Chocolate Blog Hop -Valentines Day Cake Batter Bark

So pretty, and so easy! And ignore the blur on the left, it's my finger, or a ghostly presence if you prefer.  I prefer the ghost, it implies that I know how to take pictures.  I know, it's not a ghost, sigh.

  So after the success of last months Citrus love blog hop, I was all excited to get to this months.  You know why?   Well, the theme is chocolate, and for anyone who has been around here before, you may know that I love me some chocolate.  I tend to mix it with weird things.  Bacon anyone?  So it was fate that I had to make something.

  Now I wanted to make something new to me, and I wanted it to be cute.  I also wanted to be able to make it fast as I am slowly thinking about working out again.  I said thinking people, I will commit soon.  Or not, who knows.

My silicon pans, and I think I paid like $2 for each at a warehouse sale.  I love sales.

  So when I saw this on How Sweet it is. I knew I had to make it.  The only thing is I hate dark chocolate, unless it is baked in a brownie or something, I don't like it.  So I used regular chocolate.  And by chocolate I mean candy melts, I have two 50 pound boxes of the things, so I better use it. ( I am not kidding, I have one of white and one of chocolate, and I am almost half way through both)

I know this is a lot of stuff to get together, but you know, for you I will try to make it work.

Cake Batter Bark
 How Sweet It Is

-white and milk chocolate candy melts
-2-3 TSPs white box cake mix
-sprinkles

Now I thought this would be perfect in my head, and well okay it worked fine, but some of the sprinkles were hard to see in the finished project.  Next time I will do them upside down, so dark chocolate first, then white then sprinkles.

  I wanted to make these valentines like, you know, because I love you!  (or I love me and I wanted more chocolate, who can really say)  I used my heart silicone baking mold.  I have a large one, a fancy one and a small one.  So I used all three, because you can give a large one to a friend and eat a  few small ones by your self.

  To start melt your white candy melts, I do this in the microwave at 30 second bursts.  Then when fully melted mix in your cake batter until smooth and let it sit for a few seconds.  I still had to add paraffin crystals, no matter what I do my white chocolate never melts nice.  While it sits, take your molds and sprinkle in your sprinkles.  I used small little hearts as they are the cutest and then a few larger ones to accent them.  See I am getting all fancy on you here.

Chocolate and cake mix, and you can really taste the cake in it.  I would know, I slopped a whole bunch on my hand and licked it off before I washed it.  It was good!

To fill my zip lock bag easier I put it in a cup.  I will not use them again, either they were too cheap or I am  just picky, but they were too hard to work with, flimsy and whatever, so I will splurge and use my 10 cent disposable piping bags.

  That's it people!  Now I did not measure, as I never do, so you can sort of just go with the flow so to speak.  if you are making a pan of it, go for a few cups of each, if you are going for a mold like me, you don't need as much.

  So once you have sprinkled your pans. ( I know there is a dirty joke in there somewhere)  take a disposable piping bag or a zip lock and fill it with the chocolate cake batter mix.

I had the hardest time cutting the tip off the bag was so flimsy, looking back I really should not try new things, stick with what you know.

You don't have to be perfect, I mean I am anyway, but for this no worries, it will all work out.

  Snip off an end of the bag and carefully fill your molds just a little bit, not too much or your bark will be too thick.  Then gently shake your molds, not too much, you don't want the sprinkles to move, but enough that the chocolate settles.  Then pop them into the fridge to set. I found that if I put them in the freezer the two layers do not stick together well.  That is what I did with my plate of left overs and it was a mess when I tried to break it up.

   While they set melt your other chocolate and put it into a bag or whatever you are using.  Once the first layer has hardened pull them out of the fridge then pipe on the chocolate, shake the mold a little to settle.  Then back into the fridge and you let them fully set.

I had left overs so made some traditional bark, it fell apart so I had to eat it all myself, which really is a win for me actually.

   I made mine thin as I wanted them to be like the bark you make on a pan, but not in a pan, you know?  You don't, well neither do I really.

 When you are ready just pop them out of the mold and be amazed at the cuteness.  Do it, be amazed!
Then for gift giving, you can pack them up however you like.  I would suggest a jar or a cute little box for the small ones.

