Happy Friday and welcome to a new post on Baking a Murderer. We look forward to the next bakes just as much as you guys do. We wanted to travel back to our home state of California for this one. If you are keeping up on the current season [1985] you might be semi-familiar with this notorious character. Infamous for his terrors of the night, this week  we introduce you to Richard Ramirez, The Night Stalker. 

Richard Ramirez was born in El Paso, Texas in 1960. His birth name was Ricardo Leyva Munoz Ramirez but was known to his friends and family as Richard or Ricky. As avid listeners of My Favorite Murder [hi Karen and Georgia if you are out there] we have learned that a telltale sign of bad to come is head injuries at a very early age. He was hit by a swing when he was 5 so hard he was left unconscious.  After this incident, he developed epilepsy. 

When a young child, Richard became very close to his cousin Miguel who just came back from the Vietnam War. Miguel was the one who first introduced Richard to drug. It was just weed but it would be the gateway to a drug fueled lift for Richard. When he turned 13, that same cousin would murder his wife RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. We cannot even begin to think about how that would affect us and our mental state. It was at this point Richard dropped out of high school in the ninth grade. He was still smoking weed on the daily and his first arrest was in 1977 for possession. 

After staying in and out of trouble, he made his way to California and started to dabble in cocaine and got addicted. But also in the 1970s, who wasn’t dabbling in drugs but then again, not all had a major injury to their heads as a child that left them unconscious for 15 minutes. He was desperate for money during this addiction, and started to commit burglaries to sustain his addiction. He also needed a sense of belonging and join the church…… of Satan. Like everything is working against him at this point in his life. He stopped caring about everything and everyone so much so he started to neglect his personal hygiene. 

Between the years of cocaine fueled satanic worships and 1984, Richard went on to get arrest a few times for grand theft auto. But apparently that wasn't enough to satisfy him. He needed more, something of high cost. 

His first murder was on June 28th, 1984, a little innocent 19-year-old woman, Jennie Vincow. She was raped, stabbed, killed, and then Richard burglarized her home. This was the starting point of a rage fueled murder spree throughout California. He killed his next victim just 9 months later. On March 17th 1985, he attacked Maria Hernandez [spoiler alert: went on to become a badass female] but managed to escape but Richard was determined that night. He killer her roommate Dayle Okazaki. And then his cup was still not full so he KILLED AGAIN. This time Tsai-Lian Yu after an assault. These attacks and killed made the media go buck wild. He was dubbed the “Valley Intruder” and they knew they had a dangerous killers on their hands, they just needed to find him. 

Richard had a full blow taste of what he loved so his time between murder sped up drastically. Just 10 days  later on March 27th, he murdered Vincent Zazzara and his wife, Maxien. They were the first victims to show the signature style of killing Richard would be known for. Killing the husband, assaulting the wife then killing her and leaving a satanic symbol at the scene of the crime. Richard got a little extra with Maxine and found is necessary to take her eyes. Fucking sick in a bad way. What possess someone to do the things they do…. Anyway. 

Next he killed William and Lillie Doi in May of 1985 along with about a dozen other victims and the signs would play out as an identifier. Kills the husband, assaults the wife then kills her and then performs a satanic ritual. The LAPD could not get it together or figure it out so they put together a special task force and also called Mom and Dad for help, AKA the FBI. They did a massive deep dive into the crime scenes and chatted with multiple victims that survived, Richard started to sense that they were onto him. He fled to Northern California, San Francisco. He killed two more victims, Peter and Barbara Pan, killing him first and then her and then performing the Satanic rituals. The “Valley Intruder” just became “The Night Stalker” since all assaults have taken place at night. 
And this is where is becomes a hometown “murder” for us here at Baking A Murderer. On August 24th 1985, he snuck through the backyard of a Mission Viejo home where he left a footprint and a witness took note of his car and license plate. In the house, he shot the husband [who survived #badass but also how] in the back of the head and raped the woman. This time he did not kill her as she professed her love for Satan. 

He was captured on August 31st after being beaten by East LA residents because he tried to steal their car. This we found high-larious because if anyone out there is familiar with East LA residents, you do not mess with them. They are some tough cookies. 

