Posts Tagged ‘chocolate’

Time for a list.

“Things I am sort of obsessed with these days”

• Anything written by Brandon Sanderson
• This licorice! Good grief people!
  
• Clean bathtubs
• Squishy pink baby pudge. Nom nom nom…
• Jeeves and Wooster. On Amazon for only $20? Temptation!
• Blessed peace and quiet

And let’s be honest. “Dipping things in chocolate” is right up there too.

First that, now this.

My husband’s coworkers came out and asked for cupcakes. Chocolate was the unanimous flavor request, with one mention of strawberry. Aha! Chocolate-dipped strawberries. Everybody wins.

I frosted these with stabilized whipped cream, which is definitely lighter than frosting. That makes me happy. I’m not a huge fan of most frosting, but maybe I just haven’t met my true love yet.

Chocolate Strawberries ‘n Cream Cupcakes

adapted from Bakers Banter

Ingredients for cupcakes:

2 cups sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons Instant ClearJel or cornstarch

3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-1/4 cup water, room temperature

For stabilized whipped cream:

1-1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon Instant ClearJel

For chocolate-dipped strawberries:

1 dozen strawberries

1-1/2 cup high-quality semi-sweet chocolate chips (I love Guittard)

Directions:

Make the chocolate-dipped strawberries first. Melt the chocolate chips on low heat in a double-boiler, fondue pot, or mini crock pot on low. Make sure the strawberries are clean and completely dry.

Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Hold a strawberry by the leaves and dip it 3/4 of the way into the chocolate. Shake gently to remove the excess chocolate, and place on wax paper. Chill the dipped strawberries in the fridge while you make the cupcakes and whipped cream. (When you’re ready to use the dipped strawberries, make sure the chocolate is completely set, and peel them very carefully from the wax paper.)

Next make the cupcakes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare two 8″ rounds with grease and parchment paper. (If your 8″ rounds aren’t 2″ high, you’ll want to use 9″ rounds instead.)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Add the eggs, oil, and vanilla, beating until smooth. Gradually add the milk, beating until smooth.

Spoon the batter evenly into a paper-lined cupcake pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

While the cupcakes are baking, make the whipped cream frosting.

To make the frosting, add the heavy whipping cream to a medium-sized mixing bowl, and beat on medium-low speed, gradually adding the powdered sugar. Increase the mixing speed slightly as the cream thickens. Whip the cream just until stiff peaks form, then add the vanilla and Instant ClearJel. Whip until incorporated, no more than 15-20 seconds. If the whipped cream appears lumpy, add a teaspoon of milk and stir gently until smooth.

Once the cupcakes are completely cool, pipe the whipped cream frosting onto the cupcakes with a large round tip. Garnish with chocolate sprinkles or shavings, and let them chill in the fridge for 10 minutes. Top with a chocolate dipped strawberry. Keep them cool in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

The title of this post should actually be “How a Cake Broke my Heart.”

I didn’t get enough time to love this cake. Or take decent photos, really, but that’s beside the point.

I had just declared it finished and whipped out my camera. Then the doorbell rang, and it was time for my darling cake to go out into the wide world without me. Just like that.

I didn’t get enough time to love it. I’m still trying to shake the jilted feeling. I know. Maybe a few Jeeves and Wooster episodes on YouTube might help.

You wouldn’t think it to look at it, but this cake was actually a fudge cake under the surface. This fabulous recipe has quickly become my new favorite of all time in the whole universe cake recipe dot com. And luckily, chocolate happens to be my most requested cake flavor. I love how that works.

I just put my braniac pants on.

I looked up the word ‘trifle’ in the dictionary. Yes I did.

All the definitions pretty much said the same thing: Small, insignificant, of little value. . .

Then this, sticking out like a sore thumb:

English Cookery . A cold dessert of sponge cake and fruit covered with layers of custard, jelly, and cream.

What?? Not that I was surprised to see it there, but it’s just so different from the other definitions, you know there’s something wacky going on with the English language here.

So I turned to an etymology dictionary. Yeah. . . I know. Even using the word ‘etymology’ makes me feel all scholarly. Please tell me I’m not the only one who is pathetic like that.

And what did I find? Well, nothing. The etymology dictionary didn’t say a word about sponge cake and custard. Dead end.

