M&M chocolate birthday cake

 

When I made my fiancé this chocolate birthday cake from the Outsider Tart cookery book the quantities given were so large that it made three big layers. I didn't need the cake to be that big so I put one of the layers in the freezer, and used it a few weeks later when I wanted a cake to take into work.

The cake broke a little while it was defrosting but otherwise was absolutely fine - this is a really good cake that includes Coca-Cola in the mixture!

 

I made some chocolate buttercream which I spread on the top and around the side of the cake. It does look a bit messy at the moment, but that won't matter!

To decorate this cake I decided to use up some things I had in the cupboard. I wanted to use things up and I also didn't have much time - we'd gotten back from a weekend away in Wiltshire and I only had the evening to do it before work the next day, and as we'd been away all weekend I had a lot of other things I needed to do!
I had some white chocolate fingers left over from this anti-gravity Easter cake but not quite enough to go around the whole cake, and I couldn't find any more white ones in the supermarket. So I decided to alternate with some milk chocolate fingers which I thought actually made a nice pattern and looked really good.

I also had some M&Ms and larger peanut M&Ms I wanted to use up as they had been hanging around for a while. As they were different types I decided to use some chocolate fingers to mark out sections on top of the cake, but actually the colours all blend together and I probably didn't need to do this.

Finally I tied a ribbon around the cake, which helped to keep the chocolate fingers upright. I was really pleased with this given it was a last minute job using up cake and chocolate I already had in the house!

F is for fingers - chocolate fingers - so I'm sharing this cake with Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker.

As I used up things I already had in the house this was a very cost-efficient cake so I'm sharing it with Credit Crunch Munch, hosted by Michelle at Utterly Scrummy on behalf of Helen and Camilla.

Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes

A neighbour gave us a box of Ferrero Rocher for Christmas, but my fiancé doesn't like them, and I'm trying to lose weight. Which is not to say I won't eat chocolate but I'm not going to open a box of chocolates and munch my way through them -even over a longer period. Friends and family have known that for a long time so never give me boxes of chocolates any more!

It was a very nice gesture by our neighbour though and I didn't want the goodies to go to waste, so hit upon the idea of using them in cupcakes. I wish I could say the idea was my own but I have come across them on the internet a few times and my good friend Ros has made them and posted the recipe on her site, The More Than Occasional Baker.

It was this recipe that I used when I went to see my family a few days before my birthday.

Ferrero Rocher, for anyone who hasn't had one before, consist of a whole hazelnut surrounded by wafer, a 'velvety filling', smooth milk chocolate and finely chopped hazelnut pieces. The box also included three Ferrero Rondnoir, "a delicious combination of tastes and textures from fine wafer and rich velvety cocoa filling to a dark chocolate covered hazelnut at its heart", and three Raffaello - "delicate layers of wafer, an elegant velvety centre and a toasted almond, all finished with a sprinkling of coconut".

To recreate the Ferrero Rocher taste the cupcakes have a whole Ferrero Rocher baked inside! They consist of a chocolate cake, with Nutella frosting, topped with chopped nuts and drizzled with chocolate. Ros did two types of frosting on top of hers and topped them with a whole Ferrero Rocher but I didn't have enough of the chocolates to do this and decided a whole Ferrero Rocher was a big so instead I piped a swirl of buttercream, which I made from just icing sugar, butter and Nutella, sprinkled the chopped nuts over the top and then drizzled over some Choc Shot - this is a liquid chocolate that is designed to be used as a hot chocolate drink and has 85% less fat than leading brands of solid chocolate - but what I also like about it is that it's great to drizzle on cakes and desserts.

Check out the link above for the recipe itself which I followed other than the tweaks described above. Here's how I made the cakes:

 

Mixing up the batter

Here I've spooned a little of the cake mixture into each cake case then popped a Ferrero Rocher into the bottom of each cupcake case - I used gold cases to mimic the chocolate wrappers.

 

After filling up the cake cases and baking in the oven

 

Piping the Nutella buttercream on top in swirls with a star nozzle

Chopped nuts and Choc Shot

 

The cupcakes in all their glory

 

 

 I'm sharing this with Alphabakes, the blog challenge hosted by myself and Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker - we have come to the end of the alphabet for the second time and our final letter is F.

