London Day 2: Tower of London, Big Ben, Westminster, Leicester Square, Harrods & a Chocolatier

London, Day 2: December 27, 2013

Tower of London

Our second day in London was our first full day. We all managed to get a good amount of sleep to hopefully shake off enough of the jet lag for our first real foray into London. We deliberately hadn't made a lot of specific plans to be at certain places at certain times (it was vacation after all) but had a general idea of places to go, especially for my nieces who had never been to London before. I have but in recent years the trips have been all for work so I haven't played tourist in London in quite some time so I didn't mind retracing my steps to some of the tourist attractions since I could scarcely remember them the first time around.


Tower Bridge

Thanks to a good friend with connections, we were able to get passes to the Tower of London so that was our first tourist stop. The great thing about London is the ease of getting around everywhere via the DLR (Docklands Light Rail) and of course, the tube or the Underground. We learned to navigate both very quickly and my nieces were quite adept at whipping out their iphones and google mapping wherever we needed to go. We were met with heavy downpour almost as soon as we left the hotel and both the umbrellas we'd packed from the mild climate of California didn't last 2 minutes outside. Fortunately the rain didn't last long and the sun even dared to peek out while we were exploring the Tower of London.

Big Ben - majestic as always

Much of the rest of the day was spent literally walking everywhere. We covered a lot of ground on foot - from the Tower of London to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey to Leicester Square, Bond Street, and Piccadilly Circus. We did manage to find 2 good places for lunch and dinner that day but I'm going to write those up in separate posts as part of my continuing restaurant reviews so they don't get lost in my travel monologues. Plus I like the idea of finding them later for when I go back and/or if I want to recommend them to friends who'll be visiting the city as well.

My favorite landmark in London has always been and still remains Big Ben. I never get tired of seeing it, in person or in pictures. There's just something so stately about it. Westminster Abbey is no slouch either. My head probably swiveled around like an owl as I kept gazing at all the beautiful, stately architecture around me just as we walked all around London.

In continuing with our walking travels, as a stereotype, can three females go to London and not go to Harrods? I didn't think so. However, imagine Harrods with lots of both tourists and locals doing after-Christmas and winter shopping and you've got the madhouse pictured accurately. It wasn't even Boxing Day but come to think of it, I don't think I've ever been to Harrods where it hasn't been packed. I don't have a lot of pictures inside to show because I just couldn't get out of the way long enough to take out my camera and snap pictures that weren't blurry.

Until we got to the Food Hall, that is. I love the Food Hall at Harrods, enough so that I'm going to write it up separately so wait for it in a future post :).

But I will mention the chocolatier we happened upon whilst out walking. That's the beauty of simply walking from place to place or just walking around to see the area. You can happen upon all sorts of treasures. Such is the case with William Curley Patisserier and Chocolatier. Did you think I could walk past a shop like this and not go in? I won't disappoint you because I didn't.

The inside was cute and filled with lots of expensive chocolates, both packaged on the shelves for immediate purchase and in individual pieces behind the display cases. "Take away" prices are lower than dine-in so we opted for take away since we were still on our way to Harrods at the time and didn't want to stop.

We did manage a few minutes to sample a couple of products though: a Honey and Rosemary Truffle for my nieces which they said was really creamy. Although the honey tended to overpower the flavor of the truffle, they could also still taste the rosemary. I was offered a bite but I'm not a fan of either honey or rosemary so I passed.

Scottish Rosemary and Honey Truffle

Particularly since I had my own confection to sample and share: a hazelnet praline enrobed in milk chocolate. Think of it as a Ferrero Rocher on steroids. It was both crunchy and creamy goodness at the same time - yum.

Besides eating, we also walked around most of the day. I didn't bring my pedometer or fitbit but given the time we spent simply walking, I estimated we covered at least 4-5 miles, if not more. We caught the tube from the Tower of London to Westminster then from there walked to Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, Harrods, Berkeley Square and Bond Street, doubling back a couple of times just enjoying the sights.

Fortunately the rain had stopped so we just had to bundle up in our coats, scarves, gloves and hats against the cold. It gets dark early in London in the winter so while it felt late, it wasn't, simply because the sun just isn't around long enough for a full "day". We managed to cover quite a bit of ground on our first full tourist day, sparse daylight notwithstanding. I love seeing London on foot, even in the cold.

