Simple, Delicious (and EASY) Dark Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

It's birthday season, and end-of-school-year season, and lot's-of-sewing-stuff season (wait, it's always that season), and I'm tired season. So when it came to choosing yet another cake to make for a birthday (and what did little Bean want? Chocolate of course!) I was extremely grateful for a simple recipe that was easy to throw together and not a ton of work (and most importantly, didn't leave a huge mess in my kitchen).

Let's just say that I'm not the cleanest baker....and homemade cakes usually come with homemade frosting which often comes with powdered sugar....ALL OVER. The mess is augmented by the fact that I'm usually in a hurry which means I'm kind of frantically flailing ingredients around. So the best part of this recipe is that it contains very few ingredients and NO powdered sugar.

The frosting is elegant because it's chocolate ganache, but ganache is SOOOOO much easier than a powdered sugar/butter frosting. Which led me to wonder: "why do I bother with any other frosting?" Hmmm...one of life's mysteries to ponder upon. 

Was I in a hurry with this cake? Of course. Did it take long to make? Not at all. Did it stress me out making this cake? Nope! Will I be doing this cake again? Possibly for every birthday from here on out whether it's asked for or not. Do I have a habit of asking myself a question and then answering it in the next sentence? Apparently! 

So, will I actually make this for every birthday now? Probably not. I'd get bored. But I will be making it again. That's for sure. In fact, I may have one baking right now.....

This cake takes about 5-10 minutes for the batter to come together, and then only 30 minutes to bake. And it uses regular all-purpose flour and still gives you a light and airy, moist texture. Mmmm. I also made it the day before and when it was cooled from baking, I wrapped the layers and froze them until a couple of hours before I needed them. I think this helps lock moisture in (keeping the cake moist) until the cake is needed. The buttermilk also helps with the fine, moist texture, as well as using boiling water. The original recipe from Hershey's calls for hot coffee, but I used boiling water (brought to a quick boil in my microwave in a glass Pyrex measuring cup) with a couple of teaspoons of vanilla instead. 

The end result is dark chocolate cake with a rich chocolaty flavor, fine crumb and moist texture. Then by adding a ganache frosting (just cream and semi-sweet chocolate....that's it) that is whipped until spreadable, you've got a delicious very easy, no-stress from-scratch chocolate cake. 

My dad said it was one of the best cakes he's every had. But.....he's my dad :). But this IS my new chocolate cake recipe I'll use now: for it's ease and lovely end result. And of course, because it tastes AWESOME. 

Black Magic EASY Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar (for an extra-fine texture of your cake, use Baker's extra-fine sugar)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk (or use 1 cup milk and add 1 Tbsp. white vinegar and allow it to "sour" for 5 minutes)

2 eggs

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 cup boiling water

3/4 cup Cocoa (I used a Dutch-processed cocoa)

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1. Preheat your oven to 350*. Cut parchment rounds for 2, 9-inch round cake pans (or you can bake it in a greased 9 x 13 pan). Grease and flour the cake pan(s).

2. In a large bowl, whisk together until well-combined the sugar, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Then add the eggs, oil, buttermilk, hot water, and vanilla and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. The batter will be thin. 

3. Evenly distribute the batter between the pans and bake for 30 minutes, or until a cake tester/toothpick comes out just clean. Remove from oven and cool the cakes in the pan for 10 minutes. Then run a thin knife around edges of the pan and remove cakes to completely cool on a wire rack. Then either frost the cake, or wrap and freeze it until you are ready for it!

fresh out of the oven

cooling completely on the rack

Chocolate Ganache Whipped Frosting

2 cups heavy cream

24 oz. (1 pound plus 8 ounces) of semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (I confess that I used Costco semi-sweet chocolate chips here and it worked out awesome. 

1. Place chocolate (chopped) in a large bowl. Bring the heavy cream just to a boil on the stove. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir until chocolate is mostly melted. Let sit for a few minutes, then stir until completely smooth. 

