Posts Tagged ‘Dark Chocolate’

Delicious Dark Chocolate Cake

Friday, February 26th, 2010

This is the perfect dark chocolate cake to bake for a chocolate lover’s special day. It’s also delicious as a special holiday dessert or a sweet Valentine’s Day treat.

Ingredients

1/2 C  butter or margarine, softened

1/2 C  sugar

3/4 C  unsweetened baking cocoa

2 C  flour

pinch of salt

2 tsp  baking soda

1 tsp  baking powder

1 C milk

1 C strong coffee, cooled

1 tsp vanilla

Mixing and Baking Instructions

Sift dry ingredients together; set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until it gets fluffy.

Add sifted dry ingredients alternative with milk, beating gently until combined.

Add coffee and vanilla, stir it until well blended.

Bake in 2 greased and floured 9-inch cake pans at 350 degrees F, or awaiting cake tests done. Begin testing layers after around 20 minutes baking time.

Cool cake layers for 20 minutes or until pans are easy to handle. Remove cake layers carefully from pans. Complete cooling on cake racks.

Assemble and frost the cooled cake layers with Chocolate Icing or your favorite butter cream icing or whipped cream.

Chocolate Icing

1/2 C. butter or margarine (1 stick), melted

1 box (2 C.) confectioners sugar/powdered sugar

2 tsp. unsweetened baking cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. milk

Melt butter in pan, remove from heat and stir in sugar and cocoa, then add vanilla and milk.

Stir icing until glossy and thick. Cool slightly and spread on cake with spatula.

Dark Chocolate – A Healthy Treat

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Through recent research it has been proved that dark chocolate has many health benefits. Dark chocolate is full of antioxidants that help combat free radicals in the body. Free radicals have been linked to the development of diseases like arthritis, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease.

Research has also shown that these antioxidants, much like the ones found in cranberries, wine, and tea, can lower both blood pressure and cholesterol. Dark chocolate even stimulates endorphin release, which has a positive effect on your mood.

Many people laugh at the possibility that chocolate could be healthy. That’s because most of the chocolate we eat is mixed in with lots of sugar, caramel, and other flavors that dilute its healthiness like candy bars.

But chocolate itself is a very good thing. Specifically, we are talking about dark chocolate. Very dark. Dark chocolate is rated by its cocoa content.

Many of the chocolate candy have just a little cocoa and a ton of sugar. Dark chocolate has a lot of cocoa and a little sugar. Naturally, the higher that number, the more cocoa, and that mean more antioxidants. However, cocoa is also bitter, which is why they need to add at least some sugar.

Milk Chocolates are all Time Favorite!

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Milk chocolate has a smaller portion of cocoa bean that has been mixed with sugar, and cacao butter, and then mixed with condensed milk or milk powder. There are other additives that a producer may add to give it their taste, but that is the basics of it.

Everyone in the world has been affected by milk chocolate in one way or another since its invention centuries ago. Chocolates are used for everything such as Cookies, cakes, cereals, beverages, toppings, flavorings, decorations, etc. chocolates has its place in history for good.

In recent study, it is said that the average American eats 10-12 pounds of chocolate every single year. It is also known that eating chocolate is rich in Phenols (antioxidants) which is good for the heart. Millions of pounds of milk are used every year in the production of milk chocolate.

The health benefits of milk chocolate are not as many as dark chocolates, however, there still some to be considered. It is a stimulator, to the brain, to the emotions, thus, increasing your stamina. Of course, moderation, because it is high in fat content and sugar. Point to be taken here is we need fat in our diet, seriously, and milk chocolate can be a great source for that fat percentage, just not all of it should come from eating milk chocolate. Be sure to read the nutritional section of each chocolate substance you obtain so you know what you have to eat or bake with – very essential.

There are milk chocolate bars, milk chocolate fondue mixes and hardware, chocolate drinks, like hot chocolate and etc. There are many great recipe books that can teach you what to do with milk chocolate if you are fresh out of ideas and feel a bit overwhelmed.