2 Ingredient Chocoloate Mousse

There is one big no-no when working with chocolate: never mix it with water. Or else it will cease up and get chunky and grainy. But for right now, I need you to ignore this rule. Just pretend it doesn't exist. And make this. Now.

This is just chocolate and water, melted and whipped as it cools. And you literally cannot screw it up. Because if you do, you just remelt and start again.

I found this made a great consistency frosting on cupcakes. It was VERY chocolatey because there was nothing to cut the flavor and it held it's shape beautifully.


Two Ingredient Chocolate Mousse
Adapted from Serious Eats

350 grams dark or milk chocolate, chopped

270 grams water 

Cold water and ice, for ice bath.

"Put equal parts water and ice into a medium bowl for the ice bath.


Boil the water in a saucepan, or in the microwave, and pour it into a second medium bowl.

Add the chopped chocolate and stir with a spatula or whisk until all the pieces are melted, about 2 minutes.

Place the bowl with the chocolate over the ice bath and whisk vigorously. Continue to whisk until the mixture has the consistency of stiffly whipped cream, and then quickly divide it between individual serving cups or into a serving bowl. Refrigerate."

Thank You Cookies

Here are some simple thank you cookies for someone who helped me out with a little coding on my blog.

Bachelorette Party Cookies

Once again, please forgive the hiatus.

Here are some bachelorette party cookies I made for a friend whose sister was getting married.

I used Sugarbelle's tutorial for making the Chippendale chests.

For the bras, I have seen a lot of people use the upside down heart as bras or swimsuits. It really is a great multi-function cutter.

I got really creative with them and made each one different.

Finally, the plaques. I have this cutter from Copper Gifts. It is so perfect. There is tons of room to write on it, and it just has a really lovely shape.

To flood this cookie, I usually follow the sides, but skip the points and then drag them out with a scribe so I can get a nice crisp point. 

I free-handed all of the lettering. But I used the font Tagettes as a reference for writing the "Mrs". I practice a few times tracing it on wax paper, then freehanding it on an outline of the cookie to make sure I can see how it will line up, and then I go for it.

Happy cookie-ing.

Valentine's Day Cookies

It's Valentine's Day, so I made you cookies. Actually for real, I sent three special people a package of cookies. I thought it might be a nice surprise. By the way, I am terrible at keeping surprises, so this is a big deal. I already ruined it for one of them because I told them to check their mail today (stupid college mail rooms ruining good things).

I started planning these cookies about a month ago. I made the cookies and froze them. Then this week I decorated them and shipped them off.

I thought I was being super original making chevron hearts, but a quick googling says I am not alone....

So, I kept going. I made the chevron ones, the scalloped ones and the honeycomb ones. I love the way they all turned out. They are a great cookie for a beginner because you only need to mix 2 colors and pipe some lines.

Then add my favorite border, super easy dots! They immediately clean up even the ugliest cookie.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Grandma's Birthday Cookies

This January my Grandma celebrated her birthday. I don't get to see her too often since she moved in with my uncle but it is always a great time visiting her.

For her birthday, she asked me to make her a batch of cookies. She has a huge sweet tooth, so I also surprised her with a cake. But that is for another post.

Here are the cookies. I learned the pretty swirly technique from a class I took with SweetAmbs. It is one of my new favorite patterns. It makes any cookie instantly pretty and classy. Also, I love that it just flows, no real thinking required.  I also love doing a dot border. It is really easy (aka perfect for beginners), it cleans up a wonky circle, and it really finishes the cookie.

Finally, these babies got dusted with pearl dust and the writing got painted with it. I love the white pearl dust. It gives the perfect shine.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Super Bowl Cookies & Tutorial

It's game day, and as usual, I'm a little late to the blogging party. This would have been useful for inspiration, oh, I don't know, a week or two ago. But here we are. The day of. So just enjoy the eye candy. Oh. And sorry if you are a Ravens fan. Both of these orders were for 49ers fans. 

I started the first order bummed that I don't have an oval cookie cutter for the 49ers logo. So, for the footballs and the first round of 49ers logos, I used my largest circle cutter. I pressed down once and then again about an inch from my original cut to get the football shape. It should look like a venn diagram, the center being the football.

After cutting and baking all of these cookies, I remembered I did have an oval cutter: the speech bubble! It just needed a little slice off the bottom to get rid of the point and it was perfect. Doh. I was actually excited to get a second chance making these so I could use that cutter. 

