Cheesecake Bottom Chocolate Cake--SRC

This month for Secret Recipe Club, I had Grandma Loy's Kitchen. It wasn't hard to pick a recipe. When I saw the chocolate ripple cake, I knew that was the one. Sometimes life is just like that. Now Grandma Loy had warned that her ripple didn't ripple in her recipe. Instead it sank to the bottom of her cake making a sort of cheesecake layer on the bottom. I was hoping mine would ripple, but was totally cool with it if it didn't because I thought that cheesecake layer on the bottom looked delish.

Well, it didn't ripple.

But it is delish. The cake is light and chocolate-y. In some ways the texture is a lot like a cake mix cake. For some people that light, moist cake box texture is a huge selling point, though I know there are others thinking, "I'm not reading food blogs so I can make something that tastes like a boxed cake." So let me emphasize that the flavor is so much more delicious than a boxed cake (which always tastes like fake chocolate to me). Light, chocolate, simple cake. And then that cheesecake-ish layer on the bottom almost gave it a tres leches sort of flavor. Top it with a frosting of your choice and you're in business (we used chocolate of course, though I think a rich vanilla might have been even better). This cake with its cheesecake bum could also totally rock a berry sauce instead of (or in addition to) the frosting. It could even be a sort of upside down cake. The cheesecake layer doesn't stick at all, so you could easily flip this baby over, drizzle some raspberry sauce over it and go nuts. 

And if you're still pining for the ripple that wasn't, know this: The only change I made to the original rippling recipe is that I used butter instead of shortening (Grandma Loy used butter too). Thus, the original recipe was either a fluke or shortening is how you'd get a ripple. However, I would never use shortening in a cake recipe not for a million years even if you paid me (unless you paid me more than $5 in which case I could probably be persuaded to make you a nasty shortening cake). But I wouldn't do it for a ripple, not when you get your tasty cheesecake bottom and a buttery chocolate cake as a consolation prize.

Cheesecake Bottom Chocolate Cake
adapted from Grandma Loy's Kitchen
Makes 1 9x13 or 2 layers
Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Cook time: 40-45 minutes (for 9x13, probably less for layers)
Cost: $3.95 (or about $.15/small piece)
butter: .50, sugar: .15, eggs: .10, flour: .20, cocoa: .35, buttermilk: .75 (or .25 if you make your own buttermilk from milk and vinegar), cream cheese: 1.00, butter: .15, sweetened condensed milk: 1.00, egg: .10, other stuff: .15

For the Cake:

1/2 C (1 stick) butter (I melt mine; I believe this makes for moister cake)
1 1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 2/3 C all-purpose flour
2/3 C cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 C buttermilk

For the cheesecake: 

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
2 Tbsp butter softened
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract

Grease 1 9x13 inch pan. Preheat oven to 350.

In a large mixing bowl, melt butter. Add sugars and beat. Add eggs and vanilla and beat.

In a smaller bowl, combine dry ingredients. Add part of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Beat. Then add about 1/2 the buttermilk to the batter. Beat. Add more dry ingredients. Beat. Add the rest of the buttermilk. Beat. Add any remaining dry ingredients. Beat. (Note: This is the textbook way to add dry ingredients and milk to a batter. But sometimes I'm lazy and plop things all in. I do think it's better when you alternate though.)

Pour your batter into your greased pan.

Now make your cheesecake part. Beat cream cheese, butter, and cornstarch. To this gradually add in your sweetened condensed milk, beating all the while. Then beat in egg and vanilla.

Pour this over your chocolate cake batter as evenly as possible. It will look like this:

Bake this at 350 for about 40 minutes. (Mine took 45.)

Remove from oven. If you're making a layer cake, let layers cool 10 minutes, then turn them out on racks to cool completely. If you've gone the lazy road like me and make a 9x13, then just let it sit there.

When it's cook, frost it with Kip's Fudge Frosting or Vanilla Butter Frosting or any other frosting that floats your boat. Truth be told, I think this cake could stand alone without frosting (gasp)--yes, I do.

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An InLinkz Link-up

Triple Choc Cookies

Back to school means cookies, right? At least if you're a good mom like myself. Or maybe if you're a good mom you'll have some carrot sticks and celery waiting, but whatever.

