Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Buttercream for a Special Day

There's this saying, 'Funny how time flies (when you're having fun)'.

I can still remember the very first time I met my husband, October 2007, just feels like yesterday. The fact is, it has been 5 years since that, and exactly 2 years since our wedding day.

So I guess I've been having fun! I thank God for this and thank you to my dearest husband ^_^

So for this special day, I made a chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream (Don't you love it when you have a reason to make pretty cakes?? ). The plan was to make a fondant cake. But then I had a change of heart, right after the raspberry buttercream was done. The color, ah, too beautiful a color to pass up! A bucket of roses with that purple color seemed just right.

The double chocolate cake is adapted from the famous Miette's Tomboy Cake recipe from Bakerella, which my friend, Bicil, told me. It's a double chocolate cake, so of course, very rich, chocolaty, and moist. I'm not complaining at all.. :)

Ah.. and I'm glad my husband likes it. That way I can officially call it our anniversary cake. Happy anniversary to us! 

Double Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
11/4 cups natural unsweetened cocoa powder
11/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 ounces 70 percent (or 60 percent) cacao chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup boiling water
1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, you can use 1 tbsp lemon juice and add milk until the liquid reaches 1 cup volume)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable oil
21/4 cups sugar

Directions
1. Liberally butter two 6-by-3-inch regular or contour cake pans and dust with sifted cocoa powder. Tap out the excess cocoa.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

3. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and set aside.

4. Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Whisk until the chocolate is melted. Let the mixture cool for 15 minutes.

5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and vanilla. Set aside.

6. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs on high speed until foamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and slowly pour in the oil, whisking until combined, about 30 seconds. Raise the speed to medium and whisk until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds longer.

7. Reduce the speed to low and slowly pour the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Slowly pour in the buttermilk and vanilla mixture. Add the sugar and whisk until the batter is smooth and liquid, about 2 minutes.

8. Stop the mixer. Remove the bowl and add the sifted dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated, preferably by hand, lifting and folding in from the bottom center. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again just briefly by hand. The batter may still look a little lumpy, but stop mixing.

9. Pour the batter through a medium-mesh sieve into a large measuring cup or bowl to remove any lumps. Press against the solids in the sieve with a rubber spatula to push through as much batter as possible, then discard the lumps. Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake until the tops spring back when lightly pressed and a tester inserted in the centers comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

10. Transfer to wire racks and let cool in the pans for about 20 minutes. When the cakes are cooled enough to handle the pans but still a tad warm to the touch, carefully run an offset spatula around the edges of the pans to loosen them, then invert the cakes onto the racks and remove the pans. (Note: If you are making the Old-Fashioned Cake and therefore using a contour pan, just invert the pans and drop them sharply onto the racks; they should fall out cleanly. Using an offset spatula in a contour pan will mar the edges of the cake.) Let cool for about 20 minutes longer. Wrap the cakes tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate to ensure that the interiors are completely cooled before decorating, at least 1 hour or for up to 3 days. To freeze, wrap tightly in a second layer of plastic and store in the freezer up to 2 months.

Note:
We use natural cocoa powder not Dutch-processed, as the Dutch-processed cocoa has been treated with an alkalizing agent that heightens the color but gives it a milder flavor. For this recipe, it is important to use natural product such as Scharffen Berger to attain a deep, dark chocolate flavor.


Raspberry Buttercream

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup raspberry jam
2 pounds powdered sugar

Directions:
- Mix butter, vegetable shortening, and raspberry jam until incorporated.
- Add powdered sugar until it reaches the desired consistency (and sweetness!)

Japanese Cheesecake

I remember my friend Olive made a really delicious cheesecake. She said it was 'Japanese Cheesecake'. The texture was very different with the New York Cheesecake, Japanese cheesecake has a sponge cake texture, but softer, moister, and airy that it melts in your mouth. So when I ate it, it didn't taste as rich as New York Cheesecake.

Indonesian Sweet Pancake ~ Martabak Terang Bulan

This used to be my favorite "snack" when I was still in Jakarta. One of Indonesian most popular street food. It's basically a pancake with yeast, so a lot thicker than the regular pancake, and also a lot sweeter, with all the additional fillings. It comes with many different filling combination of chocolate sprinkles, cheese, peanut, and durian.

Soft and Fluffy Glazed Doughnuts

I just felt like I wanted to make doughnuts today. My last doughnut experience was a total disaster. It was baked doughnut - supposed to be easier than fried doughnut, the doughnut turned out to be so stiff like a rock. I still have no idea what went wrong, and I don't want to make it again. At least for now. And I was pretty sure that fried doughnut tastes better than baked doughnuts.
So, fried doughnuts!