Excuse the terrible picture, but I wanted to show you the difference between the shapes and how much better round two went. 

One of my favorite new techniques is doing a royal icing transfer. Lettering is not my strong suit, so copying this logo would have been a nightmare. But as long as you can trace lines, you can make a transfer.

To do this you need:
An image the size you will want it on your cookie
Wax paper
Tape
A cookie sheet
Royal Icing ready to go in a piping bag

So tape down your image onto a cookie sheet. Here is what I used so I could get a bunch at a time:

Then tape a piece of wax paper over the whole thing. 

Next, for this logo specifically, trace over the black outlines using a stiff black icing. I would suggest letting that dry for about 30 minutes to an hour just to prevent bleeding. Next fill in the inside of the logo with white medium consistency icing. 

Let this dry overnight or for at least 8 hours. It needs to be really solid. 

Finally, carefully and slowly peel off the wax paper from the transfer.

You can just drop these right onto wet icing. 
 

And here are some lovely instagram photos of round 2, where I also simplified the footballs just a little bit:

Happy Super Bowl/Beyonce Bowl/Puppy Bowl, everyone! Leave me comments with what you are eating on this triple threat holiday.

Card Cookies

Here are some cute cookies I made for a local ladies bridge group.

These were a nice mix of simple and hand painted cookies.

The simple cookies are just white flood icing and red/black piping icing. At the last minute, I added some nice dot details to give them a little something special.

The hand painted ones are white flood icing, black/red piping icing dot border, hand painting with food coloring, silver pearl dust painting and white pearl dust dusting {phew}.

To paint with food coloring, just take a few drops of gel food coloring and mix it with a few drops of water. It will be a "watercolor consistency". You have a to be a little bit careful about the amount of water you use, because you don't want to gouge your cookie. With a little bit of practice it is a fairly easy technique.

The pearl dust is a Wilton product, it is my new favorite (expect to see it on pretty much every cookie from here on out). It comes in a ton of colors and you can use it to give your cookies a nice glittery dusting or mix it with a little vodka/everclear/clear extract and paint with it (like the club outline).

The cookies were an Orange Vanilla Cardamom cookie from SweetAmbs. It is a realllly fantastic cookie (my older sister's favorite). And worth the price to download from her website at $1.99.

Double Chocolate Torte

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, which was the first food blog I ever found. I knew that I needed to make this. It was calling my name. The smooth dark chocolate, the sweet whipped cream and raspberries. I mean, how can you go wrong? Oh, that’s right. You can’t.

I recommend a tall glass of milk with this.

Double Chocolate Torte
From Smitten Kitchen

Cake

8 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325°F. 
Butter 10-inch-diameter springform pan; dust with sugar. 
Melt chocolate and butter in heavy large saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly.
Cool to lukewarm. 
Whisk in sugar. 
Whisk in eggs 1 at a time, blending well after each addition. 
Mix in vanilla and salt, then flour. 
Pour batter into pan. Bake until cake just rises in center (tester inserted into center will not come out clean), about 35 minutes. 
Cool completely in pan on rack. 
Cover; chill while making mousse.

Mousse

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 large eggs, separated
1 cup whipping cream, divided
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
8 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 cups fresh raspberries
2 tablespoons red currant jelly melted with 1 tablespoon water

Melt butter in medium metal bowl set over saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water). 
Whisk yolks, 1/4 cup cream and vanilla in small bowl to blend. 
Gradually whisk yolk mixture into bowl with melted butter. Whisk constantly over simmering water until thermometer registers 150°F, about 6 minutes (mixture may appear broken). 
Remove from over water; add chocolate and stir to melt. Set aside.
Beat egg whites and 1/2 cup sugar in large bowl to medium-stiff peaks. 
Whisk 1/4 of beaten egg white mixture into warm chocolate mixture to lighten. 
Fold in remaining egg white mixture. 

Pour mousse over cake in pan; smooth top. 
Chill torte until mousse is set, at least 6 hours and up to 1 day.
Run sharp knife around edge of pan to loosen torte. Release pan sides. 
Transfer torte to platter. 

Using electric mixer, beat 3/4 cup cream in medium bowl until peaks form. 
Spread whipped cream over torte. 
Top whipped cream with raspberries.