Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Glaze

What do you do when you have 12 bottles of opened wine? Besides drinking all of them I mean.

Oh, wait. Are you one of those people who can drink an entire bottle of wine by yourself? Then we should definitely be friends. I'll trade you - wine for food.

One of the perks of my job is the access to free wine. That, along with drinking on the job and the occasional free meal. Once in a while we get a bunch of samples for tasting but we don't usually finish them. They get stuck in the fridge and are eventually forgotten. Googling red wine recipes gave me a few ideas but this stood out the most to me.

Red wine? Check.
Chocolate cake? Check.
More chocolate? Just hand me a slice already!

Towering Hazelnut Praline Cake + Cupcakes

These days (everyday) I'm dreaming of Sydney and imagining how wonderful the weather must be now. I'm reminiscing about Taipei and it's endless rainy winter days and their amazing hot pot buffet with free flow ice cream.

It's getting way too hot here. I'm talking hot like spending 5 minutes outdoors and the back of your hands are perspiring, showering 5 times a day, all you want to do is stay home hot.

Staying at home means that I lay in bed reading on my kindle, or sit in front of my computer watching hours and hours of CSI and Supernatural. At some point, I get my lazy ass off my very comfortable bed/ chair, put on my imaginary apron and bake something.

You know how sometimes you spend so much time making all the components of a cake and by the time you are done baking, you don't even feel like doing a proper frosting job? I mean, the cake is going to taste the same even if you just cut it into chunks and slather the frosting on top, right? Right, but we can at least do it in an artful way that is worthy of a picture. That was how this naked cake came about, it looks great (if I do say so myself), and it tastes great, no thanks to the heat.

The Best Chocolate Mudcake (Pam's Chocolate Mudcake)

Let me introduce you to my new favourite chocolate cake. It has a very rich flavour, is extremely moist - almost like a chocolate fudge cake and also dense enough to carve. Not to mention that it is extremely easy to make. Mudcakes are ideal for beginners as slight errors in measurements or over-mixing will not affect the results. They also have a long shelf life and they taste even better with age. The only trouble you would have is having to wait so long to eat it! 

I made mine with dark chocolate ganache and found it a little too rich, but super delicious nonetheless. Next time round, I'll definitely try it with a raspberry or salted caramel filling to balance the taste a little.

Six-Layer Dark Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

I made this cake a couple of times previously, and twice over the weekend - one with strawberry SMBC and today, with chocolate SMBC. I did not get to taste the strawberry version but the chocolate was seriously delicious. I love that the dark chocolate in the frosting came out so rich and it did not taste buttery at all.

This is a super easy one bowl chocolate cake that is nearly impossible to screw up, unless you add too much salt like I once did. If you're not as forgetful as me you'll be fine. There's no risk of over-beating, under-mixing, etc. Swiss Meringue Buttercream used to be a complete mystery to me, but it is really easy to make and holds up great once you learn how to. Sweetapolita has a wonderful guide with step-by-step pitcures, be sure to check it out if you're new to making SMBC!

My SMBC usually whips up pretty well despite this hot and humid weather, but with the addition of the chocolate today, it was unusually soft. In my haste to complete the cake, I must have added the still-warm chocolate into the SMBC. So, please do not make the same mistake as me. If you did, however, do that, don't worry, it's not the end. Simply chuck the entire bowl into the refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes, and mix it again using your paddle attachment (or hand mixer) till it comes back to its satiny texture.

Tiramisu Charlotte

Update: This post was featured on Huffington Post Taste, 4 April 2013 along with many beautiful charlottes! I'm so honoured, thank you!

A month back, Susan asked me to help her with her boyfriend's birthday cake. The thing is, he's not much of a cake person (or a anything sweet person). When she told me that he likes tiramisu, I started looking for recipes that will hold up in a cake.

Most recipes i found online for Tiramisu cakes use sponge cake layers instead of lady fingers but i really wanted to have lady fingers in the cake, plus I wanted a simpler recipe for Susan to follow. Then i remembered this wonderful recipe from Chef Dennis that i used last year when i made tiramisu in cups.