What a day for Chocoholics!

It was a friday to remember indeed. And for chocolate lovers like me, it was like Oscar Night - Glamour, Glitz, Sensationalism etc. And no - I'm not talking about the people attending, though everyone looked really great! I'm talking about all the dressed up fancy chocolate we had!

It was my neighbor Renee's 6th Annual Chocolate Potluck party! Tell me about it - how glad am I to be living in this neighborhood! This was actually my first year of attending her party. And from now on, I'm going to block her party date every year - no traveling, no meeting anyone else. All I want to be is here.

Here's what the party is all about - everyone who shows up brings something that is 'Chocolatey'. Good enough for me. But, wait it gets better - no husbands, no kids - just women and their chocolate! Hallelujah!

So, I took my 'Chocolate Dipped Potato Chips' and also baked a Chocolate Shortbread and was on my way. My friend Deepi joined me too -she is a big chocolate fan like me and I invited her along and we were like two little toddlers let loose on candyland!

Don't you all want to see just how much fun we all had! Here are the sugar high pics..enjoy!

Starting off with some chocolate fudge -

These were little chocolate bars with a layer of luscious caramel oozing out from the middle...

Some chocolate dipped chocolate biscuits.

These were little chocolate, marshmallows, caramel and pecan bars - Don't know what its called -but do know it tastes great!

This was a chocolate pie - really great soft chocolate inside. Someone had picked this up from Marie Callender's. I'm going there next time to get this.

This was my own Chocolate chip shortbread- buttery and crisp.

These were little chocolate brownies - covered in a smooth shining ganache and  topped off with a piece of pecan!

This I think, was a Mississippi Mud Pie. And it tasted great - I still have a small piece left with me and I'm savoring it to the end!

 More awesome chocolate fudge!

 Some fresh chocolate dippes strawberries from Godiva!

Chocolatey cupcakes

Here are my Chocolate Dipped Potato Chips - and this time I drizzled some white chocolate on top too. 

 These did help a lot in between all the sweet stuff! Some crackers and cheese.

And some apples and dip!

And a veggies dip tray! I had so many of these carrots...

Of course, you need something to drink it all down with - and what better than Chocolate wine!

How thoughtful of the host to have some cold milk with all the chocolate - of course a few sips of milk with a few sips of wine!

And someone also got Hot Chocolate mix!

These brownies were great - and just in case you need an extra sprinkle of sweetness - there's some powdered sugar!

 This was the bomb - a super chocolate mousse cake! Cream and delicious!

 Another super tasting chocolate cake!

 More cake!

Delicious Chocolate Bundt cake.

Chocolate, Nuts, caramel bars!

More pretty choco-nut brownies!

 Here's the spread. Just one side of it though - there were more on the other counters!

Its been three days but I'm still kind of giddy with all this! But now, I'm looking forward for the next one!

Enjoy. Peace out!

Whipped Cream Cake

If you're a cake fan like me, you've probably browsed the many pages of Amazon looking at the different cake and baking books available, drooling at the pictures, laughing at some reviews, craving for some cakes, buying stuff impulsively...wait you don't do all this - is it just me? I thought so. Someday I'll ask for help!

One of my many browsing sessions took me to this wonderful book - Rose's Heavenly Cakes by this gifted talented baker Rose Levy Berenbaum. Its also been selected as one of the best books of 2009. What's great is that Amazon has included 3 recipes on its page from the book - one of which is a Gorgeous Whipped Cream Cake! If you are ever looking for a good cake book, you should really consider this. I have it on my wish list and will be buying it soon. I also love the red velvet cake recipe featured - will try that out sometime soon. And yes, her picture of the final cake is way better than mine. I love the little shower of powdered sugar from the top. I want to stand underneath that with my mouth wide open. Yumm..

It was a really easy and pretty cake to make. It did have a different texture - a little more dense than other cakes. But, a good kind of dense..soft and yet dense. Get it? No..well, bake it for yourself and you'll see. It would be a perfect cake to serve along with some coffee - but I made it a lot more chocolatey ..not that you can't have it with coffee. You could also just serve it for dessert!

The good thing about this recipe is that there is no butter or oil used. But, wait don't jump up for joy yet ..its all whipped cream that is used instead. But, the up side here is that no additional butter is used - Yay..jump up now!

Do check the link above for the exact measurements. Here are my ingredients all ready and set to go.

Mix together 2 1/4 cup cake flour, 2 tsp baking powder and 3/4 tsp salt and sieve it out to a mixing bowl. Now, I took the original recipe and made it into a chocolatey one. And so I added about 1 1/2 tsp of cocoa powder to the flour dry mix. It could have used some more - so go ahead an add 2 tsp.

The dry mix is ready here.

Now, whisk together 3 large eggs and set aside.

In your electrical mixer or using a hand mixer, whip up about 1 1/2 cups of cold heavy whipped cream.

Whip until you can see firm peaks on the whipped cream.

Now, add the whisked eggs to this and keep mixing at low -medium speed.

When the eggs and the cream are combined well, add 1 cup plus 2 tbsp of super fine sugar.

When all of that has incorporated well, switch off your mixer, remove the bowl and then slowly add the dry flour mix in and either fold gently with a spatula or just using your whisk, fold it in slowly so that all the wet and the dry ingredients combine well.

Pour the batter into a well greased and floured bundt pan. You could even use a regular round or square pan. Run a knife through the batter without touching the base so that all air bubble pop out. (Tip from the original link)

Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for dark pans. Bake for about 25-30 mins or until the cake passes the toothpick test.

Once the cake cools, invert it onto a cake stand and serve just like that.

Or...you could also do what I did to make it a little more chocolicious! You know I always go there...

Make a little ganache like this..and then pour it out on top of the cake. Yeah..you have my permission to lick the bowl clean after you've poured out everything. 

When all the excess has dripped off, move the cake gently to your cake stand or serving plate and you're done! Almost..

And here's my another cake stand! I'm obsessed with buying these! Next time I'll get a better picture - the sides have a little lace pattern too and it really is a gorgeous cake stand!

No. I'm not done yet with the cake.

Top off with some fresh chocolate curls! Aaah...nothing to beat that bite into real chocolate while biting your cake!

I toldya it was a pretty cake!

Who wants the big curled piece here - looks like a frown - but you eat that and you'll surely be smiling! Wide..

I can't stop adding pictures. Somebody stop me...

And as you can see, everyone enjoyed this at my party!! Thank you Rose Levy Berenbaum! And Amazon too. You know I'll be back, right. Miss ya, already!

Before I leave you all - here's a little happiness I want to share. I had my blogger open and wanted to start writing a new post. And then I got a call. So, I got away from my computer and was walking around, doing stuff and talking. When I came back to the browser, here's what I saw. My little girl was busy with my keyboard and wrote me a very sweet note. And yes, she almost published it too! I just saved this as a draft now - and will keep it forever. Here's a screenshot of her little love note for me! Thank you baby, I'm honored!

Enjoy. Peace out!