Homemade Magic Shell

Yummy note: 

My Secret Recipe Club blogger this month seems to have a lot of busy activities going on in her life, such as helping her oldest daughter start to plan a wedding, and keeping up with her other soccer star daughter! Loving Life takes an effort to reflect and make comfort, delicious-looking food for her family, while maintaining a busy lifestyle. Kirstin from Loving Life recently even started doing blog entries called The Simple Woman Daybook - which is pretty interesting as it has some good reflection time and as Kirstin says it makes her  "just stop and ponder, or slow down and be creative and intentional" - so true. I really liked that Kirstin was dong this, as we often get too busy with the busy-busy of our lives and forget to do that. Speaking of taking time to slow down, I think I add dessert to my routine every night to enforce that, haha. Even if it is a small piece of candy or a treat of sorts, the kids and I enjoy that few minutes of down time in the evening before getting ready for bed to enjoy dessert. Ice cream is always a hit here, and partially I think it is due to me getting to enjoy ice cream when I was younger, as that was something it seemed like we always had around. I vividly recall the Magic Shell topping that we used to use to make a hard turtle-like shell on our ice cream and then be able to crack it open and enjoy all that chocolate. My youngest is allergic to milk, so we've never been able to enjoy the real Magic Shell here, until now with Kirstin's recipe for homemade Magic Shell! What a great Secret Recipe Club recipe find, wahoo! This worked like a charm - just 2 ingredients, and in like minutes... who can complain about that?! No unnecessary processed ingredients like in the real stuff, but with oh, so much flavor! Mm, homemade Magic Shell is now a staple in my fridge, and my kids thank you !!  

Homemade Magic Shell 

original recipe here 

Ingredients: 
1 cup of good quality semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used a dairy-free brand- Guittard)
2 tsp of coconut oil

Directions: 
Slowly melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil in the microwave or on the stove top. Keep and eye on it, as you don't want it to overcook and burn, it really only takes just a few minutes. Stir the two together occasionally, like every 30 seconds or so, until it is completely melted and mixed together. Let the chocolate magic shell cool slightly and then pour over ice cream. Store in the fridge in a microwave-safe container. When you want to use it next, just reheating the magic shell until it is melted and use again. The magic shell solidifies pretty hard, so it is just easier to reheat in the same container when needed and then just put back in fridge when done.

Just 2 ingredients to make your own homemade magic shell - rock on!! 

Heat in the microwave or on the stove top, for just a few minutes, until melted. 

Melted and ready to use! 

 Here's to a dairy-free dark chocolate ice cream treat! 

Homemade Magic Shell solidified. It gets pretty solid, so it could be hard to scoop out just a small portion to use. So when ready to use again, remove from the fridge and just microwave it all in the same container.   

The homemade Magic Shell reheats beautifully time after time.
We've used it numerous times and each time it's been perfect. 

Enjoy!!

Here are some more of Loving Life's links that I can't wait to try out...Texas Caviar, Easy Artisan Bread, and this Mixed Berry Sorbet this summer! Make sure you check out all of the other\wonderful bloggers in our SRC. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Snow White Frosting

Yummy Note:

I am always looking for frosting recipes that are dairy-free, work well with decorating cakes, AND taste good. :) Sometimes, when you use a dairy-free alternative, that doesn't taste or act exactly like butter, you can get varying results. So I was excited when I came across this one from Wilton. I can't tell you how many times, I refer back to the Wilton site for the best results. Why mess with their expertise! So when I tried the Snow White Buttercream Icing recipe and realized it actually didn't have any real "butter" in it, and it was dairy-free, I was thrilled. This frosting holds up nicely, you can make it ahead of time, and I've had several compliments on it, noting that the taste of this frosting reminds them of old-school wedding cake frosting. I have used it as a thin layer under fondant, but it sets up and dries rather fast, so make sure you keep that in mind when frosting. A note is I have had maybe one bad run of this frosting, where it almost slid off the side of the cake. I am not sure if it was due to the heat, humidity, or perhaps if I added in too much corn syrup, but it wasn't pretty on about day 2 of my cake. However, the numerous other times, it worked great!   

 

 

 

Snow White Frosting

recipe from

http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Snow-White-Buttercream-Icing

Ingredients:
2/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons water, divided
1/4 cup meringue powder
12 cups sifted powdered sugar, (about 3 lbs.) divided
1 1/4 cups solid vegetable shortening
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon butter flavor

Directions:
In large bowl, sift all of the powdered sugar. Next, combine 2/3 cup of water and meringue powder together and mix at high speed until peaks form. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, at low speed. If you mix at a higher speed, you will end up with a powdered sugar dust storm and a big mess :)  Mix well, after each additional cup of sugar. After all of the sugar has been added, add the last 3 tablespoons of water, shortening and corn syrup to that and mix well. Add salt and flavorings last, and beat at low speed until smooth. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use, so it does not dry out.  For best results, store in refrigerator in an airtight container. The frosting can keep for about 2 weeks.

I don't have pictures of the actual frosting being made as I've always been in a rush when making it or forget. But I have how the finished cake and frosting is.

In our latest cake effort -
My daughter and I made a minion banana cake for my son's birthday and decorated it using this snow white frosting and fondant.