White Cake and the Best Chocolate Buttercream

My dad’s birthday was a few days ago, an his requested present was a homemade white cake with chocolate frosting, and a pancake breakfast. He also recently got a trip to Hawaii, so don’t think he was jipped. Anyways, my dad’s birthday is also the anniversary of me ending my reliance on Betty Crocker; I made my first cake from scratch to mark this occasion two years ago.

White cakes have a bad rep for being dry, but the white cake recipe I used was found copied down in my aunt’s recipe binder; it’s a fairly standard recipe, but produces a moist, medium crumb cake. The chocolate buttercream was found on the Wilton website via a Google search, but it has noww been bookmarked as one of my new, go-to frosting recipes.

Classic White Cake

1 cup milk
6 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 1/4c cake flour
1 3/4c sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4c) butter

Measure out cup of milk, let warm to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Butter and flour two 9 inch cake pans. (I also lined the bottom with parchment paper)
Combine milk, eggs whites and extracts in a bowl.
Over a bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, rub in butter. (I used an electric mixture at a low speed)
Add milk mixture, stir without overmixing. (I added a little over half of the milk mixture, and beat it slowly for about 2 mins, then added the other half and beat for about another minute.)
Divide batter evenly between prepared pans and gently shake to smooth batter. Bake 30 minutes. Let cool in pans then invert onto colling racks.

Chocolate Buttercream recipe

-Mel

Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

On today’s menu we have Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus!

These were pretty easy to make; they only took about 20 minutes total. I chopped off the tough ends of the asparagus, steamed them, rolled them around in a little pepper, wrapped them with Di Parma Prosciutto, stuck them in the oven for 5 minutes (400 degrees), and voila!

Very simple, very tasty. Great party appetizer.

-Johnny

Sweet-Potato Tortelli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce

On today’s menu we have a Sweet-Potato Tortelli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce.

I’m pretty psyched about this dish. I made everything from scratch!

This was my first time making my own pasta and I must say, it’s dang fun.

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Sweet-Potato Tortelli with Sage Brown Butter Sauce

Makes 1 serving

Dough

3/4 cup Semolina Flour

3/4 cup Unbleached Flour

(1 1/2 cups combined)

2 eggs

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp water

Filling

1/2 sweet-potato, halved length-wise.

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp brown sugar

salt and pepper to taste

Sauce

1 cup butter - room temperature

5 fresh and furry sage leaves

Directions:

Combine flour, eggs, olive oil, and water until it looks like a dang piece of dough. Knead about 10 minutes. Refrigerate in a sandwich bag at least an hour. Roll pasta out into a super thin sheet and use a pasta cutter to cut out the circles.

Place sweet-potato orange side down on a baking sheet and place in oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until tender. Use an oven mit so you don’t burn off the index finger of your left hand. Scoop out “meat” into a mixing bowl, mash, then mix with the butter, brown sugar, salt, and pepper.

Place butter into a small sauce pan over medium heat and melt until nutty brown. Drop sage leaves into pan and swirl. It is ready when the butter is deep brown and foamy. Be careful not to burn the butter!

Fill the circles with the sweet-potato mixture and place another circle on top, sealing the edges with a little water.

Bring a pot of water to boil, salted, and place tortelli’s in. They’re ready when they rise to the top, al dente.

Have sauce on low heat. Drain pasta water and pour tortelli’s into the sauce.

Eat immediately.

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I kind of mixed and matched different recipes for things that I found to come up with the above. Savory and Sweet.

Yum!

-Johnny