Flourless Chocolate Torte with Raspberries and Cream

My husband isn't much for celebrating Valentine's Day.  I'm sure he probably thinks it's a stupid excuse for Hallmark to make a few extra bucks.  Truthfully, I love to celebrate EVERYTHING.


I celebrate life everyday, but a holiday that is based around love?  Count me in!  I wouldn't say I go overboard with crazy gifts and expectations, but it certainly gives me a chance to remind my husband how much I care about him and of course, make a special themed dinner.

I had all these great plans to do this elaborate dinner, invite friends over and eat chocolate all day long.  But--as nature would have it, my daughter came down with croup the week before.  I came down with bronchitis.  By the time Valentine's Day rolled around, I was dog tired from not sleeping and the last thing I wanted to do was cook an elaborate meal, and secondly, entertain anyone.  I talked myself into making this cake on Valentine's Day in the late afternoon.  My daughter was napping and I was starting to feel a bit better after my z-pack, so I figured, what the heck.

I have been eying this cake recipe from Williams Sonoma in my recipe binder for nearly 2 years (I know that is exceptionally long but I have A LOT of recipes on my wish list).  This was super easy to make!  It's very very chocolaty and it is very dense (due to the lack of flour).  You need quite a bit of chocolate for this recipe.  I used one of those really large chocolate bars from Trader Joe.

The verdict:  I really enjoyed this cake.  It was perfect for Valentine's Day!  I will say I cooked it for 10 extra minutes than the recipe said to, even though it said 'Don't over cook'.  Truth is, my oven typically cooks fast; but for whatever reason the center of this was pretty runny even when I finally pulled it out.  The cake is almost pudding/mousse like but more dense.  It was the perfect accompaniment to an indulgent night (watching The Bachelor while drinking a glass of wine).

Please excuse the 'nighttime' pictures as this wasn't ready to be sliced until late evening.  Man...I can't wait until summer!

For the recipe, click here.

Alterations:  I used instant espresso dissolved in water instead of the liquor.

Raspberry Swirl Mini Cheesecakes

I know. I told you we gave up sweets. While we still are trying to stay on track for the most part, we had plans to have our parenting group over and I certainly wouldn't impose goofy diet restrictions on anyone. Besides, I wanted to make these and it was the perfect way to be able to try one...and pawn off the rest.

But as nature would have it, I came down with a cold the morning we were supposed to host and we had to cancel. So I am left with 32 of these things. Not such a bad thing....if it weren't for that diet!

You know what I say? Diet schmiet.

I substituted the graham crust for a chocolate wafer crust. For the raspberry swirl I didn't follow the recipe because I had left over raspberry sauce from a Coeur a la Creme.

The result: creamy cheesecake filling, with sweet raspberry finish. The chocolate crunch crust compliments the raspberry flavor. I would definitely make these again. Surprisingly these were easy to make (for a cheesecake) and great because they are portable!

How to swirl the raspberry sauce in the cheesecake

For the Cheesecake recipe, check out Martha Stewart's page. This is for a full cheesecake but all you have to do is put these in cupcake tins with paper liners. Make sure you put them in a water bath. Bake for 22 minutes, and rotate halfway through.

Coeur a la Creme with Raspberry Sauce

I've been holding onto this recipe forever. I saw this Barefoot Contessa episode when my baby was very little. I didn't have the proper dish to make it so I put it on the back burner until I got around to ordering one. Truth is, I probably didn't need the pan--you can use a seive. BUT the pan is heart shaped and uber cute. Plus, it only set me back $8 on Amazon anyway. I'm a sucker for baking pans...just ask my husband.

Anyway, this is probably one of the EASIEST desserts out there despite the fancy name. I can't believe its taken me this long to experience this little piece of heaven.

Cooks tip: It's very rich and doesn't keep well in the refrigerator after you take the cheesecloth off and put the sauce on. My advice, either make this in small containers, cut the recipe in half or pour the sauce over the single servings OR just make sure you have a crowd to feed! I will mention also that the raspberry sauce made a TON. Way more than you probably need. I ended up having about 2 cups left over, both of which I froze into containers (1 cup each). They defrosted beautifully and I used one for flavor in an Italian Meringue Buttercream and for a cheesecake recipe (stay tuned for the post on the cheesecakes).

Raspberry and Grand Marnier Italian Meringue Buttercream

For the recipe, click here.

Espresso Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Mousse and Italian Meringue Buttercream

It’s seems that every time I turn around…there is another birthday in the family. And since I am the cupcake/cake queen I typically take on the task of baking the birthday boy or girl their cake of choice.

Yesterday was my husband’s Aunt’s birthday a.k.a. “Fancy Nancy”, so I wanted to make a very special cake since she always does so much for me. What is more indulgent than chocolate and raspberry?




I went out on a limb and decided to use a different chocolate cake than my “go to” recipe. Don’t ask me why, but I always feel like I need to re-create the wheel. I think I just need to realize if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Not that this recipe was bad by any stretch; it wasn’t. But it just wasn’t what I expected, make sense?

I filled the cake with a raspberry mousse, and then slathered the cake with my “oh so favorite”, chocolate Italian meringue buttercream. The cake was delicious….especially at 11:30 PM after listening to Joe Cocker live across the Canadian border. Don’t laugh…it was an awesome concert!


Happy Birthday, Nance! Love, Coco xo





Chocolate Espresso Cake
Recipe derived from Bon Appetit, April 2009

Ingredients:
2 cups cake flour
1 cup packed cocoa powder (such as Valrhona)
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoons kosher salt
¾ cups unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
4 teaspoons instant espresso powder dissolved in ¾ cups hot water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray two 8-inch cake pans with Pam and dust with flour or cocoa powder. Tap out the excess. Line the bottom of cake pans with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until smooth, add brown sugar and beat until creamy, about 4 minutes on low/medium. Add eggs 1 at a time and beat well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl when needed. Add vanilla and mix. Add espresso mixture and mix together. Then on LOW alternatively add the flour mixture and the buttermilk starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until just combined.

Split batter into 2 cake pans and place on a larger baking sheet. Put on middle rack in the oven and bake for about 40-45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cook cakes on cooling racks until completely cooled. Using a serrated knife, gently run it around the edges of the cake pan so that it loosens the cakes. Invert cakes onto wax or parchment paper, then invert cake again so its top side up. Level cakes, assemble and frost once fully cooled.




Raspberry Mousse

Ingredients:
1 ¼ cup frozen raspberries (I used frozen black raspberries)
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1 ½ teaspoons gelatin
1 cup heavy cream
1 ½ tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Directions:
In a small heavy bottomed sauce pot, add frozen berries and granulated sugar. Cook on medium/low until soft and liquefied. About 5-8 minutes. Put berries through a fine mesh sieve and push through with a rubber spatula. Make sure you get all the puree by running the spatula along the outside of the sieve. Do this until all the berry pulp is out. (You do this to keep the most seeds from being in the mousse.)


Pushing Raspberry Puree through the sieve

Return puree to the saucepan and put back on the heat. Add lemon juice and gelatin. Stir to combine. Cook until the gelatin is completely dissolved stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool completely.

In a medium sized bowl, whip cream to soft peaks. Add confectioners’ sugar and beat until you get firm peaks.

Put puree in a medium sized mixing bowl, add whipped cream in 3 additions, slowly folding the ingredients together with a rubber spatula. Cover and chill until ready for use or serving.


Folding Puree in Whipped Cream

Serving tip: You can fill 1 two layer cake with this. Or you can pipe into fancy glasses and serve with fresh fruit.



Filling the cake