So in attempt to keep my sanity I'm going to translate my love for cooking into the blog until something fun happens like finishing school or having little ones! I love cooking almost more than anything. It's such a stress relief for me. Plus, oftentimes people ask me for my recipes and now I can refer them here! Let me start with a little backstory on my love of cooking. While it's fun to cook from scratch it's not always practical. Sandra Lee, of semi-homemade with Sandra Lee, is a girl after my own heart. Everything she cooks is gorgeous and I imagine delicious; however, she takes necessary shortcuts to save herself time and money. Nothing is wrong with using a boxed cake mix or canned frosting, but if you use one of the two make sure you add your own twist so it is actually yours and technically home made. Like I mentioned before, tonight we are having a fish fry for J's 25th birthday. Since fathers day is tomorrow, too, we are meshing the two celebrations a little.
Gene's Chocolate Explosion
One of the first things I learned about my step dad 16 years ago is that the man loves chocolate. I think you could bribe Gene Dickerson into wearing a dress and high heels with enough chocolate. So as I was trying to come up with something to cook him for Father's Day I came across the perfect storm. Chocolate cheesecake sandwiched between chocolate cake smothered in chocolate frosting. Like I mentioned before this recipe is semi-homemade. The original recipe would've taken me three weeks to make since it required homemade cake, homemade cheesecake, and homemade frosting. I decided I would make the chocolate cheesecake, use a boxed cake mix, and I was on the fence about the frosting. Normally if I use a box cake mix I always make my own frosting but Gene loves Duncan Hines chocolate frosting so it made it that much easier.
***Disclaimer: I am an idiot and forgot to put eggs in the cheesecake therefore it is very flat but still tastes delicious!
For this recipe you'll need:
- Chocolate cake mix (I used Devil's food)
- 1 can of chocolate frosting (I used Duncan Hines chocolate buttercream)
- 2-8 ounce cream cheese blocks
- 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 5-1 ounce squares of chocolate (I used 2 bittersweet and 3 semisweet squares)
- 2 eggs. Please Lord, don't forget the eggs or else your cheesecake will look like a flat tire :).
Spray a 10" springform pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper. Place a double layer of tin foil around the outside so your water bath won't seep in. Place in a large pan.
First, melt your chocolate in a microwaveable glass bowl at 30 second intervals, stirring after each. (It took mine about 2 minutes total). Let chocolate cool while you get the rest of the cheesecake going. I forgot to take a picture of this--did I mention I forgot eggs, yeah, I have mental lapses all the time.
In a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add in sugar and cocoa, mix well. Add in eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Pour in lukewarm chocolate and beat well. Scrape the batter and beat one more time. This makes a really thick batter. Scoop into your prepared pan and smooth with a spatula or butter knife. Place the pan on the lowest rack in the oven. Pour hot water into the roaster pan around the springforn pan (you are NOT pouring water onto your cheesecake :) The water should come up about 1 inch on the sides- mine took 3 cups. Bake at 325 for 45 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes then remove from water, remove foil, dry pan, and put in fridge until ready to assemble.
Whilst the cheesecake is baking, prepare your cake mix according to box directions. Note: I usually use buttermilk instead of water in box cake mixes because it makes them richer, denser, and you can really make folks think its from scratch; however, since this cake is already going to be rich by nature, I only substituted 1/3 cup of regular milk instead of using the full 1 1/3 cup of water. Also, to make your cakes smooth, seriously beat for 30 seconds on low, then 2 minutes on medium. I set my kitchen timer, it really works. Once the batter is ready, pour into your greased and papered pans (I used 2-9" pans because I don't have 10" ones). My mom and grandmother always use Crisco and flour. I HATE doing that so only when I'm making red velvet do I use this method. I have found that pam and parchment or wax paper works well. Another tip: put cake batter in pans using measuring cups. This will ensure your cakes are more even and you don't have to shave as much off when it comes time to assemble. Bake the cakes at 325 (the box said 350 but my oven was at 325 so I went with it-it was fine) for 30 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes then transfer to cooling rack. Cool completely.
When everything is cooled and ready transfer one cake to cutting board and shave off top to make an even surface. This helps the cake not be lopsided when you frost it. My mom has this fancy cake slicer, but she took it home so I used a serrated knife. Next, trim the 10" cheesecake by placing the 9" pan on top and cutting the edges with a sharp knife. (Insert hungry dad here to eat the scraps!) Place trimmed cheesecake on top and press down. Now trim the top off the last cake and our it on top of the cheesecake. Press down again. There is no icing in the middle because the cheesecake acts as your soft middle. Now frost the entire top and sides of this chocolate masterpiece. As if there weren't enough chocolate, I grated 1/2 of a semisweet chocolate square on top and placed the other two pieces in the center for decoration.
Stay tuned for Jason's strawberry cake and homemade ice cream.. Happy eating!!
No comments:
Post a Comment