A Valentine’s Day Sweet Treat

Molten Lava Cake

Sweets for your valentine! Melt in your mouth molten lava cake! This dessert is so small is and great for after a dinner, served with a variety of garnishes.

Yields: 6 ramekins; 12 muffin tins sized cakes

Ingredients

8 0z bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (1 cup)

10 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup flour

3 eggs

3 egg whites

1 tbs vanilla

** Add any flavoring, such as coffee or peppermint.

Preheat oven to 425

Grease either 6 6 oz. ramekins or 12 muffin tins. I used butter to grease mine. I did half and half to see which I’d like best. I grabbed some additional butter and rubbed it all over the tins. I don’t have ramekins, although I want them so much! Think of all the options! French onion soup! Oh yum!

*Ignore my fat ring finger. Its still swollen from spraining it last week.

Add all 10 tbs of butter and 8 oz. of chocolate to a medium sized, microwave safe bowl. Heat for 1 minute and stir. Then heat for 30 second intervals, stirring in between each until smooth.

Add flour and powdered sugar to chocolate and butter. Stir until it looks like a typical cake batter. A huge mound of it.

Add eggs and egg whites and stir with a fork until combined completely and add flavoring, such as vanilla.

Divide batter evenly among cups. They’re pretty full.

Bake for 10 minutes. Actually I’d bake for 8 minutes. Mine were a little too unmelty, unlava-like on the inside. Maybe its cause I left them in there for 1 minute longer since I was washing all my dishes.

Take out and serve immediately. If you have ramekins, its easier, just invert onto plate and serve. With muffin tins, I ran a knife around them, making sure they weren’t stuck and then took a knife and stuck it under the cake gently and flipped into a plate, upside down.

Then I decorate.

And I decorated.

And then we ate. and enjoyed. MMMMM

You can serve with anything you’d like; caramel, berries, cool whip, butterscotch, cherries…Whatever you like with warm chocolate cake. I served mine with powdered sugar, vanilla bean ice cream and caramel syrup.

Few ingredients, Full flavor!

These past couple weeks have been birthday filled! I have baked so many things, but yet I didn’t load them. Maybe I’ll save them for a rainy day. Any-who… Here is my newest birthday creation.

Soft Sandwich Cookies

I love these cookies. Usually I like to make them with red velvet cake mix and fudgy brownie mix combined. This maybe just one of the simplest, easiest recipes I’ll ever put on here.

Ingredients

1 Box dark chocolate cake mix, or any other cake mix you’d like (you do not need whatever is called for on the box of this cake mix.
1/2 Cup butter (1 stick), softened to room temperature
2 Eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix ingredients until combined.

Using a 1/2 tablespoon, roll batter into balls and place on baking sheet.

I used different cookie sheets. One is my brand new one I got for Christmas! =) The other is rather old, so to make sure my cookies come up easy, I used parchment paper. I love that stuff. Really. Place them a couple inches apart.

Bake for 12 minutes. These are the kind of cookies you smell when you bake them. You know they are done or close to it when you smell them!

Cool.

Cool.

Do you see this other gift? My cooling racks are stackable!

Icing

Ingredients

3 tbs milk

2 tbs butter, softened

2-3 cups confectioners sugar

Vanilla flavoring to my likening

Directions

Place milk and butter in bowl.

I’ll be honest. I don’t have milk, but I do have coffee creamer (the liquid kind) and whipping cream. I added these and it turned out just amazing! Just think! There are so many creamer flavors. You can make so many different flavors of frosting!!

Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. Blend well with a mixer. Remember, you want the frosting to be nice and stiff because it will be sandwiched between two cookies.

Place icing on the bottom, flat side of one cookie.

Place another cookie on top, flat side down, and press together until the cream flushes with the sides.

Simple enough right? I hope you really try this one out. It so quick and easy.