Contessa's chocolate cake with mandarin hearts

Chocolate cake cravings are uncontrollable. When you want to have it, you got to have it. So today I baked, different because I rarely bake, its very difficult for me to stick to exact quantities.

This is a take on Barefoot Contessa's chocolate cake.

Dry ingredients:
1 and 3/4 cups A.P. flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Wet ingredients:
1 cup buttermilk or yogurt
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
 2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
four shots espresso

1/2 to 3/4 can preserved mandarin

Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Butter a bundt cake pan, and flour it.

Sift the dry ingredients together, and combine them thoroughly. Combine the wet ingredients and then add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine at low speed. Add the espresso. Pour half the batter into the pan, lay mandarin slices on top and pour the remaining batter. Bake for about 45 min.

Next time I shall add 1/2 cup toasted and coarsely chopped almonds. The cake batter is a bit thin. But the cake turns out really moist and very chocolatey.

Chocolate truffles with rummy cherried hearts

Several of my close friends are incurable chocoholics. So when I came across the barefoot contessa's wonderful truffle recipe, I knew that Ina had her finger on the sweet beats of my chocolate loving friends' hearts. I made it a couple of times, each time leaving behind a trail of happy smiles. And then I thought of a twist for it, so here goes:


1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate
1/2 lb semi sweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons orange flavored liqueur
1 tablespoon prepared coffee
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sugar
Cocoa powder
Cherries soaked in rum

Chop the chocolates finely. Place them in a mixing bowl.
Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just boils. Turn off the heat and allow the cream to sit for a few seconds. Pour the cream into the bowl with chocolate. Slowly stir the cream and chocolates together until the chocolate is completely melted. (If all the chocolate does not melt, heat the bowl over a water bath and stir till the chocolate melts) Whisk in the orange flavored liqueur, coffee, and vanilla. Set aside - you can pop the mixture in the fridge for a little while till they are stiff enough to be molded.

Spoon round balls of the chocolate mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper after adding a half a rum soaked pitted cherry in each. Roll each ball of chocolate in your hands to roughly make it round. Roll in a mix of sugar and cocoa powder. Refrigerate.
Rum soaked cherries: Soak fresh red cherries in rum, add a bit of sugar and store them in a Mason jar in the fridge. They will be ready to use after about a month or so. Remove the cherry pits before stuffing the truffles. (They are darned yummy on their own as well!)
PHOTO: Fort Collins, 2008