His trial stood a long time and was constantly being rescheduled due to arguing in the court between the prosecutors and the defense attorney. And since his crimes are so spread out, there was some jurisdictional issues and some charges were dropped to speed up the process. His trial was weird AF. He gained a cult-like following during the highly publicized trial. Since we were so into Satan and all that creepy ish, many Satan worshipers came dressed head to toe in black to show their support. Also another delay in the trial was that a juror was murdered during it. Although we cannot prove that Richard didn’t orchestrate it, we definitely have some opinions like there are some coincidences but then there's this and this ain't a coincidence. 

He was found guilty on 43 charges [ouch], including 13 counts of murder, 5 attempts to murder someone, 11 sexual assault charges and 14 burglary charges. If you guys are into jail documentaries you know he's going in with an impressive resume and about to be a king pin. 

Now theres are some famous final last words but we do think Richard Ramirez takes the cake. While leaving the courtroom after receiving the death penalty on 19 accounts, he turns to the room and says, “Hey, big deal, death comes always with the territory. I’ll see you in Disneyland.” YIKES.

So how do we take this satanic worshipping evil person that Richard Ramirez and make a baked good? Well, chocolate is the darkest thing we could think of. Its sinister, rich, and devilishly delicious. We introduce to you The Night Stalkers Darkest Chocolate Cake. We used the darkest cocoa powder and infused it with rich bitter coffee. Enjoy!

Night Stalkers Darkest Chocolate Cake

Inspired by https://bromabakery.com/best-blackout-chocolate-cake-ever/

Ingredients:

Cake:

1 ¾ cups white granulated sugar

¾  cup dark cocoa powder, the dark part is what makes it rich, if you use reg cocoa powder it's just going to be a chocolate cake

2 cups all purpose flour

1 ½ tsp of baking soda

2 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

¾ cup veggie oil

3 large eggs at room temp

1 cup Buttermilk (you can make your own by mixing lemon and milk but thats extra so just remember to buy it)

½ cup brewed coffee, we made this on a Saturday morning and just used what we were drinking that morning from the pot. But the stronger the coffee the richer the cake. #math 

Frosting:

1 ¾ cup salted butter room temp

½ cup cream cheese room temp

1 ½ cup dark cocoa powder

5 cups powdered sugar

½ cup brewed coffee, as stated above, just use whatever your drinking

1 Tablespoon of that good vanilla

½ tsp salt

Alright let's bake this betch

1. Preheat your oven to 350 and set out that butter, cream cheese and eggs you know you forgot to do. 

2. We are going to make the cake first so in your stand mixer using the whisk arm, add the sugar, cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix on super low or else you will have cocoa powder EVERYWHERE. I would like to say we aren't speaking from experience but we definitely are.

3. Next grab a large enough bowl you can whisk in. add the oil, eggs, and buttermilk and whisk until combined super well. Yes you're welcome for not making y’all add one egg at a time like all our other recipes. 

4. Pour the wet into the dry ingredients until all combined and you dont see any lumps remain. Next grab that coffee and pour in until just mixed. 

5A. Grease your two 9” cake pans and line bottom with parchment paper and pour batter in evenly between the two pans.

5B. See slideshow on a hot tip on how to cut your parchment perfect for round baking dishes:

6. Bake your cake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean. We checked around 25 minutes because we just got a new oven and still getting used to it. 

7. Transfer to a cooling rack before adding the best part, frosting. 

8. To make the frosting you will cream together the cream cheese and butter on high in your mixer with the paddle attachment. 

9. Turn the speed to low and add the cocoa powder. This gets messy and we did a few spoonfuls at a time so it didn't fly everywhere. 

10. After all your cocoa powder is in there, ass the powdered sugar, brewed coffee, vanilla and salt. 

11. Cream together and then your frosting is good to go. 

12. You will want to cut the tops of your cake to get an even “canvas” for your frosting. You will set one cake on a plate add frosting to the middle and spread using an offset spatch. Then top with other cake and frost the remaining of the cake. And if you have left over frosting feel free to get creative with some piping. We added the Satanic star to the top because it felt right and this cake was about to get murdered by our forks. 

And lastly enjoy! We recommend cake for serving cuz this baby is rich!

Stay Inside. Bake a Pie. And don't get murdered.