Swirling in Chocolate

March starts a string of celebrations in my house. Some of the nearest and dearest people in my life, like my dad and sister, are March babies. And I found myself a March born husband, who grew a year older wiser last week =). My usual self would've cooked him a nice meal on his birthday and rushed to the bakery for a cake. Make that chocolate cake for the chocolate lover. But I was in a particularly adventurous mood this time and decided to bake a cake myself - a cheesecake - with chocolate swirls - and chocolate decorations!

Modern art =)

I went through several recipes of chocolate cakes online and finally settled on one on the back of Philadelphia cream cheese packet in my fridge! Sometimes you find inspiration in the most unexpected places.  The recipe only listed out the steps without going into details. So I got some tips from none other than David Overton:

• Line your baking pan with parchment paper to get the cake out easily. You can also use aluminum foil.
• Use water bath to get that smooth, creamy texture - although I got lazy and baked mine without one.
• Turn the oven to high only for a short while and then turn it down to finish. Since my cake was made out of only one packet of cream cheese, I kept the beginning temperature at 350F. It was just right for the size of my cake.
• Be patient and let the cheesecake cool for at least 4 hours. Trust me, I can get impatient, but this cake tasted a whole lot better the next day. 

Instead of the usual graham crackers for crust, I used Anna's Almond Thins. They so flavorful on their own that the crust didn't require any other spices. I had to add some chocolate to the cake. The idea of swirling some dark chocolate seemed better than adding it to the entire batter. It made the cake look much prettier as well. The only negative about the swirls was, the cake let off some steam through those swirls and ended up cracking it a little bit. Maybe a water bath would've prevented it from cracking. But the cake came out intact and the texture wasn't affected at all.

Chocolate decorations - simple embellishment! 

Cheesecake seemed like the perfect base to stick some chocolate decorations I had recently learned to make from Jean-Pierre Wybauw's book 'chocolate'. Cover a flat sheet/pan/dish with some sugar, put some melted baking chocolate in piping bag and pipe the design you like. Keep it in the fridge to cool for 20 mins or until the chocolate hardens completely. As simple as that. The chocolate shapes come out pretty glistening with sugar granules.

Happy Birthday, dear hubby!

Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake 

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 Dozen almond crackers
2 Tablespoons butter - melted

Filling:
1 Pack (8oz.) cream cheese
1/3 Cup sugar
2 Tablespoons sour cream
1/2 Teaspoon vanilla
2 Teaspoons Bailey's
1 Egg
1 Oz baking chocolate

Preheat oven at 350 degree F.
Line your baking pan (bottom and sides) with parchment paper or aluminum foil .

Crust:

• Crush almond crackers in the food processor and mix with 2 tbsp melted butter. You can use more crackers depending on how thick you like the crust.
• Press this mixture at the bottom of the pan using spatula or a glass. Keep pan in the freezer until you work on the filling.

Filling:

• Combine the cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, vanilla and bailey's (optional) and beat until smooth and well blended. 
• Break egg in a separate bowl and whisk it quickly with a fork. Beat the egg with the cream cheese mixture only until it's well incorporated. Do not over beat. 
• Pull out the baking pan from the fridge and pour the mixture into it.
• Melt chocolate in the microwave 30 seconds at a time until it's completely melted. To make swirls, pour chocolate thinly over the filling making zig-zag shapes or circles. Take a toothpick or a  skewer and start swirling the chocolate around gently. Don't muddle the shapes.
• Once you have a pretty looking design, bake the cake at 350 degrees for 15 mins and then turn the temperature down to 250 and bake for another 30 mins or until the filling is set.  
• Let the cake cool and then refrigerate for 4 hours minimum until you serve. 

Hubby was very happy with the surprise cake and couldn't get enough of it. He said he won't need to go to the Cheesecake Factory again!

Time For Some Chocolate!

