Quick and Easy One Bowl Chocolate Cake and my Early-life crisis

Its been a while hasn’t it? I’ve missed you guys very much :) I apologize for the delay the past few months have been quite….hectic. I’ve been going through quite a few things in my personal life that have left me without much time or desire (gasp!) to bake and blog. But that’s all going to change now. Hopefully.

To make a big story short, my biggest problem right now is that I do not know what to do. For those of you who know me well you will know that I am the kind of girl who thinks 5, 6, 8 and 10 steps ahead. I like to have a plan. Having a plan makes me happy. And as such, I have always made and modified and perfected my ‘life plan’. Many have laughed at me, others were puzzled at this teenage girl whose got her life planned and goals set for age 30 age 40 and beyond (when many adults still do not have it figured out).

So what is this plan? Well, I’ve had it planned out since 9th grade so I can tell you quite clearly. Step 1 : Obtain really good grades in high school in order to go to  university and get scholarships (check!) Step 2: Get a 4 years degree (in law and Politics) and work your ass off to get high grades and a ‘competitive’ record. (check!) Step 3: Apply to Law School, Step 4: Go to Law School, Step 5: Get a prestigious job in one of the best Law Firms in Bay Street Toronto (Canada’s equivalent to the big shot law firms in Manhattan NYC) I could go on and on and on about how this plan I have planned oh so well, but there would be no point. I have come to the conclusion that I will NOT be pursing this path anymore!

Early this summer I ended up having not a mid-life crisis, but an ‘early-life crisis’. I’m not sure I could fully explain the thought process (and believe me there was a lot of it!) but I realized that I no longer had a desire to become a lawyer! The optimistic side of me says that perhaps it’s a good thing I realized this before going to law school, going $150,000 in debt, and THEN realize I did not like it. But I cant help feeling very sad and a bit scared about all this. It is a very scary thing to go from having a plan only to have it go down the drain. Especially considering the fact that I am in my last year in my undergraduate degree, I am so very very very close to law school and all of my dreams, but now I feel I no longer want it? So what do I want? I have no idea. And for someone who NEEDS to have a plan….this is a very scary time.

Well perhaps to say that I have ‘no idea’ is unfair…I have quite a few ideas… (that’s the problem) and the reason I am stumped. The biggest issue is that the ‘options’ are very varied – from policy analyst to diplomat to getting a MBA or maybe even medical school? Thankfully because of my efforts the past 4 years I have a good enough GPA to have options. Unfortunately options can sometimes be frustrating! :p

When you are feeling the blues as I am and are not sure at all of your future, you know what helps? Chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate. And cake too. But what’s even better than chocolate cake? EASY one bowl chocolate cake. Because the last thing you want to do when having an early life crisis is to worry about washing the dishes. I found this cake to be super decadent and I decided to sprinkle on some pomegranate for decoration, but oh my god….it improved the flavor so much more! It added an excellent contrast : nice cool sour crunch with fudgy chocolate cake.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

* 150g unsalted butter

* 220g brown sugar

* 100g good quality dark chocolate
* 
50g Dutch-processed cocoa
* 
160ml milk

* 3 large eggs, room temperature

* 170g plain flour

* 1.5 tsp baking powder

* 1/2 tsp baking soda

* 1/2 tsp salt (skip this if using salted butter)


Method


Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease and line a 20-21cm square tin. (I used a 9 inch round)

In a large pot or mixing bowl over simmering water, add the butter, sugar, chocolate, cocoa and milk. When butter and chocolate has melted, remove from heat and whisk to combine. Allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Add the eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Sift over the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt then gently stir to mix.
Scrape batter into tin and bake for 45-55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Cool in tin for 5 minutes then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack. Cake will keep for a few days in an airtight container (a quick zap in the microwave will get it all warm, melty and soft again).

Chocolate Fudge Frosting
(source)


Ingredients


* 100g good quality dark chocolate

* 50g unsalted butter, softened and at room temperature

* 150g icing sugar, sifted

* Pinch of salt
* 
1-2 Tbl of milk (I ended up using 3)


Method


In a bowl over simmering water, melt chocolate then remove from heat. Beat in softened butter (make sure it is room temp. Cold butter is bad news in this case). Sift over icing sugar and salt then beat until combined. Add enough milk until it is a spreadable consistency.

