before the whipped cream is added

after the bourbon whipped cream slathered on top

So, when I heard that it was our good friends Tim and Phyllis’s 20^th wedding anniversary the day before they were coming here for dinner along with our other dear friends Jim and Margo, I decided a special dessert was in order. I mean really, an anniversary or celebration of any kind requires cake. And I know, some of you are not cake lovers. To that I say “hurray”, more for me!

Because in my estimation, a truly great cake is a taste treat that few actually experience. And yes, there are bakeries out there that turn out fabulous cakes. But you pay through your teeth for the privilege. That’s why I have always preached -BAKE CAKES AT HOME AND SPARE NO EXPENSE. Use quality ingredients and the cake will still cost you a fourth the price of one that comes from a bakery! And it will make your whole kitchen smell wonderful as it bakes. (OK, I am now stepping down from my high horse!)

Among the purchased cakes that are ridiculously expensive, ice cream cakes come in right at the top. And why I previously never thought to make an ice cream cake is right up there with why I wore a girdle in college when I weighed 128 pounds? (What was that all about?) Apparently, some things take longer than others to garner attention in the critical thinking area of my brain. Or at least that’s how I interpret my “aha moments”. But once a good idea resonates, it’s usually full steam ahead for me. (I did figure out a former politician the first time he appeared in my consciousness. So, I must give myself a pat on the back for intuiting that odious person correctly!) But, back to this recipe.

In all honesty, the ice cream cake I made the other evening was really tasty, but the brownie part was hard as a rock. I had tried a new brownie recipe (that sounded marvelous), but the reality was somewhere between tasty shoe leather and chocolate flavored drywall. (Not that I know anything about how shoe leather or drywall taste. But I have an excellent imagination.) So, I repurposed one of my cake-like brownie recipes to make this ice cream cake 100% fabulous.

So, the next time you need a special dessert, may I recommend this recipe. It does require a few steps, but the result is well worth the effort. And it must be prepared ahead, which is always great, especially when you are entertaining guests.

And you know what – even if you start with a brownie mix and store-bought caramel sauce, the ice cream cake will still be tastier and less expensive than if you bought one from an ice cream shop. Just please consider not using a ready-made whipped topping. One of the most widely used whipped topping is made of water, hydrogenated vegetable oil (including coconut and palm kernel oils), high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, skimmed milk, light cream (less than 2%), sodium caseinate, natural and artificial flavor, xanthan and guar gums, polysorbate 60, sorbitan monostearate, sodium polyphosphate, and beta carotene (as a coloring). (Yikes. Now, if that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what would?)  

So, I’ll leave you now to think about the difference between fresh from a cow heavy cream and a product that only resembles real whipped cream in that it is almost the same color.

On that sobering note, peace and love to all. (And I hope you enjoy this recipe.)

BOURBON CHOCOLATE BROWNIES  

1¼ c. granulated sugar   

¾ c.  (1½ sticks) unsalted butter

½ c. cocoa powder

¼ c. bourbon

2 lg. eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1½ c. unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. fine sea salt

1/8 tsp. espresso powder, opt.

¾ c. whole milk

Grease and line a 9×13-inch baking pan with cooking spray and enough parchment paper left on both ends of the pan to lift the baked brownie out of the pan.  

In a large glass mixing bowl, heat the sugar, butter, and cocoa powder in your microwave just until the butter melts.

Remove from microwave and whisk in the bourbon, eggs, and vanilla extract.   

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder together.   Add a small amount of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, stir to combine, then add a small amount of the milk. Repeat until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.

Bake in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for 25-35 minutes or just until a wooden pick comes out clean in the center. Do not overbake.

Remove from the oven and cool for 20 minutes before lifting the brownie out of the pan to a wire rack. (don’t wash the pan.) Let the one big brownie cool completely before slicing it in half lengthwise. (Not easy but if it comes apart, no problem. You can “glue” it back together with ice cream.)

BOURBON CARAMEL SAUCE

1 c. packed brown sugar

½ c. (1 stick) unsalted butter

pinch sea salt

½ c. heavy cream

¼ c. bourbon

Whisk butter, brown sugar, and salt together over medium heat in a small heavy saucepan until brown sugar has dissolved completely. (This happens after the mixture comes to a boil and is allowed to burble for a couple of minutes or until it turns kind of shiny. Continue whisking the whole time the mixture is on the heat.) Remove from heat and gently whisk in the heavy cream and bourbon. Allow it to cool completely and store covered in your fridge.  

