Tag: Chocolate

Peanut Butter Skillet S’more

Posted December 16, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 1 Comment

Time for the ultimate camping recipe: a s’more! Of course, not just any s’more. This bad boy has peanut butter mixed into the graham cracker crust, a layer of intense dark chocolate, and a crown of toasted marshmallows scattered with peanuts, Reese’s Pieces, and mini marshmallows. Do I have your attention? 😉

Technically, there are no s’mores in HATCHET, but the main character often fantasizes about chocolate during his hungry times out in the wilderness. And nothing says “wilderness treat” like a s’more! Of course, plain s’mores would be too easy, so I decided to make a skillet s’more to amp up the specialness without losing the outdoorsy feel. My biggest fear was that it would be too sweet to actually enjoy, so I decided to make it a peanut butter s’more in order to add as many savory/salty elements as possible to create balance.

In my ideal world, this would be a campfire recipe just like my last post, Fire Roasted Foolbird. However, the weather hasn’t cooperated with open fire cooking the last couple weeks. If I get a chance, I’ll revisit this recipe in the summer and post open fire cooking instructions. Roasting the “foolbirds” has me eager to try all kinds of campfire recipes! 😀

P.S. Due to traveling for Christmas, I most likely won’t post a recipe on Dec. 29th. I will if I happen to have a lot of free time to work on it, but my official plan is for my next post to be for a new menu on January 6th.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake

Posted August 12, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Behold, the easiest fancy cake you’ll ever make!

There’s a reason you don’t see many cakes on this blog. Cupcakes, yes. I love decorating cupcakes, but full-size cakes are so. much. WORK. Spare me the crumb coats, hours in the fridge, tedious smoothing of topcoats, meticulous piping, and strategic sprinkle placement. I admire anybody who can decorate a fancy cake, but it’s just not for me.

However, I knew the day was fast approaching when I could avoid it no longer. This whole Very Hungry Caterpillar menu has a birthday party theme, and my last two blog desserts were cupcakes. I knew it was time for a full-size cake. My bone-deep hatred of cake decorating inspired me to get creative, and I gotta say this cake turned out GORGEOUS. Plus, it was genuinely easy.

I just made 3 layers of the go-to chocolate cake recipe from my cookbook, a triple batch of my favorite vanilla buttercream (also from my cookbook), and Life, Love and Sugar’s recipe for chocolate drip ganache. If you’ve never done a drip top, don’t worry. This was my first time too, and it was really easy and forgiving.

Here are a few tools that I found super helpful (though they’re not required):

Turntable. This makes it a lot easier to get a smooth finish on the sides, and it allows you to focus on the timing of your ganache drips instead of trying to turn a heavy plate smoothly at the same time. I took a detachable one from underneath a rotating serving plate my grandma gave me, and it worked great!
Large frosting knife. If you have a bench scraper, use that to get a smooth finish on your frosting, but if not a big frosting knife will do. It also helps smooth the ganache.
Tall enough fridge space for a 3-tier cake. I’m lucky enough to have a basement fridge with one shelf removed. If you’ll be storing this in your main fridge, plan accordingly.
Squeeze bottle. You can add your drip top with a spoon, but if you’re new to the method (like me) a squeeze bottle gives you lots more control.

I shared the finished cake with my nieces and nephew, who came after I took pictures. It was EXTREMELY well received (this is a big deal, since my 8-year-old niece has an even more discerning dessert palate than Paul Hollywood). Enjoy!

Scooby Doo Tie-Dye Spook Cupcakes

Posted October 25, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes, Holidays / 0 Comments

Ghosts are an essential part of the Scooby-Doo cartoon (even if they do usually turn out to be just some guy in a mask 😉), so I thought it would be fun to make a ghost-themed dessert for this month’s menu. I loved the idea of making spook cupcakes, and I decided to tie-dye the frosting for some psychedelic 60’s flair, perfect for Scooby-Doo! I started with my go-to chocolate cupcake and vanilla frosting recipe from my cookbook and gave the frosting an orange, lime green, hot pink, and light blue swirl. Then I used this recipe to make my own homemade marshmallow ghosts (but you can totally go with store bought ghost Peeps, if you want). These sweet little specters are a perfect addition to any Halloween menu or Scooby-Doo birthday party!

Note: The marshmallow mixture for the ghosts needs to set overnight.

Jiballian Fudge Galaxy Cake Pops

Posted June 28, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Are you all ready for dessert? Because I DEFINITELY am! Jiballian fudge cake is an iconic Star Trek Voyager dessert, and I knew I wanted its blue icing and rich chocolatey-ness to have the place on honor in my Voyager menu. I’ve made many chocolate cakes here on the blog, so I wanted to do something a little different. Then I thought: cake pops! I’ve never done them before, and the concept of a Star Trek-inspired pop intrigued me.

The cake in the TV show has blue icing with a few other colors swirled through (looks like purple and silver/white). I thought it would be fun to make galaxy pops reflecting this color scheme, and away we went! I had to try a few different decorating techniques before I found one I liked, but in the end I think these cake pops turned out super cute. What a fun way to end a Star Trek menu!

Stranger Things Chocolate Blackberry Upside Down Milkshake

Posted November 30, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 5 Comments

Stranger Things bonus recipe time! I always love when months have a 5th Thursday, because it means I get to make a bonus recipe. I really enjoy the freedom I have with these since, unlike my standard recipes, they don’t have to fit a particular course of the meal (for example, my first recipe of the month is always an appetizer, so I have to make sure whatever I make could feasibly be used that way). But bonus recipes can be anything—a cocktail, snack, extra dessert, etc. Anything goes!

