Chocolate Toffee Buttermilk Cake Mix

I've been experimenting quite a bit with chocolate cake mix and making one to equal a box of mix one could purchase from a store. The stipulation being that it has natural ingredients, from scratch and things most people have access to. You will need powdered buttermilk to make this cake, it can be purchased at most grocery stores in the baking section. You can use regular non-fat milk powder or even soy milk powder in place of the buttermilk. Mind you, you can't call it buttermilk cake without the buttermilk. No cheating allowed. You will also need some very high quality vanilla, rum extract and some oil based toffee flavor. If you don't want to use the artificial flavors, go with just vanilla. It will still make a very impressive cake.

I've found this company called Lorann gourmet that sells flavor oils that are 4 times the strength of regular alcohol based flavors. You can find them in the craft stores, near the candy making equipment. We even have it at Wal-Mart here in Arizona, so it's good one to use. I use the English Toffee flavor in this mix. It makes a nice buttery base and adds a ton of great flavor. One little dram is enough flavor for 4 cakes. I have a picture of the cinnamon oil. Why oh why don't I have one of the English toffee?! Lorann also makes a ton of other flavors. Feel free to look them up.

Chef Tess' Chocolate Toffee Buttermilk Cake Mix

yield 18 cups mix (4 1/2 mixes total)

1 cup (8 oz) butter

6 cups (1 lb 11 oz) all purpose flour

3 cups (11.5 oz) baking cocoa

1 cup ( 4.5 oz) buttermilk powder

5 cups(2 lb) granulated sugar

4 tsp salt

1/3 cup baking powder (2 oz)

1 tsp (1 oz) English Toffee flavored oil

1T double strength vanilla ( I use Watkins)

1 tsp rum extract

1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

To prepare mix: In a large 3 gallon or larger bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, buttermilk
sugar, baking powder and salt very well. You may use an electric mixer if you have one with a large enough bowl. Cut the butter into chunks and along with the flavor extracts incorporate into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles sand. Take the mix and a couple of cup fulls at a time, run through a flour sifter. I use a hand flour sifter that works very well to help the mix become smooth and homogeneous. ( Need a picture tutorial on the mix making process? See: http://cheftessbakeresse.blogspot.com/2010/01/my-yellow-homemade-cake-mix.html .

Divide into quart size bags. 2o oz of mix equals one cake mix. This is almost exactly 4 cups of measured mix.

To bake:

Combine with 3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 cup water
200 strokes by hand or 3 minutes medium speed.

Bake time 350 degrees:
Pan size: 2 8 inch 33-35 minutes
2 9 inch 28-31 minutes
13 by 9 inch 32-35 minutes
bunt 38-43 minutes
24 cupcakes 18-21 minutes
High altitude: stir 1/4 cup all purpose flour into mix. Mix as directed.

We had some unusually wonderful guests show up for a mid-afternoon visit yesterday. Among them was my father in law's cousin Julia. A sweet soul if you ever met one who took a particular liking to this chocolate buttermilk cake drizzled with ganache and topped with a maraschino cherry. I promised her I would post this recipe. So here is the recipe for the ganache:

Ganache Glaze:
1 cup cream
1 lb chopped high quality chocolate (we used Guitard)
1/4 tsp hazelnut oil
1/4 tsp fresh ground cinnamon

Boil one cup of cream in a sauce pan and pour over the chocolate. I added 1/4 tsp hazelnut oil, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8th tsp ancho chile powder...and blended until smooth. When chocolate is melted completely and the glaze is smooth, drizzle over one inch squares of baked cake.

These where double layers of cake with peanut butter filling...

There you go.