Quinoa Chocolate Cake (gf)

Ever since my lens stopped working (a nicer way of saying I think I might have broken it when my camera fell of the couch), I haven’t made much food. Occasionally I’ll whip up a batch of cookies, but without a way to document what I make, baking is somehow less rewarding.

Photography is something I do instinctively, how I record and remember my life. Unlike memories which fade and contort over time, pictures are constants. I can try to remember things long past, but human memory is fallible. Pictures are reminders of what has existed, how I revisit the past.

I’m not a very sentimental person despite how sappy I might sound right now, but as my high school graduation rapidly approaches and as I anticipate being uprooted, torn away from the people I have spent so many years with, I can’t help but flip (scroll) through old pictures and reminisce. Try as I might, I cannot fathom a life any different than the one I have now.

Food might not have the emotional significance of friends, but cooking has become an integral part of my life and I like to remember what I make. I’ve been using my phone’s camera since my f/1.4 lens broke, and it works fine for casual pictures (I like how candid phone pictures look), but my iPhone doesn’t do justice to food.

My fingers itching to practice food photography once more, I ordered a f/1.8 lens from Amazon last week, and though it’s was a hundred dollars, finally I have the ability to take DSLR pictures. My other lens is at the store being evaluated at the moment, but for now this lens will do.

This chocolate cake is probably my favorite ever. I know I’ve called this the “ultimate” chocolate cake, and I even have another gluten free chocolate cake recipe here, but this cake, this cake exceeds them all.

I use my friends as Guinea pigs for my gluten free foods especially (aren’t I a sweetheart?), and this one cake was received very, very well. One friend who claims to have discerning tastebuds scoffed when I announced the cake was gluten free, said it was good but kind of “empty,” then proceeded to finish her slice. The next day she ate another slice, and the day after had another. (Moral of the story: I think she’s just doesn’t like the idea of gluten free foods.)

My mom said she couldn’t even tell the cake was gluten free, and I agree with that assessment. The cake is moist, tender, and chocolatey – and has made up two out of my three meals today…oops. (I was almost going to see whether I could go an entire day on only chocolate cake, but I relented.)

A bit of advice, though: blend the quinoa mixture well. If not the cake will have a sort of corn meal texture, but it’s not a bad thing (I like it!), just different.

Gluten Free Quinoa Chocolate Cake

Found here.

• 2/3 cup white or golden quinoa
• 1 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup milk
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and parchment paper two 9 (or 8) inch cake pans.
2. Rinse the quinoa under cold water. (I forgot to do this and didn’t encounter any problems, but the quinoa can impart the cake with a bitterness if not done in some cases.)
3. Add the water to the quinoa and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and let simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
4. In a blender combine the milk, eggs, and vanilla.
5. Add the quinoa and butter and blend until smooth.
6. In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
7. Pour in the liquid ingredients and fold together until smooth.
8. Divide the batter among the two pans. Bake for around 25 minutes (35 minutes for 8 inch pans) or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
9. Let the cakes cool then frost.

Chocolate Frosting

• ½ cup butter
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup milk

1. Melt the butter.
2. Stir in the cocoa, sugar, salt, and vanilla.
3. Beat in enough milk to get desired consistency. I didn’t add much and ending up with a soft, fudge-like product.

Advertisement

Chocolate Oatmeal Pancakes (GF)

A while ago I posted a recipe for gluten free pancakes promising a recipe for gluten free chocolate pancakes in the future. Well, today’s that day! These pancakes are super simple to make (provided you have a blender) and they taste amazing! Chocolate lovers (aka me), these are for you!

Chocolate Oatmeal Pancakes (GF)

• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon powdered sugar
• ¼ cup milk
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tiny pinch salt
• ¼ cup oats

1. Blend all ingredients until smooth.
2. Fry on a nonstick surface! (very very important that the pan is nonstick. My other pans couldn’t handle this batter)
3. Serve with a healthy drizzle (dousing) of chocolate ganache (1 tbs of chocolate chips melted in 2 tbs heavy whipping cream)!

On a side note, my camera is still broken 😦 Luckily I have this picture from before it broke.

Chocolate Macarons

I’m not going to sugarcoat this: macarons are finicky little beasts.

Out of the various times (read: 5 or more) I’ve tried to make them, all batches have failed to some degree.

Sorry to say, the batch pictured was somewhat of a failure too. I admit I’m sort of deceiving you with these pictures.

This batch wasn’t a disaster by any means and the macarons tasted delicious, formed adorable ‘feet’ and had a perfectly soft/chewy texture combo, but the other ¾ of the batch had cracks.

I’m pretty sure it’s because I didn’t let the macarons rest long enough before baking them, given the last ones in the oven had the fewest cracks. Lesson learned.

