Devil's Food Cupcakes

Every once in a while, a girl needs some chocolate...  These devil's food cupcakes with chocolate ganache really hit the spot.  They are incredibly rich in taste, but light in texture.  Because I am not a choco-holic, and chocolate icing on chocolate cake is a little too much for me--I used cream cheese icing for some of the cupcakes.

Recipe- Devil's Food Cupcakes

3/4 cup boiling water

3/4 cup cocoa powder

6 oz. butter

2 c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

3 eggs

2 and 1/2 c. cake flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 c. buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Place rack in the middle of the oven.  Whisk together boiling water and cocoa. Cover and set aside.

2. With a mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Continue creaming until light and fluffy.

4. Sift together the cake flour, baking soda, and baking powder.  Add to the mixture, alternately with the buttermilk. 

5. Add the cocoa/water mixture and mix until thoroughly combined.  Scoop into cupcake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes (until a toothpick inserted deep into the middle comes out clean).

6. Let cupcakes cool completely before decorating. Prepare the chocolate ganache.

Recipe- Chocolate Ganache

8 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

3/4 c. heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons butter

Chop chocolate and place into a glass bowl.  Bring the heavy cream and sugar just to a boil in a small sauce pan.  Pour over the chopped chocolate.  Whisk together, and then stir in butter until melted.  Dip the tops of the cooled cupcakes in the warm ganache. Let set.

I then piped some left over cream cheese icing onto the cupcakes.

Get creative! Enjoy!

5 Minute Chocolate Cake

This is an excellent recipe for anyone who has ever had one of those *cravings* for something chocolatey.  This recipe requires no special equipment--just a mug and a fork!  The entire recipe, start to finish, takes less than 5 minutes.

As for taste, it hits the spot and satisfies that chocolate craving.  I recommend serving it with whipped cream or ice cream.  Mine came out a little dense and dry, so the ice cream I ate with it really balanced it out.  But I really couldn't complain for cake "baked" in a microwave!

Recipe- 5 Minute Chocolate Cake (thanks to the fabulous a. pankey for discovering this during her website browsing!)

4 tablespoons cake flour 

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 egg

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted butter

1. Mix the flour, sugar, and cocoa powder in a mug.

2. Add the egg, milk, and oil to the mug.  Mix well.

3. Microwave on high for 3 minutes.  The "cake" will rise several inches over the mug and then fall.  

4. Shake the cake out of the mug onto a plate. 

5. Enjoy!

German Chocolate Cookies

My mom and I baked a variety of cookies last night. Every single cookies is now gone (thankfully) because were were baking them for someone else. We baked some classics--chocolate chip, peanut butter, and oatmeal raisin. We also baked a more "unique" cookie since my mom wanted to try something new, so we made German Chocolate cookies, inspired by German Chocolate cake.

The cookies were two fudge cookies sandwiching the traditional icing on a German chocolate cake--a combination of coconut, pecans, and caramelized sugar. These cookies were soooo incredible. I actually cut one sandwich cookie into fourths, because I had already ate a couple of chocolate chip cookies by the time these were done.

These cookies will definitely be added to our current cookie rotation!

Chocolatiest Chocolate Cake

My chocolate lovin sister got to celebrate her birthday again in Baton Rouge over Thanksgiving break. So, my mom and I baked her another cake. We didn't want to bake another German chocolate cake, so we started exploring chocolate cake recipes.

We decided on a chocolate cake with a mousse filling and chocolate ganache icing. Unlike everyone else in my family, I'm not a *real* chocolate lover, but we ALL agreed that this was the best cake we have ever made. All I can say is O-M-G--it was soooo good. I had it with vanilla ice cream. My younger sister is so crazy about chocolate she had it with chocolate ice cream (which would've been too much chocolate, even for Lucy).

Including the cake, filling, and icing, about 3 and a half pounds of chocolate went into this cake. (GASP). We spent $2.50 for every 4 ounces of chocolate, meaning we spent $35 on chocolate alone. We used a variety of chocolate--semisweet, unsweetened, and bittersweet. My mom made the actual cake, and I made the filling and icing. The cake is dramatically tall, and I decided to decorate it with chocolate shavings on top.

German Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting

I baked this cake to help celebrate my roommate's birthday. The cake is German chocolate, made with the Baker's German Chocolate bar. The icing is chocolate frosting--just chocolate, powdered sugar, and a little bit of milk and vanilla. The cake came out suuuuuper yummy.