2. Cover and place frosting in the fridge until it is spreadable without being runny. If it gets too hard, place it in your microwave on reduced power (50%) for 10-second intervals, stirring in between to make sure you don't melt it too much. But if you do, just place back in the fridge for a bit for it to thicken it. When the frosting is spreadable, you can use it as-is and spread it on your cake, or whip it with some beaters for a few seconds. Keep in mind that the more you whip, the cooler the frosting gets and harder it may become (which may mean you will have to soften it again, but it won't ruin it). You can also use this frosting when it is slightly runny as a glaze to pour over the cake. You can't really mess it up, and it tastes great. And no powdered sugar! 

Enjoy! I know we sure did! (Especially the birthday girl...sniff sniff....who turned 3 and is growing up).

I'm-A-Jerk Carrot Cake: Delicious Cake with a Hint of Guilt

It's the Beginning of Birthday Season! Which means lots and lots of cakes!

First up? My mom! She loves spice cake and carrot cake, and I couldn't decide on one, so I did both!

Let's see how many more sentences I can end with an exclamation point?! I can keep going like this all night! What's that?! You feel like I'm shouting at you?! And not in a jubilant fun way, but in a kind of aggressively joyful way?! (I'll bet you never read those two adjectives in succession before. Language: it's amazing).

Alright, so I did a little overkill. I still haven't learned how to end on a high note. My apologies. :)

What were we talking about? Oh yeah, cake. Today I'll share how I made the carrot cake, although the spice cake was delicious too. Maybe I'll save that one for some other time.

Now when it comes to carrot cake, there are at least a couple different camps. One camp with fruit (pineapple and possibly raisins), and one without. Sometimes there's the addition of coconut, most of the time there are nuts.

Which camp does my mom lie in? She happens to like her carroty cake with pineapple, but she didn't say anything about raisins (thank goodness because plump, juicy raisins in baked goods are just gross), which means I left them out.

And...well, I left out the pineapple too (sorry Mom), because I can't stand most baked fruit in desserts. Pineapple gets mushy and stringy. And raisins...I already covered that. Plump and juicy are not the adjectives that I want with raisins. Actually, I don't really want raisins with any accompanying adjectives. Let's just say that you'll most likely never see a recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies on this blog. Kind of sad since I was born and raised in the Raisin Capital of the world.

I was a little selfish in making this cake. Because I wanted some carrot cake too, so I sided with the no-fruit camp. But it wasn't my birthday, so I guess I'm sort of a jerk. But I made her a cake, so that gives me some redemption, right? Ok, now I'm feeling guilty.

Where do I stand on the nut issue in this cake? It shouldn't surprise you that I'm pro-nut (when you can't beat 'em, join 'em, or when in Rome..., or some other cute saying that may apply here). So this cake has pecans (not walnuts) in it to enhance the flavor and texture. Hitting a crunchy nutty spot in a bite of cake: totally acceptable. Hitting a smooshy gooey raisin: completely unacceptable.

In my opinion, the best qualities of this I'm-A-Jerk Carrot Cake include the fact that it has three moist layers (so it is decadent) and it is covered by a traditional cream cheese frosting that is amped up a bit with a hint of ginger and orange flavor. And of course, the best quality (for which it is named): it has NO fruit in it...which makes me a bit of a jerk.

There is nothing to get in the way of enjoying this cake. No stringy pineapple bits to pull out of your teeth later, and no fat raisins you have to eat around, and possibly gag on when you miss one and you suddenly find yourself with a goo of sickeningly sweet, slightly fermented raisin in your mouth that has broken through it's skin. So yay for that!

Once again, overkill. I think I made my point on my disdain for raisins in baked goods.

I didn't spend hours poring over the pages of the Internet in deciding which recipe to use (I may sometimes do that....), mostly because I didn't have time. But I followed Paula Deen's recipe found here (because it didn't have fruit in it and had a lot of good ratings, many of which I read through), with some minor adjustments. And as a side note, there is NO WAY that this cake serves just 8 (which is what Ms. Deen's recipe states). It has three layers, people. It definitely serves at least twice that many.

And for the cream cheese frosting, I decided to amp it up a bit with a hint of orange and some fresh ginger. I got the idea from this recipe from the Food Network here.

Making this cake is not difficult; it uses simple ingredients, most of which you probably have on hand, and uses all-purpose flour (not cake flour), so it's even more user-friendly. I also used my hand-mixer instead of a stand mixer, which also made it less complicated.

