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Sunday, February 15, 2009

Valentines Day Dessert

The most important part of Valentines Day is obviously the dessert... so after like weeks of anxiety trying to decide whether to make a special cake or get a cake from Lulu's, I finally decided that it would be more special if I made it! Now, I still had anxiety trying to find recipes...

It had to have some chocolate. But I didn't want to make just like a chocolate cake... I wanted something a little more like exotic. I wanted to incorporate some kinda fruit into this chocolate because I just think fruit + chocolate = soooooo sexy!

I trekked on over to Lulu's for their advice. I left there with a ganache recipe and some tips for the cherries.


Step #1- Soak the dried Cherries over night in Orange Juice and Orange Zest.


Step #2- Make the King Arthur Flour's Favorite Fudge Birthday Cake with some Orange Zest and Orange Juice. *I halved the recipe since I was only making a little heart shaped cake and 6 cupcakes.


Step #3- The next day, slice the cake in half horizontally, place the Orangey Cherries (try to get some of the orange zest for more orangey flavor) on the first layer, and make some Fresh Whipped Cream and top the cherries with that. Place the other layer of cake.


Step #4- Make a Chocolate Ganache and pour it over the whole cake! My ganache was still warm and very runny, so after the first layer, I refrigerated both the cake and the ganache, and did a Second Layer


Step #5- Finally, decorate!


Step #6- Cut in half, and enjoy with your loved one!

Oh but that wasn't the only dessert we had. We took advantage of Ed's fireplace and made S'mores! He had an assortment of chocolates (we rarely do plain Hershey's) such as Reese's PB Cups, Caramel Chocolates, Dark Chocolates, Butterfinger Crunch Bars, etc. But earlier yesterday at Whole Foods, I picked up Vosges Haut Chocolat's notorious Mo's Bacon Bar...

It was my first time yesterday, and it was love at first bite! I love sweet and salty combos, I love bacon, and I love chocolate. So.... yep. It worked! And making s'mores with it was just genius of me :-)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Miki,
Love your blog. We had dinner at Cafe Mirage tonight. One of the dessert specials was a bananna cheesecake with chocolate ganache. I couldn't help but think of you.
See you,
Chowdom

Miki said...

Ive wanted to try Cafe Mirage for a long time! I might just go for that Banana Cheesecake hahah! Thanks for the comment!

Anonymous said...

The food is great, don't miss the chocolate mousse or the pan fried oysters, or the blue point oysters. Actually I have never had anything there that was not good. We love table 18 a two top all the way in the corner near the coffee station. Its kind of in Siberia but very cozy and a quieter spot.

Anonymous said...

That was me chowdom again.