Chocolate Mousse Cake

This was one of those days when Carlos and I were craving BADLY for chocolates. Checked our pantry and found almost a kilo, yeah a kilo, of various chocolates (mostly dark). I had Lindt, Ikea, Nestle, and Cadbury. As much as we love chocolates, we were also doing our best to cut down on sweets. Best solution - Chocolate Mousse Cake. Two reasons, it only had a tablespoon of sugar and flour (I didn't add the golden syrup).

This recipe was from Taste which was easy. Minimum effort for maximum impact!

Ingredients

500g dark chocolate

2 tbs golden syrup

125g unsalted butter

4 eggs

1 tbs caster sugar

1 tbs plain flour, sifted

Melted chocolate, to decorate

Chocolate sorbet, to serve

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 220°C. Grease and line the base of a 20cm round spring-form cake pan with non-stick baking paper.
2. Melt the chocolate, golden syrup and butter in a bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Place eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer or use an electric hand beater and beat on high for 10 minutes until very thick and pale. Gently fold in the flour then fold in the chocolate mixture until combined. Pour into the cake pan and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and run a knife around the edge of the cake. Remove collar from cake pan and transfer the cake to the fridge for 1 hour to cool (this step is important as it sets the middle of the cake).

Wow! I skipped dinner last night so I could treat myself to a slice of this temptation. Opps! I also skipped hopping into my weighing scale this morning. 

Quin enjoyed it too!

Fire Truck Cake

Our little man, Quin, turned 3! As part of our family tradition, I baked a cake based on the request of the birthday celebrant. He wanted a fire truck! I remember a few years ago my brother and I also made a fire truck cake for Ian. 

Ian volunteered to be in-charged. He looked for the design (of the truck itself) that he liked and drew his plans on how to decorate the cake. 

For the cake I used my usual Chocolate Cake recipe that is moist and not too sweet.

For the truck design, we followed this video from YouTube.

For the butter icing, I used 1 cup butter (room temperature) and about 1 1/4 cup icing sugar (sifted). Mix them together using an electric mixer then slowly add drops of red food coloring, until you reach your desired color.

For the decorations, we used Oreo cookies (wheels), M&M's, chocolate sticks, assorted candies, candles, and writing icing.

I had a great time with the boys in making this cake. Ian was the designer and I was the kitchen assistant.   

Definitely, this experience is a treasured memory.

Wall Art from Toilet Rolls

Carlos and I love to recycle things that we normally discard. Part of my collection is a bunch of toilet rolls. When I started keeping them early this year I didn't have any specific project in mind. I think I just saw their "potential". After months of accumulating this treasure, I saw a picture posted on Facebook by one of friends that used toilet rolls as a wall art. Chaching! I "Mitchinized" it.

Materials that I used for this project were toilet rolls, ruler, pencil, glue, clothes pegs, scraps of crafts paper, craft paints, and blue tack.

Directions: First, I painted the rolls. Then, cut each roll into  5 pieces, petals, (the height of the roll was 10cm so each petal was 2cm). Glued them together and I used the clothes-pegs to clip them together. Last, I stuffed the middle with scraps of crafts paper to form a bud. I attached them to the wall using blue tack.

It wasn't just fun for me but Ian also enjoyed helping mem by painting some of the toilet rolls.

For this version 2, I added details on each petal.

Recyle. Recreate!