One Bowl Chocolate Cake

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I love baking, but doing the dishes is a whole other story. When I find complex recipes that I know I must try, I tend to break up the steps and get as much stuff done in advance so I don’t have to wash and rewash dishes all day.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

So when I discover recipes like Hershey’s amazingly moist one-bowl chocolate cake, I have to share the details with everyone. Not only is it super easy to make, I used one bowl, two measuring cups, two measuring spoons, and a spatula. That’s it! The only thing that makes this recipe even better is that you can use it to make layer cakes, a bundt cake, a 9 x 13 cake, or cupcakes! It’s the perfect chocolate cake recipe, and each time I make it, I receive tons of compliments.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

This time, I made a bundt because I hate frosting cakes and it’s amazing what a little dusting of powered sugar can do to elicit ooohs and aaahs. (It’s true, I made this for a New Year’s Eve party and everyone raved about it.) But I’ve also made this as cupcakes and layers cakes, I love that it’s so veratile.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

Disclosure: I received a bundt pan from Baker’s Secret.

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Preparation
Quick note about temperature: If you’re using a dark pan, you should lower the temperature 25°. If you’re using glass or a light pan, leave it as the recipe says. Here you can see the two different colored pans–since I used the dark Baker’s Secret pan, I lowered the temp. (Side note: The Baker’s Secret pan has HANDLES. Do you know how much easier it is to hold and flip a bundt pan with handles? Pure brilliance!)

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour appropriate baking pan(s). (See below for variations.)

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pan(s).

Pan Variations
12 cup Bundt pan: Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Dust with powered sugar.

Two 9″ round cake pans: Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

One 9×13 baking pan: Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely. Frost.

Three 8″ round cake pans: Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

Recipe from Hershey’s.

Kit Kat Cake

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Cake decorating has never been my strong suit. In fact, I really suck at it. Following my trip to the Wilton Food Blogger Workshop a couple of years ago, I became more confident with the piping bag, but trust me when I say that you don’t want me decorating a birthday cake for you anytime soon. And yes, this is why the only kinds of cakes you usually see on this blog are cupcakes or bundt cakes; they’re so much easier to decorate!

Kit Kat Cake

However, I’ve been seeing this Kit Kat cake online for years and immediately thought this was something I could do. So for those of you lacking in the cake decorating skills department like me, this is the cake for you! Added bonus: Everyone thinks it looks so cool and colorful, and with National Cake Day coming up later this month (November 26), you now have an excuse to make it!

Kit Kat Cake

Because I wasn’t sure how this would turn out, I initially made it using *gasp* cake mix and canned frosting, but you can use your favorite cake and frosting recipes instead. I recommend using chocolate frosting as it will be less noticeable in the gaps between the Kit Kats.

cake 012

Ingredients
Two 8″ or 9″ cakes, any flavor
Frosting
12.60 ounce bag of M&Ms (or any candy you want to top it with)
11-12 full size (not snack size) packages Kit Kats)

Preparation
Using a cake leveler or serrated knife, level cakes so the tops are no longer domed. (If you are using a serrated knife, it helps to freeze the cake first.)

Separate each Kit Kat so you have sections of two Kit Kats. (I put them in the fridge first so they wouldn’t melt while I was handling them.)

Frost the top of one cake, then place the second cake on top of it. Frost the top of the second cake and the sides of the stacked cakes.

Place the Kit Kats around the frosted cake, as close together as possible.
You can also tie a ribbon around the cake to keep the Kit Kats from moving. Pour the M&Ms on the top of the cake. Slice and serve!

Jewish Apple Cake

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Rosh Hashanah at my parents’ house means at least 15 people (we used to have around 50!) over for dinner. And each year, I try to make something new, but usually end up with my old favorites. Since we had such a small group this year, and I didn’t have to make a gazillion different things, I decided to go with a new recipe for apple cake.

Jewish Apple Cake

On Rosh Hashanah, you wish your friends and family a happy and sweet new year, and apples (dipped in honey) are a traditional food, as is apple cake. This recipe by Deb’s mom is definitely sweet and made everyone happy. In fact, a couple of guests told me this is one of their favorite things I have ever baked. It’s super moist, and that was even after making it ahead and freezing. And an added bonus: It’s made with oil so it’s so dairy free.

