White Cherry Chocolate Cups & Peanut butter Cups

I made 2 variations of this recipe.  One I did with cherries and white chocolate and the other I did similar to Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.  They were a little time consuming, but worth it and fun to do.

Melt 5 ounces semisweet chocolate in a double boiler.  Paint the insides of 12 mini muffin tins with the chocolate.  Put in the freezer to harden for about 5-10 minutes.  Repaint another layer of chocolate.  Freeze until hardened.

Melt 5 ounces of white chocolate in a double boiler.  Paint the insides of 12 mini muffin tins with the chocolate. Put in the freezer to harden for about 5-10 minutes. Repaint another layer of chocolate. Freeze until hardened.

Pit 1 cup of fresh cherries and dice up. 

Using a hand mixer, beat 4 ounces of cream cheese with 1 tsp of vanilla and 2 Tbsp of confectioners sugar.  Fold in the cherries.  Using a pastry bag squeeze into the white chocolate cups.  Top with 1/2 cherry.

Beat another 4 ounces of cream cheese with 3 Tbsp of Peanut Butter, 2 Tbsp of confectioners sugar and 1 tsp vanilla.  Use a pastry bag to squeeze the filling into the chocolate cups.  Top with 3 chocolate chips.

Refrigerate until serving.

Hazelnut Brownies

I got into a bit of a baking frenzy last night and made these brownies and some other treats that I am going to post today as well.

Brownie Batter:
1 Cup Butter
2 Cups Sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 Cup AP flour
3/4 Cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 13x9 inch pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar and vanilla.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.  Add to the butter mixture and mix well.  Fold in hazelnuts.

Spread into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from center.  Cool on a wire rack.

While brownies are baking prepare frosting.

Frosting:
2 Cups (12ounces) chocolate chips
1 Cup heavy whipping cream or refrigerated hazelnut non-dairy creamer  (I used the plain cream)
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup coarsely chopped hazelnuts

In a double boiler melt the chocolate and heavy cream.  Stir in the unmelted butter and mix until smooth.  Cover and refrigerate about 30 minutes or until it is spreadable.  Frost brownies and sprinkle with hazelnuts.

Makes 2 dozen.

Jeopardy Cake

Randy's Mom loves the game show Jeopardy.  So they asked me to make her a cake.  I had a little help from Alfonso to draw Randy's Mom. I need to work on rolling out fondant, but I think it came out pretty cool looking.  I made a chocolate cake with raspberry curd filling and chocolate icing.

Cake:

Ingredients

2 cups boiling water

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

2 ¼ cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and put parchment paper on the bottom of a 13x9 inch pan. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly between the 3 prepared pans.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 35 minutes. Allow to cool.

Frosting

2-1/2 cups heavy cream

3 oz. (6 Tbs.) unsalted butter

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out

6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 cups granulated sugar

6 oz. (2 cups) natural unsweetened cocoa powder; more for decorating

1/2 cup Lyle’s Golden Syrup

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

To make the frosting:

In a 4-quart saucepan over low heat, combine the cream, butter, and vanilla bean and seeds and stir until the butter is melted. Remove the vanilla bean and whisk in the chopped chocolate until melted. Whisk in the sugar, cocoa powder, syrup, and salt until smooth—be sure the cocoa powder dissolves completely. Pour into a 9x13-inch pan and freeze until firm, about 1 hour.

Lemon Curd Filling

5.25 oz butter cubed and divided

4.5 oz sugar divided

1 1/2 pints of fresh raspberries

4.5 oz egg yolks

In a blender puree the raspberries.  Run through a sieve to remove the seeds.

Combine half of the butter, half of the sugar and the raspberry sauce in a saucepan. Heat until sugar dissolves.

Blend the egg yolks with the remaining sugar. Temper by adding 1/3 of the hot raspberry sauce, stiring constantly with a whisk. Return the tempered egg mixture to the saucepan. Continue cooking , stirring constantly with the whisk until the mixture comes to a boil.

Add the remaining butter

Strain the curd into a large shallow bowl. Cover and refrigerate to cool.

Fondant

1 1/2 oz. water

1 package unflavored gelatin (The store didn't have unflavored so I bought raspberry flavored and use 2 1/4 tsp. This also tinted the fondant pink so I had to add extra color to the completed fondant to get it to change to the color I needed)

4 1/2 oz light corn syrup

1 1/2 tsp. glycerin (optional)

1 lb 8 oz confectioners sugar

Mix the water and gelatin and heat gently to dissove only. Remove from the heat and stir in the corn syrup and glycerin (if using).

Add the sugar and mix until smooth and well combined. Form into a disc, lightly coat with shortening and wrap in plastic if not using right away. Best if used the same day.

I had some trouble getting the sugar to mix into the other ingredients. So I took out of the pan and put into my mixing bowl with the paddle attachment and let it knead together for a minute. It worked perfect.

I used 2 small pieces of fondant to make the picture of Randy's mom and the Question Bar.  I also tinted some fondant orange and cut out the word JEOPARDY.