Phil's birthday cake

It's Phil's birthday!!  Happy birthday to one of the greatest dads I know.  For this special occasion I made one of the Keitel-Sosnov family's favorite cakes, the chocolate mocha cake.  It's a simple classic chocolate cake with a coffee kick and one of the greatest chocolate icings ever.

Chocolate Mocha Cake with Mocha Icing
Recipe from the Chestnut Hill Spice Shop

Ingredients:

(cake)

• 3 1/2 cups ap flour
• 1 1/2 cups cocoa
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp b powder
• 4 tsp b soda

• 2 cups milk + 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 4 eggs
• 4 cups sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup canola oil
• 2 cups hot coffee

(icing)

• 1 stick butter
• 1 stick margarine
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp coffee
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 2 c powdered sugar
• splash of milk

Method:

(cake)
Preheat oven to 350 and grease and parchment 2- 9" cake pans plus at least one 12 cup muffin pan.  Sift together dry ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.  In the stand mixer mix oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.  Add dry ingredients alternating with the buttermilk in a few additions.  Add hot coffee all at once and mix til combined.  Pour batter 3/4 full into the cake pans and muffin tins, don't over-fill.  Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until cakes bounce back to the touch and a knife comes out clean.  Try to let the cakes cool completely before removing them from the pan.  Loosen the sides with a knife because this cake tends to stick- hence the parchment paper.

(icing) 
Once the cakes have cooled beat the butter and the margarine in the stand mixer until light and creamy. Add vanilla, cinnamon, coffee, and then one at a time add the sugar and cocoa.  Beat to combine in between additions.  Last add the milk just to loosen up the texture.

I drew a fish on top of my cake with some melted semisweet chocolate chips mixed with butter in my piping bag.  Phil caught us a lot of delicious blue fish when we were at the shore last week and cooked us an amazing meal of baked blue fish with garlic and fingerling potatoes.  Thanks for the fish Phil, I hope you liked your cake!!

Mocha Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes it is so hot outside that Philly public schools are getting out early and what am I doing besides online job-hunting? Heating my oven to a cool 350 degrees. That's just how I roll- sweaty and smelling like cinnamon.

This recipe comes from Annie's Eats.

Ingredients:

3½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sea salt
2 tbsp. instant coffee

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup shredded coconut



Method:

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix all dry ingredients in bowl and set aside.
Cream room temp butter and sugars in mixer until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time and mix in between.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add flour to mixer in a few additions and beat just til combined.
Add chocolate chips and coconut and mix just til combined.
Spread tablespoon-sized balls of batter onto 4 cookie sheets and bake for 14 to 16 minutes until brown on the edges.

White Chocolate Chip Mocha Cookies

Doesn't that sound good? Coffee and white chocolate in one cookie! White Chocolate is a funny thing isn't it? Not really chocolate, just oil and sugar right? But they are on sale at Acme right now so I got an opportunity to play with them.

This recipe comes from Bake Girl. I made a few changes: I subbed in a little whole wheat flour, bumped up the instant coffee, used all white sugar and a little molasses instead of brown sugar, aaaaaaaand for the first time ever I used chocolate extract that I bought a million years ago from Whole Foods.

I also finally stopped using my phone to take pictures of my food. It broke. So now I am using a real life digital camera and I think it is quite an improvement.



Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
4 tablespoons instant coffee granules
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar plus 2 tbsp molasses
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon chocolate extract extract

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 375.
Mix all dry ingredients in bowl and set aside (1st paragraph of ingredients)
Cream butter, sugar, and molasses in stand mixer until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and beat in between.
Add choc extract and beat.
Add dry ingredients in a couple of additions, it will fly everywhere because of the cocoa so add it when the mixer is off and pot a towel over it when you turn it on.
Add choc and white choc chips and combine.
Divide between 3 baking sheets and bake for about 15 mins, I like mine more well done so if you like them soft take them out sooner.