Perfect Chocolate Cake (recipe)

I know I've shared the surprisingly delicious vegan chocolate avocado cake recipe, but it was a denser chocolate cake, I thought I'd post my go-to recipe for a light, fluffy chocolate cake. It's 100% just the recipe from the back of a box of Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa powder. I have use this recipe for roughly a decade now, and it's awesome. The frosting recipe that accompanies it is also great.

I do change a few things slightly, but that would be like using the sodium-free baking powder since Bobble has the sodium restriction, and using sunflower oil in lieu of vegetable oil.



Don't mind the cake on a plate on a carrier. I forgot I owned the cake carrier before I frosted the cake, and when I realized it I figured it was just easier to keep it on the plate!


This cake turns out perfect every time, too!



So, if you prefer fluffier cakes and have no food restrictions, try this one out.

Hershey's "Especially Dark" Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
"ESPECIALLY DARK" CHOCOLATE FROSTING (recipe follows)

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans or line 28 to 30 muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans or fill cups about 2/3 full with batter.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes for round pans or 22 to 25 minutes for cupcakes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "ESPECIALLY DARK" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.


"ESPECIALLY DARK" CHOCOLATE FROSTING 
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter, Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated in any way for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. The recipes are both Hershey's recipes and can be found at the links above.

Meatloaf with Lentils (original recipe)

I've been in search of a good meatloaf recipe for a while, and I finally gave up and made my own. It took a few times (trial and error!) to get the right ratios, but it's finally done and with pleasing results! It held together and tasted good to everyone (including the kids).

I am having trouble getting a decent photograph of it in a pan, though. Grease from the meat and having to use my old phone for these pictures certainly didn't help!

I served it with mashed potatoes and green beans, though the pictures seem to have disappeared from my camera. The last time I made it we served it with homemade potato wedges.

Meatloaf
1/3c milk
2 eggs
2t sage
2t thyme
1t pepper
1/2c dry lentils (cook before using)
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1# ground beef

Sauce
3T acv
2T brown sugar
1/2c tomato sauce/paste mixture (in lieu of ketchup)

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix spices, milk and egg in large bowl.
Cook lentils, add to egg mixture.
Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil and then add to egg mixture.
Brown beef and add to bowl with mixture.
Mix well and place in greased loaf dish and add topping (mix all ingredients for topping together, then spread across top of meat mixture).
Bake for 1 hour.
Allow to sit 10 minutes before serving.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. This recipe is an original recipe.

Thursday Tips: Baking Sheets

I've always just cleaned my table really well (or counter top) when I needed to have space for baking, but when I saw this silicone baking sheet at Aldi one day, I knew I had to buy it. Not for cooking or baking, but for my kids.

My kids love to play with playdoh, but it can get into the cracks on my table where the leaves are inserted. This mat, however, stops that.

It's also good for painting, or even just using as a place mat. All the placemats I've looked at in the stores are slippery. That's easy to wipe off, but the whole thing will just slide off the table without much prompting. These mats aren't going anywhere. They are also easy to store. A big, thin piece of silicone that can be stored flat without taking up space, or rolled up. They are great for meal time, great for craft time, and who knows? Maybe, one day, I'll even try using one for baking.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own an may differ from those of your own.

Chocolate Cupcakes (vegan)

Last summer I made a chocolate-avocado cake out of sheer curiousity. I wanted to see what it would taste like, and was intrigued that it had no eggs. It turned out great.

Now I find myself baking cupcakes for Bobble's 4th birthday, and using this recipe again. There is a child in Bobble's class that has a dairy allergy. What better way to include everyone than by making something everyone will enjoy?

Again, I found myself lacking (enough) caster sugar, so I used our immersion blender to blend up what we had to be super fine. Other than that, the recipe was a breeze! The recipe is very simple, and the results are delicious.

Of course, I had to try the batter since it is safe (no raw egg).... not what I expected. The cupcakes/cake with this recipe tastes simply like chocolate. Delicious. Raw batter, however, tastes just like avocado. How curious! Especially confusing since the chocolate-avocado pudding is uncooked and tasted great. Huh.

