Chocolate Nutella Mousse - Birthday Cupcakes From Scratch

My very own recipe, improvised and invented for my honey's birthday party 2011!

Chocolate Nutella Mousse Cupcakes

Makes twenty-four cupcakes. Fill paper liners no less than 2/3 and no more than 3/4 full.

1 cup (100g) flour
1 cup (150g) sugar
1 tsp (càc) baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
3 eggs
1/3 cup (80 ml) water
1/4 cup (60 ml) oil
1 tsp (càc) vanilla
1/2 tsp (càc) salt
1 chocolate pudding mix*
1 tbsp (càs) cocoa powder
2 tbsp (càs) rum

Beat all ingredients together.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until peaks are moist, not gooey, but not so long that the peaks dry.


Nutella Mousse

2 sticks (250g) unsalted butter, softened
1 13-ounce jar (400g) Nutella
pinch sea salt
1 tbsp (càs) vanilla
2 pounds (350g) powdered sugar
8 tbsp (càs) heavy cream

Mix slowly the first five ingredients. Add the heavy cream until blended. Whip on medium-high setting until fluffy. Pipe onto cupcakes with a decorator's pouch.

*I use Rawleigh Chocolate Pudding... my Gramie's tried and true favorite. It truly has the best old fashioned flavor. In this recipe I added 3 tbsp of their pudding powder to the rest of the ingredients as listed. Their traditional recipe is naturally low fat and you add the sugar, so it's great for diabetics! You can buy a tub of pudding mix online and www.rawleigh-products.com

*FROM SCRATCH VERSION - Substitute milk where it calls for water. When it's time to add the pudding add 6 ounces (170 g) of 62% semisweet chocolate melted, 1/4 cup cornstarch (maïzena), plus 1/8 tsp salt.

Fun Manly Birthday Variations :

german chocolate with coconut-pecan topping

rocky-road with marshmallows, chocolate chips and walnuts

Baptism Cheesecake Buffet

Pastries have always had a magical effect in Paris - We already knew that cookies seduce everyone who tries them! This weekend we discovered Cheesecake makes an even bigger impact!!!

Cheesecake, for me, has always been a dessert reserved for big important celebrations, like weddings. So when my friend asked me to bake cheesecake for her baptism, I jumped at the occasion.

I started baking on Wednesday and when Friday rolled around I ran into two problems, and I had to call upon the kindness of my neighbors to pull me out of a pinch.

First the power went out and I couldn't boil my milk to make more cheese. So Rob visited all of our neighborhood friends to see who might have electricity - nobody did. But one neighbor has a restaurant with a gas stovetop that saved our day.

Later, I realized I was short a half a cup of sugar! Again, Rob started down the street and the first neighbor he found lent us a bit of sugar to finish the last cheesecake. phew!

Of course then we had to share our cheesecakes with the lovely neighbors that helped us out so generously! And, now I feel like a rock-star when I walk down the street and neighbors continue to shower complements on me about the amazing cheesecakes we thanked them with!

Check out my cheesecake recipes here.

Cheesecake Buffet

Caramel Cream Cheesecake

Chocolate Cheesecake

Red Velvet Ganache Cheesecake

Classic New York Style Cheesecake

Lemon Custard Cheesecake

Chocolate Ganache Cheesecake

Fondant Parisien de Julien

You'll notice the cake is perfectly done when the chocolate is golden and blackened on top!

I left the original recipe in French because I love the personality that gushes out through all of the alterations...


Fondant Parisien de Julien

250 g de chocolat (8oz baking chocolate)
175 g de sucre (1/2 cup + 1/3 cup sugar)
125 g de beurre (1 stick of real butter)
30 à 35 g de farine
5 œufs (5 eggs)

Faire chauffer le four. Preheat the oven.

Faire fondre 250 grammes de chocolat dans très peu d’eau ou de lait, à feux doux. Melt the chocolate.

Quand il est fondu, ajoutez 125 grammes de beurre, 5 jaunes d’œufs un à un. Add the butter and the yolks to the chocolate. Puis 30 à 35 grammes de farine.

Mélangez bien et ajoutez ensuite 175 grammes de sucre. Once blended add the sugar. 

Pour terminer 5 blancs d’œufs battus en neige ferme MAIS PAS TROP. Incorporer A LA MAIN d’abord 2 cuillerées et battez fortement puis ajoutez le reste en soulevant la pâte. Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl to form soft peaks, fold into the batter.

