Baking with Blondie - Black Forrest Cake

BLACK FOREST CAKE

Traditional Black Forest Cake coming together with dark chocolate cake layers, a fresh cherry compote, whipped cream frosting, and a dark chocolate drip.

Author: Mandy | Baking with Blondie

Recipe type: Cake

INGREDIENTS

• Dark Chocolate Cake
• ⅔ cup sour cream
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla
• 3 whole eggs + 1 egg white
• ½ cup dark chocolate cocoa
• ½ cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
• 1 Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Cake Mix
• ¼ cup all purpose flour for high altitude
• 
  
• Cherry Compote/Filling
• 1½ Cup Fresh Cherries, Pitted and roughly chopped
• ½ Cup Water
• 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
• ¼ Cup Granulated Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• *optional: ⅛ teaspoon almond extract
• 
  
• Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting
• 1 Tablespoon Knox Gelatine (1 packet 1.8g)
• ½ cup water
• 3 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
• 3 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 
  
• Chocolate Ganache Drip
• 1 cup dark chocolate candy melts
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 
  
• Garnish
• Fresh Cherries

INSTRUCTIONS

1. FOR THE DARK CHOCOLATE CAKE: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prep three 6" cake rounds with a wipe of shortening and dust of flour. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sour cream, buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Sift in the cocoa, cake mix, and flour, and toss in chocolate chips. Stir until just combined.
3. Split cake batter evenly between prepared cake rounds.
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until center is fully baked. Do not overbake. Remove rounds from the oven, let cool in the pan for 2 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap up in plastic wrap twice for each round, then freeze for at least 3 hours until solid. You want to frost this cake when it's cold for better results.
5. FOR THE CHERRY FILLING: In a saucepan, stir together all the ingredients except for the vanilla and almond extracts. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer for 10 minutes on low until thickened. Stir in vanilla and almond, then store in a covered container in the fridge until cooled completely.
6. FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM FROSTING: Place metal mixer bowl and metal mixer whisk in the freezer. You want them chilled!
7. Place gelatin in a microwave safe bowl with water and let sit for 5 minutes. Microwave for 10 seconds, then let cool slightly.
8. Whip up whipped cream in chilled mixer bowl on low speed for 1 minute, then gradually increase the speed to high and whip until stiff peaks form. Add in soft cream cheese, gelatin, and vanilla and whip up again until stiff peaks form.
9. Add in powdered sugar and whip up again until it's thickened and ready!
10. FOR THE GANACHE: Stir together the chocolate and heavy cream in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds and stir until combined and smooth. Add another 5 seconds if needed.
11. ASSEMBLY: Place down first cake layer and pipe on a thin layer of whipped cream frosting. Spread flat, then pipe a thick rim around the outside rim of the cake layer to act as a dam. Spoon in about ¼ cup of the cherry filling. Top with the next layer and repeat. If you notice things moving around, add a temporary dowel down the center to stabilize.
12. Crumb coat, then freeze for 20 minutes. Add drip, then freeze for 2 minutes to set. Pipe on some of the whipped cream frosting with a Wilton 8B piping tip, then top with fresh cherries. Serve cold with some whipped cream and cherry compote on the side.

Neurotic Mom CInnamon Rolls - EASY!

The recipe: 
Dough: 
1/2 cup milk (4 oz. or 120 mL) 
1/2 cup heavy cream (4 oz. or 120 mL - may substitute milk) 
1 Tablespoon yeast (15 grams) 
2 Tablespoons sugar (25 grams - I accidentally said teaspoons in the video) 
1 teaspoon salt (5 g) 
4 Tablespoons salted butter (56 grams) 
1 egg 
3-4 cups AP flour (360-480 g) 

Warm Milk until luke warm in microwave. If not using instant yeast, sprinkle yeast on milk and let sit 10 minutes. With whip attachment combine milk, cream, yeast, sugar, salt, butter, and egg. Combine. Add 1/2 cup of flour then switch to dough hooks. Add flour gradually until dough is no longer sticky to touch. Knead in mixer for 5 ish minutes or knead by hand. place in greased bowl and cover. Let rise in warm place for 20 min until double.

Roll out into large rectangle.

 Filling: 
1/2 cup salted butter (113 g) 
1 cup brown sugar (213 g) 
2-3 tablespoons cinnamon to taste (30-45 g) 

Melt butter and comine in cinnamon and sugar. Spread evenly over rectangle dough.  roll up dough into a sausage. Using floss cut rolls. place in pan spread evenly. Cover and let rise until double. Bake in oven at 325F for 20ish minutes until just barely golden brown.

