Chocolate Raspberry Cake w/ Vanilla Bean Buttercream

Let's face it, cake has become one of those things that don't require a special occasion anymore. Eat at a restaurant. Cake. Walk up that flight of stairs. Cake. Watch some good ol' tv. Cake. Buy a new outfit. Cake.

What ever happened to the days when the only time we had cake was at a birthday party that your friend threw at a bowling alley when you were 10 years old?

Surely, I'm not the only one that noticed this. Whether a cake, a cupcake or an individually packaged slice of cake in the bakery aisle of your nearest grocery store, what have we become?

I'll tell you what we have become. People that live each day like it's a party and don't care who tells us no! So, move over health gurus. Today, WE EAT CAKE!

Don't forget to vote for me in the Evening Magazine Contest for Best Food Blog!!

http://best.king5.com/aj-s-cooking-secrets/biz/652307

Chocolate Raspberry Cake w/ Vanilla Bean Buttercream

Makes 1-9 inch 2 layer cake

Hershey's Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Butter, for greasing the pans 

2 cups sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans 

3/4 cups good cocoa powder 

1 1/2 tsp baking powder 

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp kosher salt 

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

1 cup boiling water

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. 

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream 

Ingredients

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Directions
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter until light and fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar, vanilla bean paste, vanilla extract and salt. Mix until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Final Assembly
2 chocolate cake layers
1/2 cup raspberry jam/preserves
Vanilla bean buttercream
Melted semi-sweet chocolate (optional)

Directions
Place one of the chocolate cake layers on a cake board. Spread the raspberry jam/preserves over the top. Take the second chocolate cake layer and place it on top of the jam layer. Frost with vanilla bean buttercream and decorate with melted semi-sweet chocolate on the sides and pipe the remaining buttercream around the cake to make a border.

-Aaron John

Love Potion #31 And A Giveaway

Oh Seattle weather, how you ruin my pictures by hiding the sun with your clouds... haha

I guess today's your lucky day because it's once again time for another Giveaway courtesy of CSN Stores. Woot! I guess this is my thank you to you for helping me out in the Project Food Blog Competion.Like I've said many times before, CSN stores has so many great products to buy. Whether you need some new Bed Sets or even a kitchen table, they've got it. Seriously, if you still haven't checked out CSN yet (even though I've said it multiple times), go and do it! ha. Plus, you can think of what you can buy with this Gift Certificate! :)

Let's get back to the giveaway a little later. This post is going to be somewhat short since I have so much work to do! lol. But, in continuation of my "Ice Cream Into Cookies" project, I decided to do another cookie. This cookie is mirrored after Baskin Robbins "Love Potion #31" Ice Cream. In honor of that ice cream, this "Love Potion #31" cookie is simply a chocolate chip cookie dough mixed with white and milk chocolate chips and is baked with raspberry jam in the center. Think of it as a chocolate chip cookie meets a thumbprint cookie.

Now, back to what you've all been waiting for, the giveaway. Like I said before, I was approached by CSN to do a giveaway. This time, CSN Stores is giving you the chance to win a $55 Gift Certificate for any of their online stores! I repeat, $55 Gift Certificate!! Here's how to enter:

You must be a follower of "AJ's Cooking Secrets" through the Google Friend Connect located on the left side bar of my blog to enter this giveaway. If you are not a follower, your entry and/or entries will not be counted.

You have FOUR chances to enter!!

1. Leave a comment stating what you would like to buy from CSN Stores with the $55 Gift Certificate, along with your email.

2. Follow my other blog, AJ's Food Adventure, and leave a comment below stating that you have become a follower. If you are already a follower of my other blog, leave a comment stating that you are.

3. Become a fan/liker of my Facebook Fan Page : AJ's Cooking Secrets and leave a comment below stating that you have become a fan/liker. If you are already a fan/liker of my FB Fan Page, leave a comment stating that you are.

4. Follow me on Twitter @aaronjohn04 and leave a comment below stating that you have become a follower. If you are already a follower of my twitter page, leave a comment stating that you are.

**If entering all four times, leave four different comments.

Important Guidelines:

-Must be a follower of this blog, "AJ's Cooking Secrets", through Google Friend Connect located on the left side bar for your entry/entries to count. Anyone who "enters" without being a follower of this blog will not be entered into the drawing.

-The Giveaway will last until Sunday, October 20, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST. The winner will be drawn using Random.org. The winner will then be announced in a blog post, on my facebook page and emailed that they are the winner. From there, the winner will be contacted by CSN Stores where you will receive a Gift Certificate Code.

Results

Taste: Combination of the classic milk chocolate flavor and vanilla flavored white chocolate topped off with tart raspberry jam to cut the sweetness

Texture: Classic chewiness from the cookie but with an extra added chewiness from the raspberry jam that cooked in the oven.

