I've taken quite a long break from blogging and the reasons are many. Been busy at work and at home. Second year of marriage has been really fun. My husband and I take turns to cook every night.We did get terribly lazy in the middle and ordered in every night but there is a limit to that. I learnt it the had way by by contracting a terrible stomach bug which refused to leave! Ever since we've been trying to eat at home as often as possible. Fun way to get into cooking at home is hosting dinner parties. Menu is usually simple but we try to stick to three course meals. I usually make the desserts while he makes the entree and the appetisers .
Cooking for crowds isn't necessarily easy. I, for one , love it! Its funny how you learn so much as a kid. My mum has always been a fantastic hostess.Her motto is that there should never be any shortage of food or drinks at parties. I totally agree with that.Leftover food serves as lunch for us the next day or a lot of guests even prefer to pack some for themselves. My husband hosted quite a few people over this Sunday for the big UFC 200 viewing. I was in charge of the desserts. Choosing the base flavour was not difficult. Chocolate. Then I had to consider the few who do not like chocolate (my husband for one ) so the other obvious choice was caramel. While making many desserts try to balance them out. Too many rich desserts don't work well together. I chose heavy brownies and light airy mousse which work well together and separately.
I went with Fudge chocolate brownies, chocolate sponge cake with ganache and frozen caramel mousse cups.
Fudge Brownies-
INGREDIENTS:
4 EGGS
350 GMS OF DARK CHOCOLATE
250 GMS OF UNSALTED BUTTER (1 CUP)
225 GMS OF SUGAR
75 GMS OF FLOUR
25 GMS OF COCOA
1 TABLESPOON VANILLA ESSENCE
DIRECTIONS-
Pre heat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Melt together the butter and chocolate and let it cool.
Whisk the eggs and sugar for about 4-5 mins.
Ass the flour,cocoa ,melted butter and chocolate and essence into the egg mixture and slowly fold it in.
Bake at 160 degrees C for about 25-30 mins.
Cut after it is completely cooled.
Recipe is in previous post
http://skittlekat.blogspot.in/2015/04/no-fail-chocolate-cake.html
Frozen caramel mousse cups-
INGREDIENTS-
2 CUPS OF WHIPPING CREAM
3/4 CUP OF CARAMEL SAUCE (recipe in previous post)
1/2 C TO 1 CUP OF ICING SUGAR (DEPENDING ON HOW SWEET YOU WANT IT TO BE)
1 TABLESPOON OF GELATIN
3 TABLESPOONS OF WATER
DIRECTIONS-
Soak the gelatin in the cold water.Whisk together the the cream and caramel with the sugar. Heat the gelatin mixture till it becomes translucent and cool it down.then fold it into the cream mixture. Refrigerate for five hours and serve with chocolate sauce.