Chocolate-Red Wine Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups dry red wine

Confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

Whipped cream, for serving

Raspberries, for eating

Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter and flour a 12-cup bundt pan. In a bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until fluffy, 4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until incorporated. Add the vanilla and beat for 2 minutes longer. Working in two batches, alternately fold in the dry ingredients and the wine, until just incorporated.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a rack; let cool completely. Dust the cake with confectioner’s sugar and serve with whipped cream and raspberries.

In my humble opinion, this is one of the best chocolate cakes I've had recently. I didn't make it the first time I had it, so I'm really hoping that the one I made today turned out... It's dense and perfectly moist with a hint of wine... delicious. I'm going to serve mine with blackberries, since it was all I could find, but I think raspberries are the better choice. It's one of those cakes that is pretty easy to make, but seems somewhat impressive. I copied the picture and the recipe from this website.

PS After tasting the one I made, all I would say is to make sure you don't overbake it... at all. I ended right at 30 min, and it was about 1-2 min over what it needed. But, I tend to like things slightly doughy. Other than that, it was delicious.

Mini Mushroom Tarts

4 slices bacon
1 lg onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1/4 c. butter
salt and pepper
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp dried parsley
1 pkg refrigerated pie dough
1 1/2 c. mozzarella cheese, shredded

Fry bacon, reserving all the fat. Crumble and set aside. Saute onions in reserved fat over medium-low heat until caramelized, about 20 min. Set onions aside with bacon. Melt butter in the same pan over medium-high heat. Add coarsely chopped mushrooms, garlic, salt, pepper and parsley, and saute until mushrooms are done. Drain excess liquid, and combine mushrooms with bacon and onions. Stir together until well-mixed and chill. When mixture is chilled, add cheese and mix well again. Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Cut out 2 1/2-inch rounds from pie crust and place rounds in mini muffin pans. Fill as full as possible with mushroom mixture and bake for about 15 minutes or until crusts are golden. Serve warm or cold. Makes about 56 mini tarts.

I came up with this for the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party we're going to tonight. I guess I don't know if they'll be a hit there, but Kirk and I have tested several of them and we approve. I had several tablespoons of mushroom mixture leftover, and we broiled it on top of some bread we had. It was pretty tasty!

And I'd like to dedicate this recipe to Rhonda. HAHAHA!!!

Whipped Shortbread with Chocolate Ganache

Shortbread:
2 cups butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
3 cups flour
1 cup cornstarch

Beat butter at medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add dry ingredient, beating constantly until well blended. Dust hands with cornstarch and roll into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and press lightly with floured fork. Bake at 300 F for about 20 minutes.

Chocolate Ganache:
1 ounce bittersweet baking chocolate
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 powdered sugar

Heat cream in saucepan over medium heat until almost boiling. Add chocolate and stir until smooth. Add sugar and stir again until smooth. Using a spoon, place a bit of chocolate in the center of each baked cookie and let cool.

So, next time I will not press so much with the fork, since they got pretty flat. Also, I suspect the dough would be easier to handle if it were chilled for an hour before forming it into balls. I made up the chocolate part, and I just added the sugar until it tasted good so I'm not sure it was exactly 1/4 cup. My problem with the ganache was that there was a good bit of melted fat, which I assume came from my heavy whipping cream. Maybe light cream would work better. Either way, I was pleased with how these looked and how they tasted too.