Tips
-There aren't really many tips to this cookie, I guess a key tip is to not overfill each scoop of cookie dough with chocolate chips? You're probably saying to yourself, "Whaaa? You're crazy! I want my chocolate!" but seriously, it helps when you go to make an indentation for the jam.

"Love Potion #31" Cookie (Makes 1 Dozen 5 inch Cookies or 4 Dozen Mini Cookies)

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup Raspberry Jam

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

Place the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer; cream together on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in the vanilla and eggs. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and continue to mix until a smooth batter forms. Turn off the mixer and fold in the chocolate chips using the spatula.

To form the cookies, scoop about 1/4 cup of cookie dough into your hands and roll it around into a ball; place them about 3-inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets; you should get about 4 cookies on each pan. Press down the tops of the dough slightly and make an indentation in the center. Fill the center with about 1/2 tsp of raspberry jam. Bake until the cookies are light brown, 12 minutes for chewy cookies, or about 15 minutes for crispy cookies.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough/cookie sheets.

-Aaron John

My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure

Facebook Fan Page

Raspberry Jelly Roll

The post for the Jelly Roll is coming sooner than planned. Since I'm a competitor in Project FoodBuzz, I need to make a blog post dedicated to that competition which I will post this week. So get ready for that and don't forget to vote for me on Sept 20th!! :D One more thing, if you haven't entered my second giveaway, you should!! Just head on over to my Molten Chocolate Cake Blog Post and enter to win a $35 gift certificate to CSN Stores!!

Any who, this weekend I was watching "Ghost Adventures" on the Travel Channel and this show is so addictive! I've been fascinated with paranormal stuff since the seventh grade along with some of my friends. We actually tried to hunt for ghosts in our old elementary school. haha. They say ghosts come out as "orbs" in pictures so I would take my friend's camera and take pictures down the hallway to see if orbs came up. To much disappointment, nothing came up. However, just because I was fascinated with the paranormal stuff, it doesn't mean I'm not afraid of it. I am extremely scared of it all!! The thought of coming face to face with a paranormal thing scares the heck out of me! I mean, after watching "Paranormal Activity", I couldn't sleep for weeks because of the thought of a ghost lifting up the blankets to get into bed. Scary, much? lol. So, why is it that these ghost shows are so addictive? I mean, you don't want to watch it but you just can't stop. What this has to do with Jelly Rolls, I have no clue. haha. But here's the Results, Tips and Recipe!

Results

-Taste: Not that great. Sponge cake had a nice subtle vanilla flavor but the jelly overpowered the jelly roll making it too sweet (I added a bit too much jelly)

-Texture: Sponge cake was dry and broke during the rolling process. Parts surrounded by jelly made the cake "mushy"

Tips

-Another way to make sure the sponge cake is fully cooked is to press the top slightly. If the cake springs back to its original form, it's done.

-There are 2 methods for rolling a jelly roll:

1. Some recommend you invert the cake immediately, after coming out of the oven, onto a towel that is covered in powdered sugar. Then you roll it in the towel and let it cool completely. After cooling, you unroll the cake, remove the towel, spread the jam, then re-roll

2. Others recommend you let the cake completely in the pan after coming out of the oven. Once cooled, remove the cake from the pan, spread the jam and roll.

-If using method 1, I advise to sprinkle powdered sugar not only on the towel where the cake will be positioned, but on the top of the cake when the cake is on the towel as well. It will reduce the "sticking".

-I tried both methods and found that method 2 worked best for me (even though my cake cracked multiple times).

-If filling the sponge cake with something other than jam, such as whipped cream, refrigerate the rolled and filled cake for at least 6 hours to allow the cake to set.

Sponge Cake (Serves 8-10)
Ingredients
4 eggs, bring to room temperature
100g caster sugar
4g salt
140g cake flour
30g salad oil
30g fresh milk

Directions
Sift cake flour, set aside. Grease and line a 20cm round pan, set aside. Pre-heat oven to 180degC. Position rack at the lower bottom of the oven.

With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar & salt on HIGH speed for about 5 to 7mins, until the batter double in volume and is ribbon-like (the beater should leave a ribbon-like texture when the batter is lifted up). Turn to LOW speed and whisk for another 1 to 2 mins. Whisking at low speed helps to stabilize the air bubbles in the batter.

Add sifted cake flour into the batter. With a spatula, gently fold in the flour until well blended.
With a spatula, mix about 1/3 of the batter with the salad oil in a separate bowl. Fold in this mixture into the remaining batter. This method will help to ensure the oil will be fully blended and at the same time will not deflate the batter.

Add in fresh milk and fold in gently with spatula.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 35 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Unmold and cool completely.

**For a Jelly Roll, prepare the sponge cake the same way. Once prepared, pour the batter into a 15'' x 10'' inch baking pan that is greased and lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 20 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.

From this point you can either roll the cake in a towel that is covered with powdered sugar or let it cool completely in the pan. Once fully cooled, spread about 1/2 cup Raspberry Jam onto the cake and roll. Let it sit for about an hour before consuming.