I had to buy cake pans from Target since I had none, and I was in SUCH a rush to make it because I went out of town this weekend. When I was checking out at Target, the cashier asked me what I was going to do with the cake pans. Curious, I thought. "Bake a cake," I responded. She looked at me like she didn't believe me and said, "YOU are going to bake a cake?" Um, is it that rare for someone to purchase cake pans, who plans on baking a cake??

Anyway, the cake pans were actually rather suspect. I guess you get what you pay for! I'll be hitting up a more trusted kitchen store to buy some quality cake pans real, real soon.

You can find the cake recipe inside the Baker's German Chocolate bar.

**Due to it being finals time, and I have numerous research papers to write and finals to prepare for, I will no longer be updating daily. I will try to update a few times every week.

Souffle

Being the lover of French food that I am, it should be no surprise that souffle is something I adore. This was my first attempt to make a souffle. I admit, it took me three days, but that's because of the egg whites! Souffles only have a few ingredients--mainly chocolate, eggs, and sugar. The only leavening agent is the egg whites, so if the egg whites aren't prepared correctly, the souffle won't rise. The lightness of a souffle can be attributed to the lack of flour and butter.

So, how do you prepare the egg whites correctly? There are a few cardinal rules:

1. Make sure that absolutely NO egg yolk is in the egg whites. Not even a trace.
2. Don't beat the egg whites until they are at room temperature.
3. If you over-beat the egg whites, you will end up with a sticky mess!
4. Be gentle when "folding" the egg whites into the egg yolk/sugar/chocolate batter.

If you can figure out the egg whites, the rest of the souffle is a breeze (assuming your oven heats evenly).

I was really shocked that my very first souffle came out so well! It was delicious--incredibly chocolatey. It is so chocolatey, you will need vanilla ice cream or whipped cream to go along with it. My roommate made souffle a few days ago (under my watchful eye). We halved the recipe and used the individual-sized ramekins. I also made a whipped cream to go along with it--just beat 1 cup of heavy whipping cream with 2 tablespoons powder sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Enjoy! (Will post recipe soon)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few years ago, after a day of blueberry picking with Grace and Angela, Grace shared her blueberry cobbler recipe with me. That recipe is now a favorite among several people in my family. I think baking with friends is very important because you can share--not only recipes--but also ideas on how to bake or anything, really.

Sophia and Amber came over for a night of cookie baking.

We used the chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of the semi-sweet Toll House chocolate chip bag. The cookies came out really great, and most importantly, we had a good time.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Bake time: 7-9 minutes per sheet of cookies
Difficulty Level: Easy

Yields 5 dozen cookies. (I pretty much always half this recipe. Lucy likes to take some cookie dough, shape it, and put it in freezer bags. That way, if she just wants to bake one or two cookies, they're already prepared.)

Recipe- Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies (also found on the back of the Toll House chocolate chips bag)

2 and 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels (chocolate chips)
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl.
2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts.
4. Drop into round balls, about a tablespoon, onto ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown (more or less time depending on your oven!)

Dark Chocolate Brownies

For the Chocolate Lovers...

(The chocolatiest chocolate anything i've EVER had)

Ok, really, this recipe should have had a warning. CAUTION: Serious chocolate lovers ONLY. A few small bites are sure to satisfy even the most intense chocolate cravings. The brownies were soooo rich and moist. You'll probably want to have a glass of milk or a scoop of vanilla ice cream nearby.

I'll cut straight to the point. This recipe is an excellent recipe for chocolatey homemade brownies. It requires several steps but is well worth it. If you don't have a double boiler (one pot that fits in another pot to keep chocolate from getting too hot and burning), you can use a glass bowl on top of a small pot of barely simmering water. Just make sure the water is not boiling and touching the glass bowl. OR, you can just stick the chocolate in the microwave on 50% power and check every 30 seconds or so to stir and make sure the chocolate is not burning. Enjoy!

Prep time: one hour

Bake time: 35-40 minutes

Difficulty: medium

Recipe- Dark Chocolate Brownies

6 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped

3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces

3 large eggs

1 and 3/4 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350. Butter an 8 inch square baking pan.

2. Place the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler placed over barely simmering water. Heat, stirring often, until the butter and chocolate melt. Remove from over the water and set aside to cool slightly.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla until blended. Whisk in the chocolate mixture until blended. Sprinkle all of the flour over the mixture and whisk slowly just until blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly with a rubber spatula.

4. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out almost clean, 35-40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.