Chocolate Cherry Rum Cake

As I continue playing with various rum cake recipes, I find variation after variation each time I look at ingredients in my pantry. I like to keep an eclectic mix of items around to foster my creativity.

The chocolate cherry mix is nothing new, but the rum soak ads a nice kick each time one comes across a chewy cherry in the cake.

The recipe:

 

Cake:

1 box chocolate cake mix

1 box (4 serving) vanilla instant pudding

½ cup water

½ cup rum

½ cup oil (I use olive)

4 eggs

1 cup dried tart cherries soaked in rum

 

Glaze

¼ cup butter

½ cup sugar

¼ cup water

¼ cup rum

1 tsp almond extract

1 tsp chocolate extract

 

Preheat oven to 325°.  Pour the rum off the soaked cherries, reserve to use in the cake and in the glaze (if there is enough). In a large bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, water, oil, eggs, rum, and soaked cherries. Beat until combined. Grease and flour a bundt pan. Spread nuts around the bottom then pour in the batter. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

 

When the cake comes out of the oven, leave in pan. Boil butter, sugar, water, and allspice glaze ingredients for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in rum, almond extract, and chocolate extract.

 

With the cake still in the pan, poke holes in the cake – I use a chopstick. Pour hot glaze over the cake. Allow the glaze to soak into the cake before turning it out onto a plate (about 5 minutes).

 

Friday Foodie - Chocolate Mayo Cake

I'm a few days late: blame the cold I have...

Friday Foodie

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Flavor: Rich chocolaty goodness for all chocolate freaks. One of my favorite comfort desserts.

Texture: Heavy sponge-cake feel

Satisfaction: Among the best of chocolate cakes I've ever tried.

Ingredients: 4 C Four, 2 C Sugar, 8 TBL Cocoa, 2 TSP baking powder, 2 TSP baking soda, 2 C Mayonnaise, 2 C Cold Water, 2 TSP Vanilla

Discussion: I hesitate to even put the central ingredient in the title because it is such a turn-off to many people, yet our grandmothers knew the secret of mayonnaise: mayo = egg + oil, so a recipe with those ingredients could have mayo as a replacement. Mayo has an effect on some people much as mustard has on other people – you like it or you don’t. A friend I grew up with was so freaked out by mayonnaise, Miracle-Whip, or whatever incarnation it had, he would become physically ill at even smelling it. As kids we had great fun putting mayo in the most unexpected places just to make K. hurl. Hurling is not generally a topic one brings up in a food column; however, this is the cake I served at my 40th birthday party. K ate some and I’m happy to report – he did not hurl; he didn’t even realize what was in the cake. The flavor is disguised by the rich chocolaty character of the cake. This is a favorite cake to take to picnics and parties because it travels well and does not need frosting. It comes out much like a pound cake in texture and so is ready to serve right out of the pan. I often lightly glaze the cake, bur rarely frost it since I prefer to bake it in a bundt pan. As I mentioned, the cake has the texture of a pound cake in density and moistness. It is also one of the easiest cakes I know to make from scratch as the measures are straightforward with no 1/3’s or 1/5ths. The cake can even be easily halved. Just mix, pour, cook, and serve. I mix together the dry ingredients with a wire whisk to get all the ingredients thoroughly combined. Once these ingredients have been mixed, I add the wet ingredients. Beat for two minutes. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 or bundt pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. The cake can be frosted, but as I said, I prefer to cook it in the bundt pan and lightly glaze the still warm cake. From time to time I will pour the batter into the pan in layers. Between the layer of batter I will add chocolate chips (milk chocolate are great) or peppermint chips (easily made by pulsing peppermint candies in a blender or food processor). WARNING: Do not use fat free mayonnaise or Miracle Whip. Trust me on this one! (The cake will come out about the size and texture of a spare tire.) Eat up – and let your belt out a notch!

Onions and Tootsie Roll Pops

I grew up in the golden age of advertising meant to corrupt and influence children – the 70’s. I still remember the jingles, the characters and the products from those Saturday mornings when the networks carried the only cartoons for the week. As an adult, I was one who cheered when Conjunction Junction made it to Broadway.

One which carried the greatest effect was the Tootsie Roll Pop advertisements in which the young child asks the wise owl how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center. The owl started licking. “One.” “Two.” Crunch. “Two licks to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Roll Pop.”

I remember that because as a chocolate lover, I always crunched into the Tootsie Roll center as soon as I could.

Who cared what flavor was on the outside, I wanted that ooey gooey soft chocolate center.

My lovers should be happy that I’m more patient in reaching a cream filling.

As I’ve worked on the new job in the last month and encountered unexpected challenges, one of my supervisors made the comment that “it is just like an onion, peel one layer back and you find another one.” I laughed and thought about that for a while.

Then I realized. Every layer you peel down into an onion is just more pungent and brings more tears than the one before. Indeed, that has been the case with the new challenges I’ve found. Each layer I discover reveals more discord and challenge to overcome and heal.

The counselor in me knows overcoming and healing can be done, but the discovery of each issue sparks a little knot in my stomach (tear in my eye – if we’re sticking to onions). I mentioned in the past that I thrive on stress and that is remarkably true. For some reason, when I’m most stressed, I’m most healthy and that little knot in my stomach quickly changes to an adrenaline rush that I manipulate into a slow burn rather than an acceleration that leads to a crash.

And still I wonder – why can’t I get into a situation that turns to a Tootsie Roll Pop instead of an Onion? It’s probably for the best – a situation like that could kill me since I don’t do so well without stress.

But if you look in my goodie drawer…you’ll find more Tootsie Roll Pops than onions.