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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Doyle's Dont Just Like Beer...



We love chocolate too! Last weekend I made a Porter Chocolate Layer Cake with Chocolate ganache and Buttercream Frosting...yes I said Porter, for Colin's 32nd birthday. The cakes I make are individual size, either for two or one serving each for 4. Perfect really if you don't want an entire cake hanging around the house. With the left over batter I can usually squeeze in a dozen or dozen and a half of cupcakes.

This was the first beer dessert I've made and I was so pleased it came out so well. I think Grandma Doyle would have been pleased as well. The house smelt like if you can envision walking into a pub right off the chocolate river in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. YUMMY! You wouldn't think beer and chocolate but it actually makes for a light and moist cake.
I got the recipe off of smittenkitchen but I made a few changes to what I had in the kitchen. This would be my adaptation. Go ahead and bake on! and let me know what you think!



Porter Chocolate Layer Cake with Chocolate ganache and Butter Cream Frosting

For the Porter Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup porter, I used Black Butte Porter
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache Filling
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Buttercream Frosting
3 cups confections sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring 1 cup porter and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add porter-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 14-17 minutes. You can also divide the batter between cake pans as I did and continue to check the cakes for done'ness after 10 min. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.
Make the filling: Chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. (If this has not sufficiently melted the chocolate, you can return it to a double-boiler to gently melt what remains. 20 seconds in the microwave, watching carefully, will also work.) Add the butter and stir until combined.
Fill the cupcakes: Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer or talent with a paring knife, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. Make sure not to cut all the way through the cupcake liner. Put the ganache into a piping bag (or ziplock with the corner cut off) with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top.

Make the frosting: Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time. When the frosting is thick to spread drizzle in the cream. To ice and decorate the cupcakes I used an Ateco 809 tip to make the poof of buttercream and topped with chocolate covered blueberries.


Thursday, August 13, 2009

Birthday Cake for Breakfast!



My Mom always said No to sweets before dinner with only one exception, the morning after our birthday. If our hearts desired we could devour a slice of birthday cake for breakfast BUT only the morning after our birthday. Cake can be just cake but to be birthday cake is an experience; blowing out the candles, getting cake all over the place and for me as a little girl reaching over to my sisters highchair to eat her cake as she is reaching for mine. Photo to be added shortly.

As an adult all I really want on my birthday is a big ol' cake to share with my friends and family, blowing out tons of candles and being allowed to pick up a huge piece of cake and eating it like pizza, of course in the most graceful way possible. The frosting, the cake all in one bite. No fork just cake and a cold glass of milk.

That's what I was thinking my big sister would like for her 32nd birthday so I made it for her. My bake-girl-friend Amber gave me a recipe for a chocolate raspberry layer cake with chocolate ganache and swore it is the richest cake she's ever made. So, I had too, I did and it was chocolaty perfection! Recipe to be added shortly.

My sister loved the cake and is still savoring it 6 days later. That's really the reason I do this, to show my love and to evoke that child in all of us. We all share memories with food whether it be birthday cake, that warm chocolate chip cookie, grandmas pound cake or apple pie during the holidays. Food Happiness!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Birdie Doyle's Sugar Cookies



My Great Grandma Doyle was known as Birdie - short for Alberta. The things I remember about her the most was her house and our stays there. She had this old clock that hung on the wall in the long hallway that would go off on the hour. I am sure it was a piece that maybe her Grandmother gave her. We would stay with her in the summers and she packed our lunches for our visits to see our Dad during work.

For my sisters and I our favorite sweets that my Grandma would make were her sugar cookies. This cookie was thin but soft and creamy. Its really the small touches that made this cookie so memorable. I loved this lady and her special touches. She wrapped egg salad sandwiches in wax paper and made it so pre-Martha Stewart. The best part was dessert.

So, last week I made them again with the raisin in the center and all and had to share them with my sister and my workmates. I hope they enjoyed them! I sure did!