From my many attempts at macaron making, I can give the following tips with confidence:

1. Let the macarons rest!
2. Weigh the ingredients. For a while I didn’t have a scale and thought measuring in cups would work just as well. It doesn’t.
3. Let the macarons cool before filling. The last thing you want is to ruin a perfectly good beautiful batch of macarons with runny filling – I know from personal experience.
4. If the macarons stick, wipe a damp cloth on the bottom side of the parchment. (Works best if they are still warm.)
5. Don’t over or under fold the batter. Over folding can cause excessive spreading, and under folding can lead to bumpy macarons. (I wasn’t lying when I said macarons are finicky.)
6. If you succeed on your first try, gold star for you (and please, send some of your skills to me!). If you don’t, try again.

Chocolate Macarons

• 150 grams powdered sugar
• 110 grams almond meal
• 10 grams dutch processed cocoa powder (~2 tbs)
• 100 grams egg whites
• 50 grams sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract

1. Sift together the powdered sugar, almond meal, and cocoa.
2. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, gradually adding the sugar. Stir in the vanilla,
3. Fold the dry ingredients into the whipped egg whites until no streaks remain.
4. Pipe or scoop the batter onto 3 parchment paper lined baking trays. Allow to rest for at least an hour and a half.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 16 minutes. If the macarons stick to the parchment, wipe the bottom side of the parchment (below the macarons) with a damp cloth. This should loosen them and make them easier to remove.
6. Fill with ganache.

Chocolate Ganache

• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate
• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream

1. In a saucepan, heat the chocolate and heavy whipping cream until a smooth chocolate mixture forms.
2. Cool until spreadable.

On a side note, I’m interested in posting more dinner recipes! For some reason, I’m feeling quite sugared out. Lately I’ve been cooking my own meals (or having my mom order takeout), so there’s a bunch I can potentially share!

Black Bean Chocolate Cupcakes (Gluten free)

These cupcakes are like eating a cloud of fluffy chocolate brownie cake frosted with the inside of Lindor truffles.

My dad has been sneaking into the kitchen and taking two at a time, and he usually only nibbles at the desserts I make. I can’t blame him though; I’ve lost count of how many I’ve eaten.

These cupcakes are super chocolatey, and not too sweet (though a extra quarter cup of sugar or a few drops of stevia can fix that if sweeter desserts float your boat) and the frosting tastes like the inside of lindor truffles. Really, it does!

The cake is more creamy and dense than traditional chocolate cake and it reminds me somewhat of brownies, but that’s the only distinction I can make. There’s no bean taste whatsoever.

If you’re feeling particularly healthy, you could replace the eggs with egg whites and sugar with erythritol, but these aren’t bad as is. So relax, and eat a couple (or ten).

Black Bean Chocolate Cupcakes

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup cooked black beans
• ¼ cup oil
• ¾ cup cocoa
• ½ cup sugar (increase to ¾ cup if you like sweeter desserts)
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp salt

1. Blend all the ingredients in a food processor, blender, or with a hand emersion blender until smooth. The batter should be very creamy and thick – like chocolate pudding.
2. Divide into 30 mini cupcake liners.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-13 minutes.
4. Frost, or eat plain!

Inside of Lindor Chocolate Truffles Frosting

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ¼ cup coconut oil

1. Combine and microwave until melted.
2. Let sit at room temperature until spreadable, or speed up the process using an ice bath.
3. Frost the cupcakes!

Classic Chocolate Brownies

I’m currently trying to write my common app essay, which is, to put it lightly, a painful and mind numbing process.

So here are some brownies I made a while ago. (What I would do for one now.)

Classic Chocolate Brownies

adapted from here

• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, mix together the oil, vanilla, sugar, and eggs.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Bake in a 9×9 or 8×8 inch greased baking pan at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, or until the sides begin to pull away from the pan.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve made countless versions of chocolate chip cookies: some calling for bread flour, others for egg yolks, some even for vanilla beans and brown butter and the like, but I’ve found, when it comes down to it, simplicity is best.

These cookies are good. They’re not too thin, not too thick, not too crispy, not too soft. They’re not the most extravagant cookies – they’re far from it – but they’re buttery and chocolatey, and sometimes simplicity is best.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

recipe adapted from here.

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 ½ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 ¾ cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 bag (2 cups) semi sweet chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
2. In another bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla extract.
4. Fold in the dry ingredients until there are no streaks of flour. Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Refrigerate for at least an hour (or just skip this step – most of the time i do)
6. Divide the dough into 2 tablespoons sized portions, and then bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Bake for shorter or more time depending on personal preferences. 🙂

Healthy Chocolate Pudding Pie [vegan]

(Healthy) Chocolate Pudding Pie-Vegan 

A few years ago I made a batch of tofu chocolate pudding and was absolutely enamored with it.  It was SO simple to make and I ended up eating a whole batch, thinking tofu automatically made it a health food (not that you can taste more than a hint of soy).  Flash forward to a couple months ago, when I saw a recipe for a Chocolate Bar Pie on a wonderful (healthy) dessert blog called Chocolate Covered Katie (she has recipes which make even me LOVE garbanzo beans). Yum yum yum!

