Checkerboard cake & Dark chocolate buttercream

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I met my husband 5 years ago today and we have barely been apart since. We were introduced by a mutual friend over an evening of sports. He could probably tell you the exact conversation that brought up birthdays, I just know that it came up. What I learned in that conversation is that just like my parents Tom and I have birthdays that are two days apart, that one of us is two years older than the other and that 16 days into a relationship I was going to need to come up with a birthday present/celebration. For those of you that are math challenged, like myself, Tom’s birthday is October 26th and mine is October 28th.

His favorite NBA team, The Lakers, opened the season on his birthday that year so to celebrate I invited Tom & his roommate over to have dinner with me & my friend Michelle. Dinner I kept simple with chili, but I aimed to impress him with a birthday cake. I made the cake and iced it and was feeling pretty proud as I went to slice it and serve it up. When I cut into it and served the first slice he practically gasped before he said, “checkerboard cake!”

I was certainly hoping he would be impressed, but this was more than I was expecting. Turns out years before his mom let him pick out any cake he wanted from one of her cookbooks. He picked checkerboard cake, the most complicated cake in the book. She made it, but it was never her favorite cake. She didn’t like something about how it turned out and he hadn’t had it since that birthday. I don’t think it is the only reason he decided to marry me, but I am certain that checkerboard cake didn’t hurt my chances.

If you want a cake that will have people in awe checkerboard cake is your cake. It is simple to make, but looks complicated when you cut into the center. There are special pans that will help you make the pattern, but I have never used one and I have always had an impressive checkerboard when I sliced the cake. When I made it last weekend for a celebration at my parents house I used some of my Lindt Chocolate to make a tasty dark chocolate buttercream icing for the cake. Today is your last chance to enter the #choctoberfest giveaway for you chance to win some chocolate, sugar and even more baking ingredients.

For my checkerboard cake I used a Lane cake recipe, which is a sponge cake, from my favorite cake cookbook The Perfect Cake by Susan Purdy. I love so many of the cakes in that book, but not so much the Lane cake. I am sure it is a great recipe, but it requires egg whites to make the cake light and fluffy and I always seem to deflate them when I fold them in. My next checkerboard cake will be made with this recipe from Good Housekeeping or I will make two separate cake batters and make a 4 layer 8-inch cake instead of a 3 layer cake. You could use box cake if you prefer, but it doesn’t save you as much time as you would think.

To make the layers set up 3 cake pans. Pipe the batter in three alternating circles. Two pans will have yellow cake in the center, surrounded by chocolate cake and then a final outside layer of vanilla. One pan will have a layer of chocolate cake in the center, surrounded by yellow cake and then a final outside layer of chocolate. If you make a 4 layer cake you will have two of each. When you assemble the cake the oddball layer will be your center layer. On a 4 layer cake just alternate and you will get a beautiful checkered pattern.

I received Lindt chocolate as part of my participation in #Choctoberfest. All opinions are my own.

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Dark chocolate buttercream frosting
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Dark chocolate buttercream frosting
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Ingredients
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Melt chocolate in the microwave or over a double broiler on the stove. Allow to cool while you make the icing.
  2. In the bowl of a mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until light and fluffy.
  3. Gradually add sugar, frequently scrap down the bowl as you go. Add vanilla and beat until icing is smooth.
  4. Adjust icing to a spreading consistency. If it is too thick add the milk. If too thin add more sugar. You want it to be easy to spread so it doesn't tear the cake when you ice, but not so loose it drips down the sides.
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Cookie Butter Cheesecake Brownies

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There are only a handful of reasons you might not have heard of cookie butter…

  • you don’t use pinterest
  • you don’t live near a Trader Joe’s
  • you don’t have a sweet tooth

If it isn’t one of those reasons you are an anomaly. I wouldn’t consider that a horrible thing when it comes to cookie butter. Some days I wish I had never heard of it too. When it first came to the store it was all the rage with people buying it by the case. Stories about eating it straight out of the jar with a spoon. I never got bit by the cookie butter craze, but the addition of cookie butter cream cheese to the dozens of products that have cookie butter in their title gave me an idea.

I am going to back up a second and describe cookie butter for those of you that don’t know what it is or haven’t had the chance to try it. Cookie butter is the consistency of peanut butter and is made from crushed up speculoos cookies. Speculoos cookies are a spiced shortbread cookie from the Netherlands. These crushed up cookies give cookie butter a flavor that might remind you of gingerbread. I think we can all agree that the smells and flavors of gingerbread are pretty alluring. If you can’t agree on that you might need to get your sniffer checked out, cause I think it might be broken.

Back to the idea I had with the cookie butter cream cheese.

The first thing I think of with cream cheese is bagels. I don’t care for bagels and cookie butter just doesn’t strike me as a morning food. Way too sweet. Now as a dessert cream cheese takes on new forms, primarily that of cheesecake which I love. But a cheesecake made of just cookie butter cream cheese sounded horrible too. Then I remembered cheesecake brownies and it all came together.

