DESSERT CUPS: The Perfect Dessert for Dessert Day!

Today is National Dessert Day! Every day is Chocolate Dessert Day here on DyingforChocolate.com, but for today's holiday, I'm reposting a post from the Queen of Chocolate Decoration and Innovation, The Chocolate Addict, Katreece Montgomery, for Chocolate Dessert Cups, dishes you can eat. Katreece makes chocolate decorating videos for the home chef. Visit her at: TheChocolateAddict.com.

THE CHOCOLATE ADDICT:
Chocolate Dessert Cups, dishes you can eat.

Every dessert deserves to be embellished, and presented in an elegant fashion, and most alluring is the chocolate dessert cup.

There are many ways to make chocolate dessert cups. These delightful edible containers are sure to spruce up your favorite mousse recipe, or perhaps filled with your favorite sorbet, fruit or confections. These can be in the form of cups,bowls, cylinders, boxes or any type of vessel to hold something delicious. Chocolate dessert cups are a stunning addition to a table setting for a festive dinner party, or a romantic dessert accessory for two.  Fill a chocolate container with confections and wrap in cellophane paper for a delightful chocolate lovers gift.

The easiest way to make a dessert cup is to find a food safe plastic container to use as a mold. Fill with tempered chocolate*, remove excess, refrigerate for several minutes and carefully release chocolate cup from mold. Shazam!

Your guests will be tickled pink when they find out they can eat the dishes!

*To make chocolate decorations you'll need to perform a series of steps called tempering, this will ensure your decoration with harden and look it's best. For kids projects or if you find the tempering process too time consuming, you can whip up a decoration in a jiffy with something called confectionary coating, which is chocolate flavored candy. It does not need to be tempered and is very inexpensive and convenient to use. Check out Tempering HERE.

If you love to spend time in the kitchen being creative, give chocolate decorating a try. You'll be amazed at what you can dream up with the most sensational "food of the Gods", we call chocolate.

M&M's Graveyard Cups: M&M's Day!

Happy M&M's Day! With Halloween coming up, I'm posting this fun recipe from M&M's for M&M's Graveyard Cups! Delicious and spooky! 

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS: Pumpkin Month

It's no surprise that October is Pumpkin Month.  There are so many ways to use pumpkin in your baking! Add chocolate, and you're calling my name. Here's an easy recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins from allrecipes.com.

I use a natural pumpkin puree that I always have in the pantry for doggie stomach upsets (pumpkin is good for dogs), but you can use Libby's if that's what you have..or pumpkin puree you make yourself if you've already started carving your jack-o-lantern. Just make sure it's pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie mix since you will be adding your own spices.

As always, use the best chocolate chips--and make sure your oil is fresh. These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are a great way to start the day!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips 

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water.
In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt.
Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

CHOCOLATE ANGEL FOOD CAKE: National Angel Food Cake Day!

Today is National Angel Food Cake Day.  In case you were worried that there would be no chocolate, I make a go-to recipe for Chocolate Angel Food Cake, recipe from Martha Stewart! This cake is light and airy and delicious... truly angelic!

Angel food cake is a cake made with a lot of egg whites and usually no shortening or leavening agent. It has the consistency of a sponge cake.

From WhatsCookingAmerica.net comes this piece of information about Angel Food Cake: 

Angel Food Cake is also known as ice cream cake (a Pennsylvania Dutch wedding cake). And, because there are an abundance of cake molds in southeastern PA, one of the major producer of cake molds, angel food cake may have originated there in the 1800s. Some other historians think that the first angel food cakes were baked by African slaves in the South because making this cake required a strong beating arm and lots of labor to whip the air into the whites (pre-egg-beaters 1865). Angel Food cakes are also a traditional African-American favorite at funerals. You decide, but whatever the origin, you'll love this cake!

CHOCOLATE ANGEL FOOD CAKE

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sugar
Scant 1 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 ounce dark chocolate, grated (about 1/2 cup)
12 large egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp pure almond extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place oven rack in center.
Sift together onto piece of parchment paper: 3/4 cup sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add grated chocolate; set aside.

In bowl of electric mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. With machine running, add remaining 3/4 cup sugar in slow steady stream, beating until fully incorporated and stiff glossy peaks form. Add vanilla and almond extracts; beat to combine.

Remove from mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, gently but thoroughly, folding into egg-white mixture until fully combined. Pour into nonstick angel food cake pan. Tap pan on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake until cake springs back when depressed with finger, 30 to 35 minutes.
Cool, inverted, 1 hour before removing pan.