Search Results for: chocolate cake

Flourless Chocolate Cake

January 14, 2013 by mollygilbert520 11 Comments

I kept trying to brush it off, to try and let it right itself, but no matter: I had a day yesterday.

I woke up with two pimples (note: don’t trust unmarked beauty store lotion samples, even if they’re free. …Especially if they’re free). I walked into the coffee table and smashed my knee. I cursed, loudly. It was not yet 9am.

I took a cleansing walk down to the farmer’s market, which was nice and cleansing until I ended up just eating a bunch of cheese by the apple stall. Like, a lot of cheese. Fine. Back at home, I attempted a few hours of work — I could at least be a little bit productive.

Apparently not. Work? How about some mindless staring at a computer screen? Good enough?

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Pumpkin Chocolate Icebox Cake

October 24, 2016 by mollygilbert520 28 Comments

Happy virtual pumpkin party Monday!

So, yeah. I may have gone too literal here. I didn’t originally intend to shape this softly-spiced pumpkin chocolate icebox cake like an actual pumpkin, but I started frosting and stacking and frosting and stacking and before I knew it, there it was. A mound of cocoa-y chocolate wafers and fluffy, pumpkin whipped cream, begging for a jagged chocolate “stem” and a curly vine of carefully plucked sprinkles.

I couldn’t resist.

My dad is the original icebox cake maker in my family. He makes one every year on Thanksgiving (along with a giant, multicolored layered jello mold — #midwesternforever), and it’s always the first dessert on the table to go. Probably because it tastes like a giant, cool-whip ensconced Oreo cookie?

Yeah. Ensconced.

I wanted to up the ante a little bit here. Real, fresh cream, whipped to soft peaks. Roasted pumpkin purée and warm spices. The original chocolate wafer cookie. In the shape of a pumpkin, WHYNOT?

It’s just my contribution to the giant, blogger-wide effort (lead by the fearless Sara and Aimee) to saturate the interwebs with all things pumpkin today. Which, by the way, is working. Check it:

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Chocolate Stout Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

March 9, 2015 by mollygilbert520 3 Comments

A few things that have recently blown my mind:

1. The amount of money someone needs, on their actual person, to buy a house. It’s… a lot of dollas. YIKES.

2. The kid who played Jimmy Woods in The Wizard is the SAME KID who played Les in Newsies AND Billy Heywood in Little Big League. THIS GUY’S CAREER THOUGH!

3. The correct way to say it is “Daylight Saving Time.” “Daylight Savings” isn’t a thing. WHO KNEW??

4. This cake. THE CAKE, MY GOD, THE CAKE.

Let’s talk about number four.

THIS CAKE. I think it’s my best one yet. (And as someone who’s made their fare share of chocolate cakes over the years, that is saying something.)

I made it for you to help celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, which is in a week. I’m not particularly keen on St. Patty’s, but any excuse to lick cream cheese frosting from the beaters is fine by me. Hooray for St. Patrick!

The dark stout in the batter is a dream – it really brings out the chocolate flavor and helps create a sturdy, moist crumb. And the chocolate cream cheese frosting? Smooth and dense and oh so luscious. It’s the perfect balance of deep chocolate flavor and bright, light tang. It’s like heaven on an offset spatula.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! (Yes, past tense did. It was a huge cake and now it’s definitely gone because we finished it.)

Still, it’s nice to know that even if we are low on dollas, we’re absolutely RICH with cake.

For the full recipe, head over to the Page-A-Day Blog from Workman Publishing!

Chocolate Frosted Bundt Cake

November 6, 2012 by mollygilbert520 7 Comments

This is not a celebration cake, strictly speaking. I didn’t make it for anyone’s birthday, didn’t stick it through with candles or banners or sparkly sparklers (though it would look sort of adorable with the formers and latters, let’s be clear).

This is a straight up “I need chocolate cake” situation. The sprinkles are a ruse.

Do you get this situation? The “I need chocolate cake, preferably now and not later and also definitely with frosting” one? I bet you do. I mean, you’re human (you are, aren’t you?). And let’s look at the facts: the east coast has had a rough Sandy week. I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. The election is tomorrow. It is tense around here, people (by “here” I mean “America” and “in my head”).

Let’s cut that tension with a cake knife. We’ll eat a slice, and then another, and we’ll be thankful – for warm blankets, batteries, democracy, and chocolate. With sprinkles on top.

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Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes with Quick Coconut Frosting

August 13, 2012 by mollygilbert520 3 Comments

Cupcakes! Because we’re celebrating.

