My wonderful daughter, wrote up her own recipe and experience for making her chocolate creation. She loves to cook and to write so this was a perfect combination. Please enjoy.
I made the chocolate-topped-Oreo cookies in hope that my brother and his friends would choose it to be the winner because of how much chocolate was in the recipe. I love making food, but as the oven was and would be used the entire time, my appetizer had to be something that did not need to be cooked. Looking at the ingredients I decided to make some sort of cookie.
The cookie used only three ingredients, Oreos, milk chocolate and frozen blue berries. I started by melting one chocolate bar in a ceramic bowl. Then while the chocolate was still warm I crushed up about five Oreos into the bowl. I left chunks of Oreo in it but I mostly I crushed the Oreos into dust while the chocolate was still melted so that the dust could melt into it. After that I scooped the Oreo-chocolate onto Oreos with a metal spoon and topped it off with a blueberry on the top (I think it could have had more though.)
This recipe made seven delicious cookies. When they were done I put them in the fridge for about fifteen minutes. The affect was great, the chocolate melted in your mouth, the blueberry gave a sweet, fruity touch to it and the Oreo put a nice crunch in the cookie.
I put a lot of thought into this cookie, however, I didn’t win when the boys saw my mom and dads, but it was a lot of fun for a really great chocolate appetizer.
This cake is amazing! Dense, creamy, chocolate center with ganache chocolate poured on top. Decorated with with your choice of candy chocolates. A dream come true for the chocolate lover in your life. This recipe was adapted from throughherlookingglass.com
I have made a number of chocolate cakes throughout the years and while I don’t think you can go wrong with chocolate, this is one of my very favorites. I would have eaten the whole thing, but my son wouldn’t let me (thank goodness).
Brick Street Chocolate Cake
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1/1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
2 1/2 cups cake flour (I used 100% whole white wheat because I like the texture)
1 cup baking cocoa, sifted
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 instant chocolate pudding mix (small box
2 1/4 cups butter milk (or you can put a tbs of lemon juice in a cup of milk)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
In a large, electric mixing bowl combine sugar and butter until well combined. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time, beating well in between each.
In a separate medium bowl mix the dry ingredients flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
Then using a large serving spoon, add a few scoops of dry ingredient mix to the butter and sugar mixture. Blend just until mixed then add a portion of the butter milk or substitute version milk with 1 tbs lemon juice. Keep adding dry mix and then the butter milk mixture, mixing just till blended each time, until both the dry mix and butter milk mixture are gone.
Gently stir in the semi-sweet chocolate chips, these will melt into your cake and give bursts of rich chocolate goodness. Pour into a greased bunt pan and place the bunt onto a cooking sheet. Then just in case it flows over it will be ok. My pan didn’t flow over, it is 10 inches across and 4 inches deep
Cook Brick Street Chocolate Cake
Cook at 350 in a convection oven for 45-60 minutes. Check with a toothpick, if it comes out with batter on the stick let it keep cooking. I like to pull cakes out when a few crumbs of the cake are still sticking to the toothpick. If you pull out the toothpick and it’s completely dry, the cake has cooked too long and will be slightly dry.
For a regular oven without convection, bake at 350 for 30 minutes then lower the temperature to 325 and cook an additional 30-40 minutes.
Let it cool for about 10 minutes in the pan then loosen the edges with a plastic knife (so you don’t scratch the sides of your pan). Tip it upside down to slide the cake out. If it doesn’t come out loosen again with the plastic knife on the outside and on the inside ring of the cake. Let it cool completely on a wrack then cover with ganache.
Chocolate Ganache
Chocolate ganache is a mixture of equal weights chocolate and cream, melted together and used to glaze or fill cakes, whip into fluffy frosting or fill truffles and it’s amazing. For our cake today I kept it as a glaze and didn’t whip it.
8 ounces chopped chocolate (the better the quality the better the ganache)
8 ounces heavy cream
Chop your chocolate into small pieces. I used Ghiradelli’s Dark chocolate, which makes for a very rich chocolate flavor. For a lighter, creamy chocolate use milk chocolate instead.
Heat up your heavy cream until very hot and pour on top of your chopped chocolate. I let it sit for a minute, then mix it together. Now let it sit for several minutes. I even put mine in the fridge to cool for 10-15 minutes, so it would go on thick. It will cool to a solid consistency, so watch the ganache and don’t let it cool too much.
How to Decorate the Brick Street Chocolate Cake
Pour ganache on the cake and decorate. I used several different chocolates to create an over the top appearance. 🙂 Which worked really well. I filled the center with chocolate covered coconut truffles and the flavors sunk into the core of the cake–pure decadence.
I also used orange sticks, malt balls and Lindt Truffles. The malt balls were pretty fun because they completed the bubbling over effect and were light enough to stay where I put them on the ganache topping.
Use a variety of chocolates and have fun with it. Until next time.
My son LOVES chocolate, even more than I do, so… it’s serious. Though, I am pretty committed.
I have this sign in my kitchen, “When Mom has a bad day, everyone gets chocolate.” It’s a reference to, “When mom has a bad day, eveyone has a bad day.” This sign is a reminder to me that I don’t need to take my bad day out on others– we can just resolve it over chocolate.😊
For my son’s 13th birthday, he requested a Chocolate Iron Chef where we cook and he and his friends judge the winners. So while they were out jumping on the trampoline and goofing off we were working up a sweat, trying to win.
I claimed baking the cake because that is my right as mother. I also chose an entree to try to keep something palatable on the table. Since the requirement was, that everything made for dinner that night had to include chocolate, I didn’t want to send home a crew of hungry boys.
The menu went as follows… Cookie Appetizer (my daughter’s entry)
Crepes (my entry)
Chocolate Fried Chicken (my husband’s entry)
Followed up with a Brick Street Chocolate Cake and ice cream. (also my entry)
The winner?? may surprise you, was the Chocolate Fried Chicken!
My husband said, “Take pictures, you’re going to want to post about this.” I said, “I only post things that are good.” I really didn’t think his would work – though it was daring. But it was amazingly good and the kids devoured them (chocolate and non-chocolate). So my husband won for daring and good taste.
Personally I feel I already won because I pulled off this awesome cake, but my son said he was only judging dinner and so it was disqualified –
I know!!!
For what other reason do I pour hours into a cake, than to win? But in all honesty, I love the big smiles and completely enjoy making my children’s birthday cakes.
The cake was enjoyed by everyone and then guarded by our new teenager with a sign that read, “I am watching you!” to make sure he got to finish it off –
That’s how I know I won, actions speak louder than words.
How much do you love chocolate, what would you have made for a Chocolate Iron Chef? Share you comments, I know there are chocolate recipes that would be amazing here.
Hi, I’m Natalie. I’m a mother of four, an artist, and a DIYer that loves to reuse, recycle, and refurbish. I like power tools and teaching others how to save money while improving their home.
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