- Part 126

Chocolate and Strawberry Baked Alaska

Chocolate Strawberry Baked Alaska ~ Cake, ice cream, torched meringue all in one dessert, what could be better? I’ll tell you, having it featured on Lil Luna.

I am thrilled to be guest posting for a blog that I absolutely love. Lil Luna features everything from food to crafts, DIY, tutorials, holiday and gift ideas.

If you are not familiar with the site, hit the jump where you will find the remainder of this post with the recipe and leave yourself plenty of time to look around.

I personally can’t wait to use some of the awesome Halloween printables that Kristyn already has featured.

Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Chocolate Raspberry Cake ~ Deep and rich, this chocolate cake is accompanied with a light whip cream frosting.

This recipe is from Cooks Illustrated. By the looks of the recipe, yes, it’s involved and takes some time. Although I can tell you the effort is well worth it.

Deep and full in flavor, it also packs more density than most chocolate cakes. For that reason, I finished the cake with a lighter frosting rather than with one of my favorite buttercream variations. I added the raspberries for a punch of color and for an added shot of tartness to pull all the flavors together.

Trust me when I say this cake will bedevil you. I generally give away most of my baked goods, but with this one I ate 3 out of the 12 mini cakes the recipe yielded in one day. Luckily, self restraint saved me from a day of gluttony. The unfortunate part is it came by way of my 3 year old telling me, “Mom too much chocolate is gonna make you so sick”. Really can anything be worse than your son telling you to stop eating chocolate while trying to give you your disapproving look?

Continue reading Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Crisp Poached Pears Stuffed with Chevre & Haroseth

Crisp Poached Pears Stuffed with Chevre & Haroseth served over a Pomegranate Molasses Sauce ~ Sweet and savory with a dash of tart—your tastebuds will be wondering where has this lovely dish been.

Crisp Poached Pear Stuffed with Chevre & Haroseth

This is my first submission for the Paper Chef challenge. The challenge provides the participants a set of ingredients and that’s it. No recipe, just your baking hands and some creativity.

This month’s ingredients included: dried dates, cranberries, flour, candied orange peel.

My first thoughts of course went in the way of date bars and muffins. Wanting to stretch myself as a baker I pitched all that aside and went with what you see here.

Let me say, I’m quite happy with the end result. The pairing of sweet and savory is perfectly tuned between the chevre and haroseth while the pear provides a nice fruity and textural break between the two. But what I love most in this recipe is the pomegranate molasses sauce. The subtle tartness of the sauce ties it all together for a perfect bite that hits almost all your tasting thrills in harmony. Continue reading Crisp Poached Pears Stuffed with Chevre & Haroseth