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Mystery Mocha!

Posted by in Baking, Step-by-Step Recipes

Note: Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, I’m bringing up this chocolate wonder from the step-by-step archives. Serve this with your V-Day dinner! I absolutely loved it. –Ree

 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

 
The second I read the name of this recipe, I just knew I had to make it. First of all, I love any recipe with either “mystery” or “surprise” in the title. Second, I love any recipe with “mocha” in the title. It means good things will happen.

So “Mystery Mocha?” Count me in!

I thought it was funny that halfway through the printable recipe, the submitter (thanks, Larry!) warns us that “this will look TERRIBLE”. You’ve got to love the honesty!

But no matter what it looks like halfway through, the end result is all that I wanted it to be…and more. It turns out a little bit like a lava cake or baked fudge, but with a lovely coffee undertone. I served mine with freshly whipped cream and absolutely loved every bite. This is a treasure!

Here’s how you make it.

 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

Melt butter and unsweetened chocolate in the microwave for about 45 seconds.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

Stir it until the mixture is totally melted and smooth.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

Sift together sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate container, mix together the milk and vanilla. Set aside.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

Mix together the sifted mixture, the chocolate mixture, and the milk/vanilla mixture.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

Stir it together until all combined, then spread in a thoroughly greased square pan. Mine was about 6 1/2 x 6 1/2, but 8 x 8 would work fine.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

Now, this is where it starts getting weird. In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, brown sugar, and cocoa powder.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

Stir it to combine…

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

Then sprinkle the mixture evenly over the top of the cake batter.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

Interesting! What does it all mean?

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

After that mixture is evenly sprinkled and distributed, pour cold coffee all over the top. I didn’t have any coffee made, so I mixed instant coffee crystals in a cup of water. And I made it very strong: two heaping tablespoons of coffee! We’ll see how it turns out.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

This would definitely be the part in the recipe where Larry warns “it will look terrible!” I don’t think it looks terrible at all, though…just curious!

Bake for 40 minutes on 350 degrees, then remove from the oven.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

And this…THIS is what it looks like!

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

Oh my word. Oh my.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

It’s funny—until I scooped into it, I didn’t realize this would be a lava-type cake. It was a nice surprise!

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

Gorgeous! And it smells so, so good.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

I whipped some cream and plopped it on top.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

And this turned out to be a very good move.

 
 
 
Tasty Kitchen Blog: Mystery Mocha. Post by Ree Drummond, recipe submitted by TK member Larry.

The Verdict: This was absolutely delicious. If you use very strong coffee, the flavor will really come through and result in a very rich mocha flavor. This would be perfect for company—so easy to make!

Thank you, Larry, for sharing such a yummy recipe.

 
 

Printable Recipe

Mystery Mocha

4.78 Mitt(s) 32 Rating(s)32 votes, average: 4.78 out of 532 votes, average: 4.78 out of 532 votes, average: 4.78 out of 532 votes, average: 4.78 out of 532 votes, average: 4.78 out of 5

Prep Time:

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Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 8

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Description

My mother’s secret recipe, no longer secret! Decadent chocolate cake with mocha pudding inside. For chocolate lovers, this is a ten.

Ingredients

  • ¾ cups Granulated Sugar
  • 1 cup Sifted All-Purpose Flour
  • 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • ⅛ teaspoons Salt
  • 1 piece Unsweetend Chocolate (1 Square)
  • 2 Tablespoons Butter
  • ½ cups Whole Milk
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • ½ cups Brown Sugar
  • ½ cups Granulated Sugar (additional)
  • 4 Tablespoons Powdered Cocoa (Not Drink Mix)
  • 1 cup Cold Strong Coffee

Preparation Instructions

Sift together 3/4 cup sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Melt square of unsweetened chocolate and butter in the microwave. Add to dry ingredients alternately with the milk and vanilla. Blend. Pour into a greased 8×8 pan.

Combine brown sugar, the 1/2 cup additional granulated sugar and cocoa powder. Sprinkle over the cake batter. Pour the one cup COLD coffee on top. This will look TERRIBLE. Bake 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Serve warm with ice cream or sweetened whip cream or whipped topping. This will serve 8. In a 9×9 square pan, you can cut 9 pieces. Best served warm.

 
 

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A Tasty Halloween

Posted by in Holidays, Looks Delicious!

When it comes to Halloween goodies, Tasty Kitchen members are coming through as usual. These miniature Oreo Pumpkin Cheesecakes from Lauren’s Latest look darling and delicious.

 
 
 
 

And these ginger sugar cookies from Heather Christo are precious, and sound absolutely yummy. (Love Heather’s blog!)

 
 
 
 

I love the look of these pieknits. Colorful!

 
 
 
 

This is a great, simple recipe for a cute topping for cheesecakes, etc. Thanks, ButterYum!

 
 
 
 

For those of you with a grody sense of humor, try serving up these Spooky Bloody Brains (again, from Lauren) just before going trick-or-treating. Ha!

 
 
 
 

And finally, these classic Mummy Dogs, submitted by Mommy’s Kitchen.

Very cute stuff, guys! Thanks for sharing. My kids are now making their own grocery list.

Love,
Ree

Profile photo of Ree | The Pioneer Woman

Looks Delicious! Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Posted by in Looks Delicious!

Tasty Kitchen Blog: Looks Delicious! (Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, submitted by TK member Kay Heritage of The Church Cook)

 
As soon as I saw this recipe on Tasty Kitchen this morning, I was completely smitten. How gorgeous does this look?

Here’s the recipe: Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, submitted by Kay (The Church Cook).

