I was terribly doubtful about this recipe before I tried it. It looked too easy and that made me instantly suspicious.
Then I made it and all I can saw is wow. It’s really rather perfect. While this glaze would be perfect for a “snack cake” or loaf, it would also work beautifully as a glaze over-top a layer cake.
I frosted my cake with this glaze while it was still warm — which I recommend you do as well. And though I used a small spatula to cover the face of the cake but I didn’t play around too much with the glaze as I found that it set rather quickly. I allowed it to finish setting in the fridge overnight which I felt worked quite well as the glaze became almost like a soft fudge when cold. Perfection.
Rich Chocolate Glaze (adapted from Mama)
Makes enough glaze to cover a 9×13 inch cake
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
⅓ cup milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1 ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, milk and sugar. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil for one minute. Remove from the burner and add the chocolate chips. Allow to the mixture to sit for one minute to let the chocolate melt, then use a wooden spoon to stir the glaze together. Use immediately, preferably to glaze a warm cake. Allow to set in the fridge for best results. Enjoy!
Who doesn’t like a brownie? My dear, sweet, lovely readers, I’m sure you will agree that not only are brownies are simple and delicious but sometimes they just the right thing to have for breakfast…or lunch…or dinner…
Though these brownies use a number of bowls, I promise that the dishes are worthwhile and that the brownies actually come together rather quickly. Now some people prefer for their brownies to be cakey and light and others like their brownies to be dense and fudgey. Me, I’m not picky. I love chocolate no matter the form, but I will tell you that these brownies are the latter preference.
One of my favorite brownie recipes, which is not vintage but still tasty nonetheless has chocolate chips added to the batter just after the flour is folded in. I’ve borrowed this inspired idea and added milk chocolate chips to this brownie batter. Collin Murray, not nearly the chocolate fan that I am, enjoys milk chocolate quite a lot but if you prefer dark chocolate, white or even semi-sweet, feel free to switch the chip-its.
A good brownie can be hard to come by but I promise you that this one will not disappoint. I’m a firm believer that everyone needs to have go-to brownie in their recipe closet because brownies just seem to make life better. Believe it friends and take big bites.
Brownies (adapted from the 1964 Metropolitan Cookbooklet)
Makes one 8-inch square pan
½ cup unsalted butter, softened, divided
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.
Fill a small saucepan with 1-inch of water and heat on medium high. Place the unsweetened chocolate and butter in a medium bowl and set atop the pan. Melt the chocolate and butter and set aside to cool slightly.
In a large bowl, beat eggs till pale and thick. Gradually whisk in sugar. Whisk in the cooled butter/chocolate mixture. Slowly beat in flour mixture and chocolate chips. Pour into the buttered pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
I know few people who don’t like the classic combination of peanut butter and chocolate.
Perhaps this is no surprise: peanut butter and chocolate are one of the most well known (and well loved) combinations in the baking world because they are just the perfect compliments to one another. So when I saw this easy recipe for peanut butter chocolate cereal squares from America’s Favorite Recipes from Better Homes and Gardens, I knew I needed to make it immediately.
As it turns out, this recipe is super fast and super easy. It literally takes 10 minutes from start to finish and uses items that are fairly common to the pantry of most home bakers — peanut butter, corn syrup, sugar, chocolate, rice crispies and cornflakes.
Like the Tutti Frutti Butterscotch Squares, this recipe does require you to work quickly which is why I would suggest having all your ingredients measured out before you start — it helps to be prepared. However, if you find that your mixture has cooled too quickly and has become a little unruly to press evenly into your baking pan, simply melt one cup of chocolate chips over a double boiler and spread the chocolate on top of the squares. I promise no one will ever notice any uneven lumps or bumps that way — too bad the same technique won’t work on my cellulite.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Cereal Squares (adapted from America’s Favorites Recipes from Better Homes and Gardens)
Makes one 9-inch square pan
2 cups Rice Crispy cereal
1 cup Corn Flakes cereal, crushed slightly
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup dark corn syrup
¼ cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
In a large bowl, combine cereals and chocolate chips, set aside.
In a medium saucepan combine corn syrup, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil and stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Immediately remove from heat. Pour peanut butter mixture over cereals and stir with a spatula to combine. Press into a 9-inch pan and allow to cool before cutting. Enjoy.
