We will get back to our regularly scheduled recipes on Friday, but today I have something I want to share with you: Guys, I wrote a book!!
I know. I can’t quite believe it either.
Baking for Two features more than 80 small-batch baking recipes perfect for small households, including:
- Death by Chocolate Sheet Cake
- Bacon Scones with Maple Glaze
- Caprese Tarts
- White Chocolate Mocha Cheesecake
- Chocolate Red Wine Cake
There are pies, there are cakes, there are cookies, and there are savory dishes in there too. You can make breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert from this book (and you totally should).
I am so excited to get to finally share Baking for Two with all of you. It feels like it’s been my baby for so long that sending it off into the world is both exciting and terrifying.
I’ll have more information for you in the weeks to come, including a preview recipe from the book, but in the meantime, I hope you will check it out!
Simple and elegant Red Velvet Lava Cakes for Two would be the perfect close to any romantic meal. With chocolatey red velvet cake and molten cream cheese core, this dessert is deceptively quick and easy to make.
How are you enjoying October so far? Are you getting enough pumpkin in your diet? Are you taking in your recommended daily dose of scary literature? 😉
I’m doing my very best to make your October just a little more unsettling with my Creepy Foods from Fiction series . Have you been following along? So far I’ve made Sanguinaccio Dolce from Hannibal and Spectre Apple Pie (Cupcakes) from Big Fish .
Today, I’m posting a recipe for Crimson Peak Red Velvet Lava Cakes!
Have you seen Crimson Peak * ? It’s a delightfully odd mixture of ghost story and Gothic romance and is one of my favorite horror films of the last few years. Plus it has the best cast. Jim Beaver (Bobby!!), Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, and the completely glorious Jessica Chastain.
If you haven’t seen it, and you like Guillermo del Toro’s other movies, you should definitely give this one a go!
Unlike the previous two recipes in this series, these Red Velvet Lava Cakes don’t appear in the film, they are just inspired by it. In the movie Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston’s family’s fortune was built on the red clay that they harvest from their land.
It covers absolutely everything on the property, and one of the most striking images in the film is the clay seeping out under formerly pristine white snow like welling blood.
The first time I saw red velvet lava cake, dusted with powdered sugar, gooey with red cream cheese, they instantly brought the movie to mind, and I knew I had to make them for Halloween this year.
And they are beyond tasty. Honestly, I probably should have saved these to post for Valentine’s Day because they are the perfect easy dessert for two, but oh wells!! Halloween it is.
These red velvet lava cakes are a breeze to throw together, and the lava center is not just undercooked cake batter. It’s a molten mixture of cream cheese and sugar. (It’s so good.) And, just in case you were worried, you don’t need any special tools to make them either. They are baked in a plain old cupcake pan (love my little 6-cup Wilton pan *). Easy peasy.
I definitely recommend them for a romantic cozy night in (your creepy haunted house with walls that look like they are bleeding with the love of your life and also your new bride) . 😉
Red Velvet Lava Cake Recipe Tips
- This recipe uses gel food coloring *. It cannot be substituted for with regular food coloring because you just won’t get the deep crimson color with water-based coloring without affecting texture and taste. But…
- If you don’t have gel food coloring, you can omit the coloring completely. The cakes won’t be as pretty or dramatic, but they will be just as delicious.
- For a perfect even dusting of powdered sugar, my favorite tool is a fine mesh strainer. Just add sugar and shake. 🙂
Ingredients
Cake
- ▢ 1/3 cup ( 2 oz) semisweet chocolate chopped (good quality chips are fine)
- ▢ 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
- ▢ 1 large egg
- ▢ 3/4 teaspoons red gel food coloring divided
- ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 15 g) all-purpose flour
- ▢ Pinch of salt
Cream Cheese Center
- ▢ 1 ounce cream cheese room temperature
- ▢ 2 teaspoons granulated sugar plus more for cupcake pan
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping
- ▢ Powdered sugar (optional for dusting)
Instructions
Cake
- In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine chocolate and oil and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Preheat your oven to 425°F. Grease two baking cups of your cupcake pan. Sprinkle granulated sugar over the entire cupcake cup, sides included, like you’re making a souffle.