I realized, looking at her gorgeous pictures, that my life called for some serious tofu chocolate pie.  Not one to follow recipes, I kinda took a glance at the recipe on CCK, and ended up guessing ingredients and their amounts.  To my surprise, it was a experimental success (trust me, my experiments aren’t usually so pretty, haha).  I made a chocolate shortbread crust for the pie, and it complemented the silkiness of the filling really nicely.  I would continue rambling about the pie (and I could, believe me!), but it’s five in the morning (hello jetlag, you have too much power over me), and I think I should go back to sleep.  G’night or good morning, and until next time!

Chocolate Tofu Pie

Inspiration from Chocolate Covered Katie’s Chocolate Bar Pie

Crust:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter [vegan butter, if desired]

1. Add the flour, cocoa, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Cut the stick of butter into thin slices, and add to the bowl.
3. With your finger, work the butter into the dry ingredients until a crumbly dough forms.
4. Press the dough into a greased pie pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
5. Allow to cool completely.

Filling:

• 1 container of silken tofu, 16 ounces, drained
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (half a 12 ounce bag)
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ¼ cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 pinch salt

1. Melt the chocolate chips, and stir until smooth.
2. Place all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.  Easy peasy!
3. Pour into the cooled pie shell and refrigerate until the filling holds its shape.
4. Garnish with chocolate shavings and fresh berries. 🙂

EDIT: Gave a slice to my friend who’s really finicky about Tofu and she liked it.  Success!

Ultimate Chocolate Cake

Happy almost New Years everyone! I can’t believe 2011 is almost over :O

I probably should make a list of resolutions for the New Year, but if I do, I doubt I’ll end up following through anyways.  It’s worth a try though, I suppose!!!

Next year I will:

1. Keep baking!
2. Bake different styles of food! (aka. gluten free, vegan, raw, ect.)
3. Improve my food photography.
4. CONTINUE POSTING ON CHOMPSOFLIFE. (emphasized so I don’t get lazy, hee hee)
5. Read and draw more.
6. Learn a new skill.
7. Do steps one to five, and repeat!

To celebrate this new year, what’s a better treat than chocolate cake? A luxuriously moist yet fluffy one at that! Top it with this Nutella frosting and you’ll opt out of New Years fireworks, choosing instead to stay with the cake.  A brilliant decision I might add.

Ultimate Chocolate Cake

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• ¾ cup dutch-processed cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp espresso powder
• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ¾ cup boiling water

1. Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso power in a large bowl.
2. Add the milk, sour cream, eggs, oil, and vanilla to the dry ingredients, and whisk together for a minute, or until homogenous.
3. Pour in the boiling water, and whisk until smooth.  Batter will be quite runny.
4. Pour into 2 greased 9 inch cake pans, and bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick can be inserted without any crumbs. Cool completely.

Faux Hostess Cupcakes

At the beginning of the summer, I’ve joined a Tae Kwon Do program at the YMCA with some friends.  Why? Well, it looked like fun and during the summer, I hate being bored  (btw curing summer boredom is also a reason for the existence of this blog).  For a while at least five of my friends would do Tae Kwon Do together, but eventually that number dwindled to just two, my friend Sonia and I.

When Sonia went on vacation with her family, I was desperate to find another friend to go with me to Tae Kwon Do.  My friend Cecile (acciobojan on Tumblr) was the only person available to go with me, but convincing her to do Tae Kwon Do was no simple matter.  She had done Judo as a child, found it horrifying, and was reluctant to do any martial arts with me, even if only for an hour.  It turns out, cupcakes are good negotiators, especially when they’re filled with marshmallow cream and topped with ganache.  It’s a win-win situation for both of us!

Recipe for Faux Hostess Cupcakes here.

Chia Chocolate Pudding

If you’ve seen any of my posts already, it’s pretty evident that a majority of the time, I’m pretty unambitious with my culinary creations.  Even though it may appear like this dessert is simply another one of those lazy creations, for this pudding, I actually had a vision.  I hypothesized that a chocolate pudding, healthy enough for breakfast, could be made using Chia seeds.  Unfortunately, *spoiler alert*, it can’t!  As delicious as chia seeds are in recipes like chia seed pudding (a tapioca pudding made with chia), when blended, they are extremely bitter.  Heh, it was a nice attempt (and turned out really pretty!).  If you have any suggestions for how to create such a breakfast pudding, tell me, and I’d love to test out new ideas. For now though, my quest still continues for a breakfast chocolate pudding. mmmmm, chocolate pudding for breakfast, wouldn’t that be the life?

Since I feel bad posting a recipe that wasn’t exactly delicious, I recommend that instead, you make the chocolate pudding recipe below.  It’s relatively healthy (no cream or egg yolks!) and still really yummy (although, it’s more of a quick, light snack, than an indulgent dessert).

Recipe for chocolate pudding here.