Drunken Cherry Chocolate Cake

Every year for my birthday, I don't ask for presents, just that Eric bake a cake for me and we spend the day together. He started with boxed cake mixes, last year it was a smores pie, and this year he made his first cake from scratch. He woke up early and only asked for a little help--I more supervised and fetched ingredients for him than anything else. And it turned out absolutely delicious. The cake was moist and very chocolaty and the cream cheese frosting has become my favorite frosting. You can't forget the drunken cherries either--divine. I am so proud of him.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
Cake
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk, warmed
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder (we used Hershey's Special Dark)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt

Filling

4 cups black cherries, pitted (about 1 pound)

1/2 cup whiskey (next time I think we'll use brandy)

1/4 cup cold water

Frosting

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

4 tablespoons of reserved cherry-whiskey syrup

Directions:
Drunken Cherries
Rinse, drain, and dry your cherries. Pit the cherries and coarsely chop them. Place them in a medium bowl and add whiskey. Let the cherries marinate at room temperature for 1 hour then drain cherries, reserving the liquid.

Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.

With a standing mixer or electric hand mixer, whisk together 4 tablespoons butter, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Whip on high for 7 minutes or until mixture is light and fluffy. Whisk in warm milk.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until the batter is just combined. Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the center of each cake has set. 

Once the cakes are cool enough to handle, remove from pans. Place the cakes on a wire rack and cool completely.

Frosting
In the bowl of a standing mixer, whisk butter on low until fluffy, gradually adding powdered sugar one cup at a time until well combined. Add salt. Increase speed to medium-high and whip until mixture is pale and fluffy (2-3 minutes).

Add cream cheese 1 ounce at a time and mix until well combined. Once all the cream cheese is incorporated, whip for about 1-2 more minutes.

Stir in 4 tablespoons of reserved cherry liquid. Reserve the rest of the remaining cherry liquid. Refrigerate frosting until ready to use.

Assemble

Remove the frosting from the fridge and allow it to set about for 10-15 minutes. 

Cut each cake in half horizontally using a serrated knife. Place one layer (cut-side up) on your plate or cake stand. 

Add water to the reserved cherry syrup. Brush the layer with 1/3 of the cherry-whiskey mixture. Frost the layer and add 1/3 of the drunken cherries. Repeat with the next three layers, however, do not put any syrup on the top layer. Refrigerate cake for about 20 minutes.

Frost the outside of your cake. Decorate with extra cherries, chocolate curls, or chocolate chips. Instead of using whole cherries, Eric decorated with a few drunken cherries. Cover and store cake in fridge. Allow cake to sit at room temperate for about 30 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Cake Recipes
Strawberry and Chocolate Checkered Cake 
Three Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
An Apple Cider Birthday Cake
Chocolate on Chocolate Cake 
Chocolate Swirl Cake (Made with Swiss Cake Rolls)
Honey Cake
Rice Crispy Birthday Cake 

Strawberry and Chocolate Checkered Cake (with Bonus Cupcakes!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Eric and I aren't big into Valentine's Day. Our plans this year include sushi and probably cuddling on the couch watching a Supernatural marathon. But I do use the commercial holiday as an excuse to test out some new bake goods. I've been wanting to do a checkered cake for ages. I first saw one on The Cake Boss years ago and I had to figure out how to do it for myself. Then I stumbled upon the directions on Pinterest and it was not nearly as difficult as I thought it'd be.

I used doctored cake mixes--strawberry and chocolate--for the cakes and cupcakes. I wanted to make the cakes from scratch (my chocolate on chocolate cake is one of my popular post on this blog) and even felt a little guilty for using boxed cake mix. But cake mixes were invented for a reason. Sometimes life is just too busy and you need something easy.

Since I used two cake mixes I could have made a four layer cake, two cakes, or a cake and cupcakes. Eric and I certainly didn't need that many sweets in the house (especially with his birthday on Sunday) so I made the cake for us and cupcakes for him to take to work. Eric said the cupcakes didn't even make it to noon. I guess they liked them.

Ingredients:
Strawberry Cake
1 strawberry cake mix
1  3-ounce package instant vanilla pudding
1/2 cup water, milk, or buttermilk
1/2 cup oil or melted butter
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

Chocolate Cake
1 chocolate cake mix
1  3-ounce package instant vanilla pudding
1/2 cup water, milk, or buttermilk
1/2 cup oil or melted butter
4 large eggs
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

Chocolate Filling
1 5.9-ounce instant chocolate pudding mix

1 1/2 cups cold milk

Buttercream Frosting
3 sticks butter, softened
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6-8 tablespoons milk

Directions:
Cakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour to 8-inch cake pans. Line cupcake tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, mix all the chocolate cake ingredients together until well combined. Pour half the batter into one of the cake pans.

In a second large bowl, mix all the strawberry cake ingredients together until well combined. Pour half the batter into the second cake pan.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the center of the cakes are set.