What, may you ask, is there to celebrate? Well, a number of things, really. With these cupcakes we are celebrating life, love, new socks, sunny Mondays, and freshly scrubbed bathroom surfaces. But, most importantly, today we are celebrating the most deliciously wonderful parents — mine, as it were — and their 31st wedding anniversary.

Happy anniversary, parents! Personally, I’m glad you got married. I’m glad you’re glad you got married. If you hadn’t, I might not exist, and then who’d bug you with phone calls at all hours and only sometimes grammatically correct emails? Dad, who would roll their eyes at your jokes and call you Dadman and pretend not to hear you when you ask if anyone wants to go throw the ball around? And mom, who would follow you around the house and teach you about leggings and slowly turn into you as she gets older?

Not me, that’s who.

Thank goodness you guys went through with it.

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

November 2, 2011 by mollygilbert520 7 Comments

Here’s how it went down on Monday night. My roommate and (incidentally) younger sister Casey and I bought three bags of candy to satisfy the trick-or-treaters we expected to come knocking. We live in an apartment building, so figured we wouldn’t get that many kiddos come to beg for candy.

We were wrong. By 5:30pm our bowl of Three Musketeers, York Peppermint Patties and Take Five bars was running low – dangerously low, some might say. So Casey, excellent roommate and sister that she is, ran out to the corner store to re-stock our candy bucket.

She was gone for about fifteen minutes, during which time a few boatloads of adorable pirates, strawberries, mickey mice and, my favorite, one pint-sized Justin Bieber came and depleted our stock, almost entirely. Returning with a bag each of miniature Kit-Kats, Milky Ways, and M&Ms, as well as four (!) large packages of regular-sized (!) Reese’s peanut butter cups, we high-fived while refilling our bucket, eager to please more of our adorable trickster/treaters.

We sat on the couch with our candy bowl brimming, waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more. One group of haphazardly costumed teenagers, clearly too old to be going through the trick-or-treat song and dance, came knocking unabashedly. They took handfuls of loot and went on their way. We shrugged and wondered who’d be next. Batman? A pumpkin? Baby Cookie Monster?

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White Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

February 10, 2010 by mollygilbert520 2 Comments

I’m a single gal… obviously. I mean, it’s always been just the one of me. At any rate, I’m also a single single girl. Which some people might say is my cue to be a Valentine’s Day hater, but I’m not biting. Yes, the commercialization of the holiday is rampant and gross, but I can’t help but appreciate a holiday so closely involved with chocolate. And sugar. And things that are cute and pink.

Take these, for example.

White chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. So cute!

These little Valentines are moist and cakey. And they’re sweet but not too sweet, as the best Valentines always are. Make them for your significant other or, if you’re single, for your significant others (hi Ems, Case, Mom, Katies, Jenny, Co, Rads, Carly, Kath, Meredith, Tina and Jeannie! Love you, txt me, cutie pies.)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

White Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

For cupcakes:

1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 ounces white chocolate (I used Ghiradelli white chocolate chips)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk

For frosting:

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 ounce white chocolate, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest
3 teaspoons milk or cream
2-3 cups confectioners sugar
Conversation hearts, for decorating

Directions:

For cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Line 24 cupcake molds with paper liners. Whisk together the flours, baking powder, and salt. Melt the chocolate in the microwave at 30-second intervals, or over a pot of simmering water.

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and beat until smooth. Add the white chocolate and vanilla extract. Next, add the dry ingredients and the milk in alternating additions, starting and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Pour the batter into the paper-lined cupcake molds, and bake for 20-30 minutes, until the cakes spring back to the touch and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes before frosting.

To make the frosting, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add the chocolate and beat until smooth. Add the vanilla, zest and milk, and then add 2 cups of confectioners sugar. Beat to combine. If you want thicker frosting, add more confectioners sugar (just be aware that this will make the frosting sweeter, obviously).

Once the cakes are thoroughly cooled, spread or pipe the frosting on top. Decorate with conversation hearts.

Makes 24 standard-sized cupcakes.

Celebration Cake with Chocolate Frosting

August 4, 2009 by mollygilbert520 5 Comments

Cheers, Aunt Marie!

My Aunt Marie, who you may already know about because she makes the most fantastic granola around, has a new book out today! Check out Ask Dr. Marie: Straight Talk and Reassuring Answers to Your Most Private Questions. It’s a comprehensive on women’s health and sexuality – it’s got chapters on everything from “How to Get the Health Care You Need at Every Age” to “Sex Smarts: The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Having Fun in Bed.” Intriguing, no?