We decided to add a squirt of (natural) cherry syrup to the frosting as we mixed. This is the same sort of syrup you'd find for coffee drinks. We debated between the cherry or the mint, but since we had coconut cream frosting we thought the cherry would go better. It was delicious.

Chocolate-avocado cupcakes

• 3c flour
• 6T unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2t salt
• 2t baking powder (we used sodium-free baking powder)
• 2t baking soda
• 1/4c canola oil
• 1/2c mashed avocado (~1 whole avocado)
• 2c water
• 2T white vinegar
• 2t vanilla extract
• 2c caster sugar

Preheat oven to 375F.

Sift together flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

Whisk together the avocado, oil, water, white vinegar, and vanilla. Add in sugar, whisking until combined.

Add in dry ingredients, whisking until smooth.

Portion batter into lined cupcake pan. (Should make 24-30 regular sized cupcakes.)

Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Arrange on a wire baking rack to cool. Allow to completely cool before frosting.

Coconut Cream Frosting

• 1 can coconut cream
• 3T powdered sugar (+/- to taste)
• 2T cocoa powder (if you want chocolate frosting, otherwise, just omit)

Whisk all ingredients together until fluffy. 

Allow frosting to chill before using (this allows it to firm up).

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Frosting recipe is a Thoughts of Fluff original recipe. Cupcake recipe was an adaptation from a cake recipe found here. Conversions to Fahrenheit and U.S. measurements made by Thoughts of Fluff. 

Lamb Kofte

We love to eat all sorts of foods here, and the kids enjoy the variety of flavours. When we found some lamb on sale at the local grocery, we went in search of a new recipe. We've used lamb before, but we wanted something different.

I came across this recipe for lamb kofte, and we decided to give it a go. It's basically Turkish meatballs, and was to be served on a flatbread.

We tweaked the recipe a bit due to availability of ingredients and Bobble's dietary needs (low sodium).

Lamb Kofte

Yogurt sauce:

• 1c greek yogurt
• 2T tahini
• 3T fresh lemon juice

Köfte:

• 1.5# ground lamb
• 2T dried mint
• 1T dried minced onion
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 3T paprika
• 1T ground cumin
• 1/2t sea salt
• 1t ground black pepper
• 1/4t cayenne pepper

-----------------------------------------------------

• Flatbread or Na'an
• 2T olive oil
• 2 onions cut into 1/4" to 1/3" slices

Yogurt Sauce:

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate until needed.

Kofte:

1) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2) Mix together lamb and spices (up to the dashed line in ingredient list) in a large bowl. Roll into 1 1/2" meatballs and arrange on lined baking sheet.

3) Preheat oven to 300F. Tear a piece of foil about the size of a cookie sheet and set on counter next to stove. Heat large skillet (medium-high) and add flat bread or naan to pan, one at a time, cooking until browned (~2min per side). Set bread on foil and continue until all are heated. Wrap in the foil and place in oven to keep warm.

4) Add 1T of oil and onions to same skillet and sautee over medium-high heat until golden brown (~8min).

5) Place cooked onions on one side of a large baking dish (like a casserole dish), and place in oven to keep warm.

6) Add 1T of oil to same skillet (same heat) and sautee half of the meat balls until they are cooked through (~7min). Place cooked meatballs in other half of baking dish in oven to keep warm, and repeat with remaining uncooked meatballs (adding oil if skillet dries out).

You can serve these however you wish. The original recipe shows them on a flatbread, dressed with the sauteed onions, yogurt sauce, and muhammara. I didn't include the muhammara in this post, though you can find it in the original recipe. I cannot tell you my thoughts on it since we could not find pomegranate syrup, and hubby tried to make it with what he thought was a clever substitute. He thought we had some cranberry pomegranate juice and figured that would be close enough to make his own syrup with. First, I think that sounds gross, and isn't what the recipe called for. Second.... it was cranberry grape juice, not pomegranate. He didn't read the label.I think that the muhammara my hubby made was gross, but it also was made all sorts of wrong. I don't know what it would have been like if it had been made as the recipe called, but I'm not a fan of sweet things with savoury things anyway, and pomegranate syrup sounds sweet to me.

