Black Forest Cake

I didn't know that Black Forest Cake can be so easy to do until I actually took the time to find out how it's done.   It just has four major ingredients:

1. Your favorite chocolate cake recipe (boxed or made from scratch) soaked in your choice of rum, brandy or just a simple syrup.
2. Whipped Cream
3. Your choice of fruit filling: real fresh fruits or if you have the sweet tooth, canned or your own recipe of fruit filling.
4. Shaved Chocolate

I used my favorite Beatty's Chocolate Cake recipe and brushed Strawberry Dacquiri on it instead of the traditional cherry brandy or rum because kids will be eating this cake. The traditional Black Forest Cake is also filled and topped with cherries but no one in our house is a real big fan of cherry filling so I decided to use fresh strawberries instead. It made the cake lighter and saved us a ton of calories. But if you love the cherry filling, here's a great recipe with videos. > Click here.

Biscuit Joconde Imprime/Entremet - January '11 Daring Bakers

I got really excited upon learning this month's Daring Baker's challenge. I felt guilty about skipping last month's challenge of making a German Christmas bread called Stollen. So, I told myself I'm doing the January challenge no matter what.

The January 2011 Daring Baker's challenge was hosted by Astheroshe from the blog, accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremet dessert.

A lot of times when my husband and I look around coffee shops and check out their display of delicious desserts, I can't help but just be in awe of how beautifully decorated they are. I can't believe that I'd actually learn to make a dessert that I used to just admire.

Chocolate Macarons

Macarons (not to be confused with macaroons and pronounced like "macaroni" but without the '-i'), are cookie-like French confections made by sandwiching cream, ganache or almond paste between two wafers made from egg whites, almond powder and confectioner’s and granulated sugars.

A few friends of mine have been craving and gushing over these little goodies which I've never actually tried myself but made me think that maybe I should try learning how to make these for their sakes.

Here's a really good recipe I found online from David Lebovitz - Chocolate macarons filled with chocolate ganache. I've read suggestions that aging the egg whites called for the recipe makes a difference. I'm not too familiar with the science but thought that it won't hurt since I still have to look for Almond Flour and Dutch-Processed Cocoa Powder. So, I left it sitting on our counter uncovered for overnight. My husband found the almond flour and cocoa powder at Raley's in the special foods aisle.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

Whenever we crave for some chocolate and give in, I end up baking Chocolate Muffins, to save us from too much guilt. It's easy to make and what I usually bake before a long road trip. The whole family can eat it for breakfast on the road and for snacks when we get hungry in between meals. I found a great recipe from joyofbaking.com. My son loves it. He would gobble up a couple of muffins right out of the oven.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

I'm sure everybody has baked Chocolate Chip Cookies before. My first baking endeavor was Betty Crocker's Chocolate Chip Cookie mix. And my son was satisfied with it for the longest time...until I found this recipe online and after so many attempts and tweaking - have become our almost weekly go-to craving fix. My craving to bake something, anything. My son's craving for sweets.

Every time I bake cookies, my son would say, "Mom, this is the best chocolate chip cookies in the world!" It makes me smile and completes my day. But, you know, he's my son. Of course, he'd say that. Right? He's 5.

But last Saturday, I had a surprise visit from a friend/ex-coworker/churchmate and her family. We had Panda Express to-go for dinner and I baked my cookies. I heard her daughter say, "Mom, this is the best cookies I've ever had!" I pretended not to hear it. My friend asked her daughter to repeat what she said to me. Awww...see? I'm smiling again.

Anyway, so I guess it means it's good enough to share. I love sharing. Gotta spread the love.

Chocolate Crinkles

When I was in High School, a classmate would bring Chocolate Crinkles and all of us will try to get our hands on it. I'd be lucky if I could get a bite. So, I felt deprived. When I saw this recipe online, I knew I just have to do it - all those years of deprivation! *tears* Hehehe

I took step-by-step pictures. But unfortunately, my ever efficient husband thought I've already saved them on our computer that he has deleted all of the pictures. But it's really very easy. What's hard is trying to resist the urge of devouring them all in one sitting.

Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding

After coming home from a quick weekend getaway, I realize that we have almost a full bag of buttermilk bread about to go stale. I wanted to avoid the inevitable waste, so I figured that I should whip up something to make it useful.

I found this recipe for pudding that had good reviews online and just tweaked it up a little bit to make it not too sweet. This is so yummy! My husband and son inhaled it. It's really good for using up old bread and over ripe bananas which is always the case in our house.

Beatty's Chocolate Cake

So you got the tools and the basic ingredients - it's time to bake your first cake! Everybody loves Chocolate Cake so I decided that it'll be my first ever cake from scratch. I wanted to try my hand in baking first before I start learning how to decorate. A beautiful cake is a waste if it doesn't taste great. After all, you want to have your cake and eat it too, right?

To make the story of my long search short, I found this recipe on the Food Network website. It's from Ina Garten - the Barefoot Contessa. It had a 5-star rating with over 700 positive reviews. I'm so glad that it had a video because honestly reading recipe instructions overwhelm and intimidate me. Even the word "sift" is so scary to me! It is so much easier learning a new skill when you watch it get done rather than just reading about it.

So, here's the video and then the recipe follows. I'm going to include another video after the recipe that shows you how to prepare the pans using the baking spray with wax paper and use the cake leveler to level the cake before frosting.