Chocolate Chip Almond Cookie Pie

You know that we get to eat cake samples in Costco. It was when we shop for groceries there when I first tasted Chocolate Chips Cookie Pie. Ofcourse, my husband and I are big fans of chocolate, so we like it a lot. Then  I made myself a promise to make the pie right away.

Fermented Cassava Cake with Cheddar Cheese (Kue Tape Keju)

Tapai (ta-pie) or tape (ta-peh), is a traditional fermented food found throughout much of East- and Southeast Asia. It's a sweet or sour alcoholic paste.
I bought it in an Indonesian cultural event and apparently after 2 weeks, it was still sitting silently in the fridge!
So my husband suggested me to make a cake from the fermented cassava. But I found a better recipe, the one that combines fermented cassava and cheddar cheese.

Pain Au Chocolat (Chocolate Croissant)

Have you ever tasted Trader Joe's croissant? I had it during summer holiday at my sister's house, and it was so good. I was falling in love to it without a doubt. Maybe that was the reason I never really wanted to make my own croissant.

I was not really sure how I was brought into the youtube video showing how to make a croissant. But it really surprised me in a way that it involves creating many layers of butter and dough. It needs time and patience. And I felt very challenged.

Crisp Chocolate Bites

There was still half a jar of sugar cookies in my livingroom table, but I was really craving for chocolate. So it didn't take me too long to choose this recipe from William Sonoma to try.

I was too tempted to try that I took one cookie while it was still warm, it was still a bit chewy. So I waited until it cooled completely and I was happy. It was very crisp - the kind of crisp that you could hear the sound coming out of your mouth. 

Chicken Satay (Sate Ayam)

Chicken Satay is well-known as one of the most popular dishes from Indonesia. It's a dish of seasoned - marinated - skewered - grilled chicken, dipped in peanut sauce.

Indonesian food recipe usually involves many steps and many ingredients. But not for Chicken Satay. It's quite simple to make, yet it is so irresistible.

Sugar Cookies

I'm not really a fan of sugar cookies. But then I was stumbled upon the beautiful sugar cookies made by Marianne in from Sweetopia. 'How could she make such a beautiful and detail icing decoration?', I wondered. I saw her video in youtube and yet she made it look so easy. Made me wanto to test myself, my patience.

Crispy Shell Cream Puffs

There were several batches of cream puffs that I made before this. But not one could be as good as Beard Papa's cream puff. Back in Indonesia, I used to buy one everytime I went to Pacific Place mall. Here, there was only one Beard Papa's store I ever know, and that was in Seattle! It was impossible for me to go there then, So I googled the recipe with a hopeful thinking that I would actually find someone that could make cream puffs as good as Beard Papa and post the recipe online.

Basket of Roses for My Sister's Birthday

Initially I wanted to make a basket full full full of roses. But the royal icing was not enough, so I put some leaves between the roses. There were still some empty spaces though, and I wasn't able to cover the messy parts, too (see from picture below) :(. But this time the colored buttercream was edible! (Last time I made Elmo cake for Rivian, the buttercream was bitter). So it was all okay! :)

Semprit Keju (Indonesian Tapioca Cheese Cookies)

Ramadhan month, where moslems are fasting for the whole 30 days, is coming. The end of Ramadhan, 'Idul Fitri', is celebrated with people gathering and asking for forgiveness to each other. After fasting for the whole month, anyone is overjoyed with so many food in the house. This cookie is one of the most common snack provided in each house during Idul Fitri. Everyone's favorite.

Elmo Cake for Rivian

While I was in Seattle, I had the chance to make a birthday cake for my nephew, Rivian. His favorite was Elmo, so I made him an Elmo cake. To tell the truth, I was quite relieved, because Elmo Cake looked much more simple than Thomas the Train cake, in terms of color and shape.

The challenge was when I made the red buttercream for the Elmo's fur. I didn't expect I would need so many red coloring to actually turn the color of buttercream to red! And too many red coloring made the taste of the buttercream was horrible. I googled and learned that 1. I should have used no-taste-red instead of christmas red, so the taste wouldn't turn out bitter; 2. even if it became bitter, I could still make it less bitter by adding teaspoons of vanilla extract; 3.The red color would turn darker over time; 4. If I added pink color first before adding red color, I would need less red coloring to make the color red.

