a dessert to remember

Every once in a while, a dessert comes along that I just can’t get out of my head.

Broadway Heights’ chocolate lava cake topped with an espresso cream is one of those desserts.

The combination of warm, oozing chocolate topped with cream that has a hint of espresso, I just couldn’t forget. That was more than two years ago that I first tried the cake and ever since have searched dessert menus and recipes online for something similar.

When I started thinking of Valentine’s Day, which also happens to be what my husband Alex and I deemed as our anniversary (we couldn’t remember exactly the first date we met, but know it was sometime around Valentine’s), I wanted to make a gourmet meal finished with my mock version of the cake. That didn’t turn out as planned, but I did find a recipe that sounded too good to pass up and one I couldn’t wait to give a try.

Found on Epicurous.com, I decided to test out this chocolate-espresso lava cake with espresso whipped cream recipe.

It was a pretty time consuming process for the mini cakes, but well worth it.

After mixing the ingredients together, the recipe called for refrigerating the cakes for an hour, up to a day. My impatience got the best of me and I was only able to wait an hour. Then, they had to sit out for five minutes, before going into the 350-degree oven. The hardest part came next – waiting the five minutes after they came out of the oven, which was especially hard since the smell of chocolate filled the house way before they were done.





But it was worth the wait.

Topped with an espresso whipped cream, which melted over the cake, the lava cake was so perfect with a big glass of milk.



The only downfall?

After the cakes set, a few of them started to cave in the center, revealing the gooey center.

This was my first attempt at an Epicurious.com recipe and I think it was a success. My next venture might be profiteroles, a cream puff smothered in a chocolate moose, which also makes it to my all-time-best-dessert list.

life is uncertain. eat dessert first

It must run in the family – my love for sweets, travel, writing and design.

Visiting my grandparents when I was younger, the first thing my sister and I would do after giving hugs and kisses to our grandparents, was make a beeline for the bathroom drawer, where my grandpa hid chocolates for us (not really sure why the bathroom, but it became a tradition that we so looked forward to and remember it 10 years later).

My love for sweets must be something that runs strong in my genes – something my husband calls my “addiction.” But it’s an addiction I’m perfectly OK with having. I believe it was Ernestine Ulmer who said, “life is uncertain … eat dessert first,” a phrase that, to me, epitomizes why dessert and all things sweet are so important in life.

But it’s not just a love for the decadent desserts that I love. I love trying out new recipes, when a new recipe becomes a family favorite and adding my own twist to a recipe. My mom always encouraged my sister and me to help in the kitchen, whether it was making homemade chocolate chip cookies, helping with Christmas dinner or making garlic bread.

My fondness of food and cooking followed me to Torino, Italy where I spent a semester studying abroad, traveling across Italy and Europe and devouring the tastes of the country. I took in and tried everything I could from pizzas from a corner pizzeria where they knew my name, making gnocchi at my instructor’s apartment or devouring chocolate profiteroles that I have yet to find a recipe as delicious.

With my time abroad, I was lucky enough to travel to places like Nice in southern France, take in the breathtaking cliff towns of Cinque Terre in northern Italy and watch the glass blowers at Murano, a small island a few miles from Venice, Italy.

While I haven’t been able to afford a trip back to Europe since, I’ve been enjoying what California has to offer through weekend trips – wine tasting in Napa Valley, skiing in Lake Tahoe and testing out new restaurants in the Sacramento area.

Another of my passions is interior design. Slowly but surely my husband Alex and I have been sprucing up our home, trying to find a balance between our expensive tastes but limited budget. A year a half after purchasing our first home, we still have a lengthy to-do list full of painting, planting in the front and back yards and picture hanging and know it will take patience.

I started this blog to combine all things I love and to share my cooking successes and blunders, travel outings and tackling design projects.

Salute!