I made my first Love and Duck Fat post on July 27th of 2013, almost five months ago. Looking back, I was a new stay-at-home mom without a purpose besides caring for my little one. Lost in my new routine of baby feeding, housework and preparing meals; I needed something to funnel my creativity into – something that wasn’t all about baby. At my husband’s urging, Love and Duck Fat was born.
I’m still a stay-at-home mom, with a 14 month old little guy who makes messes faster than I can clean them up. Even so, a lot has changed in 5 months (that’s all?). I’ve learned a lot from writing this blog (like how to make a really good cake) and I look forward to my next big milestone: my 1 year anniversary post.
Chocolate chip cake
To celebrate my 100th post, I baked myself a chocolate chip cake. Yay me! It’s a simple cake recipe that reminds me of being a kid. I remember making chocolate chip cakes using yellow cake mix and store-bought chocolate fudge frosting. This cake is way better. The yellow cake batter has that perfect birthday cake smell and taste. The chocolate chips are rich and flavorful, and the frosting is to die for.
A quick note on the frosting: I originally made an American-style chocolate butter cream for this cake but tossed it because it was too sweet. Instead, I made a dark chocolate frosting that is so delicious (and easy to make) you will be licking the spatula like I did.
To celebrate my 100th post, I’m sharing ten of my personal favorite recipes to date, in no particular order.
Yellow cake recipe adapted from Best Birthday Cake by Smitten Kitchen.
Chocolate frosting adapted from recipe by Marcia Kiesel.
Ingredients
Method
Preheat oven to 350° F/ 175° C
Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans. For extra insurance, butter and line with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until light in color and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and blend. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the buttermilk. The mixture will look curdled at this point. Add the flour mixture in batches, mixing on low speed until completely incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again, do not over mix.
You should have a nice, thick batter at this point. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Divide the cake batter evenly between the cake pans and tap on the counter to remove air bubbles. Bake 35-40 minutes until golden brown and a wooden pick (I like to use bamboo skewers) inserted into the center comes out clean of cake batter (melted chocolate is okay).
Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely before frosting. You can make the layers a few days ahead, wrap in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.
In a heavy saucepan, bring the cream, espresso powder and sugar to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and stir, about 6 minutes, until the sugar melts completely and the mixture thickens slightly.
Add the chocolate, butter, vanilla extract and salt to a mixing bowl. Pour the hot cream mixture on top. Allow to come to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
Set the mixing bowl with the chocolate inside a larger bowl with a layer of ice cubes on the bottom. Beat the chocolate, using a handheld mixer, until thick and glossy. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula until combined.
Frost the cake layers right away. The frosting should have a lovely, spreadable consistency.
http://loveandduckfat.com/chocolate-chip-cake-recipe-100th-blog-post/
Chocolate chip cake recipe
Have you ever stayed up at night because you couldn’t stop thinking about cake? I have. Maybe it’s because I’m over-tired. Maybe I’m obsessed. I have a list of cakes I want to make –at least 20 of them, and this one made it to the top. A perfectly rich chocolate coconut cake paired with coconut meringue buttercream frosting. What could be better for a coconut and chocolate lover?
Chocolate coconut cake
There are a few things I love about this cake (besides how amazingly good it tastes). You see, it looks incredible from the outside. Even without cutting it open, this cake tells you how good it is before you even take a bite. But then you cut through the coconut shavings and fluffy white frosting and see the chocolate. It kind of makes my knees shake. Unlike a heavy German chocolate, this cake has a light-as-air meringue buttercream that melts in your mouth. The coconut flavors are layered throughout, yet the coconut is still understated. You taste it on the backend, after the chocolate and the frosting, and it lingers a little until your next bite.
I’ve made this chocolate cake recipe a few times (see chocolate espresso cake and chocolate cake with mousse filling and port wine frosting). It’s a damn good recipe. This time, I adapted it by adding coconut milk, coconut oil and I cut the sugar in half. I don’t need that extra cup of sugar in my life and neither does this cake. It stays moist for a long time, and I think it gets better by the day.
Did I mention the frosting is phenomenal? The recipe is from Brown Eyed Baker and it is yummy to the extreme. In fact, everyone in my house at the time was eating finger-fulls of it. Paired with the crunchy, barely salted coconut flakes, it is mind blowing good. In an adult way. It’s not overly sweet. This is a sophisticated icing that takes itself seriously. I’m not kidding. If you had some, you would just nod your head in agreement and say, “Yes, that makes perfect sense.”
I’m happy to add a Swiss buttercream recipe to my cake accumulation. Now that I feel somewhat comfortable making cakes, I felt this needed to be my next challenge. After making a French buttercream, the Swiss was a cinch. Yes, I had to stand there at the mixer for longer than I wanted. Yes, the whole thing curdled on me and I thought all was lost. But we made it back from the abyss and it was all worth it. Because this week, we eat cake.
Chocolate coconut cake
Cake recipe adapted from Ina Garten's "Beatty's Chocolate Cake."
Coconut Meringue Buttercream Frosting recipe by Brown Eyed Baker
Ingredients
Method
Preheat oven to 350°F/177°C.
Butter and flour two 8 inch cake pans. I use a paper towel to smear the butter around, and then tilt the pans over the sink to make sure the flour covers every bit of the pan. You can line them with parchment on the bottom, but my cakes came out fine without.
Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, blend together the coconut milk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Using an electric mixer on a low speed, slowly combine the wet and dry ingredients. Once combined, mix in the hot coffee.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until they are done and a wooden cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans for 30 minutes, and then remove them from the pans to cool on a wire rack.
Using a small heat-proof bowl (or double boiler), whisk the egg whites and sugar together. Place over a saucepan with an inch of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Heat the mixture for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until is hot to the touch and the sugar is completely dissolved (rub the mixture between your fingers to make sure).
Transfer the egg white mixture to a mixing bowl and whip on medium-high speed for another 6-8 minutes. It should be a stiff white meringue that is cool to the touch. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter a few pieces at a time. Increase the speed to medium and whip for 4-5 minutes.
At this point, the frosting should be smooth and glossy.
If the frosting curdled like mine did the first time, try separating out about a cup of frosting and heat it in the microwave for about 20 seconds or less. Slowly pour back into your bowl while beating on high. This will usually work like a charm to save a meringue buttercream.
Now that your frosting is light and creamy, add the vanilla extract, salt and coconut milk. Give it another whip on medium speed until the frosting is smooth. If it looks separated, just keep whipping until it comes together.
Use this frosting within 30 minutes, or store at room temperature for 1 day. Whip again with an electric mixer if stored.
When cool, level the cake tops if necessary. Place one cake layer on a stand and frost with a generous amount of frosting, spreading it to the edges and leveling with a spatula. Place the second cake layer on top. Cover the top and sides with a thin layer of frosting (crumb coat) and refrigerate 15-20 minutes.
Mix the frosting a little, then add the remaining to the cake and spread evenly. Using your hand, press the shredded coconut into the icing.
http://loveandduckfat.com/chocolate-coconut-cake-coconut-meringue-buttercream-frosting/
It’s October and pumpkin recipes are hitting hard on my blog feeds and Pinterest right now — and it all looks so good. I was due to make my next cake, so scoured recipes for the perfect chocolate pumpkin cake. Yes, I need chocolate in my cake. But I’m a chocolate purist. I don’t want my pumpkin bits mixed up with my chocolate bits. So I came up with this chocolate pumpkin cake with spiced brown butter frosting. The layers keep the two flavors separate, and the brown butter frosting is so incredible, I wrote a blog about it.
Chocolate pumpkin cake with spiced brown butter frosting
This cake looks beautiful with the deep orange pumpkin layers and dark chocolate layers all wrapped up in vanilla bean-specked white frosting. My husband says it’s my best so far. It’s fun to see my baking abilities improve now that I’m up to my sixth chocolate cake (not in my lifetime, but documented on my blog). I tried piping on a few of my other cakes, and wasn’t very good at it. This time I used the back of a spoon to swirl the frosting around once it was on the cake. It worked like a charm.
Chocolate pumpkin cake with spiced brown butter frosting
The cake recipes are pretty basic and I’ve made the chocolate recipe before. I just halved the cake recipes and they cooked up moist and delicious. The cake stays moist in the fridge for a while, too. Mine is going on day three and was even left cut and uncovered for a day. The frosting is adapted from a cooked flour frosting recipe by Leelabean Bakes. This is probably the hardest part of the recipe, since there are some extra steps and lots of waiting for things to chill before proceeding to the next step. It’s all worth it, though. Browning the butter gives it a nutty flavor that matches perfectly with the pumpkin cake.
