Today I made the best trade ever! A few years back I went to my friend's house to make tamales with her for Thanksgiving. This year I didn't even wait for the invitation, I messaged her last week to see what time I should be there! "How about 6?!" she replied with excitement. And then our countdown to tamales began!
Today finally came and I made a chocolate cake to give her & her family as a "thank you" for the tamales. I baked my favorite chocolate cake recipe, which is the moistest, creamiest, chocolate bundt cake around!
It's super easy to make:
Mix the first 7 ingredients (chocolate cake mix, sugar-free instant chocolate pudding mix, eggs, egg substitute, low fat sour cream, unsweetened applesauce, and water).
The batter will be extremely fluffy and creamy!
Next, stir in the chocolate chips.
Pour the batter into a greased bundt pan and smooth it out.
Bake.
Let it cool for at least 10 minutes, and then remove it from the pan.
TIP: Before removing the cake from the pan, I use a spatuala to carefully separate the cake from the pan. I go around the edges and then around the center. The cake is very springy and doesn't usually break during this process.
TIP: Use a bread knife to carefully even out the bottom of the cake if needed. This will help it sit evenly and will also give you some cake to sample.
Carefully flip it over so that the evened out portion is on bottom and the rounded part is on top. Then sprinkle confectioner's sugar (aka powdered sugar) on the top.
Don't forget to sprinkle some powdered sugar on your scraps too!
TIP: When I'm baking someone a cake as a gift I like to buy a bakery container to put it in. Most stores with a bakery inside will sell you a box or container. Depending on the store and the box, the price ranges from 50 cents to a couple of dollars. To me it's worth the extra dollar or so to give a presentable cake to someone special.
This is a FANTASTIC chocolate cake recipe because it's creamy, moist, fluffy, and chocolaty--while at the same time not being too rich. It's pretty much everything you'd ever want in a chocolate cake! It doesn't even need frosting!
... Ok enough about my delicious cake. On to my friend's delicious tamales!!!
When I arrived, my friend had already prepped the meat and her husband had prepped the masa. Last time that I was there they taught me how to do those things. One thing that I specifically enjoy about cooking with my friend's family is that they teach me about the traditions of their culture. For example, her husband explained to me that the person who hand-mixes the masa is the only one to mix it. The other people can help make the tamales with it, but only that one person mixes the dough. Another interesting thing that my friend explained to me was how the tradition varies in Mexico vs. the U.S. For example, at my friend's house we made a giant pot of about 80-100 tamales. But in Mexico the pot would have been 2-3 times bigger with a divider to separate the various types of tamales, and would have been cooked outside because it'd be too large to cook on a stove! All the women in the family would prepare the tamales together because there'd be so many to make! Such heart-warming traditions, and the thought of 200 tamales at a time made me want to hop on a plane to Mexico so I could cook tamales with the women there! What an amazing cultural tradition! It reminded me of the times when I was a kid, helping my Papou cook Dolmades in his kitchen--I could eat about 200 of those too!
As mentioned, my friend and I made about 80-100 tamales! We filled them with shredded chicken and homemade salsa verde! Yum!!! Her husband had gone a little overboard with the masa (like I did with my soups the other day!), so we joked that we'd be there making tamales all night. It actually only took us about an hour or so. They're pretty quick to make once you get going, especially when you have a friend to chat with while you work. They'd already made about 50 sweet tamales before I even got there, plus the 80-100 that we made... We were in tamale heaven!!!
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| This really happened! |
TIPS:
- Keep the tamale sizes the same--even when you grab a large husk. I asked her if I should make the bigger husks into bigger tamales. She laughed a warm laugh. The kind of laugh that was filled with fond memories. Then she explained that her mom used to laugh at her for doing the same thing when she was a kid! It made me smile to think that I'm the next in line of a long tradition of learning something that's been passed down. Maybe in the future I'll be making tamales with my kids and will laugh at them for making bigger tamales in the bigger husks...
- How to know when they're done: When you open the husk and the masa doesn't stick to the husk, it's done. The tamles may need to cool for a minute so the masa can become more dry/firm, but as long as the masa doesn't stick to the husk they're considered done.
A few hours later, after my friend and I had eaten a few piping hot tamales each, I packed some into a container to head home. My friend saw my container and laughed, "oh no you need to take more!" And she loaded up a grocery bag with both types of tamales! She didn't have to twist my arm! I drove home with my front seat full of tamales!
I've got a lot of great foods in store for tomorrow, but it doesn't even matter what I make because we're having HOMEMADE TAMALES!!! I baked my friend a phenomenal chocolate cake, but if you ask me, I got the better end of the deal!
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