Is it a law that you have to eat something green on St. Patrick’s Day? Probably not, but darn-it sometimes it’s fun to be festive. Especially when being festive involves marshmallows, chocolate and booze…
I’ve seen many versions of this pie, sometimes referred to as a Grasshopper Pie, but this imagination is mine all mine. Basically what I did was give the recipe for Coffee Mallow Parfaits a little makeover. For the pie’s foundation, I made my favorite Chocolate Wafer Crust in a nine-inch pie plate.
Now when I engineered the filling, I got seriously festive by switching out a little bit of water that the marshmallows are dissolved in for creme de mint and creme de cacao. For this recipe, I left out the coffee granules because, well, leaving them in would have been gross.
You should know that when the marshmallow mixture cools, it kind of looks like a congealed green goo but fear not, after you fold in whipped heavy cream and mini chocolate chips, it looks and tastes quite delightful and also rather green. If you like, you can add a tiny drop of green food coloring to enhance the color. I did and I found that the addition just kicked the greeness up a notch.
Since we are in the spirit of embracing St. Patrick’s Day, after I topped the finished pie with mini chocolate chips in the shape of a shamrock. Why? ‘Cause I’m fancy like that.
When chilled and set, this pie is nice and minty – it kind of tastes like mint chocolate chip ice cream with an adult twist. Enjoy it on St. Patrick’s Day with some green milk or on any other occasion that calls for a delicious pie.
Mint Chocolate Pie
Makes one-9 inch pie
One recipe Chocolate Wafer Crust, cooled
24 jumbo marshmallows
¾ cup of water
2 tablespoons crème de cacao
2 tablespoons crème de mint
2 cups heavy cream, whipped and divided
½ cup mini chocolate chips
Green food coloring, if desired
In a medium saucepan combine marshmallows, liquors, and water. Allow mixture to heat up and for the marshmallow to disintegrate – the liquid will be just slightly translucent and seem quite thin but letting the mixture cool 30 to 40 minutes, will allow it to thicken and begin to set.
After whipping the heavy cream into very stiff peaks, gently fold two cups of the cream and the chocolate chips into the marshmallow mixture. Chill for 20 minutes.
Pour the marshmallow mixture into the baked and cooled pie crust. Allow to chill for 20 minutes before topping with remaining whipped cream.
Serve chilled and enjoy.
I know that I just shared my love of the Graham Cracker Crust, but being that I’m the kind of girl who really loves chocolate, I can’t help but be a little partial to pie crusts made with chocolate wafers. I like this crust recipe for cheesecakes but you could also use it for chiffon pies or meringue tarts: no matter what, it’s crazy delicious, I promise you that.
This crust recipe is so simple that it’s almost embaressing. Melt some butter and mix it into the chocolate cookie crumbs, press it into a pan and your done. I like to use the bottom of a measuring cup to press the crust into the pan because the curve of the measuring cup fits into the curve of the pan nicely. The measuring cup also makes it quite easy to get a level crust.
Though I prefer to bake the crust for 10 minutes just to give it a little crunch and to help it set, the original recipe actually didn’t call for baking, so you could easily skip that step if you wanted to. Whatever your choice, once you’ve made the crust, it becomes a great base for any number of different pie and tart recipes.
Chocolate Wafer Cookie Crust (adapted from The New Saint Louis Symphony of Cooking)
Makes a crust to fit 1, 10-inch springform pan
2 cups chocolate wafer cookie crumbs
⅓ cup unsalted butter, melted
If baking crust, preheat oven to 350˚F.
In a medium bowl, combine cookie crumbs and butter. Mix with a spoon till combined.
Press into a springform pan using your hands or the bottom of a measuring cup to flatten the crumbs.
Set aside till ready to fill or bake for 10 minutes and allow to cool before using.
The more I delve into my vintage cookbook collection, the more I find that there were definitive trends throughout the different decades. In the fifties, people seemed to have liked using a pre-measured cake yeast – I still have yet to discover exactly what this measurement was. In the 1960′s, there are absolutely tons of recipes that used boxed mixes and evaporated milk in place of quick mix cakes or whipping cream; however, it is the ingredient that peppers the pages of my books from the 1970′s that delights me the most: marshmallows.
White, fluffy, full of gelatin, and sugar, how could you go wrong?
My guess is that people just weren’t so into baking with gelatin in the seventies and so they turned to marshmallows to set their parfaits, jello salads, and puddings. I’m not really so offended by the extreme use of marshmallows, I kind of adore them actually which is why I fell in love with this recipe for Coffee Mallow Parfaits. Well…that and the recipe has a name that really delighted me.
