mocha cheesecake

I could have titled this post: "the only cheesecake I ever make", because that is the truth.  

I've tried several other recipes for cheesecakes, but this one is my all-time favorite.  Since cheesecake is a relatively expensive dessert that I tend to only make once in a while (for special occasions!), I really don't like experimenting too much.  I just love this recipe too much!

Also, for those of you who aren't really coffee fans...fear not!  I'm totally not a coffee drinker (at all), and I can't get enough of this cake.  If you're still not sure, you can always leave out the instant coffee for an excellent chocolate cheesecake!

Mocha Cheesecake

from: Jean Pare - Company's Coming: Chocolate Everything

Ingredients:

1/3 cup margarine, melted
1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder

3 oz semisweet chocolate chips
3 packages cream cheese (8 ounces each), softened to room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
2 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp instant coffee granules

*whipped cream for topping (optional)

Directions:

Crust:
1)  In a small bowl, stir together margarine, crumbs, sugar and cocoa.
2)  Press into an ungreased 9-inch springform pan; set aside.

Cake:
1)  Melt chocolate using a double boiler (or in the microwave if you're very careful not to burn it!).  Set aside and let cool to room temperature once melted.
2)  Beat cream cheese, both sugars, flour and vanilla in a medium bowl.  Add in melted chocolate and beat until well mixed.
3)  Add eggs, one at a time, until just mixed.
4)  Stir together milk and instant coffee until granules are completely dissolved.  Add to the batter, mixing until just combined.
5)  Pour over crust.
6)  Bake at 300 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours until the center is almost set.
7)  When you've removed the cake from the oven, run a knife around the edges to help the cake settle without cracking.
8)  Chill for 8 hours or overnight.

Optional:

Chocolate Magic Shell Sauce:
Melt together 1/2 cup of chocolate (doesn't matter what kind!), and add 1 tbsp of coconut oil.  Stir together.
Pour over chilled cheesecake like you would a ganache, and the chocolate will form a shell!

*Our cheesecake was a teensy bit warm when we poured our magic shell over top, so that's why it looks a bit glossy still.  But if you've chilled your cake properly, or if you pop it back in the fridge once you've poured the chocolate over, then it will form a shell of chocolate that is so pretty!

This cake is long gone, but editing these photos were seriously making me drool.

#foodphotographerproblems

p.s. ♥ kelsey

tasty tuesday: salted caramel pretzel mocha cake (aka: an incredibly late birthday post)

I am more than a little bit ashamed at how late this post is.

This ladies and gentlemen, is my birthday cake........from way back in October.
So yeah, procrastination for the win.

And I'm sure you're extremely surprised that it involves salted caramel, pretzels, and chocolate.  Ha!  Basically my favorite three food groups.  Really, the only three food groups there are.  Although maybe popcorn could be a fourth...

Anyway, this was my birthday cake, and it was pretty rad.  Thanks goes to Jordyn for being the master baker of this one, and complying to my every wish.  She's a pretty darn good sister!

I knew that I wanted chocolate cake, and our mocha cake recipe is simply the best.  And since I always want salted caramel on everything, that was a given.  We added pretzels in just for fun, since we had just made this ice cream, and were still pretty obsessed with the caramel pretzel combo.

The result was pretty delicious...although you must serve immediately and eat the whole thing, otherwise the pretzels get soggy due to the caramel.  Or you can just leave them out.  I do suppose it's a bit weird to have pretzels in a cake!

Salted Caramel Pretzel Mocha Cake

mocha cake recipe from: the Food Network

Ingredients
3 cups flour
1cup cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 Eggs
3 tsp Vanilla
2/3 cup of strongly brewed coffee or espresso
1 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1 1/2 cup hot water

Directions:
1) In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients.
2) Add in eggs, vanilla, coffee and oil, and mix until batter is smooth.
3) Slowly add in hot water, until well mixed.

