#SRC Bonus Post: Moist Chocolate Cake

So.
With 5 Mondays in the month, we're having an extra edition of the Secret Recipe Club!  It's all about BBQs, Picnics and Potlucks. Normally, I do a reveal with the other members of Group A the first Monday of the month (that's coming up next week!).  But with the fifth Monday, our intrepid leader Sarah put out the call for a special event - one where you can be paired with anyone else from the club.  Fun, right?  We always have a few BBQs and so on to go to in the summer, so I thought it sounded like a great opportunity to go looking for something new and different.
I should pause here to say that right now my house is a shambles.  Next Monday J and I are moving.  The fact that I signed up to do this and my regular reveal day means that I just might be certifiable.  But whatever.
I was happy to be paired with a blog that was totally new to me:  Loving Life.  Kirstin is a wife and mom who blogs about food, home, and life.  She lives in the Pacific Northwest, a place I have visited once but know very little about.
I enjoyed going through her recipes, knowing I needed a dessert for my Home Church BBQ.  What I discovered?  She doesn't blog about dessert like I do...and many of them are SRC recipes (I make a lot of desserts for SRC too), but never mind.  She had lots of yummy looking things, like Blackberry Balsamic Salmon and Lasagna Bread as well as the Candied Spiced Chickpeas that I bought the chickpeas to make and never got that far.  But no matter.  I did find a dessert, and a delicious one at that.
I present to you now Loving Life's Moist Chocolate Cake:

Oh, Paris...

My heart aches tonight.

So.
I don't usually post on a Friday night.  I like to queue things up and leave it to post on its own during the week.  Tonight is different though.
I made a new dessert for dinner tonight as a part of the Magazine Challenge and thought about posting it later.  But as we've watched the unfolding news about the attacks in Paris, I don't want to wait and post this later.  It's not that this is a hugely important thing, but the flavour made me think of France and right now that's bittersweet.
My year as an exchange student in France more than 20 years ago gave my first opportunity to learn to cook from someone other than my mother in a family situation.  I learned to make sauces, souffles, and a dense chocolate cake that was out of this world.  I still make sauces starting with a roux like I learned from Mme Brabant.  I haven't made a souffle or that cake since I came home though.
I found this recipe in the October 2007 issue of Everyday Food.  It's not like the other pudding cake I've made where you pour boiling water over the cake and it self-sauces.  It's 4 simple ingredients that surprisingly come together to make something delicious.  This is more a cross between a souffle and a dense, slightly undercooked chocolate cake.
Tonight, it reminded me of a French dessert I ate long ago, and my heart ached for a city I love and miss.
I present to you now from the October 2007 issue of Everyday Food Chocolate Pudding Cake:

Got Milk?: Cream Cheese Chocolate Cupcakes

So.
This is a recipe that feels like I've made it many times.  I'm not sure that I actually have, but I feel like I have.  The combination of cream cheese and chocolate is classic, and when combined in cupcake form it's sublime.  Especially when the centres are still a little warm and gooey when you take these to a potluck.
J and I were invited to a BBQ/potluck this summer, and I decided to make a dessert to take without really knowing what I'd have in the house and what I'd ultimately make.  I pulled out my cakes magazine to find something that would appeal to large age group for which I actually had the ingredients in the house to make.
I found these.  And while I didn't have the peanut butter chips called for the in the original, I did have enough chocolate chips in the cupboard between the ends of a few different bags (mini, regular and chunks) to make up the 2 cups of chips called for in the filling.  That's right; 2 cups.  Don't skimp.  The filling makes a chocolate cupcake that keeps them coming back for more.
I present to you now from Shirley Dunbar of Mojave, CA, Cream Cheese Chocolate Cupcakes:

