Chocolate and Raspberry 2: Chocolate Decadence Cake

The best part is biting into the dense, bitter chocolate cake, but then tasting the sweet and tangy raspberry sauce that enhances the flavor of this dessert.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Decadence-103084

Chocolate and Raspberry 1: Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

mmmmmm.... two of my favorite things, chocolate and cheesecake, made with an oreo crust and a luscious filling made with none other than Philadelphia cream cheese and chocolate. Topped of with a tangy raspberry sauce gives you the perfect dessert for any occasion.

Ingredients:

24 OREO Cookies, crushed (about 2 cups, crushed in the food processor)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted

32 oz (900g -4 packages) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

2 Tbsp. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

1 pkg. (8 oz, 225g) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted, slightly cooled

4 eggs

Frozen Raspberries

Instructions:

HEAT oven to 325ºF.

Mix the crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 13x9-inch foil-lined pan. Bake 10 min.

Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add chocolate; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.

Bake 45 min. or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours. Use foil to lift cheesecake from pan.

Blend the raspberries until smooth, the texture of a sorbet.

Refridgerate sauce until ready to serve cheesecake.

adapted from kraftfoods.com

Special Occasion Tomato Sauce

photo credits (my sister Neha Luthra)
The Italian cookbook that holds this recipe is called Italian; the essence of Mediterranean Cuisine by Carla Capalbo. I purchased this book at our school book swap, thinking that it would hold no special recipes because someone obviously did not like it, that is why it ended up at the book swap. Anyway, I picked up this book and I tried out the Mac and Cheese. It was utter bliss. I had also been wanting to try a tomato sauce recipe that matched the outstanding one at the Italian restaurant Vapiano here in Warsaw. I decided to try out the Special Occasion Tomato sauce. It made a delicious lunch for my family and me. My father likes extra spice in his food, so he was happy eating it with Tabasco, however I prefer something more subtle, like chilli flakes, which you can also add. My mum sometimes gives me something similar for a school lunch, however hers is very spicy, and sometimes can be chunky as she adds extra veggies. My preferred pasta is Penne. I can eat it with just about anything, and I love it with this sauce. I also pile a mountain of Parmasan cheese on top of my dish, and garnish it with basil as shown in the picture. A simple, basic pasta sauce recipe, that can be the base of much more... Even Pizza!

Serves 6
Ingredients:
1 2/3 lb tomatoes, fresh or canned, CHOPPED!
1 carrot, chopped
1 medium clove of garlic (crushed)
5 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper,
along with any other seasoning of your choice, (ex. chilli flakes, oregano)
a few leaves of fresh basil and oregano (optional)

- Boil 2 cups of pasta with 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp salt. Fill a pot of with boiling water over a flame, about 3/4 full. Boil for about 5-10 minutes, or until cooked.

- Place all the ingredients in a medium heavy sauce pan and simmer together for 30 minutes, with the lid on.
- All the vegetables should be soft, if they aren't simmer some more.
- Puree the sauce in a food processor or press through a sieve. (personally, I prefer to process this as the sauce will be nice and smooth.)
- Return the pureed sauce to the pan and simmer again for 15 minutes. Simmer, and eat with boiled pasta and A LOT of freshly grated Parmasan cheese.

Red Velvet Cake - Video

This is the Red Velvet Cake made on video :)I apologize for some of the errors in advance.. Overall, hope you enjoy my sweat and blood on tape :P!!



See the Red Velvet Cupcakes post for the recipe.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

(sorry about the blurry pix)

I have finished making the Red Velvet Cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting. They turned out great, despite my nervousness to making them. One thing i would change is the food coloring I used, which was pretty standard. Next time I will use gel paste food coloring, as the color of the cupcakes were more of a maroonish reddish color, and I was going for a scarlet color. Overall the taste was great, and the frosting added a nice, tangy flavor to the cupcakes. I topped the cakes off with a small piece of a newspaper, rolled up and tied with thin wire. I also piped rosettes on the cupcakes, no special nozzle was required, all I did was cut a tip of the piping bag. They looked wonderful, and I am happy with the product. The recipe was taken from the Amy's Bread Cookbook, which is a no-fail wonder. Every recipe i have made from that book has been wonderful :)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp RED food coloring
1 cup of boiling water
5 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups dark brown sugar (on the video I said light brown, but it's actually dark brown :P)
3/4 cup unsalted butter (softened)
3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt


Directions:
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees farenhiet, or 180 degrees celcius.
I a small bowl, mix together the sour cream, baking soda, cocoa, and food coloring. Gradually add in the boiling water. Mix until combined.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder.
Then in a larger bowl, beat together the softened butter and the sugar until light and fluffy, and no lumps remain. Add in the eggs slowly, until well incorporated.
Then add the flour in three batches, alternating with the sour cream mixture.
Beat for an additional 2 minutes, scraping down the sides if necessary. Butter and flour two nine inch baking pans, OR line 2 cupcake tins with cupcake liners. (this should make about 24 cupcakes) Bake for 35 minutes, rotating half way if necessary, until a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs. cool on a baking tray.
In the mean time make the cream cheese frosting. (see below) pipe on top of cupcakes. For the nine inch cakes, spread a third between the cakes, and the rest on top of the cake. Decorate the way you like.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup softened butter
1 package Philadelphia cream cheese (1/2 cup) softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Whisk all the ingredients until light and fluffy, then pipe on top of cupcakes, or spread on cake.

Red Velvet Cake for Journalism

I am going to attempt making a red velvet cake for the first time... I wanted to make it for my G period Journalism class, so the easiest version would be cupcakes. The cakes will be topped with a delicious cream cheese frosting, as one of my friend told me it works best with red velvet cake. Since I don't have gel paste food coloring, I am going to use regular food coloring, where just a few drops will give the cake the rich, devil-like-almost scarlet color. On top of the cakes i will make mini newspapers on top of the cakes, because it is a journalism class i am making them for. What the newspapers are going to be made out of.. I don't know just yet. Lets see how the cakes turn out :)

Mad over Doughnuts!

Biting into a warm, light and fluffy doughnut topped with a rich chocolatey glaze, covered with sprinkles is the perfect way to start the day. Total Decadence on the matter!
This week, for the first time, I attempted making doughnuts. The entire kitchen smelt of warm doughnuts, and the doughnuts tasted even better than they smelt! However, the recipe I used from the 99 cent chef's website had a small amount of sugar, so the next day, they tasted like bread. Next time making them, I would add more sugar. I made these with 2 glazes, chocolate and vanilla, (the one from the recipe) both came out very good. These were best eaten warm, because the next day they became more dense overnight. Don't get me wrong-- they were very tasty. However, when I make these again, i will leave them overnight before frying so the yeast can do more of it's magic. Also, I will fry them the day I am serving it.