The kids loved the meal, and so did hubby. I loved it without his attempt at muhammara, and ate it without that. Hubby originally served the flat bread cut into pieces to dip in sauce, but then realized it's much better all held within the flatbread. We didn't use naan, but we both agreed it would have been fabulous on naan.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Spaghetti Squash Pizza Bake (LS, Original Recipe)

With a new diet requirement (low sodium), I find myself having to come up with alternatives to lunch for Bobble's school. He eats really clean at home, but the preschool doesn't really want the parents sending lunches since they have to make sure it would meet certain dietary requirements. I find this rather frustrating since I feel that they are not well versed in nutrition. In all fairness, that's not their job... their job is to teach 3 and 4 year olds, not know what veggies have what vitamins and minerals. Either way it goes, now we find ourselves making his lunches and attempting to keep it similar to what the kids at school are eating because literally everyone else has the same thing.

I saw a "spaghetti pizza bake" on the menu, and I have no idea what that is. I can only assume it's spaghetti with sauce and some cheese (maybe other toppings?) baked on top... or mixed in. Here was my version that I made for lunch that day, filling an 8x8 pan. (We set some spaghetti squash and sauce aside for a separate bake and to use sauce on pizza later in the week. Original amounts to include the other bake and pizza sauce would equal a full spaghetti squash, 5 tomatoes, 1 can paste, a whole serving of chopped pepperoni, and 1/2 tsp. salt.)

This can easily be vegetarian by omitting meat and adding other veggies instead.

Spaghetti Squash Pizza Bake
2c. Spaghetti Squash (cooked and scraped out to be noodle-like)
3 Tomatoes
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 c. tomato paste
1/2 serving turkey pepperoni chopped up (or chopped peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, etc. for a veg. dish)
1/4 lb ground beef (browned) (or more chopped veggies for a veg. dish)
1 1/2c. shredded mozzarella
Fresh Basil to taste
Dried Oregano to taste
Coconut Oil to grease dish

1) Shred cooked Spaghetti squash and then put in a greased 8x8 dish

2) Blend tomatoes, paste, basil, and oregano. Add in chopped pepperoni, ground beef, or any veggies you want to use.

3) Mix sauce and spaghetti squash together, and top with mozzarella.

4) Cover with Aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes at 350F.

5) Remove foil and bake another 10 minutes. Serve hot.

This whole dish would contain roughly 1,000 mg. of sodium, so a generous serving of 1/4 of this whole dish would only be at around 250mg for the meal!

Please keep in mind that the sodium content can vary GREATLY from brand to brand, so (obviously) check your labels. To replicate this recipe exactly, the specific brands I used (other than general items like ground beef or spices) were:

Boar's Head turkey pepperoni
Happy Farms Mozzarella (Aldi brand)
Friendly Farms Tomato Paste (Aldi Brand)

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

How to make Spaghetti Squash

 
How to make a spaghetti squash:

1) Wash squash off!
(You should wash all fruits and veggies off before cutting into them, as the knife will bring bacteria from the outside of the veggie into the flesh. This is especially important if you're eating the fruit or veggie raw, and one of the reasons Cantaloupe can be such a big cause of illness like e. coli.)

2) Slice squash in half long-ways and scoop out the seeds.

3) Place squash in a wax-paper lined dish, cut-side down, and bake for about 45 minutes at 350F, or until inside is tender enough for a fork to easily slice through to the peel.

4) When cooled, take a fork and scrape/rake the inside of the squash. This will release the squash in long strands, much like spaghetti.