Une fois le moule beurré, je le saupoudre de sucre cristallisé. Butter and sugar the inside of a round cake pan. 

Faire cuire à four modéré 180 degrés 210 °C environ 40 minutes les 15 premières minutes puis 180° Celsius les 15 dernières minutes. Bake at 410°F for the first 15 minutes, and 356°F for the last 15 minutes.

Cover the surface of the plate with english custard to create the 'pac-man' effect.
Bon appétit

Red Velvet Dream Cake

Valentine's weekend and I awake to the sweet scent of bright red cake baking! My super hubby has made me a red velvet cake! The photo doesn't really do it justice. The cake was a luscious deep dark red, and ohh, soo moist!

Thanks Honey-Bunny! I love you !!!

Red Velvet Dream Cake
2 tbsp (50g) unsalted butter
4 tbsp (càs) water
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa
3 eggs
1 C buttermilk
2 tsp (càc) vanilla
2 tbsp red food coloring
2.5 C flour
1/2 C cornstarch (maïzena)
1/2 tsp (càc) baking powder
1/2 C fine sugar

Cream Frosting
1 C cream cheese (fromage à tartiner)
3 tbsp (75g) unsalted butter
3 tbsp (càs) fine sugar
1 tsp (càc) vanilla

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Butter two nine inch (23 cm) round baking pans and dust with flour.

Heat butter, water and cocoa in a small saucepan, stirring constantly, without boiling.

Beat together eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, and food coloring until frothy. Beat in the butter mixture. Sift together the flour, cornstarch, and baking powder. Add all of this plus the sugar.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 25-30 min.

For the frosting, beat together all the ingredients until smooth.

Smooch your hubby ^^

Fuel For Imagination - Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

"If God had intended us to follow recipes,
He wouldn't have given us grandmothers."
~Linda Henley

Vacationing with friends and I suddenly remembered one of my friends would be celebrating his birthday! Like, in two days! He deserved the very best and I wasn't going to slack off just because we were away from home. I was imagining a luxurious moist chocolate cake with thick chocolate fluff for icing, maybe even multiple layers...

I remembered the basics to my favorite recipe, I improvised the rest, and here's the result. Another recipe you guys have been begging me for. Good thing I took lots of photos. You'll get to experience the step-by-step walk through complete with video clips! Yeah!

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

2 cups (400g) flour
1/2 cup (60g) baking cocoa
2 tsp (càc) baking soda
1/4 tsp (càc) salt
2 cups (425g) brown sugar (sucre vergeoise / sucre roux semoule)
2/3 cup (150g) butter
3 eggs
1 tbsp (càs) bailey's irish cream
1/2 tsp (càc) vanilla
1 cup (120g) sour cream
3/4 cup (180ml) boiling water

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottoms and sides of two round pans, 9x 1.5 inches; lightly flour.

Cream the brown sugar and butter softened, but not melted in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs and beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in irish cream and vanilla.

Stir together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt and add them to the mixture with the sour cream on low speed. Stir in the boiling water until blended. Pour into pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Unmold the cakes and allow them to cool completely.

Chocolate Mousse Filling

1 1/3 cup (320ml) heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup (85g) powdered sugar
1 bar of baking chocolate
1/2 tsp (càc) vanilla
1/2 tsp (càc) Bailey's irish cream

Freeze the whipping cream and a large glass mixing bowl. Pulverize the bar of baking chocolate in a food processor. Whip the cream in the chilled bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until it's stiff, add the other ingredients. *


Chocolate Whipped Cream  Icing

1 1/3 cup (320ml) heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup (85g) powdered sugar
1/3 cup (40g) baking cocoa
1/2 tsp (càc) vanilla

Freeze the whipping cream and a large glass mixing bowl. Whip the cream in the chilled bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until it's stiff, add the other ingredients. *

Here's the Step-by-Step as I recreated this recipe with a good friend - Her first time ever baking a cake !!! You GO girl!

 Stiff Peaks of Cream

 Pulverized Chocolate Bar

in the Chocolate Mousse Filling

Frozen Bowl - Very Very Cold Cream 

Whipping the Cream 

Chocolate Whipped Cream Icing 

 Ice the cakes on parchment paper for easy turning and let the paper get messy, you'll remove it before presenting the finished product.

Decide if you want one four layer cake or two two layer cakes.

I love the thrill of a four layer cake, but we decided it would be easier to cut 30 pieces if we had two cakes ... logistics won out this time.

* If you have a hard time whipping the cream, here are a few tricks of the trade. 