-Aaron John

My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure

Facebook Fan Page

Strawberry Cheese Danish

So I haven't had a post in more than a week! 0.0 This week, I've been so busy hanging out with friends, watching Inception (Really great movie btw. It's mind boggling! haha), playing some mini golf, eating out, and playing pool and video games at Gameworks, that I didn't have time to really make anything and have a post. But here I am, back with another post just for you guys! :) As I type this, I am pretty much exhausted so I'm going to keep it short and simple. Hope that's alright! This week's creation was Strawberry Cheese Danish. Ina Garten has another appearance this week. This recipe is extremely simple to follow! The filling is the only thing that you have to work to put together but I was able to whip that up in no time. I made a few changes to the recipe though because the original recipe is for a Cheese Danish not a Strawberry Cheese Danish. I put all the measurements I used below. Overall, the flavor was great. It almost tasted like strawberry cheesecake! However, I did not like the texture of the filling at all. Maybe I'm wrong but shouldn't the filling be creamy? Instead of being creamy, the filling had more of a "curdled" texture which I believe came from the egg yolk. I searched other recipes and they also said to add an egg yolk. But!! I did find a recipe that used flour instead of the egg yolk! That might create a smoother filling than what I had. Here's the recipe and changes to it!!

Strawberry Cheese Danish (Makes 8 Danishes)
Ingredients
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature (Another recipe called for 2 tbsp of flour)
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese (I completely omitted this)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 cup Strawberry Preserves or Jam
2 sheets (1 box) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and cream them together on low speed until smooth. With the mixer still on low, add the egg yolks, ricotta, vanilla, salt, and lemon zest and mix until just combined. Don't whip!

Unfold 1 sheet of puff pastry onto a lightly floured board and roll it slightly with a floured rolling pin until it's a 10 by 10-inch square. Cut the sheet into quarters with a sharp knife. Place a heaping tablespoon of cheese filling into the middle of each of the 4 squares. Then place a tablespoon of the strawberry preserves or jam onto the cheese filling. Brush the border of each pastry with egg wash and fold 2 opposite corners to the center, brushing and overlapping the corners of each pastry so they firmly stick together. Brush the top of the pastries with egg wash. Place the pastries on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry and refrigerate the filled Danish for 15 minutes.

Bake the pastries for about 20 minutes, rotating the pan once during baking, until puffed and brown. Serve warm.


-Aaron John
My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure
Facebook Fan Page

Rugelach

Do you know what "Rugelach" is, let alone how to say the word? What?! You mean you don't? I have to say, I myself didn't know what "Rugelach" was. Well, that's my job this week then isn't it? So, "Rugelach". "Rugelach" is a Jewish pastry/cookie that somewhat resembles a mini croissant. It is filled with things that range from fruit preserves to chocolate. Your choice in filling is all up to you. I first saw this recipe years ago, bookmarked it, and never once tried this recipe out. However, there were great reviews made by people that have made this "Rugelach" and now I actually got to make it. This is another recipe that comes from Ina Garten. In making this recipe, the dough was super simple to make. It took only 5 minutes making it by hand. I did substitute the filling. Instead of apricot preserves, I used strawberry preserves simply because strawberry preserves is my favorite and I didn't want to go out and buy a whole jar of apricot preserves that I have never tried before. I was a little skeptical of changing the preserve flavor because I wondered if I had to omit the raisins or change the nuts. After thinking about it, I decided to keep the filling as is, with the alteration of the preserves, and see what happens. The cookies came out of the oven and were delicious! When you take that first bite, the dough is buttery and flakey, then you begin to taste the strawberry preserves, then you get a hint of cinnamon and then you taste the walnuts and raisins. I loved the layers of flavors in this cookie. Overall, I was glad I kept the recipe as is, with the alteration of the preserves. It came out to be one great cookie. Here's the recipe!

Rugelach
Ingredients
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2-pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar plus 9 tablespoons
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1/2 cup apricot preserves, pureed in a food processor (I used strawberry preserves!)
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk, for egg wash
Directions
Cream the cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light. Add 1/4 cup granulated sugar, the salt, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour and mix until just combined. Dump the dough out onto a well-floured board and roll it into a ball. Cut the ball in quarters, wrap each piece in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

To make the filling, combine 6 tablespoons of granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, the raisins, and walnuts.

On a well-floured board, roll each ball of dough into a 9-inch circle. Spread the dough with 2 tablespoons apricot preserves and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the filling. Press the filling lightly into the dough. Cut the circle into 12 equal wedges—cutting the whole circle in quarters, then each quarter into thirds. Starting with the wide edge, roll up each wedge. Place the cookies, points tucked under, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Brush each cookie with the egg wash. Combine 3 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle on the cookies. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack and let cool.


-Aaron John
My Food Outings: AJ's Food Adventure
Facebook Fan Page