Ingredients
6 apples (I used Fuji)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar

2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan. Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated. (My batter was really thick at this point. Don’t panic.)

Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean.

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

Lemon Pound Cake

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Hi! Remember me? I’m the one that made baked donuts and posted a bunch of Passover stuff then sort of disappeared (except for on Twitter, you can always find me there!). Things have been kind of crazy over here. My back got really bad again (MRI and nerve test next week, eeks!), then my beloved KitchenAid mixer starting wobbling and almost walked off my counter, and then I got laid off from my job of 3+ years. On the flip side, now that I’m home during the day, I was able to spend three hours on Google finding potential solutions to the wobbly mixer. Fingers crossed that it is finally fixed!

A couple days after I was laid off, I went down to San Diego to celebrate my mom’s birthday with the family. Around that time, my mom apparently asked my dad to pick up lemons while he was at Costco. And pick up lemons, he did. A HUGE bag of lemons, more than my mom would ever use before they would go bad. Fortunately, my sister and I benefited from my dad’s shopping mishap, and I decided a lemon cake was in order.

Lemon Pound Cake

With my mixer not wobbling off the counter, I got to work zesting, juicing, and mixing, and had high hopes. Sadly, those hopes were squashed. I’m sure this is a perfectly decent lemon cake, even if the texture and taste of the bottom and sides was a little cornbread-ish. But once you have tasted Ina’s Lemon Cake, any other lemon cake is guaranteed to fail in comparison.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have Judge Judy to watch before I head to happy hour at 5:00.

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup shortening, room temperature
5 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
6 Tbsp lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350F.

Spray or butter and flour 2 loaf pans or one large bundt pan. (I used a 10-cup bundt pan and had about two extra cups of batter so I made mini bundts.)

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream together butter, shortening and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well blended after each one.

Add dry ingredients in three additions to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition. Mix in lemon juice and zest.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for 15 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely.

Recipe from Plain Chicken.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake

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I’m not sure how I came across this recipe, but I’m sure glad I did! Not only did I think it was fantastic, but it was it a huge hit at the office as well. And since it’s yet another spectacular recipe from Baked, you can believe I’ll be checking out the bakery next time I’m in NYC!

Referring to this as a cake is a bit misleading–it’s more like a 9×13 pan full of delicious, addictive, chewy oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips topped with cream cheese frosting. I know, how can it possibly be bad?

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake

Note: Until this recipe, I’d never made anything that required pouring hot water over oats and butter, so I found this a little strange. Also, my oat mixture got got a little gummy while it was cooling, so I wonder if I should have used slow cooking rather than quick cooking oats. Anyone know?

Cake Ingredients
8 ounces chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup oats
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups water
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teas baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Frosting Ingredients
5 tbs unsalted butter, softened
5 1/2 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Cake Preparation
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and position the rack in the center. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9 x 13 inch glass or light-colored metal baking pan. Heat 1 1/4 cups water to boiling.

Place the chocolate chips in a small bowl and toss them with the vanilla until covered. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the flour over the chips and toss until coated. This will keep them from settling at the bottom during baking. Set aside.

Place the oats and cubed butter in a large bowl. Pour the boiling water over the oat mixture, wait 30 seconds, and stir to moisten all the oats and melt the butter. Set the mixture aside for 25 to 30 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, both sugars, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon until combined. Fold in the cooled oatmeal and stir until well combined. Gently fold in the remaining flour and then chocolate chops. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes.

Frosting Preparation
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until it is completely smooth. Add the cream cheese and beat until combined.

Add the confectioners sugar and vanilla and beat until smooth, about 1 minute. Cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (The frosting can be made 1 day ahead. Let it soften at room temperature before using.)

Spread a thin, even layer of frosting over the cooled cake then chill for 15 minutes until set. Slice and serve. The frosted cake can be kept, refrigerated and tightly covered, for up to 3 days. Bring the cake back to room temperature before serving. (An unfrosted one will keep for 3 days, tightly covered, at room temperature. )

Recipe adapted from Pass the Sushi.

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