Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Sauce

It isn't a molten chocolate cake, it's just really soft and spongy, and the center has an ooey gooey filling. The batter is made with cocoa powder and chopped bittersweet chocolate chunks are folded in. It's a chocolate lover's dream. The vanilla sauce is a nice addition, because it soaks perfectly in to the cake, and it makes the cake a little less rich. It tastes best when the cake and the sauce are served warm, but it's perfect any way you can get it.

First cut off small strips of aluminum foil that will fit as strips in a mini loaf pan, as shown below. You want the foil to stick out, this will make it easy to remove them, since you will only bake them 3/4 of the way, and if you don't do this they won't come out cleanly. Now with the foil in all the molds spray the pan to grease it.

In a small mixing bowl add the dry ingredients:

1 1/2C all purpose flour
1/2t baking powder
1/2C cocoa powder
sift these over aluminum foil. Set aside, you will mix these in to the batter at the end.

In a large mixing bowl add:

1 stick soft unsalted butter
1/4C oil
3/4C sugar
1T vanilla extract
Mix till creamy and lighter in color.
Add 2 eggs, mix
then 1/4C sour cream, mix till smooth.
Now add the dry ingredients. Mix on low till smooth and combined.
Boil 1/2C water, add this in to the batter. Mix till smooth.
Now fold in:
4oz chopped bittersweet chocolate (1 bar).

Divide the batter in to the molds. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350F. Only bake these 3/4 of the way. If the skewer comes out clean then they were baked too long, the center must be gooey, and when you take them out to cool slightly they will continue to bake a little, so keep that in mind. Better to under bake than over bake. A good way to check is if the edges of the cake 1/2" in are baked and the skewer comes out clean on the edges, just don't wait for the center to come out clean, it shouldn't. They will look puffed up, but because the center is not baked fully it will sink a little, that is a good thing. Cool slightly. Then dust with powdered sugar. Lift out of the molds with the aluminum flaps sticking out, remove the foil and serve with vanilla sauce (recipe below).

Vanilla sauce:

In a small saucepan add:
1C whole milk
1/2C heavy cream
1/4 vanilla bean (scraped out, and add the pod, remove when serving)
Bring to a simmer.

In a small bowl add:
3 egg yolks
between 1/8-1/4C sugar. The cake is sweeter, so you don't want this to be too sweet. We prefer more around 1/8C sugar, but it is your preference. Whisk well. When the cream mixture is almost boiling, pour it in to the egg mixture slowly, whisk constantly, to prevent the eggs from cooking, you are just tempering. Now pour the whole thing back in to the saucepan, stir constantly on low heat and let it thicken. It is thick enough when it covers the back of your spatula without dripping off. Pour in to a glass to prevent it from cooking further and serve with the cakes.

Mini Coconut-Chocolate Cakes

Very simple. It's really a bundt cake recipe, we decided to put the batter in to small tart molds, instead of 1 large bundt mold. It's up to you, but the mini cakes are perfect for serving when friends come over, or for parties.
The cakes are perfectly moist and have a nice balance of coconut and chocolate flavor. They are soaked with coconut rum after baking, topped with a coconut milk glaze and toasted coconut flakes. Tasty and pretty without a lot of effort.

Grease any mold you decide to use. These shown were baked in a heart mold.
In a large mixing bowl add:
1 stick of soft unsalted butter
3/4C sugar
1t vanilla extract
1t coconut extract. Cream with a mixer until smooth and lighter in color. Then add:
3 large eggs. One at a time until combined.
Add 1 can of coconut milk, take 1/8-1/4C aside in to another bowl, this will be used for the glaze after baking.
Mix well, then add:
1 1/4C all purpose flour,
1/2t salt
2t baking powder and mix until combined and smooth.
Now fold in:
1/4C bittersweet chocolate chips, regular size, or the mini morsels and
1/2C toasted coconut flakes (you will have to toast them in the oven spread out on a baking sheet for about 6 minutes at 350F. Check as they brown quickly. Toast about 2 cups, since you will need some to decorate with later).
Fold in, then fill your mold 3/4 full. Bake for about 15 minutes, depending on your mold, test with a wooden skewer.

