Cutest Food

There are many interests the four of us here at Nimbus share, and one of those things is food. More specifically, cute food.
I've been drooling over this blog I stumbled upon the other day called Cutest Food. Everything is so cute, I could just gobble it up.

Valentine's Day Recipe #3: Homemade Nutella

(photo from david lebovitz)

i'm not sure if there is anything better than nutella except for maybe homemade nutella. everything always tastes better when homemade, don't you think? this recipe, from one of my favorite food bloggers david lebovitz (better known as the guy who wrote one of THE go-to books on ice cream making -- the perfect scoop), seems like a cinch to make once you gather all of the ingredients. and what an amazingly simple gift it would make for valentine's day!

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Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

by David Lebovitz, adapted from Encyclopédie du Chocolat

1/3 cup (40g) whole almonds

1 1/3 cup (160g) hazelnuts

1 3/4 cup (400g) whole milk

7/8 cup (60g) powdered whole milk

3 tablespoons (40g) mild-flavored honey

pinch of salt

6 ounces (170g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

5 ounces (140g) milk chocolate, chopped (use one that’s at least 30% cacao solids)

1. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet, keeping the almond separate, and toast the nuts in a 350ºF (180ºC) oven, stirring a few times, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the hazelnuts are browned.

2. While they are roasting, warm the whole milk and powdered milk in a small saucepan with the honey and salt just until it starts to boil. Remove from heat.

3. In a clean, dry bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, or in a microwave oven, melt the chocolates together until smooth.

4. Once the nuts are well-toasted, remove them from oven and use a spatula to place the warm hazelnuts in a clean tea towel, then fold them inside the towel and rub them vigorously to remove any loose skins. They don’t need to be pristine; just try to get as much off as possible.

5. In a food processor, grind the warm hazelnuts and almonds until they’re as fine as possible. You may not be able to get them completely smooth, depending on your food processor. (I have a brand new one and even after five minutes, there were little bits of nuts in mine, which is normal.)

6. Add the melted chocolate and continue to process the mixture, stopping to scrape down the sides of the work bowl, as necessary.

7. Once the mixture is smooth, add the warm milk mixture and process until everything is well-combined.

8. Transfer the mixture into two jars and refrigerate until ready to use.

Storage: The Chocolate-Hazelnut Paste will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week.

see the original recipe, recipe notes and more photos here!

Valentine's Day Recipe #2: Heart Cake

being pregnant and entering my third trimester, i (unfortunately) have very little ambition to spend my time in the kitchen baking a four layer cake, so any valentine's day sweets i have this year will most likely be in a restaurant. but for those of you with a little more time and energy, and want to present a little showstopper to your friends or significant other, i hope you give this marvelous looking heart cake a try. just go here to view the recipes and tutorial! and if you do make it, enjoy a slice for me!

(from i am baker via black eiffel)

Valentine's Day Recipe #1: Chocolate Cracked Earth

I'm going to share a recipe my roommate and I made earlier for our birthdays. I should probably clarify by saying that my roommate made it and I ate it.
At the time, we had a surplus of eggs in our fridge - more than 30 - and I was completely overwhelmed. Each day at work I set aside time to research quiches, egg casseroles, frittatas, and other egg-consuming dishes. While I found some frittata and quiche recipes asking for as many as 6 eggs, nothing came close to this chocolate cake. It requests a whopping 9 eggs! Regardless of eggs needed, it really was quite delicious, rich, and dense. If you ever have so many eggs that you're starting to feel stressed and your boyfriend wants to throw them at a wall so you can finally stop talking about egg recipes, I would highly recommend this cake.

It's Tyler Florence's Flourless Chocolate Cake, featured on foodnetwork.com.

Cook Time : 25 min
Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients
1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 stick unsalted butter*
9 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
2 cups heavy cream, cold
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

Put the chocolate and butter into the top of a double boiler (or in a heatproof bowl) and heat over (but not touching) about 1 inch of simmering water until melted. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a mixing bowl until light yellow in color. Whisk a little of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture to temper the eggs - this will keep the eggs from scrambling from the heat of the chocolate - then whisk in the rest of the chocolate mixture.

Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form and fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is set, the top starts to crack and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it, 20 to 25 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes, then remove sides of pan.

While the cake is cooking, whip the cream until it becomes light and fluffy.

Serve at room temperature dusted with confectioners' sugar and topped with whipped cream.

Heart Shaped World Part 1

So Valentine's day is in the air, and we all know that we love our heart-shaped foods. This year, I'm trying to cut down. You know, I'm watching my womanly figure. So I'm going to pick one edible heart-shaped item and enjoy it wholeheartedly. The question is ... what shall it be?

First on the list to consider are heart-shaped cookies, chocolates, and donuts. They're just so yummy and cakey!

But suppose this year I want more than just the typical heart-shaped fare. I want complicated things! Like heart-shaped macaroons with raspberries stuffed in the filling, powdered sugar heart sandwiches with jammy filling, and heart-shaped pancakes!

On second thought, I think I'm more of a savory person. Shall I have an egg fried in a lovely heart shape? Millions of tiny heart-shaped pasta? Or hopefully not-so-burnt toast cut out to the shape of a heart?

I've found it! This is it - my one heart shaped food pick for the year. It's a pizza. Yes, an entire heart-shaped pizza. It's so beautiful.