Chocolate Trifle

Feb 13, 2016 | Desserts

ChocoTrifleA long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (sorry that intro never gets old to me!), my wife introduced me to trifle. As a young warthog (ok, they’re both Disney properties!), I had never experienced trifle. I was not a huge fan of pudding mind you. On the other hand, chocolate cake was right up my alley!

Alas, a few years ago, CD hit me like a ton of flour and dreams of cakes went out the window. That is until I figured out there were GF cake mixes to be bought or GF flour to be purchased to make homemade cakes! And it was good.

This recipe is relatively simple and doesn’t take a whole lot of time depending on how store bought you go. Remember – chocolate cake, pudding – who said GF was TasteFree?!

Chocolate Trifle

1 recipe GF chocolate cake (something like this would work)Puddin
2 small (400 g) boxes chocolate pudding
1 tub (1 L) whipped cream
6 Skor bars
1/4 cup (30 ml) Kahlua

  1. Bake your cake and let it cool completely. This can be done obviously like the night before or a few hours before you want to actually put the trifle together.
  2. While it cools, make both packets of the pudding, ensuring it is set.
  3. Crush your Skor bars so that they are smaller bite size chunks.
  4. Cut your cake into small bite size pieces.
  5. Put half of the cake on the bottom of a deep bowl. Drizzle about half of the Kahlua on top of that.
  6. Add half of the pudding and then half of the whipped cream.
  7. Sprinkle half of the Skor bar over the top.
  8. Repeat steps 5-7, chill and serve!

Zucchini Cake

Feb 7, 2016 | Allergen Alert, Desserts, Nut Free

ChocoZucchini Cake

This was a double recipe made for my son’s Beaver camp. Everyone loved their veggies that night!

This simple GF zucchini cake recipe is a number of years in the making (or at least putting it online is). Back when I was an editor for a small, rural weekly newspaper in North Dakota, I got zucchini’d! I had never had that experience as a city boy before. So I made veggie burritos and had heard about zucchini cake some time later.

Then I tried it once and knew what I would always do with my zucchinis since I am not a fan normally. I’m one of those guys that looks at zucchini cakes as a good way to get my veggies. But in this case, my veggies are rich, moist and covered in chocolate!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

1/2 cup (125 g) butter
1/4 cup (60 ml) canola oil
1 3/4 cup (420 g) sugar
3 large eggs
1 tbsp (30 ml) vanilla
2 1/4 cups (530 g) GF flour
3/4 cup (180 g) cocoa
1 tsp (15 g) baking powder
1 tsp (15 g) baking soda
1/2 tsp (7 g) salt
1 cup (250 ml) sour cream
2 cups (475 g) zucchini – grated with skin
3/4 cup (180 g) chocolate chips

Directions

  1. While your over preheats to 325 degrees, beat the your room temp butter, oil and sugar on high with mixer for 3 minutes, then add the eggs and vanilla.
  2. Add the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix well. Add in the sour cream until it’s all combined. Then mix in the zucchini and chocolate chips. Watch out, this batter will be thick, so go easy on the mixer until it’s combined.
  3. Spray the bottom of your cake pan with cooking spray, not the sides. If you spray the sides, it will stick to the sides and give you unevenly cooked, charred sides.
  4. Bake for about 45 minutes on convection (an hour otherwise) and let cool completely until you are ready to cover with delicious frosting. Something like this Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting would work.

Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting

Feb 7, 2016 | Allergen Alert, Egg Free, Nut Free, Sauces & Seasonings

Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting

1 1/4 cups (280 g) semisweet chocolate chips
5 tbsp (75 g) butter
1/2 cup (125 ml) sour cream
1 tbsp (15 ml) vanilla extract
1/4 tsp (4 g) salt
2 3/4 cups (620 g) powdered sugar

  1. Melt the chocolate and butter together.
  2. Let it cool and blend in the sour cream, vanilla and salt.
  3. Gradually add the sugar beating well until it thickens enough to spread.