Sweet Valentine’s Indulgence

If you have been reading me for a while now, you probably know that I like to indulge about once a month. I mean, really, indulge! And what better occasion than Valentine’s Day to go for a little (or big!) chocolate extravaganza!

I LOVE to bake and decorate cakes, but I don’t get to do this too often, as healthy and cake don’t really mix well togheter… So for Valentine’s day, I decided to make this super decadent extra rich flourless chocolate cake and decorate it with a few marzipan roses. It had been years since I had made that cake, or marzipan roses, for that matter. Needless to say it took me a long time to make each rose, but I think it was very well worth it in the end. And I was pretty happy with the way they looked. I expected to have lost the touch way more than I did, but much to my surprise, my roses still looked like roses!

What really motivated my decision to opt for that particular cake is that I didn’t need to buy anything at all in order to make it. I had ALL the ingredients that I needed, sitting in my cupboard, all leftovers from my Christmas cooking. That’s pretty much what dictated my choice of a cake for this month’s indulgence. That, and the fact that this cake is to die for, seriously. Think rich, dark, soft, it’s basically like a giant truffle: the only ingredients that go in it are dark chocolate (top quality, of course!), butter, heavy cream and eggs. Loads of them. Look at how rich and dense it is! It’s got to be at least 2 million calories a piece! (and I ate 2 pieces… but shhhht, don’t tell anyone!)

And of course, as if this wasn’t decadent enough, I had to make a salty caramel to go with it. Yet more sugar, butter and heavy cream!

At least, supper was somewhat healthy, even though I had too much to eat. We had chinese fondue, both chicken and beef, with a side of salad, some whole wheat bread and a few classic dipping sauces, such as cucumber garlic tzatziki style, black and green olive in sour cream and honey Dijon. Of course, all sauces were light and healthy. Low fat sour cream and plain yogurt was used instead of mayonnaise. Hey, I can’t be bad all the way, now, can I? ;o)

Popcorn Balls

I’m still not done posting all the goodies (or nasties!) that I did for Christmas. These popcorn balls were part of the “family kits” I was making for my brothers. I thought the kids would really like them. Turns out, I really liked them too! 

I had never done popcorn balls before and I expected them to be really crunchy, hard and sticky, but to my surprise, they are quite soft and chewy. I would say they are the popcorn equivalent of Rice Krispies Squares. Quite yummy, unfortunately. Most probably one of those things that I will get cravings for, eventually, somewhere down the road. Oh well…

This is the recipe I used. Pretty easy. Pretty tasty! Don’t try it… ;o)

Sugar Cookies

A classic!

Those were so much fun to make. My daughter and I spent hours on them! She made the dough, rolled it out, cut out the cookies and cooked them and I took care of the decorating (well, she helped with that too…) My son’s girlfriend even gave us a hand. She made a turkey (a turkey! who wants to eat a cookie shaped like a turkey?) and we promised that we would decorate it for her, but ended up forgetting. So the poor thing now lies alone in a plate, undecorated, plus, it’s got no feet. Poor thing really.

This was my first try decorating sugar cookies, I am fairly happy with the results. And I think that those who were offered some of those cookies as a Christmas present appreciated them. Well… I certainly hope they did! 

As you can see, we had quite a bunch to decorate too!