So much for my braniac pants.

Want to know a secret? The only part I had in this trifle was helping to eat it. My husband, who is quite the accomplished trifle maker, put this thing together from start to finish. That’s his red apron, and his hand there, spreading those huge dollops of Cool Whip. Be still my heart.

I love trifles. They’re quick and fool-proof and delicious, and the glass dish means instant pretty. If you’re not in a hurry, you could do all of the ingredients homemade from scratch. As awesome as that all sounds, how could I resist a dish with Instant pudding, Cool Whip, and Oreos? Nope. Not today, at least.

Raspberry Cheesecake Trifle

Ingredients:

32 Oreo cookies, including the creme filling

1 large container of Cool Whip

2 packages of Instant pudding, cheesecake flavored

3 cups of raspberries, fresh or frozen

Directions:

Make up the pudding and put it in the fridge to chill. Meanwhile, chop or process the Oreos into small (1-cm) pieces.

In a glass trifle dish, put a thin layer of pudding on the bottom. Sprinkle Oreo pieces over the top. Gently spread some Cool Whip over the Oreos. Finally, sprinkle raspberries over the Cool Whip.

Continue layering the ingredients in that order — pudding, Oreos, Cool Whip, Raspberries — until you get close to the top of the trifle dish. Decorate the top with any remaining ingredients.

Refrigerate, and serve cold.

Quick tip: It will look prettier on the outside if you make sure that all the layers are showing through the glass on the outer edge of the trifle. For instance, I usually create a raspberry “border” around the edge before I sprinkle more raspberries in the middle where nobody sees.

Watch out, I’m getting all trendy and 21st century on you. Which is awfully pathetic, because we’re a good 10 years into the 21st century.

Sugar Duchess is now on Facebook!

I would be tickled pink if you hopped on over there and became a fan. Or Like. Or whatever it is you do on Facebook these days. It’ll be a party. Honest. Actually, friends, I’m feelin’ a little insecure about this whole fan business, and I’ll feel pretty darn silly if I only get one fan, and it’s my mom. Oh wait, my mom isn’t on Facebook.

Now, here’s the deal. Twitter. . . I’ve been having Twitter thoughts, but I need a little input. Worth it? Or waste of time? Any of you Twitter Kool-Aid drinkers out there want to give me a yea or nay?

Third item of business: These truffle pops.

My husband and some coworkers recently had a “Return of the Jedi” party, because two of them had never seen it. And as we all know, party = treats.

I had made cake pops for them before, so they were requesting cake pops again. I looked at my schedule and decided Oreo pops would be more prudent.

After all, these pops:

A) Come together quickly, no oven required, with only

B) Three ingredients. And one of them is cream cheese. And one of them is Oreos. And one of them is chocolate. You still with me?

C) And they’re bite-sized.

D) This is a no-brainer.

Oreo Truffle Pops

adapted from Bakerella

Ingredients:

1 (1 lb. 1 oz) package of Oreos, minus about 6-8 cookies

1 (8 oz.) package of cream cheese, softened to room temperature

Dipping chocolate

Directions:

Crush the Oreos (including the creme filling) in a food processor until finely ground. Or place them in a heavy duty bag and very finely crush them with a rolling pin. Cream together the Oreo crumbs with the softened cream cheese until completely blended. You may want to use your fingers.

Form into 1″ balls and place on a wax paper-covered baking sheet. Gently poke a sucker stick down into each ball. Freeze for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, melt your chocolate in a double boiler, or as directed on the package.

For the next step, only remove one ball from the freezer at a time. Dip it into the melted chocolate, lightly tap off the excess, and place it on another wax paper-covered baking sheet to dry.

Let the balls cool on the wax paper for at least 1 hour before very gently peeling them off.

Drizzle with white chocolate coating or decorate as desired.

It’s confession time.

I’ve been baking like a mad woman for the past couple of weeks. Yeah. Do mad women bake?

That didn’t sound like a confession. Let me try that again:

I’ve been baking like a madwoman for the past couple of weeks, and my camera spent most of that time in another room of the house, NOT documenting any of the kitchen action.

No photos, no blog post. I’m ashamed, really.

