Loacker Tortina Chocolate Wafers

Posted by roatha on June 25th, 2009 in · 0 Comments

Loacker Original TortinasOh yeah! Time to review something that never gets old… CHOCOLATE! And Loacker Original Tortinas does not disappoint! I picked one up at my local World Market (great place to pick up weird candy from around the world) after dinner one night.

How’s it taste? Take a Kit Kat Bar, make it round and make it awesomer and you’ve got Tortinas! The chocolate is much richer and meltier which is nothing short of fantastic. The only negative thing I can say is that they should be bigger. Like… Frisbee sized.

Must. Eat. More. Chocolate. Discs.

Loacker Original Tortinas 2

 

4 out of 5 awesomes!

Rating= 4

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Proof that there’s no such thing as too much chocolate: Easter egg cake balls

Posted by Angela on April 17th, 2009 in , , and · 0 Comments

Finished egg cake balls

My favorite thing about Easter is the candy and treats. I wanted to make something cool for Easter but it seems there’s only so much cool stuff that can be done to cakes. Then I learned about a Dallas company that sells cake balls. There’s looked fancy but I found a recipe online that basically said: bake and crumble a cake, mix with frosting, form little balls and dip in chocolate. Sounds easy enough, right? I decided to make it more dificult but making them into chocolate cadbury bunny eggs with frosting as the yolk and egg whites.

To start off I baked a regular box chocolate cake, I used a regular 9 x 11 rectangular pan, and let it cool for about 10 minutes. While it was still warm on the outside I crumbled at first half the cake into a large bowl. I did half in case something went horribly wrong but I think I could’ve easily done all of it. The recipe said to do it while it’s still warm, but be careful because for me warm turns to scalding hot in the middle.

half eggI mixed in the frosting in small batches at a time. For a small bowl of cake it took a few scoops of frosting. i used vanilla frosting and the easiest way to mix was with my fingers. I found out that if you use enough frosting to make it sticky, then you don’t see the frosting. If I use a lot of colored frosting then it kind of colors the cake but not very strongly.

It took me quite awhile to figure out how to make the eggs work like they were supposed. I used plastic eggs for my molds, it just turned out that the camo ones opened long ways instead of across the middle like normal eggs. I packed one side of the egg to a little over flowing with the cake, and the otherside packed thickly with a little space to put a little yellow and white frosting. Then i closed the two egg halves together until they closed, then slowly pulled each side apart. If I had enough cake in there, then it stick together.

whole chocolate eggAfter a bit of a mess and some research, I learned that you need to freeze the cake balls before dipping them in chocolate. The cake balls are pretty wet when you first make an egg or just roll it into little balls, I can see them being perfect at that point to roll in coconut or powdered sugar. I made 14 successful eggs, and used 8 cubes of chocolate bark to coat them. I heated the bark in the microwave, which requires frequent reheating, and thickly coated the eggs. They ended up bigger then the plastic eggs, don’t melt at room temperature and were absolutely loved by everyone who ate them.

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The Confectional- mini cheesecakes that’ll make you hug your delivery guy.

Posted by roatha on November 25th, 2008 in · 0 Comments

Confectional Cheesecakes reviewAll I want for Christmas is a box full of cream cheese and love. The Confectional is a company based out of Seattle that’ll ship a heavenly(and surprisingly heavy) box of mini cheesecakes straight to your door. All they ask in return is that you confess your love for cheesecake. And these aren’t your average cheesecakes either! With a whopping 16 flavors right now, this is a great gift for any discriminating foodie in your life. You can mix and match as little of a box of 9 and as large as 20.

For our box, we chose an assortment of Seattle’s NY style, Caramel, Triple Berry, Mexican Chocolate and their in season Pumpkin cheesecake. Here’s our thoughts on each flavor:

Seattle’s NY Style- we had to of course start off with a NY style as a base. The cheesecake was sweeter than expected, but not overly sweet. You know you’re eating dessert and not a bastardized quiche-y concoction. It’s dense and creamy, how a cheesecake should be. Just enough crust- I hate a cheesecake that tastes like half crust.

