Ready for a chocolate overload cake? (As if that was even a thing.) I’ve got you covered, just in time for Valentine’s Day! This dense, moist chocolate cake is covered with dark chocolate raspberry ganache in the place of frosting – perfect for those of you who love cake but might not always love frosting!
We got this beautiful heart bundt cake pan as one of our wedding presents, and I think it’s so beautiful! As is true with any bundt pan, make sure you grease the pan really well, and also dust with flour! Bundt cakes are notorious for sticking, you may have seen on my Instagram stories a few weeks back that my cake stuck when I didn’t flour the pan!
That’s the only special instruction for this recipe – it’s really simple overall, and I know you’ll love it! If you’re looking for a chocolate Valentine’s Day dessert, this is it! Guaranteed to satisfy even the strongest chocolate craving!
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup coffee
1 cup butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
Ganache Ingredients:
1/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon raspberry extract or Chambord
Cake Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a bundt pan very well, followed by a dusting of flour. This will help prevent the cake from sticking.
Whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through salt. Set aside. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the buttermilk, coffee, butter, sour cream and vanilla. Mix in the eggs one at a time. Add the dry ingredients, mixing on low speed until the ingredients are just combined.
Bake in the preheated oven for 50-55 minutes, or until a large toothpick comes out clean. I use large wooden skewers!
Allow the cake to cool for 15 minutes in the pan. Then carefully turn the pan upside down over a baking sheet. Allow to sit for an additional 10 minutes, then carefully lift the pan off the cake.
Ganache Directions:
Heat the heavy cream in a saucepan or in the microwave until the cream begins to steam. Pour over the chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl, and stir until combined and the chocolate is melted and silky. If needed, heat the chocolate mixture in the microwave in 10 second increments until fully melted. Add the extract or Chambord,stirring to combine. Drizzle over the top of the bundt cake. I like to be pretty generous with my ganache! Allow to set for a few minutes, and garnish with a few fresh raspberries before serving!
I hope everyone has been having a great week so far! Our little corner of the world is seeing way below freezing temps, along with a fresh dusting of snow! It’s crazy to look outside my window right now and think that yesterday I took an hour-long walk with Charlotte and our dogs!
When the temps get low like this, it’s even more important to be sure we’re getting as many fruits and veggies as possible. Give me all the immune system support, please! So today I’m sharing our every day, clean green smoothie with you! It’s full of leafy greens, fresh fruits and a few extra healthy surprises you wouldn’t even know were in there!
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably been seeing my Vitamix allll over my stories. Jordan and I have wanted a Vitamix for years. Years, people! Our old blender was in a pretty sad state, and after doing a lot of research (and testing out some of my friends’ Vitamix machines), I decided it was time to take the plunge. My only regret is that we didn’t get a Vitamix sooner. I am seriously in love, and we have used it every. single. day. We’re making soups, sorbet, pestos – and of course smoothies!
What I love most about our Vitamix is that it makes such smooth drinks. I mentioned above that there’s some secret ingredients in these smoothies, and those are flax seeds and chia seeds! Both are full of healthy omega-3 fats, fiber and protein, but I’ll be honest. I’m not a big fan of seeds in my drinks. When we make these smoothies with the Vitamix, you wouldn’t even know they were there, because they get completely ground up. Seriously amazing!
Makes about 3-4 servings
Ingredients:
1 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon flax seeds
2 cups spinach
1 cup kale
1 apple, cored and sliced
1 kiwi, peeled
1/2 cucumber, diced
1 cup frozen peaches or mango
Directions:
Add all of the ingredients to your Vitamix machine in the order listed above. Select Variable 1, start your machine, and increase to the highest speed. Blend for 50 seconds. If your machine has the frozen drinks setting, select this setting, start your machine and let it run through the cycle. Serve immediately!
Thank you Vitamix for sponsoring this post. As always, opinions are my own.
Are you guys ready for a Valentine’s Dessert recipe that will knock the socks off your friends and family? Well, these red velvet cream cheese cookies might just be it! These thick, cakey cookies literally melt in your mouth when you take a bite. And that pretty red color? Valentine’s Day cookie perfection!
You can top these pretty little cookies with festive sprinkles, or dust them with powdered sugar! When you take your first bite, you’ll be thanking me from afar!
A few notes to ensure baking success:
- These cookies need to be chilled in the fridge for 1-2 hours. Don’t skip this step! It’s important that the butter is cold when it goes into the oven – that’s what makes cookies thick.
- The dough is going to be sticky, so be sure to dust your hands with flour before rolling the dough into balls. You can re-dust your hands as much as you need – I did it every 2-3 cookies. I also washed my hands a few times during the process. It’s totally worth it!