Cool slightly, then take out of the molds and place on to a cooling rack. Cool fully.
With a pastry brush, dip the brush in to coconut rum, and dab the cakes.

Coconut milk glaze:

Put the 1/8C of coconut milk in to a bowl,
add 1C powdered sugar and 1t coconut extract. Whisk well till smooth. If it is too runny for your liking add a little more powdered sugar until it is thick enough. It is pretty sweet, so we prefer it runny.

Glaze the cakes with a pastry brush, then sprinkle the toasted coconut on top and serve.

Creamy Dreamy Rice Pudding

Rice pudding is simply satisfying and comforting. This recipe is made with arborio rice, vanilla bean and ground cardamom. It is delicious, and right for anytime of the day.. well, we think so. It is a simple recipe, but you have to be patient to cook the rice on low heat, and add the liquid in small amounts to be able to enjoy the best rice pudding. It's totally worth it. Promise.

In a large saucepan boil:
1C water with 1/4t salt and 1/2C sugar.
When boiling add 1/2C arborio rice.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, stir occasionally and wait for the liquid to reduce almost fully before adding anything else. This will take about 15 minutes.

Then have:
2C milk ready and add 1/2C at a time, stir, wait for the rice to absorb the liquid and add the next 1/2C. Repeat until the milk is gone, this can take up to 35 minutes plus, since you should have the heat on low and stir every 5-10 minutes.
Add 2t vanilla extract,
scrape the inside of 1/2 of a vanilla bean, put all of this in to the rice including the pod, for flavor. Remove when serving.
Also add 1t ground cardamom, whisk the rice well so there are no cardamom lumps.
Now have 1C of heavy cream ready, add 1/2C at a time till the rice gets softer, and the pudding thickens. Cover the saucepan to make the rice soften faster, stir every 10 minutes, and keep the heat on low.
This whole process for the rice to thicken and absorb the liquid on low heat will take up to 1 1/2 hours. it is a slow process, but it has the best results, making the rice perfectly soft and creamy.
Taste the rice, see if it is soft without a hard center, if so it is ready, if not keep it covered and cook on low heat longer, stirring occasionally. Serve hot or cold, add some fresh fruit if desired.

Blueberry-Lemon Cream Tartlets

These are mini cream pies. A lemon-orange curd has been folded in to whipped cream, filled in to mini baked pie shells, and topped with blueberries that were tossed in lemon simple syrup. Topped with whipped cream, and a candied lemon slice. Delicious and very simple. A very satisfying treat, and very pretty to serve at parties, a nice crunchy, flakey crust, the popping of blueberries with a fresh lemon cream. Yum.

First make the candied lemon:

Bring a medium pot filled with water to a boil.

Take one lemon and slice it using a fine slicer.

Have a bowl ready with ice water.

Put the slices in to the boiling water. Boil for 2 minutes.

Pour the water in to a strainer over the sink. Put the slices in to the ice water.

In the same pot put 1C sugar and 1C water, boil. When the sugar has dissolved put the slices in to the syrup and reduce the heat to low. Keep on low for 40 minutes. When translucent (after 40 mins), take out the slices, separate them and place them on to parchment paper. Keep them there until ready to use. Save the lemon syrup, add 1T of vodka if you like. This will be the syrup that is used to toss in to the blueberries, but it must be fully chilled.

Keep the leftover candied lemon in an airtight container, it can be used for other lemon desserts.

Lemon-orange curd:

Zest 2 lemons and 1 orange.

Juice the citrus above, and combine them.

In a medium saucepan put:

The juice of the citrus, should be around 1/2-3/4C.

