Chocolate Football Cake

Are you watching the World Cup, and which team are you supporting?

I made this football cake in honour of the World Cup and the only fitting place to photograph it was on the grass!

Yes, this is a cake!

I have got the Wilton Sports Ball pan and thought the World Cup was the perfect opportunity to use it. Unfortunately it was only after I mixed the cake batter and went to look for the tin that I realised it was in my storage unit. It was such a long time ago that I put my house on the market - back in February - and we wanted to declutter to make it look nicer for the viewings. At the time I couldn't think of anything I would need the sports ball pan for, as I thought we would have moved in to the new place by May, or perhaps at a push June. Now we are in July and having just been told that the people whose house we are buying are away next week, then the woman buying my house is away the week after, we now won't be moving until August. And the most annoying thing is we don't have a holiday booked as we didn't think we could go away during this process, though it seems nobody else shared that view!

I had my cake batter and no cake tin so decided instead to use a pyrex bowl. I had to then double the batter and it has meant that the cake is quite big! Decorating it wasn't very easy either but I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.

The recipe I used was Hershey's "perfectly chocolate" cake which you can find online here. To be honest I wasn't that impressed with it; it may have been down to the extended cooking time but the texture was a bit odd. It tasted good though!

As I said, I doubled the quantities. For one cake - or in this case, one half of the football - you need:

2 cups caster sugar

1 3/4 cups self-raising flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla flavouring

1 cup boiling water

 Ingredients for the chocolate ganache filling given below.

Preheat oven to 175C. Mix the sugar, flour, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl. Mix the eggs, milk and vegetable oil in a jug and gradually pour into the dry ingredients, mixing well. Finally add the vanilla and carefully stir in the boiling water until you have a thin chocolatey batter.

Spray the pyrex dish with Cake Release (the quantity of cake batter shown here is about a litre) and pour the cake mixture into the dish. Bake in the preheated oven for an hour and a half - it takes a long time as the cake is so deep. If the top starts to burn, cover with foil.

When the cake is cooked, cool in the dish then turn out. As I didn't have my Wilton sports ball tin but wanted to make a round cake, I had to repeat this whole process to make the other half. Of course, you could just decorate half the football and it would still look good!

I made a chocolate ganache for the filling, by melting 100g of plain chocolate in 100ml of double cream in a saucepan and stirring until smooth and glossy. Leave to cool in the fridge until thickened.

I used a spoon to remove a little of the centre of the cake and spooned about a quarter of the chocolate ganache inside. Don't go too deep or too wide as the cake needs to be really stable and strong as you are going to put the other half of the cake on top, and they are quite heavy!

Spread another quarter of the chocolate ganache over the base of the cake and repeat with the other cake so you have used almost all the chocolate ganache. Reserve a little bit to stick on the fondant.

Carefully place one half of the cake on top of the other then place the cake on a cake board.

I had in mind the traditional black and white hexagon pattern to decorate the football but was told afterwards this design hasn't been used on professional footballs for a long time - apparently the different panels made the ball less aerodynamic. Either way, I still think this is the most immediately recognisable football design so that's what I wanted for my cake.

I bought some black roll-out fondant and already had white at home. I made a hexagon template out of card and cut around that to make several pieces.

I put a little of the leftover chocolate ganache on each piece and started at the top and worked my way down. As I got towards the bottom some of the hexagon pieces didn't quite fit properly so the cake looks good from a distance but not so perfect close up!

Stuck In The Tree is a bingo review site that is about having fun online and off; they are running a 'bakespiration' competition so I am sending them my cake in the hope they will include it in their gallery.

 I am also sending this to Chris at Cooking Around the World for the final of his World Cup challenge; the idea has been to make something from each of the participating countries which strictly speaking I haven't done with this cake, but hopefully he will agree that a football cake is fitting for the day of the final!

Brazilian Coconut Chicken

Brazil is playing the Netherlands in the World Cup third place playoffs today. Did you see Brazil's amazing (ly bad) game against Germany? Nonetheless Brazil is the host country so I wanted to make one more of their national dishes in honour of the occasion. This is Brazilian coconut chicken; a sort of South American curry and the recipe comes from All Recipes.

To serve 2, you need:

2 chicken breasts

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp coriander

1 tbsp olive oil

salt, pepper

Fry Light or 1 tbsp oil

half an onion, chopped (which I left out as my boyfriend doesn't like it)

1 green chilli, seeded and chopped (also left out!)

1 tsp minced ginger

200ml coconut milk

the recipe says to use 3 chopped tomatoes for 4 people; I don't like fresh tomatoes and didn't want to open a tin so used 1 tbsp tomato puree which worked really well in this recipe

Mix the cumin, turmeric, coriander, salt, pepper and oil in a small bowl and use to coat the chicken breasts.

Chop the chicken breasts into chunks, heat some oil in a pan and fry the onion, chilli and chicken, until the chicken is cooked through.

Add the ginger, coconut milk and tomatoes or tomato puree, stir gently until well combined and simmer until the sauce has reduced.

