Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Icing

Is there anything quite as wonderful as chocolate cake? Does it take you back to happy childhood memories? I love chocolate cake, but the cake in the picture was made at the request of my grandpa. For his 84th birthday, he said he wanted chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing, so being a good granddaughter, I went in search of an amazing recipe to try. I must admit... I found it. The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe (Ever) and Classic Buttercream Frosting, both found on Pinterest, were the recipes I decided on to try, and the result was fantastic! I ended up making this cake again for one of the Soldier's I work with for his birthday, but he wanted chocolate icing instead. The results were equally as delicious! One of these days I may try this cake with the chocolate icing recipe used on the original blog, but here's the recipes I used for this cake...

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
¾ cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350º F. Prepare two 9-inch cake pans by spraying with baking spray or buttering and lightly flouring.

Note: Espresso powder can be purchased at a specialty store, or you can do what I did. Buy instant espresso, and use a mortar and pestle to grind it into a powder. It works great.

Add flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk through to combine or, using your paddle attachment, stir through flour mixture until combined well.

Add milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla to flour mixture and mix together on medium speed until well combined. Reduce speed and carefully add boiling water to the cake batter. Beat on high speed for about 1 minute to add air to the batter.

Distribute cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, remove from the pan and cool completely.

Vanilla Buttercream Icing

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or ½ pound), softened
3-4 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar, SIFTED
¼ teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
up to 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.

Make-Your-Way Chocolate Chip Cookies

I will always love Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. I grew up making those with my dad, and they will always be special to me. But I have found THE PERFECT chocolate chip cookie recipe...  Triple Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, on Pinterest, of course. I saw the picture, and they looked so good I followed it and read the blog. I decided to give it a try, and I've since made three versions of the cookies. I made one batch with triple chocolate chips - white, semi-sweet, and dark, one with all white, and one with all dark. They were all absolutely amazing. This is important enough to repeat... absolutely freakin' amazing! None of the batches lasted long, and I have a few other plans for this cookie as well. Following is the recipe from the blog for the triple chocolate chips. Substitute whatever chips you prefer, and I'm sure they will come out fantastic.

3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup dark brown sugar (or light brown - dark is preferred)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup SNO-CAPS (or other kind of chocolate chip)

In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars together on medium speed until fluffy and light in color. 

Mix in egg and vanilla. Scrape down the sides as needed. 

On low speed, mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Dough will be thick and sticky. Chill for at least 30 minutes (or up to 3 days).

Preheat oven to 350F. The original blog suggests lining the ungreased cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. I did not do this. Drop balls of dough onto cookie sheet (about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie) OR used a standard-sized cookie scoop. Press a few chocolate chips onto the tops of cookies for looks, if desired. Bake for 8-9 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges. Do NOT bake them longer than 10 minutes. Remove and let cool for 3 minutes on the cookie sheet. If the cookies are too puffy, try gently pressing down on them with the back of a spoon. Transfer to cooling rack. Cookies remain fresh in an airtight container for up to 7 days.

Manicotti/Stuffed Shells

I was watching a cooking show the other day, and the chef was making pizza. While talking through his preparation, he said about food, "What's more American than Italian?" Just struck me as being a very true statement. Pizza and spaghetti are mainstays in nearly every household in America. Chicken parmesan, garlic breadsticks, pasta, lasagna... the varieties are endless. I was looking for a recipe several months ago to make manicotti and stuffed shells and stumbled across this one online: Manicotti. It is amazing! Even with the green flecks of the spinach, my daughter gulps this down whether in the form of manicotti or stuffed shells. And for my small family, I am able to freeze two separate meals out of one batch of this recipe. This last time, I got 12 stuffed shells and about 10 manicotti. It's so easy and absolutely delicious!

(10 ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed completely & squeezed dry
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
15 ounces ricotta cheese
4 ounces cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup shredded Romano or Parmesan cheese
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 box (12 to 14 shells) manicotti noodles (or about 24 large shells or a combination of the two)
Jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce (I love Bertolli's Tomato and Basil for this recipe)
1/2 cup shredded Romano or Parmesan cheese, for topping

Allow cream cheese to soften a bit, and be sure to get as much liquid as possible out of the spinach. Put cream cheese, ricotta cheese, mozzarella, parmesean, spinach, eggs, salt, and pepper into bowl. 

Mix until evenly blended.

If you are making stuffed shells, you have to precook the shells per the box directions. Once the shells are drained, gently spoon the filling into the shells. If you are making manicotti, these do not have to be cooked first. Take a cake decorating bag, cut the tip off, and fill the bag with filling. Gently squeeze filling into manicotti shell and fill it up.

Line your pan with foil, and stack shells or manicotti in pan. I use a casserole dish to cook mine. Since there is just two of us, I've been mixing these shells and manicotti up on the weekend when I have more time, and freezing them until I'm ready to cook. The time before last when I made these, I got about a 10 manicotti, and 12 stuffed shells out of one recipe of filling. I froze these as two separate meals. So, this last time, I separated them into two packs of nine shells, and one with 3 or 4 manicotti and a couple of stuffed shells. I line these in a shallow foil-lined pan, then wrap the foil around them and place them in a freezer bag. The night  before I intend to cook them, I pull them out of the freezer and let them thaw in the fridge.

Whether you're ready to cook them the night you make them or a later night, line your dish with foil and layer your noodles into it. Cover noodles with your choice of marinara. I prefer Bertolli's Tomato and Basil myself. 

Bake at 350 degrees - if thawed, bake for about 35-40 minutes; if still slightly frozen, bake for about an hour. Enjoy an amazing quick home-cooked meal!