About a year ago, I got it into my head that I’d like a kitchen scale and I’d like to figure out ratio baking. The Husband got me a kitchen scale for Christmas, probably because I wouldn’t shut up about it, and then my brain panicked because it meant I should actually use it. I spent the first few weeks of the year thinking about it, thinking of taking the scale out of the cabinet and making something. I wasn’t quite sure of what to make, and I froze again. Then I decided I wanted cake, and the cake ratio looked simple (1:1:1:1 flour to sugar to eggs to butter)…
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Adventures in Ratio Baking: Let’s Try Custard Again
A few weeks ago, I tried making custard using it’s ratio of 2:1 dairy to eggs. Since it just says dairy, and since I just happened to have a can of sweetened condensed milk sitting around doing nothing, I thought, well, why not? Turns out there’s a reason why I’ve never seen a custard recipe use sweetened condensed milk. It’s thick! And super sweet. Last week I decided it was time to try again. The right way. With actual dairy. And I mean using milk. Just milk and eggs, and, of course, cocoa powder because chocolate. Everything is better with chocolate. Well, that’s a lie. I wouldn’t want chocolate on…
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Adventures in Ratio Baking: Chocolate Cake With Whipped Cream Frosting
I like to think I’ve finally mastered ratio baking a chocolate cake. A high ratio chocolate cake, that is. At least, one that I enjoy because my husband won’t eat chocolate cake, my son only likes to decorate, and my daughter is partial to the whipped cream. And my cat should absolutely keep her distance. Oh, well. More cake for me. Anyways, I thought that perhaps the pinnacle of my chocolate cake journey should be a recipe. So I set out to convert my ratios into measurements. Twice. The first time was a disaster, and even I didn’t want to eat it. The second time, thankfully, was a success. But…
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Recipe Review: Chocolate and Hazelnut Mug Cake from Mother of Girls
Last week I tried the Birthday Cake Surprise mug cake from Mother of Girls, because I thought my son would try it so I let him pick which one I made. Turns out I was wrong; he did not want to try it. It was delicious, but I’m a chocoholic, so I wished I had made the Chocolate and Hazelnut mug cake instead. So I did. And it was as good as I expected based on how good the birthday cake one was! My son wasn’t as interested in helping me this time, so I held my daughter and she got to watch me add all the ingredients and give…
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Baker’s One Bowl Brownies
If you’ve ever picked up a bar of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate squares, you’ve probably seen this one. My mom and I have always followed this one religiously, though we sometimes add the nuts and sometimes don’t. I remember countless mornings whipping up a batch of brownies and then begging my mom to put it in the fridge to get it cooled off sooner. Now, with babies of my own, I make this one with my toddler’s help while I hold his baby sister with one arm. Really, it’s easy enough to do with one hand, until the stove and oven parts, of course. For years and years, I used a…
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National Chocolate Cake Day
January 27th is chocolate cake day. So enjoy some chocolate cake tomorrow! My favorite chocolate cake recipe is only about 4 or so years old. We had recently moved to Pennsylvania and, for some reason, I was dying to have chocolate cake. Only we didn’t have any butter at all. So I did some searching online and found this recipe. I wish I could remember where I found it. Since then it has become my go-to chocolate cake recipe, with a couple of minor tweaks. It’s light and moist and is fabulous as both cake and cupcake. I even made it into a two layer bundt cake once and filled…
