Recipes

Mayonnaise in a cake? Yes, Dear Reader, you read that correctly.  Your eyes did not deceive you.  This cake is most certainly made with mayonnaise, and as weird as it seems, it’s absolute perfection!  This cake gives you the best of both worlds. Not only is the cake light and fluffy on the outside, but the center is very moist and fudge-like. I like to think of this cake as a chocolate lava cake without the lava! Does that make sense? The first time I made this cake was in 2016. That was when this cake first appeared on the blog. Today, I’m updating the photographs and re-publishing this recipe, because this cake is just too delicious to be forgotten about! MAYONNAISE AS A BAKING INGREDIENT Believe it or not, mayonnaise is a very common ingredient in baking. And, if you think about it, why shouldn’t it be? Mayonnaise is made with common ingredients used in baking anyway. Let’s take a closer look. Mayonnaise has three main ingredients. They are oil, egg yolks, and lemon juice. (The lemon juice is sometimes substituted for vinegar.) Almost every baking recipe, whether it be a cake or a cookie, has eggs and some…

In our home, we love muffins. But, there’s a great muffin divide that breaks up the synergy in the house. You see, Dear Reader, while John.e and I love to eat muffins loaded with fruit, McKenna does not. She likes just plain chocolate chip muffins. Every once in a while, I’ll make a batch for her, but I always use my banana muffin base and I always add rolled oats. That way, even though she’s eating chocolate, she’s still getting the added benefit of eating something that’s good for her. You can add nuts too, if you like. But, like I said, these muffins were for McKenna and nothing beats chocolate chip for her! MILK, SEMI-SWEET, OR DARK CHOCOLATE? Any of the three will do perfectly fine! I tend to always use semi-sweet chocolate when baking. And, I save the milk chocolate for truffles or drizzle or snacking! I very rarely use dark chocolate, because I’m not a fan of it. Even though McKenna and John's .e prefer it, I still don’t use it much at all. As you can see from the photographs, I used mini chocolate chips. You can use regular chocolate chips. I only used the mini because it’s…

Many, many years ago, I watched an episode of the Barefoot Contessa. It was an episode where Ina Garten described how coffee enhanced the flavour or chocolate. I tried it and she was right! We’ve all had coffee flavoured chocolate before, but have you had chocolate flavoured with coffee? Yes, there is a difference! When you flavour chocolate with coffee, you don’t taste the coffee. The coffee is meant to enhance the flavour of the chocolate itself. If you add things like coffee extract to these Coffee Chocolate Truffles, you would be in essence changing the flavour of the chocolate. The chocolate would have a coffee-like smell and taste. But, if you add coffee or espresso granules, you won’t be adding coffee flavour to the chocolate, but helping the chocolate taste more chocolaty. Am I just confusing you with all of this coffee versus chocolate talk? Let’s just forget about it and talk about these delicious treats! Let’s talk Substitutes! Here’s what I did. I added both coffee extract and instant coffee granules to my recipe. Not only did I want to enhance the chocolate flavor, but I also wanted the chocolate to have a hint of coffee flavor. You…