London Day 1: Arrival and Docklands Bar & Grill

London - December 26, 2013 (Boxing Day)

Although I've been blogging "normally" for the past week and a half, I've actually been on vacation and periodically putting up posts I'd written before I left (good time to get through my backlog). In reality, I left for Europe on Christmas Day, taking one of my nieces with me to meet her sister in London. I'm nearly home again and my blog is going to be taken over for the next few weeks by my travel posts as I take a break from baking and assume people other than myself will also be trying to eat healthier and don't need the added temptation of more baking recipes for a little while. Not to worry though, I'm sure by February (if not sooner), I'll be back in the kitchen again. For now, here are my travel (and eating) adventures.....

After an 11-hour flight, we landed at Heathrow first and waited for my other niece to join us from her travels in Madrid. I've been to London quite a number of times before so I knew we could travel conveniently on the tube to get to our hotel. Our hotel was some distance from Heathrow, made a bit more challenging in that several lines on the tube were closed for planned maintenance (not so convenient but still faster and cheaper than a taxi from Heathrow) but after an hour and a half, we finally made it to where we were staying at the Crowne Plaza Docklands. I'd stayed in this area before on my last business trip to London and I'd gotten a good deal on the rooms from tripadvisor.com so it was only a minor inconvenience that it took so long to get there.

Fish and Chips (hold the mushy peas - I wasn't that jetlagged)

I rarely sleep on airplanes and this flight was no exception so I was pretty exhausted by the time we arrived and the niece who traveled with me was falling asleep sitting upright so for our first night, we kept it low key by having dinner at the Docklands Bar & Grill which was attached to the hotel. Since we were in the UK and I have a thing about trying the local food, I opted for the fish and chips. This was a riskier choice than you might think because that was one of the first things I had tried on my first-ever visit to London and it was the worst thing I'd ever eaten in Europe - greasy, limp, tasteless fish with the skin still on and soggy, greasy, over-salted fries. To be fair, I'd bought it from some hole-in-the-wall café at the time whereas this was a real restaurant so I thought it would be a safer choice.

Winter Salad

And so it was. The fish was fried crisp, somewhat greasy still but not overly so and the fries were done well, crisp on the outside, mealy on the inside. Phew. My nieces also enjoyed their orders: a winter salad with butternut squash soup and a "Chicken Supreme" which we weren't quite sure what was supreme about it but she said it was delicious.

Chicken Supreme

By the end of the dinner, my niece who I traveled with could barely keep her eyes open and I wasn't much better so I was ready to call it a night. Fortunately we weren't far from our hotel room since the Docklands Bar & Grill was in the hotel so it was time for shut eye so we could prepare for the real start of our trip the following day.

Restaurant Review: Beque Korean Grill

Beque Korean Grill - dinner on December 22, 2013

Still wrapping up posts from 2013. Right before Christmas, I met my cousin, her husband and their son Vanilla King for dinner at a new place for Korean Barbecue that we had been meaning to try. I first found out about the place by searching on yelp and was lured in by 2 things: the first being their All You Can Eat option (AYCE) and the second being their claim that although you cook at your table, you won't walk out of the restaurant smelling like BBQ.

Their special grill that ventilates the smoke away from the diners 

That seemed like a grandiose claim given my experience with other BBQ places but it was worth a shot. The AYCE option came with 4 meats: pork belly, spicy pork, bul go gi (marinated beef) and marinated chicken. Adults are $19.99 and kids under 12 are half price. If you wanted to order an entrée that wasn't one of the 4 included in the AYCE option, you're charged the cost of that entrée but whoever ordered it could also partake in the all you can eat without being charged for it. At first it seemed confusing but then it made sense when we realized the additional entrees all cost more than the $19.99 AYCE option. Vanilla King wanted the marinated short ribs so my cousin and I got the AYCE option for full price, Vanilla King got it for half price and my cousin's husband ordered the $29 short ribs but could also partake of AYCE.

The helpful waiter also explained that whatever we wanted after we finished what they brought out could easily be replenished, i.e. if we liked mostly the bul go gi, they'd bring out more of it rather than the other 3 items. The meal also included all you can eat rice and all the side dishes that accompany a typical Korean meal, most of which I don't recognize except for kim chee.

