The Perfect St. Patrick’s Day Brownies

March 15, 2013 By

The Perfect St. Patricks Day Brownies

Since I’m not doing anything exciting for St. Patrick’s Day, I have to drown my sorrows in brownies.

Because of this, they had to be the perfect brownies.

I didn’t want brownies with frosting, but I wanted something on top.

I didn’t want fluffy brownies, I wanted thick, fudgy brownies.

I wanted something minty, but more chocolatey.

I wanted brownies with cream cheese in them.

So I made these.

And they are perfect.  And I’m not even sad about not doing anything for St. Patrick’s Day anymore. (Okay, that might not be true).

 

brownies with mint cream cheese filling

fudgy mint brownies with ganache topping

st. patrick's day brownies with cream cheese mint filling

What are your plans for St. Patrick’s Day?

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The Perfect St. Patrick’s Day Brownies
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

 

Ingredients
  • Ingredients:
  • ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 1⅛ cups sugar
  • ½ cups cocoa
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp isntant coffee
  • ½ Tbsp vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • ¾ cups flour
  • Cream Cheese Layer:
  • 4 oz cream cheese (1/2 block)
  • 2 blocks vanilla almond bark, melted and cooled to room temperature
  • 2 tsp vegetable oil
  • ½ tsp peppermint extract
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • Ganache:
  • 4 oz. chocolate of choice
  • ½ cup heavy cream

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 8″ x 8″ pan.
  2. In a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat briefly, just until it’s hot, but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.
  3. Transfer the sugar mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Stir in the cocoa, salt, baking powder, instant coffee, and vanilla.
  4. Whisk in the eggs, stirring until smooth.
  5. Add the flour,stirring until smooth.
  6. Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9″ x 13″ pan.
  7. Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove them from the oven and cool completely prior to cutting.
  8. Make the cream cheese layer:
  9. Beat the cream cheese in a mixer until fluffy.
  10. Mix together the oil, peppermint extract, and almond bark and slowly pour into the fluffy cream cheese while the mixer is beating on low.
  11. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until fluffy.
  12. Once the brownies are cool, spread the cream cheese mixture on top.
  13. Make the ganache:
  14. Heat the cream in the microwave for about a minute.
  15. Place the chocolate in the cream and let it sit.
  16. Wait a couple of minutes and then stir together the chocolate and cream until smooth.
  17. Pour over the cream cheese layer.
  18. Let the brownies set before cutting.
  19. Enjoy!

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ganache brownies with cream cheese mint filling

Filed Under: Chocolate, Chocolate Bark, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Drizzle, Chocolates Cheap, Milk, Mint, Moist Cake Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,



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Fudgy Mocha Cake with Mocha Frosting

March 10, 2013 By

fudgy mocha cake with mocha frosting

I have an obsession with putting toasted oats on top of cake.

I realized this after doing it twice in two weeks.  That may not seem like a lot, but who even makes two cakes in one week, let alone two topped with toasted oats?

Meeee.

It’s okay though, this is a good thing.  It makes an ugly cake pretty.  Which is probably why I do the “cover your cake in oats” thing because I am so terrible at frosting cakes.  It’s embarrassing.

Anyway, this cake is one of my very favorite cakes.  It’s so moist and the coffee in it doesn’t taste like coffee, it just accentuates the chocolate flavor.  And the frosting is so fluffy and sweet and delicious.  And the oats are crunchy and salty and compliment the chocolate.

Are you drooling yet?  Hopefully. I always feel so cheesy talking about how “delicious and moist (such a weird word) and soft” my cakes are and how “fluffy and sweet and scrumptious (lol)” my frostings are.

Anyway, this is delicious and moist and soft and fluffy and sweet and scrumptious.

chocolate cake with coffee in it

mocha cake with coffee frosting

 

This wonderful mocha cake recipe is from AllRecipes.

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Fudgy Mocha Cake with Mocha Frosting
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

 

Ingredients
  • Cake:
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups white sugar
  • ⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
  • Frosting:
  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 3 tablespoons brewed coffee, cooled
  • 2-3 cups powdered sugar
  • ½ cup oats, toasted

Instructions
  1. Cake:
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.
  3. Measure flour, sugar, cocoa, oil, eggs, buttermilk, baking powder, soda, and salt into a mixing bowl. Dissolve instant coffee in hot water, and add to mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes until smooth; batter will be thin. Pour into prepared pans.
  4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until an inserted wooden pick comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto racks to cool completely.
  5. Make the frosting:
  6. Beat the butter until fluffy.
  7. Add in the vanilla, cocoa powder, and coffee.
  8. Slowly beat in powdered sugar.
  9. Frost the cooled cake with frosting.
  10. Top with toasted oats.

