Mocha Cake with Coffee Frosting

For MDS's birthday cake this year, the theme was coffee--mocha cake with coffee frosting. Both were excellent. When I first met MDS he did not drink coffee. I converted him to a coffee lover, and he now drinks more coffee than I do.

The mocha cake has the right balance of coffee and chocolate flavor. I used a 13x9 pan instead of  three round pans and adjusted the baking time. The coffee frosting is delicious and tastes like caramel macchiato, but it was more of a sauce than a frosting. I am not sure if I did something wrong when making it, but it never firmed up the way a frosting should and instead soaked into the cake a bit. So I might make it again as a dipping sauce, but it did not work for me as a traditional frosting.

Delightful Mocha Cake 

• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 2 Tbsp. cocoa
• 3 Tbsp. instant Coffee Powder
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 3 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup chocolate milk

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy; add vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. In a small bowl, blend cocoa, coffee powder, and boiling water together to make a smooth paste; add to creamed mixture. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add alternating with chocolate milk to creamed mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Pour batter into greased baking pans and bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until done. Cool in pans for ten minutes before removing cake from the pan. Once completely cool, frost. Enjoy!

Coffee Frosting

• 3 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup light cream
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 2 tsp. instant coffee powder
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Put first three ingredients in a deep sauce pan, bring to a boil and boil until a small amount of mixture forms a soft ball when dropped into very cold water. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Add remaining ingredients and beat at medium speed for five minutes or until creamy. Store, covered, in the refrigerator for at least six hours. When ready to use, put desired amount in a saucepan and heat to spreading consistency. Frost cake. Enjoy!

Cuban Fritas

Earlier this year, MDS and I had a wonderful trip to Miami where we ate Cuban food just about every day. I especially liked the Las Fritas burger that is a Cuban take on the American burger, a specialty of El Rey de Las Fritas in Little Havana. We have plenty of great Cuban restaurants in Chicago, but I had never seen Las Fritas on the menu before. So this recipe is my attempt to recreate Las Fritas.

You could make your own shoestring potatoes, but you can also just get them at a grocery store in the potato chip aisle. I think shoestring potatoes were more popular when I was a kid, but they can still be easily found. There are many other toppings that you could add to these burgers, such as onion, lettuce, tomato, fried egg, or any other topping. What makes these burgers unique is the seasoning and the shoestring potatoes. Next time I make these burgers, I'll have to make a guava milkshake to truly replicate the Little Havana experience.

Cuban Fritas 

• 1/4 cup ketchup 
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise 
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin, divided 
• 1 tablespoon paprika, divided 
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic, divided 
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar 
• 1 teaspoon sugar 
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 8 ounces ground beef 
• 8 ounces ground pork 
• Sliced cheese, optional 
• 4 hamburger buns
• Shoestring potatoes

In a small bowl, combine ketchup, mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 clove of garlic, vinegar, and sugar. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Combine beef, pork, remaining cumin, remaining garlic, and remaining paprika in a large bowl and mix by hand just until combined. Form into 4 large burger patties and season burger patties with salt and pepper. Cook burgers to desired doneness in a skillet on the stovetop, topping with cheese for the last minute of cooking. Transfer to a plate and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Place burgers on buns, cover with fried shoestring potatoes, spread top bun with sauce and close burgers, pressing down gently until they just hold together. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Yankee Pot Roast

A Yankee Pot Roast is a traditional recipe. A pot roast involves first searing the meat, then cooking it slowly in liquid for some time. For a Yankee Pot Roast, vegetables are usually added into the pot towards the end of cooking. When I was a kid, Mom often made roasts on Sundays. Sometimes the roasts were made in the oven and sometimes in a Dutch oven. However Mom prepared them, Sunday roast dinners were always delicious.

In the summertime, making a pot roast is better than an oven roast. Making a pot roast is quite easy, but it does take several hours. This recipe calls for using pearl onions, but I did not have any so I just substituted regular onions chopped in large pieces. Mom's recipe calls for 1 cup water, but you should use enough to mostly cover the meat while it cooks.

Yankee Pot Roast 

• 3-4 pound beef roast
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• water
• 1 bay leaf
• 8-10 small whole onions
• 8 small carrots, cut in half
• 15 oz. can tomato sauce with tomato bits

Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper. Brown in hot oil in Dutch oven. Add water and bay leaf. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until meat is tender. Remove excess fat. Return meat to pot. Add vegetables. Pour tomato sauce over meat. Simmer, covered, for 1 hour. Allow meat to stand a few minutes. Enjoy!