Pumpkin- this is their seasonal flavor and the most anticipated one in Angela’s opinion. The pumpkin cheesecake was denser than the NY and had almost the texture of a pudding cake. It was well spiced, but the pumpkin by itself was somewhat underwhelming. Fortunately, their signature sweetened sour cream topping gave it a nice tart contrast that tied it together very well. I loved the little green stalk!

Confectional Cheesecakes reviewCaramel- this is a great choice if you prefer your cheesecake sweet. It has a caramel flavor blended into the cheesecake and also seemed to have a layer of caramel between the cheesecake and the crust. Some parts of the crust had a satisfying candied taste and crunch. Here, the crust tastes like a cookie!

Triple Berry- this one is my favorite! It has strawberries, blueberries and raspberries mixed into it. I really appreciate the whole berries in the cheesecake. The berry flavor is very prominent. It all rests on a chocolate crust. I’m usually not a fan of fruit and chocolate, but I was pleasantly surprised! The netfoodie favorite!

Mexican Chocolate- we ordered this one as test of one of their more wilder flavors. It’s a chocolate cheesecake with a chocolate crust and a sprinkle of cinnamon and cayenne to give it a little kick. You get more of a spiciness than I expected, towards the end. The chocolate cheesecake was well balanced and wasn’t overly chocolaty unlike many competitors. Very creamy!

Confectional Mini Cheesecakes review

Overall, these The Confectional’s mini cheesecakes are a great indulgent treat for you or an awesome gift for a friend. 4 out of 5 awesomes!

Rating= 4

You can check out the other flavors and place your order at http://www.theconfectional.com/

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31 cent scoops at Baskin Robbins today!

Posted by roatha on April 30th, 2008 in · 0 Comments

Been busy with the end of the semester and all, but here’s a little treat for you loyal readers:

Baskin Robbins Cheap Ice CreamJoin us for 31 Cent Scoop Night at Baskin-Robbins®
and help us honor America’s firefighters.
Participating stores will reduce prices of small ice
cream scoops to 31 cents.* At some locations, you
may also have an opportunity to make a donation
to your local fire charities.

Wednesday, 4/30/08 from 5pm to 10pm.

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Promotion/31cent.aspx 

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Recipe- Strawberry Lychee Vanilla Bean Frozen Yogurt

Posted by roatha on April 15th, 2008 in , and · 0 Comments

I visited a local farm right here in Arlington on Saturday. Gnismer Farms lets you pick your own strawberries for $2.50 a pound! We decided to throw a fondue party on Saturday(yeah, I know we’re weird) and I figured it’d be cool to get some fresh strawberries to go in the chocolate :)

Well, we apparently had way too many dippables available for the fondue and ended up with a decent amount of sliced strawberries left, which I froze. I had just picked up a free ice cream maker from a garage sale(thrown in free for buying a sewing machine and table with 3 legs for $4.35: ca-ching!) so I thought why not make a frozen strawberry treat on a Sunday afternoon ! We’re on somewhat of a health kick(minus the fondue) so we opted for some frozen yogurt instead of ice cream. Here’s the recipe:

Strawberry Lychee Frozen Yogurt recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 tub(4 cups) of plain whole milk yogurt
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1 podful of vanilla bean seeds (got a spectacular deal on vanilla beans a while back from Costco, you can use extract instead)
  • 1 cup of frozen sliced strawberries
  • 1 cup of canned lychees in syrup, drained and chopped (available at any Asian market or maybe the Asian aisle of your grocery store)

Instructions:

  1. Microwave the frozen strawberries for 30 seconds just to get them a little mushy. Chop into smaller pieces for easier mixing.
  2. Mix together the yogurt, sugar, vanilla and fruit thoroughly.
  3. Pour into your ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions.
  4. When done, store in the freezer for 2 hours before eating.

Seriously, this is the BEST frozen yogurt I have ever had! The sweetness from the lychee perfectly matches the tanginess of the strawberries. And the tartness from the real yogurt is out of this world! I’ll definitely make some more later. And I never knew it was so simple to make. You take yogurt and freeze it. Viola, frozen yogurt!

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