4)  Fill three, greased nine inch round pans about 3/4 full (you'll have enough extra batter to make a fourth round cake, or some cupcakes!)
5) Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup Sugar

3 TBSP Butter (we used salted butter!)

1/4 cup Whipping Cream

Directions

1)  The most important thing to do first is to assemble all of your ingredients!  Once your sugar mixture has reached the right colour, you'll need to move fairly quickly, and don't want to be fussing around with measuring out the other ingredients.

2)  Place your sugar in a medium saucepan, and melt at a medium heat.  Once it begins to melt, you'll want to start whisking it. (You can also add a tad of water if you don't feel comfortable melting dry sugar!).

3)  Once the sugar starts to boil, you can stop whisking, and wait for it to turn a light amber colour.

4)  When it's light amber, then add your butter, and stir like crazy!

5)  As soon as the butter has completely melted, remove from heat and add the whipping cream.  Again, stir like crazy! (Be cautious when adding the cream as it will foam a lot!)

6)  Let the caramel cool for a bit, and then you can move it to a heat proof container and pop it in the fridge to help hurry up the cooling process.

Buttercream

Ingredients

1/4 cup Butter (or margarine), at room temperature

1 1/2 cups Icing Sugar

1/2 tsp Caramel flavoring (or Vanilla)

1-3 TBSP Cream

Directions

1)  Begin by beating your butter on medium-high until well mixed.

2)  Add icing sugar, vanilla, and a couple tablespoons of cream.

3)  Beat on medium until combined.

4)  Adjust the taste and consistency by adding any of the above ingredients!

Ganache

Ingredients

4.5 oz of good quality dark chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

Directions

1)  In a small sauce pan, heat cream over medium heat and bring just barely to a boil.

2)  As soon as it comes to a boil, remove from heat and pour over chopped chocolate.

3)  Whisk until smooth.

4)  Wait for the ganache to cool for a bit before pouring over your cake.

Cake assembly:

1)  Start by leveling off the top of each cake so that you have a flat surface to work with.

2)  Place your first cake on a cake plate/serving dish, and apply a generous layer of buttercream just on top.

3)  Press pretzels into the icing, and pour cooled caramel over top.

4)  Add your second cake on top, and repeat steps 2 and 3.

5)  Add your third cake, and pour ganache over it all just before serving!

*You can also double the icing recipe to cover the cake, and do that instead of making a ganache.

Please forgive all the grain in these photos.  The sun had long since set when I was taking these outside, so the iso was cranked super high!

Happy Birthday to me....again, kind of.

Also, sparklers are my favorite.

p.s. ♥ kelsey (& jordyn)

moustache cake for movember

Hello friends and Happy Movember!

Since November is drawing to a close, hopefully you've seen some magnificent moustaches (although I won't lie, I've definitely seen my fair share of sketchy ones).  Jordyn and I made a cake to celebrate, and were pretty stoked about finally using our giant moustache mold!

Why yes, that is a moustache comb in the photo above.  Doesn't everyone have one?

Mocha Cake

from: the Food Network

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup of strongly brewed coffee or espresso
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup hot water

Directions:
1) In a large bowl, sift together dry ingredients.
2) Add in eggs, vanilla, coffee and oil, and mix until batter is smooth.
3) Slowly add in hot water, until well mixed.
4) Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
*If you're using a mold like ours, be sure to keep checking on it.  We noticed the ends of the moustache cooked quite a bit faster than the middle.  So make sure to be checking if the fattest part of the cake is done!

We chose a chocolate butter cream to top our moustache, but you could definitely do a regular butter cream and make it any colour you desire!

Jordyn used a butter knife to spread the icing, and then made small grooves in it for a bit of texture.  We think that shaved chocolate would also be a neat idea!

Happy Movember!

p.s. ♥ kelsey & jordyn

tasty tuesday: decadent chocolate torte with salted caramel whipped cream and caramel drizzle

Oh my word.

This cake is decadence defined.

Rich, smooth, chocolatey goodness awaits you my friends!  