Can be made ahead and refrigerated.  

BOURBAN WHIPPED CREAM

1 c. heavy cream

1/3^rd of the Bourbon Caramel Sauce

Beat cream until stiff peaks form. Add the BCS and whip until well blended. Cover. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

PUT THE ICE CREAM CAKE TOGETHER

2-3 pints ice cream (I used Häagen-Dazs Bourbon Vanilla Bean Truffle ice cream)

Place one of the brownie halves back in the pan.  

Remove the ice cream from the freezer and let sit for a few minutes to soften a bit. Then spread as much or as little of the ice cream over the brownie in the pan as desired. Then spread evenly with 2/3rds of the cold Bourbon Caramel Sauce. Then top with the other brownie. Push down gently to “seat” the brownie.

Cover the pan and place in your freezer.

TO SERVE THE ICE CREAM CAKE

Remove the ice cream cake from the freezer. Slather on the Bourbon Whipped Cream and cut into reasonable sized pieces. (This ice cream cake is very rich. Cut accordingly.)

This past Sunday, we had our grandson Ivan up for dinner. I asked if there were any special requests. Without hesitation he answered the Chocolate Cherry Cake from my first cookbook. And since he had recently had a birthday, I decided a birthday cake would be absolutely perfect. So, instead of baking this cake in a bundt pan or a 9×13-inch cake pan, I used 2 (8-inch) square pans. One glass and 1 disposable aluminum that I could send home with him.

What a remarkable and wonderful young man he has become. We thoroughly enjoyed his company and can’t wait to spend more time with him. But I had to confess that this was not the original recipe from my cookbook. You can find that recipe using a cake mix under Chocolate Cherry Cake. Oh, and BTW, this recipe makes a much more delicious cake than when a cake mix is used. Go figure!   

Now, having made chocolate cherry cakes using a cake mix for more years than I care to disclose, I decided to go online and see if other bakers more qualified than I am to play mad scientist had come up with an alternative to using a packaged cake mix containing preservatives, artificial flavors, and more sugar than necessary. Another consideration being that some of the leading manufacturers have reduced their cake mixes from around 18 ounces to around 15 ounces. So, using a cake mix at this point is a bit iffy because the proportion of dry ingredients to wet ingredients has now been altered.

Unlike bread dough, where yeast is the leavening agent and you can more easily play fast and loose with additives or deletions, cake batter is a precise combination of ingredients. In fact, a cake recipe is a scientific formula in which the ingredients are combined in a certain way to form the cake’s structure.

So, to the internet I proceeded. And with my guardian angel firmly affixed to my right shoulder, I found this recipe on thesouthernladycooks.com site. Of course, I changed things up a bit, but the main recipe is straight off the site.

The only thing I still want to do is figure out how to make 21 ounces of cherry pie filling from scratch. So, when, and if I succeed, I will add that homemade version to this recipe.

Well, that’s it for today. The morning rain shower has gone elsewhere, and the sun is now shining. There are still clouds in the sky and over the mountains, but Port Susan Bay is blue and calm. The cats are taking their morning siestas, Mr. C. is reading, and I am doing what I love best. Typing up another recipe and sending all of you my best wishes for continued peace and love in your life.

For the cake:

2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour, fluffed

1½ tsp. baking soda 

½ tsp. sea salt

¾ c. pure cocoa

1¼ c. granulated sugar

2 lg. eggs

½ c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1 c. buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. almond extract

1 (21-oz.) can cherry pie filling

In a large mixing bowl whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and sugar together. Mix the eggs, melted butter, buttermilk, vanilla extract, almond extract, and cherry pie filling together in a separate mixing bowl. (I don’t use a mixer with this recipe.) Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until all ingredients are wet. 

Pour into a lightly greased 9 x 13-inch cake pan. Or prepared bundt pan. Or two 8-inch pans.

Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 40-50 minutes or until a pick comes out clean. Don’t overbake.  

Remove from oven and let cake cool before frosting.

For the frosting:

¾ c. granulated sugar

¼ c. evaporated milk

3 T. unsalted butter

pinch salt

½ c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (or chocolate chips of choice)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine sugar, milk, butter, and salt in pan on top of stove.  Bring to boil and cook for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and add chocolate chips and vanilla.  Stir with spoon or whisk until chips are melted. Spread with an offset spatula evenly over cooled cake. Don’t doddle. This frosting sets up quickly.

