Simplest, Easiest Chocolate Cake

 

If you do a reasonable amount of cooking or baking, it’s almost guaranteed that you will have the ingredients to make this ridiculously satisfying cake on hand at any given time. The needed equipment is even basic, with a cake pan being the most exotic requirement. It’s also super quick to make with nothing difficult to do. It even has a fun little trick to it.

This recipe is an adaptation of a “6-minute” chocolate cake in Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts. While the way I do it here, does take a bit longer than six minutes, I think it’s the fastest cake I’ve even made. This can totally be your well-kept secret, though, because the cake is fluffy and chocolaty and really much greater than the sum of its parts. Even if you consider effort one of the parts.

I added a layer of rich but equally simple peanut butter frosting to the top of this one-layer cake, which makes it just a tad more celebratory. You could use your favorite chocolate cake topping such as whipped cream, a classic buttery white frosting, cream cheese frosting, or ganache. It is pretty terrific with nothing on it at all, though, or just a dusting of powdered sugar for a finishing touch.

Without the frosting, this is a vegan cake. Instead of the richness of butter or egg yolks, it just gets some oil and a deep dark flavor from a cup of coffee. Instead of volume from egg whites, the batter gets a quick poof from a couple tablespoons of vinegar reacting to baking soda. It’s kind of neat to watch, actually, so if you’re a science-y type like me, it makes for kind of a grand finale. (That’s the fun little trick I mentioned above!)

 

Anyway, this cake is way more deeply, darkly, satisfyingly delicious than it has any right to be. It’s a great recipe to have in your back pocket, and can make you a last-minute dessert hero. Or you can just make it weekly to have on hand. Either way, it will be worth keeping these basic ingredients around (including the frosting ingredients or not) and a few minutes free. It's quick. It's easy. It's good.

Easy Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon fine salt

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup canola or other neutral-tasting oil

1 cup cold coffee

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

For the frosting

½ cup creamy peanut butter

¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Prepare a 9-inch cake pan by greasing it or spraying it with cooking spray, and dusting with flour. Cut a parchment circle to fit the bottom of the pan and place it in the pan. Spray or grease the parchment. Set the pan aside.

2. In a medium-size bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and sugar. Whisk together to combine well.

3. In another medium-size bowl, or a large measuring cup, mix together the oil, coffee, and vanilla. Pour into the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

4. Pour in the vinegar and stir very quickly just until the vinegar is evenly distributed.

5. Immediately pour the batter into the prepared pan. Spread out to make even if needed. Bake at 375 F for 25-30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack about 10 minutes. Carefully turn the cake out of the pan, remove the parchment circle, and cool completely on the wire rack.

7. To make the frosting, combine the peanut butter and butter in a medium-size bowl. Beat together with a hand-held mixer at medium speed until smooth. Beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla and continue beating until light in color and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

8. Carefully transfer the cake to a serving plate. Spread the frosting just on the top of the cooled cake.

Makes about 8 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting, Chocolate Cake with Porter and Ganache Topping, Flourless Bittersweet Chocolate Torte, Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake

One year ago: Savory Parmesan Zucchini Bread

Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal

I appear to be developing a baked oatmeal repertoire. There are just so many ways to vary this warm and satisfying breakfast, and I have yet to meet one that wasn’t delicious. This peanut butter and chocolate chip version, however, may just be my favorite so far.

Really, though, what’s not to love about the combination of peanut butter, chocolate, and oatmeal (excluding allergic reactions, when applicable of course). I love it in cookies, but can’t quite justify eating cookies for breakfast, at least not every day. And so I go to this baked oatmeal dish, which is sweet and rich, and perhaps not as distant from cookies as breakfast ought to be.

It really is mostly oatmeal, which really is breakfast, and if you want, you may be able to reduce the sugar to your personal taste. I also think you could substitute other nut or seed butters for the peanut butter. Fruit purees and fruit butters might go in well, too, but I would start with this Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal recipe if you want to go that route. I like a small amount of miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you could put in more chocolate, leave it out, or replace it with dried fruit or nuts.