The marinated short ribs

The waitress cooked the short ribs for us but after that, armed with the tongs and scissors, we were on our own to cook the rest of the meal. They brought out pretty generous servings of the 4 meats included in the AYCE which was good because you felt like you were getting your money's worth but it also meant it took a little longer for everything to cook. But that also wasn't bad since it allowed us to pace ourselves better.

Bul Go Gi

I have to say the short ribs and the bul go gi were excellent. Whatever marinade they used was very tasty and I could probably have lived on those two dishes quite handily. I'm not sure I thought the short ribs were worth $29 and we were a little unclear if we could get more of it beyond what they initially brought out but we played it safe and didn't ask for more because we had plenty of other meats to cook. The marinated chicken was also good. The spicy pork was a little too spicy for me and we ended up not cooking all of it. The pork belly looked just like fatty bacon and we cooked a few pieces long enough for the fat to crisp up but that was the most disappointing of the 4 AYCE options and had no comparison to the short ribs. While everything else was marinated so spectacularly, the pork belly wasn't even seasoned with salt or pepper and was just chewy blandness. Not worth the calories.

Pork Belly to be cooked

Spicy Pork, Bul Go Gi, Chicken

True to their billing, the way the bbq grill was set up with the ventilation at the table meant we emerged not smelling like Korean BBQ, a first for me at any place where I've cooked at the table. So that was a nice perk. For $20, this was a much better value than Jang Su Jang and the bul go gi alone was worth it. I'd go again and would recommend this place easily. The wait staff was very nice and service was quick. Come hungry - this place is a good deal.

Spicy soup that comes with the meal

Salmon and Spinach (paleo, Whole 30)

Salmon and Spinach - made October 30, 2013

Happy New Year - welcome 2014!

After all the indulgence of the holidays, are you ready for healthier eating? I am or else I will be shortly. Here's a Whole 30 compliant dish I made back in late October when I was following the plan. It's so easy, I probably can't even qualify it as a recipe.  I lined a 9 x 13 pan with foil, put a layer of fresh organic spinach to cover the bottom, placed slabs of fresh salmon over it, sprinkled with salt and coarsely ground pepper, and laid slices of fresh organic lemons (plucked off my mom's lemon tree), covered with foil and baked at 350 degrees F until the salmon was done.

The key thing I discovered is that this method produces a lot of water, presumably from the spinach.  Yikes. I literally found the salmon in a water bath when I took the foil off.  Oops.  On the plus side, cooking it this way really brought out the salmon flavor and it was delicious.  And healthy. And it allowed me to painlessly eat spinach.

Bakery Review: Brown Butter Cookie Company

Brown Butter Cookie Company - tried September 5, 2013

2013 is almost over and I've been trying (and not succeeding) to get caught up on all my blog posts. Still not there yet but almost. I meant to get this post up months ago, literally, but it kept getting pushed down my draft list. Technically I've never even been to the Brown Butter Cookie Company on the Central CA coast or ordered from there. But one of my coworkers was visiting her family in Cayucos, CA and was nice enough to bring back an assortment of flavors from there for all of us to try.

She even had them nicely marked in the conference room where we gathered so as I took a half piece of each cookie, I made note of what I was sampling. I also had the foresight to jot down a few brief notes so I could remember my impressions (4 months) later. I tried 6 flavors: Espresso, Coconut Lime, Original, Cocoa, Cocoa Mint and Citrus.

The Brown Butter Cookies are essentially shortbread cookies in a variety of flavors. The flavored ones didn't taste as buttery as the original but they all had the shortbread texture. The Cocoa Mint tasted like Andes candy. I'm not fond of mint and chocolate combined so that was my least favorite. My favorite of all 6 flavors that I tried was surprisingly the Coconut Lime. I say surprisingly because I'm not normally a big fan of lime in sweets. Love it in savory dishes though like my uncle's lime-cilantro marinade for the fresh fish he catches. But the Coconut Lime cookie was really good. I not only liked the lime flavor but also the chewy bits of coconut in the cookie. They were really bitty coconut bits but added a nice chewiness to the cookie.