Add 1/4 stick unsalted butter and

1/8C heavy cream. Bring almost to a boil.

In a separate bowl whisk:

3 large eggs

1/2C sugar

1/4t salt

1t vanilla extract.

Temper in the lemon mixture in to the egg mixture, whisking constantly, Then pour everything back in to the saucepan. Thicken over medium heat, stirring constantly.

Have a clean bowl ready, with a strainer over it.

When the curd has thickened, when it coats the spatula nicely and is almost bubbling, pour it in to the strainer.

Cover the curd with plastic wrap, to prevent a skin from forming, and cool fully. 

When chilled whip 1C heavy cream with 1T powdered sugar, whip till stiff. Reserve 1/4C whipped cream to pipe on to the tartlets at the end. Then to the rest, add 2C lemon-orange curd. Fold it nicely, put it in to a piping bag, filled with a large round tip. Keep chilled till ready to use.

Now make the mini pie shells.

Crust:

In a large mixing bowl add:

1C all purpose flour

2T sugar

1/2t salt

1 stick unsalted, cold butter, cut in small pieces

Using your hands mix together roughly until the butter has mixed in the flour more, and the whole thing looks like course crumbs. You want there to be butter chunks left, this is what makes the crust flakey. Add the wet ingredients (below), and make one big ball.

1 egg

1T cold milk

1T cold water

If it's still too dry, add a little more water, but this should be enough. Flatten in to a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Cool in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Have a muffin tin ready, and an appropriate circle cutter to fill the muffin tin. Approximately a 4" cutter will do nicely.

Cut the disc in half and with enough flour underneath the dough, and on top to prevent sticking, roll it out, turning the dough, until it is 1/8" thick. Make the dough nice and thin. Cut it out, and fill the muffin tin, which does not need to be greased. 

Prick the bottom of the shells with a fork about 4 times, to prevent them from bubbling too much.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes at 350F, till golden brown. Allow to cool fully.

Take 12oz of fresh blueberries, and add about 3T of the lemon simple syrup to them. Toss till nicely covered.

Now pipe the shells with the curd-cream, fill them nicely about 3/4 full.

Now take a large spoonful of blueberries and pile them on top, trying to cover the cream as much as possible, making little towers of blueberries. Avoid adding excess syrup on your spoon, or it will go all over the tarts and get messy.

Fill another piping bag, with a very small star tip and pipe the whipped cream on top of each one, then finish it off with 1/2 of a strip of candied lemon. Enjoy.

Citrus Cupcakes

These cupcakes are very lemony and fresh, not too sweet. A lemon batter, baked with a lemon-orange curd, glazed with a lemon-vodka syrup and topped with citrus buttercream, using the lemon-orange curd to flavor it. They are then decorated with candied lemon and edible gold dust.

Candied lemon:

Bring a medium pot filled with water to a boil.
Take one lemon and slice it using a fine slicer.
Have a bowl ready with ice water.
Put the slices in to the boiling water. Boil for 2 minutes.
Pour the water in to a strainer over the sink. Put the slices in to the ice water.
In the same pot put 1C sugar and 1C water, boil. When the sugar has dissolved put the slices in to the syrup and reduce the heat to low. Keep on low for 40 minutes. When translucent (after 40 mins), take out the slices, separate them and place them on to parchment paper. Keep them there until ready to use. Save the lemon syrup, add 1T of vodka if you like. When the cupcakes come out of the oven, brush them with the syrup.

Lemon-orange curd:

Zest 2 lemons and 1 orange.
Juice the citrus above, and combine them.
In a medium saucepan put:
The juice of the citrus, should be around 1/2-3/4C.
Add 1/4 stick unsalted butter and
1/8C heavy cream. Bring almost to a boil.

In a separate bowl whisk:
3 large eggs
1/2C sugar
1/4t salt
1t vanilla extract.