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Strawberry Cake

***Side note: Blogger has been hating me lately. I tried to post this at the end of April and it just would not post. Then I tried again a week later and the pictures wouldn't upload. Thus..this post is from then :)

*sings* I'm  baaaa-AACKKKKKK!!! :D

Miss me?

We will pretend you said yes.

I know, I know, I've been bad. Haven't updated in ages. But that will all change. I think. I hope.

I was super swamped with essays and assignments and exams...and then sprinkle in some work and personal life and there was no room for anything else!

But thankfully, I am OFFICIALLY done school. Submitted my last exam last night and am OFFICIALLY done my third year! :o I honestly can't believe it. Time has gone by SO fast. 

The past few weeks have been really tough, but Zahra has learned quite a few things!

1) Its AMAZING the amount of work you can get done without facebook!

I kept getting sick this semester and in the last week of March I got the worst case of the Flu that I have EVER GOTTEN. It was bad. like. REALLY BAD. Anywho, my crappy immune system meant that I fell really behind in school and thus April = hell month. Especially the last week. Since I always spend wayyyy too much time on facebook, I decided to 'cancel' my account until I was done exams. The problem is, that I probably go on facebook about 30 times a day? (I know. I have no life :P )

The first few days were tough....I was a druggie on with drawl and facebook was my drug. The worst part was I hadn't realized how addicted I was to it until I stopped! But the amazing part is....I ended up wasting SO MUCH LESS TIME than before and got SOOOO MUCHHHH work done. Every time I decided to go on facebook I couldn't...so I would have to study some more :) 

2) Sleep = Bitch

Why do we humans need to sleep? Why? 

Ok. Fine. Sleep isn't a problem. I actually love sleep. I really do. What I HATE is not having the OPTION to stay up as much as you like. And another thing...why do our bodies hate us? EVERY DAY this month I had to wake up bright and early (8 am for me) and go to school. EVERY TIME I would hit the snooze button about 10 times and have to DRAGGG my tired butt out of bed. And you would think that after a while I would get used to it....form a new sleep schedule? WRONG. Sleep = bitch remember? ALL month I was walking around sleep deprived. I had even developed VERY unattractive puffed up eyes. My sister actually screamed when she saw me. no lie. 

But the best part? ohhhh the best part. Today, when freedom finally wrung.... I was planning on sleeping in until 2pm to make up for all those times I wanted to sleep in but couldn't. But Sleep = Bitch, and thus that means that today, for the first day in over a month...I woke up without an alarm clock...at 6 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Sleep. Why do you hate me?

3) Energy Drinks work...(sort of... see #4)

Desperate times call for desperate measures and from all the stress and lack of sleep I was forced to buy some energy drinks. At first I was really reluctant...who knows what goes into theses things? Up until now I had always passed over them, opting instead for a hot cup of tea for my caffeine rush. I ended up having to cave in and bought these mini ones form our school's mini-store and it tasted NASTY and it worked WONDERS. I would take 2 gulps and be jumping up and down!! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D 

YAY! I have found a way to stay awakkeeeeeeee

4) Red Bull does not work.

Red Bull energy drinks? You know the ones that "give you wings"? I had originally planned on buying a can at the Uni store (instead of those mini amazing but they didn't have any so I was forced to buy the mini ones...so then the next day I went to the store and bought myself a nice big can. I came home and drank half of it...just waiting for the energy burst! Then I fell asleep. For 4 hours. So Clearly not only does Red Bull NOT work....it makes me SLEEPY. 

You may say thats only because I'm weird. 

But...Yah. I would have to agree.

5) Spring in Canada is never truly spring

In most countries, when spring comes, it comes to stay. Not in Canada though. NOT. IN. CANADA. In this past month we have had a few days of beautiful spring weather....birds chirping and flowers blooming and all that.....and then 3 days later we will have hail. I wish I could say I was exaggerating. I WISH. In fact 2 weeks ago it snowed 2cms!

