Chocolate Raspberry Cake Roll

Have you seen that post circulating Facebook that shows Pinterest fails?  How something looks on Pinterest so that is how it should look when you are done vs what it actually looks like?  For the record, this dessert tasted amazing and I will attempt to make it again, but from the looks of it, it belongs on a Pinterest Fail list!

  

The list of ingredients is basic and as raspberries have been on sale, this was the perfect time to make this one. 

 

 

It's hard to resist buying raspberries when they look like this!

So the cake part is an Angel Food cake mix that you have added cocoa powder to.  Have any of you ever made a boxes Angel Food cake?  The dough was different in a hard to explain way, than any other cake dough I have ever encountered.  I mixed it up and baked it up as directed on my recipe (not following the box itself)

Now the key to cake rolls is to 1. Make sure your pan is lined or well greased. 2. Remove the cake from the pan while it is still warm so it can be rolled up into a towel that has been sprinkled with powered sugar.

3. You need to leave that rolled up dough in the fridge/freezer until it is no longer warm.  Doing all of these things should make it easier to roll the cake after you have spread the filling.  Should being the operative word!

While my cake was cooling, I prepped the filling.  Once again, aren't those raspberries mouthwatering?!

So, I made the mistake of not letting my cake cool sufficiently.  I might have also under baked it a bit, but I can't be sure about that.  In the process of unrolling it, the cake cracked, in more than once place.

So with my cake cracked, rolling it up got infinitely harder and instead of looking like the images in the link below, my beautiful cake roll looked like this glorious dessert! 

This gets topped with a chocolate ganache, which I was hoping would cover up the massive cracks, but it could only do so much! 
Once again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and knowing how good this chocolate, cream cheese and fresh raspberries taste makes this creation look amazing!  If you like the idea of this type of dessert and are daring enough to give it a try I hope you will take pictures and share your final product!

Raspberry Chocolate Cake Roll
As originally found on Eazy Peazy Mealz

Ingredients:

1 Angel Food cake mix (16 ounces)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup water
Ganache
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolates
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 cup fresh raspberries (garnish)
Filling
1 16 ounce container whipped cream
1 8 ounce block of cream cheese
1 cup fresh raspberries (can use frozen)

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 17 x 12½ inch jelly roll pan with nonstick cooking spray, you can cover with parchment paper or just spray really well.
2.  Mix together cake mix, water, and cocoa powder.  Pour into prepared pan, bake about 15-17 minutes.
3.  Prepare a clean dishtowel by sprinkling it with powdered sugar. When cake is done baking, remove from pan, flip onto the prepared towel, then roll from 12 inch side, into prepared dish towel, and cool on a wire rack (seam side down) or in the fridge/freezer if you need to speed things up a bit. 4.  Mix filling together by beating cream cheese and whipped cream together, and fold in raspberries.
5.  In a small sauce pan, stir together chocolate chips and whipping cream, stir until mixture is melted and simmering. Then let cool slightly so it is still pourable.
6.  Gently unroll cooked cake, remove towel, and spread filling mixture across cake, and re-roll, minus the dish cloth.   Transfer to a serving tray and pour chocolate ganache evenly over the cake. put raspberries down the center of the log.
7.  Refrigerate for 1-2 hours before serving.

Oreo Icebox Cake

You may have noticed I have a thing for Oreo desserts, but who doesn't love almost anything Oreo?!  This is something my brother in law have in common. I also prefer deserts that don't involve any baking, less chance over over cooking it, plus this has cream cheese in it, it is pretty much a win, win, win dessert! 

Once again, nothing fancy or crazy in the ingredients. 

I did make one change, the original recipe called for the Oreo cookies to be dunked in cold coffee.  Not being a coffee drinker or really a big fan of the flavor, I decided to dip mine in chocolate milk!

The more chocolate the better, right?  I would imagine you could skip that step all together, but it helps the cookies to be soft when it comes to serving time.