Mr. C. and I had the very great pleasure of spending Thanksgiving with his 2 sisters (Nancy and Katie), their spouses (Paul and Rick), and Paul and Nancy’s two daughters Erin and Dana and their husbands (Gideon and Jason) and Gideon and Erin’s delightful daughter Clara (almost 8). The event was held in Pullman, Washington at Dana and Jason’s home. Both Jason and Dana are on the WSU faculty.

Dana, with Veterinary Microbiology & Pathology, is a PhD scientist with cross disciplinary training in microbiology, immunology, and entomology. While Jason is a PhD research assistant professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, investigating Anaplasma – a pathogen spread by ticks that infects humans and large mammals. As Jason so aptly put it “Dana and I will tell a brick wall about our research if it stands still for 15 minutes, and we are definitely each other’s constant advisors and critics. Our shared interests in microbiology was definitely something we connected over and continues to be a part of our shared life.”

So, as you can imagine, we had a wonderful time. And, we didn’t even have to pet any ticks! What we did get to do was converse, cook and eat together, laugh a great deal, and do all the normal things that families who get along very well do to entertain themselves. So, a most pleasant 5 day get-away for us. Of course, the first day’s travel over Snoqualmie pass was not at all enjoyable. But I won’t go into that because I am still a bit terrorized by the whole ordeal!

In preparation for leaving to spend Thanksgiving away from home, I decided to make this cake, and a couple other food items to take along. Especially for the first evening since I wouldn’t be around during the day to contribute to any of the meal preparation. I figured bringing some goodies was the least I could do. So, along with this cake I took along some breakfast bread, candied ginger shortbread cookies, and 2 appetizer spreads. But I must say, this cake was my star contribution.

I started with my favorite yellow cake recipe, swapped out a bit of granulated sugar with brown sugar, and added a wee bit of caramel extract. Then I prepared a simple buttercream frosting containing some of Mr. Cs caramel sauce that he always has on hand for caramel lattes to give the frosting a light caramel flavor. Yum! It worked. And the cake had been very easy to make, and the frosting was a piece of cake. You know what I mean! The frosting was also easy to build. And the best part. The cake did not have to be refrigerated. Which is a darn good thing since there was absolutely no refrigerator space available by the time we arrived on the scene. (Can you ever really have enough refrigerator space? I don’t think so either!)

Well, that’s it for today. Sorry I haven’t posted for a few days, but I have a very good excuse. I was having way too much fun! May you too be blessed with having way too much fun with family and friends during this holiday season.

Peace and love to all.  

For the cake:

1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature  

⅓ c. vegetable oil

2 c. granulated sugar

½ c. light brown sugar, packed

6 lg. eggs, room temperature

2 lg. egg yolks, room temperature

5 tsp. pure vanilla extract

¼ tsp. caramel extract, opt. (I use Watkins brand)

3 c. fluffed or sifted cake flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 c. sour cream

In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter, oil, and sugars on high until light and fluffy, about 5-6 minutes. (Do not skip this step. Very important.)

Add eggs and egg yolks one at a time until well incorporated. Scrape the bowl as needed. Add in the vanilla and caramel extracts and mix until well combined.

In a medium sized bowl whisk the cake flour, baking powder, and salt together.   

At low speed, alternate adding in the flour mixture and sour cream just until combined. Do not over mix.

Grease and flour 1 9×13-inch cake pan (glass is best) and 1 8-inch round cake pan or 3 8 or 9-inch round cake pans. (If you plan to remove the cakes from the pans before frosting them, then grease and flour the pans as directed above and line the pans with parchment paper sprayed very lightly with cooking spray.)

Scoop the batter evenly into the prepared pans. Even off the batter with an offset spatula. (See directions for frosting a three-layer cake below.)

Bake the 9×13-inch pan in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for 33-35 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the middle of the pan comes out clean. Do not overbake.

Bake the 8 or 9-inch round pan or pans for 28-30 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the middle of the pan comes out clean. Again, do not over bake.   

Allow cakes that you plan to remove from the baking pan or pans to cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before gently removing the cake from the pan. If using parchment paper, gently peel it off and allow the cake to cool completely on a pretty cake plate before frosting.

