Chocolate Wasted

Pinterest has finally come through. I did something with it.

Ever since I found this cake while scrolling through Pinterest mindlessly with a colleague at work a few weeks ago, I’ve been obsessed with making a cake called Chocolate Wasted. Posted on the blog Art of Dessert (http://artofdessert.blogspot.com) back in October 2011, it isn’t hard to see why, unless, of course, you’re allergic to chocolate. That would be sad because this cake is loaded! I finally had a reason to make it… a fellow chocoholic friend was having a birthday.

I’m not a stickler for recipes and generally use them as guidelines, so I opted instead for my basic dark chocolate fudge cake recipe but made it more decadent by doubling the butter and using Bulgarian buttermilk and a couple tablespoons of honey. For the frosting I almost made straight bittersweet chocolate ganache, but decided to make a more truffle-like frosting instead so I replaced half of the heavy cream (forty percent minimum milk fat, of course) with salted butter. It was amazing. Having used Guittard bittersweet chocolate for the frosting and semisweet for the drizzle (with a pinch of sea salt for good measure) I figured Hershey’s Special Dark chips would work for the sides as its cocoa content is in between the two. That and I was using Hershey products to cover the top of the cake. Miniature versions of Hershey Bars, Mr. Goodbars, Krackles, Special Darks and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups along with Rolos, Kisses and Whoppers.

The end result? Amazing. Seriously. You should totally make this cake and get chocolate wasted too.

Crème Brûlée

Last week I decided to finally make crème brûlée. Oh. My. Gawd.

Since I had a kitchen torch I got a couple Christmases ago and had never tried it out, I figured, what the hell, make something with it. So after digging around on the internet and seeing the outrageous prices for butane to fill the damn thing, I went next door to where I work to a discount wine and tobacco store and got a ten and a half ounce bottle for three bucks. All that research led me to believe that as long as it was refined a few times (this bottle was refined five times) it won’t gunk up your torch.

Now, I must admit, I’ve never made crème brûlée before. I believe I must post this disclaimer because not only did I make up a recipe on the fly by taking what I liked about a couple different recipes, but also videoed myself during the process. Let’s just say that I’m that confident in my baking and cooking skills that I knew I’d be able to pull something amazing out of my chef’s hat. It’s a rarity in my life to be confident about something, but food-wise, yeah, I pretty much got it nailed.

Oh, and after watching the video, you really need to make this. If you don’t have a kitchen torch, simply set your broiler to high and place the sugar topped custard ramekins a few inches under it for about thirty seconds to a minute, or until the sugar caramelizes. Otherwise, get a torch. They’re a hell of a lot of fun to use!