Recipe of the week: Chocolate Lava Cakes

ATTENTION CHOCOHOLICS! This recipe is a MUST HAVE!!!

Melt-in-your mouth lava cakes look like little chocolate cupcakes but when you cut in the middle, a gooey surprise awaits! Top with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Make sure to use a good quality chocolate such as Green & Blacks or Michel Cluizel for extra richness.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter

8 oz semi-sweet chocolate, broken into pieces

4 eggs

4 egg yolks

3/4 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 400 F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper cups (they will be removed later). Melt butter and chocolate over low heat or in double boiler. Beat eggs and egg yolks with sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add chocolate mixture and vanilla and mix until well incorporated. Add flour by hand until just combined. Divide in prepared muffin tin (they will very full, but not too worry because they won't rise).

Bake for 10 minutes, not one minute longer or you will not get the gooey center. Remove from oven muffin tin and serve immediately (don't forget to remove the paper cup!). Dust with icing sugar and top with ice cream. YUMMMMMMMY!

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Doll Cakes

Doll or Barbie cakes are by far the most popular type of cakes for little princesses! They are so much fun to make as the "dress" (or cake) can be decorated many ways. To make a doll cake, you have to start with an inverted cake, or cake baked in a bowl. Once cooled, you can cut in layers as you would with a standard cake to create height. Frost as normal and decorate with coloured buttercream or fondant.

This Barbie cake was created for my friend's bridal shower. Both the "dress" and base are made of cake and would serve around 100 people. Fondant was used to create flow and dimension. The pattern on the base was created with a patterned matt (available at cake decorating stores) and the pearls on the dress were pastel dragees.

The Tinkerbell cake on the left is a smaller doll cake I made for a 6 year old's birthday. It was frosted with pastel pink and lavender buttercream. Doll picks are available at Bulk Barn to create a simple doll cake and come in blond, brunette, light and dark-skinned. If using a real Barbie, remove the bottom clothing and wrap the legs with saran wrap before inserting in the cake so that it won't get smeared with cake and icing.

The last picture is a castle cake in which both the castle and base are cake while the doll figurines sit on top.

Recipe of the week: Classic Tiramisu

Tira-mi-su in in Italian means "pick me up"- the strong espresso and rich mascarpone cheese adds real punch to this classic Italian cake. I hate it when people substitute the mascarpone for cream cheese or whipping cream- then it becomes an ordinary trifle! Tiramisu is delicious year-round. Some people make it in a pan since the cream is too runny to stand on it's own, but this recipe makes a mousse-like cream that you don't need a pan for!




2 pkgs Savoiardi cookies (Italian ladyfingers)
1 cup brewed espresso coffee, cooled to room temperature
1/2 cup Marsala wine
2 tbsp granulated sugar
4 eggs (room temperature), divided
4 tbsp granulated sugar
1 container Mascarpone cheese, room temperature (I prefer Galbani)
Cocoa powder for dusting
1 inch ribbon, for decoration

Prepare cake on a rectangular cake board (about 12" x 18"). Combine espresso, Marsala and 2 tbsp sugar in a shallow bowl. Set aside. Beat 4 eggs yolks with 4 tbsp sugar until light and fluffy. Add mascarpone cheese with a paddle attachment or by hand until well incorporated. Do not beat or mixture will curdle. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg whites in mascarpone mixture.  Dip cookies, one by one, on both sides in espresso mixture, placing side-by-side on board. Do not soak or cake will be mushy. Make sure to leave 2" on all four sides. Once one layer is made, pour 1/3 of mascarpone mixture on cookies and spread evenly. Dust with cocoa powder. Repeat with cookies and cheese mixture 2 more times for a 3-layered cake. Cover completely with cocoa powder. Cut remaining cookies in half and press along sides of cake to form a "gate". Add ribbon around cookies for a elegant presentation!

Cookie and Chocolate Favors

I come from a traditional Italian family, where bomboniere, or favors are a ritual for weddings, showers and christenings. They're usually something for the kitchen or a little something that will never be used (and can sometimes be found at the Dollar Store!).

