buttermilk – Oven Love https://www.ovenloveblog.com from scratch, with love...and a little sass Tue, 21 Apr 2015 20:19:12 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.29 Chocolate Beet Cake https://www.ovenloveblog.com/chocolate-beet-cake/ https://www.ovenloveblog.com/chocolate-beet-cake/#comments Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:37:00 +0000 http://www.ovenloveblog.com/chocolate-beet-cake/
 
Recently, I’ve been getting into baking full-size cakes. It seems like there are never enough occasions that call for a big, beautiful cake. After having my cupcake business in Ohio, I am much more inclined to bake cakes than cupcakes now (like the rainbow cake and the strawberry cake).
Since I was experimenting with beets last week (see my sweet beet pancakes), I wanted to try out Joy the Baker‘s beet cake recipe that I’d been eyeing for a while. The recipe is similar to a basic chocolate cake with the addition of grated beets into the batter and the frosting- not too much extra effort to try something new and different.
As the beets were in the oven, I was getting a little nervous- my house was smelling like roasted dirt. But apparently, that’s normal when you’re dealing with beets. Smells were deceiving in this case- the cake certainly does not taste like dirt. Each chocolate-filled bite is strangely light and dense at the same time. You’ll have to bake it to see what I mean.
I served this cake to guests and didn’t reveal the secret ingredient until after. Everyone seemed pleasantly surprised.. or maybe just relieved that it wasn’t something worse than beets.

 

Chocolate Beet Cake
 

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http://joythebaker.com/2012/01/chocolate-beet-cake-with-beet-cream-cheese-frosting/
Author:
Serves: 10

Ingredients
  • For the Cake: 2 medium beets, unpeeled but trimmed of their greens
  • 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
  • 6 ounces (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the pans
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pans
  • ⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1¼ cups buttermilk
  • For the Frosting: 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 8 ounces (1 brick) cream cheese, softened
  • 4 to 5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 2 tablespoons finely grated beets, mashed with a fork
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or scrapings of one vanilla bean pod
  • 1-2 teaspoons milk, depending on desired consistency
  • ½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  • pinch of salt

Instructions
  1. Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Thoroughly wash beets under running water, and trim their leaves, leaving about ½ inch of stem. Place clean beets in a piece of foil. Drizzle with just a bit of vegetable oil. Seal up foil. Place on a baking sheet in the oven. Roast until beets are tender when pierced with a knife, about 1 hour.
  3. Remove the beets from the oven. Open the foil and allow beets to cool completely. Beets will be easy to peel (just using a paring knife) once completely cooled.
  4. Using a box grater, grate the peeled beets on the finest grating plane. Measure ¾ cup of grated beets for the cake and 2 tablespoons for the frosting. Set aside.
  5. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Use butter to grease two 8 or 9-inch round baking pans. Trace a piece of parchment paper so it is the same size as the bottom of the cake pan. Cut it out and place inside the cake pan. Butter the parchment paper. Add a dusting of flour to coat the pan. Set pans aside while you prepare the cake.
  6. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars. Beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, for one minute after each addition. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Once eggs are incorporated, beat in beets and vanilla extract until thoroughly combined.In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
  7. Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture. Beating on low speed , slowly add the buttermilk. Once just incorporated, add the other half of the dry ingredients. Beat on medium speed until milk and dry ingredients are just incorporated. Try not to overmix the batter. Bowl can be removed from the mixer and mixture folded with a spatula to finish incorporating ingredients. Cake batter will be on the thick side… not pourable.
  8. Divide the batter between the two prepared cake pans. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes (for a 9-inch pan) or 30-32 minutes (for an 8-inch pan). Cake is done when a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove cakes from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting and assembling the cake.
  9. To make the Frosting: In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese for 30 seconds, until pliable and smooth. Add the butter and beat for another 30 seconds, until well combined. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl as necessary. Beat in the beets. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, milk, lemon juice, and salt. Beat on medium speed until smooth and silky. Refrigerate the frosting for 30 minutes before frosting the cooled cakes.
  10. To assemble the cake, place one layer of cake on a cake stand or cake plate. Top with a generous amount of pink frosting. Spread evenly. Place the other cake on top of the frosting. Top with frosting. Work frosting onto the sides of the cake. You will have extra frosting left over. Refrigerate for an hour before serving (it will make the cake easier to slice). Cake will last, well wrapped in the refrigerator, for up to 4 days.

