If you saw our blog yesterday then you may have noticed an AMAZING looking chocolate cake that we made for our Brew on the Roof Tasting Party. Since we are celebrating cooking together, we wanted to share the recipe for you all to try too! We’ve even included a downloadable recipe card to add to your recipe collection!
Also, don’t forget to enter our giveaway here for your chance to win a $25 Williams-Sonoma Gift Card.
For Cake:
4 ounces unsweetened Ghirardelli chocolate, chopped
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
14 tbs (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups plus 3 tbsp sugar
3 large eggs, separated into whites and yolks
3/4 cup chocolate stout beer
2/3 cup freshly brewed strong coffee
For Frosting:
1 pound Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS:
To make cake:
Step 1: Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two 9-inch diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch high sides. Line bottom of each cake pan with parchment paper round; butter and flour parchment. Step 2: Place chopped chocolate in medium metal bowl. Set bowl over saucepan of barely simmering water and stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove bowl from over water and set aside. Step 3: Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Step 4: Using electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar in a large bowl until fluffy and pale yellow, about 2 minutes. Add egg yolks 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Beat in lukewarm melted chocolate, then stout and coffee. Step 5: Beat flour mixture into chocolate mixture in 2 additions, just until incorporated. Step 6: Using clean, dry beaters, beat egg whites and remaining 3 tablespoons sugar in another medium bowl until stiff but not dry. We found that using an electric hand mixer was easier than using a stand mixer for this step. Step 7: Fold 1/3 of egg whites into cake batter to lighten, then fold in remaining egg whites in 2 additions. Divide batter between prepared cake pans (about 3 cups for each), and smooth the tops. Step 8: Bake cakes until tester inserted into centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer cakes to racks and cool in pans 20 minutes. Invert cakes onto racks; remove parchment paper and cool completely.
To make frosting:
Step 1: Place chopped chocolate in medium heatproof bowl. Step 2: Combine whipping cream and espresso powder in medium saucepan. Bring cream mixture to simmer over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally. Step 3: Pour cream mixture over chopped chocolate. Let stand 1 minute, then whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Chill chocolate frosting until slightly thickened and spreadable, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours. Step 4:Using serrated knife, trim rounded tops from both cake layers so that tops are flat. Step 5: Drop 1 1/4 cups frosting by large spoonfuls over top of cake layer; spread frosting evenly to edges with offset spatula or butter knife. Step 6: Top with second cake layer, trimmed side down. Spread remaining frosting evenly over top and sides of cake.
This entire recipe is available for download as a 4×6 inch pdf. Click here to download and add this recipe to your collection. Or pin the photo below!
Happy Sunday! We are so super excited to share this extra special weekend blog post with you all! We absolutely LOVE entertaining and planning fun little parties for our friends. Being able to give our friends and amazing couples a fun date night away from the everyday stresses of life makes our hearts smile.
We are honored and over the moon excited to share that one of our recent parties is featured on Style Me Pretty at Home today! Be sure to jump on over to Style Me Pretty to see the full feature!!! In fact we are so excited we have decided to give away a $25 gift card to Williams-Sonoma to one lucky blog commenter. More details are at the bottom of this post!
One of Ryan’s favorite things about the fall is the amazing assortment of fall beers especially pumpkin flavored beers. This got us thinking about how we could share his love of beer with some of our closets friends. What we came up with was “Brew on the Roof” an evening of beer tasting with friends. We decided to skip the boring old email invitations and created a super fun invite created out of a Williams-Sonoma bottle opener and shredded beer cartons. We even created our own DIY tasting boards out of old barn wood and cooked up some super tasting treats featuring a Ghirardelli Chocolate Stout Cake.
Below are some of our favorite photos from the party. Be sure to check back throughout the week as we will be featuring some super fun DIY Projects and Recipes to help you host your very own couples beer tasting date night!
Be sure to bookmark our blog to learn how to make these “Brew for Two Sampler Packs” for your very own tasting party. We will be featuring step by step instructions later this week.
This chocolate stout cake was heavenly!!! Did we mention the icing was created from Ghirardelli Chocolate and that we would be sharing the recipe on our blog later this week! Plus we will also be including step by step instructions on how to create your very own DIY cake flag banners!