Cheesecake

This recipe is not one of those that can be whipped together quickly. Instead, it is a time-consuming process that is worth it. There are many types of cheesecakes, and this one is a New York style cheesecake. It uses both cream cheese and sour cream and is baked for some time resulting in a fluffy and rich cake.

When you make this cheesecake, you need to use a springform pan. When baking, the cake will rise up and seem to nearly overflow. But, when you leave the cake in the turned-off oven, the cake settles, but is still higher than standard cake pans. So using a standard cake pan will leave you will a mess in your oven. You could top this cake with fruit or whipped cream, but it is so delicious on its own.

Cheesecake 

• Graham Cracker crumbs
• 1 pound small curd cottage cheese
• 2 8 oz. packages cream cheese
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1/3 cup corn starch
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 pint sour cream

Grease a 9 inch springform pan; dust with graham cracker crumbs. Sieve cottage cheese into a large mixing bowl. Add softened cream cheese. Beat at high speed with an electric mixer until well-blended and creamy. Continue beating at high speed and blend in sugar, then eggs. Reduce speed to low. Add corn starch, lemon juice, and vanilla. Beat until blended. Add melted butter and sour cream. Blend at low speed. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake at 325 for an hour and ten minutes. Turn off oven. Let cake stand in the oven for two hours. Remove and cook completely. Chill. Remove sides of pan. Enjoy!

La Strata

This recipe is easy to make and delicious. I vaguely recall this recipe from when I was a kid because of the cottage cheese, which I did not like on its own then. I do like cottage cheese now, so I like this recipe even more now. This recipe includes the use of many items that you might have around the kitchen, so it should be quick to throw together for a great meal.

Strata is a layered casserole dish. Often strata recipes include eggs and are served as breakfast dishes. Not this one. This dish is a hearty lunch or dinner recipe. When I made this strata, I did not include the mushrooms.

La Strata 

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
• 1 tsp. basil
• 1 tsp. chopped parsley
• 1/4 tsp. oregano
• dash garlic salt
• 1 4 oz. can mushrooms, drained
• 1 10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed and well-drained
• 8 oz. cottage cheese
• 4 oz. shredded mozzarella

Saute ground beef and onions until onions are tender and meat is browned. Add tomato sauce, basil, parsley, oregano, garlic salt, pepper, and mushrooms. In a bowl, combine spinach and cottage cheese. Arrange in layers: spinach mx, meat mix, then mozzarella. Repeat layering, ending with cheese. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes until hot and bubbly. Enjoy!

Committee Cake

Why is this recipe called Committee Cake? I don't know. But the cake is delicious. When I made this cake, Mom tried it and remembered making it but did not remember where she found the recipe. This cake is dense and has a slightly crunchy texture due to the addition of cornmeal.

When I made this cake, it did not rise as much as I expected. And the chopped chocolate seemed to have sunk to the bottom rather than distributed throughout the cake. The recipe calls for chocolate frosting, but does not give the ingredients. So I made a standard chocolate frosting that turned out to nicely complement the cake.

Committee Cake 

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 6 ounces chocolate chips, finely chopped

Chocolate frosting

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Cake: Beat the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Mix and sift together the corn meal, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk in two additions and mix well after each addition. Stir in chopped chocolate. Pour into a well greased 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool before frosting.

Frosting: Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternate adding powdered sugar and milk. Add in vanilla. Mix until spreading consistency. Add additional milk if needed. Spread the frosting on cake. Enjoy!

Swiss Roll

I enjoy eating Swiss rolls, but I had been a bit intimidated to try making one. I saw this recipe in Mom's recipe box and decided to get over my fear. Yes, the process of rolling up the cake is delicate, but doable. I used parchment paper to line the baking pan, and then used a soft cloth to help roll the cake after putting the filling in. There were a few cracks in the cake, but it mostly survived. This version came out fine, and I expect with more experience I could perfect my skill at rolling the cake.

Swiss rolls come with in all flavors of cake and filling. This version is a basic golden cake with raspberry preserves as filling. It was so delicious. Often Swiss rolls include whipped cream or some other cream filling, which would be good, but just the fruit is enough for this recipe.

Swiss Rolls 

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp. sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 jar (12 oz.) raspberry preserves

Beat the eggs until thick and lemon colored. Gradually beat in 1/2 cup sugar. Sift in flour baking powder. Fold into eggs gradually, mix very lightly. Fold in water and vanilla. Spread in 15x10 pan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 450 for 5 minutes or until delicate brown. Sprinkle remaining 3 tablespoons sugar over cake. Loosen the edges, turn out on waxed paper or a kitchen cloth. Spread cake with preserves. Roll up from wide side while cake is still hot. Wrap in parchment paper. Set aside to cool. Enjoy!