For the 9×13-inch cake, just remove from oven and allow to cool completely on a rack before frosting. After frosting, keep covered at room temperature.

For the frosting:

1 c. unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

⅓ c. + 3 T. caramel topping, plus more to drizzle over cakes

pinch of kosher salt

4 c. powdered sugar

whole milk or heavy cream, if needed

flaky sea salt, for garnish

Beat the room temperature butter using a hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment until soft and fluffy. Add the vanilla, caramel topping, and kosher salt, mixing until thoroughly combined.

Add the powdered sugar on low speed. Add milk or cream a few drops at a time until the frosting is light and fluffy and to your desired consistency.

Frost the cakes. When the frosted cake looks perfect to you, drizzle on as much caramel topping as you want. (If the caramel topping doesn’t drizzle easily, warm it up a bit in your microwave.) After the drizzle is in place, lightly sprinkle on a bit of flaky salt.

How to create a beautiful 3-layer cake:

Remove pans from oven and place on cooling racks for 10 minutes. Then gently remove cakes from pans and allow the cake to cool completely before icing.  

Place one of the cakes upside down on your cake plate. Spread frosting over layer. (Not too much.) Place the second layer on the first layer and spread frosting. (Again, not too much. Add the top layer and frost the top and if you would like, the sides of the cake too. Then drizzle on some caramel sauce and sprinkle with flaky salt.

Please note: if your cakes are rounded at the top, slice off a bit of the cake to make the top flat before frosting. If the cake layers start sliding around, stick a couple of long picks through the layers to keep the cake together. Store at room temperature.

So, what kind of a cake do you build for someone’s birthday who loves both chocolate and caramel? Well, this conundrum took me all of 60 seconds to resolve. You build a chocolate cake, and slather it with caramel frosting. Done deal!

The chocolate cake part was easy, except I needed to bake a smaller cake than I usually produce. So, I halved my trusty, well tested recipe (Mocha Chocolate Cake), which BTW produces one of the tastiest and moist cakes you could ever hope to eat. That done, I needed to figure out how to build a rich caramel frosting worthy of being paired with this delicious chocolate cake. But still have a presence of its own. So, the first ingredient had to be cream cheese, and the second ingredient had to be butter. No brainer! Then of course a bit of vanilla, a pinch of salt, caramel sauce, and powdered sugar. And there you go – caramel frosting.

Now I was lucky. Mr. C. always has Dilettante Caramel Sauce and Dilettante Semisweet Chocolate Sauce on hand for doctoring his coffee. So, I asked permission to use a bit for the frosting and to decorate the cake and he was all over that. (The man has many more than just one sweet tooth!) So, I didn’t have to make my own caramel sauce. (I usually make Bourbon Caramel Sauce anyway, so that might not have been the best choice for this frosting.)

Anyway, the result was just fine. Nice tender cake with a lovely soft caramel frosting. And it had been quite easy to prepare. And not too much left over for us 4 older people to handle.

So, next time you want to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, or even that you made it through another week, this would be a good choice for a celebratory offering.

So, again, happy birthday Mark, and here’s to many more birthday cakes for the 4 of us to enjoy together.

Peace and love to all.

For the cake:

½ c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1½ c. packed brown sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1½ tsp. vanilla extract

1½ c. unbleached all-purpose flour

6 T. good cocoa powder

1½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp. instant espresso powder (I use Medaglia D’Oro Italian Roast Espresso Style Ground Coffee)

¾ c. water

½ c. + 3 T. sour cream

chocolate sauce, for drizzle, opt.

Cream the butter and brown sugar together until very soft. (This takes at least 5 minutes.) Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder together. Add to butter mixture alternately with water and sour cream, beating well after each addition. Pour into 2 9-inch parchment paper and greased round cake pans.

Bake in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for 25-27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. (Don’t over-bake!) Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely before frosting. (I plopped one of the cakes directly on to my cake plate. The other got plopped on the cooling rack parchment paper side down.)

Cool completely before frosting. (I used half of the frosting to glue the 2 layers together. Then the rest was spread on top. To make things pretty, I drizzled a bit of caramel sauce and chocolate sauce on top. I didn’t frost the sides because I wanted to see the dark chocolate color of the cake in contrast to the light tan colored frosting.)    

