Ghirardelli Lava Cakes - Disaster

Don't you just love Lava Cakes?

Ooey, gooey molten chocolate flowing from a warm bed of chocolate cake.

Sigh. Too bad my lava cakes didn't turn out that way. Here they are in all their disastrous glory.

I knew I was in trouble from the get-go. The first part of the recipe had you prepare a frozen ball of chocolate that would be inserted into the cake batter just before baking. The recipe said to melt chocolate and cream together, refrigerate it until firm, and finally roll the chocolate into six balls. Well my chocolate would never harden! (Did I accidentally use too much cream? Or not enough chocolate? ) I even put the chocolate into the freezer and still it wouldn't harden.

Finally I just gave up, mixed up the cake batter and spooned the still soft chocolate centers into the batter.


After the suggested baking time I pulled the pan out of the oven. They looked pretty good, and I had high hopes for success.


But after tipping the cakes out of the pan, this is what I found.

DISASTER.

But what my lava cakes lacked in beauty they made up in taste. Yummy! I may have to try them again this weekend and figure out what I did wrong.

Here is the recipe if you want to give it a try.

TWD: Sweet Cream Biscuits

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection was made by Melissa of Love at First Bite. She selected Sweet Cream Biscuits on page 23.



I have to say that I LOVE biscuits. They are my comfort food and rank right up there with chocolate and ice cream. So I'm sorry to say that I didn't like these biscuits at all (sorry Melissa and Dorie). I felt like they were missing something important, something vital.

Here they are about to go into the oven.



And just out. They are a little brown, but that is the way I like them. I love the outside toasty and crunchy and the inside moist and fluffy.



I ate one and felt a big let down. It just tasted so bland and uninspiring. Maybe if I had covered them in gravy or jam they would have tasted better, but just as a standalone biscuit they left a lot to be desired. I'll probably give the recipe another try (one day) just to see if I did something wrong.

TWD: Swedish Visting Cake

This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs. Nancy selected Dorie’s Swedish Visiting Cake which is located on page 197 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Thank you Nancy!

This cake as moist, almond-y, and oh so good. In fact it is one of the best things I've tasted in a long, long time.

All hail Dorie and her Swedish Visting Cake. Those cake toting Sweds can visit me any time.

TWD: Mocha-Walnut Marbled (Bundt) Cup Cakes

This week's TWD was hosted by Erin of When in Doubt…Leave it at 350. She chose Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt Cake on pages 180 and 181 of Dorie Greenspan's Baking: from my home to yours.


After last week's Coconut Bundt Cake I didn't want to do another Bundt, so I made Mocha-Walnut Marbled Cup Cakes instead. And in honor of Easter I topped my cupcakes with a chocolate ganache bird's nest loaded with pastel eggs (aka Jelly Belly). Too cute, the idea came from Simplebites.


Taste-wise the cakes were good but not great (I liked last week's Coconut cake better). I really couldn't taste the ground up walnuts that were added to the batter..


And I found the mocha-chocolate component a little bland (read: needs more chocolate).


Here are the cupcakes about to go into the oven.


And a freshly baked cuppie with steam still escaping. Hot, hot, hot.


The cup cakes were moist, dense and very heavy. In hind-sight baking them as cupcakes my not have been the wisest choice. I'm sure they would have tasted a lot better as a Bundt cake.

But they still looked cute even though they weren't the best tasting things in the world.