Secret Recipe Club: Blue Ribbon Coffee Cake

So.
It's not my regular week for Secret Recipe Club, but I offered to pick up an orphan for Group C and post with them this week.  I'm really glad I did.  Partially because after this month I won't really have time for a while, and partially because it gave me another opportunity to explore a new blog and make something yummy.
I was thrilled to get Jane's Blog, The Heritage Cook.  When I joined Group A of the SRC, Jane was our fearless group leader.  I had gone to her site after getting the email with my first assignment, and had poked around a little thinking that there would be lots to choose from when I drew her name as my assignment.  Then the groups changed.  Jane left for Group C.  I was never assigned her blog.
By happy coincidence, I was assigned her blog as the orphan.  I suddenly poked about her blog with purpose!
Jane is a native Californian, and has been gluten-free for 3 years. She has chocolate Mondays.  There are so many things that I'll need to go back and make more!  She has fabulous looking food, and it took a while to find something until I promised to bake for my custodial staff.  I have a meeting today, and I promised to bake for them.  Then I found this recipe.  It was obviously meant to be.
I present to you now the Heritage Cook's Blue Ribbon Coffee Cake:

Breakfast on the Run: Breakfast Sunshine Cake

So.
I'm always on the lookout for good, easy recipes to include in my repertoire.  Good is key.  Easy makes things even better.  While I do draw a great deal of inspiration from Everyday Food and Pinterest, I have found the 2015 Milk Calendar to actually be quite useful.
The Milk Calendar is often hit or miss for me.  Either it's things that just don't look tasty, or they use ingredients I don't buy, or they're for things that I already make and like the recipe I have.  This year, there have been a variety of things that I've made and enjoyed.
I've been trying the Bake It Easy recipes from the front matter of the calendar recently.  Muffins and so forth are always up my alley:  easy to freeze and take in my lunch or eat for breakfast.  I saw this cake and thought it sounded delicious.  I also needed to find a use for the shredded zucchini in my freezer, and thought that this would be a way to use it up before I end up with more shredded zucchini in my freezer for next year.
This is really good, and smells so yummy while baking.  I just don't recommend leaving it in an airtight container on your counter too long.  I think the last couple of pieces fermented before J and I could eat them.  Fermented cake is not really what you want to eat for breakfast.  But vegetables are, and when they're in cake form, how could they possibly be bad?
I present to you now from the 2015 Milk Calendar Breakfast Sunshine Cake:

Son of Magazine Challenge: Creme-FIlled Chocolate Cupcakes

So.
I have a confession to make.  I have been eating breakfast every morning.  While it's been a whole lot of peanut butter toast in the past few weeks, I do sit down and make sure that my body has something to run on for a good portion of the day.  Time to eat, a principal does not always have.
I will tell you that I didn't eat these for breakfast.  I'm not above it, but I was taking them for a lunch dessert, or eating one in the evening as a treat with J.  But I didn't make a complete confession on Facebook when I posted a picture of these beauties.  More on that later.
I had to get a jumbo muffin tin to make these.  I wouldn't always recommend doing this, but this makes a dozen jumbo cupcakes.  We were off to a picnic and I was to bring a dessert.  These totally fit the bill.  I made them the day of, after reading reviews that said the cake was dense and dry.  It is dense, and I would recommend cake flour to lighten them up a bit.  But the filling suited the cake.  It is also dense and sweet.  J said that they reminded him of Hostess snack cakes, and I think that's the point.  But these are probably better just because we know what's in them and they go stale faster.
Everyday Food had a feature in the April 2007 on Nostalgic Desserts.  These were just too cute not to consider.  And they're filled with a marshmallow mixture.  How could that possibly be bad?
I present to you now from the April 2007 issue of Everyday Food, I present to you now Creme-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes:

Carrot Cake for Two

So.
You know what I love about carrot cake?  Everything.  You know what I don't like so much?  That it makes a 9x13" pan and I live in a household of 2 people.  I told my mother the other day that I'd made carrot cake, and her comment was, "I only make that when I'm having a crowd in."  I didn't tell her at first that this recipe for carrot cake made 2 servings, and J and I polished it off in 1 night.  I just told her it was really good, and once again from one of my favourite recipe sources, Budget Bytes.
This cake doesn't include any pineapple, but it's a buttery spice cake, and with the use of really good black walnuts, you don't need to worry about the missing fruit for deep flavour.  And when you're only making enough for 1 night, "moist" isn't something you need to worry about.  It even has real cream cheese icing.  How can that be bad?
I present to you Budget Bytes' Carrot Cake for Two:

Bride of Magazine Challenge: Maple Cake

So.
For March Break, J and I spent our tax refund and went to Montreal for most of the week.  It was cold, but relaxing.  We relaxed in the most amazing spa, and ate in some fantastic restaurants.  We ate a lot.
I had some definite plans for food when we went to Montreal.  J wanted to go to a jazz club one night, and we did.  I wanted to eat raclette and relive my time in France.  We did that too.  We had poutine for lunch one day, and ate gigantic breakfasts.  It was lovely.  We do, however, need to go back.  I didn't make it to Leche Donuts, nor did we go to a deli for Montreal Smoked meat.  And there's always fondue.  We only had raclette.
Our last morning in Montreal, before catching the train home, I ordered crepes with maple syrup.  Inexplicably, the hotel was out of maple syrup.  In the province that produces the most maple syrup in Canada and is one of the leading producers in the world, there was no syrup for me.  Shocking, and sad.
Happily, I came home and made this cake.  You don't pour syrup over the cake, but I suppose you could.  The icing will probably keep you happy.  It's full of syrup too.
From the November 2006 issue of Everyday Food, I present to you now Maple Cake:

#TripleSBites: Molten Mocha Cakes

So.

It's the last day of #TripleSBites - and it's been way fun!  Make sure to visit the other bloggers for their spicy, saucy and sexy recipes to celebrate the end of the event!!

During the Twitter party last week, one of the the questions was about whether a dessert should be to share, or individual.  My response was always individual.  I love chocolate lava cake, and this was one to add to my collection from the Magazine Challenge.  Individual desserts from Everyday Foods have worked in the past, and this is lava cake.  How could that be bad?

From the January/February 2007 issue of Everyday Food, I present to you now Molten Mocha Cakes:

Bride of Magazine Challenge: Sour Cream Pound Cake

So.
This is a sad, cautionary tale.  I needed a pound cake for the trifle I made for Christmas dinner with my dad's family.  I remembered that there had been a pound cake I'd been meaning to make in an Everyday Food earlier this year.  I read the recipe and decided that it was just the ticket - other than I didn't really want a tube pan of cake.  I was thinking a loaf was more my speed.  And pound cake is often in loaves, isn't it?
This is where the tale of woe begins.
After comparing Martha's recipe to "similar" ones that I found online, I figured that I could easily just pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and everything would work out.  I made the batter, and set it to baking.  The picture will tell the tale of what happened next.  Good thing it was tasty.
I present to you now from the June 2006 issue of Everyday Food, Sour Cream Pound Cake:

Magazine Challenge: Mini Cherry-Pecan Loaves

So.
I like to bake.  That shouldn't be much of a surprise.  I think the thing about baking is that it's therapeutic.  There's a precision and exactness about baking that requires a concentration that isn't always a part of life.  I'm not sure what exactly I'm in therapy for at the moment, but I still love to spend time in the kitchen baking.
I marked this recipe at the end of last year as something I wanted to make.  I'm not sure why exactly I waited this long to make it, other than there were so many other things to make.  It's an easy enough recipe, with things that I often find around here to bake with.  Kind of like a coffee cake batter made into mini loaves.  My mini loaf pan is small enough that a loaf will give 2 nice sized slices for J and I for dessert.  With a cup of tea, it's a perfect afternoon snack.
I present to you now from the December 2005 issue of Everyday Food Mini Cherry-Pecan Loaves:

Bride of Magazine Challenge: Raspberry Buckle

So.
It's fruit season.  While J enjoys some fruit out of hand, there's not a whole lot of it.  He likes blueberries and blackberries.  Um, he might eat a couple of strawberries.  That's about it.  Whereas I like most summer fruits.
The raspberries right now are spectacular.  J commented today that this is the wettest summer that he remembers in a long time.  As a result, there's been lots of good looking produce.  With how the raspberries are looking, we needed to give them a try.  When the buckle came out of the oven, the only question was whether or not I was planning to serve whipped cream with this dessert.  The answer was a resounding yes.
I spent a little bit of time looking for the origins of the name buckle, and while I discovered that it is a seasonal dessert with rich yellow cake and fresh fruit that is popular in New England, that's about all the wisdom of the interwebs taught me.  All I know is that it's yummy.
I present to you now from the July/August 2006 issue of Everyday Food Raspberry Buckle:

Got Milk? Deep Dish Hot Fudge Brownie Cakes

So.
I got my next Secret Recipe Club assignment.  I wouldn't normally mention this, but in cruising the blog for June's post I clicked through and discovered this little gem.  So it's not like this is an early reveal...it's more of a thank you for introduction to a site that is after my own heart with recipes like this.
When J and I went on our honeymoon, we went on a cruise.  It's was super fun, and I ate a variety of foods that I either don't cook for myself, or that J doesn't like.  I had duck, chilled cherry soup, turkey...it was all good.  But one of the things that I remember about the cruise was that if I couldn't come up with a dessert, there was always lava cake to fall back on.
Chocolate lava cake is something I really like.  Between a dark cake and an oozy center, what's not to love?  This recipe combined both in individual servings that I put together in all of about 10 minutes.  Seriously dangerous for someone with chocolate chips in the cupboard and the end of a carton of whipping cream in the fridge.
I present to you now Chocolate Moosey's Deep Dish Hot Fudge Cakes:

Happy Birthday: Butterscotch Torte

So.
If we're going to talk about the new things I made for my mom's birthday celebration, we must talk about cake!
I went back to my tried and true Cakes for All Occasions magazine that was produced by Taste of Home in 2006.  I love this magazine.  It's the one that the Peanut Butter Crunch Cake is from, along with a number of other tasty recipes.  I obviously went looking for something showy and delicious.  I was guaranteed delicious seeing as the recipe is from Taste of Home.  Based on the picture, I was sure it would be beautiful.
I would not say that butterscotch is one of my favourite flavours.  I mean, I won't turn down a hard candy; but I wouldn't go out of my way for one either.  Likewise, unless it's a turtle sundae I probably wouldn't think first of butterscotch sauce for my ice cream.
The butterscotch in this cake is different.  I was intrigued by the idea of using graham crackers, and that there was orange juice in the sauce.  I was also interested in the picture:  the cake had filling and topping, but the sides of the cake were visible.  I made mine just like the picture.  Well, almost.
I present to you now Lavonne Hartel from Williston, North Dakota's Butterscotch Torte:

Magazine Challenge: Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

So.
Despite the fact that we're into a new year and I am working my way through 2006 in magazines, there are still things from last year and 2005 that I never got around to making.  The recipe here is a case in point.  Back in November, I thought this looked good, and I even bought the pumpkin to make it.  Then I didn't.  I'm not sure why - perhaps I made other desserts.  Perhaps I was on an ice cream kick.  Who knows?
What I do know is this:  I realized this afternoon that we'd finished the cookies I'd made for dessert at lunch, and I didn't have anything to offer after dinner.  I am my mother's daughter.  When I started to think about what I had in the house, I remembered the can of pumpkin in the cupboard.  I looked through the list of things from last year and found 2 pumpkin recipes - Maple Pumpkin Custards and this cake.  I didn't want to mess with a water bath, so I made this instead.  I'm sure either would be lovely.
J came in while I was baking and thought that the cake smelled wonderful.  It did.  I was also interested in the icing because it's three ingredients, and there's no icing sugar involved.
J and I just taste tested the cake with a large glass of cold milk.  I recommend that too.  But even if you wait until it's more seasonal, this is a nice, quick cake.
I present to you now from the November 2005 issue of Everyday Food, Pumpkin Spice Cake with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting:

