Triple Chocolate Orange Passion Cake

I originally saw this cake in "Cakes From Scratch in Half the Time" by Linda West Eckhardt and I tried her recipe. I felt it needed a little something and I played around and adapted her recipe. I hope you think that the changes I made really make it over the top.  I haven't had any complaints. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS FOR THE CAKE
2 large eggs
2 ounces (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sifted cake flour (sifted before measuring)
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder (See note from here http://ladybugtreats.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-few-basic-pointers.html)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons espresso powder (again, really, read that blog post!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk (that blog post, it's a good primer, I'm telling ya!)
1/4 cup canola oil (ok, if you don't have canola, you can use vegetable oil, but when you use it all up, just buy canola in the future, okay?)
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange**

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FROSTING
6 tablespoons soft, unsalted butter (go ahead, read that blog post!)
1 pound (1 box) sifted confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon orange oil ****
1 teaspoon espresso powder (there's that blog post again)
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I like Scharffen Berger)

Clementine or orange slices for decoration (optional)
additional bittersweet chocolate for dipping (optional)


** You CAN use the same orange for this! How? Carefully using a zester, remove as much orange zest as possible without getting into the bitter white pith. Your orange is going to look pretty wild like it has been "scored" all over. Once you can no longer get any zest, cut the orange in half crosswise; the orange is pretty fragile at this point.  Invert each orange half over a juicer "cone" and extract as much juice as you can without getting into the pith; take whatever pulp you can get - you want the flavor and it will not affect the texture of the finished cake. Your zest may be in long strips, but you want them in as small pieces as possible before adding them to the batter. Either using a small knife or herb shears, cut or mince the zest pieces into as small pieces as possible prior to adding into the batter, trying to avoid releasing the orange oil from the zest. (I've found that using kitchen shears and mincing the zest directly into the batter releases the orange oil into the batter without loss of flavor and no loss of little zest pieces.)

****You can use orange extract if you are unable to find orange oil, but the difference in the finished product is like M&M's versus Godiva Truffles. Both will give you the orange flavor, but the orange oil will bring you to your knees and make you swoon. www.Boyajianinc.com sells citrus oils (and many other flavors) at reasonable prices and is also available at some Costco and Sur La Table stores.


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and arrange the rack in the middle of the oven. Using two 9" or three 8" shiny aluminum round cake pans, spray with Baker's Joy or Pam for Baking. Remove eggs from fridge and allow to come to room temperature (approx 30 mins) or put them in a bowl of hot tap water for about 5 minutes. Place a kettle on the stove bring about two cups of water to a boil.  Place the unsweetened chocolate squares in a one cup glass measuring cup and melt in the microwave on high power for about one minute. The squares may still hold their shape, but stir with a small rubber spatula until all remaining lumps are melted; if necessary, return to microwave for 10-15 seconds and stir again until lumps are completely gone.

Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, salt and espresso powder into the mixer bowl. beat on low speed for 30 seconds then add, on at at time, the milk, oil, eggs, vanilla, and orange zest. Beat at 2 minutes at medium speed scraping the aides of the bowl. Add boiling water to the orange juice until it makes one cup then add slowly to the melted chocolate until incorporated. Add chocolate-orange-water mixture to the batter and stir until just blended.

Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake until a wooden pick comes out clean, 15-20 minutes. (Layers are really thin and batter is much more watery than you'd expect.) Cool the pans on a rack for 5 minutes, then flip the layers out onto the rack to cool.

WHILE THE CAKE IS BAKING
Make the frosting: In a stand mixer bowl, cream the butter with half the confectioner's sugar on low speed, then add the cream, espresso powder and remaining confectioner's sugar (sifted together), salt, and orange oil.  Melt the chocolate in the microwave on high about one minute in a small bowl (same process as for the cake, but it doesn't need to get HOT, just barely melted without lumps) then scoop the chocolate into the frosting and continue beating on low to medium until smooth and fluffy. Let the frosting stand while the cake cools.

FOR THE GARNISH
Melt two squares of bittersweet chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave until smooth and without lumps. Peel and section two clementines and remove as much of the pith and membrane as possible.  Dip the individual slices into the bittersweet chocolate coating about halfway up each slice. Allow excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl and place the slices on a sheet of parchment on a cookie sheet. Place cookie sheet in the refrigerator to firm up completely while the cake continues to cool and is frosted.

