Chocolate Salted Caramel Christmas Pudding

Chocolate Salted Caramel Christmas Pudding - scroll down for the full recipe. Read on to find out how I developed the idea and created the melting middle.....

Stir-Up Sunday is the last Sunday before Advent begins and when families traditionally make their Christmas pudding. The idea is that everyone has a go at stirring the mixture and making a wish.

 

For any non-UK readers the idea of Christmas pudding might seem a bit strange. It’s actually a cake of sorts, but steamed rather than baked. It contains dried fruit, spices like cinnamon and ginger, and alcohol – the fruit is often soaked in brandy, and traditionally when the pudding is served, brandy is poured over the top and set alight.

 

I’ve never actually made a Christmas pudding before so when I was asked by Waitrose to come up with a recipe for a Christmas pudding with a twist, I was a little daunted. But I like a challenge, and more importantly the excuse to finally have a go at making a Christmas pudding, even if it wasn’t going to be a traditional one.

 

My recipe turned out really well; whether you make this or follow your great-grandmother’s recipe that has been handed down through the years, don’t forget that November 22 is Stir-Up Sunday! And if you forget, or don’t have time, then get yourself down to Waitrose and buy one of their Christmas puddings!

 

Thinking about what kind of twist I could add prompted several ideas, ranging from Christmas pudding cake pops to adding something like orange and Cointreau to the pudding mixture. When I was younger I didn’t particularly like Christmas pudding with all the fruit and would still prefer a chocolate cake to a fruit cake any day… which gave me an idea and I decided to make a chocolate Christmas pudding. But not just stop there: one of my favourite flavours is salted caramel, and I love melting middle puddings where you cut into it and the runny filling oozes out…. I wondered if it was possible to do that in a Christmas pudding given the extended baking time (up to 5 hours). Well, it turns out that it is! Just about, anyway… but I felt my Christmas pudding with a twist was a resounding success (and the results of the taste test were very positive).
 

I knew the challenge would be what to put in the middle that wouldn’t bake into the cake and would remain liquid – or rather, turn to liquid when heated. As I wanted to use salted caramel, I decided to see if Waitrose sold anything I could use- and they had a packet of Hope & Greenwood Salted Caramel Fudge, which I thought would be perfect.

  

I thought it would probably melt pretty fast though so I put the fudge in the freezer for a few hours, before baking it into the middle of my Christmas pudding. When the pudding was served, I cut into it, and there was actually some liquid caramel in the middle! There were also some chunky pieces of soft fudge which you can see in these photos.
 

 

  

Christmas pudding is traditionally served with brandy butter which I’ve never particularly liked, so instead I served it with Waitrose’s Seriously Caramel dipping sauce. You can of course make your own sauce but this is much easier!

  

Here’s the recipe in full:

 

Chocolate and Salted Caramel Christmas Pudding – an original recipe by Caroline Makes

100g raisins

100g sultanas

75g self raising flour

40g cocoa powder

100g breadcrumbs

100g light brown sugar

100g dates, chopped

100g glace cherries, chopped

100g ground almonds

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

100g Lindt chocolate with salted caramel, chopped

50g butter, grated

75ml milk - I wanted to use buttermilk but it was out of stock when my online order came

1 egg

75ml brandy- I used Torres 10 from Waitrose

150g Hope and Greenwood salt caramel fudge

to serve: salted caramel sauce

 

First, take the fudge out of the box and put the plastic bag in the freezer for at least 2 hours, or longer.

 

Preheat oven to 170C and grease a 1.5- 2 litre pudding basin that you can put in the oven.

 

Mix the dry ingredients apart from the fudge in a large bowl: the raisins, sultanas, flour, cocoa powder, breadcrumbs, sugar, dates, cherries, ground almonds, cinnamon and nutmeg and chopped chocolate. Stir well to combine.

 

Sprinkle the grated butter over the top and stir well to combine.

 

Beat the egg and add it to the milk and mix together. Add the brandy to the milk and pour into the dry ingredients. Stir until everything is combined and you have a sticky, fruity - and quite lumpy - mixture.

 

Spoon a little of the pudding mixture into your pudding basin so the bottom is covered, then pile the frozen fudge on top. Carefully spoon the rest of the mixture around and on top of the fudge so it is totally covered.

 

If your pudding basin has a lid place this on top; if not - as mine didn't - cover with two layers of clingfilm and then two layers of foil. Boil the kettle.

 

Place the bowl in a roasting tray or similar pan you can put in the oven and pour in boiling water until it comes half way up the side of the pudding basin - or fills your roasting tray. You may need to boil the kettle twice. You may find it easier to part fill the roasting tin, then carry it to the oven, then top up the water while it is already in the oven.

 

Steam in the oven for 4 and a half hours. Check it once or twice during that time to see if the water in the roasting pan needs topping up.

 

When cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool; be careful when you remove the lid or particularly if you have used clingfilm as steam will escape.

 

When the bowl is cool enough to handle, turn the pudding out on a plate. Serve with caramel sauce and look for the hidden caramel inside!

You can see other ideas for Christmas pudding with a twist here.

 

Thanks to Waitrose for covering the cost of the ingredients.

 

Christmas Pudding Cake

 

 

I recently saw some cute hemisphere-shaped cake tins in Lakeland and was ordering some other things so couldn't resist buying one. I immediately had two ideas for things to bake with it, one of which was a Christmas pudding cake - that is, a cake decorated to look like a Christmas pudding!

I wanted to make a chocolate cake, as I don't really like Christmas cake or Christmas pudding, and as there is a blogging challenge featuring the recipes of Nigella Lawson - and it's been a while since I've done anything of Nigella's - I thought I would see if I could find a chocolate cake recipe of hers. Which obviously wasn't that hard! I decided to use this recipe for her 'old fashioned chocolate cake'.

