We made pretzel pizza again. I found a new sauce to use! I was tired of the Campbell's soup - have you noticed all the canned soups taste the same- kind of salty and gross. I tried to decide what else we could use. I didn't really want to make a homemade cheese sauce- that didn't seem quite right either. I thought maybe I could use Velveeta. I have NEVER used Velveeta for anything, but I thought I'd try it. Anyway, when we went to the store to find Velveeta (and I had to ask someone where to find it in the store because I've never bought it) we found a bottle of Kroger cheese sauce next to the Velveeta that seemed like it might work. And it did! I think it turned better than the Campbell's sauce.
Genna wanted a chocolate cake for her birthday. I found several different recipes and showed her the pics and asked which she might like. There was a chocolate mousse pie that she thought looked good, but I wasn't sure if the rest of the party guests would like a mousse pie - and it wasn't really cake. I considered making the Nothing Bundt Cake copycat chocolate cake recipes, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to use a cake mix to make it. After all as Ryan reminded me it always tastes better from scratch! I had pinned a recipe for something called "Brickstreet Chocolate Cake" and after reading through it I realized it was really similar to the Nothing Bundt Cake one. I made a few changes so I could make it into a layer cake and I added a chocolate mousse filling - so Genna could still have the mousse part and added a chocolate mirror glaze- It turned our great!
Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
2 cups plus 3 Tbsp flour
5 Tbsp cornstarch
1 cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 small box instant chocolate pudding mix (about 1/2 cup)
2 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I think next time I will use less or skip them all together.)
Preheat oven to 350°. Spray two 8x8 square pans with cooking spray and line with parchment paper. Beat sugar, butter and vanilla in large bowl. Beat in eggs. Add soda, salt, chocolate pudding, buttermilk corn starch, and flour and mix until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spread evenly into the square pans and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Lower temperature to 325° and continue baking for about 15 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Then remove from pans and use cut each cake into 2 even layers when cake is no longer warm.
Chocolate Mousse (Next time I might double or 1 and 1/2 times this recipe)
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tbsp powdered sugar
Put chocolate chips and 1 cup heavy cream into a microwave safe bowl. Put in microwave for 1 min. Stir and repeat for 30 seconds at a time until chocolate is melted. Add vanilla and whisk until smooth. Pour chocolate into a bowl and cool to room temperature stirring occasionally. Meanwhile beat the other 1 cup cream with 2 Tbsp powdered sugar until cream forms stiff peaks and fold into the chocolate mixture when it is cool. Refrigerate until ready to use. Use mousse to frost between each cake layer and over the top and sides of cake as well. Put cake back in refrigerator for the mousse to set up while making the glaze.
Chocolate Mirror Glaze (this make extra so you'll have leftovers)
1 Tbsp powdered gelatin
3 Tbsp water
½ cup water
1 cup sugar
½ cup heavy cream
1/3 cup cocoa powder
In a small bowl, SLOWLY sprinkle the gelatin over the 3 tablespoons water and let bloom for 5 minutes. (The gelatin should absorb into the water before you sprinkle more on top of it. I stirred it around some too.) In a small saucepan, bring the ½ cup water and the sugar to a boil. Whisk in the cream and cocoa until smooth and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and Add the gelatin, mix thoroughly so there are no lumps and gelatin is completely melted. Then poor the chocolate glaze into a small bowl nested inside a larger bowl filled with ice let cool to about 75 F stir frequently. I don't think I stirred enough and when I was ready to use mine, some of the outside edges of the glaze was a little too thick. The glaze needs to be 75 degrees so it will flow nicely. Use a ladle to pour glaze over top of cake and allow it to drip down the sides. Return to the fridge until ready to serve.
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