A beer tasting party wouldn’t be complete without mini tasting glasses and DIY tasting boards.
Ok, we might be crazy, but we even created our very own Couple’s Tasting Sheets to match the theme of our party. You can download the tasting sheets here.
Now for the super fun giveaway. One of our favorite stores to get ideas for fun couples date nights is Williams-Sonoma. As we mentioned above, our invitations featured bottle openers from Williams-Sonoma. These were the inspiration for the rest of our tasting party!
Now is your chance to win a $25 gift card to Williams-Sonoma to help inspire your next party. Just leave us a comment below to enter. Double your chances to win by also liking our Facebook page here. The winner will be randomly selected and posted on our Facebook page this Friday!
If you read our recent Friday Favorites post, then you already know my love of soft shell crabs. Recently, while at our local farmers market, we saw a stand for soft-shell crabs. Although we didn’t purchase the crabs for this post at the market, it did inspire me to try my hand at cooking my very own soft shell crab sandwiches. Check out the recipe below to learn how to make your very own! Enjoy!
RECIPE: Soft Shell Crabs with Pancetta Sandwiches
SERVES: 2
INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon minced red onion
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 slices of pancetta (or bacon if pancetta is not available)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 jumbo soft-shell crabs
Approximately 2 cups of all-purpose flour, for dusting
2 buns, preferably brioche, but any sandwich bun will do
One small bunch of arugula, washed
1 large tomato, thinly sliced
PREPARATION:
Step 1: In a small bowl, combine red onion, tarragon, and mustard. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside for later.
Step 2: Arrange pancetta slices in a single layer in a large pan. Place a smaller pan on top of the pancetta to weight it down to prevent the pancetta from curling. Cook pancetta over medium-high heat until crisp and browned, turning once, approximately 3 minutes per side. Remove pancetta and dry on paper towels.
Step 3: Wipe out any leftover juices from the pan. Over high heat, melt butter with the olive oil in the pan. While the butter and olive oil heat, season the soft shell crabs with salt and pepper than cover both sides generously with flour. Place the crabs in the pan and cook on high heat. Turn once after 3-4 minutes and continue to cook until crisp and brown, an additional 3-4 minutes.
Step 4: While the crabs are frying, prepare your buns by adding argulua, tomato, and 2 slices of pancetta to the bottom half of each bun. Spread the mustard on the top half of the bun.
Step 5: Once crabs are done cooking, gently place one on top of pancetta. Add the top half of the bun and enjoy!
Prepare the mustard.
Thinly slice the tomato and set aside.
Cook pancetta over medium high heat for 3 minutes per side until crisp.
Season crabs with salt and pepper and coat generously with flour.
Once butter and olive oil have heated over high heat, add the crabs.
Cook each crab 3-4 minutes per side until crisp and brown.
While crabs are frying, prepare your buns with arugula, tomato, and pancetta.
This past weekend we spent all day on Sunday making pasta. You can read more and find the recipe for some super amazing ravioli here. After we were done making ravioli, we still had some extra dough so we decided to use it to create a dessert ravioli. What we came up with was a FANTASTIC Nutella Churro Dessert Ravioli. Also, we are making these ravioli by hand so if you do not have the Kitchen Aid Mixer Ravioli attachment we used in the last post we will show you how to make ravioli the old fashioned way.
Step 1:Take a sheet of pasta dough and spoon on two scoops of Nutella, approximately 1/2 tbsp each, 1 inch from the edge of the pasta sheet.
Step 2:Fold over the pasta dough until the Nutella is enclosed entirely in a little ravioli pouch. Optionally, to provide a better seal, prior to folding over the pasta sheet you may rub an egg white along the edges of the sheet. Once you have folded over your ravioli, use a knife to cut the ravioli away from the rest of the dough and to separate the two individual raviolis.
Step 3: Using a fork, press down firmly along the outside edges to seal the Nutella inside the ravioli.
Once all the ravioli are sealed, place them in the freezer overnight or for at least 2 hours.
Step 4:While the ravioli are in the freezer, prepare the churro coating. Combine the sugars and cinnamon in a bowl.
Step 5:Bring a pot of water to a rapid boil and add ravioli. While the ravioli cook, melt 2 tbsp of butter in a small pan over medium high heat. Once the ravioli begin to float remove from the water and place in the pan to fry.
When frying anything, be careful as the hot butter may splatter. Allow the ravioli to cook for approximately 2 minutes per side or just until they start to turn crispy and begin to brown.
Step 6:Remove the ravioli from the frying pan and place in a small dish. Thoroughly coat each side with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.
Step 7:Place the Nutella Churro Dessert Ravioli on a plate and drizzle with chocolate syrup.
Time to enjoy an amazingly delicious Nutella Churro Dessert Ravioli!
We love cooking, and the only thing better is getting to cook with friends! Homemade pasta making is definitely much easier and more fun when you can get a group of friends together and cook all day long. Although super simple, making fresh pasta is time consuming (and messy!), so if you are going to go through the effort, you might as well make an entire day of it and make enough to share with friends. Plus, if you plan appropriately, pasta making with friends can be a great way to play matchmaker (just ask our friends Brendon and Karen ;) ) There is just something about a bag full of flour that requires it to be used as a flirtation device… but we will leave those stories for later!
This past weekend we got some of our friends together to watch football and make pasta. By the end of the day we had a freezer full of all sorts of different types of pasta. Since we enjoy pasta making so much and we love being able to inspire others to do fun new things, we decided to document the day. In addition to pasta, we also made homemade sauce, all of which you can learn how to make in the recipes below!
If you didn’t already know, I am a big fan of gadgets. So making pasta is a perfect excuse to get out all of our fun Kitchen Aid Mixer attachments. Although not necessary to make pasta, the Kitchen Aid Mixer with ravioli and pasta attachments definitely make things much quicker. For now we still use a hand cranked pasta roller but the pasta roller attachment would definitely be a great Christmas gift! ;) Or, if anyone from Kitchen Aid happens to stumble across our blog, we would love to test it out and feature the results on our blog! ;)
RECIPE: Homemade Pasta Dough
First up is our recipe for fresh pasta dough. Once made, the dough can be used to make a variety of different types of pasta (from ravioli to lasagna to macaroni). Special thanks to our good friend Brendon for sharing his pasta recipe with us!
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 Bag of unbleached white flour
1 full bag of semolina flour
2 eggs
2 – 4 cups of water
1 tbsp of salt (not pictured)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Step 1:Pour the semolina flour and white flour into a mixing bowl and combine using the hook attachment for your KitchenAid Mixer (or by hand with a whisk).
Step 2: Add eggs and salt and mix on low speed or combine by hand. (Be sure to start the mixer on low or flour will be all over your kitchen!… yes, I am speaking from experience!)
Step 3: Slowly add water 1 cup at a time. Pause in between cups to allow the water to soak in and determine how much more you need to add.
This is where things can get a little messy! :) As your dough begins to form you may need to separate it into two bowls and prepare each half separately.
Continue to mix and add small amounts of water until a single ball of dough forms around the mixing hook. The dough should be soft and squishy but not sticky. If your dough seems wet or sticks to your fingers add more flour and continue mixing.
That’s it! Your dough is ready! If you are making ravioli, place it aside and cover with a damp cloth until you are ready to use it. However, don’t let it sit out for more than a few hours as it will begin to dry up.
Onto Part 2 of Pasta Making Magicalness!
RECIPE: Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Pasta Sauce
Next up is the sauce. You can’t have homemade pasta without homemade sauce! So, we decided to head to the farmers market earlier that day to pick up fresh tomatoes for a homemade sauce. Details are below! :)
INGREDIENTS:
8 to 10 large fresh tomatoes
2 red bell peppers
2 yellow onions
6 – 8 cloves of garlic
1 8oz can of tomato paste
1 tbsp rosemary
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt (not pictured)
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (not pictured)
2 tbsp olive oil (not pictured)
INSTRUCTIONS:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Step 2: Core and slice the tomatoes. Place them in a glass baking dish in a single layer. Our baking dishes wouldn’t hold all of the tomatoes, so we used multiple. It is important to keep a single layer in order for the tomatoes to roast evenly in the oven.
Step 3: Remove the stem and seeds from the red peppers and slice into 1/2 inch strips. Place in baking dish with the tomatoes.
Step 4: Chop the garlic and onions and add to the baking dish.
Step 5: In a small dish, combine the tomato paste, olive oil, rosemary, salt, crushed red pepper flakes, and pepper.
Once combined together, add the mixture to the baking dish.
Step 6: Place your baking dishes in the oven and bake for 2 hours.
Step 7: With a hot pad, remove the roasted tomatoes from the oven. Using a food processor, blend the mixture to the desired consistency. Be sure to pour in all the juice left over at the bottom of the glass baking dish too!
That’s it! Pour the sauce into a container to use later! Your sauce will last for about a week in the refrigerator or 2-3 months in the freezer.
While our sauce was baking in the oven, we used that time to start making our ravioli!
RECIPE: 4 Cheese and Bacon Ravioli
Ravioli are one of the most versatile pasta dishes. You can fill them with pretty much anything from cheese, to meat, to Nutella (more on that later, I promise!). This time we decide to make a four cheese bacon filling. Thanks Krista for the recipe and helping prepare the mixture!
INGREDIENTS:
4 slices of bacon at room temperature
1 15 oz container of Ricotta Cheese
2 Cups of fresh mozzarella
1 container of fresh gorgonzola (about 1 cup)
1 container of fresh parmigiano reggiano (about 1 cup)
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp black pepper
Fresh pasta dough
INSTRUCTIONS:
Step 1: Combine the four cheeses, oregano, and pepper in a large bowl.
Step 2: Place bacon in a pan that is at room temperature. Turn on the heat to medium high and cook for approximately 3-4 minutes per side. Allowing the bacon to heat up at the same time the pan will result in more evenly cooked bacon. Also, by allowing the bacon to warm up to room temperature first, instead of just putting it in the pan from the refrigerator, will prevent it from curling. We want the bacon to remain flat and crispy for easy chopping.
Step 3: Once the bacon has cooked, remove from a pan, pat dry with a paper towel to remove the excess fat, chop into small pieces and add to the cheese mixture.
Step 4: Using a small baseball sized ball of pasta dough, flatten in long strips using a pasta roller. Our roller is a hand crank roller, or more appropriate, hands roller. Having extra hands to help at this point is key.
Start by using the widest setting on your roller and crank the past through once.
The first time through may cause the dough to tare or crack. To fix this, simply fold the sheet in half and run it back through the roller again.
Continue to run the pasta through the roller 2-3 more times, reducing the thickness adjustment on your roller each time. Krista cranked the roller while Karen caught the pasta. Your sheet is ready when it is about 1/8 of an inch thick or a little bit thicker than the thickness of a quarter.
Step 5: Time for our Kitchen Aid Ravioli Attachment! Prior to starting, we found that it would help to lightly flour the rollers of the ravioli attachment. Fold your pasta sheet in half and slowly crank the folded edge just into the rollers of the ravioli maker.
Step 6: Add the “hopper” and fill with the four cheese and bacon mixture.
Step 7: Slowly crank the pasta through the ravioli attachment. When the ravioli start to exit the other side grab the pasta to help guide it out. If you go too fast, the ravioli can stick to the rollers and cause a big mess so go slow here.
Continue to add cheese filling and turn the crank slowly on the ravioli attachment until the entire sheet of pasta is used. As you get close to the end of the sheet, remove the extra filling from the hopper that hasn’t been used yet and save for the next sheet.
Step 8:Gently pull apart the ravioli and place on parchment paper. If you are making multiple types of ravioli, be sure to write on the paper so you know which kind is which.
Step 9: Place in the freezer overnight or for at least 2-3 hours.
Step 10:Once the ravioli are frozen, they are ready to cook. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the ravioli and cook for 3-4 minutes. Since these are fresh dough ravioli, they will cook super quickly.
Once all the ravioli float to the top, they are done.
Step 11: While your ravioli are cooking, heat up your homemade pasta sauce in a small sauce pan.
Step 12: Once the ravioli are cooked and your sauce is hot, it’s time to plate and enjoy!
Thanks to Brendon, Karen, Krista, and Liz for helping with Ryan Cooks: Pasta Making Magicalness!
We did have some extra pasta dough leftover and decided to get a little crazy. We made an amazing Nutella Churro Dessert Ravioli. Be sure to check back later this week for the recipe! You won’t want to miss it!
