Archive for Lifestyle – Page 2

Thinny Thursday: Eat Chocolate- Stay Thin with Hail Merry Macaroons

By Dessert Darling · Comments (3)
Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Well Glory Hallelujah! Yet another scientific study that touts the merits of Chocolate! This study essentially states that those who eat chocolate on a regular basis are thinner than those who don’t, even though they do not eat fewer calories or exercise more. WOW! So THAT’s how I do it! Seriously, I eat chocolate every morning after breakfast since I’m not a coffee drinker. :)

In honor of this outstanding Thinny Thursday news, I’m sharing with you these raw, vegan, gluten-free Hail Merry Chocolate Macaroons to feed your fix in an even healthier way. Made without refined sugar, these delicious treats still boast dark cocoa for all your chocolate needs. They’re Sooooo delicious I ate the whole bag in one sitting. Oops.

 

For more information on Hail Merry, click here! (I found my bag in Whole Foods).

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Macaron from Jin Patisserie in Venice

By Dessert Darling · Comments (2)
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

One of the things that excited Lynn and me most on the TOURific Escapes Chocolate Indulgence Tour was that between chocolatier stops, we’d get special treats on the tour bus. For some reason this made us giddier than 5 years olds on Christmas morning.

The first such treat was this Mint Chocolate Macaron by Jin Patisserie in Venice.

The buttercream was the most airy and lightly whipped filling I’ve ever experienced in a Macaron. This satin consistency only slightly threw off the balance for a perfect mac. Otherwise, it was a refined delicacy that you could tell had much love and care baked into it. I’d like to try the other flavors as they look like works of art on the Jin Patisserie website.

For more info on Jin Patisserie, click here.

For more info on the TOURific Escape Chocolate Indulgence Tour, click here.

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Littlejohn’s English Toffee House at the Grove

By Dessert Darling · Comments (1)
Monday, March 26th, 2012

On our first stop of TOURific Escapes Chocolate Decadence Tour, we stopped at Littlejohn’s English Toffee House in the Farmer’s Market at the Grove. They had an incredible display of Easter Chocolates that made us mirthful from the start (sorry I don’t have an incredible photo to show it!).

Then we all got to sample their famous English Toffee, which we could see being made through the window by John himself.

While perfectly executed, I find English Toffee to be just a little too sweet. I think it works better as a dessert accessory (like in vanilla ice cream, or chocolate cake) than it does as a stand alone treat. We also got to try their Caramel Covered Marshmallows,which looked super exciting.

Alas, the caramel was a little buttery and bland and when combined with the Marshmallow, it too became heavy handed on the sweet buds. A dash of sea salt would have significantly improved this candy for me.

While I have my criticism, I still highly recommend that you stop by this quaint little mom-and-pop shop in the heart of the Grove’s Farmer Market. The fudge looked absolutely divine (as did the Divinity) and their quality desserts are made with high end ingredients. Four Cherries for Littlejohn’s English Toffee House!

For more information on Littlejohn’s Enlighs Toffee House, click here.

 

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Gluten Free Lemon Bar by Bloom Cafe

By Dessert Darling · Comments (1)
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

In this post here I promised that I’d keep on the look out for some great Gluten Free dessert options. In general, the more I learn about GE foods (see here), the more I’m attracted to and delighted by bakeries that make all natural and organic desserts. Bloom Cafe has now become my go-to organic restaurant for fresh food delivery when I’m too lazy to cook myself. I love their savory food and was curious about their Gluten Free Lemon Bar. While the crust was a bit crumbly and chalky in a Gluten Free kinda way, the lemon curd itself was lovely and mild. People who adore strong lemon flavor though, will be turned off by it’s lack of citrusy zest. Though my socks weren’t knocked off, I appreciated the natural attempt by Bloom Cafe.

For more information on Bloom Cafe on Pico, in Los Angeles, Click here.

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Organic Rice Divine Carrot Cake Frozen Dessert- YUM

By Dessert Darling · Comments (1)
Monday, March 19th, 2012

Love Ice Cream but avoiding dairy? Love Carrot Cake? Are you Vegan or Gluten Free? Well this glorious pint of Organic Rice Divine, Carrot Cake is just the treat for you then. I discovered this Good Karma treat in the frozen aisle of Whole Foods and it sat in my freezer for days before I finally caved in and tried it. The extremely flavorful and sweet dessert totally surprised and delighted me. Not only did the “ice cream” part sing of carrot cake, but also it contained actual chunks of carrot cake bites in there for fun texture. YUM. While dairy substitutes are never quite as creamy as the real deal, Rice Divine is still fantastic, thus earning itself a solid 4 cherries!

ps: I bet their Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge is amazing too!

For more info on Good Karma Foods, click here.

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Happy St.Patrick’s Day! Cute Cupcake Idea

By Dessert Darling · Comments (0)
Saturday, March 17th, 2012

Today I’m featuring this charming cupcake by A Little Nosh because she cleverly used spinach to color her cake green instead of artificial coloring. Brilliant! Click here for her full recipe. Always buy organic ingredients when possible to avoid fattening “FrankenWheat” with GMOs (more info here)!
Have a safe and Happy St. Patty’s day!!!