- In a medium bowl, whisk egg. Slowly whisk in cooled chocolate mixture and 1/2 teaspoon of the gel food coloring. Stir in flour and salt.
Cream Cheese Center
- In a small bowl, whisk together cream cheese, sugar, remaining 1/4 teaspoon food coloring, and vanilla. Transfer mixture to a disposable plastic bag (or piping bag) and snip off one corner.
- Divide chocolate mixture evenly between your prepared cupcake cups. Insert piping bag into the center of the batter and divide cream cheese mixture evenly between the cups.
- Bake for 7 to 9 minutes until edges look set. Cool for 2 to 3 minutes in the pan before plating and dusting generously with powdered sugar.
- Serve and eat immediately.
Adapted From Food Network
Cool and refreshing milk tea with coffee jelly is so easy to make and fun to drink. Make some and impress your friends. You know you want to. 😉
Get ready for another edition of Tracy tries to make you watch something she loves . If your heart is hardened against this, just scroll right down to the recipe. 🙂
Hey, are you watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend ? If yes, yay!
If no, do you like musicals? Do you like hi-jinks? Do you like having your pants charmed off? Yes? Yes? Yes? Then you should be!!
Crazy Ex-girlfriend gif Rebecca and Paula celebrating.
CW via Tumblr
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is so funny, a little bit bawdy, and completely fantastic. I caught up with the show over the summer (all of season 1 is on Netflix) and I’m totally hooked.
Season two premieres tonight, which gives me the perfect excuse to post a recipe I’ve been dying to make on the blog forever: Milk Tea with Coffee Jelly!
Two glasses of milk tea with spoonful of coffee jelly.
What does milk tea and coffee jelly have to do with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend ? Well, the characters on this show spend an ungodly amount of time at their local Boba stand (it’s basically their Central Perk). And my favorite thing to order at bubble tea places is Milk Tea with Coffee Jelly.
The milk tea part of this recipe is very simple: strongly brewed black tea, a little milk or cream, a little sugar. You brew the tea hot and then let it chill while you make your coffee jelly.
And the coffee jelly is literally just coffee, water, a packet of gelatin, and sugar. Stir the ingredients together and let it firm up in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
When you are ready to serve, all you have to do is cut the jello, mix your tea, and you’re ready to go.
I love, love, love making this for people, because it’s delicious, but it’s also pretty novel. As popular as Boba is in some places, there are tons of people who have never heard of it before, so serving them coffee jelly in their drink is a fun surprise! Plus, it’s just a damn refreshing treat. …Just like Crazy Ex-girlfriend . (Seriously, WATCH IT!) 😉
More Coffee Recipes
- Iced Mocha
- Iced White Chocolate Mocha
- Homemade Mocha
- Caramel Macchiato
- White Chocolate Mocha
Milk Tea with Coffee Jelly Notes
You can serve these with a large boba straw if you want to order them *. I serve them with a spoon.
You will probably have some coffee jelly left over. Enjoy it with a spoonful of lightly sweetened whipped cream over the top.
Ingredients
Coffee Jelly
- ▢ 1 packet gelatin ( 2 1/4 teaspoons)
- ▢ 1 1/2 tablespoons water
- ▢ 2 heaping tablespoons ( 35g ) granulated sugar
- ▢ 1 cup very hot strong coffee
Milk Tea
- ▢ 3 cups hot water
- ▢ 3 bags black tea
- ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 25g ) granulated sugar (adjust to taste)
- ▢ 2 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, stir together gelatin and water. Allow gelatin to bloom for 3 to 5 minutes before stirring in sugar and very hot coffee. Stir until sugar and gelatin are completely dissolved.
- Transfer mixture to a 7x5-inch dish. Refrigerate until solid, at least three hours.
- While your coffee jelly is firming up, add tea bags to hot water and brew very strong black tea. Allow to cool slightly before placing in the refrigerator to chill.
- Once jelly is firm and tea cold, stir together tea, sugar, and cream. Add more sugar and cream to taste. Cut jello into 1/2-inch cubes (slightly smaller if serving with a straw), and add to your glass until the glass is about 1/3 of the way full. Pour in milk tea.
- Serve with a spoon (or a boba straw) and enjoy!
Coffee Jelly Adapted From Japanese Cooking 101