- Purchase a quality brand whipping cream that is in the refrigerated section.

(usually, I don't have a problem with the little generic boxes, but if you are struggling this can give you an edge.)

- Freeze a large glass mixing bowl two hours.

- Chill the carton of whipping cream - even put it in the freezer for fifteen minutes.

- Move to a location that is less warm, perhaps infront of that drafty window will help.

- If your cream does not stiffen perhaps your mixer is set too high. Try a lower setting.

- If you still can't get a thick mousse consider adding "Cremefix" or another stiffening agent for that purpose.

!!! - If you are using a tabletop mixer you'll have to be very careful to use a low setting and the stop the machine the second the cream begins to pile ontop of itself - 30 seconds too long and you'll have butter.

A Pure Demonstration Of True Love - The World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

There is no sight on earth more appealing than the sight of a woman making dinner for someone she loves. ~Thomas Wolfe

*Professional photograph thanks to http://erwanmasson.com

University, three roommates learning to cook (and impress the guys). One time we decided to bake chocolate chip cookies, but five minutes of research revealed dozens of recipes as different as the women that bake them. Well, then, how is one supposed to choose a good recipe? How do I know it won't be too crunchy? or flat? or bland? Think, think, think.

And a great idea came to us. The men's dorm was having a big party, let's just bake all of the recipes and have a taste-testing!!! The best recipe would be treasured for a lifetime.

I half-expected there to be a tie. The recipes were as different as they get, some sharing only the chocolate morsels and flour as common components. But different people have different expectations of their chocolate chip cookies, as you may know. None-the-less the results of the taste-test were unanimous. I mean, one hundred strapping young men, and they all agreed on one thing - gooey!

So if you're looking for a chocolate chip cookie that is soft, chewy, and gooey in the middle ... even the next day, then you've come to the right place!

In my opinion a good chocolate chip recipe should never make less than six dozen. So here goes, enjoy!

The World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 C (375g) Crisco (in France you can use Astra, but they won't have the same lift and fluff. Do NOT melt it first.)
1 1/2 C (320g) brown sugar (sucre vergeoise / sucre roux semoule)
3/4 C (165g) sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp (càc) vanilla
3 1/3 C (700g) flour
1 1/2 tsp (càc) soda
1 tsp (càc) baking powder
1 1/2 tsp (càc) salt
2 C chocolate chips (1 bar baking chocolate)
*1/2 C chopped nuts - optional

Cream the first five ingredients.
Add flour and dry ingredients slowly.
Add chocolate last.
Bake at 350°F for 8-10min (200°C for 6min).

Special thanks to Dana Shaffer who first published this recipe in the Baptist Church Cookbook!

Nichole's Brownie Caramel Cheesecake

While this may have been the most gorgeous cake I've ever made, this recipe turned out really rich. I think next time I would use less chocolate bottom and less ganache.

Brownie Caramel Cheesecake

BROWNIE
One brownie mix, and the oil and eggs that the box requires
CHEESECAKE
2 lbs (900g) of cream cheese or Fresh Homemade Soft Cheese
1 pkg (250g) marscapone cheese
1 1/3 C (230g) sugar
6 eggs
1/3 C (60g) flour
2 tsp (càc) vanilla
1 fresh lemon
1 tub (50cl) crème fraîche or sour cream
GANACHE
1 bar of baking chocolate
1 C (20cl) heavy cream
***Use half or two-thirds.
CARAMEL
3/4 C heavy cream
1 C (220g) sugar
6 Tbsp (càs) water
1/2 tsp (càc) vanille
pinch of salt
chopped walnuts

BROWNIE CRUST
Line the bottom of your cheesecake pan with parchment paper. Follow the preparation instructions on the brownie mix. Pour half of the brownie batter into the bottom of your cheesecake pan. Bake as directed, for 6-10 minutes. ***Use less, swirl the pan around so that the brownie batter just barely coats the bottom of the pan.

CHEESECAKE
Beat the ingredients in the order indicated. Click here for a complete step by step guide.

GANACHE
Wait until the cheesecake is cold. Heat the heavy cream, break the bar of chocolate into bits and stir it into the hot cream until it melts. Pour over the cheesecake and refrigerate.

CARAMEL
Wait until the ganache is cold. Heat the sugar and water stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the sugar caramelizes. When it's a nice golden color, take it off the heat. Stand back from the pan and stir in the heavy cream a quarter cup at a time. Then add the vanilla and salt. Strudel over the ganache topping sprinkle with walnuts, and refrigerate again.