Got Milk? 3: Glazed Chocolate Donut Muffins

So.
I didn't make a cake for J's birthday this year.  Both his birthday and mine fell on Fridays that we were on the road for football.
I decided that it was easier to make some cupcakes than a whole cake that we'd then have to eat.  When I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I knew I wanted to give it a try.  Dense chocolate and chocolate glaze that had the potential to taste like a Tim Horton's Double Chocolate donut?
You bet I was in.
I present to you now Crunchy, Creamy, Sweet's Glazed Chocolate Donut Muffins:

Teatime Treat: Glazed Lemon Pound Cake

So.
One of the good things about going to Home Church is that I sign up to make snack.  About every 6 weeks, I need to bring something for about 15 people as a snack.  I usually bring dessert.  It's easy and gives me a chance to try new things.
That being said, I love all things lemon.  I learned today that J doesn't like it quite so much.  But he will tolerate whatever I make.  So he's informed me that while it's not his favourite, he will help me eat any cake that is left.  Having tasted this cake, I'm not sure that I really want to share.
When I was growing up, my mother would make a lemon cake in a bundt pan with a snow white icing that was fresh juice and icing sugar.  I always loved the cake and peeling the icing off, bit by bit to eat.  It was sweet, but had a good deal of pucker to it.  The cake was moist and lemony.  I've never asked my mom for the recipe, but I've often thought about making it with that icing.
With the Magazine Challenge, I found a cake that looked like my mom's cake with the glaze made of icing sugar and juice.  Plus, I needed something for home Church!  It was a win all the way around.  Plus, the first 5 days of May are done, and I've already made 2 recipes.  It may happen that I make 6 recipes in one month!
To that end, I present to you now from the May 2005 Everyday Food Glazed Lemon Pound Cake:

Pintertest Kitchen: BHG Chocolate Sour Cream Cake and Milk Chocolate Buttercream

So.
My mom's birthday was Easter weekend this year.  I offered to make her cake and bring it with us when we went to visit for the holiday.  She told me I could make whatever cake I wanted.  Well, that was a challenge!  Knowing that I had a bunch of things pinned (and striking out with something that took my fancy in my TOH cakes magazine), I started looking for something to make.  I eventually chose these 2 pins:

How could they not be a good combination?  I present to you now Better Homes and Garden's Chocolate Sour Cream Cake and Comfortably Domestic's Milk Chocolate Buttercream:

Magazine Challenge: Frosted Chocolate-Buttermilk Cupcakes

So.
January/February  of the magazine challenge didn't go very well.  I was busy, work was mental, and we lost J's dad.  Plus, I was trying to come up with 12 recipes from the issue to make.  I've come to the conclusion that it might not have been meant to be, but that doesn't mean I'm beat.  I've just been making recipes from Jan/Feb on an ongoing basis.  This recipe is a case in point.
Our home church does a sign up for snacks.  Every so often, I need to come up with something to take for an undetermined number of people (more than 5, hopefully less than 20) I saw this recipe and that it made 12, but figured it would be easy to double.  Thankfully it was.
The feature in the article was buttermilk, so I now have some.  Obviously, I'll need to make more recipes from the article.  I'm up to 5 from that issue.
I present to you now from the Jan/Feb 2005 issue of Everyday Food, Frosted Chocolate-Buttermilk Cupcakes:

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Guinness Chocolate Cake

So.
J and I don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day with all things green and such.  Stew is not a real favourite with either of us, and we're not big on going out.  We'd both rather curl up with the cat in our own family room in front of the fire.  But when I saw this cake on Pinterest, I thought that I'd rather like to try it.
With my mother here, I'm making lots of fun things, and we had my uncle and his wife Friday night for dinner.  It was an excuse to make a cake.  Right before March 17th, why not make a cake with Irish ingredients?  And a Pinterest recipe to boot?
I present to you now Care's Kitchen' Chocolate Guinness Cake: