Kitchen Adventures 10.2

I think many people have recipes they remember with fondness from their childhood. I am fortunate to have several of these recipes available through cookbooks where those family members have contributed their recipes. I recall this particular recipe, or at least I think it is this recipe, from many a birthday or church or family function. Sure, you can make a chocolate cake from a box, and sometimes that's the quickest and easiest thing to do. Occasionally, though, you just have the urge to make it from scratch. I have never made this recipe before and I was thoroughly impressed with its ease of the process and also the moistness of the cake. A dry cake is not an uncommon thing, but when you get that perfectly moist piece of cake with a wonderful icing there's really nothing better. :)

For the icing, I mixed things up a bit. For some reason I remember my mom using either vanilla icing or cool whip. I wanted to keep it all chocolate, though, so decided to make a ganache. I had made a ganache for a previous cake but knew it wouldn't quite work. I looked at a few recipes online and ended up just making my own version by combining elements from all of them. I must say, it turned out pretty well. I took this cake to work for our monthly birthday party and was able to bring some back home for my dad's birthday when they were down for the weekend. I also had enough left to share with friends, and of course enjoy some myself. :)

This recipe was submitted by my mom in the Triple T youth group cookbook.

Lorraine's Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 c. shortening
2 eggs
1/2 c. cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. baking soda
2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1/2 c. sour milk
1 c. boiling water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cream the shortening and sugar, then add the eggs and beat until fluffy. Sift together the flour and coca, and add this mixture alternately with the sour milk and vanilla to the creamed mixture. Beat together once these ingredients are added for one minute. Add 2 teaspoons of baking soda to the cup of boiling water, then add this to the batter, blending well. Pour the batter into a greased 9"x13" pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 c. heavy cream

Directions:

Bring the cream just to a boil, then remove from heat. Add the chocolate and let it sit for a minute before stirring. Add more chocolate if needed. Let it cool until slightly thicker. When cool, pour over the cake and spread around to cover the cake. Make sure to keep refrigerated since the topping is cream

I unfortunately do not have a picture of this delicious cake. Picture a piece of chocolate cake with chocolate icing and there you go. :)

Kitchen Adventures 5.3

I don't feel like I did much cooking or baking in October, possibly because I was at home two weekends and running around like crazy the rest of the month. However, at the end of the month I had several baking opportunities, which made me happy. :)

The first opportunity was our monthly birthday party at work. Each month we celebrate everyone that has a birthday with one party.. We barely fit it in this month with craziness at the end of the month, but we did squeak it in. I try to ask our birthday honorees what they want each month since there is no point in me making something that they won't even like.

This month's contribution came from one of our best student workers. We had been talking about pumpkin custard from Rusty's and she said she had never had pumpkin pie before. She is from an Asian-American family, so even though they have turkey at Thanksgiving, most of the rest of the food is traditional Asian dishes. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday item, she said pumpkin pie, so that's what I made.

After beginning the preparations for it, I realized that I had never actually made a pumpkin pie before, so I had a few worrisome moments while getting everything together, but it all turned out well in the end. The only flaw was the crust. I used a fancy pie shield to protect the crust from burning, which worked fine until I went to remove it 15 minutes prior to the end of baking time and it took off about one-quarter of the crust edge. So, it didn't look quite like it should, but it still tasted good, and I ate the crustless pieces since I don't like crust anyway!

This recipe came straight from the Libby's pumpkin can. I had a tough time finding pumpkin at the store, so I hope there is not a shortage like there was last year

Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can pumpkin
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell (I used a refrigerated one)

Directions:
1. Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
2. Pour into pie crust.
3. Bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake 40 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Top will begin to crack a little when close to done. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately after cooled or refrigerate.