Just my cup of Hot Chocolate...and Cappucino :)

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM............
My mouth is watering :)

If you haven't heard of Max Brenner's Chocolate Shop, check it out!! :)
The first time I heard about it was in Gold Coast after a tiring morning of surfing lessons .. thats right, I caught some waves! Wohooo! (and paid the price with sore arms and bruises :P)

Dan brought me to Max Brenner and I immediately fell in love with the whole atmosphere.. The store has a Willy Wonka-ness to it, and everything from the decor, to chocolate display, to the artfully crafted mugs/cups, I love it!

The Hug Mug! Cleverly crafted to fit into your palms, you cradle it and drink it through the tiny spout.. best for hot cocoa, a cold day, wrapped up in a blanket with a good book!

Dark Chocolate Hot Chocolate :)

And the Kangaroo Cup! :) Best for capuccinos and coffee.. it has a tiny groove on the side that holds cubes of chocolate, and as you sip your delicious coffee, the warmth melts the chocolate, and you use the lick part of the spoon to scrape the melted chocolate into your cup, and the mix end of the spoon to stir it all together! :) Buyers beware: There will be alot of licking :P

I think there's something going on with wearing green to Max Brenner's :P

Ps: Guess who's got herself a Hug Mug??! That's righttttt.. yours truly! :) Thank you dear, you spoil me!

All You Need Is...

LOVE.

...However, that is just not acceptable in todays standards.. so I have revised my plan of action:

"All you need is Love + Faith + Trust + Sufficient Funds.."

Oh wait, I forgot. And CHOCOLATE.

Yes, the world needs more chocolate. :) I rest my case.

Happy Nutella Day!

I remember how I had an obsessions with everything Nutella.. the first time I had some I went a little wild... tee hee! I was eating nutella from the jar, and spreading it on crackers and bread! Yummm!- I just couldn't get enough of this wonderful treat!

Well, today is the day all Nutella fans only dream of! It's another good excuse to bust out the Nutella jar, and make delicious desserts! :D

In honor of National Nutella Day, I decided to teach Nishan how to make Tiramisu (I forgot to take pictures of that!!), make Nutella brownies and Nutella Truffles!! Yumm!

Nutella Truffles!

Sweetness to die for :D

Ingredients:

1 bottle of Nutella

100g dark chocolate

4 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Cocoa Powder, dark chocolate and nuts for topping

1. In a bowl, melt Nutella, dark chocolate, honey and butter on a double boiler while stirring constantly.
2. Remove the bowl and slowly stir it- it'll start to solidify pretty quickly.. just keep stirring it and scraping the sides. I shaped the Nutella mix into a lump and refrigerate for an hour or so.
3. Working quickly, spoon a tablespoon of the Nutella mix and roll into balls. Refrigerate to let it harden and then roll onto cocoa powder or dip in chocolate topped with nuts! :D Yummm

Nutella Brownies with Dark Chocolate

Melt-in-Your-Mouth-Ooey-Gooey-Goodness!

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup Nutella

3oz dark chocolate, melted

2 eggs

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional nuts, or chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate. Sift flour and salt together in a bowl.

3. Whisk butter and cocoa powder till light and fluffy.

4. Add sugar, nutella and melted dark chocolate.
5. Beat in eggs one at a time.

6. Add in the sifted flour and salt into the wet ingredients. Slowly fold in the dry ingredients and mix everything. Add in optional chocolate chips or nuts, and fold into the mixture.

7. Pour brownie mix into a nonstick pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool, cut and enjoy!


Recipes credit to Sunita's World and Bake Bake Bake, respectedly.

The Week Kelly Came to Stay,

..we had a cooking and baking adventure! :D

The list of goodies we made! (and bought): *drumroll, please!*

1. Dove Chocolate (because I'm such a sucker for dark chocolate and those cute wrapper quotes!)

2. H-mart Spicy and Sweet chicken!! Yumm...

3. Kelly's Creamed Corn!

...and the best thing of all...

4. Guinness cupcakes with Baileys Irish Cream frosting!

If you must know, the star of this post would obviously be the cupcakes, because it turned out so unexpectedly delicious, and the best thing about it is that it wasn't too sweet, but just right!

Anyone who knows me know that I have a soft spot for a bottle of G. every once in awhile.. and yes, even though it is predominantly a "man's man's drink", I toss aside all the chest hair growth comments and drink up every last drop :) That's right.. *grinn*

So here's the recipe I got from Nook and Pantry which, by the way, has Amazing recipes on hand!! I definitely recommend checking it out! :D When I gave my muffins away, I didn't tell the person my main ingredient.. just the Baileys part.. haha until they bit into the muffin and declared it a success (because Guinness tends to turn women away :P) ...and it worked!

Guiness Cupcakes with Baileys Cream Cheese Frosting :)

Light, fluffy and full of flavour! Every Guinness lover's dream

Cupcake Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cups cocoa powder (I use the Ghiradelli ones!)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar

4oz (1/2 cups) unsalted butter

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 12fl.oz bottle of Guinness Extra Stout

1. Preheat to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pans with paper cups (we made about 25 or so)

2. In a large bowl, sieve flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy (yes, it takes awhile when you don't have a mixer!)

