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| Konnyaku Jelly Cups |
I usually bring my signature spinach dip and a baked good of some sort. But again, with time being short, I decided to bring heat & serve spinach and artichoke dip from Trader Joe's (not as good as mine!!) and finally have an occasion to make those konnyaku jelly cups that I was suppose to make for my sister's rehearsal dinner.
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| refreshing young coconut meat |
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| pandan-coconut, a really nice flavour combo |
I wanted to bring some Asian flavours into the jelly cups, so I did a pandan (screwpine) konnyaku jelly with young Thai coconut & a lychee konnyaku jelly with kiwi seeds and lychee fruit. Konnyaku jelly is made using powdered corm of the Konjac plant. In Japan, it is usually eaten as a savoury dish in oden (a soup dish). Anyway, powdered Konnyaku jelly mix is widely available in southeast Asia, much like Jell-O is in North America, and I had brought two boxes with me from Singapore (& the square cups too!).
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| lychee konnyaku with bits of lychee & reconstituted kiwi sees |
Making it is pretty simple. Just dissolve the konnyaku jelly powder in boiling water, and then pour immediately into moulds and add the fruit in before the jelly sets. Unlike Jell-O, konnyaku jelly sets at room temperature and doesn't melt out of refrigeration.
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| view from the top |
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| "alien"-looking desserts? |
But wait, remember, this post has "Chocolate Explosion Cake" in the title right? Yes, well, after we had come back from Loonie Gymnastics and I finished making the konnyaku jellies, I found that I still had 40 mins to spare before the potluck. So I figured, hey, let's make a quick cake and top it with whatever was lying around the house!
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| fresh blackberries with whipped dark chocolate chili ganache |
The cake is four layers of quick and easy chocolate sponge, with layers of Ovomaltine filling, whipped dark chocolate chili ganache, Callebaut dark and white chocolate Crispearls, and some fresh blackberries (cuz let's face it, we needed some fruit in there to break up all that chocolate!)
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| Chocolat Explosion Cake from above |
The cake had a dark chocolate chili ganache drip and was topped with whatever chocolate that I found lying around my parents' place (I didn't call this a Chocolate Explosion cake for nothing!): dark and white chocolate callets, dark chocolate mint Kit-Kats, vanilla Oreo Thins, broken up pieces of teal chocolate-Oreo pyramids, more dark and white chocolate Crispearls and blackberries. I added a dusting of Rolkem Super Gold for good measure. Boom! 40 mins later, Chocolate Explosion cake, done.
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| which treat would you grab first?? |
As usual, the barkada potluck had way. too. much. food.: homemade chicken wings in 4 flavours, butter chicken with naan, samosas, pizza, some kind of quinoa dish, spinach & artichoke dip with Breton crackers, homemade cranberry oatmeal cookies and a really spicy yam dish! Oh, and let's not forget the late addition of the pan-fried green beans and chow mein!
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| no room on the coffee table |
And then, of course, we had the two types of konnyaku jellies and the cake that I brought. My friends quite liked the konnyaku jelly, as it has an enjoyable "bouncy" texture, and can't really be found locally! Everyone had one of each flavour, and then some! But that's not all. These crazy people surprised us with a decadent vegan dark chocolate cake (which had me screaming for a glass of milk) to celebrate my and my son's birthday! It's a belated & early birthday cake, since my birthday was in August and my son's will be in Nov! but we won't be in town anymore by then. Haaaa crazy. Plus, who can ever say no to TWO slices of cake? Good times, barkada, good times.
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| belated & early birthday surprise cake! |
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| rich chocolate ganache roses |
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| a piece of Chocolate Explosion |
PS. I accidentally dropped my slice of Chocolate Explosion cake on the rug under the coffee table. I still ate it. It was still good. 5 second rule.
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