You make a simple cake base with some cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, and fold in some chopped pecans and 3 cups of carrots. Then divide the batter evenly between 3, 9-inch round cake pans, bake for about 25 minutes (also an alteration from her recipe---the original recipe calls for 40 minutes, but the cake would be way overbaked by then).

The trickiest part of making this cake is making sure you use parchment paper in the bottom of each cake pan. And even then you need to spray the parchment and sides of the pan generously with cooking spray. If you don't, your cakes will stick rather badly to the bottom and sides. I ran a thin knife around the sides of the cake pan after the cakes had cooled on the rack for about 10 minutes. And I had to coax the bottom (apparently I left about 1/8th of an inch ring uncovered by parchment) out a bit carefully.

To make parchment rounds, trace the bottom of your cake pans onto parchment paper and cut them out. Then spray the bottom of the cake pan first, place the parchment inside (now the parchment will stick to the pan), and spray the parchment and sides of cake pan again. Or....order parchment rounds off of Amazon. I totally intend to do that some day, but for some reason I haven't brought myself to do it yet.

The layers of this cake don't rise very tall (they're about an inch thick each). When the layers are cool, I recommend wrapping them in plastic-wrap and placing in freezer (if not eating/serving the cake that day). I made this cake the night before it was served, and I actually froze the frosting in layers too (I piped frosting on wax paper inside two of the cake pans to make two layers of frosting). The frosting took about 30 minutes to freeze enough for me to layer my cake with frosting (minus the top layer of frosting) right in one pan, and inverting the other pan over the top to encase the cake. I then used plastic wrap to seal the two cake pans and kept the cake in the freezer until about an hour before it was served. Then I frosted the top, decorated it with some whole pecans, and it was ready to go!

So without further ado, here is the recipe I used:

I'm-a-Jerk Carrot Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

3 cups grated carrots

1 1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut 3 parchment rounds and place in the bottom of 3, 9 inch round cake pans. Grease the pans.

2. Combine the flour, sugar, spices, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl; whisk to evenly distribute ingredients. 

3. Add the eggs in one at a time while using a hand mixer on medium. Add the oil in a slow stream until all combined. Fold in the carrots and pecans using a spatula or large spoon. 

4. Distribute the batter evenly between the 3 pans, and bake for 25 to 35 minutes. Begin checking for doneness around 20 minutes. The cakes are done when a cake tester (toothpick) comes out clean, or with a couple of moist crumbs. 

5. Allow cakes to cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then carefully run a thin knife around the edges of the pan to release any portions of the cake that may be stuck to the sides of the pans. Carefully remove the cakes from pan (careful, the layers are not very thick) and cool completely on a wire rack. You can either frost them when they are completely cool, or wrap the layers in plastic wrap and freeze until you are ready to use them. 

6. Place bottom layer of cake on serving dish, top with the cream cheese frosting, followed by another layer of cake and a subsequent layer of frosting. Add the last layer of the cake and top it with frosting. I left the sides free of frosting, but feel free to frost the sides if you want to. I decorated the top of the cake with half pecan pieces. Refrigerate the cake before serving, at least one hour (if it was not previously frozen). Store the leftover cake in the refrigerator. 

Orange-Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick butter (1/2 cup) at room temperature

2, 8 oz. bricks of cream cheese (do not use Neufchatel cheese, it will make your frosting too runny)

1 2-4 inch piece of ginger root

1 Tbsp. fresh orange juice

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. grated orange zest

6 cups + powdered sugar. 

1. Grate the ginger onto a piece of cheesecloth, a sturdy paper towel, or a coffee filter. Squeeze the juice into a small bowl. You should have around 1 Tbsp. of ginger root juice. Add the vanilla, orange zest, and orange juice to the bowl.

piece of ginger root

grated ginger root into a coffee filter

ginger root juice: smelled great!

I just squeezed a bit of juice from the orange I used for the zest

2. In a separate medium-large bowl, mix the butter and cream cheese bricks together on high speed until fully combined and creamy. Beat in the juice mixture on medium speed. 

3. On low speed, add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until you achieve the desired consistency. Any un-used frosting can remain in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. 

This cake and delicious frosting was a crowd pleaser! And it didn't take too long to make; it was delicious and not too complicated. 

