The Good Stuff

This past Christmas, I received a box of Cacao Barry Dark Chocolate Couverture Origine “Tanzanie” (what a mouthful!) from my boss. I don’t have easy access to fancy chocolates, and having a college student’s budget prevents me from splurging too often, so this was a much-appreciated gift. Since I have a limited supply, I wanted to use the chocolate wisely and not be wasteful!

When I tasted this 75% dark chocolate, I noticed how fruity it is, and it has a sour aftertaste of which I’m not a fan. For Valentine’s Day, I used it to make this mousse, but due to the nature of this particular recipe, the sour taste was highlighted even more, so needless to say I didn’t have very much of it. I figured since I don’t like the taste of the chocolate on its own, I should complement it with other flavours that could tone down the fruity notes. I was in the mood to make chocolate chip cookies, so I decided to go with that, even though CCC’s are simple and don’t require “the good stuff” to make them delicious!

Japanese Style Cheesecake, Take 2

Before I forget, I just wanted to post my second attempt at making the Japanese cheesecake I tried earlier. I didn't make it at home so the only pans I had access to were loaf pans. I also substituted a few ingredients that I couldn't find (white vinegar for lemon juice and tapioca starch for corn starch). The cake probably would've been more fragrant with lemon juice, but otherwise the substitutions didn't ruin the cake. I used a proper water bath this time, but funnily enough my first attempt didn't have cracks, and these ones did, likely due to the oven being too hot. Strangely enough, since they were baked in loaf pans the cracks didn't look out of place (just Google image "loaf cakes" and you'll see what I mean).

Chocolate Orange Scones

It has been a long time, but I've finally had the time to post! Writing the entries don't take long but I'm really lazy at editing the photos, hehe. I feel bad that it has taken me this long to put this entry up, since I made these back in September. =X

I never cared much for making bread and quick bread on my own; sure, I love eating them, but they didn't seem exciting enough for me to recreate at home. However, I went to have afternoon tea at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver last month, and even though I enjoyed all of their savoury and sweet offerings, the only item that really wowed me was their citrus and lemon scones, served with Devonshire cream and berry preserves. There was just something so comforting and homey about those scones. Ever since then, I really wanted to reproduce that feeling which comes from eating something so deliciously simple, so I finally decided to try my hands at making scones.

Unfortunately I don't really remember what the hotel's scones were like exactly, but I did enjoy the hints of citrus in them, so I used what I have: orange zest. The chocolate chunks were added just because I had some leftover, and I know chocolate goes well with orange.

The scones themselves were great, albeit my underbaking them a little (by accident!) due to their thickness. The orange zest was a nice touch, and the chocolate provided a pleasant surprise when you happen to bite into it. I did not have any Devonshire cream, but I did use some strawberry jam with these scones, and the combination turned out really good. I was a bit iffy about the chocolate mixing with the strawberry flavour, but the taste of the jam was more dominant than the chocolate so it wasn't a problem.




Overall this was a good, easy recipe for basic scones. My scone craving is gone for now, but next time I would love to try adding different fruits to this recipe, and maybe get a little closer to the hotel's version.

Chocolate Orange Scones

adapted from Smitten Kitchen

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

5 tbsp chilled butter, cut into 1/4 inch cubes

1 tbsp orange zest

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks

Preheat over to 425ºF.

Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and orange zest in a bowl. Cut in the the butter pieces using fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse meal with slightly larger butter lumps. (Alternatively, this process can be done in the food processor.)

Add the chocolate chunks and fold into the flour mixture.

Make a well in the centre and stir in the heavy cream with a spatula until a dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.

Transfer the dough into a floured board or the counter top, and knead until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, about 10 seconds.

Form into a disk, and cut into 8 wedges (or your preferred shape).

Place the dough on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake until the top is light brown in colour, about 12-15 minutes. Cool on a metal rack for 10 minutes.

Apologies!

I don't know if anybody will even read this, but regardless, please excuse the lack of recent content in this blog. I feel bad for neglecting it since September; I've just been swamped with things to do (mostly school-related) these past few months, and I haven't had time to bake and properly document them since 2 months ago. :( However, there's only one week left until this semester ends, and a few more weeks left until winter break starts, so I will be churning out new content soon!

Tuxedo Truffle Mousse Cake

I can't believe it's already September and summer is over! For the past few weeks I have been working and also enjoying my summer, so that means going out a lot and no baking. Now that the weather is starting to cool down and school is starting, I will be baking a lot more as a way to procrastinate from studying. ;)

First things first, recently fashion blogger Solo Lisa held a giveaway on her blog, and I won! Even though I have a baking blog, I follow mostly beauty/fashion blogs. If I had a better sense of style I probably would have one of those myself, but alas I'm better at baking so that's all you'll be seeing from me. =P Anyway, if fashion blogs is your thing, do check out Lisa's!

Now on to baking! Last year, for his birthday, my boyfriend asked me to make a "tuxedo cake". Having never heard of such a cake before, I turned to Google for help. Most of the results are of cakes shaped like a tuxedo, but I did come across this recipe for "tuxedo cake". Since I didn't know better, that was the cake I made.


Needless to say, it was the wrong kind of tuxedo cake. Last Christmas, I found out that the real tuxedo cake that my boyfriend wanted is the tuxedo truffle mousse cake sold at Save-on-Foods! Had I known this last year, I probably would've bought one to try first and then attempted to recreate it. So to redeem myself, this year I promised that I would make the real version. His birthday was in July so this post is terribly late, but it's better than never.


The cake turned out really good and tasted pretty much like the storebought version. My cake ended up being pretty messy, since I didn't have a rectangular mold to keep everything in the right shape, so I just had to make do with what I have. To be honest though, I would rather shell out the $20 or however much it costs to get one of these in store, because this cake is really time consuming to make. I had to bake the cake in advance (at least 1 day earlier), and it took another day to make the mousses and assemble the whole thing, while creating a lot of mess in between. However, it was a good experience to make something more complicated than usual, and at least now I know that I can recreate a storebought cake.