Cottonwood Cooking

Cake Layer
1 chocolate cake mix prepared per instructions. Bake in a 9×13 pan. Cool completely. If the cake is rounded in the middle, cut off the excess to make the cake flat.

White Layer
1 ¼ cups milk
5 tablespoons flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla

Pour milk into small pan, whisk in the flour, cook until mixture thickens, stirring constantly with whisk. COOL COMPLETELY. Put sugar, butter, and vanilla in mixing bowl, mix until creamy. Gradually add the cooled flour mixture. Beat until fluffy and no sugar crystals remain. This could take up to 5 or 6 minutes, depending on the power of your mixer. Ice cooled cake. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Chocolate Layer
3 oz baking chocolate (3 squares)
½ cup butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 ½ tablespoons hot water

Over low heat, melt the chocolate and butter. Add remaining ingredients. Whisk until the ingredients are thoroughly combined and icing is smooth. Remove from heat. Cool a little bit but icing should still be thin. Spread icing over cooled cake.

2 oz (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate
¼ cup butter
2 cups granulated sugar, divided
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup milk
½ cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans (I omit this cause I don’t like nuts)
1 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
6 Tbs. Unsweetened cocoa
Whipped cream to serve (heavy whipping cream with tsp. vanilla and some sugar to sweeten the flavor)

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly butter 2-1/2 qt. Deep casserole and set aside. Place chocolate and butter in small saucepan and cook over low heat until melted. Set aside to cool slightly. Combine 1-1/3 cups granulated sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir well and sift into large bowl. Stir in reserved chocolate, milk, nuts and vanilla. Spoon into prepared casserole and smooth top. Place brown sugar, remaining 2/3 cup granulated sugar, and cocoa in bowl and stir to combine. Scatter over top of batter. Pour 2 cups water (room temperature) over mixture but do not stir. Bake in preheated oven 1 hour. When done there will be a crust on top and chocolate inside will be runny. Serve warm or hot with whipped cream on the side.

1 can cinnamon rolls (large ones work better)
1 can crescent rolls
1 cup sugar
1/2 c. of cinnamon and sugar mixture (use about 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 stick butter
2 – 8 oz. packages cream cheese

Preheat oven to 350F. Spread cinnamon rolls on bottom of 9 x 13 pan. In a box mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread cream cheese mixture on top of cinnamon roll layer. Spread crescent rolls on top of cream cheese layer. Melt butter and pour on top of crescent roll layer. Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar mixture. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool and sit in fridge for a few hours. Serve cold.

4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts
6 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup seedless red raspberry jam, heated

Place first 6 ingredients in a large bowl and blend.

Pour batter into a greased 10-inch springform pan and bake in a 350 degrees F oven for 25 to 28 minutes or until a cake tester, inserted in center, comes out clean. (Do nut overbake, or cake will not be moist.) Allow to cool for 20 minutes, and then spread raspberry jam evenly over the top. Allow to cool completely.

Drizzle Lemon Glaze over the jam and in a decorative swirling pattern and allow some of the raspberry jam to show through. Run a little glaze down the sides. When glaze is set (about 1 hour), cut into wedges to serve. Serves 32. (This is a dense torte, so the wedges are smaller.)

Lemon Glaze

1 tablespoon lemon juice
3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar

Stir together all the ingredients until blended. Add a little lemon juice or powdered sugar until glaze is a drizzling consistency.

Options (I’ve had good responses with these options):
1) Substitute strawberry jam for raspberry jam.
2) Substitute preserves (strawberry or raspberry) for raspberry jam. This will mean that topping is slightly less smooth due to the fruit pieces in the preserves.