I so should have put some corny love label on them, like take one when you need a hug.  Or something.  I don't write cards, I just buy them, so I look like I have something smart to say.

  And a nice bag with a cute tag for the larger ones.  Or if you are like me, you eat and hoard most of them, then put the left overs in sandwich bags and share with your work friends.

Okay, I hate that this is the better picture of them, ghost and all.

  Hope you enjoyed my super hard chocolate love recipe, I know it was complicated and all.  But sometimes simple is best, and you know you want to make some right?  Please visit the other blogs and hosts to see what awesomeness they have all come up with.  Happy Chocolate Luv!

  Here is a list of all the other great bloggers that are hosting with me this month, please check them out!

A Little Bit of Everything ~ Roxana ~ @RoxanaGreenGirl

ASTIG Vegan ~ Richgail ~  @astigvegan

Badger Girl Learns to Cook ~ Kimberly ~ @BdgrGrl

Baker Street ~ Anuradha ~ @bakerstreet29

Baking and Cooking, A Tale of Two Loves ~ Becky Higgins

Baking Extravaganza ~ Samantha

BigFatBaker ~ Erin ~ @BigFatBaker

Bon a croquer ~ Valerie ~ @Valouth

CafeTerraBlog ~ Terra ~ @CafeTerraBlog

Cake Duchess ~ Lora ~ @cakeduchess

Cakeballs, Cookies and More ~ Sue

Cooking with Books ~ Marnely ~ @nella22

Creative Cooking Corner ~ Karriann ~ @KarriannGraf

Easily Good Eats ~ Three Cookies

Elephant Eats ~ Amy

Georgiecakes ~ Georgie ~ @georgiecakes

Hobby And More ~ Richa ~ @betit19

Java Cupcake ~ Betsey ~ @JavaCupcake

Kitchen Belleicious ~ Jessica

Mike's Baking ~ Mike ~ @mikesbaking

Mis Pensamientos ~ Junia ~ @juniakk

No One Likes Crumbley Cookies ~ TR ~ @TRCrumbley

Oh Cake ~ Jessica ~ @jesshose

Preheat the Oven ~ Jason ~ @officialchefjae 

Rico sin Azucar ~ Helena ~ @ricosinazucar

Savoring Every Bite ~ Linda ~ @Spicegirlfla

Simply Reem ~ Reem ~ @simplyreem

Smart Food and Fit ~ Lisa ~ @LisaNutrition

Soni's Food for Thought ~ Soni ~ @sonisfood 

Sprint 2 the Table ~ Laura ~ @Sprint2theTable

Teaspoon of Spice ~ Deanna ~ @tspbasil 

That Skinny Chick Can Bake ~ Liz ~ @Thatskinnychick

The Dusty Baker ~ Jacqueline ~ @dustybakergal

The More Than Occasional Baker ~ Ros ~ @bakingaddict

The Spicy RD ~ EA ~ @thespicyrd 

The Wimpy Vegetarian ~ Susan ~ @wimpyvegetarian

Vegan Yack Attack! ~ Jackie ~ @veganyackattack

Vegetarian Mamma  ~ Cindy ~ @VegetarianMamma

You Made That? ~  Suzanne ~ @YouMadeThatblog

Citrus Blog hop - Mini White Chocolate Mandarin Orange Cheesecake's

See you can eat three of these, or one piece of cake.  It's all the same;p

  I cannot wait to share this with you all. I was emailed by a lovely fellow blogger about a blog hop she started and was asking for people to host. I was all, I'm not doing that, I can't do that.  Then I thought, why not?  I mean I can bake, sort of. I can write about it and take amazing pictures ( I know, even I laughed at that.)  So why not?

  So I filled out the form and said let's do this!

 I had no idea how this would work, but apparently everyone gets the same ingredient and has to make their own recipe with it and make something and share.  I was so excited and if I was not so clueless I would have known that citrus was the ingredient, you know the whole blog hop being called citrus luv and all.  (I know my mom wonders about me too.)

