Tag: chocolate cake

Spooky Spider Cupcakes

Spooked at the thought of all the Halloween temptations we are about to experience at the scariest season of the year?

Well you need not fear – these Spooky Spider Cupcakes are lighter on the waistline, and are sure to be all the fright at your next Halloween party.

The cupcakes themselves are made with just THREE ingredients: boxed cake mix, canned pumpkin and WATER! The topping is a chocolate glaze, just a smear – just enough to help the sprinkles and eyeballs adhere to the cupcake.

And the verdict in my house, everyone thought they were SPOOK-tacular!

If you follow my Facebook Fan Page^[1] and suddenly stopped seeing my posts, here’s why: Facebook made changes to get people to pay to promote their posts.

Easy fix, to continue seeing my recipes on Facebook, go to the top of my fan page and under “Liked” click “Add
to Interest List” and you will continue to see all my posts. Please share that info!

Spooky Spider Cupcakes
gordon-ramsay-recipe.com
Servings: 18 • Size: 1 cupcake • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 4*
Calories: 139.5 • Fat: 3.5 g • Carb: 26 g • Fiber: 2 g • Protein: 1.5 g • Sugar: 17 g
Sodium: 291 mg

Ingredients:

16.5 oz Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake mix
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp canned 100% pure pumpkin
3/4 + 2 tbsp cup water

For the glaze:

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp confectioners’ sugar
4 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp 1% milk, plus 1 tsp if needed
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

For the toppings:

6 tbsp chocolate sprinkles
black string licorice, cut into 2 inch strips (Wilton)
Wilton eyeball candy

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a cupcake tin with 18 cupcake liners.
Combine pumpkin puree and water in a large bowl; mix to combine. Add chocolate cake mix and beat 2 minutes. (Be sure the cake mix is 16.5 oz or you’ll have to adjust the other ingredients)

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes.

For the glaze combine all dry ingredients, add vanilla and 1 tbsp milk, adding 1/4 tsp more at a time if needed until smooth.

Place sprinkles in a bowl.

Using
a spatula or butter knife, spread just under 1 tsp of the glaze over
the cupcake, then quickly dip into the bowl of sprinkles. Quickly add
eyes before glaze dries.

To add legs, poke holes with a bamboo stick, then insert. Can be made the night before. Makes 18.

*Nutritional info includes everything except eyes and legs.

References

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World Chocolate Day: 40 Delicious Recipes – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

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The date chosen to celebrate World Chocolate Day, one of the most loved foods of all time, is set for July 7thday in which way back in 1847the English chocolatier Joseph Fry gave shape to chocolate by inventing the tabletsdelicious bars to break and bite. A great reason for us to celebrate it by talking about this good food rich in properties, telling its story and suggesting, of course, 40 delicious and unmissable chocolate recipes.

Origins and history of chocolate

When we talk about chocolate we have to start from the ancient history of cocoawhich dates back to the peoples of the pre-Columbian civilizations of the Maya (2nd millennium BC–15th century AD) and of the Aztecs (14th-14th century AD). They used cocoa beans, called “cacahuat”, to make a drink, the “xocolatl”, to which chili pepper, anise, cinnamon, vanilla and other spices were added to mask the bitter taste, and which was used as a offering to the gods to thank them for births and other happy events, or ground into powder and sprinkled on the bodies of young people in puberty rituals.

The Aztecs also used them as currency and a commodity of exchange: they had immediately understood the enormous value of this seed. In fact, it was thus that Christopher Columbus discovered this seed the July 30, 1502: it was offered to him by the Aztecs in exchange for other products. However, we have to wait until the first half of the sixteenth century for the massive importation into the Old Continent, when Hernán Cortés, the conqueror of Mexico, overthrew the Aztec Empire, subjugating the indigenous populations to the kingdom of Spain.

In the seventeenth century, cocoa also began to be produced in Italyespecially in Florence and Venice, then in the 19th century the invention of milk chocolate arrived from Switzerland, and in the 1980s we moved to France with the first collection of dark chocolate.

Does Chocolate Bring Good Mood? Here Are 20 Cakes For Happiness

What are the reasons for the strange relationship between chocolate and our mood? And then 20 of our best chocolate cakes to make us feel happy

From cocoa beans to chocolate: the manufacturing processes

The cocoa beans, once harvested, are left fermentdepending on the country in baskets, wooden boxes or under banana leaves away from the light: this is where the precursors of the aromas develop. The cocoa beans are then left dry in the sun, and this phase is followed by a meticulous quality control. The cocoa beans are then passed through the cleaning to then be ground in a rough way with a machine called a “cocoa breaker”, which separates the peel from the cocoa bean grains, through sievesThe collected cocoa beans are then toastedan obligatory step to allow the cocoa aromas to be released.

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World Chocolate Day 2024: A Trip to Italy – Italian cuisine reinvented by Gordon Ramsay

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In the Savoy capital, in fact, the first hot chocolate was born (thanks to the Savoy family); the license to market it (in 1678); the celebration of the gianduiotto, the first wrapped chocolate in the world (early 19th century) made with cocoa, sugar and round hazelnuts from Piedmont and the gianduia cream born in what would become the first capital of Italy out of necessity – Napoleon had made it almost impossible for Piedmontese confectioners to supply cocoa due to high prices and, to produce chocolate, they were the ones who thought of combining hazelnuts with cocoa creating one of the most famous chocolates in the world.

The interactive museum, open every day and wanted by the Belgian Eddie VanBelle together with the Ciocattos (owners of Pfatisch), it is therefore a journey through time into the world of chocolate with over 700 memorabilia including boxes, moulds and unusual objects such as the “egoista” chocolate maker dedicated to the singles of the time.

How much do we like chocolate?

Dark, milk, white, blond, pink, gianduia, with fruit, hot, cold, crunchy: these are just some of the infinite variations of chocolate that, based on research conducted by the food delivery Just Eattogether with Bva Doxa, reports that it is among the most requested and consumed desserts at home, together with ice cream, spoon desserts, cakes and tiramisu. A global success, with an annual consumption thatItalian Food Union estimated, in 2023, of over 635 thousand tons.

World Chocolate Day 2024

How will Italian pastry chefs celebrate it? With ad hoc creations and evergreens (pastry or restaurant) always available on the market. Let’s try to point out some for a trip to Italy, from north to south – not necessarily in this order.

Matryoshka it is the name of the creation of the master Ampi (Accademia Maestri Pasticceri Italiani) Carmine Di Donnain whose pastry vision it is necessary to create a dessert with elements that have different structures and an optimal balance between the right acidity. Matrioska is the almost pictorial representation of evocative elements of the traditional Russian doll where chocolate is the common thread of the dessert: a 62% chocolate sponge cake, mango confit, 62% chocolate cream, accompanied by a mango sorbet.

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