The Brown Butter Cookie Company does take online orders in case you're not lucky enough to know someone in Cayucos or in Paso Robles, CA where they've opened a new retail store who could bring you back some cookies. I just like their story of being a small family business that two sisters opened and have grown since 2008. Another good source for foodie gifts that can be shipped next time I need to send a present.

Caramel Apple Crisp

Caramel Apple Crisp - made December 21, 2013 from Hil's Blog

I bake so much during the holidays that you'd think I'm stuffed full of desserts at any given moment. Alas, all I make is usually for everyone else. It isn't uncommon for me to bake for hours on end and when my kitchen is full of the fruits of my labor, I wonder why I'm hungry. It's usually because I'm so focused on baking everything and getting it packaged up to give away that I don't take a break to eat. That may sound odd when I'm literally surrounded by baked goods but I don't lick the bowl or snitch cookie dough and if I'm making a recipe I've tried already, I don't bother to taste the finished product.  If I'm trying out a new recipe, I'll only cut myself a sliver to see how it turned out and if it's okay to give away. Otherwise, I need every piece of brownie, every slice of cake and every cookie for my gift packages so not much of it ends up in my stomach (this answers the question I always get during the holidays: "why don't you weigh 300 pounds?"). Because I don't eat much of what I make. Cue world's tiniest violin.

So it's nice to indulge in my own personal dessert for my consumption. Which is what this apple crisp was. The recipe makes 2 servings but I only needed one so I made half of it, using a small Granny Smith apple. I put it in a small ramekin so I ended up with a little too much topping. But this was still very good, especially on a cold winter night, still warm (but not hot) and topped with vanilla ice cream. Apple cobbler/crisp is one of my favorite winter desserts. The main difference between this one and my standard apple cobbler recipe is there are oats in the topping as well as caramel sauce over the apples, underneath the crumb topping. I don't think the caramel sauce added anything significantly different to the crisp so if you want it less sweet or are saving on calories, you can leave it out. Either way, this was a nice indulgence.

2 medium apples, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoon butter
4 tablespoons quick-cooking oats
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 to 2 heaping tablespoons Butterscotch Caramel Topping
Ice Cream (optional)

1. Place apple slices in two small, greased ramekins.  Spoon Butterscotch Caramel topping over the apples.  In a bowl, combine flour and brown sugar; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add oats and cinnamon.  Sprinkle over apple slices and caramel.
2. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until tender. Serve with ice cream if desired.

Bakery Review: Suite Foods Liege Waffles

Suite Foods Liege Waffles - arrived December 11, 2013

Late last month, I bid in an online auction hosted by Tina, author of Pinay in Texas Cooking blog ("Pinay" is the term often used to refer to Filipino women or Filipinas, most commonly used by Filipino women referring to themselves or their fellow countrywomen). She was holding the online bake sale to donate the proceeds to the victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan. Due to my schedule, I couldn't participate as a baker with goods to offer for the auction so the least I could do was participate as a bidder for one of the auction items up for sale.

I bid on and was fortunate enough to win 2 dozen Liege (Belgian) waffles from Suite Foods. I had never heard of Suite Foods but it turns out they're right here in the Bay Area so they're quite local-to-me in San Francisco. My waffles arrived in the mail as promised, each individually packaged. They're billed as sweet and flavorful with crunchy bits of pearled sugar and let me tell you, they don't lie. These waffles are delicious. I put them in the freezer when I got them and I've been having one almost every morning, warmed up in my toaster oven just until they're warm through and through and the outside had a slight crunch but the waffle is still soft. The bits of pearl sugar in the waffle itself add terrific crunch and sweetness. Also as billed, you don't even need syrup or butter on them. I prefer them plain, all the better to savor their goodness, without any distractions. I'm so glad I got a chance to taste these. I checked out their list of retail partners on their website and it looks like I can also find them at Whole Foods nearby once my stash runs out. Nevertheless, I've added their waffle shop on my list of "must visit" places the next time I'm in the city. Highly recommend if you're a waffle fan.

Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Icing

Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Icing - made December 18, 2013 from The Baker Chick

We had a holiday potluck at work last week and I signed up to bring dessert. How.....not shocking. I remember back in the day when potlucks meant everyone signed up for a dish and brought something homemade. It was always interesting to see what people made, who could cook and, er, who couldn't. Usually there were one or two outliers who couldn't or wouldn't cook or didn't have time and they would sheepishly bring in something storebought, earning some good-natured ribbing.

Nowadays, it seems like the reverse is true where storebought is the norm and homemade goods are less common and garner comment, "wow, you made that?" I think it's a sign of the shifting times where people work longer hours, have more commitments, less time, there's a greater abundance of (some) well-made storebought items and a potluck means picking something up from Costco, Trader Joe's or Whole Foods on your way to or from work right before you need it. When someone is in the office until 10 pm or has to run around picking up kids or taking care of pets or some combination of all three, whipping something up for the office potluck probably isn't high on their list of priorities. So I really can't judge. (Well, I can but in this case, I won't.)

And although I know what it's like to work long hours, especially during this time of the year, I'll sacrifice sleep and (sadly) some of my workout time to bake something to bring. It's not even a sacrifice (except for the lack of sleep part) since I love to bake. At first I was going to make the Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake again since that was a big hit when I first brought it into the office but I had just gotten a sampler pack from Spice Island which contained all the spices I needed for this Pumpkin Bundt Cake recipe and it seemed like the perfect time to try them all.

Normally when I make spice cake or anything pumpkin and the recipe calls for a variety of spices, I usually opt out of all of them except for cinnamon and occasionally nutmeg simply because I don't like my baked goods to be overly spiced. But that would defeat the purpose of my spice sampler so I stuck to the recipe religiously. That was probably a good thing because this cake was delicious. You can't taste any individual spice (at least I couldn't) but they all blended well together to make a nice, fluffy pumpkin cake. I was really good about not underbaking it too much so the texture was moist but not mushy. And of course, as for the icing, brown butter, how do I love thee, let me count the ways.

Pumpkin Bundt Cake and Kahlua Fudge that I brought to the potluck

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3 large eggs

Icing
1 stick butter, melted and browned
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously spray a 10-inch bundt pan with cooking spray and dust with flour; set aside.
2. In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, buttermilk and vanilla.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time until well combined.
5. Alternately add the  flour and pumpkin mixtures, mixing on low speed, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Do not overmix.
6. Spoon batter into prepared pan and smooth top with a spatula.  Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool 5-10 minutes before loosening cake with a small spatula and inverting. Let cool completely before icing.
7. Icing: Pour the browned butter into a bowl and whisk in the powdered sugar and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Add the milk, a tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached.
8. Spoon or drizzle over the cake and serve.

Restaurant Review: Ramen Halu

Ramen Halu - dinner on December 16, 2013

It was still "hot soup weather" a couple of weeks ago, i.e. chilly, so I met my friend Cindy for a bowl of ramen at a new-to-me place called Ramen Halu. I'm not a ramen gourmand but enjoy a good bowl of ramen nonetheless so I was happy to try a new source for it.

Inside Ramen Halu

Ramen Halu is fairly small, maybe a little smaller than Kotetsu and on par with Orenchi (which I still haven't written up and at this point probably need to try again so I can have a more recent experience there) but it could still seat a fair number of people comfortably.

Cindy and I both got the Ramen Halu. Since it was my first visit, I always have to get whatever dish is named after the restaurant itself. The broth was thick and, as with other ramen bowls, the first few sips were very tasty. But also like at Kotetsu, by the time I had consumed half the broth, it was getting rather salty towards the end.

The noodles were good, not quite at chewy as at Kotetsu, and thinner than I expected. I was anticipating thicker noodles, partly because the menu describes them as thick noodles but they weren't quite that thick. The biggest thing I'd hold against them though is their standard ramen bowl didn't come with a soft-boiled whole egg like Kotetsu and Orench's ramen does. It was still good but if I had to compare with the other two ramen places, I like having the egg so its lack was a disappointment. On the plus side, the prices were on par with the other ramen places and we didn't have to wait for a table. The service was fairly prompt and it was still a good bowl of ramen noodles.

