Chocolate

Eggy birthday cake!

~ raychel7 ~ Leave a comment


Happy birthday to my sister-in-law Cleo!!! I made a Victoria sponge and jazzed it up with chocolate fingers and mini eggs. Top tip: go to Pound Land for the eggs and fingers and make a lot more buttercream than you think you need. 

Tiffin

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It’s Tiffin time! Technically this does not count as a bake, it’s more of a smash and melt. Yum. To make these glorious beauties you need: 

  • Half a packet of digestive biscuits
  • 4 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 big squeezes of golden syrup
  • 120g butter
  • Handful of sultanas
  • 200g dark chocolate

Melt the butter, sugar, syrup and cocoa powder together to make a delicious chocolate butter. Smash the biscuits to within an inch of their being- but leave some big bits because everyone likes chunks. It’s just a fact. Mix the crushed biscuits into the chocolate butter and throw a handful of sultanas in. Mix and press into a shallow lined baking tin. Melt the chocolate and pour on top. Allow to cool at room temperature and then pop in the fridge to solidify properly. Using a sharp knife, divide the tiffin into yummy sized pieces. Takes about an hour to solidify. 

Happy Tiffin day people!!! It’s really nice on top of ice cream. 

Double chocolate cookies 

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This cold January night calls for some double chocolate cookies. For anyone who’s doing a healthy new year thing, it’s worth scrapping it for this treat. You barely need any ingredients, it doesn’t break the bank (just good habits). To make these delicious beauts, you need: 

  • 200g dark chocolate 
  • 50g unsalted butter
  • 1 tin of condensed milk
  • 225g self raising flour
  • white chocolate buttons 

Melt the chocolate and butter together and mix in the rest. I know. That’s it. Lazzzzzyyy. Place the mixture in the freezer for five minutes and prepare a baking tray with parchment. Make small balls with the mixture and pop on the tray with good spaces between them. The mixture tends to spread in the oven. I always put extra white chocolate buttons on top of each cookie. Gives a sense of occasion in my opinion. Bake for 15 minutes at 160 degrees. They are done when they have spread and sort of cracked. My advice is eat them warm with a blob of ice cream. Goodbye rubbish January. 

Caramel Shortbread 

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I haven’t had a great track record with caramel shortbread. I’ve burnt the caramel and struggled to get the shortbread off the tray etc. However. That time in my life is over and I now welcome my new and improved self. Behold, my successful caramel shortbread following James Morton’s recipe online. Dead simple and dirt cheap to make. 


Check out those layers !

My tips for avoiding caramel shortbread disasters:

  • Watch your shortbread in the oven and don’t let it go too dark around the edges 
  • Don’t over handle the shortbread dough- just bring it together and avoid excessive play
  • Constantly stir the caramel on a medium heat, if you see dark brown bits bubbling up – whisk them away! 
  • Use your nose to check it’s not burning
  • Don’t put the chocolate in the fridge once layered on top of the caramel- leave to cool at room temperature for excellent shine
  • Line the tin with paper, so much easier than butter. Less risky!
  • Don’t forget to buy the condensed milk (I always forget!)

This recipe uses salted butter for the shortbread and the caramel- I have to say NOM! Wouldn’t be the same without the salt. 

http://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/the-ultimate-millionaires-shortbread

BB-8 birthday cake!

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I made a coffee and walnut cake smothered in dark chocolate ganache for my boyfriend’s birthday. Matt is a huge Star Wars fan and fell in love with BB-8 when the film was released. I saw this as an excellent cake challenge. To make this cake, I used a half sphere cake tin and baked two halves and stuck them together. Icing the sphere was quite tricky but nailed it in the end! Several orange shapes later and a good dusting and BB-8 looked mucky enough to me. 🙂

I popped a candle in BB-8’s belly to give him his ‘thumbs up’. The birthday cake went down pretty well, check out the birthday boy!

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Check out this link for tips on making a BB-8 cake:

Hobbies cake!

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blog may

My dad turned 60 at the end of April and to celebrate I made him a very sticky chocolate cake. I have decided that this is my favourite chocolate recipe (see link below) and it’s LOADED with chocolate ganache. I decorated my dad’s cake with a sprinkling of his hobbies… scrap booking, dinosaurs, bird watching, being nosey (hence the binoculars) and a love of cars. My dad also has an unusual habit of placing glacĂ© cherries on top of any starter he makes for fancy dinner parties… prawn cocktails, crab cakes, you name it, if he can float, balance or wedge a glacĂ© cherry on it then it will be present! Naturally, I respectfully put a cherry on top…..

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3092/ultimate-chocolate-cake