Temper in the lemon mixture in to the egg mixture, whisking constantly, Then pour everything back in to the saucepan. Thicken over medium heat, stirring constantly.
Have a clean bowl ready, with a strainer over it.
When the curd has thickened, when it coats the spatula nicely and is almost bubbling, pour it in to the strainer.
Cover the curd with plastic wrap, to prevent a skin from forming, and cool fully. This will be used when baking the cupcakes and in the buttercream.

Citrus cake:

In a large mixing bowl cream:
1 stick soft butter and
1/2C sugar and
1t vanilla extract,
1/2t lemon extract
half of the zest that was zested of the 2 lemons and 1 orange.
Cream well.
Add 3 egg whites, mix.
Then add 3/4C whole milk and
1/8C oil. Mix.
Finish it off with:
1 1/2C all purpose flour, 1/2t salt and 2 1/2t baking powder.
Mix till combined.

In a muffin pan lined with cupcake liners, fill the liners half way with batter. Over that pour 1T citrus curd.

Divide the leftover cake batter on top of that. Bake for about 15 minutes at 350F.

Another option is to bake the cake batter, cut the cupcakes when cool, and spread citrus curd inside.

Citrus buttercream:

In a saucepan add:
1C heavy cream
3/4C sugar
1/4C all purpose flour.
Bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Pour in to a large mixing bowl, add 1t vanilla extract, 1/2t lemon extract and the rest of the citrus zest. Mix. Then slowly add 2 sticks of cold butter, cut in to small pieces. This will cool the mixture faster. Mix constantly, don't stop until it has thickened, and it will about after 7 minutes of mixing. The bigger the bowl, the faster it will cool. Make sure it is nice and smooth.

Fill the buttercream in to a piping bag filled with a large round tip.

Brush the cakes with the lemon syrup. Pipe buttercream on top, if you want different types of piping on the cupcake, then you can color a little of the buttercream if you like. In the photo we used a little orange food coloring.

Decorate with candied lemon, and with a brush, flick a little gold dust on top, available at cake stores. It is edible.
Enjoy.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Valentine's Day is here and this cupcake is definitely festive and very delicious. Make these with fresh strawberries when they are in season in the late spring/summer or use frozen and thawed strawberries in the fall and winter months. If you are having a Valentine's celebration, this is a perfect addition to your dessert buffet.

For 2 Dozen Cupcakes:

1 1/3 cups fresh strawberries (use frozen if out of season)

3 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup whole milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

8 oz. unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

4 egg whites

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep 2 12-cup muffin pans with festive liners.

In a small food processor, process strawberries until pureed. You will need 2/3 cup of puree. If you are making the strawberry frosting recipe as well, make an extra 6 TB of puree and reserve.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Mix together the wet ingredients of milk, puree and vanilla and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar on high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Slowly add in eggs and egg whites and mix until blended. Scrape down bowl after each addition of ingredients.

Slowly add in the flour and milk mixtures, alternating between the 2 until just combined. Be sure to not overmix.

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (using an ice cream scoop is easiest). Bake 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before icing.

Strawberry Frosting Recipe:

1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped into pieces (you may use frozen if our of season or 1/4 cup jarred strawberry preserves if you are in a bind)

8 oz. unsalted butter (room temp)

8 oz. cream cheese (room temp)

Pinch of salt

7 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Method:

Puree strawberries in a food processor, (or use the puree you have already preserved from the cupcakes).

Using a mixer, cream the butter, salt and cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Slowly add in the sifted powdered sugar and scrape down bowl. Mix only until just combined. Add in vanilla and 6 TB strawberry puree. Mix until just blended and emulsified. Frosting consistency should be dense and creamy to spread onto cupcakes. Spread onto cooled cupcakes. *This is not a good frosting recipe to pipe onto cupcakes, but better spread.

