The Good Plate

Posts Tagged ‘Chocolate’

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Jolly Roger of Rack Rachham

• Jolly Roger Cake of the Pirate Rack Rachham
• Cannon Rum Balls

I just love marzipan. It is so forgiving, easy to work with, and delicious. As a child living in Germany, I remember every year at Christmas time, the bakeries would put out a nativity scene made from marzipan, with the structures made from gingerbread. These were true artisans. So, when I decided to make a Jolly Roger cake, I wanted to do something in that tradition.

Originally, I was going to make large cannon (rum) balls for Spane’s pirate themed party, but I soon realized that I could not put a candle on them the same way I could a cake. I still made the rum balls, and they turned out wonderful as well.

Making the cake was easy. I used my standard chocolate cake recipe, using Hershey’s Dark Cocoa, with the addition of a little Chipotle powder and Saigon cinnamon. Black food coloring made for an intensely dark chocolate.

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Completed Cake

In The News

• Noelle’s Cake
• Guest Chef Joins Us
• Back to School
• Pictures from the Party

Noelle’s Birthday Party

Noelle’s birthday party was wonderful. She had good games, and brought out the completed cake.

Amber made a total of five cake layers, the largest was chocolate, and the others were strawberry and vanilla. The filling was a butter cream mixed with orange marmalade. Amber made her own fondant, and hopefully, she will share the recipe with us soon. The cake was a Topsy Turvy Cake, that was covered in green fondant, then green fondant leaves were cut to go around the layers. Then Amber put on the waterfall, and covered that with blue fondant. The marzipan pixies were attached and butterflies were stuck in the cake.

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Recipes in this Post

White Chocolate Rum Raisin Cookies, I ate the broken one!

• White Chocolate Rum Raisin Cookies

Spane and his class are going on a field trip, and I volunteered to be one of the helping parents. We have to bring a bag lunch, and I decided to bring cookies for the kids.

I really like this recipe because it is so versatile, you can change the add-ins and have a completely different cookie every time. The add-ins for these White Chocolate Rum Raisin Cookies are the rum, raisins, white chocolate and walnuts.

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Spane standing near the Baptismal fountain waiting in the Sanctuary

Recipes in this post

• Star Party Sandwiches
• See Food and Bows
• Helen’s Perfect Salad
• Guacamole
• Salsa Fresca
• French Onion Dip
• Virgin Mojitas
• Special Punch
• Rosary Cake

Spane’s First Communion was on Sunday, May 15, 2011 at the 9:30am Mass at Holy Family Catholic Community Church in Glendale, California.

When I had Spane on November 21, 2003, I started thinking about what his First Holy Communion was going to be like. When he was Baptized at Holy Family Catholic Community Church on May 17, 2007, I started counting down the days. There were 1460 days, or 3 years, 11 months, 29 days until his First Holy Communion. In case you wondered, yes, I am counting down the days until his Confirmation, which should be about 2192 days, about 6 years from now.

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Fried Wontons with Ketchup and Asian Dipping Sauce

Recipes in this Post

• Pope’s Hats
• Broccoli Soup
• Chocolate Chunk Cookies

It was cold in Glendale, and Accuweather said that it might even snow on Saturday, so I thought it would be a good idea to have soup for dinner on a cold rainy night. It was Friday, so that also meant no meat. I also wanted something fun to eat with the soup, and wontons sounded like a plan.
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Recipes in this Post

• Chocolate Cake
• Mocha Frosting
• Bill Cosby’s Classic video
• Full Transcript

One of the funniest bits of all time is the story of Bill Cosby’s wife finding out that Bill had given the kids chocolate cake for breakfast. Well, if Bill’s wife had tasted the chocolate cake I made yesterday, maybe she would not have had a conniption. If you have never seen or heard that bit, read the transcript of Bill Cosby Gives the Children Chocolate Cake for Breakfast or see the video below. I promise, you will laugh until your sides hurt.

The classic comedy routine is the inspiration for this cake. This is one of the moistest cakes you will ever have, and it stays moist, even for a few days.

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