 And here we are. I am co hosting with all of these other amazing bloggers so please check them out too at the end of my post I will list them all:)

  So I don't know about you, but I am strongly against fruit in my deserts.  I don't know why, but it just seems wrong.  There are a few things that I let slide like cherry or apple pie, lemon curd in anything. And banana and pumpkin anything.  And don't get me started on  veggies in desert.  Whomever thought up zucchini bread must have had a sick mind.( a sick but brilliant mind!)  Sort of like chocolate covered bacon, but I didn't invent that so there!

  So I wanted to make something cute, as my new years resolution was to make smaller sized things, so I have more to share, and I can eat twice as many with half the calories.  It's a scientific fact that two little deserts have less calories then one large one.  Go ahead, work it out.  ( And if you figure out I'm wrong,I don't want to know, I couldn't carry on with that kind of thing hanging over my head.)


My mom got me the cute little push out bottom pans.  She got the tiny spring form pans for me years ago.  I have a good mom!


  So to make something cute, it had to be small.  And to make something small you need the right equipment.  And thanks to my mom, who shares my love of food, I had the perfect pans to make cute tiny little cheesecakes.  So I went on line to find a recipe and found one on a recipe site.  And of course I only copy and pasted it, stupid me.  So I think it was all recipes.com, but I could be wrong.  I figure I am changing it enough that I don't have to worry.

  So the recipe that I found was for a raspberry cheesecake, and raspberries have seeds, and I don't like seeds, or trying to strain them out.  So I figured this would be perfect.  I subbed in mandarin oranges for the fruit.  Now I did this for a few reasons, that I shall now list for you in no particular order:

Each can cost me like 67 cents, I am a big spender!

My list of reasons:

-I can get mandarins in a can, no need to peel or clean them
-there are no seeds, so no straining for seeds
-they are orange, I like orange
-you can also use a slice as garnish
-they were cheap

  Okay now that you have had that little in sight into how my mind works, and you are still here, thanks for that, lets get baking!

  To start you need some small cupcake pans with removable bottoms, or tiny spring form pans, or you could use cupcake liners, but you know I like to be difficult.

  Also the recipe is for a 9 inch cheesecake, but I made a bunch of little ones, it was all good.  I did have to make more crust but that was easy.  I just made the crust as is then halved it again.

White Chocolate Mandarin Orange Cheesecake
(Makes 1 9 inch cake)

Crust
-1 cup Oreo crumbs
-1/4 cup melted butter
-3 TBSP sugar

Mandarin filling
-2 10oz cans of mandarins, drained
-2 heaping TSPS corn starch

Filling
-2 cups white chocolate chips
-1/2 cup half and half cream
-3 packages of cream cheese ( 8oz each)
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 TSP vanilla
-3 eggs

Set oven to 325 (300 if you have a convection oven)

  Start with the crust, melt the butter and mix it with the sugar and crumbs.  Then put enough in the bottom of each pan to make a thin crust.  I used the handle of an ice cream scoop to tamp it down. And set it aside.

These are super tiny, and the ice cream scoop worked perfectly for tamping it down.  And my kid asked why I was putting dirt in the pan, I told him it was for his diner, he was not happy.

  To make the fruit filling, and it even feels wrong typing that, you just take the drained oranges and put about 10 segments aside for decorating.  I used an immersion blender to quickly liquefy the stuff, if you don't have that you can use your food chopper or regular blender.  Then put it in a sauce pan and add two heaping TSPS of corn starch.  Stir it with a whisk until it starts to bubble, and it will thicken very quickly.  Once it has thickened take it off the heat and put it in a bowl and into the fridge to cool.

Pre squished.  Just for reference that I actually used fruit, it still seems wrong some how.

  Then to make the filling, cream the cheese and sugar.  While it is mixing put the chocolate and cream in a bowl and put it over a pot of water on the stove to make a double boiler to melt same.  Add one egg at a time to the cheese mixture and mix each egg in until combined.  Then add the vanilla.  Once the chocolate is melted mix it into the cheese and you are all set.

