Chocolate Molten Cake

So, I made these last night because I had a major chocolate craving, and they turned out pretty well; John even said it was now one of his favorite desserts and gave it a 9.5 out of 10. In addition, they are easy to make, and the portions aren't huge so you don't have to feel super guilty for eating it. So, with no further ado:

Molten Chocolate Cake
(Serves 4)

Ingredients

• 4 pieces (squares) Semi-sweet Baking Chocolate
• ½ cups Butter
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 2 whole Eggs
• 2 whole Egg Yolks
• 6 Tablespoons Flour
• 2 cups Real Whipping Cream
  
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Spray 4 custard cups** with cooking spray and place on cookie sheet (**you can find these in the baking section of the store, with all the pyrex baking stuff)
   
3. Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted; whisk until chocolate is also melted
4. Stir in sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour.
5. Divide between cups.
6. Bake 13-14 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft. Let stand 1 minute.
7. While cakes bake, combine sugar and heavy cream and whip until stiff (i.e., make some homemade whipped cream!)
8. Invert cakes on dishes and top with whipped cream.

Italian Lemon Creme Cake

So, my dear friend Abbey's mom, Becky, posted a recipe for Italian Lemon Creme Cake on her own website, and it was amazing! Definitely one of the best cakes I've ever had or made. And John and some sweet friends liked it too, so it's definitely a keeper. But rather than copy and paste like I normally do, I'll just refer you to the post as shared by the master herself:

http://decolady-randommusings.blogspot.com/2010/05/italian-lemon-creme-cake.html

Thank you, Becky, for sharing such a delicious recipe!

Guilt Free Brownies

So, I haven't had them in a while, but I highly recommend "No Pudge!" Fat Free Brownie Mix. (It comes in 3 flavors--fudge, mint fudge, and raspberry fudge. I've only tried straight up fudge.) Basically you take the mix, blend with fat free yogurt, and what you end up getting is 12** brownies, each containing 120 calories and no fat (= 2 WW points)! But, how do they taste? IMO, pretty yummy! The times I have made them, I have been pleasantly surprised at how good they tasted. Topped w/some fat free cool whip, and you have yourself one tasty treat!

Where to find them? In Auburn, I have found them at Kroger with the other brownie/cakes mixes (usually on the top shelf of that section). To find where they sell them near you, go here. I think I will be buying some on my next Kroger visit.

**They also have a single serving recipe, if you can't trust yourself w/all of them at once. Taken directly from there website, it is: "One of our consumers created this. In a small microwaveable container mix 2 tablespoons of your favorite flavor No Pudge! Brownie mix with 1 tablespoon of non-fat vanilla yogurt. Microwave on high for one minute. Top with fat-free frozen yogurt or whipped topping. Tastes like a warm, fudgy brownie pudding - Yum!!!"

Red Velvet Insanity Cupcakes

So, today I made some awesome (not to mention low in fat/cal/sugar) Red Velvet Cupcakes--Hungry Girl's Red Velvet Insanity Cupcakes, to be exact. But before I share the recipe, I will share the ditzy thing I did while making them:

So, in the recipe, she warns you not to worry if your batter is thin--that the cupcakes will fluff up. Well, I made my batter...and it wasn't thin at all. In fact, it was pretty thick, and, even once I had put batter in all the cupcake cups, I had tons left over. Come to find out, I was supposed to use just one cup of each cake mix...and I used the entire box of each! I should have realize when I was pouring them in that I was putting in a lot of cake vs the other ingredients...but alas, I did not. However, the batter still tasted great, it didn't really change the nutrition too much, and I just saved the extra to make later. The cupcakes I did make were pretty good--a little chewy, but both John and I liked them. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

For Frosting
6 tbsp. Jet-Puffed Marshmellow cream
6 tbsp. Cool Whip Free, thawed
1/4 cup fat-free cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp. Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)

For Cupcakes
1 cup Pillsbury Moist Supreme Reduced Sugar Cake Mix, Devil's Food**
1 cup Pillsbury Moist Supreme Reduced Sugar Cake Mix, Classic Yellow**
Two 25-calorie diet hot cocoa mix packets
1/2 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (like Egg Beaters)
1/4 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
1/2 oz. red food coloring
1 tsp. Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated)
1/8 tsp. salt

Directions:

1. Place half of your chocolate chips (2 tbsp.) and the contents of both cocoa packets in a tall glass. Add 12 ounces of boiling water, and stir until chips and cocoa mix have dissolved.

