The Traveling Epicurean

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“Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake”

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“Perfectly Chocolate Chocolate Cake”

ghostpeepstwoThe name “perfectly chocolate chocolate cake” pretty much sums it up right there although you won’t know how easy it is to make this homemade gourmet chocolaty cake until you give it a go! This incredible cake and frosting made from Hershey’s Cocoa Powder I have been making for almost 20 years now!  Once you see how easy it is to make these moist and chocolaty homemade cakes you’ll never go back to the box again! Besides on my blog you can find these recipe’s right on the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa canister.

I was first turned on to the recipe by a mother-daughter baking team that I met about 20 years ago. They were professional baking contestants from the Midwest who had won numerous times. My quest at the time was to find the “perfect” chocolate cake and their answer was the Hershey’s Cocoa recipe. Not that the name itself on the back of the Hershey canister for this chocolate cake recipe wasn’t “perfect” enough I just couldn’t take the irony of it all so off I was trying out the recipe and baking this cake! It had such a lovely texture without being too dense or heavy. It was oh so chocolaty and moist to top it off. The amount of steps and effort put in to making this cake is pretty much equal to that of making a box cake so why would you ever resort back to making box ever again. You know me, I test other recipes to make sure I have the best and I always go back to the Hershey Cocoa recipe!

The Hershey’s “perfectly chocolate chocolate frosting” is one that should not be over looked either. The frosting is amazing and one of my favorite go to recipes totally blowing away that “canned” stuff with the plastic lid. I am really excited for these recipe’s to become a couple of your favorites too. You may find your friends and family requesting “your” perfectly chocolate cake for their next visit! I hope you enjoy the show!

You should check out my Green Goddess Dip & Sweet Potato Fries for an appetizer!  what ever you do DON’T FORGET TO ROAST your PUMKIN SEEDS! And how about some green ghoul Best Guacamole Guacmole Ever!  Or be creative with another dessert placing eatable eyballs on top a homemade Chocolate Meringue Pie!

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Ingredients for Cake:

  • 1 3/4 cups white sugar  -(Hershey recipe calls for 2 cups white sugar)
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup Hershey Cocoa
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking powder -(Hershey recipe calls for 1 1/2 tsp)
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking soda -(Hershey recipe calls for 1 1/2 tsp)
  • NOTE: I like to use 1 1/4 tsp baking powder & 1 1/4 tsp baking soda instead of the “Hershey” recipe that calls for 1 1/2 tsp for both because this produces a cake that is a little more moist because it doesn’t rise fully, and sometimes I even use 1/2 tsp baking powder & 1/2 tsp baking soda for a cake that has more of a pudding texture (not too dense or heavy either …just pudding like) Have fun!
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 lg. eggs
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup boiling water

TO MAKE GHOST CAKE THIS IS WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

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Find at “Michaels Stores” No. 1-3                                                                                                               Find at “Fresh Market” No. 4

  1. Ghost peeps
  2. Eatable eyballs
  3. Cookie Icing to write on small Hershey chocolate bars for tomb stone’s “RIP”
  4. Spider web stretchy candy (stretchy cotton candy-like) – stretch all around base & in between chocolate bar tomb stone’s
  5. Confectioner’s sugar sprinkled on top to look like a dusting of snow!
  6. Hershey chocolate bars-small ones-write on back “RIP” with Icing in bottle SHOWN ABOVE
  7. Glue candy eye’s and anchor tomb stone’s to cake with the cookie icing

Directions for Cake…NOTE- I Bake My Cake On Convection:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350º
  2. Grease and flour 2 – 9″ round baking pans
  3. Add all dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine
  4. Add in eggs, milk vanilla and oil and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes
  5. Stir in 1 cup boiling water til combined (batter will be thin)
  6. Pour evenly into cake pans
  7. Bake for 30-35 minutes –NOTE: I ALWAYS take the cake out at 30 minutes!
  8. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes
  9. Remove cakes from pans, place on cookie racks to cool completely before frosting
  10. I cool for 1 hour then immediately frost the cake

Ingredients for Frosting:

  • 1 stick of butter melted
  • 2/3 cup Hershey Cocoa
  • 3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
  • 1/3 cup plus 1-2 tbsp milk
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions for Frosting:

  1. Melt butter and add to lg bowl
  2. Add in Hershey Cocoa and vanilla and whisk til smooth
  3. Alternate adding in a tbsp of milk and 1/4 powdered sugar while beating on medium speed til smooth
  4. When texture is smooth add in more milk and powdered sugar until all is gone and it’s the thick creamy consistency you want

Homemade Potato Gnocchi

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Homemade Potato Gnocchi

My homemade, light and fluffy gnocchi recipe is a dish you really have to make just once in order to see how darn easy it is to create your own. These potato gnocchi are something that will exceed your expectations to the point that you will never want to go back to store bought again.  You’ll be hooked and you’ll never settle for less than these “melt-a-way gnocchi” which is exactly how one of my students described these little bundles of love. I want you to know how easily you can master this so make sure to watch my VIDEO that goes with this recipe where I take you step-by-step on how to make them including a Gorganzola Dolce Cream Sauce.

