Chocolate Honey Walnut Cake

Hello, happy Tuesday! Today I'm sharing a recipe from a cookbook my Aunt sent me for Christmas. It's the first recipe I've ever come across that combines honey and chocolate. Turns out it's a fantastic combo! No sugar is added except for the honey, and the chocolate flavor is rich and dark. I took the intensity a step further, because I believe chocolate cake must have frosting, and added a dark chocolate honey ganache. Then I sprinkled on some walnuts for crunch. Perfect finishing touch in my humble opinion. If you are not a fan of dark chocolate, this cake isn't for you, but if you are.... oh man. It is fabulous!

Here is an excerpt from Mollie Katzen's website that provides some good insight into making a honeycake:

"Baking cakes with honey can be tricky, because it is much heavier and, of course, wetter than sugar, so one has to take extra care that the texture of the finished product be light enough and has "enough crumb." To achieve this, we whip the honey separately at high speed with an electric mixer, until it is opaque. Two minutes is usually enough time. This incorporates air into the honey, increasing its volume, and drying it out some, so it can make a good cake. Please don't skip or skimp on this step"

Point taken, follow the instructions for this one!

Chocolate Honey Walnut Cake

from Mollie Katzen's Recipes "Desserts"

Nonstick spray for the pan

1/2 cup canola oil or softened butter

1 ounce (1 square) unsweetened chocolate

3/4 cup light-colored honey

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F (325°F for glass pan). Spray a medium-sized loaf pan with nonstick spray.

Melt the butter an chocolate together over low heat. If using oil, melt the chocolate alone, then remove from heat and stir in the oil.

Place the honey in a medium-sized bowl, and beat at high speed with an electric mixer for about 2 minutes or until it reaches an opaque frothy consistency. Add the eggs one a at time, beating well after each. Stir in the vanilla.

Sift together the dry ingredients in to a separate medium size bowl.

Beat the melted chocolate mixture into the honey-egg mixture.

Fold in the dry ingredients, 1/2 cup pecans (set other 1/4 cup aside) and chocolate chips, and stir until well combined.

Spread into the prepared pan.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a knife inserted all the way into the center comes out clean. Cool before glazing and slicing (seriously or else you will have crumble cake).

Chocolate Honey Glaze

Adapted from Nigella Lawson

1/8 cup water

1/4 cup honey

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Mix all ingredients together, pour over cooled cake.

Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup walnuts.

I would love to know your favorite unusual flavor combos, let me know in the comments!

Tasty Tuesday!

Weekend Wrap Up at Tater Tots and Jello

Oatmeal Cookie Coffee Cake

Oatmeal Cookies make me happy. They are thick, chewy, and feel healthy enough to eat two. This coffee cake recipe takes the great aspects of an oatmeal cookie and makes them breakfast appropriate. The cake is moist and sweet, and just decadent enough to make it my new weekend breakfast favorite. Almonds, oats, raisins, brown sugar, delicious! I used almond milk to ratchet up the almondy flavor (cause I love it) and it turned out super. Hope you all enjoy!

Oatmeal Cookie Coffee Cake

from Baking Bites

2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup oats (regular or quick cooking)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

2 large eggs

1 cup almond milk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

Filling/Topping

1/4 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

2/3 cup raisins

1/3 cup toasted almonds, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, quick cooking oatmeal, baking powder and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by half of the almond milk, lemon juice, and the vanilla.

Then, blend in add half of the remaining flour, the rest of the buttermilk, and finally the last of the flour. Set aside to prepare topping.

For the topping, combine flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl and stir well. Rub butter into the mixture with your fingertips (or use cold butter and grate into the mixture using a cheese grater) until mixture resembles coarse sand.

Pour half of the batter into a 9-inch springform pan. Top with half of the topping mixture.

Evenly sprinkle raisins and almonds in a single layer. Pour remaining batter on top and spread carefully to the sides of the pan.

Sprinkle all remaining topping over the batter.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow cake to cool on a wire rack until it is room temperature before running a knife around the edge and removing the springform. Store in an airtight container.

Serves 10.

Recipe Swap!

Brown Sugar Streusel White Chocolate Cranberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Cranberries were on sale for a dollar a bag at Safeway yesterday! I am not the proud owner of 5 pounds of cranberries.. good thing they freeze well! You can expect to see many cranberry recipes in the coming weeks. I am starting off with a brown sugar streusel white chocolate cranberry cream cheese coffee cake. Whew.... longest name ever, but it's so chock full of good stuff! I used a recipe borrowed from Alicia's Homemaking, a lovely blog with lots of good recipes and home making tips. To her recipe, I added fresh cranberries and white chocolate chips. I also decided to try it topped off with streusel. The streusel got a bit browner than I like. But the end result was a crisp, buttery brown sugar coating that goes great with the creamy cake. and OH MAN the cake is good! Super creamy thanks to the cream cheese and studded with juicy cranberries and sweet, milky white chocolate chips. Delicious overload and the perfect way to use up your left over cranberries, right??