Sour Cream Fudge Cake

Sour Cream Fudge Cake - made December 15, 2013, adapted from Baking by Flavor by Lisa Yockelson

Merry Christmas!  I'm still putting up posts from stuff I made last week but my baking season is winding down. I probably have enough sugar running through my veins by now to rival a C&H factory. But I'm always a week or two behind in posting so the sugar will keep on coming on my blog for a little longer.

During high baking season, aka all the days leading up to today, I'm a time management fiend. Even when I'm not actually in the kitchen, I'm thinking about what I need, how much of it, when I can get it all done, and what needs to happen. It's all choreographed in my head before I even get up in the morning. So it's a good thing I love to bake or I'd be really stressed right about now, lol.

I hadn't planned to specifically make this cake a couple of weekends ago. Matter of fact, it's been in my files for awhile and I could've sworn I've made it already because it was so familiar. So either I have made it but don't remember it (and the search function on blogger wasn't working every time I tried to search my blog for it), Lisa Yockelson's recipes are so similar that I've made something like it but not this exact one, I've had this recipe so long and have become so familiar with it that I think I've made it but actually haven't or some combination of all three.

I decided to stop making myself crazy with "did I or didn't I" questioning and went ahead and made it. I did modify it slightly though as the original recipe got its chocolate flavoring just from the 4 ounces of melted unsweetened chocolate. It didn't make for a very dark chocolate batter and was more milk chocolate in color. So I cut back on the cake flour and added a tablespoon of Pernigotti cocoa instead. It made it a little more chocolaty but not too much so I probably could've added a little more cocoa and been fine.

In any case, this still turned out pretty well.  The crumb was tender but not too light, just sturdy enough to hold up the weight of the frosting. The frosting was almost like a fudge layer as it did set once it had cooled. That could've been my fault though as, like I do with all the frostings I make, I didn't use all the powdered sugar the recipe called for and just kept alternately adding the sugar and the milk until it was the consistency I wanted. The butter did separate out a little once I spread it over the hot cake and that was partly due to not using all the sugar but also partly because of the heat from the cake causing it to melt. I blotted it with paper towels until it stopped glistening with melted butter while it was still warm then let it set as it cooled. This was a good chocolate cake although I admit, I'd done so much baking last weekend when I made this that I could only handle a sliver for the taste test. But this is a good crowd pleaser cake to make, especially if you're making up care packages and goodie bags for 23 people. I cut the pieces fairly small so it stretched to make it into most of the goodie bags.

1 ¾ cups unsifted bleached cake flour minus 1 tablespoon

¼ cup unsifted bleached all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

16 tablespoons or 8 ounces unsalted butter, softened

1 ¾ cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

1 ¾ teaspoons vanilla extract

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream whisked with ½ cup buttermilk

Fudge Cake Frosting

6 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons unsifted confectioners’ sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to tepid

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

½ cup milk

1.       Preheat oven to 350⁰F.  Line a 9 x 13” baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2.       Sift the cake flour, all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper.

3.       Cream the butter in the large bowl of a freestanding electric mixer on moderate speed for 2 minutes.  Add the granulated sugar in 3 additions, beating 1 minute after each addition.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds after each addition.  Blend in the melted unsweetened chocolate and vanilla extract, mixing until the batter is a uniform color.  Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl to keep the batter even-textured.

4.       On low speed, add the sifted mixture in three additions with the sour cream-buttermilk blend in two additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

5.       Spoon the batter into the prepared baking pan.  Smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

6.       Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until set and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.

7.       Have the frosting ready 10 minutes before the cake is baked.  Place the confectioners’ sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.  In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, melted unsweetened chocolate and vanilla extract.  Blend the ingredients well to create a smooth mixture.

8.       Pour and scrape the chocolate mixture over the confectioners’ sugar.  Add the milk.  Using an electric mixer, combine the ingredients together on moderately low speed until thoroughly mixed and very smooth.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl to keep frosting even-textured.  The frosting should be smooth and creamy; if it’s too dense, add a tablespoon of milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency. 

9.       Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes.  Carefully place generous spoonfuls of the frosting over the surface of the cake, and gently spread it over the top of the cake, using a flexible palette knife.  The frosting will smooth out as the heat of the cake softens it.  As the cake cools, the frosting will set. 

10.   Cool the cake completely before cutting into squares.