15 Simple Ways to Ease Your Mochi Craving at Home

Red Wine Pear Cake With Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

Pears

• 3-4 firm Bosc pears
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups red wine
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3-4 whole cloves or 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Cake

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 full-fat coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 11 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups coconut sugar
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 teaspoon pink salt
• 1/2 cup 85% dark chocolate chips or bar broken into small pieces
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup gluten-free or regular all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Ganache

• 2/3 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup full-fat coconut milk or heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons reserved spiced wine (see recipe notes)

Directions:

1. Peel the skin off the pears and remove the stems, seeds, and core. Slice in half. Add water, red wine, cinnamon, and cloves into a saucepan and place the pears in the liquid. Bring the wine mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Let simmer for 20 minutes, until the pears are tender. Remove the pears from red wine and let cool. Continue simmering until sauce is reduced, and reserve 2 tablespoons for the chocolate ganache.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Grease two 9-inch springform cake pans with butter or oil and set aside.
4. Whisk two eggs in a separate bowl and set aside.
5. In a small bowl, add the coconut milk and apple cider vinegar and whisk thoroughly. Let sit for at least 5 minutes.
6. In a separate saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Whisk in the coconut sugar then remove from heat and add in the red wine and salt until well mixed. Quickly add in the dark chocolate pieces and stir constantly until the chocolate is melted. Pour the vanilla extract in and whisk again.
7. Add about one third of the chocolate mixture to the whisked eggs. Mix thoroughly and then pour back into a mixing bowl with the rest of the chocolate mixture.
8. Add in coconut milk mixture, cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, and baking soda, and mix until well combined.
9. Pour the cake batter into two greased cake pans.
10. Slice wine-poached pear halves in quarters and place in your desired design on top of the cake batter in the cake pans.
11. Bake the cakes for 20-30 minutes.
12. While cakes are baking, add the dark chocolate and coconut milk or heavy cream to a small saucepan. Heat on low until the chocolate is melted, whisking so that it is well mixed. Add in the reserved wine sauce and whisk again. Remove from heat and set aside.
13. Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool completely before removing them from the springform pans. Place one cake on a cake platter or stand, and drizzle some chocolate ganache on top. Then place the second cake on top of the first and pour the remaining chocolate ganache over the top.

Introducing Trader Joe’s Sprinkle Cake Bites: bite-sized cake balls baked with a “rich and moist” batter, coated in a white confectionary coating, and tossed in adorable little multicolored sprinkles to maximize snacking joy. Yeah, I’m already obsessed.

Trader Joe’s crafted their new Sprinkle Cake Bites out of the belief that cake is just too good a dessert to wait for birthdays and anniversaries to eat it – and I wholeheartedly agree. Their small size makes everyday indulgence a possibility, though knowing myself, I could easily eat the entire box!

Now, I’m clearly not one to deny myself something sweet, and my sugar cravings get especially enticed when I roll up to the Starbucks drive-thru for a caffeinated pick-me-up. More often than not, I’ll leave the establishment with not only my typical iced latte, but also a cake pop in-hand. All their cake pops are so delicious, but I also know they’re not necessarily great for my health (or my wallet).

Great news, though: while a singleStarbucks cake popcosts $3.25, this 6-pack (yes, 6!) of Trader Joe’s Sprinkle Cake Bites is just $3.99. Plus, on average, Starbucks’ cake pops (varying flavors) also contain 160 calories and 16 grams of sugar, while one of the Trader Joe’s Sprinkle Cake Bites has 120 calories and 13 grams of sugar. The only thing that’s missing from TJ’s iteration is the stick.

The Trader Joe’s Sprinkle Cake Bites will definitely be on regular rotation in my kitchen, starting now. In addition to mid-workday snacking, I’ll also be snagging some boxes for friends’ birthdays and to share at this year’s Galentine’s Day party!

Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt joined Good Morning Americaon January 15, 2025 to talk about how the L.A. fires continue to impact them. The couple shared what it was like having to quickly leave their home in a moment's notice. Heidi explained that Spencer told her to grab anything she wanted to keep, so she ended up grabbing her kids' teddy bears because she was so flustered.

When their $2.5 million home actually caught fire, Spencer got choked up talking about watching their kids' rooms burn on their cameras. He said, "Our son’s bed started just burning in the shape of a heart. The fire started in the shape of a heart. I was like, ‘This is like, out of body insane.’"

Outside of that, the couple detailed the loss beyond the material items of it all. Spencer opened up about the memories lost throughout it all, too. He said, “I feel like a ghost. I don’t have a single photo now from before an iPhone existed. I don’t have any of the dumb little things that are on your shelves in your parents’ they’re all gone. Not a single nothing.”

And to Heidi, their home was more than a physical place to live. She shared, “It’s a place that you love that you live, it’s a refuge from the world. And to have that be gone, it’s a really difficult concept to continue to daily deal with."

In the midst of the devastation, fans and friends have banded together to support Heidi and Spencer in a really unique way. After Spencer posted on TikTok that people should stream Heidi's 2010 album Superficial, so they can generate revenue to rebuild their lives with, people took that and ran with it. The song eventually hit #1 on iTunes, and Spencer even shared that there's potential for it to hit Billboard's Hot 100 Dance Chart, too.

And it's not just fans blasting this throwback song. Friends and fellow celebrities like Paris Hilton and Flava Flav both posted the song on TikTok. Plus, former The Hills co-stars shared the song as well, including Brody Jenner, Kristin Cavallari, and Audrina Patridge.

Heidi said, “The fan support has been such a light in such a darkness for us. It’s life-changing.”

We're sending love to Heidi and Spencer — and all the families impacted by the terrible L.A. fires this year.