Instead of giving something that will collect dust or be thrown out, why not give a treat that will taste as good as it looks? Here are some pics of my cookie and truffle favors. They are customizable to theme, colour, and flavour and make a real statement to your next event!

This picture is an example of cookie favors for a baby shower. They can be wrapped individually in cellophane and tied with a satin ribbon. The cookies themselves are sugar cookies with fondant and royal icing.

These miniature wedding cakes are actually truffles! You can have them in white, milk or dark chocolate and fit perfectly in one of these boxes:

Recipe of the week: Oreo Cheesecake

Cheesecake is by far my favorite type of cake. You can play around with flavours, add cookies, nuts or chocolate to the batter and change up the crust to serve all year round. But, how many times have you made a cheesecake that was hard and dense, with large cracks on top that you wondered how to cover them up? Well, after 20 years of baking, I finally found the secret to making a cheesecake that was so silky, smooth and crack-free that it resembled cutting through soft butter: a bain-marie! For the novice bakers, a bain-marie is the French term for a water-bath. This method is commonly used to make custards, souffles and creme caramel (or flan), so I adopted it to my cheesecake and voila! True indulgence! Do not, and I repeat, do not use light cream cheese as you will not get the true silkiness or flavour needed. Instead, just eat a sliver, or burn the extra calories washing the dishes that your guests will use once they polish off their plates!

Picture courtesy of kraftfoods.com

Oreo New York-style Cheesecake

Crust:

1 1/4 cups Oreo crumbs

1/4 cup melted butter

Batter:

4 pkgs Philadelphia regular cream cheese, at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

1 cup regular sour cream                                         

2 tsp. vanilla extract

10 oreo cookies, broken in large pieces

Preheat oven to 350 F. For crust, combine crumbs with butter until combined. Press along bottom and up sides of springform pan. Do not bake. Cover bottom of pan with aluminum foil and set aside.

Boil a large pot of water (or a tea kettle) while preparing the batter. Beat cream cheese with flat beater (do not overmix). Add sugar and mix until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time until well incorporated. Add sour cream, vanilla and oreos until just combined. Pour into prepared crust and put pan in a larger casserole or roasting pan. Pour water in this pan until halfway up sides of springform pan. Bake for 1 hour or until just set (middle of the cake will still jiggle when shaken). Allow to cool on baking rack to room temperature before refrigerating. Top with more Oreos!

Massimo's Birthday Cake

Which 5 year old boy doesn't like Spiderman? For my son Massimo's 5th Birthday, I made him a 3D Spiderman cake! The head was made of Rice Krispies and the whole cake was covered in red fondant. The white and blue were also fondant while the black webs were made of royal icing tinted black. When making dark coloured fondant or icing, you'll need to use quite a bit of paste colour and need a lot of muscle to work it through. One tip: use the dough hook on your mixer to do the work for you!

Recipe of the week: Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes

This recipe is great for all who are lactose-intolerant and allergic to eggs:

1 cup soy milk

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

1 1/4 tsp all purpose flour

2 tbsp. cornstarch

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 cup canola oil

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine soy milk and vinegar. Let stand a few minutes until curdled. Sift flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl. Beat together soy mixture, oil, sugar and vanilla in another bowl. Add dry ingredients to wet. Spoon into cupcake liners. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre is dry.

Vegan Vanilla Frosting:

1 cup unsalted margarine

2 cups sifted icing sugar

1/4 cup soy milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth and lump free. Pipe or spread on cooled cupcakes. Can be coloured with Wilton gel colours (available at Bulk Barn).

My first Blog!

Thanks for visiting my site. OK, I'm not totally computer illiterate, but thanks to my friend Anastasia I finally figured out how to set up my blog. For my first post, I wanted to share pictures of some cakes I made this past summer. The first is an Elmo birthday cake for Isabella who turned 1! This cake is totally edible , including Elmo's nose and eyes which are made of rice krispies (covered with fondant). The number "1" is also made of fondant. The icing on Elmo's body is a traditional Italian buttercream (not the sugary stuff). I'm sure Isabella and her friends left the party with red tongue and teeth! Elmo can be replaced as any type of 3D bear or animal for a special 1st birthday cake.