But, despite this unintentionally negative post, I am going to choose to be positive. And celebrate the end of exams and the (hopefully?) beginning of spring with this delcioious strawberry cake! :) 

Strawberry Cake 

Source 

Yield: Serves 10

Cook Time: 50-55 minutes

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 pound strawberries, hulled and sliced
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar, for sprinkling on top of cake

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch springform pan or pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in egg, buttermilk, and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
3. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Arrange strawberry slices on top of batter. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over berries.
4. Bake cake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 50-55 minutes. Let cool in pan. To serve, cut into wedges. Store cake at room temperature, for up to two days.

**I thought I should include a picture of what happens when my family invades. They wait with baited breath for me to finish taking pictures...then they ATTACK!!!! This picture was taken 5 minutes after  I allowed them to grab some. Yes. That is all that there was left. 10 minutes later it was all gone.

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Moist Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

I apologize for the lack of posts. It almost seems like whenever I make a decision to start posting more, life swoops in and makes it so that I can not only not update more often, but that I can’t update at all! Life has been very un-cooperative as of late, and work has kept me uber busy. Allow me to outline to you my days: I wake up early at 7 late at 8 am, and scramble to catch my bus at 8:15 (you don’t want to know the craziness I go through every morning trying to get ready in 15 min) and hop onto the bus to work. I get to work at 9, and jolt myself awake with a caffeine boost, and then its work, work, work until 5 (sometimes 6). By the time I get home its 6 (sometimes 7) and I’m exhausted. So I figure I’ll take a quick break, rejuvenate, then bake something delicious, take loads of pretty pics, and then update away! What really happens: plop face first into my comfy bed with all its comfy pillows. End up accidentally falling asleep. Wake up an hour later wondering whats going on? Contemplate what I should bake. Check my email. Watch some youtube. Catch up on a TV show or two, and before I know it its midnight! :o

So then, I think to myself, on the weekend I’ll bake a BUNCH of stuff and then update throughout the week with it! Yay! Right? Nay. Every single weekend has been cloudy and rainy! EVERY. SINGLE. WEEKEND. How am I supposed to take pretty pictures without any good lighting? I swear its like life is laughing in my face. Working on files all day at work? Sure! I’ll pour in lots of beautiful sunshine and PERFECT weather. Excited for the weekend and all the baking? How about I stop the sunshine on Friday, give you thunderstorms on the weekend, and bring back the shine on Monday


The weathers a bitch. Plain and simple.

Now that I have that off my chest, on to these delicious lemon poppy seed cakes. I made them way back in January because I was getting the winter blues and need something light and ‘summery’, so I guess that would fit in quite snugly now what with all our 40C hot weather!

Moist Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

(from AllRecipes)

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour

• 1 1/8 cups white sugar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest

• 4 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds

• 1 1/3 cups unsalted butter, softened

• 5 eggs

• 3/4 cup white sugar

• 3/4 cup lemon juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

2. Sift together the flour, 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons white sugar and salt. Then mix in the lemon peel, poppy seeds and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

4. In a saucepan over low heat; cook 3/4 cup white sugar and the lemon juice until stirring until sugar is dissolved. Let cool to just warm or to room temperature.

5. Remove the cake from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack-place a cookie sheet underneath this rack. Prick the top of the cake several times with a toothpick. Brush the top of the cake with the warm or room temperature syrup, allowing lots of the syrup to run down and soak into the sides and bottom of the cake. Cool slightly in the pan before removing the cake to the wire rack to cool completely. When completely cooled, wrap the cake in foil or plastic freezer wrap and let the cake rest at least one day before serving to your guests.