Remove from oven, allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes in the pans, and then place cakes on a wire rack to cool completely.

Divide the remaining chocolate and strawberry batter between 24 cupcake tins. I layered chocolate on bottom, strawberry on top. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until the centers of the cupcakes have set. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before removing from pan. Cool the cupcakes completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate Filling
In a medium bowl whisk together the pudding mix and the milk until completely combined. Mixture will be very thick.

Frosting
Place the the butter into a large bowl and cream with a hand mixer or standing mixer. Add vanilla and mix. Add 1 cup of sugar and blend on low speed until well incorporated. Then add another cup of sugar and beat until well blended. By now your buttercream is getting thick. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons milk and mix. Blend in the rest of the sugar.. Add more tablespoons of milk, if desired. To get light, smooth buttercream you need to blend the buttercream for 15 to 20 minutes on low.

Assemble
I'm not going to lie, I rather winged the assembling part. I didn't go out and buy any special cutters or templates. I basically eyeballed it using a small plate, a glass, and serrated knife to cut out the circles.

Basically what you want to do is cut a big circle out the center of each cake then a smaller circle out of the middle of the cake, so you have two large rings, two medium rings, and two small circles.

As you can see, I over filled my chocolate cake pan. With a serrated knife you can simply trim it down.

Start with a chocolate ring and place a smaller strawberry ring inside it then place the small chocolate cake in the center. Repeat with the other pieces yet inversed.

Chocolate, strawberry chocolate on bottom. Strawberry, chocolate, strawberry on top.

Here is an awesome video that does a better job at explaining how to assemble a checkered cake.

Place half of the chocolate filling between the two layers of the cake then frost with the buttercream frosting and decorate.

For the cupcakes: with a spoon scoop out the centers of the cupcakes, scoop in the chocolate filling, and frost with buttercream. Decorate, if desired.

Keep both the cake and cupcakes refrigerated. Before serving, remove from fridge and allow to sit out for about fifteen minutes, allowing the buttercream to soften.

I think I need a little practice at the checkered cake, but I can't wait to try again!

Enjoy!

~Krissy!

More Recipes for Valentine's Day:
Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies
Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies with a Strawberry Sauce
Baileys White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Caramelitas 
Skinny Peanut Butter Brownies  

Chocolate on Chocolate Cake

Happy Birthday Chuck!

Today is my future father-in-law's birthday. Since my future mother-in-law recently underwent surgery, I made the birthday dinner (lime mustard chicken and mashed potatoes) and cake. He loves a chocolate on chocolate cake (chocolate cake with chocolate frosting) so that's exactly what I made. I think this is my first cake from scratch, believe it or not. I chose it because of it's simplicity. It's incredibly moist and light in texture and rich in taste. Everyone enjoyed it. But I can't help but wonder if I could intensify the chocolate flavor by using coffee or chocolate milk instead of water.

I topped the cake with one of favorite frostings--chocolate buttercream (see recipe below).

Original Recipe (with minor alterations)

Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 cup cocoa powder, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups hot water
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoon shortening, rounded
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside.

Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl. Mix together until well combined.

Divide equally between the two pans. Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Allow to cool then frost.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
3 cups powdered sugar
2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2-1 cup cocoa powder, sifted (the amount depends how chocolaty you want your frosting)
4 to 6 tablespoon milk

Directions:
Place the the butter into a large bowl and cream with a hand mixer or standing mixer. Add vanilla and mix. Add 1 cup of sugar and blend on low speed until well incorporated. Then add another cup of sugar and beat until well blended. By now your buttercream is getting thick. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons milk and mix. Blend in the the final cup of sugar. Add a couple more tablespoon of milk if desired. Beat in the cocoa powder. To get light, smooth buttercream you need to blend the buttercream for 15 to 20 minutes on low.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Cake Recipes:
Apple Cider Cake
Chocolate Swirl Cake
Rice Crispy Cake
Starlight Mint Cake

3-Ingredient Gluten-Free Chocolate Mug Cake

Most mug cakes come out surprising moist. However, this mug cake takes the cake, so to speak, when it comes to moistness. It's down right gooey--in a good way. With only three ingredients, its incredibly easy to make. But what makes this cake even more special, it's gluten-free.

This recipe comes from here.

Ingredients:
1 egg
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:
With a fork, whisk all the ingredients together until well combined. Microwave for 50 to 60 seconds on high. Keep in mind that all microwaves cook differently. My cake needed the full 60 seconds.

While I ate this cake plain, I could definitely see a scoop of vanilla ice cream complimenting it.

Enjoy!

~Krissy & Eric

Mug Cake Sample Platter

Also Check Out:
Chocolate Chip Cookie in a Mug
Chocolate-Hazelnut Mug Cake
Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake
Fluffernutter Mug Cake
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Mug Cake
Pumpkin Mug Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting