Chocolate Torte with Nutella Mousse

Chocolate. Nutella. Creamy goodness. How can you resist:? This recipe makes a fancy dessert good for any company. The secret? It's not that hard to make!

Chocolate Torte with Nutella Mousse and Raspberries
Adapted from bell'alimento

What you’ll need:

1 brick of cream cheese - softened
1 pint (2 cups) of heavy whipping cream
2-3 TB honey
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Nutella
1 box of Chocolate Cake Mix (& necessary ingredients to make it)

Put your mixer bowl in the freezer. A cold bowl helps the whipped cream set up faster. Get the cream cheese out of the fridge to soften. Measure out your Nutella into a microwavable bowl.

In your stand mixer with your whisk attachment attached, add your whipping cream and 1/4 cup sugar. Mix until it becomes whipping cream- this will take a few minutes. Move whipping cream to a separate bowl.

Into the now empty mixing bowl (don't worry about cleaning it out), add the cream cheese and 1/4 cup sugar. Mix together  until creamy. WHILE it’s mixing add in a few TB of honey. Taste and check for sweetness; if you like it sweeter add more. Heat your Nutella for about 30 seconds until it’s warmed through. Add the Nutella to your cream cheese mixture and mix until combined well. Remove bowl from mixer and with a spatula FOLD the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture. The mixture won't mix completely-  you'll get a striped effect. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until mixture is set up.

While it’s setting up prepare your cake mix to box directions. Spray a rimmed baking sheet (for thinner cakes) with cooking spray; pour your batter in. Smooth, and bake it for approx 10-15 minutes or UNTIL it passes the toothpick test. Keep an eye on it! After it has cooled completely, cut it into circles with a large cookie cutter.

To assemble torte, place one cake layer on bottom, slather the mousse on, continue until you have three layers. On the top layer add a dollop of mousse; garnish with raspberries and powdered sugar if desired.

Enjoy!

Tropical Pancakes

Growing up, my favorite dinners were breakfast. And not any ordinary breakfast, but pancakes or waffles or french toast covered in strawberries and whipped cream. So, basically dessert and breakfast in one, for dinner. Make sense? I know it makes sense to me... and to my tastebuds! 

This all came to me the other night while I was making pancakes. I had strawberries, I had whipping cream... it was dessert time! As I started whipping the cream, I had another epiphany. Why not use the Tropical Shortcake topping on the pancakes? Using lime and coconut could only elevate this breakfast/dinner/dessert, right? Right. 

So, click on over to my Tropical Shortcake recipe and enjoy! 

Here's a great from-scratch pancake recipe too!

Tropical Shortcake

The first week of May was Teacher Appreciation Week. Yours truly was in charge! We really had a great time spoiling our teachers. On Thursday, Cinco de Mayo, we threw a Mexican Fiesta for lunch. The teachers participated in a Salsa Contest, and I cooked the rest of the meal! I knew exactly what I was making for the main course, but the dessert was trickier.  I originally was going to just pick up something from Costco. Then, I found these.  Shortcakes topped with Strawberries and Lime juice, topped with Coconut Whipped Topping... heaven.  The original recipe comes from Our Best Bites, and serves 4 normal sized servings.  I greatly expanded the recipe and made 60 individual servings in clear glasses.

What did the teachers think? They were in love!  Many said that these were the best shortcake they had ever had! I agree. I'm not a huge shortcake fan, but the strawberries with the tangy lime, and the coconut cream was amazing.

Here is the recipe for 4 normal sized servings. I'll follow with the measurements I used to expand the recipe. Now, I don't do math, so I guessed! And I actually did pretty good!

Tropical Shortcakes
Adapted from Our Best Bites
This recipe serves 4

Angel Food cake or Pound Cake (Yellow cake would be good too!)
4 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup white sugar
4 Tb fresh-squeezed lime juice (about 2 limes)

For the Coconut Cream:
1 Cup whipping cream
1/2 Cup powdered sugar
2 teas coconut extract (found by vanilla extracts)
1 teas vanilla extract

3/4 cup toasted coconut

Slice strawberries. Mix the lime juice and sugar into the strawberries. Stir well and set aside for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. (I made my strawberries the night before, and they were so yummy!) Magic happens: the sugar dissolves, and a light syrup forms.


To make the cream, place whipping cream in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer for about 1 minute. Slowly add in the powdered sugar, and both extracts.  Contine beating on high until soft peaks form. This usually takes a few minutes!

Slice cake and spoon strawberries over the top. Include the lime-syrup for a great flavor! Top with Whipped Cream and sprinkle with the toasted coconut.

These are what the teacher's deserts looked like!

Now, I took this recipe and made 60 of these little 5 oz cups.  I was going for the layered look, and was very pleased how they turned out! I prepared the strawberries the night before, the whipped cream the morning of, and put everything together right before the event. I didn't want the shortcake to get soggy!  Our principal came in to take pictures and I told him to take some of the desserts for me! 

Rough Measurements: (Since I don't do math!)

I used roughly 120 LARGE costco sized strawberries. It was 2 of the 4 lb containers.
I think I went through 5 or 6 limes, and about 2 cups of sugar.

I sliced a good layer of strawberries, squeezed a lime over the top, added about 1/4-1/2 cup sugar, and then continued to cut more on top. When I was done cutting, it all got stirred together and refridgerated.

I used 1 1/2 cartons of whipping cream, 5 teas Vanilla extract, and 3 teas of Coconut extract (coconut is much stronger!)  I used a total of 3 cups of powedered sugar as well.

The shortcakes were little individual round cakes that I cut into fourths.  I placed one piece in the bottom of each cup, topped with strawberries and juice, and then the cream and cococut. The toasted coconut is so important, if only to let people know that the dessert contains coconut.


Now, just one more time- these were SO good that I've been craving them ever since! Good thing I have lots and limes and coconut left over!

Enjoy!