See, the hardest part of food blogging for me is snapping a well-composed, well-lit photo so I can put it in a blog post. It seems like I’m always either in a big hurry with not a second to spare for photography, or I’m baking something for an event where it’s just not convenient or even possible to get a good photo. Yeah, I’m actually just making lame excuses here.

Exactly one second before these photos were taken, I was feverishly tossing sprinkles onto these cupcakes like my life depended on it. And exactly one second after the photos were taken, I was dashing out the door with them.

I love my blog readers. Know how I know? Because I was willing to run a little late in order to document these cupcakes, because they are just that good, and I wasn’t about to let you miss out. See? I’m here for you. I’m on your side.

These chocolate cupcakes are not light and fluffy. They’re dark and dense and down-to-business. These are grumpy-pants Mr. Darcy cupcakes. I really hope you don’t think I’m a weirdo because I just said that.

The light and creamy peanut butter frosting is a perfect complement. A friend of mine told me she could bathe in this frosting. Enough said.

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1-1/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

3/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, and baking soda. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated and smooth, about one minute.

Scoop evenly into lined muffin cups (fill each cup about 1/2 full) and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup creamy peanut butter

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream butter and peanut butter together until smooth. Stir in the powdered sugar a cup at a time, and beat until well-blended. Add the milk and vanilla and mix until smooth and fluffy.

Happy spring, friends!

Thank you for being here. You make my day when you come show your smiling faces and leave kind words. I think about you all the time. Did you know that? It’s true.

I just finished a Fondant and Gum Paste course, and I’m bouncing off the walls with excitement, wanting to show you the end result.

Picture a wide-eyed six-year-old, running at top-speed through the door after school, so breathless and eager to show Mom the art project that she made in kindergarten — all covered with pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks, and smeared with orange marker and glitter.

Look, Mom! Look!

Fondant is new territory for me, but I have had a blast learning how to work with it and make it do what I want. I’m not a fan of the flavor of fondant — even the homemade marshmallow fondant — but when the end result is so smooth and pretty, what’s a girl to do? Peel it off and eat the incredible chocolate cake underneath, that’s what.

Gum paste flowers. You can do some pretty cool stuff with gum paste.

Oh, you want the recipe for this incredible chocolate cake underneath? Gladly.

This chocolate cake comes together in one bowl, as easy as falling off a log. The result? It’s a sock-knocker-offer. The King Arthur Flour blog recommends a chocolate ganache icing. Please promise me you’ll do that. It wouldn’t have worked on this particular cake, since I was covering it with fondant. But you can bet your buttons I’ll be playing with ganache next time this cake shows its face in my kitchen.

Fudge Cake

adapted from Bakers’ Banter

2 cups sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons Instant ClearJel or cornstarch

3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-1/4 cup water, room temperature

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare two 8″ rounds with grease and parchment paper. (If your 8″ rounds aren’t 2″ high, you’ll want to use 9″ rounds instead.)

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Add the eggs, oil, and vanilla, beating until smooth. Gradually add the milk, beating until smooth.

Pour the batter into prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pan for 15 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Ganache

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, room temperature

Directions:

Place the chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the cream just to a boil. Immediately pour over the chocolate chips. Let it stand for 2 minutes, then stir gently until the chocolate is all the way melted, and the ganache is dark and glossy. Let it cool slightly before spreading it on the cake. It will be very messy and delicious.

What’s that you say? These aren’t brownies? Are you sure?

You’re right, they’re cookies. But they’re actually not cookies. Deep down inside, where it really counts, they’re brownies. They’re soft, chewy, rich brownies that, by sheer coincidence, happen to be shaped like their cookie counterparts.

Well shoot. You win. We’ll call them cookies. They’re cookies. I can live with that. Cookies.

Now, down to business: I’m completely and thoroughly a dark chocolate person. I’ll take that 70% cacao any day of the week. If you are a fellow dark chocolate person, these will be right up your alley. If not… well, maybe today is the day to begin on the path to becoming a dark chocolate person. Or, better yet, whip up a batch for that special, dark chocolate someone in your life. They will love you forever, or double your money back.

Confession: I snuck in a bit of mint extract. I couldn’t help myself. I’m also a mint person, did you know? Feel free to leave it out if you don’t mind your life being utterly incomplete.