Serve this cake at your holiday party and you will get rave reviews. I promise. If you do, please take a pic and send it to me…I’d love to see it recreated in someone else’s hands.
Chocolate pumpkin cake with spiced brown butter frosting
Pumpkin cake adapted from Pumpkin Cake III by Sue Case.
Chocolate cake adapted from The Best Chocolate Cake {Ever} by Add a Pinch
Ingredients
Method
Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Grease 2 8” round cake pans and line with parchment.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a mixing bowl.
In another mixing bowl, beat together sugar and oil on low. Add the vanilla and pumpkin puree. Beat in one egg at a time and then gradually add the flour mixture. The resulting batter will be thick. Add it to your pan and give it a tap on the counter to settle it evenly.
Bake in the oven for about 35-40 minutes. The pumpkin layer will take longer to cook than the chocolate layer, so be ready with a toothpick (I use a long bamboo skewer) to test for doneness.
Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder in a large mixing bowl.
Using your hand or stand mixer on low, add the milk, vegetable oil, egg and vanilla to the flour mixture. Beat on medium speed until well combined. Reduce speed to low and carefully add the hot water. Mix on high for about a minute, scraping the sides.
Pour into the cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, until your cake tester comes out clean.
Allow cakes to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the pans to cool completely on a wire rack.
Using a bread knife, cake cutter or dental floss, slice through each cake horizontally. Assemble with the a chocolate layer on the bottom. Frost with a big dollop of frosting. Add a pumpkin layer, frost. Add a chocolate layer, frost. Then the last pumpkin layer. Frost the top and sides of the cake, using the back of a spoon to make the swirls.
If you are using a vanilla bean, you first need to infuse your milk/cream. This adds an extra step, but all of those vanilla bean specks are worth it. Add the milk, cream and split vanilla bean to a small saucepan. Heat on low for about 10 minutes. Don’t let it come to a boil. Remove the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the milk/cream. Allow to cool completely.
Add the butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until it foams, then carefully watch until you see brown specks at the bottom of the pan. Don’t let the butter blacken. Remove from the heat and strain the butter. Chill until solid, about 20 minutes. Remove from the fridge, and allow to come to room temperature.
Now that everything is cool, we can start to make the frosting. In a small bowl, whisk the flour into about ¼ of the cooled milk/cream mixture. Once it’s formed a nice paste without lumps, add to the rest of the milk/cream. Add the sugar and heat on low, whisking so you don’t get any lumps. Once hot, the mixture will thicken.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. You can stir periodically over a bowl of ice, or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate to speed up the process. If you don’t stir or cover, it will form a skin and create lumps.
Add the room temperature browned butter, pumpkin pie spice and nutmeg to a mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until light in color and fluffy. Add the milk mixture (and vanilla extract, if using), and beat until smooth and fluffy.
http://loveandduckfat.com/chocolate-pumpkin-cake-with-spiced-brown-butter-frosting/
This is my second recipe using cooked flour frosting. It’s my favorite frosting right now. It’s so good; I had to make a separate blog post about it. This spiced brown butter cooked flour frosting is light, creamy and not too sweet. It has a depth of flavor lacking in most frosting that contains just butter and tons of sugar. This is a little harder to make than an American buttercream, but much easier than a French or Swiss buttercream. You won’t have to deal with egg whites, yolks or sugar syrups. I adapted this recipe from the popular “Even Better! Cooked Flour Frosting” by Leelabean Bakes.
Making a brown butter adds an extra step, but is so worth it. The brown butter adds a savory nuttiness to the frosting and pairs beautifully with Fall desserts like the chocolate pumpkin cake I made it for. You can use it to top carrot cake, pound cake, banana bread, apple coffee cake…you could put it on your shoe and it would taste good.
The trickiest part to making a brown butter cooked flour frosting is waiting. You need to allow the hot milk/cream mixture to cool before adding it to the butter. You also need to allow the brown butter to solidify again. As the milk/cream mixture cools, it will develop a skin on top that will ruin the whole batch with lumps. You can do two things to prevent this. Either continue stirring the mixture until it cools, or let it cool with some plastic wrap on top. Using plastic wrap sounds easier, but you end up with a lot of the mix stuck to the plastic when you peel it off. Just fold the plastic in on itself and use your fingers to squeeze it back into the bowl. Problem solved.