Well, It seems that I need more and more practice! :)

Blueberry Cheesecake with Peanut Crust

I had been staring the pictures of this cake in one of William Sonoma's books, and I really wanted to make one. But I never did (because my husband doesn't like cheesecake), until today, because I'm going to Seattle this weekend and there's still some packages of cream cheese left on my fridge.
The original recipe required hazelnut, but I only had salted peanut. So I tried using these peanuts, and it turned great. I brought it to a farewell party of my friend, and everyone loved it (including my husband). I was so glad!

For the crust
Ingredients:
11/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/16 cup sugar (additional, because I used 'salted' peanuts')
3/4 cup roasted, finely chopped peanuts
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 2 cm pieces

Method:
Preheat oven to 325 F (165 C). Butter a 9-inch (23 cm) square springform pan.
To make the crust, in a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, peanuts, salt, until blended. Using a knife, cut in the butter until mixture forms large, coarse crumbs the size of small peas.
Press the crust mixture into the bottom and 1 inch (2,5 cm) up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake the crust until it is golden and the top looks dry and firm, 15-20 minutes. Set aside.

For the filling
Ingredients:
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup heavy (double) cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups blueberry

Method:
In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese and sugar and beat together with a wooden spoon or a mixer until blended and smooth. Stir in the flour until blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until the batter is smooth. Stir in the cream and vanilla and almond extracts and stir until incorporated. Gently fold in the blueberries. Pour the batter into the prepared crust.
Bake in the preheated oven until the center is set when you give the pan a gentle shake, 35-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and open the sides of the springform pan. Let cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight.

Sweet Blanc (Sweet Bun with Cream Cheese Filling)

My friend, Bicil, and I have exactly the same hobby - cooking. So we like to talk about food or good recipes. One day she told me about this bread recipe that she likes a lot.
I looked at the pictures, it was so pretty and the recipe was quite simple. I had to give it a try.
Well, I love the filling, absolutely. Cream cheese and strawberry yoghurt is a perfect combination. But I'm not really into the bread. I imagined that I was going to eat a sweet bun, but it's not. Maybe because my yoghurt is not sweet enough. More sugar in the recipe would be perfect.

Dough
	210 g	Bread Flour
	40 g	Cake Flour
A	6 g	Instant dried yeast
	4 g	Salt
	30 g	Sugar
	63 g	Plain yoghurt
	1	Egg
B	13 g	Condensed milk
	8 g	Honey
	50 cc	Water
30 g		Unsalted butter (soft)

Egg wash
		1 egg + 1tbsp water
Decoration
10		Strawberry
		Icing sugar

Cream cheese filling
230 g	Cream cheese
50 g	Sugar
80 g	Plain yoghurt
30 cc	Whipping cream
2 tsp	Lemon juice

Make the filling

1. Beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy in a bowl.

2. Pour the yoghurt into cream cheese mixture, beat to combine.

3. Pour the whipping cream and lemon juice into the mixture, mix well

4. Cover the bowl with cling film and refrigerate until use.

Make the dough

Mix the (B) ingredients together.

Put the (A) ingredients in a bowl, whisk to combine, pour the (B) mixture into the bowl, and use large spoon or pastry scraper to mix everything together. When all the ingredients come together, put the butter in the bowl and rub until all butter is distributed, and kneads briefly to bring all the ingredients together

Take the dough out of the bowl and knead, until the dough is soft, smooth and elastic about 10 minutes.

Put the dough into a light buttered bowl. Let the dough rise in a warm place until double in size about 1 hour.

Gently press down the dough, then put the dough back into a light buttered bowl. Let the dough rise again in a warm place for another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C, and butter the muffin pan. Take the dough out of the bowl. Gently press down the dough and cut the dough into 10 pieces (about 50 g/ piece). Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a circle, about 8 cm. Gently presses down the dough into the muffin pan to form a cup. 

Cover the shaped dough; let rise until almost doubled in volume, about 30-40 minutes. Before baking, brush the dough with egg wash and pour the filling in.

Bake for 12 minutes.

When cool, place the strawberry on top and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Beef Bulgogi

The first time I had bulgogi was at Iday and Oliv's place. They invited me and my husband to have a 'korean night' with them. And, as I did with any other korean cuisine like bibimbap, khalbi, and kimchi, I loved the beef bulgogi! 

I found this recipe in the internet and it works. I like it also because it is so practical. I could just marinate the beef the night before, and simply fry it the next day.

Ingredients:

1 lb thin sliced beef

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 pieces green onions

1/2 yellow onion

1 big carrot, sliced

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp garlic

2 tbsp rice wine/apple juice

2 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tbsp sesame oil/vegetable oil

Method:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Mix well and marinade in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Cook over medium to high heat for about 3-5 minutes.

Serve with steamed rice.

