Judy Greber's Chocolate Sour Cream Fudge Cake

A reasonable facsmile of Bob's Birthday Cake! It was devoured!

Today I welcome author Judy Greber aka Gillian Roberts. Besides being the author of two mystery series, mainstream fiction and non-fiction, Judy is a fabulous cook with a wonderfully appointed kitchen with a spectacular view. Who couldn't create a great chocolate cake in that kitchen? This recipe for Bob's Birthday cake aka Chocolate Sour Cream Fudge Cake is a keeper.

JUDY GREBER/Gillian Roberts:

In our family, when it’s your birthday, you get to choose the menu, and the rest of us prepare it for you. Whatever you like. Whatever you love. For dessert, we’ve got butterscotch pudding lovers, ice-cream cake lovers, chocolate mousse lovers, lemon anything lovers, but for “the patriarch”, a.k.a. my husband, it’s this chocolate cake.

He is a chocoholic, and I confess that I’m an enabler, keeping him hooked, so for many years on birthdays and off (how could you wait 364 days for another stab at an ultimate chocolate dessert?) I tried out recipes. This one evolved from a time, long ago, when I was researching a (non-mystery) novel titled Mendocino, which happily took me to that charming town in Northern California, I ate at a delightful restaurant called Cafe Beaujolais. It still exists, but it has a new owner/chef. Back then, it was owned by Margaret Fox. I didn’t have the chocolate cake, but I loved her cooking so much, I bought her Cafe Beaujolais cookbook and in thumbing through it, found this cake.

Over time, I’ve tweaked the recipe and I use a different icing than she suggested, but here’s what ultimately became known hereabouts as “Bob’s Birthday Cake.” The search is over...

Chocolate Sour Cream Fudge Cake 

Ingredients: 
2 cups flour
2 Tablespoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups light or dark brown sugar
4 ounces bitter chocolate, melted and cooled
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sour cream
1 cup strong hot coffee

Directions: 
Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
Beat butter, sugar and eggs for 5 minutes in the bowl of an electric mixer, until very light and fluffy.
Beat in chocolate and vanilla.
Stir in about 1/3 of the dry ingredients, half the sour cream, another 1/3 of the dry ingredients, the rest of the sour cream, and finally, the remainder of the dry ingredients. Stir just until mixed.
Stir in hot coffee
Pour into 2 9" square pans ( 8" rounds work, too) greased and lined with waxed paper.
Strike each pan on the edge of the counter to release air bubbles.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
Cool pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edge, turn out, and cool completely. Frost with:

Fudge Frosting 

Yield: 4 cups

Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, 1 1/2 sticks
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup half and half
4 teaspoons instant coffee powder
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Combine butter, 3/4 cup sugar, half and half and coffee powder in large saucepan.
Stir over medium heat until sugar and coffee powder dissolves and mixture simmers. Remove from heat.
Add both chocolates; whisk until smooth.
Whisk in vanilla.
Pour chocolate mixture into large bowl.
Sift in powdered sugar; whisk to blend.
Press plastic wrap onto surface of frosting.
Chill just until firm enough to spread, stirring occasionally, about 1 1/2 hours.

--there is no need to wait for a birthday to enjoy this!

Cartoon of the Day: Chocolate Cake

10 Ways to Dress up a Plain Cupcake!

Photo:Au Pair

Sophie Leake at AuPairCare.net sent me a link to a post she did on the blog for 10 Ways to Dress up a a Plain Cupcake for Your Child. She gave me permission to reprint her post here on DyingforChocolate.com. I think her ideas are great, and they go beyond cupcakes for children. Let's face it, adults like cupcakes, too, and there are some really cool ideas here in her post. Maybe these should be on Tuesday Tips?

Thanks, Sophie.

SOPHIE LEAKE: 10 Ways to Dress up a Plain Cupcake

While gourmet cupcake bakeries are on the rise, there’s no need to pay top dollar at a bakery for super cute and tasty birthday cupcakes when you can make them for much cheaper on your own.  Check out these 10 ways to dress up a plain cupcake for your child’s next birthday.

