Butterscotch Maple Chocolate Chip Layer Cake

     I'm not sure what came over me when I did this. I was all of a sudden consumed with the idea of making a layer cake. I grabbed a box of cake mix and decided to screw around with it. Naturally, I added booze. Maple Crown Royal has become a staple in my kitchen. Then I decided to do something different. If you haven't heard of Inbru, you need to check it out. It's a totally natural coffee flavoring made from California rice hulls.

Prepare to be amazed with the power of SCIENCE!

You just add them to your coffee grounds while brewing and *POOF!* your coffee is flavored for zero calories. I had heard rumors that you could use Inbru in baking, so I gave it a try. I added their Butterscotch Drop flavor. It worked wonderfully. You could smell the aroma of Butterscotch throughout the house. It imparted a fantastic flavor to the cake. If you're patient and let the cake sit a while, the flavor deepens and really adds a fantastic dimension to a plain old yellow cake. As always, notes and changes are in blue.

Butterscotch Maple
Chocolate Chip Layer Cake

Ingredients
Cake

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• substitute 1/4 cup water from the cake mix with Maple Crown Royal
• 2 teaspoons Inbru Butterscotch Drop coffee flavoring
• 1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (I got this recipe from Sweet Savory Life. Definitely check out the page, there's lots of great stuff to be found! The recipe yields around 3 cups, which is way more then you'll need unless you have a heavy hand with the frosting. I had about a cup left over)

• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or ½ pound), softened (but not melted!)
• 3½ cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon almond extract (I went with vanilla)
• 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream (I used milk. I figured it was plenty rich already)

Directions

Frosting

1. Cream butter for a few minutes in a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Turn off the mixer. Sift 3 cups powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl. Turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the dry ingredients do not blow everywhere) until the sugar and cocoa are absorbed by the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add a little more sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time.

Cake

1. Begin preparing cake according to directions on box. Remember to swap 1/4 cup of the Crown in for the water. 
2. While batter is mixing, add the Inbru. 
3. Add the chocolate chips and mix until they are distributed through the batter.
4. Divide the batter between two greased 9" cake pans.
5. Cook cakes according to directions on box.
6. When cakes have cooled, remove from pans. (Be patient here. The chocolate chips will make the bottoms stick to the pan a bit. Give it time and you'll get the cakes out without destroying them). Here's where things become difficult. With a good, long bread knife, cut horizontally across one of the cakes to remove the rounded top. Spread a layer of frosting across the flat surface.

   

   Try to cut as level as possible or you get a slightly lopsided cake.
   Just like mine!

7. Lay the other cake on top of the frosted layer. Frost the sonofabitch! Give it a couple hours before you eat it to really let the butterscotch flavor develop!

Good times!

Product Review: Inbru

     

     Last week I received a sampler from Inbru. What is Inbru? Inbru is something you add to your coffee grounds to change up the flavor. It's made from rice hulls, so it's sugar, gluten, and carb free. We drink a tremendous amount of coffee in our house, so the opportunity to change the flavor of a basic coffee whenever we feel  like it is really nice. We received a box with four flavors to try. 

Nice, clean packaging. Let's start brewing!

     On opening the package, you know right away it's going to at least smell good. It's also going to be easy to use. Each container has it's own little measuring scoop. You just scoop out the correct measure for the amount of coffee you're making. You can even use Inbru in a Keurig if you have the mini-filter baskets. PROTIP: Don't add this directly to your brewed coffee! This has to go into a filter basket. It is not intended to dissolve! I mean, if you like crunchy coffee, I suppose you could try it.

Doesn't look like much, but WOW does it smell good!

     When you brew your coffee/tea with Inbru the first thing you're going to notice is the aroma. All of the Inbrus we tested smell wonderful as they brew.  I feared that given the strength of the aroma as the coffee brewed, the flavor would be overpowering. However, as the brewing finished, the smell leveled out. The flavor was notable, but not dominating, in each instance.

Inbru added to coffee grounds. Time to get  down to business.

Cinnamon-Hazelnut
Coffee Used: Harrah's Gourmet Blend
Let me preface by saying I'm not a fan of cinnamon or hazelnut flavored beverages. In the name of fairness, I'm only going to concern myself with the delivery of the flavors in question. The coffee we used is on the bold side, so the challenge would be to see if the flavor of the Inbru would come through. It does. You definitely get solid tones of cinnamon and hazelnut. They're not overpowering. The wife raved about this particular flavor and wound up drinking two cups black. I found that when I added some sweetener, the flavors really developed for me and resulted in a nice drink for a winter evening.

Butterscotch Drop
Coffee Used: Maxwell House Wake-Up Roast
I brought this flavor to work with me to try out on my co-workers. They're fairly particular about their coffee flavors, so I figured they would be brutally honest. The results were positive all around. The aroma as the coffee brewed was phenomenal. One co-worker came in and asked, "What is that blend? It smells really good."  Other reviews: "That's not bad at all. It's got a good taste to it." I loved this flavor. When a little sweetener and creamer was added, it moved into the realm of outstanding. The butterscotch flavor really came out with the sweetness and creaminess.

Raspberry Tart
I figured I'd switch things up here and try brewing it in some tea.
Tea Used: Hyson Green
This was tremendous. The aroma is lovely. No sweetener was needed. The raspberry flavor was a great accent to the green tea. I  don't know that this flavor will ever make it into a pot of coffee. I may just keep it as a tea enhancer.

Highlander Grogg
Coffee Used: Harrah's Gourmet Blend
This was going to be the real test. Highlander Grogg is the favorite flavor in our house. We almost always have a stock of Highland Grogg in the house. If the Inbru version wasn't up to snuff, we'd know immediately.   Highland Grogg has a distinctive aroma. When the coffee started brewing, the Inbru was spot on. The smell was identical to the $15/lb coffee we occasionally treat ourselves to. The taste? Blown away. There was no discernible difference between the coffee house Highland Grogg and the Inbru-converted coffee.

The Verdict
Inbru certainly is a good value. For $6.95 you get a jar that will make about 5-6 pots of coffee, depending on how much or little flavor you want. You can use any coffee you want. The flavors we tested were wonderful. What it says on the label is what you're going to smell and taste. We also discovered it works well with tea, but you'll have to use a tea ball or filter. Not a big issue. We have also been told it can be used in baking, which is truly awesome. I will certainly have to try it. You should try it too. Don't be a dope. Do it now.

Good times!