 

 I'm also sharing this with Treat Petite, hosted by Stuart at Cakeyboi and Kat the Baking Explorer. They probably would have fit better with last month's theme which was favourite sweets and chocolate but this month their theme is picnics. I took these down to my parents' house and they travel fine in a tin so while they might mean you need a wet wipe for your fingers I don't think there's any reason why you couldn't take these on a picnic!

Finally I'm sending these to Love Cake, hosted by Ness at JibberJabberUK. Her theme is 'signature bakes' and while I don't have one particular cake that I'm known for as I make something different every time, that's actually my signature - I'm known for unusual cakes, showstoppers and turning everyday sweets, chocolate and snacks into cake, which is what I've done here!

 

 

 

Alphabakes Roundup April 2016 - T

 

 

We didn’t have many entries for this month’s Alphabakes, but I’m certainly not complaining as wedding planning hasn’t left me much time! I have been baking a bit this month though as several people have had birthdays (myself included!). The letter we were using this month was T.

 

I took part in a chocolate truffle-making workshop with Farfetch a few weeks ago which was good fun (and the cocktails they made us were to die for), so I decided to share the result with this challenge. You can see my truffles and how I made them here.

  

 

The second entry into this month’s Alphabakes challenge was also one from me. My fiancé loves chocolate so I made him an indulgent chocolate birthday cake, filled and covered with chocolate ganache, and decorated with Cadbury Twirl Bites (which was my letter T). The cake contained some unusual ingredients – Coca Cola and melted marshmallows – and it tasted amazing!

 

 

  

 My mum Jacqueline made a tangerine pound cake, which she says is like an orange drizzle cake, with grated tangerine rind in the cake mix, and a drizzle of butter ,sugar,brandy and tangerine juice on top, which soaks into the cake.

 

Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker is my co-host for Alphabakes; she made these Toffee Crisp cookies baking one of my favourite chocolate bars into a cookie, and says they were so good she had to make two batches as they disappeared so quickly!

 

 

 

This Darjeeling pecan tea loaf comes from Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen. She initially chose the recipe to use up some marmalade and substituted a different type of tea; she says the result is 'subtly scented'.

 

 

 

I’ve only used tahini when making houmous before so was interested to see this recipe for a date and tahini slice from Suelle at Mainly Baking. She says the slice was pleasant to eat, and the flavours of dates, coconut and sesame seeds blended together well, but the amount of ground ginger used was hardly noticeable, and it might have worked better as a cookie. Still looks good to me!

 

These mini Toad in the Holes are gluten free – Kate at the Gluten Free Alchemist used sorghum, tapioca and corn flours, which she said are easy to source. She also points out that gluten-free sausages tend to have a higher meat content!
 

 

 

 

Another savoury dish now from Charlottes Lively Kitchen – wild mushroom and garlic tagliatelle. It’s really quick to make so great for a mid-week dinner and under 250 calories per serving.
 

 

 

Finally we have these unusual purple matcha nanaimo bars from Stuart at Cakeyboi. Matcha is a type of tea which is where the letter T comes in. Nanaimo bars have a biscuit base, covered with coconut, cocoa and nuts with a custard filling; Stuart added the matcha into the custard which he says imparted a delicate tea flavour to the mix.

Thanks to everyone who entered; Ros at The More Than Occasional Baker is hosting our final alphabet letter in May - can you remember what it is?

 

Chocoholic Birthday Cake with Cadbury Twirl

My fiancé is a total chocoholic so for his birthday this month I wanted to make him an awesome chocolate cake. I have a lot of baking books and they pretty much all have chocolate cake recipes - so where to start?

I realised I hadn't baked anything from my Outsider Tart book, Baked in America, for a little while. Outsider Tart is a bakery in Chiswick that is meant to be amazing, though I've never actually been there (even though I live in a different London borough it would take me about an hour and a half to get there - but I'm starting to think it might be worth the trip!). The bakery is run by two Americans who have brought a lot of new techniques to their baking and new ideas to 'bridge the culinary divide'. What they have also done is provide some amazingly decadent, delicious recipes that approach baking in ways that you wouldn't necessarily have thought of.