Luckily I wasn't too big of a jerk: my mom liked it. So I only felt a small twinge of guilt as I enjoyed my piece. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

Next up on the birthday parade? My husband. But he doesn't like cake, so I guess I'll avoid being selfish this time and actually make something he really wants ;). And if I'm lucky, I'll like it too (but let's face it, if it has sugar in it, I'm probably gonna like it. As long as it doesn't include raisins!).

Perfect Fluffy & Moist Vanilla Cupcakes

I hate the word "moist." But I had to use it here, because no other word would convey the correct description of these tasty little cakes. I guess I could have called it "Perfect Fluffy & Not Dry Vanilla Cupcakes," but that just doesn't quite capture the texture of these beauties.

I love cakes and cupcakes that have a tender and moist crumb, while still being light and fluffy. That's a hard standard to live up to. But here they are: perfectly moist from-scratch basic vanilla cupcakes. It's the best, Jerry, the best! They have a great vanilla-y sweet flavor. And look how beautifully these babies rise and dome ever so slightly, just like a good cupcake should behave.

Small crumb that is light, while still being moist and tender

I won't tell you how many cupcakes I made and ate (and my family ate) in the attempt to create this recipe, mostly because I lost count. But I will tell you that I have eaten a lot of vanilla cupcakes. A lot, people.

The process of finding the perfect combination took a lot of tweaking of ingredients: amounts of sugar, amounts of liquid, whether or not to use butter, how to mix the ingredients, etc. Little variations changed the texture: from too moist, to rubbery, to too sweet,  to too large of a crumb, to a fine crumb, to finally: a moist and tender crumb with the right amount of sweetness, counterbalanced with the perfect amount of saltiness. I am finally satisfied.

Even though these little cakes don't have butter in them, they taste nice and buttery. Mmmm.

Today is my Grandma and Grandpa's 69th wedding anniversary. Sixty-nine years! Can you believe that? To help celebrate I made some of these vanilla cupcakes to share with them, family, and the staff and residents of their retirement home. Happy Anniversary Grandma and Grandpa!

Perfect Fluffy & Moist Vanilla Cupcakes

(makes 24 cupcakes)

3 cups cake flour

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

3/4 cup whole milk

1 Tb. pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and place rack in lower third of oven. Prepare 2, 12-each cupcake baking trays by lining them with cupcake liners (24).

2. In bowl of stand mixer (or regular medium bowl if you don't have a stand mixer), place the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together. Mix together on low speed for a minute or two until all the ingredients are well combined and the flour mixture is well aerated. 

3. Mix the milk and vanilla together in a liquid measuring cup or bowl.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and oil together for a minute or two until the mixture is light yellow and thick. Gently whisk the sour cream into the eggs/oil. Gently pour in the vanilla/milk into the egg and sour cream mixture. Mix gently with whisk.

5. With the mixer on low speed, pour the liquid ingredients (they should all be combined now) slowly into the dry ingredients until well combined and smooth (about a minute or two).

6. Pour batter into cupcake liners in the baking trays until the liners are about 2/3 of the way full. Place baking trays in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (or almost clean-maybe a moist crumb or two). Don't overbake.

7. Remove from oven and allow to cool on rack for a minute before removing cupcakes (in their liners) to fully cool on a cooling rack. Frost as desired when they are fully cool. Enjoy!!

UPDATE: If you want a cupcake with an even finer crumb and even more velvet texture....try this post here!

Heavenly Cinnamon Roll Bread

I have made fire! No, not really. But I have figured out how to make a loaf of bread that looks deceptively simple on the outside, but once you slice it there is a treasure of cinnamon and cream cheese sweet ooze in the center. Cinnamon roll bread! With the frosting in the middle. Need I say more? Even better yet, it is much simpler to make than actual cinnamon rolls (hence my desire to make it). Cinnamon roll texture and flavor that is easy to make? Yes, please!

(to see my first fail at making this bread see here).

It is slightly less sweet and rich than eating a large cinnamon roll loaded with cream cheese frosting on top, but the taste is the same. And the bread itself is dense, sweet, and delicious. It can stand up to the cinnamony goo rolled in the center, and you get bits of cream cheesy-goodness in each bite. It has the perfect ratio of cinnamon and cream cheese to the bread, so you don't feel sick after eating it (like you sometimes do after eating a cinnamon roll loaded with yummy frosting). What? Me getting sick of too much sugar?! Yes, it rarely happens, but it can.