- Use gel food coloring, not liquid. The reason is that our solid to liquid ratio is already on the edge (see above!), so adding even more is going to make rolling these into balls a real challenge. Plus, I prefer gel color because you need way less. I always feel kind of sick dumping a whole container of red liquid color into batter or dough, and sometimes can taste the food coloring too. Not with gel! I use and love this kind.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 oz full-fat cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup cane sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
Red food coloring gel
1/4 cup all-purpose flour, for rolling
Powdered sugar for dusting
Directions:
Whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat until combined, then beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. Add food coloring until you reach your color preference. I use gel food coloring, see notes above.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap, and chill it in the fridge for 1-2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 375.
Measure the all-purpose flour into a small bowl. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Dust your hands with the flour, and roll the cookie dough into 1 inch sized balls, and place them on the lined baking sheets. Re-dust your hands as many times as needed – I dusted my hands between every 2-3 cookies.
Bake 9-11 minutes, or until the bottoms are just beginning to brown. They will be soft and may still look doughy, but if you can tap the bottom of a cookie and it easily slides, they’re done!
Dust with powdered sugar when they’ve cooled, and serve.
Happy Friday and first day of February everyone! I’ve spent the last few weeks baking and prepping all things Valentine’s Day, and I’m so excited to share this Galentine’s Day party table inspiration with you. Last year I had a few girlfriends over to celebrate with a fun, casual brunch. That’s what I had in mind as I put this table together. I wanted it to be happy, comfortable and inviting!
Valentine’s Day often revolves around love and romance, and I’m all about that! But I think it’s also fun to use the holiday to celebrate the other kinds of love we have in our lives too, whether it’s love for friends or our families. I wanted this table to be light and bright, steering clear of traditional Valentine’s Day colors like pinks and reds. And you’ll notice there’s not a single heart on the table, either! As I was photographing this, I couldn’t help thinking this would also be a perfect setup for a Mother’s Day brunch or a cute baby shower!
Whenever I’m putting a table together, I always choose one thing to inspire the overall look. Sometimes it starts with a type of food I want to serve, like Greek food leading to an island theme. Sometimes it’s the location of the event. For this brunch, my inspiration started with the Pantone color of the year, which happens to be coral!
I instantly fell in love with these adorable mini faux potted ranunculus in yellow and red! I knew that I wanted a bright floral arrangement since the table runner is a perfect backdrop. These work perfectly, because they spread color all across the table and also tie into the color of the napkins. I also like the price point of these faux flowers, because achieving a similar look with live flowers would have been a lot pricier. Plus now I get to enjoy them forever!
I also really loved these floral plates, because they tie into the overall coral color scheme without being overly matchy. Especially next to the orange napkins and pink water glasses, the colors of the plates compliment the rest of the table and create a more cohesive feel.
Questions? Comments? Leave me a note below!
I hope this post helps inspire you to put together a bright and fun Galentine’s Day party!
Warm pretzel bites, fresh from the oven. Is there really anything better? I always thought that pretzels would be hard to make, and I’m not sure where I got that idea from because they’re actually pretty easy! These are so delicious fresh and warm, served with some honey mustard or my favorite beer cheese dip.
Makes about 32 pretzel bites
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water (110-115 degrees F)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package yeast
2 teaspoons garlic powder
4 cups flour
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted (divided)
5 cups water
1/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk, mixed with 1 teaspoon water
Sea salt
Directions:
Whisk together the flour and garlic powder in a mixing bowl, and set aside.
Combine the water, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture starts to foam. Add the flour mixture and 1 tablespoon butter to the yeast mixture, and mix on low using the hook attachment until combined. Increase mixer speed to medium, and knead until the dough is smooth and isn’t sticking at all to the sides of the bowl – about 5 minutes.
Grease a large bowl with the remaining butter (you may not need to use all of it), and move dough to the greased bowl. Cover with plastic, and allow to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size. I like to put mine into the oven, preheat the oven to 170, and then immediately turn the oven off once temperature has been reached.
Once the hour of rising is up, remove the dough from the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Bring the water and baking soda to a rolling boil in a large saucepan.
While the water heats, lightly grease a large work surface. Divide the dough into 8 approximately equal chunks, and divide each of those chunks into 4 smaller (approximately equal) bite-sized pieces. (So you’ll end up with about 32 pretzel bites.)
Drop about 5 pretzel bites at a time into the boiling water, and boil for 30 seconds. Remove the bites using a large slotted spoon or spatula, and place onto the prepared baking sheets. Brush the top of each bite with some of the egg yolk mixture and sprinkle generously with sea salt.
Bake the bites until golden brown, about 13-15 minutes.
