Bon Anniversaire: IHBF Turns One!

I say all the time that life is flying by like a hurricane, because it is! In particular, the past twelve months of my life have pulled me into a heck of a whirlwind. A flurry of activity, excitement, learning curves, challenges, teamwork, friendship, happiness and independence. I pulled myself off the ground and decided to make this my year of personal growth and reflection. When life gives you lemons, put them in a bin, drop an anvil on them, and make lemonade with whatever is left. Show 'em who's boss!

There are so many positive things to be grateful for right now. I consider myself to be rather lucky, and chose August 11th, the anniversary of the blog's first recipe/instructional post, to be I Heart Big Flavour's birthday, and had a little party to thank my friends and family.

These amazing people followed my writing and progress, tasted my food, and offered support, encouragement, ingredients, hugs, comics, and patience while I sharpened my knives and got ready for the next series of uphill treks. I was so happy to do something nice for all of them. My head is always full of funky ideas, and culinary school gave me the cojones and know-how to make it happen. Yeeeeah, boyyy!

 I wished that my ruffles wouldn’t catch on fire. It came true!The cake in this photo was made by using a favourite recipe that I adapted and have made a few times, always with great results. It's so easy that I would even encourage people who hate baking (but love eating dessert!) to give a good try. It was so amazing that guests came back for seconds, and even thirds! This party had a celiac, a vegetarian, and a guest who was lactose intolerant, too, and everyone went home with happy tummies. It's nice when you can make something that works for all your friends!

 For all chocolate recipes ever, make sure to use the best chocolate and cocoa that you can.

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Va-Va-Voom Vegan Chocolate Cake   This cake gets even better the next day if you cover it with saran wrap. It becomes moister and chewier!

Serves 16 to 30 friends, depending on how you cut it.

This is actually a double recipe (go big or go home, I say!), but if you want a smaller cake, chop the numbers in half. If using the posted recipe, a 10-inch round cake ring/pan works great, and if using a half-dose, a 9x5-inch loaf pan or an 8-inch round pan will do the trick. The batter is perfect for cupcakes, too, but you'll have to check the middles sooner, somewhere around the 15 to 18 minute mark.

3 cups all-purpose flour or all-purpose gluten-free flour mix

2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp white vinegar

2 cups water

2/3 cup of a moistener: unsweetened apple sauce, mashed banana, fruit puree, or neutral-flavoured vegetable oil (no olive oil!)

1. Preheat your oven to 350° F (175° C). Line your weapon of choice with parchment paper that has been lightly buttered and then dusted with cocoa powder. Tap off the excess.

2. Pour the flour/baking mix, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, and salt through a sifter or strainer to catch (and crush!) any lumps and keep them out of your bowl. Give them a gentle whisking to make sure they're all evenly mixed.

 3. In a separate bowl (or large measuring cup), combine the wet ingredients and give them a stir.

 4. Add wet bowl to dry bowl and mix until smooth.

5. Pour the batter into your pan and bake it at 350° F (175° C) for 40 to 45 minutes, until a knife, toothpick, or skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.

6. Remove the cake from the oven, allow it to sit in its pan for 5 minutes, then take it out and set it on a cooling rack until it reaches room temperature.

Notes: After pouring the batter into the pan, bake it immediately. Don't mess around! Remember those baking soda-and vinegar volcanoes from the third-grade science fair? The ingredients are working as a leavening agent in the cake to give it some height, and are going to run out of steam at some point. Git 'r done!

Make sure to bake the cake in the center of the oven or a little lower (not too close to the bottom, if that's where your heat source is) so that it allows the cake to rise up and cook throughout, instead of sealing the exposed batter too quickly and allowing for less rise, as the tops of ovens are hotspots.

If, like myself, you can't resist tasting the cake batter, you might notice that it will have a little bit of a sour aftertaste from the vinegar, or if you use a gluten-free baking mix, you might find that it tastes a little gritty. After baking, the cake should should not have an acidic taste, and should have a velvety smooth texture.

You can either eat the cake as-is, cut it into wedges and coat/dip them, stack chunks of the cake into a parfait, or slice it into two or more layers (cut a small notch into one side) for the next steps...