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My Secret Recipes: Addictive Banana Squares

It's been awfully hot here, the kind of weather where turning on an oven is probably illegal. And a suicide mission. Probably both. Ottawa has never had this hot a weather and we broke quite a few records! (Something I wish I could be proud of)

All this to say that I haven't been able to bake for about a week, but thankfully I have a few recipes I have yet to post on...so...I uh...will. ya. :D

Ok so as I have shared with you guys before, I have a series of recipes that, if I say so myself, taste really really REALLY good. And for some reason that is somewhat foreign to me I feel a bit 'over protective' of these recipes, almost like a 4 year old who doesn't mind (in fact loves) to share all her toys with the neighborhood kids, but for some reason clutches greedily to that one special doll. And lord have mercy on your soul if you try to yank that doll away from her.

But I've been trying to be a good girl and learn to share a bit more. So from my list of uber secret recipes (that coincidentally happen to be my most requested recipes) I am slowly but surely trying to share a few of these with you. So if Banana isn't quite your thing (the insanity!:O ) then why not try my cinnamon bun recipe? Or perhaps some Hummus?

I made these babies to take to a family friend's house where we were invited for dinner. The final product was quite adorable (think little chocolate squares in cupcake liners topped with a swirl of chocolate frosting and a slice of banana!) but I wasn't able to catch a picture of them, so you will just have to take my word for it. :)

TIP: These banana squares taste EVEN BETTER the next day. So let them sit for a while...if you can stand it

Blogging is a way for me to connect with other foodies around the world and 'write down' my experiences and life through food, but it also serves the purpose of helping me keep track of my favorite recipes. Long story short I thought I had lost this recipe forever, and hopefully by writting it here I never will lose it again!

Enjoy!

The Most Addictive Best Ever Banana Cake


3 bananas
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
¾ cup chocolate chips (optional)
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

1. Mash up the Bananas really well. Beat in the sugar, egg and vegetable  oil.

2. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and make sure you mix REALLY WELL. You can also stir in some chocolate chips if you like.

4. Bake at 350C until lightly brown on the edges and toothpick comes out clean.


"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Recipe Review: This is (clearly) one of my all time favorite recipes. It converted my banana hating sister into a banana cake eating crazy person! (To the point where you have to hide it from her!) What I love about this is its SOO easy to whip up, can be made in one bowl if you like, is fool proof and most importantly its SO yummy. When you have your first bite, you wont think oh my god insane! You will be like" hmm...this is good banana cake. nothing crazy...not sure what she was going on about..its just banana cake." But thats where you are wrong laddie. Ten minutes later you will find yourself reaching for another bite....and another...and another...They really are THAT addictive!

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Fruit Packed Cake Pastry

I have some big stuff planned for this blog that has me very excited! I wont give too much away but lets just say you can expect a few more videos coming your way. ;)

Now, on to this recipe. I made this a few weeks ago because I knew my family, more specifically my parents, would love it. You see my parents are a little overly obsessed with eating ‘healthy foods’, something that, as a dessert baker, I get into arguments on with them. They claim that its my fault that they have gained weight, gotten diabetes, and in general just consume waayyy too much sugar.

Well I say “don’t eat it.” Simple as that. Of course they always point out that me baking 2-5 times a week doesn’t really help, I always offer them the fact that wherever they go there will be treats, and if they want to stick to a healthy lifestyle, they will have to make an effort to do so, not me.  You would think that would be the end of the story. End of discussion.

But nooo…not in my house. So I continue to bake, and they continue to eat, and we therefore decided to come to a healthy middle point. I would continue to bake but try to bake a little less, and cook a little more, and when I do bake, its ‘healthier’ foods. So when I saw this recipe I just KNEW my parents would love it. It’s a simple cake jam packed with fruit on top!

Boy was I right, this has become a favorite in our house, and I’ve made it several times. I ended up adding a lot more fruit than called for in the recipe, because that’s how the parents like it (though they STILL said they wanted more fruit for next time!), and I also substituted yogurt for sour cream, and it still tasted wonderful.

Overall, this is a keeper in our house, but next time I might try another cake recipe, and just top it with fruit. Now don’t get me wrong, this tastes wonderful just as is, but I personally felt like the cake batter needed an extra little something something, though my family thought it was fine as is!

