3/4/10 about Shlieka

I’m a junior in a women’s college coming to terms with the reality of growing up. I attended an NYC private school from 2nd grade to 12th. Shlieka is a nickname a friend came up for me one day in middle school as we bumped into one another in the staircase. It’s stuck in my group of friends ever since. Keeping the name is an acknowledgement of how much of my identity has been shaped by my experience growing up with those wonderful people and tying the past to the present.
This is about having no idea about what I want to do when I graduate, but wanting to keep the things I love in my life. I love baking, ballroom, and fashion. I’m not trained in culinary by any means. Anything I’ve learned is from experimentation, cooking books and magazines as well as watching tv shows. My approach to cooking is more hands on, and mostly budget-conscious since I am but a poor college student on a budget. My food tester is usually my boyfriend, who tells me everything I make is delicious so obviously he’s a bit biased. The recipes I share on this blog may not be stellar, may not be the most sophisticated, but they taste good and they’re easy to make. When I write them, in mind I have my fellow college student friends who have no or limited cooking experience but are aware that soon they will be on their own, attempting to cook and survive on their own self-earned budget. I hope that they’re helpful.
My first recipe to share, I entered in two dessert contests online, my very first ever. There are two different versions of this recipe, one is from scratch, the second is made from Ghirardelli Brownie mix. I’m going to post the second here but if you wish to use the first version, you can find it here:
http://www.mixingbowl.com/message/recipe/view.castle?g=1570115&m=10434482
This dessert contains 3 key ingredients essential for a romantic dessert for two: chili powder, strawberries, and chocolate. All three of these are known natural aphrodisiacs. The sweet heat of this dessert is bound to put you in the right passionate mood for the night.

Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

½ teaspoon baking powder

1/3 cup water

8 oz semisweet chocolate

1/3 cup cream

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon chile powder

Ready-made supermarket purchased whipped cream

*Powdered sugar for dusting

* Use individual ramekins or heart themed pans. The cute heart-themed cake molds I used are from Target.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter the ramekins or spray with cooking spray (Pam, etc …)

2. Heat 1/3 cup of the heavy cream in a heatproof bowl (double boiler method: bowl on top of a pot of boiling water) and stir in the cinnamon and chili powder.

3. Add the 8 oz of chocolate into the cream. Mix until thoroughly incorporated. Set the chocolate aside to thicken. You do not want the chocolate to be too liquid when you put it in the cake or you won’t be able to top it with cake batter.

4. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs; water, vegetable oil, baking powder and brownie mix together.

5. Divide batter evenly among prepared ramekins, layering as such: batter on the bottom, chili-chocolate mixture, and batter on top.

6. Bake just until tops of cakes no longer jiggle when pan is lightly shaken, about 8-10 min for a pan, and 10-12 for ramekins. Remove from oven and let stand 10 min.

7. Slice strawberries thinly.

Plating: Invert cake onto plate, dust with powdered sugar if you so wish. Serve with whipped cream on the side and thinly sliced strawberries to garnish.

* If you prefer raspberries, substitute them for the strawberries. Raspberries are also natural aphrodisiacs.