from Tracey G.

Chocolate Indulgence Cake Mix from King Arthur Flour

This past week has been a rough one, as you all know back in January Kris got to deal with influenza knocking her flat, well, this week it’s our household. Harry tested positive for influenza on Monday at his school’s clinic and has been home sick all week, as they have to stay out a mandatory 5 days. The clinic in his school is an Extension Unit of a local area Health Clinic/System, so they can do anything the regular doctor’s office can – and only deal with children (and they have helped us adults out a few times as well, out of the goodness of their hearts!). It’s wonderful, a huge step above when I was in school and we just had the school nurse who could only either send us home or back to class! It’s also nice because they pretty much know all the kids, so they aren’t just numbers to them. I was able to make an appointment for Monday and get him tested, and they even supplied the school’s office (just down the hall from the clinic) with the doctor’s note to excuse his absence, which originally was to be until Thursday, but after touching base with the N.P., she ended up extending to Friday – today. Unfortunately, this illness has now sunk its teeth and claws into Jeremy and I. Thank goodness it’s mix week, easy for the sick to make!

And that brings me to – in a roundabout way, to my mix for the week. I’d chosen this mix, Chocolate Indulgence Cake Mix in honor of Harry’s birthday, which is today, the 23rd, and mine which is tomorrow, the 24th. Also unfortunate as we are all sick! Not much fun to be had this weekend, so we’ll have to bump any fun to another weekend as soon as we can.

But I’d thought a cake would be a fun mix since Mix Week fell on Birthday Weekend. I’d decided on this particular mix, Chocolate Indulgence Cake a long time ago as it sounded super yummy and super easy. It’s a one-pan cake! It’s also flourless – and comes with the chocolate wafers to make a ganache coating out of, to finish the cake.

The ingredients are simple – all you supply are the eggs, butter and heavy cream for the ganache coating. That’s it. The only trouble I had with this cake was getting it out of the pan, which you cool it in for 2 hours. It didn’t stick, because when I finally did get it out of the pan, it wasn’t broken or anything, but I think a vacuum had created itself, thereby holding the cake firmly in the pan.

And once it’s out, don’t count on being able to move it around on your serving/presentation plate or cake stand, that’s not happening unless you want it in pieces. The texture is like a cheesecake without the cheese, lol. I had to live with it not being quite where I wanted it on my presentation plate. But oh well. No harm, no foul.

Now, the taste-test. Jeremy and I taste-tested it the day I made it – the day before I took my photos. We both were in agreement that this was not like any boxed mix we’d ever had. It was upscale-restaurant worthy all the way. He made the comment that all it needed was a drizzle of a raspberry sauce on the plate as garnish and it was ready for the public! So, the next day when I was debating on how to photograph it – I made a homemade raspberry sauce I’d found a recipe for somewhere online. It was super easy, just some frozen raspberries I’d had, a little water, sugar and lemon juice and I used a fine-mesh sieve to make it seedless. I used a bit of KAF’s Instant ClearJel to help thicken it a little as I think I had too much water in it to – I didn’t want my “drizzle” to become a “puddle”!

And that’s all there is to it. It’s a mix of cocoa powder, ground chocolate and sugar for the most part, then the chocolate ganache on top. It’s creamy and wonderful – I didn’t find it either too sweet or too bitter/chocolaty at all. It was just right in my opinion, and a little sliver goes a long way. I am really blown away that this was a mix, there’s no way I’d ever suspect that if I didn’t know any better! If you want an impressive dessert for company, or even just an indulgent treat for yourself – this is the mix to cover all of that and more!!

Dark Pumpernickel Bread Mix from King Arthur Flour

It’s no secret that I am a bread fan.  Not only do enjoy eating it, I enjoy the making of it equally as much.  So, it felt a little bit like cheating when I decided to make bread from a mix this week.  I chose the Dark Pumpernickel Bread Mix because Pumpernickel Bread, though a taste I enjoy, is not one that I make at home in my normal rotation of bread baking.  It is also a favorite of my husband’s.  Since he humored me by spending last weekend with me and hundreds of other woman photographers at Click Away, the pumpernickel is a nice treat for him.  I may even use it to make him a Patty Melt this weekend.

I have to admit that making bread where all I have to do is dump the mix, a cup and a half of warm water, and two tablespoons of melted butter or oil into a bowl and then knead it for a few minutes was really nice!  My least favorite part of bread baking is rounding up all of the ingredients on the kitchen counter and then putting them away.  Making this bread from the box was painless!

The direction say that once mixed, you may have to add additional flour or water until you have a soft, smooth dough.  I feel like my dough was a bit sticky when I shaped it for its first rise, but I decided not to add any additional flour.  I didn’t want to run the risk of a dry loaf of bread.

The suggested first rise time for this loaf is an hour.  Then, it is shaped and placed in a 9×5 bread pan and rises again until it has crowned the pan by an inch.  The bread bakes for 35-40 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  I split the difference and baked my for 40 minutes and it is perfect!  And, not dry.

If I can get past my thought that baking from a box is somehow cheating, I will keep a box of the Dark Pumpernickel Bread Mix in the pantry for when we need something a little different for our lunchtime sandwiches.  I think I can justify this boxed mix by saying that I don’t have any room in my pantry for another bin of specialty flour.  Rye is not one that I routinely keep on hand.

Don’t tell anyone, but I might have to try a few more of King Arthur Flour’s bread mixes.  Sshhh….