Serve with rice and enjoy.

I'm sending this to Chris at Cooking Around The World for his World Cup challenge.

Steak with Chimmichurri

Still on the theme of meals inspired by the World Cup, here's something that I would happily eat at any time.Chimmichurri is a green sauce served with meat such as steak and is a typical dish in Argentina. It is made with chopped parsley, garlic, olive oil, oregano and white wine vinegar. All you do is crush the garlic and chop the parsley and mix everything in a small bowl. I did use a recipe but you can also adjust the quantities to taste - I did a tablespoon of chopped parsley, one clove of garlic, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp dried oregano and 1 tbsp vinegar. Mix well.

 

Cook the steak to your liking and serve with the sauce over the top. Serve with chips, obvs.

 

I'm sending this to Chris at Cooking Around the World for his World Cup challenge.

Beef and Black Bean Stew

Having a slow cooker is very useful, as it means I can put something on in the morning and come home to a meal that would have taken ages to cook otherwise. In the spirit of the World Cup, I found a Brazilian recipe for a beef and black bean stew.

I had a packet of cubed stewing beef that I put in the slow cooker along with half a can of black beans, a large squeeze of tomato puree, a small squeeze of garlic puree, a quarter of a teaspoon of chilli powder, half an onion (chopped) and two cups of water.

I put the slow cooker onto 'auto' setting, which means it cooks for about 4 hours then keeps the food warm until you are ready to eat.

I served it with some Jersey royal potatoes and vegetables, though I guess rice might have been more traditional.

I'm sending this to Chris at Cooking Around The World for his World Cup challenge.

Sole Meuniere

The World Cup is still taking place - not for England of course - so I am still making dishes from countries that are competing.

Sole Meuniere is a classic Belgian dish - it's also French I think, but I found a website declaring it was Belgian so that's good enough for my purposes. Either way, it's a lovely way to cook a piece of fish.

The word 'meuniere' comes from the French for miller's wife and it means the fish is cooked in the way the miller's wife would have done, which is lightly dusted with flour and pan fried in a little butter.


The only sole I could find was already coated in flour so I didn't need to do much. I sprayed a pan with Fry Light and cooked the fish on both sides for just a couple of minutes then added a knob of butter, a squeeze of lemon juice and a spoonful of capers from a jar.

Serce with frites and enjoy!

I'm sending this to Chris at Cooking Around the World for his World Cup challenge.

 

Pionono Dulce de Leche

As the World Cup is taking place at the moment I have been looking for recipes from the different nations taking part. I looked on Google for Argentinian recipes and found Pionono Dulce de Leche, a kind of Swiss roll with a caramel filling, which I thought looked really nice.

In the past I've bought a tin of Carnation Dulce de Leche when I've needed it for a recipe, but my small local supermarkets don't stock it. They only have condensed milk, but I discovered from the internet that you can actually make your own Dulce de Leche from condensed milk - all you really need to do is cook it until it thickens.

There are various ways to do it. There is the oven method: pour the tin of condensed milk into an oven proof dish and cover it with foil, then place that dish in a roasting tray and pour in hot water so it comes half way up the side of the pan. Bake it at 200C for anywhere between an hour and an hour and a half, topping up the water if necessary. 

The pan method: take the label off the tin and use a corkscrew or similar to make three holes in the top of the can, spaced evenly apart. Put the tin in a saucepan and fill with water three quarters of the way up the sides of the can. Bring to the boil then simmer for 4 hours. Allow to cool before opening the tin.

The microwave method: this is what I did as it is by far the quickest, though you will get a more lumpy texture; it's fine once you whisk it though. Pour the condensed milk into a microwave-proof dish and cover with cling film, then cook on medium for 2 minutes at a time, stirring each time, until the mixture has thickened - I found it took about 8 minutes but it will depend on the power of your microwave.

I used a recipe from About.com for the cake. I didn't make the caramel frosting though due to lack of time. I also didn't have any cream so rather than mixing the dulce de leche with cream for the filling, I used it as it was.

You need:
4 eggs, separated
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup dulce de leche

Line a Swiss roll pan with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 180C. Separate the eggs and whip the egg whites in a bowl until you have soft peaks. Add 1/4 cup of the sugar to the egg whites and beat until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until pale and tripled in volume. Add the vanilla. Fold the dry ingredients into the egg yolk mixture then fold in the egg whites. Spread into the Swiss roll tin.

Bake for 10 minutes then turn out the cake onto a clean tea towel or another piece of greaseproof paper and peel off the greaseproof paper from the back of the cake.

Allow to cool, then unroll, spread with the dulce de leche and roll back up.

 Slice to serve. I left mine a bit too long before I tried to roll it up so it broke up a bit! It tasted good though I found the cake part had a slightly grainy texture I assume from the ground almonds and next time I would be tempted to leave that out and use more flour. The homemade dulce de leche was very good!