White Chocolate Cranberry Coffee Cake (shortened title)

Recipe Adapted from Alicia's Homemaking

Makes 2 Loafs

1/2 cup butter

8 ounces cream cheese

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup milk

1/2 to 1 cup white chocolate chips (depends how much extra sweetness you want)

1 cup cranberries

(I gave mine a quick chop, but you could use them whole too) tossed with 1 tablespoon flour and a sprinkle of sugar (so they don't sink to the bottom)

Streusel topping

1 stick butter (softened a bit)

1 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream sugar, butter, cream cheese and eggs together in a large bowl. Add vanilla, salt, and baking powder.

Gradually add in the flour, keeping the mixture smooth. Add milk.

Fold in the cranberries and chocolate chips.

Pour into greased, floured or sugared (I sugar my pans) pans, dividing batter in half.

For the topping, mix together butter, flour, and brown sugar until they have the texture of wet sand.

Sprinkle over the batter covering completely.

Put cakes in the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

*Note: The streusel turns very dark brown (I used dark brown sugar), but it caramelizes and gives a lovely crunch to the cake. If you are not a fan, by all means, make the cakes without the streusel and they will still be delicious :)

Happy New Years (I know I'm a little early),

Sugar N' Spice Truffles

Holiday Baking Part II! For the next installment of holiday baking, I present to you... Sugar and Spice Truffles! These really are very simple to make, just whip up a cake, crumble it up with some frosting, shape into balls and cover with white chocolate. Nothing tricky about that! These were my first foray into the world of "cake pops," a phenomenon that has swept the blogosphere a little blog named Bakerella. The key to getting good looking truffles is making sure the cake balls are chilled before dipping in the chocolate, that way they don't fall apart. I recommend checking out the tutorial found on the Pioneer Woman blog.The version that I tried combines the wonderfully Christmassy flavors of ginger and nutmeg (spice cake) with a white chocolate coating topped with a sparkly sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar. Last minute gift? Consider it done.

Sugar and Spice Truffles

1 box spice cake mix (plus ingredients called for on box)

1/2 tub store bought vanilla frosting

4 cups white chocolate candy melts

2 tablespoons white sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

Make cake as directed on box for a 9x13 inch pan. When cake is done, put in the fridge a few hours until completely cooled. When cooled, crumble cake into a large bowl. Add frosting and mix until it all sticks together (I used my hands and formed a big ball). Using a melon baller (or a tablespoon) form balls of dough, roll between palms to form smooth balls.

Place on a foil lined baking sheet. Put in fridge to chill for at least two hours.

Once cake balls are firmly chilled, melt chocolate in a double boiler on the stove. Remove cake balls from fridge and drop three to four at a time in the melted chocolate.

Spoon chocolate over top of truffles, when coated, remove truffle from chocolate using a spoon.

Tap against the side of the bowl a few times to remove excess chocolate.

Set on a piece of waxed paper and sprinkle with mixture of cinnamon and sugar.

Let cool until chocolate is completely set. Store tightly covered at room temperature.

Merry Christmas!

Orange Poppy Seed Bread/Cake

Me + this cake = Love at first luscious bite! I am a big fan of a good poppy seed muffin or bread (I am especially fond of those GIANT Costco poppy seed muffins). This bread recipe takes everything that I love about those muffins (the moist texture, the lovely crunch of poppy seeds) and takes it to the next level by adding a sweet, fresh, orange juice glaze. This bread is, in a word, FANTASTIC. In some other words... scrumptious, tender, decadent, need I go on?

Orange Poppy Seed Cake-Bread

Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

*Makes 2 loaves (8 X 4 1/2-inch loaf pans), I made one loaf and two mini loaves.

Bread Ingredients

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 1/4 cups granulated sugar

3 cups flour(I didn't realize until too late that I only had 2 cups of all purpose flour left, so I used 2 cups white flour and one cup wheat flour. It made it a bit denser but I liked the texture it gave.)

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 cups fat free half and half

1 tablespoon melted butter (for flavor)

3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3 tablespoons poppy seeds

Glaze:

1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 tablespoon melted butter

Line the bottom of the loaf pans with waxed or parchment paper and then grease and flour the entire loaf pan well. This part is quite important or else it WILL stick! For a tutorial on how to grease and flour a pan go here.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs and oil.

In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, salt and baking powder.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the egg/oil mixture and whisk to combine.

Add 1/2 of the half-and-half and stir together. Add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the last half of the half-and-half and stir.

Finally add the last 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix.

Add the vanilla, butter, and poppy seeds and mix well.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans, filling about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 60 minutes checking often the last 10 minutes of baking to ensure the bread doesn’t over bake (the mini-loafs baked in about 45 minutes while the larger one took much longer, about 65 minutes). When completely baked, a toothpick inserted in the middle should pull out moist crumbs but not wet batter.

While the bread is baking, combine the glaze and ingredients and mix well. Set aside.

Let the bread sit in the pan for five minutes. Run a thin-edged knife around the edges of the bread and carefully remove the bread from the pans onto a wire rack set atop a layer of paper towels or a cookie tray.

Brush the tops of the bread with the glaze while the bread is still warm. Continue brushing and/or gently pouring until all the glaze is on the bread.

Cool completely before slicing.

mmmm, carbs make me happy☺

Have a splendid weekend!