Monday, August 31, 2009

Bugs


Now, I don't love bugs. In fact, I don't like them very much at all. The other day (actually it was Monday, July 27 (the day DQ got her tonsils out) that we noticed this guy sitting on the deck right outside the door. DQ thought PM would like to see him, so we took a picture. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself...

Monday, August 17, 2009

Chocolate Molten Cakes

Besides the Best Chocolate Sheet Cake from Pioneer Woman, there is one other dessert the kids ask for by name. That is, the Molten Chocolate Cakes. On Friday night, we were going to a friends house for dinner and they requested the Chocolate sheet cake, so I obliged and made it. They kept the cake, my kids were mortified! So, last night, the kids wanted me to make it again. But, it's just so big that I suggested the Molten Chocolate Cakes instead. The nice thing is about these is that there are not any leftovers. It makes four and that's it! While the original recipe (linked above) suggests making your own whipped cream to serve with the cakes, we prefer vanilla ice cream (personally, I prefer French Vanilla).

DQ kept trying to peek at the cakes as they cooked:


Molten Chocolate Cakes
4 pieces (1 oz each) Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
1/2 cup Butter
1 cup Powdered Sugar
2 whole Eggs
2 whole Egg Yolks
6 Tablespoons Flour
Vanilla Ice Cream

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
  2. Spray 4 custard cups with Pam and place on cookie sheet
  3. Microwave chocolate and butter in a large bowl on high for about 1 minute, or until butter is melted
  4. Remove from microwave and whisk until chocolate is also melted
  5. Stir in powdered sugar until well blended and most of lumps are gone
  6. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks
  7. Stir in flour
  8. Divide between the 4 sprayed cups
  9. Bake for 13-14 minutes, or until sides are tender and center is soft (here they are baking)

  10. Let stand 1 minute
  11. Invert cakes on dishes and serve with vanilla ice cream
Ah... Heaven on a plate:

So, there you have it. Nice and easy. The hardest part is the inverting onto plates. I put a plate on top of a custard cup, grab the plate and cup with my oven mits with the rubber on them and invert at one time. It works pretty darn good.