Every girls needs her share of princess-like treatment. Ladies, I see you nodding your head in agreement (and the men can roll their eyes all they want). Between office-cooking-cleaning-entertaining-cleaning some more-cooking again, it is only fair that we crave the occasional pampering. It can be something as simple as shutting the kitchen and going out for dinner or as fancy as a day at the spa. Whatever your choice of activity, kick off your shoes and enjoy some 'you' time once in a while.

I was in a 'happy zone', as I call it, after an awesome spa treatment yesterday. It was just what I needed after a grueling week at work. As I was sitting there, getting pampered, I could think of nothing but some chocolate! A decadent chocolaty treat and maybe a glass of wine following the spa treatment would've been the epitome of self-indulgence. Maybe a chocolate dessert with alcohol - what a great idea =D.

After a few minutes of browsing my favorite bloggers' pages and some others, I settled on this recipe. It seemed like the perfect five-ingredient-fix, with my addition of the sixth to make it a little naughty ;). A rich chocolate cake with a warm, ooey-gooey chocolaty surprise in the center is pure bliss! I've always been a sucker for molten chocolate cakes. How can one resist a decadent personalized chocolate cake with some berries on the side or a big scoop of ice-cream melting on top. Then you take a bite, and there it is - a pool of pure deliciousness. Rich molten chocolate oozes out of the cake - that molten chocolate muddled cake is the best surprise package ever! If I knew this cake was so easy to make, it would've made frequent rounds of my dining table. Molten chocolate cake it was, spiked with equally delicious Baileys Irish Cream. Talk about pampering!

The original recipe made 6 individual cakes. I cut the proportions in thirds to make enough for the two of us.

Molten Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
2 oz. Semi-sweet chocolate (2 Baker's chocolate squares)
3 1/3 Tablespoons butter
1/2 Cup powdered sugar
1/6 Cup all purpose flour
1 Whole egg
1 Egg yolk
2-3 Teaspoons Baileys Irish Cream (based on how spiked you want it)

Pre-prep:

• Preheat oven at 425F.
• Butter two ramekins or custard cups and keep aside (use plenty of butter so the cakes come out clean). You can also use a parchment paper to line the cups. 

Method:

• Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl in the microwave for about 2 mins. Stir to mix well. 
• Add sugar, all purpose flour, one whole egg, one egg yolk and Baileys and whisk together until you have a smooth batter. No hand mixie required! 
• Pour half-and-half batter in the greased ramekins and bake for 14-15 minutes. Make sure the top of the cake is baked so it doesn't break while taking out. 
• Let it sit for 3-4 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the cake to remove it easily. Place the dessert plate on top of the ramekin and turn it upside down quickly. This way, your cake will come out in one piece. 

Sprinkle some powdered sugar. I had nothing to garnish the cake with, but you can serve it with some strawberries or raspberries, walnuts, chocolate sauce, caramel, berry sauce or your favorite ice-cream. The serving options are endless and the result is thoroughly satisfying.

Have a great weekend!

Chocolaty Delight

The  no-baking spell has been broken, finally! Remember how I talked about my baking (or not)...well, I've proven myself wrong. Last Thursday at 10:00pm when I had an uncontrollable sweet craving, I did something unthinkable. I went into the kitchen, pulled out the baking ingredients lingering around from some previous projects and actually BAKED fresh chocolate-macadamia cookies from scratch (patting myself on the back!).

When I was wondering how I would use up the leftover baking chocolate (which has made its way into a mousse, sandwich, fruit cups and some other recipes yet refuses to get over), Saee from My Jhola posted this this microwave chocolate cake recipe. The simplicity of the recipe was too compelling not to give it a shot.

I convinced myself that I totally earned myself a little chocolaty treat after the long tiring hike we went for yesterday. I mean, I must've burned like 5000 calories right?? Okay, maybe not..but I figured some chocolate would help me forget about the sore muscles :D. I reached into the pantry to take out the all purpose flour, and guess what? It was nowhere to be found! Stupid, stupid me...I forgot it got over when I made the cookies. Well, cooking (or baking in this case) is all about thinking on your feet and I decided to make whole wheat chocolate cake. Maybe I was just meant to give this a little healthier spin. I also substituted the Nutella with chocolate fudge which is what I had in the house.