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mocha cake topped with mocha frosting and toasted oats

Filed Under: Coffee, Coffee Cake, Moist Cake Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,



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Strawberry Funfetti Cake-y Donuts

June 18, 2012 By

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Sorry for the short hiatus.  I’ve been out of town.  Since I’m about to be a senior in college, none of my friends live at home anymore, so  I took a little trip to go visit one of them.

friends4

friends3

friends2

friends

We are obviously very mature college seniors.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was really craving donuts, but when you crave donuts at 8 pm you’re usually SOL.  This is one of the few times that baking as a hobby comes in handy.

I’m not really sure what I was thinking with this donuts because first, I tried to make them healthy with whole wheat flour, but then I ended up adding Funfetti cake mix.  I’m a confused person and I apologize.  Luckily confusion spawns yummy, cakey donuts.

To be honest, these just taste like cake in the form of donuts, but if it tempts you at all to make them, these are healthier than cake.  Plus, who doesn’t love cake?

What’s your favorite donut?

donuts

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Strawberry Funfetti Cake-y Donuts
Adapted from: Chocolate and Carrots

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup whole wheat
  • 1 cup cake mix of choice
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ¾ cup milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp strawberry extract
  • ½ cup strawberries, crushed
Directions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
  2. Spray the donut pan with canola oil spray. Set aside.
  3. In a bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, cake mix, sugar, and baking powder.
  4. In another bowl, combine the remaining ingredients.
  5. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
  6. Either spoon the batter into the pan or put the batter into a large ziplock (or pastry) bag and squeeze into the pan, filling about 2/3 full.
  7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown on the bottom.
  8. Allow the donuts to cool in the pan for about 3 minutes before emptying out onto a cooling rack.

 

 

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Filed Under: Baked Donuts, Cake, Cake Batter, Cake Mix, Donuts, Moist Cake, Strawberry Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,



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The BEST Coffee Cake and My First Vlog

October 1, 2011 By

I’ve got a couple of other recipes I’ve been wanting to post for you, but I’m not going to do that today.

I’m going to completely put myself out there with my very first ridiculous and corny vlog and hope that you stay tuned in in the future as I (hopefully) get better.

Let me tell you about my first video.

I’m taking a Digital Media class and two of our assignments were to make a podcast and a video.  I didn’t do so hot on the video, but I thought I did pretty well on the podcast, so I decided I wanted to make podcasts for What Katie’s Baking.

When I headed to Wal-Mart to get an audio recorder, I noticed that there was a Flip camcorder for only 30 dollars more than an audio recorder. I couldn’t pass up that deal so I decided to get it.  Well, it turned out that they were out.

By this point, I was set on getting a camcorder, and I remembered that Wal-Mart does price matching.  I checked out the other camcorders and found one that was 160 dollars.  I found it for 77 dollars online. Wal-Mart doesn’t do online price matching, but by this point, I’d already been at Wal-Mart forever and it was their last one, so the manager let me and dad have it for 77 dollars.

Awesome, huh?  So now I have a brand new Kodak Play Touch and my very first vlog.

Let’s talk about the coffee cake before I show you.  I’m not stalling or anything.  This is the moistest… most moist?… cake I think I’ve ever made.  I changed up the topping and switched out nuts with oats.  The topping is very crunchy on top, but once you cut into it, you get the gooeyness underneath.  Good stuff.

Okay, guys, I guess you can click here to check it out.  Don’t make fun of me! Or the cheesy music choice. Or my beginner video editing skills.  I’m workin’ on it.

The Best Coffee Cake
Adapted from: The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients


Cake:
  • 1-1/2 stick butter, softened
  • 1-3/4 cups sugar
  • 3 cups flour, sifted
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1-1/4 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
  • 3 whole egg whites, beaten until stiff

Topping:

  • 1-1/2 stick butter, softened
  • 3/4 cups flour
  • 1-1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cinnamon
  • 1 cup oats

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat egg whites and set aside.
  2. Cream butter and sugar. Add flour mixture and milk alternately until combined. Don’t overbeat. Fold in beaten egg whites with a rubber spatula. Spread in a well-greased 9 x 13 baking pan. A cake pan with higher sides would be best.
  3. In a separate bowl, combine topping ingredients with a pastry cutter until crumbly. Sprinkle all over the top.
  4. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until no longer jiggly. Serve warm.

Filed Under: Baking Vlog, Cake, Coffee Cake, Moist Cake, Moist Coffee Cake, Streusel, The Best Coffee Cake, The Pioneer Woman