Flourless Chile Chocolate Cake Recipe

Please welcome Lynda from Taste Food Blog. Lynda is a Paris Cordon Bleu graduate. After her culinary journey all over Europe (France, Switzerland, Great Britain and Denmark), she came back to the US 17 years later with a Danish husband and two children.

I recently started following her blog. The photographs are stunning and I love her approach to classic French dishes, many of which I grew up eating. Today she's sharing her chile chocolate flourless cake, especially for Valentine's Day. Enjoy!

This month, I have the pleasure of guest-posting on Jackie's wonderful blog, Pham Fatale. When I discovered Pham Fatale, it immediately resonated with me. It shares a similar love for feeding friends and family, while influenced by an international family and life. Jackie's Vietnamese parents, Parisian upbringing and vegetarian, sweet-loving husband create a kaleidoscope of good eats which keep me coming back for more. And with Valentine's Day fast approaching, I can't think of a more perfect way to share a little blog (and chocolate) love with her readers than with this recipe.

Flourless chile-chocolate cake promises to add a little spice to your Valentine's Day. Laced with chipotle, cayenne and cinnamon, this dense fudgy cake has a naughty kick of smoke and heat cloaked in chocolate that's both surprising and exciting. Now that's a Valentine's cake.

Peanut Butter Banana Milk Drink Recipe

This recipe is for the ones who love the good old combination of peanut butter and banana, but with fewer calories. As I've said in the past, I always try to find ways to ensure that my husband Lulu, who is a vegetarian, has enough nutrition in his diet. He's also been exercising regularly lately, so I figured a healthy treat was in order.

I made banana milk that is vegan (Lulu's lactose intolerant too!). The drink is a blend of bananas, soy milk, peanut butter, cinnamon, whey protein and vanilla extract. It's a delicious way to start the day with healthy servings of potassium and protein, which is great for a vegetarian diet. Best of all, Lulu loves it! And if you like this drink, I'll post more whey protein-enhanced beverages soon.

Lemon Poppyseed Cookies

I'm delighted to have Joanne from Eats Well with Others share with us her delicious lemon poppyseed cookie recipe. Joanne is a busy gal; she's a med student in NYC, a marathoner (just like my brother-in-law) and is an avid (and extraordinarily talented) baker. I feel like I'm repeating myself a lot but I think I've told you on numerous occasions that our family loves sweets. In addition to this, we always have guests over, especially for tea time, so having Joanne guest-post a sweet treat seems doubly fitting!

Confession.

I used to be a Costco muffin inhaler.

Have you ever had one? They're big...huge, really...about the size of your face.

And they're strangely reminiscent of narcotic drugs in their addiction-inducing qualities. I mean, you KNOW you should only have half. But you have a pulse and therefore restraining yourself at all whatsoever is but a mere pipe dream. It's okay. We've all been there.

My favorite flavor was the lemon poppyseed.

It was infused with almond extract and was smothered in tangy sweet lemon glaze.

In fact, I may or may not have chosen which muffin I wanted based on the glaze:muffin top
ratio. Higher OBVIOUSLY being better.

(See ladies, muffin tops don't look good on anyone. Not even muffins.*)

*(Unless they have glaze on them.)

Anyway, eventually I grew up and realized just how much hydrogenated fat was in those muffins and how many miles it would take me to burn off just half of one. And so I gave them up. Cold turkey.

(By which I mean I moved out of my parents' house and had the muffins forcibly pried out of my hands upon exiting. Same thing.)

But a lemon poppyseed-less existence is really just too sad of a thought to entertain for even one second let alone an entire lifetime. Which is where these cookies come in.

They have all the same delicious lemon almond overtones of the muffins. (And the glaze. That heavenly glaze...) But without all the heft and heaviness.

Perfect for getting your Costco muffin fix or, if you weren't previously a lemon poppyseed "user", just for dipping into a warm cup of tea. Win/win no matter what your circumstance is.

Baileys and Hot Chocolate Tiramisu

Please welcome Jacklyn, of A BitterSweet Wife, a delicious food blog I discovered a few months ago. Jacklyn is a NYC fashion designer turned food writer with an incredible sense of design and very creative recipes. I'm especially fond of Jacklyn's desserts. Tiramisu is our family’s favorite dessert, so it’s a special treat to be sharing Jacklyn’s Baileys hot cocoa tiramisu recipe. Please visit Jacklyn's A Bitter Sweet Wife for more delicious dessert recipes!

This year is turning out just as wonderfully as I had predicted. I know it's a little soon to judge the entire year, but three weeks in, I'm very satisfied with the outlook. One of the very exciting opportunities that has presented itself to me this year is that I was asked by Jackie of PhamFatale.com to create a guest post for her blog! Seeing as though my blog is still a baby at six months old this month, it was an unexpected but great surprise that she reached out to me a few weeks ago asking me if I would be interested in creating a dessert post for her blog. Of course I said yes and began brainstorming for something that would be unique, but easy and delicious for my recipe. I am beyond pleased with my decision and the outcome of the dessert. It is a for sure crowd pleaser in anyone's kitchen.

It's a twist on a timeless classic that will have you dreaming of nights in front of the fireplace as you watch the snow fall outside your window.

Who doesn’t like to cuddle up with a nice mug of hot cocoa on a cold winters night? Add a little splash of Baileys and your sitting pretty. Well I decided that for my first attempt at tiramisu I was going to mix things up a little bit and do my own take on this Italian classic. (Hence were my opening statement about the Baileys spiked hot chocolate comes in to play.) I decided to swap out the coffee and brandy liquor for hot chocolate and Baileys, hoping that the taste would be reminiscent of the popular winters night beverage. And I have to say I think I was extremely successful. The taste of Baileys soaked cake hits you first, and then you get the sweetness from the chocolate powder mixed with the creamy tartness of the mascarpone mixture. It’s quite a divine combination.

Christmas Dessert: Orange Marmalade Cake (+Giveaway)

My husband's younger sisters' winter break finally arrived. I think baking is a great way to spend time together and get over the stress of their school's finals. I didn't really have a specific recipe in mind, but I wanted to make a cake that reflects the holiday season. We started with a simple cake batter and flavored it with orange marmalade I received through our friend Diane from Napa Farmhouse 1885 and store-bought Swedish orange gingersnaps. I crumbled the gingersnaps and added them to the batter and the top of the cake. We baked the cakes in individual Flexipan molds and I let the girls decorate their own version with orange-flavored buttercream and chocolate-covered cherries.

Have fun this holiday season!

Today’s giveaway is 1 fig & Grand Marnier jam, 1 pear & vanilla preserves, 1 orange & ginger marmalade, 1 organic herbs de Provence and 1 organic Italian seasoning from Napa Farmhouse. For a chance to win the prize, just enter today’s giveaway.

Make sure you're a fan of PhamFatale Facebook fan page and Napa Farmhouse 1885, or follow @Phamfatalecom and tweet about this giveaway. To make it easy, you can just copy and paste this tweet if you’d like: "3 jams & two seasonings #Giveaway from @Phamfatalecom and @NapaFarmhouse: http://bit.ly/sp4V7y".