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I have a long-running affection for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. And their Reese's Pieces candy. One time, my parents even picked up a box of the cereal puffs for me to try! Chocolate and peanut butter are amazing together, and I wanted to make a dark and sexy, not-too-sweet-or-salty fudge layer in between the cake, especially because I can't bloody find any of those Reese's Dark Chocolate Peanut butter cups anywhere. The best part was that the fudge was safe for everyone at the party to eat. If you can't use peanut butter or coconut milk, you can use a different nut butter (try almond, cashew, or hazelnut), or a different liquid (rice milk, flavoured soy milk, almond milk...). It won't be as rich, but will still be delicious!

That’s love, right there.  Heart-Flutteringly Good Fudge

Generously covers one layer of a 10-inch round cake.

Pick a crunchy nut butter if you're feeling adventurous. If I set this out with a spoon and didn't do any baking, my party guests still would have obliterated it. Not out of hunger, but out of lust!

1 cup chopped dark chocolate

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 tbsp granulated white sugar

1. Set all ingredients in a double-boiler or a metal bowl sitting on a half-full pot of lightly simmering water. Wait patiently for 8 to 10 minutes.

2. Stir and fold the mixture until it is uniform.

3. Spread it over the cake (or some other dessert) with a large, offset spatula.

4. Line up the notches that were cut into the cake and carefully place the top layer on.

Notes: You'll want to spread the fudge over the cake when it's still warm. It's diabolically good when chilled (or frozen!), but for this purpose, it's easier to work with straight out of the double-boiler.

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Coco-Chocolate Ganache  Simple and gorgeous. The “less is more” philosophy does not apply here.

Makes 3 cups of ganache, enough to cover one 10-inch cake or dip a lot of food in!

This ganache gave the cake a thick and beautifully soft, melt-in-your mouth outer layer. If you can't use coconut milk, try a nut or soy-based milk, blended with some silken tofu for thickness, or use whipping cream. Adjust for sweetness.

2 cups chopped dark chocolate

1 cup coconut milk

1. Set ingredients in a lightly simmering double-boiler (or Macguyver one like in the fudge recipe). Wait patiently for 8 to 10 minutes and place a parchment-lined sheet pan under the cooling rack that the cake is sitting on.

2. Stir ingredients until smooth and uniform. Pass it through a strainer.

3. Pour the ganache over the cake. Use a large, offset spatula to spread a lot out toward the edges and let it drizzle down the sides.

4. Pour the rest of the ganache over the cake. Decorate it if you want!

5. Chill the cake in a fridge until an hour before it's to be served.

Notes: If you've never made a ganache before, check out my Wordalicious post, which is full of hints!

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This is a miracle dessert recipe. It can be adjusted for allergies to gluten, nuts, dairy, coconut, soy, almost everything...excluding chocolate. Right before serving the cake, I topped it with fluffy meringue (2 egg whites and 2 tbsp of sugar, whipped until soft peaks formed) in the shape of a heart and thereby eliminated its vegan status (there were no vegans at the party!). The heart was lined with blueberries, and in the middle of it was a strawberry that I cut a little x-notch into, so that the a candle would stand up in it.

Every now and then, people ask whether I prefer baking or cooking, and my answer is always that I enjoy both. Many great cooks are okay bakers, and vice versa. There is only so much that a person can learn at a time, after all. A person once described the nuances between the two sides very simply: Cooking is like jazz, and baking is like a symphony. Well, I'm a fan of mash-ups. They make me want to dance, which is what I do in my kitchen!

I'm enjoying trying to keep things balanced, indulging both my inner rock star badass cook self who will throw things in a pan and figure it out as she goes, and my finicky scientist baker self. She's the one who will do food math and lean in, wide-eyed and close to perform microsurgery on a dessert to make sure that it looks as pretty as it tastes. She's going to develop a hunch for all of us, oy.

Lots of fun coming up for IHBF. I can't wait until birthday number two!

Eat well! And thanks for sticking with me.

Kari

 My amazing brother and his sweetie of a girlfriend hung up these adorable streamers and even put a heart on the ceiling!

I asked for suggestions of what recipes people would like to see on the blog.

 Remnants of whole wheat foccacia and roasted garlic.

I don’t think this is the look for me.

 Happy thoughts…