My dear friend Eryn and I have a wonderful tradition of getting together and baking something crazy.  We were on a cupcake kick for a long time, but this time we decided to make chocolate tortes!  Truthfully, I had no idea what a torte actually was before we made it.  I knew they were flourless, but that was about it!  So, we chose to make a chocolate torte...and then top it with salted caramel whipped cream (and a caramel drizzle to boot), because why not combine all of our favorite things into one dessert!  

Chocolate Torte

from: simply so good

Ingredients:

1 cup Water
3/4 cup Sugar

1/2 cup + 1 tbsp Butter (diced)
18 ounces Bittersweet (not unsweetened) or Semisweet Chocolate (chopped)
6 Eggs

Directions:

1) Butter a 10-inch-diameter spring form pan (or several mini spring form pans...we used several 4-inch pans, and adjusted the cooking times), and wrap 3 layers of heavy duty foil around the top of the pan (this will be to keep water from leaking into the pan!).
2) In a small saucepan, bring the water and sugar to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for about 5 minutes, and then remove from heat.
3) Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Then, add your chocolate and whisk until smooth.
4) Whisk the sugar syrup into the chocolate mixture, and cool slightly.
5) Add the eggs to the chocolate mixture, whisking until it is well blended (*it's important that your chocolate mixture is cool enough that it doesn't start cooking the eggs!).
6)  Place the cake pan in a large baking dish, and add enough hot water to the baking dish so that it comes halfway up the sides of the cake pan.

7)  Bake at 350 degrees, until the center no longer moves when the pan is gently shaken. About 50 minutes for a 10-inch pan (and approximately 40 minutes for smaller pans....although this will depend on how thick you make them. We baked ours at 10 minute intervals, checking the middle each time to see if they were getting close to being done!).

8)  Carefully remove the pan from the water bath, and cool completely in the spring-form pan.

Salted Caramel Drizzle + Whipped Cream

from: they call me saucy

For the Caramel:

1/2 cup Sugar

3 tbsp Butter (cubed)

1/4 cup heavy Cream

1)  First, make sure everything is measured out and ready to go.  Making caramel isn't too tricky, but being well-prepared is key!

2)  In a medium saucepan, heat your sugar over a medium-high heat, stirring constantly (you can add a teeny bit of water here to help out if you want...however, your caramel won't be quite as creamy!).

3)  Make sure to keep stirring the entire time, otherwise you might get chunks of unmelted sugar.

4)  Keep cooking the sugar until it turns a nice golden brown and is all dissolved.  Then, add your butter and keep stirring like mad!  *It's going to bubble a lot...don't be afraid!

5)  Turn the heat off, keep stirring, and add in your cream once the butter has all melted.

6)  Continue stirring and remove from heat.  

7)  The hardest part is letting it cool.  I usually stick my pot in the fridge...because I'm impatient like that.

For the Salted Caramel Whipped Cream:

4 tbsp of Caramel

1/2 tsp Salt (or to taste!)

1 cup heavy Cream

1)  Whip your cream (until it has soft or stiff peaks...you choose!).

2)  Then add in your caramel and salt to taste...the measurements are really just a rough guideline!

Now, use this to top off your tortes right before you serve them!

Yep, this cake is mostly chocolate.  Need I say more?

It's super important to make sure that your tinfoil is wrapped nice and tight around your pan(s), as you don't want any water leaking through!

Making caramel can be scary the first time you do it, but once you do...you'll never look back!

And I can't wait to try this torte with different variations of whipped cream and sauces.  I currently have my heart set on a beautiful raspberry whipped cream and raspberry sauce....mmmhhh.

Me and Eryn!

Tortes are a wonderful option for those allergic to gluten, as well as anyone who loves delicious things.
Just sayin', you should probably go make this now.

p.s.  ♥ kelsey

{ all you need is love }

Happy Valentines Day dear readers!

I am absolutely thrilled to present you with a Valentines Day tea party inspiration shoot that I organized and did the photography for here in Edmonton. Here's a little taste of what I've been up to.... For more love, please go visit my photography blog @ claracphotography.blogspot.ca and leave me some love too! 

Wishing you all an absolutely lovely day~ 

p.s.  ♥ clara