Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with a Chocolate Ganache Frosting

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with a Chocolate Ganache Frosting

(Original recipe came from:  The Baking Pan) I slightly adjusted the recipe and made it easier for me to bake.


Step 1: Preheat oven to 350'. Grease and flour 2 9" round cake pans. Make sure they are the deep pans. I used shallow ones and overflowed them in the oven one of the times.

Step 2: The Batter

I normally like to do this in a stand mixer as it really adds air to the batter and the cake comes out super light and fluffy, but I recently blew mine up making sticky buns and don't have a  hand mixer....so Tom came up with a way to mix my batter. I use a beater in  the drill. Hey...It works!

In a bowl, Beat the following:

• 3 c. flour (all-purpose0
• 2 1/2 c. sugar
• 4 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/3 c. vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 c. buttermilk (If i don't have butter milk I take 1 1/2 c. skim milk as that's what I drink and add just over 1 Tbs of lemon juice to the milk. Stir it and let it curdle a little and you have buttermilk. I do this in my banana bread all the time too!)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 c freshly brewed coffee. I usually have mine cooled off, but the recipe calls for hot. Mine is also normally hazelnut flavored...Yum!
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (or in my case...1/2 tsp Double Bourbon Pampered Chef Vanilla Extract)

Step 3: Pour batter evenly into the 2 cake pans and bake at 350' for 30-35 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. Let them cool on a cake rack for 5-10 minutes and then remove from pans to cool completely.

 Step 4: Make the Ganache!

Ingredients:

• 12 oz Semi-sweet Chocolate
• 1 1/2 c. Heavy Whipping Cream

Note: A bag of 12 oz. chocolate chips works wonderfully as they are already chopped. Ashlin doesn't like the bitterness of dark chocolate, so I often add milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet if she is going to be eating it.

The recipe calls for a double boiler and a hassle. I like doing it simply, so I use my Pampered Chef bowl, add the ingredients and melt it in the microwave!!! Simple! You can burn it in the microwave so....Use 30 second intervals and stir each time until the chocolate is melted.

Add the ingredients to the bowl.

Put in the microwave for 30 seconds. Take out and stir.

Not quite melted, so stir and return to the microwave for an additional 30 seconds.

Stir and back to the microwave.

Finally melted. Stir it up well and put in the fridge to start hardening.

 Put the melted and stirred chocolate Sauce into the fridge to chill. Keep checking it and stirring until it thickens enough to frost the cake . The longer you chill it and the more you stir it, the thicker it will get.

Chill and stir!

Chill and stir some more!

Step 5: Frost the Cake

A true ganache will be slightly runny when you apply it. I could have waited and frosted it, but I was trying to get out the door with it, so I poured some over the first layer. Spread it a little. Added the second layer of cake and poured and spread it over the entire cake.

Note: My camera battery died, so I switched to my cell phone, and the colors are a little washed out for the next few photos.

Step 6: Serve and Enjoy! This cake is very rich so small servings are perfect. This 1/2 of the cake fed 8 of us.

This is the true color.

I like a little extra sauce on top

Tartar Sauce Recipe

How many times do you have fish and have no tartar sauce in the fridge? We don't have fish very often, so this is fairly common with us.

Well, it is the simplest thing to make!

First: Gather your ingredients: Mayo, Relish, and Lemon juice.

Next, spoon in some Mayo in the bowl...probably about 1/2 a cup. I don't typically measure this out. Add about a couple tablespoons of relish and a squirt of lemon juice (about 1/2 to 1 tsp).

 Stir and serve with your fish. YUM!

Hungarian Paprikash (aka Paprika) Sauce

Hungarian Paprikash (aka Paprika) Sauce is perfect to top chicken, beef, pork or in this case....Cabbage Rolls! Sabad's in Norfolk used to serve a sauce similar to this over their cabbage rolls that my grandmother loved. This is the closest I could come to replicating it.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs vegetable oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 Tbs paprika
• 2 1/2 Tbs flour
• 1 1/4 c. chicken stock
• 4 Tbs dry white wine (or sherry)
• 2/3 c. sour cream
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Using skillet, heat the oil.
2. Add onions and cook until soft.

3. Add Paprika and Flour stirring constantly for 2 minutes.

4. Gradually stir in chicken stock and bring to a boil stirring continuously.

5. Add wine and salt and pepper to taste.

6. Cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

7. Stir in sour cream.

8. Serve and Enjoy!!!

Cabbage Noodles Recipe

Cabbage Noodles are a specialty item every time we go to Sabad's in Norfolk.  They serve them as an appetizer to every meal. I got the recipe from someone that worked their 15 or more years ago when Shiny still owned the restaurant. They pair nicely with cabbage rolls. I had to make them recently when my Nana visited as Sabad's no longer makes cabbage rolls and they are her favorite.

Cabbage Noodles and Cabbage Rolls with Paprika and Tomato Sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1 Large Cabbage (or in my case the inside of 2 cabbages...the outside is used for the rolls.)
• 3 sticks of butter (not margarine)
• Garlic (powder or fresh....I use fresh if I have it, but powder will work in a pinch)
• Salt and Pepper (I like lots of fresh ground pepper in mine)
• 1 large bag medium sized Egg Noodles

Step 1: Take your large cabbage (or the middle of 2 cabbages) and cut them in half. Core them to remove the hard stem. Then finely chop the cabbage and put it in a large pot.

Step 2: Add 3 sticks of butter to the pot. Start cooking it on medium heat stirring it until the butter is melted. Then let it simmer. It should simmer for a minimum of 3 hours.

Step 3: After it cooks down for a while (about an hour), add the garlic, salt and pepper.I love my Garlic Press from Pampered Chef. I add the whole clove of garlic and remove the skin from the press after words.  Nice, quick, and clean and I don't have to worry about my fingers smelling like garlic afterwards. I usually add 3-4 cloves of garlic. It depends on how much garlic you like. I like garlic!  Then add salt and pepper. I use the freshly ground sea salt and pepper as they are so fresh and savory.

Add Salt and Pepper

Step 4: (Optional) I don't like large chunks of cabbage in my noodles, so after about 2 hours of cooking I will use my blending stick and grind up the cabbage a little more.

(Note: The true color are the above photos, but my camera battery died and I switched to my cell phone camera while it charged.)

 Step 5: After about 3 hours, your cabbage should look like this:

Just a little Steamy!!!

I often will let it brown just a little bit more, but I was running out of time and this is an okay consistency....so my impatience said it was ready.

 Step 6: Cook the noodles, drain them and add them to the cabbage!!! Stir it up and let it cook just a bit longer to meld everything together.

  Step 7: Serve and Enjoy!!!!