The key to the dough is making sure you don't add too much flour when kneading so that it doesn't dry out and become tough. And then kneading it long enough to form a satiny-smooth looking dough.

The satiny and supple feel of the dough comes from the gluten (protein) strands that are formed when it is kneaded properly. Don't worry, though, hand-kneading is only optional. I used my Kitchen-Aid for kneading this bread. The recipe also uses bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. Bread flour has more protein in it than all-purpose flour and develops gluten strands more readily (that gives the structure to the bread, gives it that nice springiness and helps it to not dry out). You could probably use all-purpose flour still, as I doubt this loaf is going to last long enough to dry out. Now some of you may be wondering: "isn't gluten a bad thing?" My answer as a dietitian and home baker is: "NO!" Not unless you have a bonafide and diagnosed case of Celiac Disease, which if you do, you're probably not reading this right now anyway. Gluten does not make you fat or unhealthy. It's a necessary protein in many foods, bread being the main food. But once again, I digress..... back to more delicious topics...

I have used instant yeast in this recipe, which is different than active dry yeast. The reasoning behind this being that with instant yeast, I can save a little time because I don't have to worry about proofing the yeast first. With active dry yeast, you usually add the sugar to the warm liquid in the recipe and mix in the yeast. Then you wait 5-10 minutes for the yeast to "proof," which just means it gets all bubbly and flatulent. Yes, you read that correctly: I said 'flatulent;' yeast toots if you will. Yeast is alive, after all. And as my oldest daughter told me while she was in her preschool days: "Everyone toots, Mom. You just say excuse me and move on." Her wise pre-school teacher taught her that. Apparently there was a widespread break-out of toots in the class (imagine that), which caused eruptions of giggles that would disrupt learning. Okay, okay, back to the topic...

You can tell if your yeast is tooting when it gets frothy and forms a foam. Yay! Now it's proofed and activated, and you can move on to adding the other ingredients. I will give directions for both ways (instant and active dry yeast) in this recipe although I highly recommend getting instant yeast. I value those ten minutes it saves me. It somehow makes the thought of making bread less daunting. I find mine in the bulk section of my grocery store.

Once it is kneaded long enough (about 5 minutes by mixer on a low/medium speed--I use speed 2 on my kitchen-aid and the dough hook), form the dough into a ball and place it in a greased bowl to rise. I turn it over once in the greased bowl so that the top gets greased (so as to not dry out). Then place a clean dish towel (I get it a little damp--once again so the dough doesn't dry out) over the top of it and let it rise until puffy, and when you press your finger in it, it leaves a little dent (meaning it doesn't spring back). The timing of this depends on the temperature of your kitchen. It can take an hour or longer. However, I don't like waiting. So when I start making the dough, I turn my oven on for exactly one minute and thirty seconds, and then turn it off once my timer goes off. That will get my oven nice and warm (but not too warm) to aid in the yeast tooting...er, I mean the dough rising. Then I place the damp dish towel on top of the bowl and place it directly in the warm oven. It usually takes about 30-40 minutes for the dough to rise enough (almost doubled in size).













After the first rise, the dough is ready to be rolled out. Almost. Spread a little flour on your work surface. Then dump your dough out. I pat it down into a rectangle. Then I cover it with the towel again to allow it to rest for ten minutes (so the gluten strands will loosen up a bit again) so it will roll out nicely for me later. Every time you man-handle the dough, the gluten strands will get super springy again, and if I tried to roll it out right away, it wouldn't hold it's shape, and would spring back a bit. So waiting for a few minutes is a good thing.

Now what to do while you wait ten minutes....Make the fillings! There is a cream cheese filling and a cinnamon-brown sugar filling. I start with the cream cheese filling. Ideally, your cream cheese will have been sitting out to soften for a little while. But it's not a huge deal if you forget to set it out. Mix the cream cheese and sugar together with a hand mixer until very smooth. Then add the vanilla and mix it until all combined. Set it aside.

In a separate bowl combine the ingredients for the cinnamon filling. It will look crumbly when it's mixed. Ok, now let's assemble our cinnamon roll loaf!

