GUYS. Do you remember last year when Chobani asked a bunch of food bloggers (including myself) to make recipes for their #deliciousbowl Super Bowl project? Well, they emailed me again this year to say they liked my Healthy Dessert Pizza so much that they want me to make another healthy Super Bowl recipe! On the outside I was all “Ah yes, my good people. I would be elated to oblige,” but on the inside I was all:
Full disclosure: this cake pan was the whole reason I got the idea to do a King Arthur menu to begin with. I saw it on ThinkGeek several months ago, and it immediately went on my Christmas list. I’m pretty sure it was designed to appeal to the Game of Thrones crowd, but I couldn’t help thinking it’d be just right for a King Arthur dessert. The cake recipe itself is a chocolate pound cake from BHG. It was perfect for getting the pan’s little details to stand out! I decorated mine with raspberries, mint, and whipped cream, but you can decorate yours however you want. You’re king (or queen) of your kitchen! 😉
I mentioned in my first Little Women post that Jo celebrates Christmas while living away from home for the very first time. She loves New York but is a little homesick…until a box of homemade gifts arrives from home, delicious bits of crunchy gingerbread among them! This recipe from Taste of Home is jut the sort of sweet, fragrant, gently spicy cookie that would warm my heart and lift my spirits if I were Jo March. And to make them even more in keeping with our Little Women theme, I decided to decorate my cookies to look like the March sisters!
If you’ve read Divergent, you know there is one dish that stands out above all the others, put on a pedestal by all who taste it: Dauntless Chocolate Cake. It’s so remarkable, Tris’ mother remembers it after years of living in Abnegation.
What kind of cake could merit that level of notoriety? I like to imagine it was a rich, moist dark chocolate cake topped with fluffy cinnamon frosting with just a little bourbon kick (the frosting I use here was originally developed by Eats Well With Others). It’s a good thing they don’t let you taste it until after choosing your faction…otherwise everyone would be in Dauntless!
Our official Agatha Christie dessert was a Miss Marple recipe, so it’s only fair that our bonus recipe should be a Hercule Poirot dish, right? Poirot is famous for his love of rich chocolate, and his native land of Belgium offers some temptingly easy truffle recipes. The recipe I use here is adapted from one I found on Zestuous. I love the different texture elements provided by the cocoa powder and creamy chocolate. Plus, this is probably the easiest candy recipe I’ve ever made! 🙂
P.S. We’re taking a vote to see which detective is better, Poirot or Marple. Vote here!
Oh, Delicious Death. When making an Agatha Christie menu, is there any dessert more suitable? This decadent dessert plays a significant role in one of Christie’s most popular novels, A Murder is Announced. The exact recipe isn’t shared in the book, but we know it’s chocolate cake “of a melting richness,” which, let’s be honest, is enough to make most of us drool already. I made mine from this delightfully rich, almost brownie-like cake recipe, topped with dark chocolate frosting and bats silhouettes made of powdered sugar. If death by chocolate is truly possible, this is how I want to go. 🙂
P.S. We’re taking a vote to see which detective is better, Poirot or Marple. Vote here!
Run away! Our Monty Python dessert is coming straight for you! Then again, maybe this isn’t such a bad thing, since these Flying Cow Milkshakes are absolutely delicious…and royally decadent! Made with homemade coconut ice cream, Oberweiss milk, and Oreos—they’re a sweet, refreshing reward after a long, hard day of being taunted by Frenchmen.
Cotton candy, candy floss, fairy floss: whatever you call it, it’s the perfect dessert for our Odyssey menu. I thought of it immediately when I read about Odysseus’ clever use of sheep to escape the cyclops, Polyphemus. But homemade cotton candy can be intimidating when you don’t have a machine, especially when every recipe you come across requires you to cut the end off your balloon whisk. I knew I didn’t want to go chopping up perfectly good utensils, so I did some experimenting…and I’m proud to announce that no whisks were harmed in the making of this recipe! I recommend buying a special kind of whisk called a ball whisk with silicone ends (available here
). You get the same results as a trimmed balloon whisk, and you can use it like you would a regular whisk in most other situations.
There are lots of culinary staples when it comes to the 4th of July (hot dogs, burgers, corn on the cob, etc.). But the whole point of the day is to celebrate freedom, right? So why not shake things up a little bit and make whatever you want? Make an elegant dessert that shines or awesome steaks instead of burgers. Go wild! We’ve got some recipes below to help you make whatever tickles your fancy this 4th. It’s Independence Day—let your foodie flag fly!
Oh, doughnuts. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
