Cartoon of the Day: Chocolate

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE CAKE: National Chocolate Day!

Today is National Chocolate Day. To be honest there are several National Chocolate Days throughout the year, and, of course, every day is Chocolate Day at DyingforChocolate.com. So to celebrate, you can take a spin back over the past years of daily chocolate recipes on this site, or you can make this Triple Chocolate Cake from Tommy Bahama Restaurant & Bar. 

Triple Chocolate Cake

Ingredients
6 oz E. Guittard Cocoa Rouge cocoa powder
24 fl oz water
1 lb and 12 oz all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp iodized salt
2 1/2 Tbsp baking soda
2 1/2 lbs sugar
24 fl oz buttermilk
18 fl oz vegetable oil
7 whole eggs
1 Tbsp and 1-1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Chocolate Ganache Frosting (see recipe below)
Chocolate Whipped Cream (see recipe below)

Directions: 
Bring water to boil, turn off heat, add cocoa powder, and stir until thick. Set aside to cool.
Mix dry ingredients in mixer with whip attachment on low-medium speed for 3 minutes. Mix all liquids at once, except the chocolate mixture, with the remaining dry ingredients for 2 minutes at medium speed. Scrape well. Add chocolate mixture and mix for about 1 minute on medium speed. Set the batter aside for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease two 10” cake pans. Cut two circles, approximately 10” in diameter, out of parchment paper. Place them into greased pans. Spray parchment circles evenly with cooking spray. Pour half batter into each of the two pans.
Bake for 1 hour. (Insert toothpick into each cake after 1 hour; if comes out clean, cakes are done.) Cool cakes on wire rack.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE FROSTING

Ingredients: 
4.8 oz E. Guittard 61% Lever du Soleil semisweet chocolate wafers
28.8 oz powdered sugar
19.2 oz sour cream
19.2 oz butter, cubed
9.6 oz E. Guittard Oban unsweetened chocolate wafers

Directions: 
In double boiler, melt chocolate at 110-112°F until there are no lumps.
Slowly add butter.
In small mixer with whip attachment, add all of powdered sugar and sour cream at once. Whip on high speed until incorporated for about 2 minutes.
Add chocolate mixture to sour cream mixture and whip until the color turns light brown (like the color of milk chocolate) for about 3-4 minutes.
Refrigerate frosting for 20-30 minutes while cutting layers of cake so it firms up.
The temperature of the frosting should remain around 60°F while building the cakes.

CAKE ASSEMBLY 

Ingredients:
2 chocolate cakes, each sliced into two layers ¾” thick (for four total layers), top and sides trimmed 60 oz Chocolate Ganache frosting
3 cups chocolate cake crumbs

Directions: 
Take cooled cakes out of the pans. Invert them on cutting board, with the tops facing up.
With cake cutter, slice each cake into two layers, each 3/4” thick. Be very gentle when handling, as the cakes are very moist.
Trim all layers until they are same size.
Place all cake trimmings in food processor and pulse until coarse. Place the cake crumbs on a sheet pan and put into an oven to dry out. Reserve for later.
Evenly spread 12 oz of frosting across the top side of the bottom layer.
Repeat previous step with each remaining cake layers, stacking them as you go.
Evenly spread 12 oz of frosting over sides. Make sure frosting is smooth all over.
Remove dried-out cake crumbs from oven and sprinkle over top and sides.
Place entire cake in refrigerator.

CHOCOLATE WHIPPED CREAM

Ingredients
1 quart heavy cream
2 Tbsp E. Guittard Cocoa Rouge cocoa powder
8 oz Swiss Chalet white chocolate mousse powder

Directions
Whisk all ingredients in mixing bowl.
Transfer mixture to mixer with whip attachment and whip until cream has stiff peaks.

PLATING
Instructions: Cut cake into 8 large pieces.

***

Thanks to Tommy Bahama for this recipe!

RETRO HALLOWEEN PARTY GAMES & RECIPES: 1960

Happy Halloween. I love Betty Crocker's Party Book from 1960. Lots of different Halloween recipes, games and centerpieces! There are many different holidays in the book, but the following pages are for Halloween, lots of sugar and chocolate! Cute illustrations, too! Enjoy!

Bewitching Perfectly Poisonous Parfaits for Halloween!

One of my favorite sites for Party Planning.. and other reasons.. is Frog Prince Paperie. If you haven't visited this site, you're in for a treat. Paula's mission at Frog Prince Paperie is "to bring inspiration for spectacular parties, DIY party projects and interesting party finds." Oh yes.

Here's a special Halloween post for Bewitching Perfectly Poisonous Parfaits (reprinted with permission several years ago). Be sure and visit HERE for some fabulous Halloween party ideas. And here's a link to her Twilight Bloody Good Vampire Milkshake Shots. 

Happy Halloween!

BEWITCHING PERFECTLY POISONOUS PARFAITS

Ingredients
Vanilla Pudding
Non-pareils (in orange)
Crushed up Oreos
Tall shot glasses

Vanilla pudding can be made from scratch (time consuming) or  you buy the premade little snack pack cups (easy and no clean-up)

Drop a few tiny spoonfuls of pudding into the glass. Drop in some orange non-pareils. More pudding, then some crushed up oreo–then repeat till your glass is full! For those keeping track, she used 2 pudding snack packs to make three parfaits in these shot glasses.

That fun veined look comes from the non-pareils soaking into the pudding, so make them a bit ahead of time…that is, at least an hour! Put in a demitasse spoon and you’ll be ready to serve these perfectly poisonous little parfaits to your unsuspecting guests.

Want to make the Witch Hat Toppers? Here's a link to the Tutorial.

Photos: Frogprincepaperie.com