Chocolate Week

8/31/09:

Crazy for chocolates. This is the week. Had 3 different rounds of chocolate bakes:
Red Velvet (yes again, but this one is IT!), Allergan-free Chocolate Cupcakes and finally, Double Layer Dark Chocolate Cake with Raspberry-Strawberry Filling and Dark Chocolate Ganache. Ooooh.....can't you tell I love chocolates?

Red Velvet Cupcakes - this time I followed Martha's recipe to the T; well, except for the the process for mixing in cocoa powder and red food coloring. I combined cocoa powder with the coloring and vanilla, added the mixture separately into the batter. Cupcakes turned out moist and delightful. Kevin Crayton was raving about the cupcakes, wanted second helpings but they were all gone; since he's from the South I take that as a very good testament to the success of this bake!! Oh yah, my first attempt at fondant. It's so fun to play with and yes, you can spend hours on this and let your creative juices go wild. I'll do that next time!

My red velvet cupcake with pink fondant


Red Velvet Cupcakes with Creamcheese Frosting



Allegan-Free Chocolate Cupcakes. Woke up at 3am to bake these for a dear friend who was coming to visit, driving all the way from San Francisco. Her son is allergic to eggs so I purposely baked a batch of these......they were surprisingly yummy, moist and full of chocolaty goodness! While I was pleased with the taste and moisture level of the cupcakes, I think I've made the mistake of over-mixing, thus the "little peaks" of the cupcakes. *note to self*: next time, don't be lazy. Just take out the Kitchen Aid stand mixer instead of using the hand mixer which only has single speed setting!!
I'm starting to gravitate towards using vege oil instead of butter for baking. The cakes seem more moist and fluffy. Wonder why?



Finally, the piece de resistance: my double layer raspberry-strawberry chocolate ganache cake! Used Barefoot Contessa's Beatty Chocolate Cake recipe for this. The recipe portion was huge so yielded a 8" plus another 6" round cake. Brought this over to the Crayton's as dessert and oh boy, good thing I decided to take the larger cake.....there were surprise turnouts - additional dinner guests and they all love chocolate. The men even asked for second helpings! Wow! Take that as a compliment. Personally I think the taste is yummy - a pat on my back for the choice of raspberry-strawberry filling to balance out the rich chocolate flavors, but I think the cake is dense and slightly on the dry side. I'd opt for recipes with vege oil instead the next tine round. But overall, when eaten together with the ganache and berry filling, the cake works!



The cake that was a hit @ Craytons' dinner:





My double layer choc cake with raspberry-strawberry filling (see how the filling oozed out at the sides? That was before I learned how to create the piped frosting wall!)