While I continue to struggle with cutting and serving desserts so they look as good as they taste, but trust me when I say this is one I will be making again!

Salted Caramel Oreo Icebox Cake
As originally found on Inside BruCrew Life

Ingredients

1 - 8oz package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
32 Oreo Cookies
6 ounces of chocolate milk (regular milk or coffee also works)
4 cups whipped topping, divided
Caramel and chocolate syrups

Directions
 1. Stir together the caramel topping and sea salt. (You can adjust the salt to your liking if your sea salt is coarse or fine.) Beat the cream cheese and caramel until creamy. Fold in 2 cups of whipped topping.
2. Dip 16 Oreo cookies in the chocolate milk and place in the bottom of an 8x8 pan. Spread half the caramel cheesecake mixture over the Oreo cookies.
3. Repeat the layers with the remaining cookies and caramel cheesecake.
4. Spread 1 cup of whipped topping over the top.  Sprinkle with additional crushed cookies (optional)  Refrigerate until set.
5. Top with extra whipped topping, caramel and chocolate syrups.

Nutella Crème Brûlée

So while my posts have been sporadic, know that that doesn't mean I haven't been baking or cooking, just means I haven't always had the time or been the mood to write the posts that go with the items I have made and photographed!  Doesn't help that until last week I was taking pictures on a now outdated camera phone!
So a couple of months I saw a random post where someone had put a dollop of Nutella at the bottom of their ramekin before filling it with the custard for Crème Brûlée , I knew at that moment I had to try it!  A week or so prior to me making it, I had made the Baked Alaska which called for a lot of egg whites.  I opted to keep the egg yolks knowing I would find a use and then it hit me, Crème Brûlée takes lots of yolks and no whites!  I am hoping to make another Baked Alaska in my future and I know it will be shortly followed by some variety of Crème Brûlée !

I used the same basic Crème Brûlée recipe as before, since I still just love it.  The only difference in the preparation process was about a tablespoon of Nutella before pouring the custard in.

I am a huge fan of Nutella, so I might have gone a bit overboard on the amount as this ended up being a very rich dessert!  Also, something I learned that in the future, I would try and spread the Nutella around a bit, instead of just a dollop in the center.  Something else I would do differently, try and serve it fairly quickly.  After baking it needs to cool for a bit and then be chilled for at least 30 minutes.  To keep the Nutella from getting too hard I would serve it as close to that 30 minute mark as possible.

It was pretty amazing though, even if a tad rich right at the center!

Vanilla Bean Crème Brûlée
As found in the Bonjour Culinary Torch Recipe Book

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Bean paste from 1-2 vanilla beans
3-4 tablespoons of Nutella, based on preference
Sugar for sprinkling
Fresh berries for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325.  Whisk together the sugar, vanilla extra, vanilla bean and egg yolk until well blended.  Scald the cream on medium till lightly simmering or to 190 degrees.  You will want to keep stirring this so it doesn't burn.  Slowly pour the cream into the egg mixture, while continuously whisking.
2. Place your ramekins into a larger baking dish, like a 9x13 pan.  Drop/spread your Nutella in the bottom, spreading it around a bit.  Slowly pour custard mix into each ramekin, filling about 3/4 way full.  Pour water into the larger baking pan, making sure water doesn't splash into the ramekins.  Water needs to reach about 1/2 of the way up.  Very carefully place entire pan into the oven and back for 20-25 minutes until set.  Chill for at least 30 minutes.
*My ramekins held about 4 oz and this recipe amount filled 4 1/2 of my ramekins.
When ready to serve, sprinkle with sugar, if you like an extra thick crust, be generous.  Using torch, caramelize sugar by moving the flame continuously over the surface in a slow, circular motion.  Serve with fresh berries.
If you don't have a torch, turn your oven to broil and move your oven wrack to the highest level.  Broil custards until lightly browned.  Keep a close eye on them.