4. Add one egg at a time and beat then add vanilla.

5. Add sour cream and beat in, then slowly pour the Guinness

--> Note: Don't be alarmed if it starts to clump and look a little funky, just keep stirring and everything will start to mix!

6. Slowly add in dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, all the while still mixing. Scrape down the sides often and make sure there are no flour pockets hidden.

7. Pour into prepared muffin pans and bake for about 20-25 minutes. The toothpicks should come out clean. Cool on rack.

---> Note: The original recipe notes to turn the pans halfway through baking time, but I would try not to open the oven too many times as the batter tends to sink in

Baileys Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
1 8oz cream cheese, softened

1 4oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups confectioner's (powdered) sugar

2-4 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream (Be as generous as you would like!)

1. Beat butter, cream cheese, and sugar till light and fluffy.

2. Slowly drizzle in the Baileys and stir in.

3. Allow the muffins to cool completely before piping on frosting.

4. Dig in! and Enjoy! Yummm

Does it not look amazingly scrumptious??!! Ahhh!! Baking success! :)

Kelly's yummy creamed corn and the H-mart chicken! Mmmmmmmm

Dove Dark Chocolates Hearts! Too bad Martha has horrible ideas, and taking away from the cute Valentine quotes they used to have on the wrappers :(

Chocolate Chocolate Cake...

I've always been a snob for good chocolate cake-which is probably the reason why I have never really tried to make one of my own..

Growing up, my mom was always cooking, and baking (mostly baking)- and the one big thing to request for during birthdays and big celebrations was her Famous Chocolate Cake.

Now I wish I could say I have the recipe on hand, but the dear mother refuses to share it with me, and thus I am in the dark. I haven't had in it oh, say 8 years already.. but I can still remember that smell of chocolate cake baking in the oven..and it's oh so deliciousness..

MMMMMMM

Sweet, but not too sweet..

Moist on the inside, yet perfectly chewy on the sides...

Yes, the sides.. mmm my favourite parts :D

And the thing is, compared to alot of chocolate cakes that I've seen, my mom's cake doesn't have that overbearing pile of frosting.. I'm not a fan of frosting only because her cakes never really had that.. although I think there was a very thin dark chocolate glaze that covered the entire cake..

Oh My! I'm drooling now thinking about it!

So aniways, last Friday was Gaya's birthday, and her hubby decided to throw her a surprise bday party (dinner+dancing+the works)!! :)

Prabu, her husband whisked her off to the salon in the afternoon (accompanied by Bel), while the rest of us came prepared to help cut, chop, and cook curry, rice, chapati, and veggies!

I decided to bake a cake for Gaya, and after discussing it with Prabu, I scrapped the Strawberry Shortcake Cake idea (which btw, I found the best looking recipe! <--I say that because I haven't exactly made it, but it looks like a winner so far ;)), and decided to go with Barefoot Contessa's Choc. Cake recipe...

It was a little two sweet, but overall I think people liked it..

-And thanks to Nishan who was a good sport and helped me bake the cake.. and even though we ran into some problems (springform pans leaking, cake too flat, cake stuck to bottom of pan, spatula dillema (tee hee!), frosting shortage..- you get the idea), I think we managed to do pretty well for first timers! :D

C'est Voila!

Barefoot Contessa's Beatty's Chocolate Cake

For the cake batter:

Butter (to grease the pans)

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cups good dutch cocoa powder (I used Ghiradelli)

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup veggie oil

2 extra-large eggs (room temperature)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Butter 2 9in round pans - line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

3. Sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl and mix on low speed (or by hand) until combined.

4. In bowl #2, combine buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla.

5. With mixer on low speed, slowly add in the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Add the coffee and stir just to combine.

6. Pour batter into both pans, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, til the toothpick test comes out clean :)

7. Cool the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

For Chocolate Frosting:

6oz semi-sweet chocolate

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 extra-large egg, (room temperature)

1 1/4 cup sifted confectioners/powdered sugar

1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

1. Chop chocolate (or use chocolate chips) and melt in a double boiler. Turn of heat and let cool to room temperature.

2. In a bowl, beat butter on medium speed (or by hand) til light and fluffy (3 mins), add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating (2 mins).

3. Turn mixer on low, and gradually add in the confectioners sugar, then beat on medium speed til lsmooth and creamy.

4. Dissolve coffee powder in 2 tablespoon of hot water. On low speed, add in the coffee and melted chocolate to the butter mixture and mix til blended. (Do Not Whip!) <--Spread immediately on cooled cake.

Assembling your cake:

1. Place your cake, 1st layer flat side up on a pedestal or plate. With a knife, spread the top with frosting (don't be afraid to be generous!).

2. Place the 2nd layer, rounded side up on top of the 1st layer, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.

----> (And to decorate): Garnish with chocolate covered strawberries or fresh fruits! :D

ENJOY!