Voila! You've made a spaghetti squash!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

MOMables Ingredient Substitution List

MOMables has numerous recipes for all sorts of dietary preferences and restrictions. My family has been trying out a lot of the gluten free recipes, but we don't have any sort of restrictions in our diet. If we did, it is nice to know MOMables has resources like their Ingredient Substitution List available.

Even if you don't have any food allergies to worry about, this list is super helpful. Surely you've encountered the problem of not having enough (or any) of an ingredient for something you wanted to (or already started to) make.

Did you know that it's not always a cup for cup substitution when using wheat-alternative flours? We didn't... until we tried making something and used a full cup of coconut flour in place of all-purpose flour. WOW was that dry!

MOMables has 12 options for an egg substitute. TWELVE!

I highly recommend checking out this list, and bookmarking or pinning it while you're at it! It's a great thing to have on hand!

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was provided with a trial to MOMables in exchange for a review. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

MOMables GF Zucchini Au Gratin

I had been eying this MOMables recipe for a while, and finally had the opportunity to make it. I followed the suggestion of serving with a whole roasted crockpot chicken, and made a whole chicken in my crockpot to go with it. One of the quickest and easiest meals imaginable!

I made my mixture:

Chopped my zucchini:

Baked while I made my topping mixture:

.... and this is where it stopped being super quick and easy. It WOULD have been had I had almond meal like I thought I did. I apparently did not have any, so I grabbed my mortar and pestle, then ground up almonds until it was really fine. Otherwise, it would have been super quick and easy!

Sprinkled that on top and baked again.

VOILA!

Seriously easy, and very yummy! The kids both loved it. The only complaint hubby had was I missed a few pieces of almond and so he got some tiny pieces of almond he had to chew. ( wah. )

Want the recipe for yourself? Mastermind Laura Fuentes (the mom behind MOMables) also had this recipe for free on her other page: Super Glue Mom. I have provided both recipes for here so you don't have to dig for the non-gf recipe if you would prefer to have that.

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial to MOMables in exchange for reviews. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

MOMables Homemade Chicken Nuggets

My children are huge fans of meat in finger food form. Fish sticks, sausage links, chicken strips, chicken nuggets... yeah. All of the above. We dislike the processed foods aspect, and we buy the organic nuggets when we do buy them. Still those are expensive. We make chicken strips from scratch, but we had never made nuggets from scratch.

MOMables changed that with their chicken nugget recipe. The recipe can be gluten free if you use GF breadcrumbs, too. We didn't have ground chicken, but we did have chicken breast that needed to be used so we used our blender and ground it ourselves.

My husband was the chef for nuggets, so I had the opportunity to take more pictures of the process since I didn't have to worry about potentially burning food (though he did fry some of the nuggets a bit long).

You can bake the nuggets or fry them. We opted to fry them, then made popcorn with oil later that night.

Sadly, hubby only made enough for the kids (...I may have stolen a couple nibbles), and froze the rest of them. He said that it was super easy to do and much cheaper than buying them in the store, so we will do this from now on.

The thing that took the longest was cleaning our immersion blender after using it on the chicken breasts. We don't have a grinder, a food processor or even a standard blender. That aside it was easy-peasy.

No action shots of the kids eating them, as they were devoured way too quickly. I actually had to keep trying to get a shot of the inside of the nugget because Bobble kept swiping them as I was focusing the camera! They also tasted soooooo much better than the organic nuggets we had been buying.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff received a trial free of charge in exchange for a review. This did not alter my opinion of the product. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.

Thursday Tips: Making Buttermilk

Sometimes I really want to make a recipe and simply don't have an essential ingredient. Often times you can find a substitution for an ingredient, or even make it yourself.

Buttermilk is one of those items.

Buttermilk is very easy to make if you have milk and lemons on hand. To make buttermilk this way, simply take and mix 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Let it sit for 5 minutes and voila! Buttermilk!

Don't have lemons? Mix 1 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon white vinegar instead. Let sit. Buttermilk!