You need:
200g plain flour
200g caster sugar
1 tsp bicarb of soda
40g cocoa powder
175g butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
150ml sour cream

I don't seem to be very good at making sure I have the right ingredients lately.. I realised as I started to bake that I had forgotten to buy any sour cream. Maybe I should have named this blog the Forgetful Baker.... I substituted Greek yogurt, which also means this recipe is lower in fat, and it seemed to work fine!

 

I creamed the butter and the sugar then added the eggs

 

 

 

Then I added the flour and bicarb of soda

 

 

Next I added the cocoa powder and vanilla

 

 

 

And finally the Greek yogurt.

 

 

I was surprised the cake tin actually stayed upright...

 

 

I sprayed the tin with plenty of Cake Release and it came out as a perfect hemisphere:

 

 

As I wasn't going to frost the outside of the cake I wanted to put something inside. I've got a cupcake plunger that is designed to remove the core of a cupcake to allow you to fill it, but it's actually quite big and a little too big for some cupcakes - but I thought it would work perfectly for this.

 

 

I used it to remove a core from the middle of the cake...

 

 

 

.... which I then filled with Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Frosting. I'd been baking for hours and didn't have the energy to whip up something else!

 

 

Then I replaced the section of cake I had taken out, so the filling will be a surprise when we cut into the cake!

 

 

It was quite easy to make it look like a Christmas pudding. I rolled out some white fondant and cut a wavy line around the edge, then placed it over the top of the cake.

 

 

I then cut out some pieces of green fondant using a holly leaf cookie cutter I bought at Cake International in November- I knew it would come in handy!

 

 

 

 

Finally I just rolled some little balls out of red fondant and placed them on the top.

 

 

Simple but effective! I'm taking this to my parents' house when my boyfriend and I visit them this weekend (as I am spending Christmas with his family for the first time!) and I can't wait until my mum cuts into it and the chocolate fudge filling oozes out!

 

 

I am sending this to Calendar Cakes, hosted by Rachel of Dolly Bakes and Laura of Laura Loves Cakes, as their theme this month is Christmas.

 

I am also sending this to Forever Nigella, also hosted by Laura of Laura Loves Cakes, as the theme is any Nigella Christmas recipe. This chocolate cake of hers isn't specifically a Christmas recipe but I hope Laura will decide it counts as I've put a very festive spin on it! This particular challenge was created by Maison Cupcake and I think this is the first time I have entered!

 

 

 

I am also sending this to Tea Time Treats, hosted by Karen of Lavender and Lovage and Kate of What Kate Baked, as their theme this month is chocolate.

 

 

Christmas pudding cake pops

My first attempt at making cake pops - and it isn't as easy as it looks!

Cake pops are the latest trend - little balls of cake on a stick, that can be dipped in sprinkles, coated in chocolate or decorated to look like little animals, easter eggs, or anything really.

They are pretty quick and effortless to make, but as I discovered, not foolproof! To start with you need cake - any cake will do. Once it is baked and cooled, you break up the cake into cake crumbs. I used some Oreo cupcakes I hadn't frosted yet.

Mix the cake crumbs with either cream cheese or frosting - I used some of Betty Crocker's ready made chocolate fudge frosting. I don't know the exact ratio - just use enough so the mixture can be shaped into balls, but isn't too sticky, as you can see below.

I put them in the freezer for about ten minutes to firm up. Then insert cake pop sticks - I bought these from Hobbycraft but you can also use lollipop sticks. Apparently the cake balls stay on the sticks better if you dip them in a little melted chocolate or icing first, but I didn't do this.

I wanted to coat mine in chocolate so I used a small amount of Wilton chocolate candy melts.

Melt in the microwave

Then dip each cake pop in the melted chocolate. This is where I had difficuties - my chocolate wasn't runny enough and was actually quite thick, so I couldn't dip the cake and get a smooth coating. I ended up half dipping, then using a spoon to spoon some of the chocolate over, then deciding it was easier to use a sillicon pastry brush to brush on the melted chocolate! It worked OK in the end but doesn't give a particularly smooth finish.

I stood the cake pops in a piece of polystyrene so they could harden.

They even fit nicely in my fridge!

I wanted to make the cake pops look like Christmas puddings (which is why it didn't matter too much that they didn't have a smooth finish). I moulded a small piece of roll-out icing and used a little buttercream to stick it to the cake pop, then stuck a ready-made holly shape made out of icing on top. I bought these over the internet to go on some other Christmassy cakes I was making, and had some leftover.

So despite the problems I had with the candy melts, I don't think my first attempt at cake pops looks too bad!

Whoopie pies

Have you heard of Whoopie pies before? In 2010 they were being described as the latest craze in America - the new cupcake! And having made - and eaten - them, I can see why!

A whoopie pie is kind of a cross between a cookie and a cake, with a buttercream-type filling sandwiched in the middle. Apparently they were a tradition among the Amish community, who would bake them for farmers' lunch boxes. When the farmers opened their lunch and saw what their wives had given them, they would shout "whoopie!".

I'd wanted to try them for a while then my friend BakingAddict posted a recipe on her website and I decided to follow her lead. I'm sure she won't mind if I share her recipe with you here!

http://themorethanoccasionalbaker.blogspot.com/2010/12/chocolate-whoopie-pie.html

The pies are pretty easy to make, though they were larger than I expected - I probably used too big a spoonful on the baking sheet not realising how much they would spread. Not that I minded!

Because it was nearly Christmas I decided to make them a little festive. The chocolate colour reminded me a little of a Christmas pudding, so I made some simple white icing and spread it over the top, and added a little edible holly decoration I had bought along with some other cake bits online. I thought they looked pretty cute, and in a pretty Christmas box they made good gifts for my boyfriend's family!