Not Your Mom's Chocolate Cake

This cake is so good. So good. Just in time for Valentine's day. The sponge is not too light, and not dense, but has a really nice chocolate fudge flavor. It has the perfect consistency. It is soaked nicely with a kahlua-dark rum simple syrup, and filled with a light chocolate whipped cream, then covered with a chocolate-fudge buttercream. It's really good, oh, we wrote that already.

Chocolate sponge:

Grease 3, 6" cake pans. Heat the oven to 350F.
In a mixing bowl put:
2C all purpose flour
2t baking powder
2t baking soda
1t salt
Sift these ingredients.

In a saucepan put:
3/4C sugar
3/4C dark brown sugar
and 2C water. Heat till the sugar has been dissolved, then pour this in to a large mixing bowl. In this bowl add:
4oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2oz soft butter, chopped
1/4C oil
Stir well, then mix in 2 eggs, mix well and add the dry until combined.
Fill 2 of the pans 3/4 full, the 3rd one fill the rest, should be a little under half full.
Bake for about 25 minutes. Test with a wooden skewer, they are done when it comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then turn the cake pans upside-down on to a cooling rack. Cool thoroughly.
Cut the 2 full cakes in to 2, and leave the half one as is, now you should have 5 cake layers the same thickness. Separate them with parchment paper so they don't stick together.

Chocolate buttercream:

In a saucepan pour:
2 2/3C heavy cream,
1C sugar
1C dark brown sugar
Let this heat up, just under boiling, but all the sugar should be dissolved, and warm enough to melt the chocolate.
As this heats, in a large bowl put:
12oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped with
3t vanilla extract
2T Kahlua and
1t salt. Pour the cream mixture in to the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth.
Cut 2 sticks of cool unsalted butter in to small pieces, and as you mix with a hand mixer/stand mixer gradually add the butter in a few tablespoons at a time, repeat until the butter is gone, and continue mixing until the buttercream is thick and glossy, buttercream consistency. Once it is ready is tends to harden quickly, so use it fast. The mixing will take about 10 minutes.
Now in another bowl pour
1C heavy cream,
1t vanilla extract
1T powdered sugar, whisk until medium stiff. Put just under half of the buttercream, and fold in to the whipped cream until smooth. This will be for filling the layers of the cake, the buttercream is for the outside of the cake, and decorating.
Divide the chocolate-cream filling by 4, it will be about over 1/2C per layer.

Kahlua-dark rum simple syrup (for soaking the layers as you build the cake):

This can be made ahead of time, but it is very fast, and the cake soaks up more when the syrup is warm.
In a small saucepan put:
1/2C sugar,
1/2C water. Boil fully. Pour in to a glass, then in to a 1/3C pour half kahlua, and half dark rum, add more if desired. Stir.

Have a 7" cake circle ready, and place it on your turntable.
Now build your cake.
On your cake circle place the first layer of cake. Soak the cake with a pastry brush with the syrup, then with a small offset spatula smooth out the chocolate-cream filling. Place another cake layer over that, make sure it's straight, soak etc until finished.  Then with a serrated knife even out all the layers so that the cake is straight, and easier to put the icing on. It should look like this: (also soak the top layer with the syrup).

Now put on the buttercream around the edges first with a large offset spatula, it doesn't have to pretty at first, put it on generously to avoid crumbs mixing in from the cake. Then smooth out the rest on top. Now with a bench scraper hold it straight against the cake and scrape off the excess buttercream to make a smooth surface, do this all round the cake, you want about 1/4" icing around the cake, not too much. Now with a small offset spatula smooth out the top edges. You can choose if you want to leave your sides smooth, or then decide to give it a swirl effect, you just need to smooth it out first to make sure your cake is straight. Add a pretty ribbon, about 1/4" from the bottom, to leave room for the piping decoration. Secure the ribbon with 3 pearl pins. Pipe the bottom to cover the cake circle and pipe the top, and serve with whipped cream and strawberries, or plain. Enjoy.. we know you will.