Pear Chocolate Cake inspired by Ina Garten

This cake is actually based on Ina's "Beatty' Chocolate Cake".

Every cake almost always comes with a story right?

DH's birthday was last week and MP insisted that we all must have cake for birthdays - that's the BIRTHDAY RULE. So even though I was really tired (had a busy & long week), somehow managed to get my act together. Was hoping for something easier like a brownie. Initially thought I was being nice by asking whether he wanted chocolate cake or brownie? The reply was "durian cake"!!! No, no no...the question was chocolate cake or brownie??? He finally reluctantly agreed to chocolate cake. Decided to pair it with pears since its his special day and likes this combination very much, not as much as durian....oh well, another time when I am not so stressed ok honey?

Ingredients for the Cake

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups sugar (used almost 1 3/4 cups caster)


• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder


• 2 tsp baking soda


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 1 tsp kosher salt


• 1 cup buttermilk


• 1/2 cup vegetable oil


• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (that's 1 tbsp instant coffee in 1 cup hot water)


• slices of pear *optional

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 175C degrees.


2. Grease 2 (8-inch) cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.


3. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.


4. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.


5. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.


6. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Gently add slices of pears and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

7. Cool cake completely before frosting it.

Ingredients for the chocolate buttercream frosting

• 6 ounces good dark chocolate


• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted but 6 ounces good dark chocolate ter, at room temperature


• 1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature (I omitted this)


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (used 1 cup)


• coffee solution of 2 tsp instant coffee powder mixed with 1 tbsp hot water

Method:

1. Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.


2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes.


3. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes.


4. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy.


5. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee solution to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

This is one of the 'tallest' cake I've baked so far as I used 7 inch cake tins instead of 8 inch.

It was very yummy, soft and moist. Everyone who ate it, liked it - even the yummy chocolate butter cream!!

*sorry for the badly formated post, was driving me nuts but still couldn't fix it satisfactorily even after meddling like forever on it!!* :( sigh...better quickly post it before I seriously consider the delete button instead!

Cannelloni *revisted*

Cannelloni is a cylindrical tube pasta, about an inch in diameter.

The two brands found at Cold Storage.

Just checking how many tubes can fit nicely into the casserole dish.

Stuffing consist of spinach, black olives, ricotta cheese, some basil herbs and caramelized sweet onions. Mix them all up and stuff into the tube pasta. Spread out some tomato pasta sauce (used bottled) at the bottom of the dish before arranging the cannelloni on top.

Add a little more pasta sauce on the top before adding the cheese of your choice - used two types of cheese, cheddar and Gouda.

Bake in pre-heated oven at 180C degrees for about 35 min or until the cheese is nice and golden!

Ta-da, a quick fix. Great with a side serve of fresh salad. Longest activity was probably waiting for the frozen spinach to thaw or was that caramelising the onions?? haha, maybe the former.