Tony found a copy cat recipe for Portillo’s chocolate cake recipe.  Since our neighbors were buying the crab this time for Crab Fest 2010, I offered to make two desserts – something I rarely make!  But these two desserts are show stoppers.  Both are super simple, but taste as if you were a pastry chef!

I kept thinking yesterday was Saturday since I was off!  Being Friday, that meant no meat for Tony, and one of his favorite things is egg salad sandwiches.   I followed Martha Stewart’s recipe for perfect hard boiled eggs.  I always have a problem with peeling off the egg whites with the peel, or there is a green ring inside the egg yolk.  Not this time!

Put eggs in pan and cover with cold water – just an inch above the eggs.  Simmer over medium heat until the water comes to a boil.  Once the water is up to a boil, remove from heat, cover and let sit for 12 minutes.  Run under cold water to stop the cooking process.

The egg on the right peeled perfectly!!
perfect!

Since I woke up so late yesterday, I made Tony his egg salad sandwich and I made a grilled ham and cheese.  Kraft actually makes pepper jack cheese that’s wrapped exactly like their American cheese – each slice is only 45 calories!

With an ounce of potato chips on the side:

Did anyone watch Chef Academy on Bravo?  Chef Novelli made this dessert called Chocolate Pot – and when the students ate it they were gushing how great it was.  Since I made it at our last crab fest, I decided to make it again.

Ingredients

6 ounces dark chocolate
3 2/5 ounces milk
6 4/5 ounces heavy cream
1 ounce honey
2 ounce cocoa powder
2 ounces whiskey

Directions

  1. Warm cream and milk together. Bring to warm temperature, remove from heat and melt chocolate.
  2. Add cocoa powder and mix well. Stir in honey and whiskey – put in four bowls and chill for 4-6 hours.

Each serving:  494 calories, 33 fat, 41 carbs, 5.7 fiber and 7.6 protein.  You can print out a printer friendly version here. Obviously, with stats like this, this is a once in a while treat!  Serve with whip cream.

make sure you heat the cream/milk at a low temp – you don’t want it to come to a boil

The last time I made this, when I added the cocoa powder, it was hard to make it smooth in the sauce.  This time I put it through a strainer and it worked out great.

Then pour 1/2 cup into 4 separate bowls.

So the word on the street is that the reason Portillo’s chocolate cake is so moist is because there is mayo in it.    Tony found a copy cat recipe that uses a cake mix – so simple!  Make sure you buy super moist Betty Crocker mix, 1 cup water, 3 eggs and 1 cup mayo.  That’s it!

I baked mine in a 10 inch cake pan and baked it at 350 for 30 minutes.  I set it outside to cool faster so I could frost it.  I made this one a yellow cake, because it’s my neighbors favorite.  But I plan on making a chocolate version for Easter Sunday! šŸ˜€

Oh, did I mention the butter cream frosting I made for this??

  • 2 sticks of butter, softened
  • 1 pound powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 6 tablespoons heavy cream

So while this is usually the star of Crab Fest:

This clearly stole the show!

I am pretty sure that cake was insulin worthy – to the tune of 15 units of insulin!!  But it was so worth it! šŸ˜€

On tap for today:  baking bread!  It’s rainy and chilly today, so it’s a great way to spend the day inside and bake!  Oh, and that pile of clothes I mentioned yesterday?  Um, they are still there – I need to spend at least an hour today on that.

my daffodil’s bloomed yesterday!

And I got this in the mail yesterday – so many recipes I am going to make this week are from this magazine!

Hope you have a great Saturday! šŸ˜€