Not only do I think this buttercream frosting looks delicious, I also think it’s such a lovely food photo. It does what food photos should do: make us want to reach through our computer monitors and grab whatever’s in the shot. That’s one of the things I love about Tasty Kitchen; so many beautiful food photos come in every day. They can’t help but inspire!

Check out Kay’s own food blog here: The Church Cook.

 

Profile photo of Ree | The Pioneer Woman

Mixer Winners – And Pancake Redux

Posted by in Step-by-Step Recipes

Here are the winners of the KitchenAid mixers.

I can’t thank you all enough for your great feedback; I’ve been reading and taking notes!

Winner #1: Shawn “Tasty Kitchen has been a wonderful resource for finding good recipes to make for our family and for special occasions. It’s very helpful having photos of the recipes for reference. I’m always looking for quick and healthy family meals that everyone in the family will eat.”

Winner #2 Kara: “I heart TK and rely on it more than my cookbooks. If possible, it would be cool if we could have an online recipe box or some way to bookmark. I love the unique names of recipes, but unless you have a better memory than me, they are hard to find again unless you print them right then. An ingredient match would be cool too. Say you enter (chicken, mushrooms, heavy cream) and it matches your ingredients with a recipe that includes those. Hey you said bells and whistles, a girl can dream! Ha, it is already an awesome site!”

Winner #3 Elly: “I am not sure this will help you, but I LOVE the replies from people that have used the recipe and tips given for alternate ways to adjust the recipe. Participation is a great part of this site.”

Congrats, winners! Contact [email protected] to claim your loot.

Here’s a redux of a pancake recipe from last spring. Perfect for Saturday morning!

***********

 
 
 

Here’s what you’ll need. Nothin’ difficult here!

 
 
 

First combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

 
 
 

Then whisk it together until totally combined.

 
 
 

Next, combine the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl…

 
 
 

And whisk them together to combine.

 
 
 

Next, combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.

 
 
 

Stir gently to combine.

 
 
 

Heat a skillet over medium-low heat, then smear butter over the surface.

 
 
 

Use a 1/4 cup measure to drop batter onto the skillet.

 
 
 

Cook until you start to see bubbles. Then flip ‘em over and cook on the other side!

 
 
 

Now, we’ll serve this first batch with butter and maple syrup, of course. Of course.

 
 
 

And when I say butter…I mean butter.

 
 
 

And when I say syrup…

 
 
 

I mean syrup, baby.

 
 
 

Okay, that’s the traditional route. You could stop here and be happy forever and ever.

 
But “happy forever and ever” isn’t enough for me.

 
In her recipe, sapeylissy suggests serving these pancakes with icing, recreating the true “cinnamon bun” effect. So I decided to whip up a little bit of a butter/syrup icing.

 
 
 

Throw some butter into a bowl…

 
 
 

Melt it for about 30 seconds…

 
 
 

Then dump in some powdered sugar.

 
 
 

Now throw in some maple syrup. Maple extract would be okay, too.

 
 
 

And some milk.

 
 
 

Then just whisk it together until it’s perfectly smooth and combined. You could also warm this up a little bit before serving.

 
 
 

So ideally, one would place the pancakes on a plate and gingerly drizzle this buttery/mapley icing lightly over the top. But I sorta got carried away and poured a whole tankload on there.

 
 
 

Sorry.

 
 
 

Oops! Sorry again.

I don’t know what came over me.

I really loved both approaches—the maple syrup/butter approach AND the icing approach. I think there wouldn’t be anything wrong with serving both.

Thank you to sapeylissy for the yummy recipe!

Here’s the printable for the pancakes:

Cinnamon Bun Pancakes

Here’s the simple icing recipe:

Maple-Butter Icing for Pancakes

And in case you missed it, here’s Erika’s post on Pancakes, which includes links to many different pancake recipes here on Tasty Kitchen.

The Theme is…Pancakes!

Enjoy!

Profile photo of Ree | The Pioneer Woman

That’s STILL the Best Frosting I’ve Ever Had

Posted by in Baking, Step-by-Step Recipes

The mixer giveaway is still going on through noon today and winners will be announced Friday. Meanwhile, I wanted to re-post this recipe again for a slightly controversial frosting that I love so much I just made it again this week. And I realize it’s strange to call frosting controversial, but the comments on the […]

Profile photo of Ree | The Pioneer Woman

Looks Delicious! Roasted Cinnamon Pear Bruschetta

Posted by in Looks Delicious!

  This recipe, submitted by Tasty Kitchen member HowSweetEats, caught my eye for many reasons. The roasted cinnamon pears. The mascarpone. The word “bruschetta,” which only evokes lovely thoughts for me. This would be such a winning appetizer for a holiday party! Thank you, Jessica! Check out Jessica’s food blog, How Sweet It Is. So […]

Profile photo of Ree | The Pioneer Woman

Looks Delicious! Zucchini Parmesan

Posted by in Looks Delicious!

  TK members and food bloggers A Cozy Kitchen did it again with this scrumptious recipe for Zucchini Parmesan. I love the twist on the old eggplant classic, and it’s the perfect time of year to offer up ways for folks to use all the zucchini in their lives! I’m trying it later this week […]

Profile photo of Ree | The Pioneer Woman

Looks Delicious! Savory Tomato and Feta Crostata

Posted by in Looks Delicious!

  I can’t stop thinking about this recipe from Tasty Kitchen Member Apricosa (Erica). The light filling of cottage cheese, feta cheese, and tomato sounds delicious at this time of year, but it’s the beautiful light green crust—the result of the addition of basil—that really caught my eye. I’ll be trying this over the weekend,…