And speaking of incomplete, I didn’t get as far as putting a topping or icing on these, although I would fully endorse such an act. A light, minty whipped cream would be just the thing to offset the chocolatey richness. If you’re feeling dangerous, go for a rich chocolate ganache. Then go lie down before you hurt yourself.

Dark Chocolate Brownie Gems

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons butter or shortening (I use butter-flavored Crisco)

3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon mint extract

2 squares (2 oz) bittersweet baking chocolate, chopped

3 squares (3 oz) unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips or mint chips (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter or shortening with the sugar. Add the eggs, vanilla, and mint extracts, and mix together until smooth. In a small microwave-safe bowl, heat all of the chocolate together on low, until it’s partially melted. Stir it until it’s completely melted. Add to the sugar/egg mixture and mix until blended. In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add that to the large mixing bowl, and mix just until flour is incorporated. Stir in the chocolate or mint chips, if you’re using them.

Drop by tablespoon (a cookie dough dropper works beautifully) onto a parchment-covered baking sheet. Flatten each ball with a clean hand or the bottom of a cup. They’ll spread slightly as they bake, but not a whole lot, so make sure you flatten them into the size you want before they go into the oven.

Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until they just barely begin to appear cracked all the way across the top. Watch them closely so they don’t overbake and become crunchy. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and let the cookies sit on the sheet for 2-3 minutes more before removing them to a rack to cool to room temperature. You can eat them right away, or you can place them in an airtight container until they are completely softened. Top with whipped cream, icing, or chocolate ganache.

I think people underestimate the value of a good cry.

I’m not just talking about crying in general - I’m talking about the hard-core, tear-jerking-movie-induced, that’s-what-I-get-for-investing-myself-emotionally-in-the-characters kind of cry. The kind where you give up trying to keep the tears inside the brim of your eyelids, and you stop trying to invent discreet ways to send your hand up to your face. You could even blow your nose and not be ashamed a bit. That kind of a good cry. And then the credits role, and you feel so much better than when the movie started. It’s so healthy for you.

Tonight I watched Shadowlands with Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. Rather, I watched the movie Shadowlands, which stars Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger. And really, I’m a different person now. If you’re feeling up to an emotionally draining, rewarding, deeply moving, beautiful movie, go get Shadowlands. Grab a box of tissue, a fleece blanket, fuzzy socks, and a cup of hot cocoa. Turn off your phone, turn off all the lights, turn off the pesky movie critic in your head, and press play. And be sure to find a trusted friend, spouse, sister, mom, or cat to enjoy it with.

Now, for an unbelievably tasty, crazy-moist cake that really has absolutely nothing to do with crying.

Space Needle Cake. It’s nothing more or less than a simple, decadent chocolate cake, but where’s the fun in that? I’ll continue to call it Space Needle Cake for as long as I live, because I love the reactions and curiosity I get from people when they hear the name.

Now, why the name Space Needle? Well, for no other reason than that that was the name that it had when I was given the recipe. I got it from my mom several years ago, who got it from an old college roommate, who got it from somebody else, and I’m not sure how far back the chain goes. The story is that this is the chocolate cake recipe that is (or was) served at a restaurant at the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington. Is that true? I have no idea. Does it matter? No. This rich, chocolatey, insanely moist cake brings smiles and groans of pleasure to everyone it comes in contact with, so I’m not terribly concerned with it’s nebulous origin. And Space Needle Cake is still a great name.

Although this recipe makes two 8-inch round layers, I chose to make the recipe twice so I could have a tall, dramatic three-layer cake. And so I could hand over the fourth layer to someone special.

Space Needle Cake

adapted from an unknown source probably relating somehow to the Space Needle

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter, room temperature

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/3 - 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

For the chocolate ganache:

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

In a small mixing bowl, mix together flour, salt, and baking soda, and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add eggs, oil, cocoa, and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Mix in the boiling water. Mix in the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix just until smooth. The batter will be very thin.

Pour batter into two prepared 8-inch round pans. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pans on a cooling rack for 10-15 minutes, then invert onto the cooling rack. Cool completely before covering with icing or chocolate ganache.

