Archive for the ‘Featured Holiday’ Category
Chocolate truffles are a delicious treat any day of the year and a sweet gift on Valentine’s day. Chocolate truffles are made of chocolate ganache – a mixture of chocolate and cream that is melted together – that is rolled into balls. The most traditional type of chocolate truffle is then rolled in cocoa powder, but truffles can be covered with a layer of chocolate, rolled in nuts, shredded coconut or even dusted with confectioners’ sugar before serving. The outer coating simply makes the ultra-creamy truffle easier to pick up, although the journey from hand to mouth is usually a short one when chocolate truffles are concerned!
While the term “truffles” can refer to candies, truffles are really “the fruiting bod[ies] of underground mushroom[s].” There are many types but the edible ones are highly prized for their flavor and rarity, and command a very high price. Chocolate truffles actually get their name from that classic, cocoa powder coating – not because they contain actual truffles – but because that cocoa powder on the round chocolates looks a lot like the dirt on similarly round truffles freshly pulled from the earth. Both are delicacies and immensely enjoyable, hence the name chocolate truffle.
Is there anything that salted caramel can’t make better? There are actually plenty of desserts out there that salted caramel can’t improve on (although it’s difficult to come up with more than a couple), but there are an even greater number that can go from good to great with a little bit of salted caramel mixed in. One of these recipes is a molten chocolate cake, a.k.a. chocolate lava cake. Molten chocolate cakes are served hot and are baked so that they have oozing chocolate centers that add an extra chocolate kick to each serving and make the cakes extra decadent. This variation on the standard recipe adds salted caramel to the filling, keeping all that chocolate while adding another layer of flavor.
I relied on salted caramels that I already had in my cupboard to make these cakes. Since you only need a couple of caramels, it is much easier to start with premade caramels than try to make a whole batch just to use a half dozen. The salted caramels I used were the Trader Joe’s Fleur de Sel Caramels, which are chewy and have a nice sweet-salty flavor to them. There are several other brands of salted caramels out there to choose from, too. If you can’t find them in your area, choose another buttery caramel candy (chewy and made with good quality ingredients, not a hard candy) and use those, adding a generous pinch of coarse sea salt along with each caramel into the chocolate cakes.
The caramel melts as the cakes bake, but holds its place in the center of the cake without being absorbed by the chocolate surrounding it. This means that you get a soft, gooey caramel center and a tender, rich chocolate cake all in one dessert. The salty-sweetness of the caramel is a great contrast to all that dark chocolate. The cakes must be served while they are still hot, or the caramel centers of the cakes will start to firm up and become sticky. If you grease and flour your muffin pans or ramekins, your cakes should come out pretty easily. Silicone molds are even easier to pop cakes out of. If your cakes do stick, however, take comfort in the fact that you can cover up any imperfections with whipped cream and you’ll still have an amazing dessert.
+Continue Reading
Red velvet is a popular cake, made with buttermilk, a hint of cocoa powder and a splash of red food coloring. The cake is usually topped with a rich cream cheese icing, which contributes to its popularity, but the bright red color of the cake is really what draws people in. This coloring also makes is a perfect choice for a Valentine’s Day treat, because it allows you to turn a simple dish into a a Valentine. You’ll need a little food coloring (regular or all natural) on hand, then you can treat your Valentine with one of these sweet, red velvet goodies:
- Red Velvet Pancakes are a great way to start off your Valentine’s Day breakfast. Pipe the pancake batter into heart shapes to make these pancakes look even more special.
- Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies are a completely non-traditional choice for a red velvet treat. These brownies are very fudgy, with a rich chocolate flavor, and still have a deep red hue to them. Instead of frosting, they feature a cheesecake swirl running through the brownies.
- Red Velvet Marble Cupcakes are moist and tender, and you get a great buttermilk flavor from the white cake and just enough cocoa flavor from the red velvet to make it stand out. Finish these off with a few heat-shaped sprinkles before you serve them!
- For a more dramatic cupcake, you can’t go wrong with Cream Filled Red Velvet Cupcakes. The creamy white filling inside of these cakes really stands out against the red cake. These updated snack cakes also make a great V-Day treat for kids and their friends.
- Whoopie pies are just as popular as cupcakes these days and Red Velvet Cake Whoopie Pies are a perfect way to acknowledge this trend. Soft, cake-like red velvet cookies sandwich a cream cheese filling for a portable snack that you can easily eat on the go.
Pack up your goodies in a heart-shaped box and don’t be surprised if you find yourself presented with some bright red roses as a thank you for your red velvet Valentine!
Marble cakes and cupcakes are usually made by swirling together vanilla and chocolate cake batters, but there is no reason that you can’t swirl together other flavors of cake to create different looks and add different flavors to a finished product. Red velvet cake batter is great for swirling into marble cakes because it lends such a vibrant color to the finished product, but it isn’t often seen in marble cakes.
Red velvet cake is usually a buttermilk cake with a hint of cocoa powder and some red food coloring. This recipe for marble cake starts out with a vanilla buttermilk cupcake batter, so I simply had to divide the batter and add a bit of cocoa powder and food coloring to a portion of it to transform it into red velvet. It is great when you don’t have to make two separate batters just to make a marble cake because it really streamlines the whole baking process. Gel food coloring is going to give you the very brightest red color, but regular food coloring works just as well (and that is what I used in this recipe). The amount doesn’t have to be exact, although I would err towards adding a few extra drops of coloring to ensure that you get that bright red color just to be on the safe side.
The finished cupcakes have a beautiful red and white swirled look to them, and you get the flavor of the buttery vanilla cake as well as the slightly chocolatey red velvet. The cupcakes are very moist and tender, too. I topped mine off with a vanilla cream cheese frosting, which is often paired with red velvet cakes (and is yummy, to boot!). These cupcakes are a wonderful treat for any occasion, but if you put them into some red or pink cupcake wrappers, they just might be the perfect treat for your Valentine, as well.
+Continue Reading
I think that holidays like Valentine’s Day always deserve a special breakfast. Why not start off the day on a good note? Of course, I could say the same thing about just about every morning, because I tend to think that every day should start out on just as good a note as the holidays. These pancakes are perfect for surprising your loved one – holiday or not. They’re heart-shaped Red Velvet Pancakes.
I took the inspiration for the pancakes from classic red velvet cake, which is typically flavored with a little bit of cocoa powder and a generous amount of buttermilk. In the cake, the cocoa flavor is noticeable, but there isn’t enough to really give the cake a chocolaty feel. It primarily lends some dark color to the cake (red in theory, as cocoa powder reacts with baking soda and takes a reddish tinge as a result). The real color of these pancakes, however, comes from food coloring just as the red color of a red velvet cake does. The more food coloring you use, the redder your pancakes will be. Take the amount given below as a guideline and color to your own specifications.
The pancakes are not too sweet because they’re meant to be topped with lots of syrup and maybe some whipped cream. You can definitely get the cocoa notes from them, as well as the rich flavor of buttermilk. They’re a nice change – both in taste and appearance – from regular pancakes. You can use a spoon to spread the batter into heart shapes or use a pastry bag to draw them. You can also place a heart-shaped cookie cutter on the hot pan and pour the batter right into it.
Serve with syrup, whipped cream, berries and a big kiss, too.
+Continue Reading