TO COMPLETE IT ALL
Transfer the bottom layer to a cake plate (flat side up) and add about 1/3 of frosting and smooth with an offset spatula. Put the remaining layer on top (flat side down) and frost the top and sides with the remaining frosting.  Arrange the dipped clementine slices around the base of the cake (or if you're like me around the top of the cake so that everyone gets one with their slice!) Put cake in the fridge to allow it all to firm up (otherwise, cake will be very wobbly, as the frosting is soft and the layers are thin. The original recipe recommends putting toothpicks into the layers to stabilize them. Personally, I *hate* cutting into a cake and finding toothpicks or something that's supposed to give it "structure"... I'd rather put it in the fridge and allow nature to stabilize it - since it should be kept cool anyway because of the cream in the frosting... but again, that's one of the ways how I tweaked it from the original author's recipe.)

This cake is ultra-rich and I really don't think I *could* eat a big slice. Although, I'd be willing to try in the name of research... I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and friends have. I know it sounds complicated, especially for those of you baking for the first time "out of the box", but it's really not. Trust me. If my 14-year-old daughter can make this, YOU can! Now, grab a fork and dig in!

Are you following me on Pinterest? You should be!

Buffalo Chicken Dip - Super Easy!

Superbowl Sunday

It's kind of a BIG deal in our house.  We don't care who plays (okay, we girls *usually* don't care who plays) and I, for one, am still on a "Not watching any NFL games while Michael Vick is wearing a jersey" ban (especially since my hometown team signed the convicted felon... but that's a story for another post!) But it's a big day for watching the commercials and eating appetizers. In fact, it's the only day of the year when I specifically do NOT plan dinner and we plan an appetizer-only menu. We actually start planning about two weeks ahead and get input from the whole family and try to make sure we get all the major food groups represented: Chicken, Beef, Cheese, Peppers, and Deep Fried. LOL No, we actually *do* try to have veggies... with ranch!

Anyway, at Thanksgiving, my niece Kate made this fabulous Buffalo Chicken dip that everyone was scarfing down.  Seriously.  If my husband and kids could have had a telescopic wand come out of their mouth they would have Hoovered the stuff right into their mouths. They begged me to get the recipe for Superbowl Sunday. Kate and I spent Thanksgiving gabbing and catching up since I hadn't seen her in about two years (we live 900 miles apart) so I didn't taste the dip. I got the recipe from her and realized quickly what all the fuss was about.  Oh, yeah - it's that good.  Superbowl Sunday will never be the same in our family.


As Kate says, "Here's the Ridiculously Easy Recipe" for Buffalo Chicken Dip
Makes 16 servings

one half cup Chunky Blue Cheese Salad Dressing
1-1/2-3 tablespoons Buffalo Sauce (I use Frank's Original Red Hot) *You will need to adjust this to taste.
one 10-ounce can chunk chicken, drained
one 8-ounce package of Philadelphia cream cheese, softened, 
one medium stalk celery finely chopped - about one half cup

Pita Chips or Rye Chips or Fritos Scoops to serve with Dip




Place drained chunk chicken in bowl and shred. (This can be done many ways - with a fork, with beaters, or with a spatula. You can search for the different methods of shredding chicken on Pinterest.) Once shredded,, it should look like this:

To the chicken, add the blue cheese dressing, softened cream cheese,  and Frank's Red Hot. Heat in microwave 2-3 minutes on 80% power and stir until thoroughly combined. Heat another 1-2 minutes on full power (depending on the wattage of your microwave) until just bubbling.

Stir in diced celery to hot chicken-cheese mixture and serve with your choice of dipping chips. I prefer Rye chips while my husband prefers Fritos Scoops (more dip per scoop ratio!) Again, sit back, relax, and accept the compliments because this bad boy will be selling itself!

***Now, we used 2-1/2 tablespoons of Frank's Hot sauce, but we like our stuff HOT. (We lived in Southern California for 6 years, so we developed a taste for it!) Start at the low end and you can always add more. Kate makes hers with 1-1/2 tablespoons. Find your happy place and go with it :-)

This recipe is easily doubled (in fact, it usually is in our family!) and can also be served with celery stalks for dipping and as a side to Buffalo wings (mostly because we're not huge fans of Blue Cheese dressing, so I try to use it all up at once when guests are over!) I know there are a lot of different recipes out there for this, but this one is quick, easy, and I have yet to see left-overs from it!