For the ganache, bring the whipping cream to a boil in a medium saucepan. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate chips in a medium mixing bowl. Let stand for 2-3 minutes, then stir until completely smooth.

When covering the cake with ganache, first cover the edges of the serving platter with several 6-inch squares of wax paper, forming a circle of wax paper pieces. Place the cake on top. Go crazy with ganache. When you’re done, slowly pull each piece of wax paper out from under the cake, to reveal a clean, ganache-free platter.

***(High altitude baking adjustments: Add an extra egg, reduce boiling water by 1-2 Tablespoons, and reduce baking soda by 1/8 teaspoon. Increase oven temperature by 20 degrees and bake until done, about 25-30 minutes.)

I’m still in the process of getting settled in here. You probably noticed the wacky reposting on Google Reader after I imported all my posts from Blogger. And you’ll notice some funny formatting and font issues with several of the posts that I imported from Blogger. I’m not sure why it decided to do that, and what’s worse, I’m not sure how to fix it. I’ve tried a couple of things with no luck. I’ll get that figured out soon, or else I’ll just decide to live with it. Oh, Blogger. Bless your heart.

Yesterday was a Frankenstein recipe day. What is a Frankenstein recipe, you may ask? I will tell you.

I had visions of chocolate pound cake dancing through my head all day yesterday, and I thought surely, surely, it wouldn’t be difficult to dig up dozens of good chocolate pound cake recipes on The Internet, and then pick the one that looks the best. And the result? Well, I only came up with about four, total. That is, from reliable sources. Even my trusty, loyal cookbook that has never let me down, let me down. Somebody needs to do something about this horrific chocolate pound cake deficit. Forget the national, financial one.

So, I took a look at the small handful of recipes I had found, and I read through the reviews and ratings. Most of them had several negative reviews. That could be because 1) silly people didn’t use good baking judgment and ended up with a miserable failure of a cake, and then blamed it on the recipe, or 2) the recipe is finicky and may or may not turn out right, which is risky for me because I live at a high altitude, so cake is finicky for me anyway.

Enter Frankenstein. I put the three most promising recipes side by side, and compared them. Then, using bits from each, I brought a new chocolate pound cake recipe to life. Sans lightning storm. And considering that this was one big science experiment for me, I’m pretty pleased with the end result. You won’t be hit over the head with chocolate; rather, the chocolate joins forces with the rum extract, and beautiful things happen.

Chocolate Rum Pound Cake

adapted from Paula Deen (2007), Joy the Baker, and BHG

Ingredients:

1-1/8 cup (2-1/4 cubes) butter, at room temperature

1-1/2 cup white granulated sugar

7 eggs

1/3 cup whole milk

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-1/2 teaspoons rum extract

4 squares (4 oz.) semi-sweet or bittersweet baking chocolate, chopped

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, nutmeg, and baking powder.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mix in the vanilla and rum extracts. Melt the chocolate by placing in a microwave-safe dish, and cook on high until the chocolate is partially melted (less than a minute). Stir slowly until all of the chocolate chunks have melted completely. Add the chocolate to the egg and sugar mixture and mix completely.

Add the dry ingredients and stir together until the flour is completely incorporated, but just barely.

Spoon batter into a prepared 10-cup bundt pan. Bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 65 minutes.

Let the cake cool in the pan on a cooling rack for ten minutes, and then invert onto a serving plate. When completely cooled, dust with powdered sugar, or top with chocolate glaze or ganache.

***This recipe is for a regular, not-high altitude, so if you live in a place like that, you should be able to use it as it is. I live at a high altitude, and if you do too, here’s how you can adjust it: Add one extra egg, decrease the milk by 1 Tablespoon, and decrease the baking powder by 1/8 teaspoon. Set the oven temperature 15-20 degrees higher, and bake for a shorter amount of time (around 55-60 minutes). Keep a close eye on it as it bakes, so it won’t get overdone.

***This is me just being a little nit-picky. You can probably tell the formatting is wonky in this post. That’s because I imported it from Blogger, and the Blogger Fairies did something weird to the fonts that I haven’t been able to fix. Okay, I’m done.***

I wish I could preface these fabulous brownies with some clever little personal anecdote or insight, but that seems unfair. You know, to the brownies.