Glaze:
 4 oz. cream cheese 
4 tablespoons salted butter (56 g) 
1 1/2 - 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar (170-285 g) 
1 teaspoon vanilla (5 g) 
2-3 tablespoons milk (30-45 g/mL) 

 IMPORTANT! I ended up baking around 20-24 minutes at 325° F (163° C) In the video I said 14-18 minutes but I must have made them extra thick and gooey this time.😉 just keep watching them until they are light golden brown. Happy baking’

Caramel Pecan Rolls

Ingredients:
2 c butterscotch chips
1 c. corn syrup
1/3 c. butter
1 c. pecans; chopped

Directions:
-Melt chips, syrup & butter together. Add Pecans.
-Spread evenly in 2 9¨x 13¨ pans.
-Make Cinnamon Rolls
-Put on top of Caramel Pecan Mixture.
-Bake at 350 for 25 - 30 minutes
-When baked, remove from oven and turn upsde down.
-Remove from pan while hot.
-Let cool

Makes 24 Rolls

Link for Rolls Recipie

Notes:
These are Jakobs Favorites!

Marshmallow Fondant

Ingredients

Original recipe makes 2 1/4 pounds of fondant Change Servings

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 (16 ounce) package miniature marshmallows
• 1/4 cup water

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 pounds confectioners' sugar, divide

Directions

1. Place the butter in a shallow bowl, and set aside.
2. Place the marshmallows in a large microwave-safe bowl, and microwave on High for 30 seconds to 1 minute to start melting the marshmallows. Carefully stir the water and vanilla extract into the hot marshmallows, and stir until the mixture is smooth. Slowly beat in the confectioners' sugar, a cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough. Reserve 1 cup of powdered sugar for kneading. The dough will be very stiff.
3. Rub your hands thoroughly with butter, and begin kneading the sticky dough. As you knead, the dough will become workable and pliable. Turn the dough out onto a working surface dusted with confectioners' sugar and continue kneading until the fondant is smooth and no longer sticky to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Form the fondant into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight. To use, allow the fondant to come to room temperature, and roll it out onto a flat surface dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Notes: 
- I did not refrigerate overnight.
- I also kneaded too much icing sugar into my dough originally, better to leave it just a touch sticky so that it's softer. 
- be sure to butter your work surface before you roll out the fondant or else it will stick, also butter your hands. 

Sugar Cookie Icing

Ingredients

• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (sifted after measuring)
• 1 tablespoon low-fat milk (skim or 1% is fine although I have made this successfully using 2% fat milk)
• 1 tablespoon corn syrup (more if needed to reach desired consistency)
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon almond extract
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon vanilla
• food coloring (use colors of choice)

Directions

1. VERY IMPORTANT; the confectioners sugar must be sifted before using.
2. In a bowl beat the sifted confectioners sugar with milk until smooth.
3. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until smooth and glossy (if icing is too thick add in a small amount of corn syrup).
4. Divide into as many separate bowls as desired.
5. Add in different food coloring to each bowl beating/whisking until the intensity is achieved.
6. Paint the icing over the cookies using a brush or dip the cookie edges into icing (this will set quite quickly).
7. Place cookies on waxed paper to dry.

Butter Cream Frosting

 

 Butter Cream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) butter (salted, or unsalted)
1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (best quality available)
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream, half and half or milk.
*Optional- As mentioned above, I like a cream cheese version of this frosting best.  The cream cheese adds to the creamy texture, and cuts down on the sweetness just a bit.  If desired, for a very light cream cheese flavor add 1/2 block (4 oz). cream cheese, leaving the other ingredients (as listed above) the same.  For a more traditional cream cheese flavor, reduce the butter to 1/2 cup, and add 1 block (8 oz.) of cream cheese.  If using a full block of cream cheese, you can reduce the cream or milk to 1 tablespoon total.
Flavoring options- An almost unlimited number of flavoring options can be added in addition to, or instead of the vanilla.  Orange and/or lemon zest, citrus extracts, mint extract, coconut extract or the seeds of a vanilla bean are all wonderful options.  In most cases I’ll still add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, then 1/2 teaspoon of the other flavoring.  For zest, add about 1 teaspoon fresh zest.  For chocolate butter cream, add 1/2 cup (good quality) unsweetened cocoa powder.
Directions-
* In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter (on medium speed) until completely smooth (30 seconds to a minute). (If you are adding cream cheese, add it now, then beat until smooth)
* Add salt (if needed).
* One cup at time, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, beating after each addition.
* Add vanilla, or other flavorings and beat to combine.
* Add about 1 tablespoon of cream, and continue beating.
* Add the remaining 2 cups powdered sugar, one at a time.
* Add an additional 1-2 tablespoons cream until desired consistency is reached.  If you want to pipe the frosting on cupcakes, the frosting should be nice and thick.  Continue to beat another minute or so.  The frosting should now be smooth and fluffy.
Troubleshooting-
* If your frosting is not smooth, it is likely because the butter was not fully smooth before adding the other ingredients.
* If your frosting will not hold up when piped on cupcakes, your frosting has too much liquid or is too warm.  Put entire bowl of frosting in the fridge for 15-20 minutes and it will stiffen up.  If it is still too thin, then add 1/4 to 1/2 cup powdered sugar, beat well.