Yes, it does take some motivation but you only need about an hour after you bake the potatoes to make them. Once you start rolling out the potato ropes, cutting and then rolling them off a fork to make the little impressions …it’s a breeze! Not to mention when making the gnocchi you will end up with ample supply so you will be able to flash freeze the rest of what you don’t use for future dinners. You will be thrilled that all the hard work has already been done and now you just take them from the freezer to the boiling water, and then to the sauce. Enjoy! Make sure to watch my YouTube cooking show above that goes with this recipe and don’t forget to subscribe on my YouTube channel so that you can receive my latest cooking show releases!

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Ingredients:

Directions: Pre-heat oven to 400º

  1. Wash and pierce potatoes
  2. Bake potatoes for 1 hr. on middle rack until fork tender
  3. Cool slightly so you can handle them, 20-30 min.
  4. Slice potatoes in half and scoop potato flesh into potato ricer
  5. Rice two halves at a time into ex-lg bowl
  6. Repeat, ricing all the potatoes
  7. Make a well in the middle of the potatoes then add in flour, salt and nutmeg into the well
  8. Add in 2 whisked eggs
  9. With a spatula mix just to incorporate ingredients
  10. Turn out onto counter and kneading for 1 minute until ball forms…Do Not Over Knead
  11. Cut ball into 8 wedges, take one section at a time rolling out into a long rope
  12. Slice rope into 1/2″ pieces, roll each potato piece off a fork to form indentations
  13. Continue to do this until you go through all the potato dough
  14. Bring large pot of salted water to a low boil
  15. Add in gnocchi continuously, a few at a time, into boiling water
  16. Using a slotted spoon gently give a swirl to help them not to stick to the bottom
  17. NOTE: the boiling water should not be a full rapid boil but a low one
  18. As soon as they float to the top remove with a slotted spoon and add to your sauce
  19. Place the gnocchi you are not cooking right away onto cookie trays covered in parchment and flash freeze until solid, approx. 2 hrs.
  20. Once completely frozen place gnocchi into Ziploc baggies and place back into freezer
  21. When you are ready cook flash frozen gnocchi go directly from the freezer to the boiling water, give a couple of stirs so as not to clump at the bottom. NEVER thaw first or leave on counter too longer especially marble or granite because they will thaw quickly

Cake That Won’t Last

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Cake That Won’t Last

″Cake that won’t last″ is the perfect name for this dessert and when you make it you will understand why. This recipe came my dear foodie friend Christine. She is a great cook and whips up dishes like me in the “old school” self taught way of culinary cooking by taste and instinct, without recipes! Christine is one of my friends who graciously throws outrageous cooking parties where laughter and smiles are always in abundance.

This “cake that won’t last” is more like a bread pudding that does a great job of holding together in an actual slice. So it is a little messy…it’s not like a perfect slicing cake and when you taste it you be very happy with exactly how it is. You don’t even need a Kitchen Aid Mixer with this cake…it’s all mixed easily by hand. Adding a good vanilla ice cream, one in particular that I really like is Hood “Homemade Vanilla” which goes great with this bread-pudding-cake making it even more indulgent! This is a great dinner party cake and your guests will never know how easy it was.

You may want to start with some appetizers on the lighter side like sea scallop ceviche, bacon wrapped scallops or maybe mussels in a fennel & lemon grass sauce, and for dinner…how about my grilled Asian salmon with cold asparagus salad, sautéed chicken and fresh spinach, chicken roulades with roasted garlic and cannelini bean purée, or sea bass with green goddess sauce.

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Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup chopped up banana
  • 1 cup canned crushed pineapple with juice
  • 1 cup mandarin oranges with juice (if mandarin pieces are whole cut in 3’s)
  • 1 cup canola oil
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 Tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 cup sugar
  • 1 Tsp salt
  • 1 Tsp baking soda
  • 1 Tsp cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350º
  2. Butter and flour a bunt cake pan
  3. Put all the dry ingredients into a large mixing, set aside
  4. Put all the wet ingredients in another large bowl and gently whisk just to combine
  5. Add add the wet into the dry and using a spatula begin to stir to combine ingredients
  6. Put bunt cake pan onto a cookie sheet and place into the oven for 1 hour
  7. Place a piece of foil over the top after about 40 minutes so it doesn’t burn
  8. Take out and let cool 10 minutes
  9. Run a bendy pastry knife around the edges of the bunt pan to loosen it up
  10. Lay a large cake dish over the bunt pan and flip the cake over
  11. This cake is very moist and has bread pudding-like consistency so there may be some cake stuck to the bottom of the bunt pan after you flip the cake out…no worries just scrape any crispy or gooey parts off gently and put back onto cake top where it may be missing and you will also be sprinkling confectioners sugar over it
  12. Put confectioner sugar into a sieve or fine mesh strainer and sprinkle onto cake
  13. I like to serve this warm a la mode with Hood “Homemade Vanilla” ice cream