chocolate - grace grits and gardening

Milky Way Cake

November 4, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

If you are following along, you may remember I am recreating recipes from Keiser’s Kitchen, a recipe book created by the Keiser Elementary School PTA moms in 1969. A few weeks ago, I made the Yum Yum Cake. It was delicious. If you missed it, you’ll want to go back and check it out. This week’s dish is the Milky Way Cake. With company coming for Halloween weekend, it sounded like the perfect choice. Plus, I had a bag of those fun-sized Milky Ways. What a great way to use up leftover Halloween candy…

After having made only two of these vintage recipes, here’s the thing I’ve realized—the art of cooking has drastically changed. In only forty years, ingredients have evolved. Recipes are written differently. Like everything, there are trends in cooking. Foods go in and out of style, and the language of food changes.

I was reminded of the importance in handing down recipes. These recipes are part of our family stories.

I experienced this first-hand while making the Milky Way Cake, mainly because this recipe was contributed to the Keiser cookbook by my Aunt Lavern. For those of you who never knew her, Aunt Lavern had a sweet, generous spirit, loved family, friends and God, and was a fabulous cook. She even owned a little restaurant one time—her southern, down-home cooking was that good.

As I began making this cake, I imagined Aunt Lavern mixing the batter. I remembered the smells of her comfy kitchen. Several times I wanted to ask her questions, especially while trying to get the icing to “soft ball stage”. Even though my icing boiled over onto my stove and made a huge sticky mess, the cake turned out amazing. I think she was helping me.

The ingredients were basic.

I am no baker, but I truly believe this is the most beautiful icing I have ever made. It was smooth and creamy and rich like fudge.

Ummmmm.

Look at my lovely, giddy taste testers!

So you want the recipe, right?

Here it is…

Milky Way Cake

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

4 Milky Way candy bars
1 stick oleo I used unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Milky Way Icing

2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup marshmallow cream
1 stick oleo I only used 1/2 stick in the icing

Method

Melt candy bars and 1/2 stick butter. Set aside.
Cream sugar and 1/2 stick butter in large bowl.
Add eggs.
To the sugar/egg mixture, alternatively add flour and buttermilk until mixed together.
Add melted chocolate/butter mixture and mix well.
Add pecans.
Bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes or until done.

Milky Way Icing

Mix sugar and milk and cook in a double boiler until soft ball stage. Add chocolate chips, marshmallow cream and butter. Stir until melted.

Notes

Candy bars in general are much larger these days. Be sure to buy "regular" sized Milky Way bars. Or two "fun-sized" bars = one regular candy bar.
In the icing, I couldn't bring myself to add an entire stick of butter so I reduced the butter to 1/2 stick. This may be why my icing was fudge-like, but I thought this was the best part!

Here’s a helpful YouTube video that explains soft ball stage…

Aunt Lavern (left), Nana (right)

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

The Church – Under the Milky Way

Simple Pleasures #5

November 3, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Simple pleasures. Things I can count on like one-two-three. Uncomplicated things. That’s what I’m recapping from last week.

1. Decorating for Halloween. I’ve had this string of lights forever. Knock-on-wood, they don’t make ’em like this anymore.

2. Perfect, homemade chocolate icing. Recipe coming soon…

3. New Converse. Converse tennis shoes are part of my typical “uniform”. These are Razorback red. WPS!

4. Spending time with my oldest best-est friend. Seriously. Elementary school.

5. Cool find at Dickson Street Bookshop. Yes, I “adopted” another book. How could I not? It’s about the Mississippi Delta!

Here’s wishing you a week filled with comfortable shoes, best friends and chocolate.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

Count on Me – Bruno Mars

Molten Chocolate Cake. Oh my ganache!

April 24, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

(Eggs for this recipe were provided by Great Day Farms. All opinions are my own.)

This molten chocolate cake recipe comes with a warning: not to be shared with the chocolate lightweight. With one scoop of the spoon, the luscious chocolate center flows like Willie Wonka’s river. Serious chocolate here, people.

This recipe is courtesy of Sur la table cooking school, where I learned to make it (along with creme brûlée—BeStillMyHeart). Here’s my rule about cooking class recipes—if I can successfully repeat it at home, (and by successfully I mean it turns out the same), it’s a keeper. Plus, if the steps are easy and the ingredients basic, I consider it blog-able and too good not to share.

Chocolat-y heaven.

This one passed the test. I think you’ll agree!

Molten Chocolate Cake

Print Recipe

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter plus melted butter for brushing
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup plus 1 extra tablespoon all-purpose flour divided
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs at room temperature
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
Confectioners' sugar for sprinkling

Method

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Using a silicon pastry brush, prepare the inside of four 6-ounce ramekins with melted butter.
In a small bowl, whisk the cocoa powder with 1 tablespoon of the flour; dust the ramekins with the cocoa mixture, tapping out the excess. Transfer the ramekins to a sturdy baking sheet and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, melt 1 stick of butter with the chocolate over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Let cool slightly.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the granulated sugar with the eggs and salt at medium-high speed until thick and pale yellow, 3 minutes. Using a silicone spatula, fold in the melted chocolate until no streaks remain. Fold in the 1/4 cup of flour.
Spoon the batter into the prepared ramekins. Bake in the center of the oven for 10-12 minutes, until the tops are cracked but the centers are still slightly jiggly. Transfer the ramekins to a cooling rack for 5-8 minutes.
Run the tip of a small knife around each cake to loosen. Invert a small plate over each cake and, using potholders, invert again. Carefully lift off the ramekins. Dust the warm cakes with confectioners' sugar. Serve immediately with optional whipped cream or ice cream.