The letter I have chosen for Alphabakes this month is D, and since dulce de leche is the main ingredient in this cake I am including it in the roundup.

I'm also sending this to Chris at Cooking Around the World for his World Cup blogging challenge.

Piri Piri Chicken

I've made peri peri chicken before which I think is a South African recipe- at least Nando's, which is famous for its peri peri chicken, is a South African restaurant chain. I wanted to make something to represent Portugal for Chris's Bloggers Around The World challenge and when I browsed for Portuguese recipes on the internet, I came across several piri piri chicken recipes. I'm not sure how much of a difference there is between peri peri and piri piri and wonder if anyone can enlighten me?

I wanted a simple recipe that I could make for a quick week night dinner and used this one from Taste.com.  and adapted it as this recipe was to marinade a whole chicken and I wanted to use breasts. To serve two, you need:

2 chicken breasts

1 clove garlic, crushed, or a squeeze of garlic paste

1cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped or a squeeze of ginger paste (a great timesaver!)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Put all the ingredients other than the chicken in a bowl and mix well.

Marinade the chicken either for a few hours or overnight. If you don't have time to do that, you can even cook the chicken straight away and it will still have a lovely flavour. Bake in a preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes until the chicken is cooked, which will depend on how large the pieces are. I sliced my chicken breasts through the middle to have four thin pieces.

The cooked chicken

I served the chicken in buns to make a quick, spicy and importantly fairly low-fat chicken burger. It was really nice and definitely had a bit of a kick!

I'm sending this to Chris at Cooking Around the World for his World Cup blog challenge.

Ecuadorian Potato Cakes with Peanut Butter Sauce

Quite a strange flavour combination, I hear you say... and you would be right, but it does taste good!

I came across this recipe for the simple reason that I was googling recipes from countries participating in the World Cup and this was one of the first ones I found for Ecuador. It sounded interesting, so I thought why not..... I wasn't overly impressed by the potato cakes themselves but the flavour combination with the peanut butter was a lot better than I expected.

All quantities are rough as I was making plain mashed potato for my boyfriend at the same time and used half of it for these llapingachos, or Ecuadorian potato cakes. I adapted the recipe a little.


For the potato cakes:
around 3 large or 6 small white potatoes, enough for 2 people, boiled and mashed then allowed to cool
half an onion, diced
1 tbsp oil
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup grated cheese
 1/4 green pepper, diced

For the peanut sauce:
half an onion, thinly sliced
1 cup milk
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
salt, pepper


Boil the potatoes and then mash. You need them to be cool enough to handle so either make these an hour or so before your meal or mash them the day before.

Start making the peanut butter sauce at the same time as the potato cakes- see below.

Fry the onion and green pepper in the oil then put in a large bowl with the mashed potato. Keep the frying pan on the stove as you will use it in a minute. Add the egg yolk and grated cheese and mix well. Using either a wooden spoon or your hands, take a large spoonful or handful of the mixture and press down into the frying pan. Cook for 5 minutes on both sides until browned.

To make the peanut sauce, place the sliced onion and milk in a small pan. Bring the milk to a simmer and simmer gently for ten minutes to infuse the milk with the onion flavour.

Remove from the heat and strain to remove the onion then stir in the peanut butter. Return to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring, until the mixture thickens, which will only take a couple of minutes.

Spoon the peanut sauce over the potato cakes to serve.

I'm sending this to Chris at Cooking Around the World who has an innovative blog challenge based on the World Cup. Ecuador is playing tonight hence the recipe!

Posh Cheese on Toast

 

 Cheese on toast is a quick and easy snack but sometimes seems a little bit plain. I found a recipe online which inspired what I am calling 'posh' cheese on toast.

To serve one person as a substantial lunch, you need two pieces of bread; pop them in the toaster just before the cheese mixture is ready.

Thinly slice half a leek and sweat it in some butter.

Add 1 tbsp plain flour and stir in then pour in about 150ml milk and stir until blended. Bring to the boil then simmer until the mixture has started to thicken. Add a handful of grated cheddar and half a teaspoon of English mustard powder.

When the mixture has thickened, add a few lumps of soft goat's cheese and stir in until melted.

Pile the cheese mixture onto the toast and serve.

I really liked the texture of having almost a very thick sauce on my toast and the taste was excellent.

I'm sending this to Chris at Cooking Around the World who has an innovative blog challenge based on the World Cup. England are playing tonight - literally right now, I've got one eye on the TV and one eye on my laptop (OK, I'm not much of a football fan)! I guess this recipe is arguably more of a Welsh rarebit but it uses English mustard and to me, cheese on toast reminds me very much of my childhood in Wiltshire.

I'm also sending this to Eat Your Greens, a new blog challenge hosted by Shaheen at Allotment2Kitchen. This month you can send in anything using a green veg.

Extra Veg, hosted by Michelle at Utterly Scrummy and Helen at Fuss Free Flavours, is a good challenge for me to enter with this cheese on toast as well, as it sneaks in a portion of veg which you barely notice, it's so yummy!