Chocolate Plastic and Chocolate Rose

I wanted a chocolate rose to decorate a cake, and found this recipe that seemed easy to follow. It worked really well. It was striking when placed on the red cake.

Ingredients

White chocolate - 1/2 lb

Light corn syrup - 1/4 cup

food coloring (optional)
This recipe can also be made with milk or dark chocolate. The procedure for milk chocolate is the same, but if you are using dark chocolate, increase the amount of corn syrup to 1/3 cup.

Steps

1. Melt the chocolate completely over a double boiler.
2. Add light corn syrup in melted chocolate and stir until the mixture is thoroughly combined.

3. Spoon the chocolate onto a large sheet of plastic wrap, and wrap it securely. Allow the chocolate to cool and solidify at room temperature, for at least 6 hours or overnight.

4. Soften the hardened chocolate by kneading it with glove-covered hands, or microwave it in short 10-second intervals until it becomes soft enough to work with. Continue to knead until it is smooth and pliable. Do not worry if your chocolate plastic has lumps--these can be worked out through the kneading process. Dust your hands with powdered sugar if the chocolate begins to stick. At this point, you can divide it and knead different food coloring into the chocolate, if desired. Be sure to change your gloves between batches to avoid muddying the colors.
5. Dust your work surface with a thin layer of powdered sugar if needed. Roll out the chocolate plastic to work on.
6. Now you’re ready to decorate with your chocolate plastic! You can cut out shapes or letters with cookie cutters or a knife, or form the chocolate plastic into ribbons and bows, or use large sheets of plastic to wrap entire cakes. You can check out this photo tutorial on how to make chocolate roses.

7. Gather remaining scraps of chocolate plastic and wrap tightly. Store in a cool cupboard and use within 2-3 weeks. To re-use, repeat the softening instructions in step 4.

Pumpkin Mochi Cake (煎南瓜饼)

Ingredients:

Pumpkin /Squash
Glutinous rice flour - about 1:1 to squash
Sugar - depends on how sweet the squash is.
Red bean pastry filling

Steps:

1. Steam squash until soft. Then remove the skin. When the pumpkin is still hot, immediately stir in sugar.

3. Stir in glutinous rice flour, small amount at a time, and combine thoroughly when the puree is still warm, until you get a smooth, non-stick dough. The amount of rice flour required depends on the moisture in the squash. Roll the dough on a clean surface, sprinkle extra flour if it's too wet or sticky. Portion the dough into small balls.

4. Portion out the red bean pastry filling into small balls also. And wrap the red bean pastry filling inside the pumpkin dough. Press with your palm to shape a flat disc.

5. Heat some oil in a non-stick fry pan. Place pumpkin cakes in a single layer and fry both sides over medium-low heat until golden brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. There should not be any raw flour taste when they are cooked through. Serve them hot.

Dracula's Denture

These Halloween treats are cool and tasty. This is a recipe online that’s fun to make. I did this from scratch. You can buy cookie dough or even cookies to start. You can also get the ready-to-use frosting. My only problem is that I could not tint the frosting quite bloody red. 

Ingredients:

Chocolate chip cookie
Buttercream frosting, colored to  red
Mini-marshmallows
Cashew or almond for fangs

Steps:

1. Cut the cookie in half; pipe red buttercream along the edge of the flat side, or you can frost the whole cookie; place mini-marshmallows along the curved edge, and put a couple at the flat edge for support.

2. Sandwiche the two halves together, and insert the cashew halves as Dracula's fangs.

Bloody Fingers

Ingredients:

Small sausage or hot dogs cut in halves
Flour tortilla
Ketchup
Toothpick

Steps:

1. Preheat over to 350°F.
2. Cut a wedge into the end of each sausage to make a flat toenail.
3. Cut the tortillas into strips of 1/2 - 1 inch wide, and then soften the strips in the microwave between damp paper towels for 10-30 seconds.
4. Roll each sausage in a tortilla strip around one end and secure with a toothpick.

5. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, remove the toothpicks, and fill the toenail with Ketchup.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie

This is a recipe from Martha Stewart.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips

Yields about 2-3 dozen cookies.

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. 

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

5. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. 

6. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

Storage of Frozen Dough:

Roll the dough into a round stick. Wrap in parchment paper. Twist the ends and use cotton thread to tie them. Put in freezer. It can be kept for up to 6 months. Or you can store dough in portioned balls.

Floating Raspberry White Chocolate Mousse Cake (红心巧克力慕斯蛋糕)

I was so impressed when I saw the cake at wenxuecity. This cake requires some planning since there are 4 different components, the raspberry puree, chocolate cake, white chocolate mousse, and the top glaze. It is a minimum 3-day process.

 PART A: Day 1 - Raspberry Puree

Ingredients:

Fresh raspberry - 24 oz
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Gelatin - 1.5 bag ( about 3 tsp)
Uses 8" cake pan, lined with shrink wrap

Steps:

1. Puree the raspberry in blender until smooth, and then pour the puree thru fine sieve to a saucepan.

2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the puree and allow the gelatin to soften for about 5 minutes. Then heat the puree over medium heat until the gelatin melts completely.
3. Add sugar and stir until dissolved.
4. Cool the mixture slightly and pour into plastic lined cake pan. Freeze for at least 12 hours.

PART B: Day 2 - Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

Large egg - 2 at room temperature
Large egg yolks - 6 at room temperature
Almond paste - 6 oz
Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 3 TBSP
Unsweetened Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1 tsp
Unsalted butter - 3 TBSP, melted and cooled

Steps:

1. Preheat over to 400°F. Prepare a 9" cake pan with parchment paper covering the bottom
2. Put egg, yolks, almond paste, and powdered sugar in mixer bowl and mix at medium low speed until smooth, thick, and pale, about 5 min.

3. Sift together the flour, cocoa, and sugar. Add these to the egg mixture and stir until just combined.
4. Add butter and mix for another 5 seconds.
5. Pour the batter into the pan. Bake for 8 minutes or just until firm to the touch. Do not over bake. When you insert a toothpick, it will come out with wet crumbs.

6. Cool it completely and fridge until ready to assembly.

PART C: Day 2 - White Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

White chocolate - 12 oz
Water - 1/3 cup
Gelatin - 1.5 bag
Heavy whipping cream - 3 and 3/4 cup

Steps:

1. Put the chocolate chips in a stainless steel mixing bowl that fit over a saucepan. Add water to the saucepan and heat it until the chocolate melt entirely.
2. In another saucepan, add 1/3 cup water and sprinkle in the gelatin. Let the gelatin soak for 5 minutes, and then set the saucepan over medium heat and stir until the gelatin dissolves.
3. Pour 3/4 cup of the heavy cream in another sauce pan and bring it to boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat immediately.
4. Add the gelatin to the hot cream and stir until well mixed; then add the mixture to the melted chocolate and stir well until the mixture is very smooth. Remove the bowl from the pan and allow the chocolate mixture to cool until its just warm.

5. Use electric mixer to whip the rest of the heavy whipping cream until it just holds stiff peaks.
6. Use rubber spatula to gently fold half of the whipped cream into the slightly warm chocolate mixture. Add the remaining whipped cream and fold gently until smooth. Do not over fold the mixture; it should still have a few distinct streaks of white chocolate and whipped cream.

PART D: Day 2 - Assembly

1. Optionally, trim the 9" chocolate cake to 8". Then put the cake in the middle of the 9" mousse ring.

2. Pour in half of the white chocolate mousse and put raspberry puree in the middle of the white mousse, gently press it in.

3. Then add the rest of the mousse and put the cake in refrigerator overnight.

PART D: Day 3 - Glaze Top

Ingredients:

Raspberry puree - 100 g, filtered using fine sieve
Sugar - 30 g
Water - 100 g
Gelatin - 5 g (about 3/4 bag)

Steps:

1. Add water, sugar, gelatin in a small saucepan, heat in medium heat until gelatin fully dissolved. Remove from heat.
2. Add raspberry puree in the sauce pan, mix well. Wait for it cool before use.
3. Pour cooled raspberry mixture on the mousse cake from the day before, then put the cake back to refrigerator for 2-3 hours, or until the jello surface is set.

4. Remove the mousse ring. Pipe some letters and decorations on parchment paper using melted white chocolate and then place on cake when they are harden.