If you don't usually have lemons on-hand (we do), and you don't happen to be a fan of keeping white vinegar in the house, you might want to consider a shelf stable buttermilk powder. We purchased this one:

and have used it a lot, too. You simply mix 4 tablespoons of powder with 1 cup of water to get a cup of buttermilk using the powder.

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

Donuts From Scratch

I tried my hand at a recipe I'd been eying for a while from Mary Quite Contrary Bakes. It was for strawberry donuts. Yum! I changed a few things up due to ingredients on hand, but it was still really tasty. They were super easy to make, and I liked knowing what was in them.

My whole family loved them, but I loved them enough to accidentally eat enough to get a stomach ache. Twice. I suppose that is part of the curse of making mini-donuts, eh? Mini are always easier to eat!

Strawberry Glazed Doughnuts (From: Mary Quite Contrary Bakes)

Servings: 10 doughnuts (or roughly 24 mini donuts)

Ingredients:

Doughnuts:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp melted butter
• 10  medium to large strawberries (between 1/2 and 3/4 cup depending on size), pureed with 2 tsp seedless strawberry jam
• 1 tbsp pure maple syrup

Glaze:

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cups cold milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  

Grease a 6-doughnut pan with baking spray.  

To make doughnuts combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together.  

Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add in milk, egg, butter, and maple syrup.  

Stir until well combined.  

Stir in strawberry mixture, starting with 1/2 of it and adding more only if needed.  Batter should be wet, but not runny.  

Put dough into a pastry bag or plastic bag and snip approx 1-inch off end.  

Pipe batter into each well, reserving extra batter.  

Bake for 7-9 minutes until doughnuts spring back when touched.  

Let cool five minutes and turn onto a cooling rack to cool completely.  

Spray pan again and continue with the rest of batter until all doughnuts have been made.  

While doughnuts are cooling make glaze.  

To make glaze, stir all ingredients together until smooth.  

When doughnuts are cooled dip each into glaze (twice if you want to be naughty about it) and place back on cooling rack to let glaze set.  

When glaze has set enjoy!

I had a perfect consistency after adding 1/2 a cup of strawberry puree, so I didn't add any more. I also didn't add any strawberry jam. My donuts did not taste like strawberry, though they were a light pink. I'm not complaining, they were delicious! If you want that strawberry flavour, add more than 1/2c.

Pictures of the process!

ready to bake!

baked!

They ended up being fully dipped in the glaze mixture 1x each, and they were plenty sweet enough for us! I ended up with a bunch of glaze left over, actually. I had to throw it away. I would definitely cut the recipe in half for the glaze next time.

These were super easy to make, and super easy to eat. I had never made donuts before in my life, so you can see that they aren't perfect but still can tell they are donuts. I call that a win. Next time I'll fill the pan a little less full so there is more of a pronounced hole. I assume that will actually give me about 30-36 mini donuts instead of the 24 I got.

Disclaimer: Thoughts Of Fluff was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own. Post contains affiliate links.

MOMables Spinach & Cheese mini quiches (GF)

Both of my children love eggs, so when I saw the mini quiche recipe in my MOMables GF Menu, I decided we had to make them. We have fresh spinach growing in our garden, so I was able to just grab a few leaves the night before, too.

This is not one of the free recipes, so this exact recipe will not be shared. It is similar, however, to this free recipe for Crustless Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche "Muffins" that is free.

Our Mini Quiches right out of the oven!

Bobble helped me count the ingredients out, mix the ingredients, and open the oven door for me. It was so simple, however, there really wasn't much for him to do! I was trying to invent things (such as counting the eggs as I put them in).

They mixed up quickly and cooked quickly. The thing that took the most time was putting them in the pan!

Bobble holding a mini quiche (bite missing)

*Tip: Use the (already dirtied) tablespoon to scoop the batter into each mini muffin slot. It's the perfect size!

Enter for your chance to win a 3 month subscription to MOMables and get more great recipes like this one!

Disclaimer: Thoughts of Fluff was provided with a trial to MOMables in exchange for a review. This did not sway my opinion in any way. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of your own.