Hazelnut Crunch Cake

Hazelnut Crunch Cake

I originally got the recipe for this cake from Everyday Italian. I made a few changes, after some trial and error. The cake recipe comes from the Cake Doctor. This is surprisingly simple and beyond delicious!

1 recipe Darn Good Chocolate Cake...

1 package (18.25 oz.) plain devil’s food cake mix

1 package (3.9 oz.) chocolate instant pudding mix

4 large eggs

1 cup of sour cream

½ cup warm water

½ cup vegetable oil

1½ cups semisweet chocolate chips

Crunch: 1 cup (about 4½-ounces) hazelnuts, toasted and skinned

⅔ cup sugar

⅓ cup water

Filling: 2 (8-ounce) containers mascarpone cheese, room temperature

1 cup cream

¾ cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping: ¼ cup bittersweet chocolate chips

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon orange zest

For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 (8-inch) cake pans. Prepare the batter for the Darn Good Chocolate Cake. Divide the batter between the 2 cake pans and bake according to recipe instructions. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.

Place the cake mix, pudding, eggs, sour cream, water, and oil in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2-3 minutes more. The batter should be thick and well combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into pans.

Bake the cake in center of the oven until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, about 45 minutes. Let cake cool on wire racks until cool.

For the Crunch: Place the toasted nuts close together in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir the sugar mixture until dissolved. Bring to a boil and let cook until the sugar is light brown, about 8 minutes. (Or test with a candy thermometer, look for the hard candy stage.) Let the bubbles subside then pour the caramelized sugar over the nuts. Place the baking sheet in the refrigerator and let the sugar nut mixture cool until hard, about 30 minutes. When the sugar nut mixture is hard and cool, top with another piece of parchment paper and pound into small pieces, or place the sugar nut mixture on a cutting board and cut into small pieces. Set aside.

For the filling: Whip the cream to soft peaks. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Whip until a bit more stiff. Fold in Marscapone cheese. Do not overmix. Fold the Crunch mixture into the whipped cream mixture.

For the topping: Place the chocolate, sugar and zest in a food processor. Process the mixture until the chocolate is finely ground.

To assemble the cake: Put 1 cake on a serving plate. Top with 1-inch of the whipped cream crunch mixture. Top with the second layer of cake and continue frosting the entire cake with the remaining whipped cream crunch mixture. Sprinkle the top and sides of the cake with the ground chocolate.

Serve.

Yields: Serves 8-10

How to decorate a cake, perfectly

Here is a suggestion for ways to decorate a cake, perfectly. As far as I am concerned, the only tool that is a must when decorating cakes is an offset spatula. It is a lifesaver. I cannot imagine working without one. It is also really helpful to have a really great set of pastry bags and decorating tips. If you have this, you can deliver a fantastic looking cake.

How-to-make-the-perfect-birthday-cake

Tea Party!

We are having one of Ella's friends over after school tomorrow. What better way to spend the afternoon than with a tea party? I just whipped up a batch of shortbread, which I will cut with cookie cutters and have the girls decorate them. And I made rice crispie treats. Tomorrow I will make some mini vanilla cupcakes and decorate them with chocolate frosting. Ella's new rule for all play dates is to have a tray of fruit and raspberry yogurt dip (which is basically equal parts yogurt and cool whip... thanks to my friend Susan's mother who made this for Ava's birthday!) And since I feel the need to balance things out a bit, I will also put together a veggie tray. Who am I kidding? They are four! Veggie tray, schmeggie tray! And last but not least, tea. We just saw the Wiggles in concert last night and Dorothy the dinosaur talks a lot about rose tea. Ella is sort of fixated on that. The closest I got to that is chamomile lavender, so that is what I will serve. Hopefully the girls will have a blast. Hopefully, Ella's friend will not got home and act like a complete sugar crazed maniac! Hmmmm...

Dad's Birthday

This is one of two cakes that I made for Dad's birthday today. This was chocolate cake with whipped cream and berries, topped with chocolate cream cheese frosting. The other was an ice cream cake made with dolce de leche ice cream, a crust of semisweet chocolate and rice crispies, freshly made caramel sauce and whipped cream. Needless to say, Mama is wearing her pants a little bit looser tonight...

Great Aunt Elyse

So the holy grail has just been discovered... at least the Schultz family version of the holy grail. My Great Aunt Elyse was the greatest of cooks. A woman with a distinguished pallet who was a also a kick ass cook. She sort of made us all quiver in her presence, but each of us respected her on a high level. Sadly, she passed away in 1992. But recently, her daughter gave my aunt a box with some of Ol' Aunt Elyse's stuff. In it were several of her prized recipe files. Since my Aunt is not a cook, she passed the gems along to my Mother who is the center of all food culture in our family. And knowing that I am also an epicurean, my Mom gave me a coveted glance of the treasure. Their value is not lost on me. I am chomping at the bit to do something big with many of these recipes. She even had an entire box dedicated to cakes and frostings. HELLO! I have a blog called Buttercream Buzz! Now I know that I come by all of this honestly. After I try out a few of these sure-to- please concoctions, I will be posting them. Can you tell that I am losing my mind over here? This is the best gift that I have received all year. More to come!

Cherry Chip Cupcakes Part 2

Today is the last day of Ella's preschool. Since I am the room mother, I tasked myself with cupcake duty. Everyone at her birthday loved this cupcake so much, I decided to make it again. This time I piped the frosting on and added sprinkles. Final touch: a cherry on top. My only mistake was not making enough buttercream. If you are piping, triple your recipe. I only doubled it. Thankfully I had enough ingredients to make more. It was just an annoyance. Also, if you are working with Maraschino cherries be sure to drain them and get them nice and dry before placing them on your cake. You will thank me for this!

My boy, for sure

So I was making some frosting the other day and as the egg beaters spun wildly in the bowl, I looked down and saw Milo staring up at me. Actually, he was panting but I couldn't hear him over the hum and the clank. He became impatient. He wanted what I had and he wasn't going to take "no" for an answer! The kid is only 19 months old, but that did not stop him from KNOWING what I was doing. There were freshly made cupcakes on the counter, Ella was dancing around and I was busy with my Kitchen-Aid! Silly was I to think that he would be satisfied with a measly lick of the egg beater. Oh no! This kid wanted his own frosted cupcake. It cracked me up. How could I refuse him? He is just like me and I honor his determination. Buttercream Forever, baby!