I think every gal (or guy who loves a gal) should have a copy of Marie’s book. Then again, I suppose I’m sort of biased… she is my Aunt, afterall. Still, she is a rather remarkable Aunt. I mean, in her lifetime, the woman has gone from Nurse to Internist to women’s health expert to guest on Oprah to ABC News Medical Correspondant… all while raising a family and being a wonderful Aunt and inventing a damn fine recipe for granola. And if that’s not something to celebrate, I don’t know what is. Congrats, Aunt Mur!

Celebration Cake

Okay, so, don’t freak out. First, let me start out by saying that this cake is delicious. It’s light, moist, flavorful, and, um… from a box. (!) Damn my eyes. I do have a “real” recipe for yellow cake, and it’s actually quite good, but who wants to fuss around with measuring flour and sugar and blah blah blah and de whole freakin’ zoo when you’re at the beach on vacation and it’s your uncle’s birthday and it’s an insanely gorgeous day and come on! Give a girl a break. That’s right, I said it. It’s from a box! And it tastes good! Sue me.

Ahem. Anyway, at least the chocolate frosting is homemade. I adapted the recipe from Lynn Kearney at The Food Network Kitchens.

Ingredients:

For cake:

2 boxes yellow cake mix (and various accoutrement – eggs, oil, etc.)
3 9-inch round cake pans
store-bought sugar flowers or candy, for decorating

For frosting:

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 tablespoons butter
4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 to 8 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Bake the cakes according to the instructions on the (gasp!) box. Let cool completely before frosting.

Make the frosting: in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water, melt the chocolate with the butter. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. In the bowl of an electric mixer, add chocolate mixter and sifted confectioners’ sugar. Beat until well incorporated (despite the sifting, there may still be beads of sugar in the chocolate. This is fine). Add the vanilla and the milk, a tablespoon at a time, until the frosting is fluffy and has reached a nice, spreadable consistency.

Layer the cooled cakes, one on top of the other, with a thin layer of frosting in between. Ice the top and sides of cake, and decorate with flowers or candy.

Makes one 3-layer, 9-inch cake.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

July 20, 2019 by mollygilbert520 4 Comments

Well hello there! I’ve decided to put less pressure on myself to write perfect posts, and just throw some things up here when I have time. Maybe that way it won’t be a whole YEAR before I post again?!

Cool!

A few things have changed around here since I made that Brown Sugar Cherry Pound Cake below. Mainly, I have two kids now! A Calder and a Jack. Little man Jack turns ONE next month, and I have so much to say about his first year (and what a wonderful whirlwind it’s been!), but for now let’s just focus on these cookies.

These cookies! They’re so good. Like, I made them once a week for four weeks good. I know the recipe by heart good. I’ll never not have some in my freezer good. Know what I mean?

Everyone has their own idea of what the perfect chocolate chip cookie should be, and these are definitely mine. They’re soft on the inside and chewy at the edges, gorgeously rippled on the surface and full of deep, nutty, caramel flavor within. Plus they’re pockmarked with puddles of pure chocolate, and do I need to keep describing these? Are you just going to make them already? No mixer required! No waiting for butter to soften! No “curing” dough in the fridge for 24-48 hours! You could be eating them in like 20 minutes. Go. Go now.

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Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (One Pan & Done!)

March 6, 2017 by mollygilbert520 2 Comments

We celebrated my kid’s first birthday over the weekend, and BOY if the day wasn’t a roller coaster of emotions. The mixture of pride and elation and nostalgia and exhaustion and pure joy… whew. All of the feelings showed up to the party.

In fact, over the past 365 days, I’m pretty sure I’ve emoted aaaaall of the emotions. Parenthood is both harder and better than I thought it would be, and this little boy of mine – this one year old (!) – with his happy, curious face, the one that looks up at me every morning and squeaks “hi!” from his crib, makes every moment (even the middle-of-the-night-wailing ones, the throw-up-on-my-new-shoes ones, the will-I-ever-sleep-again-please-please-please ones) so very worth it.

It feels like both a lifetime ago and just yesterday that Calder was placed in my arms for the first time, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment – both of us sizing each other up, his tiny hand wrapped around my finger, the two of us clinging to each other like our lives depended on it (they kind of did). Since then, he’s grown into a sweet and playful little boy with a coating of blond duck fuzz instead of hair on his head – a boy who drums on any surface he can reach (especially if he can use a set of spoons as drumsticks), delights in learning animal sounds (so far we’ve got “bahh,” “moo,” and “roar” on lock), wiggles on command (my favorite thing), loves croissants and feels lukewarm about avocados (go figure).

Happy birthday, little man of mine. You are ONE! What a wild and wonderful ride.

Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting…