Food Trip Flashback | Chocolat Deep Dark Chocolate Cakes

2012 to 2014 weren't good years for me as far as blogging is concerned, and checking the archives of this blog, I realized there were food trips dating back to 2011 that I still haven't shared. I know, these food trips were already outdated, but more than "reviewing" the food and the dining experience, these food trips were about memories and history, and despite the time gap, I still would like to document them, so I have something to look back on when I am wrinkly and old.

Once, online friends and I together with my sister met up for a food trip. After eating a very heavy and hearty dinner at Pino Restobar, we still thought it wasn't enough to wrap up the food trip, so after chit-chats, it was decided that we would go for cakes at Chocolat in Sgt. Esguerra.

There were eight of us for this food trip, Andrew didn't order his share of desserts and two of us ordered the same cake, so here are the six cakes we ordered:


Kahlua
Chocolate cake laced with Kahlua liqueur, topped with mini chocolate kisses. My choice of cake, just to add more variety to the cakes for that night. It was moist, not too dense and not too soft, but it was just too sweet for my liking.

Bailey's
Classic chocolate cake soaked in Bailey's liquor, topped with chocolate sprinkles. My sister ordered this one and I liked it better than my cake, because this had more body - both in texture and taste.


Chocolate Caramel
Chocolate Cake with rich caramel swirls. Probably my second favorite cake; I loved the contrast between chocolate and caramel. Sweet, yes, but not too much.

Choco Hazelnut
Classic chocolate cake with hazelnut filling topped with hazelnut chocolate cube. It didn't really taste like Nutella, but it was good.


Death by Tablea
Chocolate cake with bittersweet icing made of native cacao and condensed milk. The best of all the cakes we tried. I guess there's something about the condensed milk and the tablea that added a different dimension to the cake. It was chocolatey and milky, something that reminded you of home and Christmastime.

NY Cheesecake
Melt-in-your-mouth baked cheesecake with graham cracker crust. After trying all the chocolate cakes while slowly consuming my sweet cake, my friend Halie suggested I try her cake, just to wash off the chocolate flavor in my mouth. I am not a fan of cheesecakes and I don't know what makes a good cheesecake, but I appreciated the change of flavor this cake brought.


Chocolate Drink
All of us had a mug of this rich chocolate drink to go with our cakes. Normally, I prefer coffee with my cakes, but it was a pleasure sipping a warm chocolate drink in between bites of chocolate cake.

It was a good way to cap off a wonderful night.

Say "I Love You" with Chocolates

Valentine's Day was last weekend, I know... but there wasn't any rule saying you only need to express your love during Valentine's Day, right? In fact, I think it is sweeter whenever people express their love and appreciation when it's not Valentine's Day.

Some people find it difficult to say the words "I love you" for a number of reasons, but that doesn't mean one cannot express love anymore. There are a number of ways to show and say it, but if chocolate's your way, these three recipes from The Maya Kitchen will surely be of great help.    



Angel Food Cake Tiramisu
{makes 8 servings}

Ingredients:

{for the angel food cake}:
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon MAYA Cake Flour, sifted
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 +1/3 cup egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar

{for the coffee syrup}:
1/2- 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup hot water
2 tablespoons coffee liqueur

{for the cream topping}:
1 bar cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons low-fat milk
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 piece vanilla bean pod
1/2 cup whipping cream

2 tablespoons cocoa powder, for garnish


Directions for baking:

Prepare angel food cake. Preheat oven to 350ᵒF/177ᵒC. Line the bottom of an 8-inch square pan. Set aside. Sift flour, salt and ¼ cup of sugar 4 times. Set aside. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Add vanilla extract and remaining sugar gradually and continue beating until stiff. Fold in flour mixture gently; blend well. Pour into the prepared pan and smoothen the top. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until done. Loosen the sides by using a spatula or dinner knife and invert cake on a wire rack to cool for about an hour.

Prepare coffee syrup. Dissolve coffee powder and sugar in hot water. Add coffee liqueur and stir well.

Prepare cream topping. Beat cream cheese, sugar and confectioners’ sugar until the sugars are dissolved. Beat in milk and yogurt. Split the vanilla bean pod lengthwise and scrape the seeds; beat in the mixture. Set aside. Whip the cream until double in size. Fold whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture. Transfer to a piping bag with a round piping tip.

To assemble. Transfer cake to a plate. Brush with coffee syrup until well-soaked. Pipe cream on top of the cake. Dust with cocoa powder on top.



CHOCOLATE HEART FUDGE BROWNIES
{makes 4 servings (4 x 4” squares)}

Ingredients:
1 pack MAYA Chocolate Fudge Brownie Mix 500g
1/2  cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup chopped cashew nuts
dark chocolate, melted, as needed
chocolate heart cut-outs, as needed
whipped cream (optional)

Directions for Baking:

Preheat oven to 325°F/163°C. Grease and line the bottom of an 8-inch square pan. Set aside.

In a bowl, stir brownie mix, butter, water, eggs and nuts (set some aside for topping) until well blended.

Spread in prepared pan and top with reserved nuts.

Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely before cutting. Drizzle or spread melted chocolate on top of brownies and decorate as desired.


CHOCOLATE MERINGUE KISSES
{makes 15-20 pieces}

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon MAYA Cornstarch
6 tablespoons sugar
2 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
pinch salt
1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
dark chocolate, melted, as needed

Directions for baking:

Preheat oven to 300ᵒF/149ᵒC. Line one cookie sheet with baking paper and set aside. In a bowl, combine cornstarch and sugar. Mix well then set aside.

Using a stand mixer on high speed with whisk attachment, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, salt and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the cornstarch and sugar mixture. Return to high speed and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold in the cocoa powder.

Transfer mixture to a piping bag with a star tip. Pipe meringue kisses on the cookie sheet and bake for 40 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave the tray inside the oven for one hour.

Let the meringue kisses cool at room temperature for at least 10 minutes. Once cooled, dip half in melted chocolate.

Let the chocolate-dipped meringue kisses set on a lined cookie sheet and transfer to an airtight container.

I hope these three chocolate-y recipes come as a great help. The brownies are the easiest to make since the Maya Brownie Mix is available in most groceries and we have used it several times and believe me, it tasted like the brownies we usually buy. I am personally going to try the meringue, I think it is a very good party giveaway and gift to friends...not to mention it has the potential to turn in money (if I did sell them, of course).

*** Jenn ***

Baking My Very First Rocky Road Brownies

Baking is something we truly want to learn and enjoy. My sister and I have been eyeing this oven for so long now, but we still can't decide whether we'll buy it or not, because #1 we don't want to blow up our electric bill and #2 we are not sure if it is something we really want.

We have used quite a number of Maya baking mixes, but whenever we use it, we usually opt to steam the batter and even if it gives us a good way to enjoy good tasting food, we still want to try baking it. Some Maya cake mixes are made for oven toaster, so we wanted to try that route first.


One of the Maya baking mixes we had was the Celebrations by Sharon Fudge Brownie Mix. It was near its expiration date, so sister and I decided to bake it using the oven toaster last weekend.


What was needed to make the basic brownies were - 1 box of Maya Celebrations by Sharon Fudge Brownie Mix, 1 medium egg, 1/4 cup oil (we used corn oil), 1 tablespoon water, and chopped nuts. But then, we still have marshmallows and chocolate chips from previous "Kitchen Lab sessions" so I also added them in the recipe.

Mixing the brownie mix, egg, oil, and water resulted in a very heavy and thick batter and at first my sister was questioning if I read it right that it only needed 1 tablespoon water. Let me tell you that you just have to keep mixing it and soon it will all come together.


To make the brownies, we could use the oven toaster tray, but because we wanted to make Rocky Road Brownies, we used one of our loaf pans. Before popping it in the oven toaster, we wrapped it with aluminum foil first so that the heat from the oven toaster would not shock the surface of the brownies. We baked it for 15 minutes at 5 minute intervals, allowing it to rest for a few minutes before baking it more so that the residual heat would cook the inner part of the brownies. Last one minute of baking I tore off the aluminum foil.


One boo-boo about leaving it open for 1 minute was that the marshmallows got toasted... really toasted. I realized, using itty bitty marshmallows would burn toast very fast. It resulted in a slightly failed Rocky Road Brownies, but not totally wasted because even if the top was okay... burned, the brownies were chewy and very delish!


I didn't put all the batter in the pan, I also tried making some Rocky Road Brownie Cups, and it was much better because I didn't take off the aluminum foil cover, but it still toasted the marshmallows because they were much smaller.

I totally love the Maya Celebrations by Sharon Fudge Brownie Mix! It made baking brownies easier, and both my mom and sister expressed that it tasted the brownies we used to buy at this bakeshop (won't tell what). Now that we knew how it tasted, we will definitely just bake our own brownies.

Lessons to consider - mix the marshmallows and chocolate chips in the batter and just top it with cashews, use unsalted cashews, and don't peel off the aluminum foil covering.

We are now really going to buy that oven soon... but before that, we would attempt to bake Carrot Cupcakes using the oven toaster first.

ABC Wednesdays | Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

After eating dinner, mom went to her room and went back to the dining area offering us a dessert. I guess someone at work gave these to her, but because I was already eating some bite size pieces of papaya, I told her I'd just put it in the fridge.




When she handed me these two mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, I was a little sad because I don't like this that much... but when I remembered that it's Letter R this week at ABC Wednesdays, I took pictures of it first before putting it in the fridge.

Like what I said, I am not into candies, and I never became a fan of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Well, I do eat peanuts, but peanut butter isn't something I crave for - I just put some on my bread if we have it. When I first tasted Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, I found it quite salty, so I didn't eat it again.

For sure my sister will be the one eating this.

Chocolat (Deep Dark Chocolate Cakes) - Sgt. Esguerra

Before finishing up our meal at Pino Resto Bar, we were talking about desserts and decided we eat our desserts elsewhere. I do like to cap off a meal with a dessert, but I am not really much into it, so I couldn't contribute a good place for us to eat (I normally just select a dessert from the menu of the restaurant I was dining at). Talks led to Chocolat... and that's where we headed.

There are different Chocolat branches, but the one we went to was the one closest to Pino Resto Bar - the one along Sgt. Esguerra in Quezon City. There is a big printed menu inside the store, but if you wanna know the available cakes, there is a row of refrigerators containing the cakes and pastry bars for sale.

From the store, there is a door leading to a spa, which made a few of us check it out first. When I got back at our table, they were able to choose cakes already, so I had to make a quick decision. I wasn't able to choose well, because what I chose was also chosen by another companion. Had I known, I would go for a different cake. Haha.


Kahlua.
...and as if luck wasn't on my side, the cake I chose turned out to be very sweet. It was good, the cake was moist, but it was just too sweet.


Bailey's.
I believe my sister chose this one. It was just so good! It wasn't overly sweet, and I was hoping my sister and I could exchange cakes. Obviously, she didn't want to.


Chocolate Caramel.
This, I loved, too. I loved the melody of chocolate and caramel. It also had the right sweetness.


Death by Tablea.
Though not my favorite cake that night, this was unique and worthy of raves. There's something so good about bittersweet chocolates, and not only did I liked the slight bitterness to it, the addition of condensed milk made it real good, too.


Chocolate Hazelnut.
I liked the cake, I liked the frosting. It wasn't exceptionally good for me - but still okay to fix the chocolate cravings.


NY Cheesecake.
The only rose among the thorns. I am not a fan of cheesecake, but I appreciated having a taste of this one because it sort of washed away all the chocolate in my mouth. I loved the creaminess and I loved how smooth it was and how it had more cheese than crust.


Hot Chocolate.
All of us had a cup of hot chocolate to go with our cakes. This tastes heavenly! It had everything I want in a cup of hot chocolate - not too sweet with a hint of bitterness. Most of us had a slice of chocolate cake and drinking hot chocolate seemed to be a little "choco overload," but because it has this bitterness, it sort of complemented the cakes.

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Chocolat Deep Dark Chocolate Cakes
26 Sgt. Esguerra St., Courtyard Bldg. 
South Triangle, Quezon City
+63 (02)923-7584