I know that refrigerated overnight oatmeal dishes are quite trendy, and I am curious to try them as well. While it stays this cold outside (below 0º Fahrenheit most mornings), and I keep getting weekends off from My Day Job (!!!!), I’m going to continue to warm up with some form of baked oatmeal instead. Actually, the warmth is extended by the fact that these dishes keep well for a few days in the refrigerator and can be reheated on mornings when time is more precious as well. All the more reason to try as many of them as I can!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal

1 ½ cups rolled oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

1 egg

¼ cup butter, melted and slightly cooled

½ cup creamy peanut butter

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray or grease it as desired. Set aside.

2. In a medium size bowl, combine the oats, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. In another medium-size bowl, lightly beat the egg with a whisk. Slowly whisk in the melted butter. Whisk in the peanut butter until smooth. Add the sugars, milk and vanilla and stir until smooth.

4. Pour the egg mixture into the oat mixture and stir together until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared baking dish and smooth out to make it even.

5. Bake at 350 F for 35-38 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the center appears set and dry. Cool at least 5 minutes. Cut into squares or scoop to serve.

Makes about 9 servings. Leftovers can be covered and refrigerated. Reheat in the microwave.

Other recipes like this one: Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal, Apple Baked Oatmeal with Walnuts and Cranberries, Cinnamon Raisin Baked Oatmeal

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

As you probably know, I love making cookies and trying new cookie recipes. And this is the best time of year to do it! These Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies are the result of my latest successful cookie adventure.

These may not look like Christmas cookies, but as far as I’m concerned, any cookie I make after Thanksgiving is a Christmas cookie. The recipe is a pretty basic, easy-to-execute drop cookie, no more difficult to make than the average oatmeal cookie or chocolate chip cookie or peanut butter cookie. I love all three of those cookie styles, and this one has a little, or maybe a lot, of each, which means they’re totally delicious!

I think you could vary these in many ways to your personal taste. I like the ratio of brown sugar to white sugar, so I probably wouldn’t mess with that, but other flavors could surely be swapped in. You may be able to use a different nut butter, like almond or cashew, or a different chocolate, like milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, or bigger chocolate chunks. The chocolate could be left out and perhaps replaced with dried fruit or toffee bits, too.

While I like fancy cookies with swirls and sprinkles and frostings and other embellishments this time of year, I will definitely take a humble-looking but delicious drop cookie on my holiday cookie tray. These are wonderful and worthy, loaded with multiple classic cookie ingredients, and if you need them to look more Christmas-y, feel free to put a pretty bow on them.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Based on a recipe in Better Homes and Gardens Baking

½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature

½ cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 cups rolled oats

1 12-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. In the bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer (or another large bowl if using a hand mixer or stirring by hand) combine the butter and peanut butter. Beat together on medium speed until fluffy. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy.

2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well combined. Beat in the vanilla extract.

3. In a medium-size bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda. Whisk or sift together to combine well.

4. Add the flour mixture a little at a time to the butter mixture, beating on low speed until just combined. Stir in the oats on low speed. Stir in the chocolate chips. If necessary, complete the final stirring with a sturdy spoon or rubber spatula.

5. Cover or wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours or up to 2 days. If planning to store for a longer time, freeze wrapped dough in a freezer safe bag or container.

6. When ready to bake the cookies, preheat oven to 350 F.  Lightly spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray or line it with parchment paper. Scoop about 2 tablespoons dough for each cookie on the prepared cookie sheet, spacing at least 2 inches apart.

7. Bake at 350 F for 8-11 minutes or until golden brown on the edges and set in the middle. Cool on the pan for 2 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack. Repeat with remaining dough.

Makes about 5 dozen cookies. Store in an airtight container or freeze baked cookies or unbaked dough well-wrapped for up to 3 months.

Other recipes like this one: Peanut Butter Cookies with Peanut Butter Cups, Rum Raisin Oatmeal Cookies, Oatmeal Date Cookies with Cardamom, Milk Chocolate Chip and M&M Cookies