I have to admit the photos on the internets of cheesecake brownies have much more distinguished layers of cream cheese. I think I fell victim to over thinking swirling the layers together. Less swirl = better look. However, the taste doesn’t change. I could have eaten the entire tray of these. I was lucky to have some Lindt Dark chocolate from #Choctoberfest that made the brownies even better. Quality ingredients always have a way of improving things. Which is also why I used some of my supply of Imperial Sugar on this recipe as well. If you want to get some of these ingredients be sure to enter the #Choctoberfest giveaway.

I am looking forward to multiple projects using the Imperial sugar. If I could enter the giveaway for any product it would be to see more of this sugar show up at my doorstep.

Enjoy the brownies. They are sure to be a hit at your house. If you are one of the unfortunate souls that doesn’t have a Trader Joe’s try another cream cheese…maybe pumpkin.

I received Imperial sugar and Lindt chocolate as part of my participation in #Choctoberfest. All opinions are my own.


Cookie Butter Cheesecake Brownies
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Servings
12 brownies
Servings
12 brownies
Cookie Butter Cheesecake Brownies
Print Recipe
Servings
12 brownies
Servings
12 brownies
Ingredients
cheesecake layer
brownie layer
Servings: brownies
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 8x8 pan with foil so it hangs over the edge and spray with cooking spray.
  2. Make the cheesecake topping: In a bowl use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Beat in the sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Beat in egg until well combined and set aside.
  3. Melt chocolate, butter and oil together either in the microwave or over a pan of boiling water.
  4. In a separate bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
  5. Combine the brown sugar and granulated sugar in a large bowl. Combine the milk, egg whites and vanilla. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and whisk until fully combined. Gradually add the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
  6. Set aside 1/2 cup of brownie mixture. Pour remaining brownie mixture into prepared pan. Pour cheesecake mixture over the top of brownie mixture. Put dollops of the resereved brownie mixture over the top. Swirl through only the top two layers to create the swirled pattern.
  7. Bake until set, 40-45 minutes depending on oven. Let cool completely before lifting brownies out of the pan.
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peach blueberry cobbler with basil biscuits

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Berry season and stone fruit season are a special time of year and the best time of year for cobbler. The berries and stone fruits all cook well and are loaded with natural sugars that make perfect desserts with very little added sugar. I love crisps, but I will take a good cobbler over a crisp any day. Think of cobbler as a dessert version of chicken and dumplings. The biscuit or dumpling is always one of the best things about the dish.

Blueberries and peaches were both on sale the other day and I couldn’t resist making a cobbler. As I standing in the produce section - one of the benefits about working at a grocery store is plenty of time to create recipe ideas - thinking about it I noticed some basil that looked good and thought those three things all go together. Then I thought why do my biscuits have to be plain and boring. That ah-ha moment is bringing you basil citrus biscuits to top your cobbler. They remind me of the flavors in the citrus basil ricotta cookies and were the perfect topping to the cobbler.

Tips for working with berries and stone fruits

  • To easily peel peaches and other stone fruit cut a small X on the bottom of the fruit. Drop the fruit in boiling water and cook for 1-2 minutes until the skin starts to release from the fruit. Then drop the fruit in an ice bath to stop the cooking. When cool to the touch peel the skin off and prep as needed for your recipe.
  • When you bring home your berries resist the urge to rinse them all at once. Instead wash only what you need to use. Water increases the likely hood that they will mold before you can enjoy them.
  • Always store berries in the fridge. Every hour they are out of the fridge will cut their shelf life drastically, in some cases as much as a day of shelf life will be lost.

You can make the following recipe with any variety of fruit. Just use 6 cups of fruit. Some tarter fruits like blackberries may require more added sugar.

Do you prefer cobbler or crisps for your summer fruit?

blueberry peach cobbler with basil biscuits
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Servings Prep Time
8 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
50 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
50 minutes
blueberry peach cobbler with basil biscuits
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
8 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
50 minutes
Servings Prep Time
8 servings 20 minutes
Cook Time
50 minutes
Ingredients
Fruit Filling
Biscuits
Servings: servings
Instructions
  1. Melt 4 Tablespoons of butter and allow to cool while you prepare the rest of the cobbler.
  2. Preheat the oven to 400° Mix all the ingredients for the filling and place in a deep pie dish. Place pie plate on a cookie sheet or aluminum foil to avoid spills in oven. Bake fruit for 20 minutes or until the fruit begins to release liquid.
  3. After fruit is in the oven, whisk the flour, sugar, the baking powder, baking soda and salt together. When mixed add basil and lemon zest and mix again.
  4. In a separate bowl whisk the buttermilk and cooled butter together. Be sure the butter is and buttermilk are similar temperatures. Butter that is too warm will curdle the buttermilk.
  5. Once the filling is releasing liquid, stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture until the dough is combined and all dry ingredients are moist
  6. Remove the cobbler from the oven. Divide the biscuit dough into 8 equal pieces and place them on top of the filling, spaced evenly apart.
  7. Place cobbler back in the oven and cook until the filling is bubbling and the tops of the biscuits are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool before serving. If making in advance reheat the cobbler in s 350° oven for 10-15 minutes.
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