Warm Chocolate Pudding Cakes with Caramel Sauce

So, I don't like chocolate. Except for this cake! Brian made it a couple of weeks ago and it is THE BEST chocolate cake I've ever had! He got the recipe from Everyday Foods on PBS. It's really not hard at all. The most time consuming is making the caramel sauce and that takes under ten minutes. Mmm, it is so worth it!

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed, plus more, room temperature, for ramekins

1/3 cup sugar, plus more for ramekins

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks

1/4 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

caramel Sauce for serving

whipped cream, for serving

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter four 6-ounce ramekins, then coat lightly with sugar, tapping out excess. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine butter and chocolate. Microwave until melted, about 1 minute; stir until smooth. (Or melt mixture in a heatproof bowl set over, not in, a pan of simmering water.)
2. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, yolks, flour, and salt; add chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Fill each ramekin three-quarters full with batter; place on a rimmed baking sheet and refrigerate 15 minutes.
3. Bake until center of a cake is soft but not wet when pressed, 27 to 30 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes. Serve cakes warm, topped with caramel and whipped cream.

Caramel Sauce

1. In a medium saucepan, heat 1 cup sugar over medium-high until melted and brown at edges, 3 minutes. With a heat-resistant spatula, pull melted sugar toward center until all sugar is melted and caramel is deep amber in color, 3 minutes more.
2. Immediately whisk in 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cubed, 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (take care as mixture is extremely hot and will bubble).
3. Whisk in 1/2 cup heavy cream.
4. Pour into a heatproof container and let cool. (To store, refrigerate, up to 3 weeks.)

If you've made toffee before, making caramel is pretty much the same. Brian burned the first two batches, then I took over and made perfection ;) You don't want to make it dark, since sugar burns VERY quickly. If making the sauce is too intimidating, you can always use store bought caramel, it's still good!

Brenda's Snobby S'Mores

I got this idea from a friend, and they are pretty good.

A nice warm fire or the flame from your gas range, whatever
Graham crakers
Marshmallows
Caramel filled chocolate bars


Mmmm.

The Best Chocolate Cake Ever

or at least that's what my husband thinks. I make it every year for his birthday at his request, and about 10 other times in the year, too. This makes a fairly dense cake and tastes very old-fashioned. It's not the fluffy, airy kind of chocolate cake you get from a box. One great thing about this is that it doesn't use eggs or any type of refrigerated foods - only stuff from your food storage!

3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
6 tbsp. baking cocoa
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 c water
2/3 c vegetable oil
2 tsp white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract

In a mixing bowl, combine the first 5 ingredients. Add water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Beat on low for 1 minute. Beat on medium for 1 minute. Pour into a greased (or sprayed) 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

We typically don't frost this, just dust with powdered sugar or whipped cream.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Tonight I decided I would reorganize my recipe box (since it gets totally rearranged by me and my kids) and I came across my favorite cheesecake recipe. I think I will have to dig out those spring form pans! It has a smooth chocolate layer on top with the chocolate chip filling below and a chocolatey crust. The recipe came from a 2003 Taste of Home magazine, although I have altered it a little.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

2 C vanilla wafer crumbs

1/2 C finely chopped walnuts

1/4 C sugar

3 T baking cocoa

1/3 C butter, melted

Filling:

4 pkgs. (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 C sugar

4 t cornstarch

4 eggs

1/3 C whipping cream

3 t vanilla extract

1 1/2 C miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Topping:

3 squares (1 oz each) semisweet chocolate, melted

1 T butter, melted

1 C powdered sugar

1/4 C whipping cream

In a bowl, combine the first five ingredients; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of a 10 inch springform pan. Refrigerate for 15 minutes,

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Combine sugar and cornstarch; beat on low speed just until combined. Add the cream, vanilla and chocolate chips,. Pour into prepared crust.

Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes or until center is nearly set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosed; cool 1 hour longer. (Cheescake top may crack but topping will cover.)

For topping, combine chocolate, butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Slowly beat in cream until mixture achieves spreading consistency. Spread over cheesecake. Refrigerate overnight.

Remove sides of pan. Refrigerate leftovers.

Red Velvet Cake

I've been kinda sick of that same old cake that Brian always wants (chocolate), plus I needed to use up some buttermilk, so I thought I'd try something from my childhood (when I went to a restaurant and ate it). Boxed cake mixes aren't my favorite, so I made this from scratch.

Right off, Brian isn't a fan. He thought it would be more chocolatey than it was. I made the traditional butter roux frosting, instead of the modern cream cheese frosting. Brian thinks it tastes like condensed milk, and it did the first day, but mellowed out into a buttery caramel flavor. I'm not 100 percent sure if I made the frosting right, but I liked it. Anyway, it was good enough that I'll make it again (probably only once a year), but with the cream cheese frosting instead.

Red Velvet Cake

½ cup shortening
1½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 or 2 (1-ounce) bottles red food coloring (I only had 1/2 of one, so it didn't look as brilliant)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2½ cups sifted cake flour (all purpose flour 2½ cups -5 Tbs. which is what I did)
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cocoa powder (I actually took out 2 Tbs. more of flour and replaced it with more cocoa powder)
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Beat shortening at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.
Stir in food coloring and vanilla, blending well. Combine flour, salt, and cocoa; set aside.
Combine buttermilk, vinegar, and soda in a 4-cup liquid measuring cup. (Mixture will bubble.) Add flour mixture to shortening mixture, alternately with buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition. Beat at medium speed 2 minutes; pour batter into 3 greased and floured 8-inch round cake pans (I used a 9x13). Bake at 350° for 25 minutes. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes; remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks. Spread frosting between layers and on top of cake. Garnish with chopped pecans, if desired.

Sheet Cake: Pour batter into a greased and floured 13- x 9-inch pan. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Spread cream cheese frosting on top of cake. Garnish, if desired.

Butter Roux Frosting:
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine the milk and flour in a saucepan and cook on medium heat until thickened. Cream together sugar, vanilla and butter, beating until fluffy. Gradually beat milk mixture into butter mixture (this is where I think I went wrong, if you don’t let the milk cool, it just melts the butter when you add it, which is what happened to me. And that makes it hard to follow the next instruction). Beat until the frosting becomes fluffy and spreadable.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or margarine, softened
1 pound box confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream it all together.

Ellie ate part of it before I could take a picture...

Well, let me know what you think, and if you have a better one please share. All in all, I'd give this about 3 1/2 stars....