CHOCOLATE CAKE

CHOCOLATE CAKE

Everyone love a chocolate cake and I am truly one that love the icing and the rich chocolate taste that it bring to your mouth.that creamy taste of moist chocolate cake is very unforgivable. my kids will always say mum please make a chocolate cake. and I just could not say no because it was my favorite too.

Ingredients

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder

1¾ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1½ cups sugar

1¼ cups mayonnaise

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Frosting

12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

¾ cup sugar

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1 cup heavy cream

1½ cups (3 sticks) butter, room temperature

¾ teaspoon salt


Cake: Preheat oven to 325°. Lightly coat cake pans with nonstick spray and line bottoms with parchment

 paper; spray again.

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat eggs and sugar until pale and doubled in volume, about 4 minutes.

Add mayonnaise and vanilla and beat until just combined.

With mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with 1⅓ cups lukewarm water in 2 additions, beginning

 ending with dry ingredients.

 Scrape batter into pans, dividing evenly.

Bake cakes, rotating halfway through, until a tester inserted into the centers comes out clean, 25-30 minutes. Transfer pans to wire racks and let cool 20 minutes before turning out onto racks. Let cool completely.

Frosting

  2 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar

  6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

  6 tablespoons butter

  5 tablespoons evaporated milk

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Directions

 In a medium bowl, sift together the confectioners' sugar and cocoa, and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth, then gradually beat in sugar mixture alternately with evaporate milk. Blend in vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy. If necessary, adjust consistency with more milk or sugar.

Lemon Meringue Pie

I  have tried so many recipes for this pie and this is the best of all of them. My recipe is okay but I will not dare give it to you when you can get the best. MILE HIGH LEMON MERINGUE PIE, adapted from Martha Stewart Thank you folks at Martha Stewart kitchen.

Ingredients

1 Store Bought Pie Pastry

 

Lemon Filling

1 large egg

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup sifted cake flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons lemon rind

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Meringue

7 large egg whites

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Bake the pastry shell according to directions and allow to cool.

For the lemon filling, combine cornstarch, cake flour, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Martha notes that this should be a nonreactive saucepan.  I only had one kind, and it turns out it was nonreactive.  Copper saucepans are, apparently, reactive.  Don’t use copper saucepans in this recipe.

 

Gradually add two cups of cold water and bring the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly.  This should take about four minutes.

Remove the nonreactive saucepan from the heat.  Pour a small amount of the hot mixture into the egg yolks to temper them and keep the lemon filling from becoming lemon-and-scrambled-egg filling, then add the eggs to the nonreactive saucepan.  Cook over low heat for five minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat again and whisk in the lemon juice and rind.  Add the butter one piece at a time, but in a fairly methodical manner while the mixture is warm enough to melt the butter.

When the butter is fully melted and absorbed into the mixture, pour it into a large bowl and let it cool.  Place wax paper directly on top of the  surface to prevent a skin from forming.

When cool, pour the filling into the pastry shell, cover with aluminum foil, and refrigerate for approximately one hour, until firm.

When the lemon filling is firm, make the meringue by combining the egg whites, sugar, and salt in a heat-proof bowl.  Set over a pan of simmering water and beat until warm and the sugar and salt are dissolved into the egg whites.

Remove bowl from heat and whip into stiff peaks.  This alone makes pre-stand mixer cooks who could make any kind of lemon meringue pie, much less a beautiful one, head and shoulders above all the rest of humanity.

 

Spread the meringue over the pie  so that it touches the crust all around.  This will, at least in theory, reduce the “weeping” that occurs (in which watery puddles form at the bottom of the pie pan after pieces are removed).  Using the flat part of a spatula, lightly tap all over the surface of the meringue to encourage well-intentioned, “it came out this way all on its own” peaks.

 

Broil until brown, approximately two minutes.