I will be the first to admit that this weeks creation is absolutely RIDICULOUS, but what would you expect with gluttony serving as this week's inspiration. The 'cooknie cake' is a pecan brownie base with a chocolate chip cookie dough center, smothered in vanilla cake, swirled with strawberry jam, topped with a chocolate cream cheese frosting and a white chocolate doodle, served with a chocolate dipped strawberry. Here is the extensive, but delicious, recipe.
Taste: **** | Presentation **** 1/2
Brownies
(modified from allrecipes.com)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs, room tempearture
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup pecans
In a large bowl combine the melted butter and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Beat in the cocoa, flour, salt and baking powder. Fold in the pecans. Set aside.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
(from allrecipes.com)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp hot water
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth (about 5 minutes). Beat in the eggs one at a time and stir in the vanilla. In a small bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and proceed to adding it to the batter with the salt. Stir in the flour and chocolate chips. Set aside.
Vanilla Cake
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
strawberry jam
In a large bowl stir together the butter and sugar until fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add in the egg. in a small bowl combine the milk and vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this dry mixture to the butter and sugar mixture in thirds, alternating with the milk and vanilla mixture, beginning and ending with the dry mixture, until just combined.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease pan(s) (I had a 12 cake pan, a 6 cake pan and a mini cupcake pan ready to go).
Scoop about a tablespoon of brownie batter into each cup of a 12 cupcake pan, insuring that the bottom of the pan is covered by brownie. Next, drop a tablespoon of cookie dough into each cup, pushing it down over the brownie slightly. Use a tablespoon to cover each of the cookies with your vanilla cake batter until the pans are about 3/4 full. Lastly, drop a teaspoon of jam onto each cupcake, swirling it around with a toothpick. I baked them for 15 minutes.
This recipe yielded 14 regular size cakes for me. As there were varying amounts of batter remaining, additional batters were randomly placed into separate pans and baked them as I felt necessary.
The strawberries were easily prepared by melting about a half cup of chocolate and dipping in the strawberries, placing them on a flat surface of parchment paper and sitting them in the fridge to harden.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cup chocolate chips, melted
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup icing/confectioner sugar
8 oz package cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat), room temperature
In a large bowl, mix together the melted chocolate and milk. In a separate medium sized bowl, mix together the sugar and cream cheese. Add the sugar/cream cheese mixture to the chocolate/milk mixture and stir until well combined. Refrigerate, removing from the fridge 1 hour before using. At 3/4 inch thick, this yielded enough frosting for 13 cupcakes.
The white chocolate doodles were created by melting down some white chocolate, pipping them onto some parchment paper in random 'doodle' patterns and allowing them to harden over night in the fridge. I used 'Toll House' white chocolate chips and they actually didn't melt down as much as I would have liked so I added a bit of milk to the 'soft' as opposed to 'melted' bowl of chocolate and, though it was harder to pipe, still served it's purpose. I had originally planned on pipping some white chocolate over the milk chocolate covered strawberries to tie the presentation to the cupcake but this wasn't possible due to the difficulty involved with pipping the chocolate. I recommend using molding chocolate in the future.
The Panel
This week's comments were some of the best as far as likeness for the cupcake was concerned. One of the common remarks, which is becoming rather redundant with my recipes, was a lack of jam. Otherwise, negative comments were mostly lacking, except for the odd cupcakivore that found it to be a little overwhelming. Flavours were said to combine well, the chocolate cream cheese frosting was "perfectly chocolatey" (Giovanni) and a general appreciation for the pecans in the brownie was expressed. Overall presentation also received great reviews.
My comments:
Other than the white chocolate doodle dilemma, I didn't have many troubles with this weeks cupcake. The cookie dough within the cupcakes was slightly under cooked, but it didn't take away from the final product (who doesn't love raw cookie dough?!). The cream cheese frosting complimented the sweetness of the cake very nicely. The vanilla cake seemed a little dry but they seemed to bake for just the right amount of time. Would probably omit the strawberry jam next time.
This week's comments were some of the best as far as likeness for the cupcake was concerned. One of the common remarks, which is becoming rather redundant with my recipes, was a lack of jam. Otherwise, negative comments were mostly lacking, except for the odd cupcakivore that found it to be a little overwhelming. Flavours were said to combine well, the chocolate cream cheese frosting was "perfectly chocolatey" (Giovanni) and a general appreciation for the pecans in the brownie was expressed. Overall presentation also received great reviews.
My comments:
Other than the white chocolate doodle dilemma, I didn't have many troubles with this weeks cupcake. The cookie dough within the cupcakes was slightly under cooked, but it didn't take away from the final product (who doesn't love raw cookie dough?!). The cream cheese frosting complimented the sweetness of the cake very nicely. The vanilla cake seemed a little dry but they seemed to bake for just the right amount of time. Would probably omit the strawberry jam next time.