(Hot) Dark Chocolate Pudding

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almond, baked goods, baked pudding, cake, chocolate, chocolate almond, chocolate lava cake, chocolate pudding, chocolate recipe, dark chocolate, dark chocolate pudding, dessert, dessert recipes, dessert table, hot pudding, pudding, recipe, romantic dessert, self-saucing pudding, sweets, sweets table

I’ve been looking for a good chocolate pudding recipe. Not the North American idea of pudding, I mean a proper baked pudding that’s more like a chocolate lava cake. I found a recipe last December and gave it a try, but it just wasn’t what I was expected.

I gave in to today’s chocolate cravings and to finally vamp up the recipe to fulfill my chocolate and baking desires…

Dark Chocolate Pudding

Chocolate Pudding Ingredients:
1 c. flour, 3/4 c. sugar, 2 Tbsp. Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder, 2 Tbsp. baking powder, 1/8 tsp. salt, 1 Tbsp. almond extract, 1/2 c. milk, 2 Tbsp. melted butter (or vegetable oil)

Chocolate Sauce Ingredients:
1 3/4 c. hot water, 3/4 c. light brown sugar (packed), 2 Tbs. dark brown sugar (packed), 3 Tbsp. Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder,  2 tsp. flavoring of your choice

*I used raspberry flavoring, but think mint, orange, vanilla, strawberry…

Chocolate Pudding Directions:
Preheat Oven to 350°F. Spray 4 glass ramekins with cooking spray  and set on a baking sheet. Mix together dry ingredients. Add extract, milk and melted butter and stir well (it so be the consistency of brownie batter). Divide mixture into ramekins.

Chocolate Sauce Directions:
Dissolve sugar in hot water. Add cocoa powder and stir well. Pour sauce over each ramekin. Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool before eating, serve warm.

*Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar, crème fraîche, raspberry/blackberry drizzle, a few berries, or any combination!

WARNING!: You will burn your tongue and mouth if you cannot resist the urge to dig into these right out of the oven!

Refrigerate any uneaten pudding ramekin, microwave when ready to enjoy!

Mmmm… Tall glass of milk anyone???

What’s your favorite chocolate dessert?

Red Velvet Baby Bundt

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bundt, bundt cake, chocolate ganache, cupcakes, dessert, dessert table, ganache, mini bundt, red velvet cake, sweets, sweets table

Hubster is almost done finals (the past two weeks here have been crazy), so I’ve been the stressed one and needed some therapeutic baking. I decided to celebrate my blogiversary and him finishing this semester with a cake. Red Velvet Cake. I have this idea in my head that it is a southern recipe/tradition, but there’s no fact backing it. Maybe it’s due to Steel Magnolias or Jessica Simpson. Anyway red velvet cake can be so delicious.

Usually red velvet cake is layers and uses butter cream frosting or cream cheese frosting, but last night I decided to drizzle it with chocolate ganache. I used my baby bundt pans (so fun!). My recipe isn’t quite yet perfected, but it’s quite tasty. I think two more batches and I’ll have it down. Hint: Use dark baking cocoa…

Red Velvet Cake

Look at that color!

Cutesy Cupcakes for a Blushing Bride

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Baking, bridal shower, cupcake tree, cupcakes, dessert, dessert table, shower, sweets, sweets table, work party, work shower

One of our sweet new teachers is getting married next month (yay! a new young wifey) and yesterday we surprised her with a bridal shower.

Usually we order a cake from a bakery or have someone local and talented make a nice cake. Our school’s social committee has an unspoken rule, chocolate peanut-butter cakes for every baby or bridal shower. Of course if you deviate from the tradition, they’ll tell you about it. Our cake plan fell through, so I offered to take over. I love any excuse to use my cupcake tree and cupcake carriers, so I asked the committee if cupcakes would suffice. Now, I’m not a fan of the chocolate peanut-butter combinations (except, Reese’s Pieces or GS Peanut-butter Patties), so I used this opportunity to my advantage (plus with all the peanut allergies!). I made half of the cupcakes chocolate peanut-butter and make the other half yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I added chocolate curls and chocolate shavings to the top of the peanut-butter frosting.

Cutesy Cupcakes

I didn’t have time to make the cupcakes from scratch, so I doctored up the cake mix with pudding mix and other add-ins. I made the cupcakes the day before and enjoyed using my icing press to decorate the tops. I lost my peanut-butter icing recipe, so a friend gave me her husband’s creation. I started to whip up a batch and quickly changed several things. I’ll post the recipe later…

Cupcake Tree

During my planning time, I had to have another teacher hold open a side door, so I could sneak them in and hide them from the bride-to-be. We set up her shower in the school library, where we thought she was attending an after-school meeting. We pulled off the surprise! And everyone enjoyed the cupcakes (only two more peanut-butter one were eaten than chocolate). I always get just as many comments on my cupcake stand and carriers!