I have another triple chocolate cookie recipe posted on this site. It's intensely chocolate-y and very decadent. It's also a wee bit fussy and pricier than your average cookie (due to the 16 ounces of chocolate you melt into them and all). Evenso I consider it pretty perfect and have actually avoided recipes like the one today because when I wanted a triple chocolate cookie, I wanted a triple chocolate cookie. However, this summer when my daughter and her friend had a baking day, she picked this cookie to be on the menu. And I'm really glad she did. It was surprisingly delicious--the white and semi sweet chips balancing each other out, the edges just a bit crispy with a chewy soft center (perfect cookie consistency in my book). And all that for a simple, affordable cookie recipe. It's perfect for a quick after school treat idea. It is not as intensely chocolate-y as my other recipe (for better or for worse--chocoholics will probably prefer the other recipe, while people looking for a slightly souped up chocolate chip cookie will probably prefer this one). But whether you're a chocoholic or not, this is a good, quick way to get your fix (um, also for better or for worse). 

Triple Choc Cookies

adapted from Baking with Kids

Makes 2 dozen cookies

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10-12 minutes/batch

Cost: $2.45 (or about $.10/cookie)

butter: .50, sugar: .10, brown sugar: .15, egg: .10, cocoa: .10, chocolate chips: .75, white chocolate chips: .75

9 Tbsp butter, softened (yes, that is an annoying amount; I'd guess the world wouldn't stop if you skipped the last tablespoon, but I make no guarantees)

1/2 C sugar

2/3 C brown sugar

1 egg

1 2/3 C flour

2 1/2 Tbsp cocoa

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

pinch salt

2/3 C semisweet chocolate chips

2/3 C white chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. 

Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg. Add dry ingredients (if your cocoa is chunky, you might want to sift it, but I don't). 

Add chocolate and white chocolate chips. 

Roll cookies into balls and place them a couple inches apart on the cookie sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes (yes, broad range--I like them at about 12 minutes, but if you like a crispier cookie, cook longer). 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Caramel Buttermilk Syrup

So I gave you my nice healthy whole wheat and zucchini pancakes. And I mean, sure, you could eat them with some wholesome topping--some fruit sauce or pure maple syrup or maybe a bit of lightly sweetened Greek yogurt. Ooooorrrr.... You could top them with this intensely decadent, slightly wicked caramel buttermilk syrup. You could also top ice cream with this (for reals), but we needn't discuss that right now because we're pretending that this is something acceptable for a breakfast food.

The idea of buttermilk syrup was kind of gross to me at first--if you've ever had a swig of actual buttermilk, you will understand this. It's an acidic, sour tasting milk. But don't worry, in this recipe it's combined with a stick of butter and a couple cups of sugar. Also, you add baking soda, which combines with that acidic milk and works its science-y magic and makes it so there's not a hint of sour anywhere near this syrup.

Also, in order to justify my unwholesome breakfast habits, let me point out that surely this (in some form of moderation should you be able to manage that) surely isn't any worse than pancakes smeared with butter and topped with cheap syrup. So enjoy.

Caramel Buttermilk Syrup
adapted from Creations by Kara
Makes: a few cups
Cook time: 10-ish minutes
Cost: $1.30
buttermilk: .40, sugar: .10, brown sugar: .25, butter: .50, other stuff: .05

Note: Often I substitute milk and vinegar for buttermilk. I'm guessing that will NOT work in this so I don't recommend you try it.
-You know what else I discovered won't work: Lowfat buttermilk. Sorry, guys, but the full fat does better.

Note: Be sure to start the buttermilk off in a cool pan. Once I added it to an already hot pan because I'd been distracted while making this and the pan heated up before I got my ingredients in it. The buttermilk curdled, so start it off cool and heat it from there.

1 1/2 C buttermilk
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C (1 stick) butter
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

In a large saucepan, bring buttermilk, sugars, and butter to a boil over medium heat. When it's boiling, take it off the heat and whisk in the baking soda. it's going to bubble up like crazy, so be sure you have not used a tiny saucepan. Whisk in vanilla (don't forget--it adds a lot).

As this cools the bubbles go away. (Though you don't have to wait for it to cool to serve it--just stir it up and get a nice ladle full.)

According to the original blogger, this will keep for several months in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, we have not be able to put this theory to the test as ours is often gone in two days.

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