This is likely the easiest of the recipes that I’ve tested and posted on Baking Vintage thus far and honestly, it is truly delicious. Though there is extra time for cooling and setting needed in the recipe, it comes together remarkably quickly, has a classy presentation and it tastes just like a really delectable coffee-infused chocolate bar.
If you wanted to spice things up a little, you could add subtract a tablespoon of water and add a tablespoon of Bailey’s or Kahlua to the marshmallow, coffee, water mixture; similarly, you could also add crushed Skor or Heath bar pieces to the crushed cookie mixture.
Coffee Mallow Parfaits (adapated from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook)
Makes 4 to 6-8 ounce parfaits
24 jumbo marshmallows
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1 cup of water
1 cup heavy cream, whipped
½ cup to 1 cup crushed chocolate wafers
In a medium saucepan combine marshmallows, coffee granules, and water. Allow mixture to heat up and for the marshmallow to disintegrate – the liquid will be just slightly translucent and seem quite thin but letting the mixture cool 30 to 40 minutes, will allow it to thicken and begin to set.
After whipping heavy cream into stiff peaks, gently fold the cream into the coffee and marshmallow mixture. Chill for 20 minutes.
In a 8-ounce parfait glass, spoon in the coffee marshmallow mixture so that the mixture come up about an inch. Spoon the crushed wafers on top of the coffee marshmallow mixture. Repeat this process ending with the coffee marshmallow mixture and allow to set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Garnish with whipped cream or a sprinkling of the crushed wafers. Serve chilled.
I came across this recipe for Chocolate Coca Cola Cake in the Pillsbury’s Best of the Bake-Off cookbook from 1959. The recipe was a Senior Winner and I assure you I know why – this is a mighty tasty cake!
I’ve always had a bit of a weak spot for the sugar-y drink and so naturally this cake caught my attention. The cola in the recipe is said to add “a bit of mystery to the flavor of the chocolate cake” and I have to say that the flavor is quite subtle — the mystery is really trying to find the cola taste at all…
That being said, the cake quickly came together, was sturdy and dense and didn’t have an over-the-top chocolate taste. The cocoa taste was there and it was pleasant but this isn’t one of those cakes that bowls you with its chocolate-y-ness. Collin Murray, who hates chocolate and Coca Cola because he is a curious individual, loved the cake for it’s “interesting” flavor and great texture.
The frosting, however, was a bit of a pickle. I’m all over a cake with a sticky meringue and the Coca Cola Frosting was no exception in terms of sticky-ness. I didn’t want to deal with the gooey-ness; having a sticky frosting kind of complicates frosting a cake and sometimes it’s ok but sometimes, it just annoys. This was one of those times.
If you like a meringue frosting go crazy, the Cola frosting has a nice subtle flavor of the soda and it’s a pretty contrast to the color and taste of the cake too. However, if you don’t like sticky fingers and haven’t iced a lot of cakes in your day, I might suggest swapping out the frosting for a simple chocolate or vanilla (or Coca Cola) buttercream. The cake would be equally as tasty and omitting the frosting might save you a few grey hairs.
All in all, I have to say that the first recipe I’ve tried from Pillsbury’s Best of the Bake Off Collection was a hit. A simple, quick to mix chocolate cake and a tasty (but just a wee bit trying) frosting.
Chocolate Coca Cola Cake (adapted from Pillsbury’s Best of the Bake Off Collection)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ⅓ cups sugar
½ cup cocoa
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
⅔ cup buttermilk
⅔ cup Coca Cola beverage
1 egg, plus 2 egg yolks (save whites for frosting)
Frosting:
1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup, plus 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
3 egg whites
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons Coca Cola
To prepare the cake:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease 2-8-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Turn mixer onto the lowest speed and mix to combine. Add the softened butter and beat for one minute at a medium speed. Add the buttermilk and Coca Cola slowly, turning the mixer up as the liquid starts to incorporate. After about one minute, the mixture should be smooth, add the eggs and beat the batter on high for an additional minute, scraping down the bowl as necessary.
Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the pans for an hour. Once cool, remove from pans and allow the cakes to cool completely before attempting to frost.
To prepare the frosting:
In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine all the ingredients and lightly whisk to combine. Place the ingredients over a pot of simmering water, being sure that the water doesn’t touch the pot. Whisk the ingredients constantly until they reach a temperature of 170˚F.
As soon as the mixture reaches 170˚F, remove the bowl from the heat and transfer it to a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on high until the frosting is thick, glossy, and cool to the touch.
Immediately frost cake and enjoy.
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