Roll out the rectangle of dough to around 9 inches x 20 inches. The dough will be a little thicker than 1/4 inch when rolled to this size. Now spread the cream cheese filling over the dough. Leave a couple of inches uncovered on the end of the rolled out dough (to be able to seal the loaf after we roll it). Then sprinkle the cinnamon filling on top of the cream cheese mixture and pat it down.

Now starting from the end where the filling goes to the edge, begin to roll it up! Then seal it, seal the ends of the loaf, and place it seam-side down in a greased loaf pan. Cover it with a dish towel and allow to rise until the top of the loaf is about 1/2 inch to an inch above the rim of the loaf pan (about a half hour). And now the hard part is all done. Yay.

Once the loaf has risen, preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit, with the rack in the lower third portion of your oven. Once it is pre-heated, place the loaf on the rack in the oven and bake for 55-65 minutes. You don't want to under-bake this as it will be doughy in the middle. The top of the loaf will get fairly brown, but having the loaf in the lower third of the oven will help it not get over-browned. Then allow the loaf to cool on a rack (if you can wait!) and enjoy!!!!

printable recipe here

Heavenly Cinnamon Roll Bread

Bread Dough:

¾ cup milk, warmed (no hotter than 110° F)

1 ½ tsp. instant yeast (if using active dry yeast, use 2 ¼ tsp)

¼ cup butter, melted

1 egg

¾ tsp. salt

2 ½ - 3 cups of bread flour (use just enough for the dough to come together without being too sticky)

Directions:

1.  Add the warmed milk, melted butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle the yeast in and mix. If using instant yeast, you may progress with the rest of the instructions. If using active dry yeast, allow mixture to sit for about 10 minutes until it develops a frothy foam on top. Then you can proceed.

2.   Add the egg, 1 ½ cups of the flour, and salt to the bowl. Using the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed until the mixture is smooth, about 30 seconds. Remove the paddle attachment and attach the dough hook.

3.  With the mixer on low speed (1-2 on a Kitchen-Aid), add enough flour until the dough comes together and is not too sticky. I usually use a total of 2 ¾ cups of bread flour. Continue machine kneading (with the mixer on a 2 if using Kitchen-Aid) for 4-6 minutes and dough is satiny smooth and has a sheen.

4.  Form dough into a ball and place in a greased bowl, turning it once in the bowl to coat the top in the oil. Cover the dough with a dish towel, place in a warm place, and allow to rise until almost doubled (about an hour or so).

5.  Once dough has risen and the imprint of your finger stays when you push on the dough, dump it out on a lightly floured work surface. Shape into a rectangle and pat down. Cover with the dish towel and allow dough to rest for 10 minutes.

6.  After resting, roll the dough out into a rectangle roughly the size of 9 inches x 20 inches.

7.  Spread the cream cheese filling over the rectangle, making sure you get it spread to the edge of the two long sides and one of the short sides. Leave a 2-3 inch strip on the other short side that is uncovered.

8.  Sprinkle the cinnamon filling over the cream cheese filling and pat it down.

9.  Roll up the dough starting from the short side that is covered by filling. Roll all the way up until you get to the unfilled section of dough. Lift the unfilled section up and seal the dough by crimping it with your fingers. Crimp the ends of the loaf together as well.

10.  Turn loaf over so the seam-side is down, and place in a greased bread loaf pan. Cover and allow to rise until it is about ½ inch over the rim of the pan, about a half hour.

11.  Adjust oven rack so that the loaf will rest in the lower third of the oven. Pre-heat the oven to 325° F. Bake loaf for 50-65 minutes, or until top is fairly browned, and the top of the loaf sounds hollow when you knock on it (and doesn’t squish). It is normal for the top layer of dough to separate some from the first layer of filling.

12.  Remove bread from oven and place on rack. Allow to cool for fifteen minutes. Remove loaf from pan and place on the rack to completely cool (if you can wait that long!) before slicing.

13.  Gobble it up!

Cream Cheese Filling:

4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1.  Mix the cream cheese and sugar together with hand mixer until smooth. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.

Cinnamon Filling:

½ cup brown sugar

1 ½ Tbsp. ground cinnamon

¼ cup butter, softened

½ cup flour

1.  Combine all ingredients and mix using a hand mixer. The mixture will be crumbly.

I hope you enjoy this as much as my family does!