For the frosting:

8 oz. (1 pkg.) cream cheese, room temperature

4 T. (½ stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

pinch kosher salt

generous ¼ c. caramel sauce, plus more for drizzle  

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1½ c. powdered sugar, or more as needed

In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Add the salt, caramel sauce, and vanilla. Beat until well blended.

When Mr. C. arrived home recently after a day long jaunt up on Mt. Baker, he arrived not only with a smile on his face, but also with a small container of blue huckleberries. Now if you have never been hiking and picked wild huckleberries as you plodded along, then you have missed out on one of life’s most pleasant experiences. Because there is just nothin’ finer than hiking along nibbling on nature’s bounty. (Except of course if nature’s bounty comes to you!) (And nothing better to turn your fingers blue either, I might add!) So, with my gift of fresh huckleberries in hand, I set about thinking of ways to use the berries to full advantage.       

Unfortunately, there weren’t enough berries to build a pie. But being the cake lover that I am, I immediately thought about using the berries in a filling. But not a large cake, because it’s just the two of us. (Even though we did end up sharing some of the cake with our neighbors Mark and Vicki.)

So, the result of my plotting and planning is the recipe you find below. And thankfully, the lovely huckleberries with their “blueberries on steroids/sweet and tart at the same time” flavor came through very well in the filling. And the cake part itself was delicious and very simple to make. All in all, a very delectable dessert.

So, I hope you give this recipe a try. You and your family are sure to like it. And if you have never eaten a huckleberry, get yourself up into the mountains. Huckleberries grow best as an under crop in subalpine forests. They are generally found on moist, moderately deep, well-drained soils. But watch out for bears. They love huckleberries too.    

As always, have fun dreaming up new and delicious ways to provide great food for not only yourself, but for your entire family. Even if you live alone, you need to treat yourself to special dishes or “fancy food” occasionally too. One easy way to make sure this happens, is to invite a friend or friends over for dinner. Then do it up with style. Fix your favorite dishes, set a beautiful table, offer dessert, and don’t forget a few nibbles set out when your guest or guests first arrive. Sets the tone for the whole evening. And then, you will probably have wonderful leftovers. Yippee-skippy! And you will have had the pleasure of treating your friends to a wonderful evening. And nothing feels better than that!

Peace and love to all.

Huckleberry Filling: (plus flavoring for frosting)

 1 c. huckleberries, whole

3 T. granulated sugar

3 T. water, divided

2 tsp. fresh lemon juice (cuts the sweetness & brings out the berry flavor)

2 tsp. cornstarch

Combine the berries, sugar, 2 tablespoons of the water, and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Simmer until the berries start to burst. Mash the berries a bit, then add the remaining tablespoon of water mixed with the cornstarch. Simmer until thick and glossy. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely before using as filling for cake and flavoring for frosting.

Cake:

½ c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp.

1 c. granulated sugar

2 med. eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour, fluffed

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. fine sea salt 

½ c. sour cream

Preheat the oven to 325-degrees. Grease, flour, and line 2 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper. Set aside. 

Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about 7 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 3 batches, alternating with sour cream, beating batter briefly after each addition. Don’t over-mix. Scoop the batter evenly into the prepared pans.

Bake for 23-26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (Check after 23 minutes to be sure.) Don’t over-bake.

Remove from oven, turn one of the layers onto a cake plate. The other onto a wire rack. Slowly remove the parchment paper and allow to cool completely before assembling the cake.

Huckleberry Cream Cheese Frosting:

4 oz. (½ lg. pkg.) cream cheese, softened

¼ c. (½ stick unsalted butter, softened

¼ tsp. vanilla extract

pinch kosher salt

1 T. of the huckleberry filling

2 c. powdered sugar, or more to achieve desired thickness 

Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together on medium speed until smooth and no lumps remain, about 3 full minutes. Add the vanilla, salt, and tablespoon of the huckleberry filling.

Reduce the mixer speed to low, then add the powdered sugar. Once the sugar begins to incorporate, increase the mixer to high speed and beat until soft and creamy. Add additional powdered sugar as needed. Frost the cake as soon as it’s completely cooled.

To Assemble the Cake:

If you haven’t already prepared the frosting using a tablespoon of the filling, reserve 1 tablespoon of the filling to flavor the frosting at this time. Spread all the rest over the layer that is on the cake plate. Then carefully place the top cake layer over the filling. Spread the frosting over the entire cake.