The cake I made is called "Coke layers" and is on p175 of their book Baked in America. I know that it's possible to reproduce a recipe on a blog, because the original author can copyright the ingredients but not the way they have described the method, but in a way this cake is as much about the method as the ingredients so I wouldn't feel quite right reproducing it without their permission (if I get around to asking and getting permission I will update this post!). After all, have you ever made a chocolate cake using buttermilk, oil, AND butter and 5 eggs.... but more to the point, using marshmallows and Coca-Cola?

I'm going to share with you some of the process I went through. The recipe makes three layers of cake, and half way through adding the ingredients I realised I was going to end up with a LOT of cake -far too much in fact as I was only catering for a meal with my fiancé's parents, not a huge party (that will come next year, when he's 40!).

Starting off by melting butter with the Coca Cola

adding marshmallows and chocolate

Mixing the sugar, oil and vanilla

Here it is after adding the eggs - all 5 of them

Now adding in the cooled chocolate mixture

Two layers about to go in the oven

After baking - three giant layers of cake!

I made a ganache from melted chocolate and sour cream and spread it between two layers

I spread more on top and decorated the top with Twirl Bites

I then decided it needed ganache around the side and more Twirl Bites on top!

I actually ended up with all three layers of the cake baked and decided it was just too big and put one layer in the freezer! I also used self-raising flour rather than plain flour and raising agents, and milk chocolate rather than plain - which would have made the cake sweeter but actually it wasn't an incredibly sweet cake in itself, but the icing was. Mmm, the icing....

I made the chocolate sour cream fudge frosting from the same book to spread in between the layers and on the to, then ran out of sour cream so made a chocolate ganache with double cream which I spread around the sides. I then decorated the top with Cadbury Twirl bites as they were the perfect little chunks of chocolate - slightly unevenly shaped and 'rock' like which appealed to me for this cake.

My fiancé absolutely loved the cake and said it was one of the best I've ever made and I'm inclined to agree. It was light and moist; the cake itself wasn't too sweet but the icing was deliciously decadent.

As I used Twirl on top I'm sharing this with Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker as the letter I've chosen is T.

I'm also sharing this with Love Cake, hosted by Ness at JibberJabberUK. Her chosen ingredient this month is things you can drink, and this cake includes Coca-Cola.

Chocolate Truffle Making with Farfetch

Photo courtesy of Farfetch

When a company called Farfetch invited me to a chocolate making evening I assumed they were a confectionery company, or perhaps one that ran different 'experience days' for hen nights and parties. So I was a bit surprised to find out that Farfetch is a luxury designer fashion retailer with an interesting USP - they bring together over 400 fashion boutiques from around the world onto one website, but rather than hold any stock, when you order your items are delivered directly from the boutique.

 

Fashionistas obviously do eat chocolate because they invited me and a group of other food bloggers and lifestyle bloggers to a chocolate truffle making lesson in their beautiful offices. I've made truffles several times before and even went to the Chocolate Hotel in Bournemouth for a chocolate weekend so I pretty much knew what I was doing but it was still a fun experience.

 

The lesson was taken by Lisa Marley of the Cocoa Box, who was a great tutor. She explained how chocolate is made and got us to taste different pieces before we sat down to the task of truffle making while drinking amazing chocolate martinis.



Photo courtesy of Farfetch

I was paired up with Vicky from Being Tilly's Mummy (which was funny as my cat - my own little baby - is called Tilly) and we decided to flavour our chocolate truffles with alcohol (I think it was brandy), the other option being mint which I don't like.

 

 

We added cream to chocolate that had already been melted and found that even after just a minute of stirring, the mixture had already become very thick and stiff. We spooned it into large piping bags - this is much easier to do in pairs - and piped it out into thick lines which made some people giggle!

We were advised to cut the lines into pieces and roll each piece between our fingertips to make a ball, rather than rolling in the palms of our hands as this would melt the chocolate. I found that I didn't need to roll it at all and instead could just shape it into a ball by pressing gently.

We made quite a lot of mess!

We decorated our truffles in different ways, dipping into melted chocolate, or rolling in cocoa powder, chocolate vermicelli or raspberry flavour sprinkles. The Cocoa Box provided us with a selection of bags and boxes to take our truffles home in, just in time for Easter!

I'm sharing these truffles with Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter I have chosen this month is T.

Thanks to Farfetch for inviting me to the event