  I started with the tiny cupcake pans, and added one spoon full of cheese cake filling, then a tiny bit of orange filling, then I spooned some more cheese on top.  I tried to make sure that I did not put too much in as it would over flow, these tins are tiny.  Then I took a skewer and sort of mixed the layers together, but it mostly just leveled out the stuff.

From bottom to top :first layer of cheese mix, middle is the filling, then the top layer and I swirled it together.

  I put my pans on a cookie sheet because I knew that some oil would leak out the bottom, and it did.  I think because the tins are not tight enough, but with the cookie sheet it was all good.

  I did the same with the larger square pans, these are perfect for one persons serving, and I had enough to make two tiny spring form pans.

My bite size cakes.

My bigger single serve cakes, the ones on the bottom are to show you how I filled them.

  The tiny cakes took about 18 minutes, the larger square about 25 and the spring forms about 40.  Just watch and when you can shake them and they are not liquid in the middle you know you are done.  Let them cool for a few minutes then put them, pan and all into the fridge.

  Since I wanted to do something different with the mini ones, I put them in the freezer.

  For the tiny ones I wanted to make them different, I wanted to make them cute.  So what is cuter than chocolate?  Okay chocolate itself is not exactly cute, but you can make cute things with it.  Anyway that is my theory and I'm sticking with it,

  So I melted some chocolate candy melts and added a bunch of paraffin crystals to try and thin it out.  I should have added more, but whatever it worked.

This is how they looked right out of the tins.  Not very cute.

But cover them in chocolate and they are super cute.

  I took a cheesecake and dropped it in the chocolate, and then using two forks took it out, tapped off the extra and set it on some wax paper.  I then put two white chocolate chips on top to decorate.  I could have done white chocolate drizzle, but I wanted fast.  And they turned out really cute.

Is it me or does it look like an Easter cream egg?  Well it didn't taste like one, oh well.

I just garnished my single cakes with a little chocolate and mandarin segments.

This is my spring form cake, I love how the chocolate is all drippy!

And Pork Chop wanted in on the action, you know, because nothing is cooler than being in a picture with a tiny cake.  That's my boy!

I cut it to show you how cute it was, not so I could eat some or anything.

  For the larger square and round cakes I ladled chocolate on top and spread it out a bit with a spatula and then put some orange segments on top to decorate.  I really like how they turned out.  I think my orange filling was a little thick but you know it's in there, you can really see it.

  I hope you try this out, or even just make a large cheese cake, that probably would have been way faster and way easier, but you know I never said I do things the right way.  My way technically is the right way, people just don't seem to know it yet.

  I cannot wait to see what other yummies are going to be shared!

A Little Bit of Everything ~ Roxana ~ @RoxanaGreenGirl

Astig Vegan ~ Richgail

Baker Street ~ Anuradha ~ @bakerstreet29

BigFatBaker ~ Erin ~ @BigFatBaker

CafeTerraBlog ~ Terra ~ @CafeTerraBlog

Cake Duchess ~ Lora ~ @cakeduchess

Cakeballs, Cookies and More ~ Sue

Easily Good Eats

Elephant Eats ~ Amy

Food Wanderings ~ Shulie ~ @foodwanderings

Georgiecakes ~ Georgie ~ @georgiecakes

Hobby And More ~ Richa ~ @betit19

Mike's Baking ~ Mike ~ @mikesbaking

Mis Pensamientos ~ Junia ~ @juniakk

No One Likes Crumbley Cookies ~ TR ~ @TRCrumbley

Oh Cake ~ Jessica ~ @jesshose

Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives ~ Lisa ~ @parsleynsage

Peaches and Donuts ~ Sylvia ~ @PeachesandDonut

Savoring Every Bite ~ Linda ~ @Spicegirlfla

Simply Reem ~ Reem ~ @simplyreem

Smart Food and Fit ~ Lisa ~ @LisaNutrition

Soni's Food for Thought ~ Soni ~ @sonisfood

   Teaspoon of Spice - Serena - @TspCurry

 January is #citruslove month!

Please join in on the #citruslove fun by linking up any citrus recipe from the month of January 2012. Don't forget to link back to this post, so that your readers know to come stop by the #citruslove event! The twitter hashtag is #citruslove :).