Chocolate & Raspberry Panna Cotta

I was recently charged with the almighty task of making my dad’s birthday dinner. Now, that by itself wouldn’t have been too bad. However,  things are never as simple as you want them to be. My mom, who has been going on about how my sister & I failed to get her something good for Mother’s Day, felt she needed a little something extra from us. & so my fate was sealed: prepare a three course meal that will please & impress both parents.

I panicked. Making the dinner for my dad’s birthday alone would have been fine, but you guys don’t know my mom. She loves baking, she loves cooking, she’s kinda hard to impress. I wasn’t all that worried about the starter & main course, but the dessert. Boy was I scared. You see, dessert is my thing. Yeah, I like cooking, but I much prefer baking & making sweet things rather than actual food. So this dessert had to be something awesome. Something that would impress my mom. 

For days I was constantly searching through websites & blogs & all my cookbooks for the perfect dessert. All I knew was that I wanted something that looked impressive, didn’t take ages to prepare, & tasted out of this world. Easy to find, ey? Hell no! Things were looking bleak, I was almost at the point of a breakdown. When nothing looked like it would ever be good again, the recipe for these Chocolate & Raspberry Panna Cotta desserts appeared on my dash.

Let’s see now:
Look impressive? Most definitely. 
Lengthy preparation? Reasonable when you consider the layering process. 
Other worldly taste? Chocolate & raspberry – when do they not taste good together!? 

These really impressed everyone, Dad loved them & Mom didn’t have anything bad to say (success!). To make the Panna Cotta look even better, I added several raspberries to the top of each glass & then grated some chocolate on top too. One word: yum.