I heart Dessert (and Aric)

If there is only one thing that you will get to know about me very quickly, it is that I love dessert (as the title of this post suggests. I added in Aric’s name because, well, I love him too). I love baking dessert, eating dessert, finding new ideas for dessert... you name it, I’m all over it. Which explains why I have signed myself up for a majority of the baby shower planning since I moved to Dayton. It should be noted that there must be something in the water here because there have been three baby showers in the 10 weeks I have been here. Most of the themes involve dessert, so it is a great place to try new ideas. 

The latest baby shower (seen above) was a collaboration so I can’t take credit for the entire final array of sweets and treats, as much as I would love to because everything they made was delicious; but I can take credit for the cake pops, cupcakes and the vegan brownies. Let me first start by saying that just before the shower, I became slightly obsessed with www.bakerella.com and the whole cake pop idea. So many ideas, so little time. As it turns out, I also had so little knowledge about melting candy for the pops. I learned three things about cake pops the day before the shower: I need to use a double boiler to melt the candy for the pops (a sauce pan on low does not cut it), add Crisco to the candy to make it smoother for dipping, and freeze the pops in the freezer for at least a few hours before dipping to make sure they don’t just crumble into the melted candy.

The ingredients for cake pops are fairly straightforward. Take any box cake mix you want (for these ones, I used Devil’s Food) and bake it in a 9 x 13 baking dish according to the box’s directions. Once that is cooked and cooled down, crumble the cake into a large mixing bowl and take a can of matching frosting (again I used Devil’s Food) and dump that in and mix. I usually prefer to make my own frosting but in this case, the canned frosting is the right thickness for this project. Once you have thoroughly mixed the frosting and cake together, you can form small balls either with your hands or a small ice cream scoop or melon baller. Place these balls on a lined baking sheet and put in the freezer to harden for a few hours. Once they are frozen, you can melt some candy in that handy double boiler and dip lollipop sticks about a half inch into the candy. Then stick the candied end of the lollipop into a cake pop ball - this helps to secure the cake pop onto the stick for when you dip the whole pop into the candy. Let those harden for half an hour in the freezer. Then melt more candy and start dipping the pops. Just make sure to have something to place the finished pops into when you finish dipping so that they can dry. I had Styrofoam blocks handy as I was going to use them for the centerpiece decorations and those actually worked quite well.

As a side note, I got a bit crafty and ended up making the centerpiece decoration as well. A really quick project too - hot glue gun some tissue paper to a Styrofoam block and tie it all together with ribbon. It is great for showers as you can match the tissue and ribbon to the theme for a custom look.

The cupcakes are straight from Martha Stewart's website (which a bookmark on my web browser and my go-to for most dessert ideas, especially cupcakes). I have wanted to make these for a long time and finally had a reason to do it and I was so happy with the results. You can either make your own chocolate cake or use a box version if you are running low on time, and the icing is fairly straight forward. I will admit though, the icing gave me quite the headache. It took three tries and tweaking Martha's idea of melting white chocolate but it was worth it. I melted the white chocolate, as she suggested, but added about a tablespoon of heavy cream to the chocolate and some corn syrup to make the right consistency for piping the lettering.

The other dessert I wanted to try was Gwyneth Paltrow’s vegan Fudgy Chocolate Brownies. I should note I am a vegetarian, so you will get quite the assortment on this blog between my carnivorous boyfriend and myself. However, I am not vegan but some of my friends are, including one who was co-hosting the shower, and I wanted to make something she could eat. I have been a fan of everything I have made so far from Gwyneth’s cookbook My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness so I figured these brownies had to be amazing as well. I was not wrong. Just make sure to take them out when there is still a slight bit of goo on the toothpick when you take them out, to make them extra fudgy. Oh, and Trader Joe’s carries vegan chocolate chips, if you happen to live near one of these fine grocery stores.

Recipe courtesy of My Father’s Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness by Gwyneth Paltrow

Makes 12

INGREDIENTS

2 cups white spelt flour or all purpose flour

1 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder

1 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup brown rice syrup (or light agave nectar)

1/2 cup strong brewed coffee

1/2 cup soymilk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons oil

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, divided

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 350°. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and a pinch of salt into a bowl. Whisk maple syrup, oil, brown rice syrup, coffee, soymilk and vanilla in another bowl. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Pour half the batter into a greased 9" x 11" baking dish; top with half the chips. Pour remaining batter into dish and top with remaining chips. Bake until knife comes out with crumbs adhering to it, 30 minutes. Let cool.

As Aric mentioned previously, my baking isn’t solely for pregnant women. I do tend to use Aric as my guinea pig for my latest baking idea or if I am in the mood to make an old favorite. Such as the case with the Giada de Laurentiis' Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch cake that I made a few weeks ago. I made this on a whim one day for my parents when I was back in Vancouver, simply because it looked so pretty in the cookbook. Not only did it live up to the picture but it became one of my favorite cakes of all time. It is actually easier to make than perhaps it looks and it has a fresh orange zest twist that makes it unique.

Dawn