I've submitted this for the following event: http://myeasytocookrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/05/chocolate-recipes.html

A picture is worth a thousand words

Microwave Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 Oz. Baking chocolate - I used Baker's brand

2 Tablespoons chocolate fudge - my substitution for Nutella 

3 Tablespoons milk

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1 Teaspoon coffee powder

2-3 Pinches baking soda

1 egg

Raspberry for garnishing (optional)

• Melt the baking chocolate in the microwave - takes about 1-1.5 minutes. 
• Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and whisk it for a couple of minutes by hand. I used a little more baking powder than the original recipe fearing the whole wheat wouldn't rise as well.
• Pour the mixture in ramekins (only about half way...the cake rises quite a lot) or cups and microwave for 2 minutes. Perform the toothpick test and cook for another 30 seconds if needed. It took me 2.5 minutes. 
• Garnish with some powdered sugar and raspberry.  

I absolutely loved how simple this recipe was. Not having any butter was yet another reason to love it. I didn't miss all purpose flour at all. I would've liked a little more sugar though - maybe 3 tbsp instead of 2. But the cake was unbelievably soft and fluffy. And it took only 2.5 minutes to bake..how can you beat that?? I'm amazed. Delectable chocolaty personal treats.

As I was in the process of making this cake, hubby came by:

Hubby: What are you doing?

Me: Making a chocolate cake

Hubby: Why are you making me fat? (trying to hide excitement over the cake)

Me: Because I love you!

:)

Flowers And Chocolates...

Some say Valentine's Day is highly over-rated and commercialized; but what's so wrong in taking some time out of our busy lives to do something special for our loved ones? My husband and I celebrated our first Valentine's Day together this year and I wanted to surprise him by making something he would love. If there is one thing he loves next to ice-cream, it's dark chocolate. My sister had made a delicious semi-sweet chocolate mousse (no sugar added!) once and I wanted to give it a shot. She couldn't find the original recipe so I used my own judgement and made this mousse based on the method she told me. However clichéd, there is nothing better than flowers and chocolates to say 'I love you' and this chocolate mousse is just perfect to go with those flowers :).

Chocolate Mousse


Ingredients:

2 Oz. semi-sweet baking chocolate - I used Baker's Semi-sweet Chocolate Squares(2 squares)

1 Egg white

¾  Cup heavy cream

½ Teaspoon vanilla essence

1 Teaspoon orange liqueur

• Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks start forming. Keep the whipped cream in the fridge until you work on the other ingredients.
• Melt the chocolate in the microwave. This is extremely simple – no melting over boiling water! Keep the chocolate in the microwave on HIGH for about 30 seconds. Remove and stir. Pop it in the oven for another 20 seconds, take out and stir again. Do this until the chocolate melts completely. It takes about 1.5 minutes or so. Keep aside.
• Separate the white of one egg. Beat the egg until it is foamy and starts forming a shape.
• The chocolate should be slightly cooled off by the time you get your egg ready. It should be just warm enough to stay gooey. Fold in a third of the egg white and the vanilla essence and orange lequeur in the melted chocolate. It is safer to add the liqueur with the egg whites so that it doesn't harden the chocolate.
• Fold in the remaining egg white by thirds. Fold in the whipped heavy cream spoon by spoon. Make sure you handle it very gently because keeping the mousse soft and fluffy is the idea. Pop the mousse in the fridge for 15-20 minutes and it’s ready to serve.
• Serve the mousse with some shaved chocolate, whipped cream, raspberries, strawberries or whatever rocks your boat. I just used some shaved chocolate and bright colored flower petals for decoration =).

This was very easy to make compared to some other recipes I saw online. You can add any kind of flavoring such as espresso, amaretto liqueur etc. The above recipe makes decent sized portions for two.