbling old Led Zeppelin lyrics.


On to more cheerful and pertinent subjects, like these morsels
of citrusy goodness.

These were one of the desserts I took to our family
Easter dinner. They're light and lemon and little,
perfect for following up a dinner heavy with ham,
potatoes, and the ubiquitous green bean casserole.

I also made Peanut Butter and Apple Trifle and Dorie's
Chocolate Chip Espresso Shortbreads. But those are for
another day.

Delicate Lemon Pound Cake

(from one of the Reiman Publications,
Taste of Home, etc.)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour
3/4 cup lemon-lime soda*
Confectionery sugar


Method:

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in extracts. Add flour alternately with soda, beating just until combined.

Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch fluted tube pan (bundt).**
Bake at 325 degrees F. for 1 1/4 hours or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10-20 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioner's sugar.*** Yield: 12 servings.


*I used Sprite.

**I used my pwecious widdle mini-Bundts; for baking time, I set the timer
for 15 minutes and kept checking from then on, doing the toothpick test. What is it about miniature versions of things that makes people talk like idiots?!

***I also made a quickie glaze of lemon juice, a teeny bit of milk, and confectioner's sugar and drizzled it to and fro across their wee little sunny yellow babycakes faces.

(Quick! Somebody bitch-slap me before this cursed affliction of cutesy turns permanent.)