Grilled Chicken with Spicy Sauce (Ayam Panggang Bumbu Rujak)

This is one of our favorite Indonesian cuisine. It's sweet, spicy, and tasty. My mom used to make this at home. While I was in college, I lived far from home, so I had to go look for this dishes in certain places. Now that I can make it by myself, I wouldn't need to go look for this anymore :)

Ingredients:

5 chicken drumsticks 

Juice from 1 lime

1/2 can coconut milk

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp ground galangal

3 lime leaves

3 lemon grass, cut into 2 inches long

5 tbsp red onion, processed

5 tbsp red fresno chilli, processed

3 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp shrimp paste (terasi)

salt to taste

3 tbsp brown sugar

Directions:

Marinate chicken with lime juice. After 15 minutes, rinse the chicken and put aside.

Fry all the other ingredients (except coconut milk) with vegetable oil until fragrant. Then, pour chicken and coconut milk, stir until incorporated with all the ingredients. In medium heat, let the chicken be tendered and sauce be caramelized. During the process, stir the chicken for every couple minutes, to avoid the coconut milk from cracking. Once done, broil the chicken in the oven for 5-10 minutes. Ready to serve.

Baked Oreo Cheesecake

I've just bought a spring pan yesterday, just because I wanted to make this delish Oreo Cheesecake. My husband doesn't really like cheesecake. But if it comes with Oreo, I'm sure he wouldn't mind :)

In the original recipe, leftover Oreos are chopped and mixed into the cheesecake batter. For me, I prefer the leftover Oreos to be finely ground and poured on top of the cheesecake batter. I think it looks prettier.

One more think, the size of the cheesecake is smaller than the regular cheesecake. Not too big, so it's perfect for us. But you can always double the recipe for the cheesecake (not the crust), if you need to make a bigger one.

Ingredients:
For the crust:
25 Oreo cookies
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
For the cheesecake:
12 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp sour cream, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
6 Oreo cookies, finely grounded, for spreading on top of the cheesecake.


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325 F.
To make the crust, remove fillings from the Oreo, place the Oreos in the bowl of a food processor, Process, pulsing, until the cookies are finely ground. Add in the melted butter and mix with the cookies until incorporated. Transfer the mixture to the spring pan. Press the crumbs into an even layer over the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then set aside and prepare the filling while maintaining the oven temperature.
To make the filling, add the cream cheese to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until light and smooth, about 2 minutes. Mix in the sugar until well combined. Blend in the sour cream, vanilla, and salt. Beat in the egg and egg yolk on medium-high speed until incorporated, scraping down the bowl as needed.
Pour the cheesecake batter over the prepared crust, smoothing the top with a spatula. Spread finely ground oreo cookies on top of the batter. Bake for about 40-50 minutes, until the cheesecake is set around the edges but slightly wobbly in the center. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool about 1 hour to room temperature. Cover the pan and refrigerate until well chilled, about 3 hours.
To cut the cheesecake, clean the knife blade between each slice to keep the edges neat. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Chinese Orange Chicken

This is actually my second attempt to make orange chicken. In the first attempt, I did manage to make an orange chicken, but not exactly like what I've wanted. But this 2nd attempt looks just right and tastes much better. I will no longer search for another orange chicken recipe :)

Adapted from here with some modification.

Ingredients:
2 pounds boneless chicken pieces, skinned
2 egg
2 teaspoon salt
white pepper
oil (for frying)
1/2 cup cornstarch PLUS
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon minced ginger root
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon crushed hot red chilies
1/4 cup chopped green onions (optional)
1 tablespoon apple juice
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon sesame oil/vegetable oil
***Orange Chicken Sauce***
1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoon water
5 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons white vinegar


Directions:
Cut chicken pieces into 2-inch squares and place in large bowl. Stir in egg, salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons oil and mix well. Stir cornstarch and flour together. Add chicken pieces, stirring to coat. 

Heat oil for deep-frying in wok or deep-fryer to 375 degrees F. 

Add chicken pieces, small batch at time, and fry 3 to 4 minutes or until golden and crisp. (Do not overcook or chicken will be tough.) Remove chicken from oil with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Set aside. 

Clean wok and heat 15 seconds over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil. Add ginger and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant. Add and stir-fry crushed chilies and green onions. Add rice wine and stir 3 seconds. Add Orange Sauce and bring to boil. Add cooked chicken, stirring until well mixed. Stir water into remaining 1 tablespoon cornstarch until smooth. Add to chicken and heat until sauce is thickened. Stir in 1 tablespoon oil and sesame oil. Serve at once.