Cake Pops in Green and Blue

I have been waiting to make these little suckers (get it??) for a long time, but never had a special occasion to make them until the other day. Cake pops are ingenious. If you're like me, then a slice of cake can sometimes make you feel so guilty about eating the whole thing. So what does someone invent? A little bite-sized piece of cake that tastes good and looks good too. You won't feel bad about eating one of these because they're so small.

Thanks Jamie for being my hand model. :)


I have to admit, my first batch of cake turned into a disaster when my friend and I added too much frosting to the cake. I originally wanted to make red velvet and strawberry cake pops, but the strawberry frosting was a little too creamy for the cake resulting in a mushy mess. We had to toss the wonderful strawberry cake, but the lesson was learned -- add only half the frosting at first until you're absolutely positive that you need more. Luckily, I had a box of chocolate cake lying around so I replaced the strawberry with chocolate.

These cake pops are surprisingly easy to make, albeit very VERY time consuming. Thank goodness my friend, Jamie, decided to come over, otherwise, I would've been baking away and assembling these little guys for a LONG time. All together, 50-some cake pops took the two of us about 3-4 hours to make! Imagine if I ventured into this project alone!

Here is what you need as adapted from The Hungry Housewife:

1 Box red velvet cake mix (or chocolate cake mix)

1 can cream cheese frosting (or chocolate frosting)

50 lollipop sticks

Candy melts of your choice

Directions:

1. Bake a cake per the box directions
2. Let cool completely
3. Crumble cake or use a fork to scrape the cake. (Avoid the hard sides of the cake)
4. Transfer crumbled cake to a large bowl.
5. Put a can of cream cheese frosting into the crumbled cake and mix until completely combined.
6. Roll cake mixture into balls the size of about a quarter and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or other non stick surface.
7. Melt your chocolate per package directions
8. Dip one end of your lollipop stick into the candy melts (works as a glue) and then place the end into the cake ball about half way. (Look at picture below)
9. Place them in the freezer to they get nice and firm.
10. One they are nice and hard you can dip them in the melted chocolate.
11. Place them in a block of Styrofoam and decorate them with whatever you have on hand like sprinkles.
12. Place them in the fridge covered or you can keep them at room temp for a couple of days if covered.

Putting the sticks into the cake pops using the "glue" of the candy melts.


Final product!

Chocolate Raspberry Loaf

A good friend came over today for a baking party. I love baking parties. There's nothing like baking something yummy and sharing it with a friend. Too bad I'm still on my diet and was only able to eat a bite-sized piece of this absolutely delicious chocolate raspberry loaf. Is there anything better than the combination of chocolate and raspberry? I think I may like it more than chocolate and strawberry. On a side note, whoever thought chocolate and orange would go well together must've been out of their mind.

Anyways, I found a wonderful recipe online, and we tweaked it so that it was a little diet-friendly. This loaf smelled absolutely wonderful out of the oven! The fresh raspberries really up this chocolate loaf. I think next time, I will double the recipe so that the loaf is bigger and add raspberry extract to the batter as well. It seems like the extract will enhance the aroma of raspberries even more. The result was a light, delicious, raspberry, chocolate loaf, not too sweet either which is a bonus to any Asian palate. Today's baking party = Success!



Recipe taken from this blog:

1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder (use a high quality one)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup raspberry puree, strained
Vanilla extract
1 stick and 1/4 butter, softened, at room temperature
1 cup sugar (Used splenda)
3 large eggs

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
Combine the raspberry puree with the extract and set aside.
3. Beat the softened butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Beat the 3 eggs together in a small pitcher. Drizzle them into the softened butter & sugar mixture slowly, all the while beating the ingredients together.
5. After the mixture has come together (it must be smooth), add in 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Fold this in gently.
6. Fold in half of the raspberry puree mixture.
7. Fold in the remaining half of the dry ingredients, followed by the rest of the raspberry puree.
8. Finish off with the last third of the dry ingredients.
9. Bake this in a loaf tin (or any other tin you desire...) until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
10. Consume the warm cake with joy in your hearts, and your house will smell like heaven.

Healthy Brownies for a Healthy Lifestyle

Are you on a diet? I am. Having friends who want every food that they can't have when they go off to school is cause for a few extra pounds on the scale. For a couple weeks, I willingly and enjoyably tagged along to all these yummy eateries with friends who needed their "last hurrah" before leaving. It was a happy time. However, when they left, all that was left of their presence was my double chin. Yum~ So I've decided to go on a diet in the meantime to shed all those fish and shrimp tacos, carne asada fries, sushi rolls, sandwiches, and countless amounts of desserts.