1. Flavored frosting with fruit makes an elegant cupcake decoration.  Bake up your favorite vanilla or yellow cupcake and then add a few tablespoons of a fruit puree to the mix.  Take the same fruit puree and add a tablespoon full to your favorite buttercream recipe.  Now take some fresh fruit and top your frosted cupcake with it.  This method works well with raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, or blueberries.
2. Plain frosting with sprinkles let you know it’s a party.  Instead of adding vanilla to your buttercream frosting add 1 to 2 teaspoons of cotton candy flavoring.  Frost your cupcakes like normal and sprinkle with jimmies.  Sprinkles are always a fun and festive treat.
3. Frost the cupcakes and then dip them in melted chocolate for a special treat. These special treats are called hi-hats.  Instead of making a normal buttercream frosting, make a meringue type frosting.  In a metal bowl beat 1 ¾ C sugar, ¼ C water, 3 large egg whites, and ¼ t of cream of tartar on high until it becomes frothy.  Now place it over a pan of simmering water and continue to beat on high speed until you get stiff peaks. (They will hold their shape when you lift the beater.)  This step takes 10 to 12 minutes.  Stir in 1 t of vanilla extract and then put the meringue into a pastry bag and pipe the tops of the cupcakes.  Now melt a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 3 T. of shortening in the microwave.  Put the melted chocolate in a tall narrow container for dipping.  Next, dip the cupcakes into the chocolate as if they were chocolate dipped ice cream cones and then allow them to cool.
4. Use a cookie as a cupcake topper.  If your child likes the combination of chocolate and peanut butter there’s a fun way to make a cupcake for him that combines both of his loves.  Make your favorite chocolate cupcakes and allow them to cool.  In the meantime, make some buttercream frosting and add in ¼ C. of peanut butter.  Frost the cupcakes with the peanut butter frosting and top with a peanut butter sandwich cookie.
5. Create small decorations out of fondant.  Fondant is made of shortening and sugar.  It rolls out like dough and you can buy it at most craft or baking stores.  Using gel colors you can color your fondant any color you’d like.  Dust the counter with powdered sugar and roll out the fondant so that it’s about ¼” thick.  Using tiny cookie cutters cut out shapes that will coordinate with the theme of your party.  You can lay the fondant on top of the frosted cupcake or let the fondant dry and then stand the shape up in the frosting.
6. Give your cupcakes the airbrushed look.  No need to buy an expensive airbrush to get the airbrushed look.  The same coloring comes in an aerosol can now and can be used on cupcakes.  Frost your cupcakes like normal and allow the frosting to crust (dry to the touch).  Place the cupcakes on a newspaper covered surface.  Using long strokes spray the top of the frosted cupcake.  Make sure to start and stop off of the cupcake.  If you’d like you can make them half and half by blocking half of the cupcake with a piece of cardboard while you are spraying.
7. Make S’mores cupcakes using a kitchen torch.  Instead of using frosting to frost your cupcake, use marshmallow cream.  Have some mini chocolate bars or broken pieces of chocolate ready to stick into the marshmallow cream.  Crush some graham crackers and keep them beside you in a bowl.  Take a kitchen torch and toast the marshmallow cream, sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs, and stick a piece of chocolate into the marshmallow. 
8. Dress up cookie dough cupcakes with mini chips and mini cookies.  To make cookie dough cupcakes, take some store bought chocolate chip cookie dough and roll it into 1 inch balls.  Make your chocolate or vanilla cupcake batter as usual, but before baking add the cold cookie dough to the center of the cupcake.  Make the cookie dough chunks big enough so they are not fully submerged in batter.  Bake the cupcakes until a toothpick comes out clean.  Frost with vanilla buttercream, sprinkle with mini chocolate chips, and top with a mini chocolate chip cookie.
9. Edible sugared flowers will add a touch of whimsy to your cupcakes.  Edible flowers are available at specialty grocery stores.  Buy a mixture of edible flowers and lay them out on some waxed paper.  Beat up an egg white and pour it into a shallow bowl.  Pour some superfine sugar into another shallow bowl.  Take your flowers, one at a time, and dip them first into the egg white and then into the sugar.  Place the coated flowers back on the waxed paper to dry.  Frost your cupcakes like normal and top right away with a sugared flower.
10. Add chocolate cut-out flowers for a springtime birthday.  Melt a cup of candy melts with 1 T of shortening.  Spread it onto a piece of waxed paper about 1/8” thick.  Place onto the bottom side of a cookie sheet and place in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes.  Once the chocolate is set remove from the refrigerator.  Take a small metal cookie cutter in the shape of a flower and dip it into a small bowl of hot water.  Dry it off and quickly use the warm cookie cutter to cut out flowers from the chocolate.  Frost the cupcakes with green frosting and apply the chocolate flowers to the cupcakes.  Using a little frosting you can apply M&M’s to the centers of the flowers.  Do one flower or a whole bouquet on each cupcake.

Black Bottom Raspberry Cream Pie

Today is National Raspberry Cream Pie Day, but what's a raspberry cream pie without chocolate?

One of my favorite recipes is from Bon Appetit (July 2004) aka Epicurious for Black Bottom Raspberry Cream Pie. The "black bottom" is a layer of chocolate pudding.. and as a bonus there's a chocolate cookie crust. Be sure and chill the pie overnight before adding the topping.

As far as berries go, any great organic raspberry works. I love Driscoll's berries because they're always good. This is raspberry season, so pick up a few pints today and make this incredible pie to celebrate. No time to make this delicious pie? Dance the Black Bottom! See video below.

FYI: This recipe is also a great black bottom 'anything' recipe: bananas and other fruit go very well with it, too.

Black Bottom Raspberry Cream Pie 

Crust
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 3/4 cups crushed chocolate wafer cookies (about 30 cookies from one 9-ounce package)
1/2 cup sweet butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar

Filling
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 1/2 cups whole milk, divided
2 large egg yolks
1 large egg
4 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 tablespoons sweet butter

Topping
3 1/2-pint containers raspberries
1 cup chilled whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For crust:
Spray 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish with nonstick spray. 

Blend cookie crumbs, butter, and sugar in medium bowl. 

Press mixture evenly over bottom and up sides (not on rim) of prepared dish.

Chill crust 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake crust until set, about 10 minutes, then cool.

For filling:
Combine sugar, cocoa, and cornstarch in heavy medium saucepan; whisk to blend well. 

Gradually add 1/4 cup milk, whisking until cornstarch dissolves. 

Whisk in remaining 2 1/4 cups milk, then egg yolks and egg. 

Stir over medium-high heat until pudding thickens and boils, about 8 minutes. 

Remove from heat. 

Add chocolate and butter; whisk until melted and smooth. 

Spread pudding in prepared crust. Press plastic wrap onto pudding to cover and chill pie overnight.

For topping:
Peel plastic wrap off pie. 

Cover chocolate layer with raspberries, pointed side up, pressing lightly into chocolate to adhere (some berries will be left over). 

Beat cream, sugar, and vanilla in medium bowl until peaks form; spread over berries on pie. 

Arrange remaining berries atop cream. 

Chill pie at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours.

And, the dance sensation that started it all: The Black Bottom.  In this video, the Varsity Drag title is in error. The Black Bottom replaced "The Charleston" as the next most popular dance of the 1920's. Released June 28, 1926. Written by Buddy De Sylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson.  Black bottom dancing was for the young and energetic. This song and style of dancing were popular in the1920's.