Tag Archives: easy dessert

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cake + 5 Easy Cake Recipes

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I found this cake recipe in my grandmother’s binder of saved recipes. This recipe was likely cut out of newspaper- maybe The Boston Globe or the Lowell Sun. It appealed to her and she kept it. I wish I knew more about her process of what hold onto and what to release. Not just her recipes. Drawings, cards, photos, and holiday crafts given to her as a present. Clothes, jewelry, and books. Mass cards, wedding invitations, and birth announcements. Love letters and apology letters. Save this, toss that, keep it forever. How did she discriminate between things that were hope-chest worthy and things immediately delegated to the trash can sitting behind the kitchen door? Wouldn’t it be easier just to release it all? Nothing to hold onto at the end. Nothing remains for those left behind. Their hearts are never left with tiny painful fissures of something they can no longer access. Nor do their hearts experience the fullness of memory of the love that once held them safe. Which is better? It’s hard to say. I wouldn’t know.

Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cake

This cake is easy to make and tastes great alone or with ice cream. If you are up for it, drizzle the cooled cake with chocolate ganache.

Adapted from my grandmother’s sour cream blueberry cake.

Makes 1 10-inch tube cake.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½  cups chocolate chips

2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 ¾ cups sugar

6 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 325F.  Lightly butter your tube pan. Cut a circle of parchment paper and place on bottom of tube pan.  Next, lightly flour the pan.  Set it aside.

Using a medium size bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Using a stand mixture fitted with a paddle attachment or a hand held mixer, beat butter on medium speed for about 3 minutes or until light and fluffy.  Add the sugar in 3 additions, beating on high for 1 minute after each addition.  Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl.  Add the eggs, one at a time beating on medium high after each addition. Nex add the vanilla extract.

Turn the speed to low and add the flour in two additions.  After the first addition, add the sour cream. Then end with the flour. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula.  Fold in the chocolate chips. 

Pour the thick batter into your prepared bowl and smooth the top.  Bake the cake until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean, 75 to 80 minutes.  Place the cake on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Next, invert the cake onto the wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Enjoy!

5 Easy Cake Recipes

Looking for a nostalgic cake recipe? Try this.

Love lemon? Head to the Vanilla Bean Blog for a glazed Meyer lemon snack cake recipe.

Need an easy chocolate cake recipe? Head here.

Coconut lovers head here.

I made this olive oil cake recently and it is so easy and so delicious. Give it a shot!

No Muss No Fuss Chocolate Sheet Cake + 5 Spring Cake Links

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“Hold your breath…good.”

“Breathe.”

“Doing ok Ann?”

Not really. Four MRIs in a year, same result, still no answers.

“I’m good.”

“Ok, almost done. You’re doing great.”

Ann forced her eyes closed.  Staring at the white ceiling just a foot from her nose was more than she could handle at 6am on a Tuesday morning.  Maybe it was the exhaustion from the 4:30am wake-up time or the restless sleep she just endured but Ann found herself wishing for her mother. Tess would provide comfort once she endured her own anxiety.  Medical issues were avoided by Tess. And Tess tended to assume the worst. “It’s probably cancer Ann.”  “Why bother with the testing?” “ You don’t want to know what they will come back with.”  “You’re a damn fool, Ann.”

Jesus Tess not now.

Now was not the time to think of her mother. As much as Ann loved Tess, she found her difficult when she was alive and even more so now that she was dead.  Three years had passed, and the grief eased but a day didn’t go by when Tess didn’t come to Ann either in a memory or a dream. At times it was a relief to see her or hear her or remember her.  Yet other times memories and dreams of Tess left Ann frustrated like a child seeking an answer to a question when the answer is not known.  Ann understood grief changed forms.  Now she understood.  Whether what she felt was love, resentment, hate, or annoyance towards her mother it was all just grief. Grief, it turned never really ended. It wasn’t something to get over or bypass.  Grief demanded attention like a needy lover.  It required the bereaved to hold on with ripped bloody hands hoping at some point the pain would ease.  And it did and then left what remains.

Ann pushed Tess out of her mind.  Tess would be back but for now, Ann would silence her. Ann felt her wedding rings vibrate as the machine churned out images of her insides.  She thought of the day that lay ahead- school drop-offs and pick-ups, sports, follow-up phone calls and looked forward to being busy.  Maybe if there was time, she would bake a chocolate cake.  She had been craving chocolate lately.

No Muss No Fuss Chocolate Cake

Recipe adapted from my grandmother’s chocolate cake recipe and Hershey’s

Serves 12-16

Ingredients for cake:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon espresso powder- optional

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup hot water

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Grease a 9x13x2 inch baking pan with baking spray.  Set aside.

Using a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients until well combined. Add oil, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla to the dry ingredients. Stir together until combined.  Add hot water and stir until completely blended.  Pour batter into the prepared pan.  Tap on the counter a couple of times to remove air bubbles.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.  Cool completely in the pan on the wire rack before frosting.  Once cool, frost the cake and decorate with sprinkles if desired.  Leftover cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for several days.  Enjoy!

Ingredients for vanilla buttercream frosting:

11 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon heavy cream

Directions:

Sift confectioner’s sugar into a large bowl or a large piece of parchment paper and set aside.  Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment beat butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Turn the mixer off and add the confectioner’s sugar.  Beat on a low speed then increase the speed slowly as sugar blends with the butter.   Once the sugar is incorporated add the vanilla, salt, and heavy cream.  Beat on medium-high speed for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.  Frost the cake as desired.

5 Cake Links

A cake for rhubarb lovers.

Angel food cake with a twist.

Lemon lovers here is your cake.

An olive oil and ricotta cake that screams spring.

If you make only one cake this spring make this cake. It is delicious!