Spiced brown butter cooked flour frosting
Spiced brown butter cooked flour frosting
This makes about 3 cups, enough for a 2-layer cake. If you are making this for a 4-layer cake, increase ingredients by ½.
Ingredients
Method
If you are using a vanilla bean, you first need to infuse your milk/cream. This adds an extra step, but all of those vanilla bean specks are worth it. Add the milk, cream and split vanilla bean to a small saucepan. Heat on low for about 10 minutes. Don’t let it come to a boil. Remove the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the milk/cream. Allow to cool completely.
Add the butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until it foams, then carefully watch until you see brown specks at the bottom of the pan. Don’t let the butter blacken. Remove from the heat and strain the butter. Chill until solid, about 20 minutes. Remove from the fridge, and allow to come to room temperature.
Now that everything is cool, we can start to make the frosting. In a small bowl, whisk the flour into about ¼ of the cooled milk/cream mixture. Once it’s formed a nice paste without lumps, add to the rest of the milk/cream. Add the sugar and heat on low, whisking so you don’t get any lumps. Once hot, the mixture will thicken.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. You can stir periodically over a bowl of ice, or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate to speed up the process. If you don’t stir or cover, it will form a skin and create lumps.
Add the room temperature browned butter, pumpkin pie spice and nutmeg to a mixing bowl. Beat on medium speed until light in color and fluffy. Add the milk mixture (and vanilla extract, if using), and beat until smooth and fluffy.
http://loveandduckfat.com/spiced-brown-butter-cooked-flour-frosting/
This chocolate espresso cake with cooked flour buttercream was inspired by some coffee research my husband and I were doing for another project. We aren’t coffee drinkers, we are tea drinkers, but I had a craving for a delicious espresso buttercream frosting, and this is it. This is the first time in my life I wanted more frosting on my cake. I could have eaten it just on its own. I used a cooked flour frosting for the first time, at the suggestion of my sister-in-law who has her own bake shop on Etsy. It was light with a substantial consistency for spreading. The flavor reminded me of marshmallows. Espresso buttercream marshmallows.
*drools*
This is what happened to my cake just three days after I made it. Don’t worry, that last piece didn’t go to waste. I ate it with my fingers. This cake was so good; it may just trump my third chocolate cake, with mousse filling and port wine frosting. That cake was to die for.
Chocolate espresso cake with cooked flour buttercream
Now that I’m on my fifth chocolate cake, I’m feeling like a pro-with the cake part. My cakes are coming out consistently moist, rich and chocolaty. The cake decorating part is another story. I’m a complete newbie when it comes to piping, or just icing a cake. I keep trying, thinking in my head that my attempts at using a piping bag will somehow come out perfect without lots and lots of practice. When I actually apply that piping bag and start squirting out the icing, something else happens entirely. My rosettes come out shaky, my rim decoration is uneven…I’m all over the place. To cover up my ineptitude, I’ve started photographing my cakes in the background, all out of focus, which is sad, because they taste really, really, good.
Chocolate espresso cake with cooked flour buttercream
Cake recipe adapted from Ina Garten's "Beatty's Chocolate Cake."
Cooked flour buttercream recipe adapted from "The Best Frosting I've Ever Had" by Missydew
Ingredients
Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter and flour two 8 inch cake pans. I use a paper towel to smear the butter around, and then tilt the pans over the sink to make sure the flour covers every bit of the pan. You can line them with parchment on the bottom, but my cakes came out fine without.
Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, blend together the buttermilk (or milk and sour cream), oil, eggs and vanilla. Using an electric mixer on a low speed, slowly combine the wet and dry ingredients. Once combined, mix in the hot coffee.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until they are done and a wooden cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans for 30 minutes, and then remove them from the pans to cool on a wire rack.
When cool, stack and frost the layers with buttercream.
Whisk together flour and milk in a small saucepan, first adding the flour, then a small amount of cold milk until you have a smooth paste. Add the rest of the milk, vanilla and instant espresso, whisking so there are no lumps. Over medium heat, continue to whisk, until the mixture is thick.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature, stirring every now and then so a crust does not form.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar on high speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the cooled flour mixture and continue to beat on high until it is light and fluffy, like whipped cream.
http://loveandduckfat.com/chocolate-coffee-cake-with-espresso-buttercream/