2. Place glass in the freezer until mixture is cold (about 30 minutes). Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix together marshmallow creme, cream cheese, and 1 tbsp. Splenda until smooth. Fold in Cool Whip. Place bowl in the fridge to chill until cupcakes are ready to be frosted.

3. Once the cocoa in the freezer has chilled, give it a stir, and pour it into a large mixing bowl. Add the cake mixes, egg substitute, remaining chocolate chips, red food coloring, 1 tsp. Splenda, and salt. Using a whisk or fork, mix batter for about 2 minutes (until smooth and blended). Batter will be thin, but don't worry, your cupcakes will puff up once baked!

4. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with baking cups, and spray lightly with nonstick spray (or simply spray the pan with nonstick spray). Evenly spoon batter into the pan. Place pan in the oven, and bake for 15 - 20 minutes. Cupcakes will look shiny when done.

5. Once cupcakes have cooled completely, evenly spread the frosting over them. Enjoy!

Nutrition:

Serving Size: 1 frosted cupcake Calories: 134 Fat: 3g Sodium: 266mg Carbs: 25g Fiber: 0.75g Sugars: 11g Protein: 3g POINTS® value 3**

**Can't find the reduced-sugar cake mix? No problem! Make this recipe with regular cake mix, and each cupcake will have just 140 calories and a POINTS® value of 3*.

Only 3 points, AND yummy?? Sounds like a winner to me!

Strawberry Pretzel Pie

This is typically called Strawberry Pretzel SALAD, but I refuse to call anything with this much fat and sugar a salad. Pie fits much better, especially since I put it in a pie dish. You can find this recipe in many cookbooks, online, etc...I'm posting the one I used:

Ingredients
3 T sugar
1.5 sticks butter
1.5 cups crushed pretzels
8 oz cream cheese
1 cup sugar
8 oz cool whip
1 (6 oz) pkg strawberry jello
2.5 cups water
10 oz frozen strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Cream sugar and butter. Add crushed pretzels, mix well
3. Press pretzel mixture into pie plate, then bake in oven for 10 minutes
4. Meanwhile, combine cream cheese, sugar, and cool whop
   
5. Take pretzel mixture out of oven, and let cool completely. Once cooled, spread mixture from 4 all over top of pretzel mixture
6. Dissolve jello mix into 2 cups boiling water. Then add 1/2 cup cool water and strawberries
7. Put jello mixture into fridge, let soft set, then pour on top of filling
8. Chill the whole "pie"...this is essential! It tastes so much better nice and cold!

(Chocolate) Italian Cream Cake

So, at our rehearsal dinner, we had Italian Cream Cake...which was absolutely delicious. I've been wanting to make it since, but haven't really wanted to make an entire cake from scratch for just John and myself. But, the opportunity presented itself this week, because PDC (Phi Delta Chi, the Pharmacy Fraternity I've joined) had a potluck "Thanksgiving Dinner." So, I decided to make this as one of the desserts. It turned out pretty well--people seem to like it. Next time I'll have to make Chocolate Italian Cream Cake. Anyways...
You can find the recipe for this online and in many cookbooks--it's in at least 3 of mine, including the PDC cookbook entitled "Cooking Against Cancer" (which, please let me know if you want one! It has lots of great recipes, and $5 of the $15 the book costs is being dedicated to the Breast Cancer Foundation). As usual, the recipe is listed below--with some modifications/additions I have added that I think will help make it easier to make. ALSO, you can easily make a chocolate version of this. To do so, use the ingredients (italicized in parenthesis)

Ingredients

For the Cake:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened and cut into pieces (to help it mix better)
  ♫
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 5 eggs, separated
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• (1/2 cup cocoa powder)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup of finely chopped nuts*
  
• 1 cup flaked coconut
  

For the Icing:

• 1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, softened and cut into pieces
• 1/4 cup butter, softened and cut into pieces
• (1/2 cup cocoa powder)
• 1 box confectioner's sugar
• 1 cup of finely chopped nuts*
• 1-2 cups chopped nuts*
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
  

*Typically, people use pecans or walnuts. I bought a bag containing 4 cups of walnut halves and pieces. I then put about 2 cups of these in a food processor (a blender would probably work to), to get them finely chopped. The other 2 cups I saved and put on top of the cake at the very end.