]]> https://www.ovenloveblog.com/chocolate-beet-cake/feed/ 1 Red Velvet Whoopie Pies https://www.ovenloveblog.com/red-velvet-whoopie-pies-2/ https://www.ovenloveblog.com/red-velvet-whoopie-pies-2/#comments Wed, 11 May 2011 03:06:00 +0000 http://www.ovenloveblog.com/red-velvet-whoopie-pies-2/
May is all supposed to be all about pies around here, my darlings.  I’m starting out with a bit of an unconventional pie post, though, just to keep things exciting for you.. with whoopie pies!
Have you heard about whoopie pies?  They kind of had a moment in the foodie world recently, and it seemed like everyone was making them.  This was crazy to me!  I grew up in Lancaster County, PA, the Amish capital and home of the best whoopie pies around.  As a kid, no one I met outside of CenPenn knew what they were.  Now they are super popular, and rightly so.  They are so good!
The typical flavors for whoopie pies that I remember from home are chocolate and cream, pumpkin with cream cheese, red velvet, and chocolate peanut butter.  We’d get them at bake sales or any of the good markets- Central Market in Lancaster City, Saturday’s Market or Root’s.  Man.. I’m getting nostalgic/hungry.
The cookies are the cakey type, so if you love cookies or cake or frosting, these are for you.  You really can’t go wrong with the red velvet and cream cheese combo, either.  There is a little effort involved if you want them to look good visually, but if you don’t care what they look like, the recipe is fairly straight-forward.
I must admit to you that I have some real Amish whoopie pie recipes, but I’m saving them up for later.  I liked what I saw on Annie’s Eats, and I think they turned out similar to my hometown type, but they aren’t quite perfect.  Guess I’ll just have to do some more experimentation/taste-testing..
What do you think about whoopie pies?  Are you on board or already over it?
Red Velvet Whoopie Pies
 

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http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/02/08/red-velvet-whoopie-pies/
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 12

Ingredients
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp. cocoa powder
  • ½ tsp. baking powder
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • ½ cup buttermilk, at room temperature
  • 1 oz. red food coloring
  • 1 batch cream cheese frosting, recipe follows

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375˚ F.
  2. Using something round, trace evenly spaced circles onto pieces of parchment paper sized to fit two cookie sheets. Place the parchment on the cookie sheets so that the side you have drawn on is facing down; set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Blend in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, beat in about a third of the dry ingredients, followed by half of the buttermilk, beating each addition just until incorporated. Repeat so that all the buttermilk has been added and then mix in the final third of dry ingredients. Do not overbeat. Blend in the food coloring.
  4. Transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip. Pipe the batter onto the parchment paper using the tracings as a guide. Bake 7-9 minutes or until the tops are set, rotating the baking sheets halfway through. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets at least 10 minutes, until they can be easily transferred to a cooling rack. Repeat with any remaining batter. Allow cookies to cool completely before proceeding.
  5. Transfer the pre-made frosting (you can make while cookies are baking/cooling) to a clean pastry bag fitted with a plain, round tip. Pair the cookies up by shape and size. Flip one cookie of each pair over so that the flat side is facing up.
  6. Pipe frosting onto the flat-sided cookie of each pair, leaving the edges clear. Sandwich the cookies together so the flat sides are facing each other and press gently to help the filling reach the edges. To store, refrigerate in an airtight container.

 

Cream Cheese Frosting
 

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Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 1

Ingredients
  • 8oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature
  • 5 tbs softened butter
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups powdered sugar (or more, if needed)

Instructions
  1. Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth (no lumps!). Add sugar until you reach the desired consistency and sweetness.

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