Purple Rose Cake

I made this purple rose cake for a friends daughter and her 1st birthday photoshoot.  Isn't she adorable in her tutu.. oh I made that too.  Our friend and colleague Jody Mack did the pictures.. you can see more of her wonderful photography at her website.  Jody is scheduled to do our Christmas pictures again this year.. can't wait.


Salted Caramel Brownie Bites

Made these little beauties for a baby shower... they are a little bit of effort, but I love the way they turned out!



Brownie Recipe
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup  unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F, Fill 24 mini muffin tins with paper
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler
3. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar.
4.Next, stir in the vanilla extract and eggs. Finally, stir in the flour and salt
5. Pour into prepared muffin tin
6. bake for about 15min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack

Caramel Recipe
1 C brown sugar

1/4 C light corn syrup
1/3 C whipping cream
3 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
For salted caramel use 1/2 – 1 tsp coarse sea salt.  Add salt to desired saltiness.
Cook sugar, syrup and whip cream over medium heat for 5-6 minutes or until it reaches 230 degrees on a candy thermometer.  Stir in butter and vanilla.  let cool to room temp

Ganache Recipe
8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

1 cup heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon coarse salt

Directions
Coarsely chop chocolate. A serrated knife is best for the job; its sawlike teeth grab the chocolate, breaking it up.Bring cream just to a boil over medium-high heat. Pour over chocolate, and add salt. Let stand for 10 minutes (don't stir -- doing so will cool the ganache too quickly, making it grainy).
Stir with a whisk until smooth and shiny to break up any pieces and emulsify cream and chocolate.
 Let ganache cool to room temperature, stirring often, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Beat it with a mixer on medium-high speed until paler and fluffy, 2 to 4 minutes.


Assemble!


on each brownie put a swirl of caramel sauce then top with some piped ganache.  Then add some more caramel sauce and sprinkle with some sea salt.. and watch them disappear