 

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Gluten Free Desserts at the Coral Tree Cafe

By Dessert Darling · Comments (0)
Thursday, March 15th, 2012

I love the Coral Tree Cafe. With all natural, organic ingredients, fresh salads, delicious brunch, and a Golden Cherry Mousse Cake (see here), what’s not to love? Um, their Gluten Free desserts… they’re very unlovable. Below you see a large Chocolate Chip Cookie (yea, where are the chocolate chips??) and a Chocolate “Fudge” Brownie. I put “fudge” in quotation marks since there’s nothing fudgey about this brownie. Indeed, both selections were tragically dry and crumbly, which confuses me since Gluten Free does not mean Butter Free.. or salt and sugar free. I mean, come on guys! Give us gooey butter and flavor at least! The bland, crispy cookie with its air pockets was the worst. At least I enjoyed eating the frosting off of the brownie. 1 cherry for the cookie, 2 for the brownie, resulting in an a 1.5 cherry rating.

Stay tuned tomorrow though, for my review of their regular Chocolate Mousse Cup. Now that dessert was Awesome ! :-9

For more information on the Coral Tree Cafe and their Southern California locations, click here.

 

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Cutie Pie That! All Natural, Organic Pies for all you Cutie Pies!

By Dessert Darling · Comments (1)
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

Yay- I love discovering all natural and organic desserts, especially now that I know normal wheat and flour have GMOs that makes us Fat (see here)! Cutie Pie That! makes custom “artisanal pies brought down to size” that are extraordinarily flavorful, colorful, and delightful. I wasn’t a fan of the Maple Bacon Apple Pie; as thrilling as it sounded in theory, I think I’ve decided that bacon officially doesn’t belong in desserts. My favorite pie was the Divine Blood Orange Meringue while my friend adored the Strawberry Lemonade Meringue. Ultimately, these are super sweet treats, so if you have a strong sweet tooth, you’ll be in hog heaven with these mini pies.

For more information on Cutie Pie That!, click here.

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Brentwood Farmer’s Market Diet Devastation

By Dessert Darling · Comments (1)
Monday, March 12th, 2012

You know the day that you swear you’re not going to eat ANY sugar as you take a hiatus from indulging? ..that day where you wake up early to go to yoga and then the Brentwood Farmer’s Market for some fresh kale and fish? Apparently, that’s also the day where the Farmer’s Market is chock full of delicious desserts and you’re starving from your yoga class! Arg. I’m never going to lose these three post-wedding pounds, am I? Alas.. the culprits to my downfall are as follow.

It first started innocently enough with these Macarons at the Grace and I stand.

These were hearty macarons with a large cookie to filling ratio (thicker cookie than most macs). This larger size made for a chewy experience that gave my mouth a work out. Then I stumbled across these delightful cupcakes by Temptations Cupcakes.

Naturally I had to buy them for the cocktail party that I was attending that night. The cream cheese frosting was pleasantly mild and absolutely wonderful, but we did have a complaint about nuts in the banana cake. I agree- no nuts in cupcakes. If you want to throw nuts in there, call it a muffin.

Then I came across these Gluten Free Russian Tea Cakes by Livia’s Kitchen and I mean, come on, they’re Gluten Free! I had to try those. And yea, for future reference, Gluten free does not mean sugar free, butter free, fat free, or diet friendly. Alas, it’s my sworn duty to find the best desserts out there for all consumers, so I mean, I had to buy these cookies for the party too. Sweet, buttery balls of glory~

Finally, after a wrong turn coming home from the party, I found myself explicably entering the Jack in the Box drive through. At that point, I figured that diets start on Mondays. So I bought two milkshakes to squeeze into the last remaining hours of Sunday night. Thankfully, I only needed a few sips of the Strawberry shake to determine that it tasted too artificial for me. The Oreo shake, however, didn’t have a prayer. I drank the whole thing… and was Reallllly satisfied.

Today though… I’m moping.

And that is the story of my Farmer’s Market Diet Devastation. The End.

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An Experiment in Baking with Cake Pops

By Dessert Darling · Comments (12)
Friday, March 9th, 2012

Caketruffles7

I had the best time the other day baking with Leslie Durso, aka, Veggie Dream Girl. We thought we’d experiment together by making our first batches of Cake Pops (also known as Cake Balls or Truffles). The first time I had Cake Pops I about died on the spot. I was convinced that this dessert was going to be the new cupcakes. Hmmm. Let’s put a pin in that thought.

WHAT ARE CAKE POPS? Cake Pops sound so simple at first. You mash cake and icing together, roll the mixture into balls, and then coat them in chocolate!

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

We decided to make one batch Banana Bread with Butterscotch Frosting, dipped in Milk chocolate and one batch Red Velvet cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, dipped in White chocolate.

The process clearly revealed that the quality of ingredients and the proportions make a world of difference. We put too much frosting in the red velvet cake mix, which resulted in them tasting way too sweet. Leslie was also turned off by the brand of melting chocolate that we used, though I appreciated it’s ability to firm up as quickly as it did.

We also wondered if cake truffles really need normal, sugary icing. When you have such a sweet chocolate shell, something a bit sour, like plain cream cheese mixed in with the cake might help to temper the sugar. Or perhaps throw in benign ingredients like walnuts, pecans or pistachios, depending on your cake choices. Another option would simply be to use a less sweet chocolate to coat the balls.

While our first attempt didn’t yield 5-cherry Cake Pops, they sure looked tasty! :-)

Partners in crime

Us!

Leslie Sarna & the Dessert Darling

Check out Leslie’s blog by clicking here!

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