Strangely enough, I’m not sure what inspired me to make an upside down milkshake. I’ve made a lot of cocktails for bonus recipes, so maybe I was trying to avoid more of the same. Or maybe I wanted something kid friendly since the main characters in Stranger Things are kids. Either way, as soon as I realized I got to make an extra recipe, the words “upside down milkshake” sprang right into my head.

Of course, since it’s a tribute to the Upside Down, it’s literally turned on it’s head—with the cherries and whipped cream at the bottom with the shake poured over the top. But what flavor to make? I wanted something dark and rich, and I love the way chocolate and blackberries go together. A cool unexpected side effect was the fun way the berries made clusters of dark circles on the side of the glass. It reminded me of the giant spores that float in the air of the Upside Down.

Drink up…before the Shadow Monster gets to it! 😉

The Phantom’s Opera Cake: A Tricky Recipe Made Easy

Posted October 26, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

I first heard of opera cake almost a year ago, and I’ll never forget how floored I was by the elegant appearance. It’s traditionally a thinly layered torte composed of joconde sponge cake, coffee syrup, coffee buttercream, and chocolate ganache. The delicate, refined style and the rumor that it was created in honor of the Paris Opera House had me transfixed. I knew when I got around to making a Phantom of the Opera menu, this HAD TO BE my dessert.

But truth be told, I was thoroughly daunted by the time and energy required to make such a cake (we’re talking joconde, flavored syrup, buttercream, and two thicknesses of ganache!). I had no idea how I’d manage it will a little baby on the verge of crawling, and I had a feeling a lot of my readers would consider it too much work as well.

I searched online for an easy version and couldn’t find one, so I decided to create my own! I went with a chocolate strawberry theme, in honor of the red, black, and white motif so closely associated with Phantom of the Opera. This recipe uses frozen pound cake from the grocery store, strawberry jam, vanilla buttercream, and chocolate ganache. I made my own buttercream, but you can even use the stuff in the can to save time. So in the end, the only thing you HAVE to make from scratch is the ganache! The final flavors are a delicious combo of sweet buttercream, rich pound cake, sweet-tart jam, and bitter-sweet chocolate. Sooo delicious!

Music of the Night: A Phantom of the Opera Tea

Posted October 10, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 2 Comments

I’ve had this tea blend waiting in the wings for almost a year now. I’ve known for AGES that I wanted to do a Phantom menu, but it took me quite a while to figure out exactly what I wanted to make for it. In the mean time, I designed this tea through Adagio Teas and saved it until I was able to make a Phantom menu. And now that time is here, so we can finally enjoy some Music of the Night tea!

I wanted something rich, indulgent, and romantic, so I went with a blend of chocolate and strawberry tea. For a little extra flair, I accented it with strawberry pieces, cocoa nibs, and rose petals. Brew yourself a cup and lose yourself to the Music of the Night!

Amelia’s Astronaut Pudding with Freeze-Dried Fruit

Posted September 7, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments

Our new Book of the Month is here, and it’s the Amelia’s Notebook series by Marissa Moss!

When I was a kid, Amelia’s Notebook was my JAM. After reading the books, I insisted on buying wild colored composition notebooks for school. I dressed as her for Halloween. I even had My Notebook (with Help from Amelia) and brought it to school with me. She was seriously my hero. So how could I NOT make a menu of all the awesome foods from the series?

In Amelia Takes Command, she gets to go to Space Camp. She spends the night before daydreaming about what it will be like, and one of the things she hopes for is the chance to eat astronaut food. Although she has a great time at camp, she’s disappointed that they had to eat “gross cafeteria food three times a day.” So I decided to restore Amelia’s dashed hopes by making astronaut pudding for our appetizer!

The recipe I use here is a slight variation on one from Feels Like Home. You’d think astronaut pudding would be super complicated or require special tools, but it’s actually really easy (and all you need is a ziplock bag!). It’s a great dish to make with kids and tastes great alongside freeze-dried fruit. So let’s get cooking! 🙂

Salted Dark Chocolate Almond Toffee

Posted May 25, 2017 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

I loooove toffee. Sweet, nutty, and satisfyingly crunchy—it’s all I’ve ever wanted in a dessert. So when I saw that the main character in the book Sabriel eats some homemade toffee while traveling through the Old Kingdom, I decided this was going to be my dessert recipe no matter what.

I adapted this English toffee recipe by Ghirardelli to get my recipe, which I completely scarfed down over the span of a few days (no joke—I barely left any for the Mister). This toffee is the perfect combo of salted dark chocolate, toasted almonds, and crunchy caramel candy. And it’s super easy to make!

All for One and One for All: Three Musketeers Tea

Posted March 29, 2016 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Teas / 7 Comments

You may recall I had trouble deciding what flavors to use in my X-Files tea last month, but with this tea I had no such problem. A tea based off The Three Musketeers book HAS to taste like a 3 Musketeers candy bar, right? I’m sure there’s a law about it somewhere. So I combined Adagio’s Tiger’s Eye, Chocolate, and Caramel teas with cocoa nib and cinnamon inclusions to make the ultimate chocolate caramel tea. You’re welcome. 😉

All for One and One for All Tea

Seriously, guys, this is the tea equivalent of a 3 Musketeers bar, and it’s AWESOME. Tiger’s Eye tea is a chocolate-caramel blend from Adagio, and I used that as my base, adding extra chocolate and caramel flavored teas until I reached the desired balance of the two. Then I kicked it up a notch with cocoa nibs to intensify the chocolate flavor and cinnamon…because cinnamon makes everything better! The final result is rich and sweet, which I think is fitting. With some milk and sugar, it makes a perfect dessert tea!