Fruit Pastry Cake

(source)

Ingredients:
100g butter, soften at room temperature
200g caster sugar (I cut down to180g)
50g sour cream (I replaced with same amount of low fat yogurt)
3 eggs, lightly beaten, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon or orange zest
210g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
500g fruits* tossed with 2 tablespoon sugar*
(You can use strawberries, blueberries, peaches, bananas, oranges, pears, apples, pineapple, or any other fruits that are not too juicy. I omitted the sugar and used as much fruits, either fresh or canned, as needed to fill the top of the cake)

Method:

1. Wash, cut (chunks or slices, as desired) and drain fruits, toss with sugar (if desired) and set aside. (if using canned fruits, wash the fruits to remove the syrup, omit the sugar).
2. Grease (with butter) and flour the side of a 9" round pan or a 8" square pan and line the base with parchment paper.  *** I used a 10 inch one with the removable sides
3. With an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar and sour cream (or yogurt) till light and fluffy.
4. Dribble in the eggs gradually and beat till incorporated in the batter. (The mixture may appear slightly curdled.)
5. Add vanilla extract and zest. Mix to combine.
6. Sieve over flour and baking powder and mix till smooth. (To avoid getting flour all over my work surface, I mixed the flour into the batter using a spatula, just a few strokes will do, then I used the electric mixer to mix the batter till smooth.)
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth out the top with a spatula.
8. Arrange fruits on top, don’t press the fruits down into the batter. Decorate the fruits as desired.
9. Bake in pre-heat oven at 180degC for 60-70 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake. Cover the top with foil in the last 15 mins of baking to prevent the top from getting over browned.
10. Leave the cake to cool in the pan for about 5~10 mins. Unmold and transfer to wire rack to let cool completely. Dust the cake with some icing sugar if desired.

 

I started off with a pretty design, but then I saw I had a bunch of fruit left over so I just sprinkled them in around it ;)

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Extremely Moist Banana Cake with Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting

Don’t you just love when things turn out as they are supposed to?

If you are like me, more often than not, they don’t turn out as they are supposed to, and you deal with it. However, today I got a sweet little surprise! You see these pictures? To my delight and surprise I didn’t have to do much editing at all! 

Usually I don’t do any major editing, I feel if I do that I’m not being genuine and that if I need to seriously Photoshop a picture, then its my crappy photography skills fault, and thus I just ditch the photos all together. That may be a bit harsh (I probably have a good 50 sets of pictures that I have taken but will probably never post because I feel the photography skills sucked), but at the same time I think it’s a good thing. I feel like I’ve grown as a photographer because I keep pushing myself to create photos that are as natural as possible and need limited editing, and thus have learned how to improve. Anyways, I’ll stop bragging about this. It just really made my day :)

Now on to this cake, I made it way back in March for my birthday (on March 6^th) and it was very delicious. In my opinion, the best gift a foodie can give themselves on their birthday is a day in the kitchen! This banana cake was very moist; something that I usually find is missing in banana cakes. This has a special little part to it where you have to pop it into the freezer right after you bake it. I personally have never heard of this ‘technique’ and was quite intrigued. I don’t know if it’s the freezing that causes the moistness but either way it was pretty good. I also made a chocolate sour cream frosting to top it off which, as you can imagine, topped off this banana cake quite nicely! This recipe is a keeper folks! :)

Best Ever Banana Cake

(source)

Ingredients

    * 1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed, ripe

    * 2 teaspoons lemon juice

    * 3 cups flour

    * 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

    * 1/4 teaspoon salt

    * 3/4 cup butter, softened

    * 2 1/8 cups sugar

    * 3 large eggs

    * 2 teaspoons vanilla

    * 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 275°. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.

2. In a small bowl, mix mashed banana with the lemon juice; set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

4. In a large bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 1/8 cups sugar until light and fluffy.

5. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Stir in banana mixture.

6. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake in preheated oven for one hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

7. Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. This will make the cake very moist.

I couldn't make up my mind with how to decorate it...a few royal icing flowers in the middle? no...one cute tiny one...no....I settled for banana slices and shaved dark chocolate! mmm :)

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