Also, a cake board to put under the cake (when done) so it won't slide, would be good to have. Here is how to make one (for cardboard, I just used part of an old box)


Directions

For the Cake:

Prep the ingredients

• A while before you start cooking (probably 4-8 hours), take out the butter and the cream cheese from the fridge, and let sit at room temperature so it can soften. Cut each into pieces to help mixing. Then, once ready to begin:
  
• Put around 2 cups of nut pieces in food processor/blender, and chop till fine.
• Separate eggs (put yolks in one bowl, whites in another)
• Mix together flour, cocoa, and baking soda, set aside
  

Make the Batter

1. Preheat oven to 350, and grease and flour three 9" cake pans
   
2. Cream butter, sugar, and oil till smooth (I put them in my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer, and let it mix them till smooth for me)
3. Add egg yolks to mixture (continue mixing)
   
4. Add flour/baking soda mix, alternating with buttermilk (continue mixing)
5. Add vanilla, 1 cup of the finely chopped nuts, and coconut a little bit at a time (continue mixing)
6. Beat egg whites in separate bowl (I used my hand mixer) and then fold in
   
7. Separate cake into the 3 cake pans, and then bake for 25-30 minutes
8. Take cakes out, and let cool: Leave cakes in pans for 10 minutes after taking out of oven, then flip them out onto wire racks, and let cool to room temp. Once at room temp, pop in freezer for 10 minutes before icing (this will prevent a bunch of crumbs from coming off when you ice it). While cakes are cooling, make icing:

For the Icing:

1. Mix together icing ingredients. I would not recommend using a hand mixer--when I tried to, the sugar went everywhere. I ended up using the Kitchenaid mixer, and it did much better. If you don't have one...I guess you can mix it by hand, but it'll probably take a while. It takes some force/speed to get all the ingredients to mix together well
2. Once cake cooled (see above), spread icing on layers and sides of cooled cake. Apply an "initial" coat all around the cake (its fine if it looks awful), then stick the cake in the freezer for 5 mins. Then take out, and apply the final coat of icing to the cake. By doing this, it will help prevent crumbs from appearing in the icing.
3. Put the remaining chopped (not finely) nuts on top of the cake for decoration (and taste too, of course)
   
4. Put cake on cake board, then on cake stand. Enjoy immediately, or refrigerate!

Oh, and I would like to add that while I had fun making this cake...it did take around 3 hours to get everything done, so I wouldn't recommend making it when you don't have much free time.

Chocolate Peanutbutter Trifle

I found this recipe on the Betty Crocker website. It turned out all right; both John and I liked it. It wasn't quite as good as I had thought it might be, but I'd still give it a 6 or a 7 out of ten. I did substitute a few ingredients (reeses instead of chocolate covered peanuts, a chocolate-peanutbutter brownie mix instead of chocolate-PB cookies) because of personal preference and not being able to find the cookie mix the original recipe described. So anyways, above is the link to the original recipe, and below is my slightly modified version:

Ingredients

• 1 package brownie mix (whichever flavor you like)
• vegetable oil (however much brownie mix requires
• eggs (however much brownie mix requires)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup creamy peanutbutter
• 1.5 cups heavy whipping cream
• mini reeses, chopped/crumbled
  

Directions

1. Make brownies as directed on box (using oil, water, and egg(s)). Bake & cool as directed. Cut them up
2. Melt butter & sugar in saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently, till mixture is smooth. Stir in peanut butter till well blended. Refrigerate 30 mins.
3. Beat whipping cream in chilled bowl w/electric mixer on high speed, till soft. Fold into peanut butter mixture.
4. Place half of brownie pieces of bottom of trifle bowl. Spoon half of peanut butter mixture over brownies. Top with remaining brownies & peanut butter mixture. Cover & refrigerate at least 2 hours, but no longer than 12 hours. Sprinkle with reeses.