Cherry Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

I swear in the future I shall adhere more religiously to the true spirit(s) of this blog (I just bought some absinthe!) but I'm afraid I wasn't drinking while I baked these cookies.  I was baking with my 5 year-old.  Technically, I think child protective services tend to frown upon getting hammered around your children. Frankly, I frown upon it.  So, we baked these cookies stone-cold sober. But they are still kick-ass.  You could add nuts, if your childrens happen to attend a school where nuts are not expressly forbidden.  You could also do white chocolate and Craisins (this recipe is adapted from the back of the Craisins bag) OR you could skip the wheat flour and do 1 1/2 cups regular, hell I don't care.

Stay tuned, faithful drinkers/bakers, the holiday season is approaching, and there WILL be wine. And baking. And maybe sazeracs.

1/2 cup butter softened
About 1 medium mashed (very ripe) banana
2/3 cup brown sugar packed
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extra
¾ tsp orange extract
About 1 tablespoon fresh orange zest
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup flour
½ cup whole wheat flour* (optional, you could just do 1 ½ cups regular flour instead)
1 tsp baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ -1 cup dried cherries (more or less to your taste)
2/3 cup dark chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mashed banana, mixing well. Add vanilla and orange extracts, and orange zest, and banana, and mix again until blended. Sift together flour/s, baking soda, and salt in a separate mixing bowl, then add oats. Add to the butter and egg mixture a little at time, blending after each addition. Stir in Craisins and white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack. Yield: Approx. 2 ½ dozen (I got 3 dozen).

Before the final result - the carnage

The entire philosophy of this blog is that drinking and baking is FUN . . . but I never promised that it wouldn't be messy.  I'm not going to post the recipe for this cake, because it's basically this with a few minor tweaks.  Originally grabbed the recipe from Pinterest and it really is the most amazing chocolate cake recipe ever - and pretty easy to make, too.

But this post is really about the mess.  The collateral damage that is invariably going to occur when one consumes a bottle of wine whilst whipping up a cake.

It looks something like this

And this

But at least the final version of the cake looked like this (and yes, I cheated - SuperWhy was a pre-printed fondant sheet; but the lettering was all me!).

Velvet Elvis Cake

The Velvet Elvis

This cake is an unholy marriage of flavors and traditions.  Anyone who knows me and my baking profile probably knows that I LOVES me some red velvet cake.  But, red velvet after red velvet enrobed in cream cheese frosting . . . even red velvet can become run-of-the-mill.

Still, for my birthday cake, nothing other than velvet cake would do, the question was just, what else to do with it?  Red velvet is technically a chocolate cake, so it can take a chocolate frosting, and I've recently learned the easiest, most forgiving ganache.  So the variation of chocolate ganache was a no-brainer.  And I colored my cake purple, but of course, you can have any color you damn well please.

Yet, you might ask, what makes this a "Velvet Elvis" cake?  Ahhh, therein lies the true innovation.  Because I soaked this sucker in espresso rum syrup.  I saw the espresso rum syrup on another layer cake recipe and I thought, well, a velvet cake could hold up to being soaked AND chocolate goes with espresso and rum goes with . . . well, rum goes with everything.  You've got a "velvet" cake recipe, velvet kind of makes me think of Elvis and with the espresso and rum we've got both uppers and downers, so therefore I give you . . . the Velvet Elvis cake.  The espresso and rum flavors are actually not THAT strong - you definitely notice the kick but it's not enough to cross your eyes or put hair on your chest or anything like that.

Technically speaking, I wasn't actually drinking while I was baking this cake, but I was drinking while I frosted and decorated it, so I am totally counting that.

For the Velvet Cake:
2 1/2 cups cake flour 
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups canola oil
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 (1-ounce) bottle red food coloring OR somewhat less gel food coloring - color of your choice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 3 (9-inch) round layer cake pans.

Sift flour, baking soda and coco together. Beat sugar and eggs together in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl mix together oil, vinegar, food coloring, and vanilla. Add to the bowl of eggs and sugar and beat until combined.

Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the wet mixture by alternating the buttermilk and dry ingredients. Always start with the flour and end with the flour.

Pour batter into pans. Tap them on the table to level out the batter and release air bubbles. Bake for 25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the middle comes out clean but be careful not to over bake or you'll end up with a dry cake.

Let layers cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before turning out of pan. Cool completely before frosting.

Espresso Syrup

Makes one cup

1/3 cup hot, freshly brewed espresso
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup dark rum, such as Meyer’s

In a bowl, stir together the espresso and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Add the rum and let cool to room temperature.

Frosting-
24 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream

Making the frosting-
    Create a double boiler by filling a saucepan with 2 inches of water and bringing it to a boil. Place chocolate chips and cream in a stainless steel mixing bowl (I used glass) and set on top of simmering water, Allow mixture to melt–do not stir right away, When chocolate has melted, stir it with a whisk. Allow to cool at room temperature.

Assembling the cake

Bake cake layers and let cool per instructions.  Lay bottom layer on your cake stand/plate and pour 1/3 of the espresso-rum syrup over the layer.  Pour slowly, but there is no real need to poke holes in the cake.  Allow layer to rest for a few minutes then frost with ganache.  Add next cake layer and repeat - pour 1/2 of the remaining espresso-rum syrup over layer then frost with ganache.  Finish with final cake layer, espresso-rum syrup and ganache over cake.  I added colored coarse sugar for bling!