Twisted Thunder Cake!

I love to bake.  I love to cook in general.  It's just exciting and fun to spin around in the kitchen, see a new ingredient, and toss it in!  I try to take step by step pictures, because I think it is so cool on Ree Drummond's site, but sometimes I forget.

Reviews of the latest compilation are all positive.  The only negative I heard during the trial run was "These have to be really bad for you, because they are sooooo good."

First of all, the original recipes were two tried and true favorites that garner interest in any crowd, Thunder Cake, from Patricia Polacco's children's picture book, Thunder Cake, and Ree Drummond's recipe for Coffee Cake.  Literally.  I've made both of these before, and have been making Thunder Cake for several years, since teaching the picture book in Second Grade Reading!  They are both excellent cakes, with very different textures and depth.

The coffee cake is light and spongy, almost airy.  It melts in your mouth so quickly that the taste lingers and begs you to have more.  The Thunder Cake is dense and rich.  The "secret" ingredient makes it moist and it dissolves on your tongue.  So how did it work out when I tried to bring them together?

I definitely thought the experiment was a success!  The cake, which we've called "Twisted Thunder", was denser than the original coffee cake, but instead of being heavy like Thunder Cake usually is, it was a little spongier and airier and definitely moist.  The flavors blended together quite well, though I'd already been experimenting with adding chocolate to the coffee cake, and who could pass up coffee and chocolate together?

The frosting was also divine!  I started with The Best Frosting I've Ever Had (Yes, that's actually the name of it), and made a few tweaks, which I will list below with the recipe for Twisted Thunder Cake!

I poured exactly one cup of boiling water
into 3 Tablespoons of instant coffee
and stir till dissolved.

Melted 1 cup of butter.  When the butter is melted, stir in the coffee mixture.
Bring it to a boil and let it bubble for ten seconds, then remove from heat and let cool a bit.  

Whoops!  I went to take the cupcakes out of the pan, and one got a little stuck on the frosting bowl ! :)

Frosting! :)  More information will follow!

Twisted Thunder Cupcakes

Melt 1 Cup of butter in saucepan on stove.

Meanwhile (there needs to be a "back at the ranch" here, right?), dissolve 3 Tablespoons of instant coffee in 1 cup of boiling water.

When the butter is melted, add the coffee mix to the saucepan and bring to a boil for about ten seconds. Set aside to cool.

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl, and wet in another:

Dry                                                                  Wet
2 and 1/2 cups flour                                         1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups sugar                                                     3 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa powder                                     1 can pureed tomatoes
1/4 teaspoon salt                                              1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
                                                                         2 teaspoons vanilla

Add the coffee mixture to the flour bowl and stir gently to cool.  When it is cool (and won't cook the eggs), add the egg mixture to combine.

Pour into papered cupcake pans and bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Cool 15 minutes, then remove from pans.  Cool completely before icing.

Frost cupcakes when cool, then chill for one hour before serving.

Ingredients:
4 Tablespoons Flour
1 Tablespoon Cocoa Powder
1 Cup Milk
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Cup Butter
2 Cups Granulated (NOT Powdered) Sugar

In a small saucepan, whisk flour and cocoa powder into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens.  If your whisk has been twisted into smithereens or your teenager washed dishes and it's covered in last night's gravy, a fork will work as well.  It will get very, very thick.  When it's thickened to the point of sheetrock mud, remove the pan from the heat and let it cool to room temperature.  It has to be completely cool before you go on to the next step, or the butter will melt, and your frosting can't set.  Stir in the vanilla.

Meanwhile (back at the ranch), cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  You really have to beat this well for it to be completely blended with no sugar grains.  When that is well mixed and the flour mix is completely cool (I seem to like that word, completely), add the flour mix to the butter mix and as the Pioneer Woman says, "beat the living daylights out of it."  Beat until the mixture resembles whipped cream.

Do not taste this if you want any to be left for your cupcakes! :)