Chocolate Souffle

Chocolate Souffle is probably my favorite dessert. It's chocolate-y, gooey, warm and often includes real whipped cream which I could eat a bowl of just by itself.  The cool thing about the recipe I used, is that you make it ahead and freeze it and then when you are ready to make it, you just pop it in the oven for 20 minutes.   I have a couple more in our freezer that I will be able to make quickly (when I go back to work I can see this coming in very handy).  Off to watch cupcake wars. Anyone seen that show? It is really fun to watch!

Chocolate Sponge Cake with Creme Chantilly

Last night's after dinner dessert was a chocolate sponge cake with creme chantilly (whipped cream) with a little bit of powdered sugar and vanilla). It was light and air-y almost like a chocolate angel food cake.

Thearpy Baking

When times are tough some people like to work out, others like to sleep. For me- I turn to baking.  For the time being, I am baking all the time, but today it was for therapy.  I had to send Shep to daycare for the first time and sending baby number 2 was MUCH more difficult than sending Harrison. I think because I know what to expect- back to work (next week) and spending only a few hours with the little guys each day.
Today I made butter cookies with raspberry jam. These were so good because they were so soft and so buttery! I learned a great trick for making light-airy cookies. If you have a stand mixer, mix the butter, eggs and sugar for about 8 minutes on high. It makes the dough really light and fluffy.  yum!

Plum Crumble with Creme Anglaise- YUM!

The plum crumble recipe with creme anglaise (a vanilla custard) recipe is from the Le Courdon Bleu Desserts book. It was very easy to make- I HIGHLY recommend this dessert. Feel free to email me if you want the recipe (it's so simple).  This is basically a cobbler one of my all time favorite desserts! Growing up in Colorado we always had access to delicious freshly picked peaches, so my mom always made peach cobbler and it never occurred to me to try making the cobbler with plums.  This recipe really brings out the flavor of the plums and anything topped with a fresh custard is a winner in my book.  The best part was that the crumble was even better the next day because all the flavors were melded together, so we had great left-overs. YUM!

Moist Sponge Cake with Chocolate Ganache

So I started with the traditional French sponge cake, which I learned has a dry texture. The next recipe in the baking book was for a moist sponge cake which was MUCH better and so delicious! Rather than making a round cake, I decided to make a sheet cake and turn it into a roll-cake. I didn't have the right size pan, but tried it anyway and for the most part it worked! If I would have had an 11X17 pan, the cake would have been thinner and would have been easier to roll.  You can really make any kind of frosting for this type of cake, but I went with a bittersweet chocolate ganache. It was really yummy and paired perfectly with vanilla ice cream. I like the "roll" because you get a little frosting in every bite, but if I make the roll style again, I need to make it look prettier! Also,  if I were to make this again, I would make the ganache with semi-sweet chocolate. 

French Sponge Cake with Strawberry Buttercream

For this project, I decided to work from two cook books; Le Courdon Bleu Dessert Techniques and Baking, by James Peterson.  LCB is more gourmet and has recipes and techniques for everything from sugaring fruit to making Christmas fruit pudding (takes 6 hours) to making those pretty chocolate decorations such as swans or butterflies.  While I find learning those techniques important, I also want to make things that people want to eat! The Baking book is filled with techniques, but has an assortment of recipes that look so good. I have been using both books together and have had a great first week!

I started with the French Sponge Cake (easy to make- only 4 ingredients) and topped it with a strawberry buttercream. Using real strawberries is the key to a delicious strawberry frosting.
Over all it was good, but I learned that the "traditional" sponge cake is dry.  Why anyone would want a dry cake is unknown to me, so I probably won't be making this one again.