BUT I'M A BAKER AND CHOCOLATE ADDICT! The diet wasn't too bad to begin with, but my chocolate craving started creeping up on me into the 4th day. I frantically looked all over the internet for something that I could enjoy. The result: these healthy brownies made with NO flour or butter. Let me tell you right off the bat, these are not going to taste like normal brownies -- those chewy, dense, full-fat chunks of chocolate and butter. No, this recipe is for those who don't want to break your diet, but can't resist a little chocolate pleasure. This is the recipe for you.

Traditionally, brownies are made with flour, sugar, eggs, butter, and cocoa. I took the same concept, but exchanged the flour for almond meal, sugar for splenda, and butter for oil. Yeah, it doesn't sound like the brownies would taste very good, but remember?? We're on a diet.

almond meal


ghirardelli's cocoa


Don't get me wrong, I think the brownies taste good. The final product came out not as dense, a little nuttier flavored, and not as sweet. I would make this again in the future in order to save a few pounds.

Here's the recipe for the healthiest brownie you will ever try. If you want to try this recipe in its normal form, I heard it produces pretty good brownies.


Cocoa Brownies

Ingredients

1/2 cup oil (I used vegetable oil)

1-1/4 cup white sugar (Used Splenda)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup all-purpose flour (used almond meal)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour 8-inch square pan.

In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Gently stir in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Espresso Macarons

For a long time now, I have passively perused through a countless amount of recipes for macarons - not to be confused with coconut macaroons. I have only read how difficult they are to make and how temperamental they could be. Not only did I read about its difficulty, but I also read about a ridiculous number of failures. In short, I was a little nervous about making these little desserts.

But everyone's gotta get over their fears someday, right? Right. On top of that, I purchased my first scale for baking. Now, all the recipes that call for measurements by weight, I have no problem going for it! So off I went to Trader Joes to buy all the necessary ingredients.

Call it beginner's luck, but my first time was quite enjoyable and, more importantly, successful!

Here are the egg whites ready to be whisked into soft peaks.


Combining the sugar, almond flour, and cocoa.


This was the tricky part, folding the whites into the dry ingredients until it looks something like "magma".


And the little shells right out of the oven. Look! Little feet!


Final product - dark chocolate shells with chocolate espresso ganache filling.


Chocolate Macarons adapted from Annie's Eats
Ingredients:
For the macarons:
110 gm almond flour
200 gm minus 2 tbsp. confectioners' sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
100 gm egg whites (from about 3 eggs), room temperature
50 gm granulated sugar

For the espresso ganache:
½ cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tbsp. granulated sugar
4 tbsp. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1½ tsp. espresso powder

Directions:
Sift the almond flour, powdered sugar, and cocoa in a bowl. Set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites on medium-high speed until foamy. Gradually add the granulated sugar and continue beating until a smooth, shiny meringue with stiff peaks forms. Add the ground almond mixture to the bowl with the meringue and quickly but gently fold together using a wide rubber spatula until no streaks remain. You want to achieve a thick batter that ribbons or flows from the spatula when lifted.

Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats. Transfer the batter to a piping bag fitted with a plain wide round tip. Pipe into small rounds on the prepared baking sheets (each round should be about 1-1½ inches in diameter), spaced about 1 inch apart. Let sit at room temperature for about 30-60 minutes to develop a hard shell.

Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on size and your oven. Transfer the pans to a wire cooling rack and let cool completely before moving the cookies.

While the cookies are cooling, make the ganache. Combine the cream, butter and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Place the chopped chocolate in a small heatproof bowl. Bring the cream mixture to a simmer, remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Let stand 2 minutes, then whisk gently in small circular motions until the ganache forms. Blend in the espresso powder. Let the mixture cool until it is thick enough to pipe. (To speed chilling, transfer the bowl to the freezer or refrigerator and let cool, stirring every 10 minutes, until thickened.)

Once the cookies are totally cooled, match them up by size. Pipe a layer of ganache onto the flat side of one cookie of each pair. Sandwich together with the remaining cookie, pushing the filling to the edges. Store in an airtight container.

Bruschetta

Do you know what it means when summer comes around? I do -- tomato season. It is the best time to buy tomatoes because it's their season to shine. Now, if you live in America, you probably didn't know that because markets here carry them year-round. Strange, huh? Makes you wonder where those tomatoes come from in December.

To be honest, I'm actually not a tomato-y person. Yeah, I'll say it...I dislike raw tomatoes. The only way you can get me to enjoy them in that state is when it is part of a salsa or in bruschetta. So there I was, standing at the market, looking at all the bright looking tomatoes -- Red ones, orange ones, and yellow ones. They actually looked really yummy, so I bought some.



The best way to make bruschetta is to toast the bread, rub garlic on it (gently, and not too much because the spice of the garlic will really kick in), and top it with the tomato mixture.



To make the topping, I cut up 1 tomato of each color, added 2 small cloves of garlic, a couple leaves of basil, and salt and pepper to season. And I tend to not use those meager baguettes, but the hearty french bread, just so you can put more on each piece of bread. Voila! Bruschetta!