Oreo Marshmallow Fluff Cheesecake

Whenever I buy a jar of marshmallow fluff for a recipe I end up eating the whole jar  - not in one go, but it doesn't usually end up being used in the recipe I intended!

This time around I bought two jars so I could definitely make the recipe I wanted! My husband loves Oreos and I decided to make an Oreo cheesecake and use the marshmallow fluff in the filling.

I kind of made the recipe up as I went along and it didn't set particularly firm - you need to eat this with a spoon rather than a fork - but it tasted really good!

See the recipe below..









You need:
1 packet Oreos
50g butter
213g jar marshmallow fluff
200g tub soft cheese
100ml crème fraiche
100g icing sugar

 

Crush the Oreos either with a rolling pin or in a blender. Melt the butter in a small pan over a low heat or in the microwave and stir in the crushed Oreos.

Press into the bottom of a 7 or 8 inch loose-bottomed cake tin.

In a large bowl, mix together the marshmallow fluff, soft cheese, crème fraiche and icing sugar and spread over the crushed Oreo base.

Allow to set in the fridge, ideally overnight.

I'm sharing this with Baking Crumbs and Casa Costello's Bake of the week (even though there is no actual baking involved!) and CookBlogShare.

Mini S'more Brownie Cupcakes with Cadbury Creme Eggs

I now have an answer to the question from the famous Cadbury Creme Egg advert: how do you eat yours? I like mine crushed up on top of toasted marshmallow and chocolate brownies!

Cadbury sent me several packets of Creme Eggs, an apron and some recipe cards, and asked me to recreate some of their recipes. One was based around a banana split and neither my husband nor I like bananas, but my eye was immediately caught by these.



They have a chocolate brownie base, which is baked into a cupcake case; you spoon marshmallow fluff (which you can buy in a tub from most large supermarkets) on top of the raw brownie mixture and bake it in the oven shortly. Then top them off with some crushed up some Cadbury Creme Eggs.


Not only are these easy to make but they taste absolutely delicious. The brownie is rich and chocolatey, and the toasted marshmallow is chewy and delicious, and the Creme Egg on top gives you alternative bites of chunks of chocolate and the creamy sugary filling. I was really pleased with how these turned out!

Cadbury's recipe is below; I got 8 out of these using large cupcake cases, so didn't use the whole jar of marshmallow fluff and used half a Crème Egg to top each one rather than a whole one.

You need:
125g dark chocolate
100g unsalted butter
125g light muscovado sugar
2 large free-range eggs
75g plain flour, sifted
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tub of marshmallow fluff (you will have some left over)
12 Cadbury Creme Eggs, crushed

Heat the oven to 180C, 160C fan, 350F, Gas 4. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a large saucepan over a low heat. When completely melted, stir in the sugar, then the eggs one by one.

 

Fold in the flour and salt, and then spoon into the cupcake cases so they are nearly full.

 

Pipe the fluff onto each cupcake and bake in the centre of the oven for 12 minutes.

 

Leave to cool and add the crushed Creme Eggs on top.

I was amazed at how the marshmallow fluff rose and set like meringue - I wasn't expecting to do that at all!

 

 

 Here are some of the results!

 

Thanks to Cadbury who sent me the Creme Eggs, apron and a Sainsbury's voucher to buy the other ingredients

 

Rocky Road Halloween Graveyard Cake

If you haven't got much time for Halloween baking but want to make something as a treat, then look no further than this recipe. It would make a great centrepiece for a children's party - and goes down pretty well with adults too!

The recipe comes from the Konditor & Cook recipe book 'Deservedly Legendary Baking'. It's basically a rocky road, arranged to look like a grave site, with some bones and skeleton hands coming out of the grave!

 

You can find the recipe online here. I left out the glace cherries as I don't like them, and used large marshmallows cut in half rather than mini marshmallows. I didn't bother making the grass around the edge of the grave either.

The recipe states to use white marzipan to make the bones and gravestone but I don't even know where to get white marzipan and didn't have time to try making it myself. Instead I used white fondant.

 

It was very easy to make the bones - I just rolled some sausage shapes and used my thumb to press in the ends. I used black food colouring and a cocktail stick to write R.I.P. on the gravestone.

 

I hadn't really thought about the recipe in advance as I'd had an incredibly busy week at work but did manage to make the rocky road on Friday night so it could set overnight in the fridge. When I came to arrange and decorate it on Saturday I realised I should have made the tombstone from rice krispies. You can make a giant rice krispie cake by mixing the cereal with melted butter and melted marshmallows, and pressing it down tightly into a pan. Once it has set you can carve it into different shapes and cover it with fondant; this would be a great way of making an edible tombstone to go at the top of the grave. Of course the fondant I used is edible but I'm not sure I want to eat a giant block of icing!

 

I'm sharing this with the Food Calendar challenge, hosted by Charlotte's Lively Kitchen.

I'm also sending it to this month's Food 'n' Flix; Deb at Kahakai Kitchen has chosen Beetlejuice - the story of a couple who (spoiler alert!) wake up after an accident and find they didn't survive.

 

 

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Goo Goo Cake

 

When I was on holiday in Nashville in September – which is a brilliant place to visit, especially if you’re a fan of the Nashville TV series like I am – I came across something called a Goo Goo Cluster. These are candy bars – though they are actually round – made of chocolate, caramel, peanuts and marshmallow nougat. But what’s more, they are of great historical significance – the Goo Goo was invented in 1912 and was the first time more than one element had been combined in a candy bar.

 

They were created in Nashville and the city is proud of the association – there’s a dedicated Goo Goo shop in the town centre, and when I bought the celebration package at the Grand Ole Opry for my future mother-in-law, the bag contained a Goo Goo Cluster.

 

So when I saw the letter this month for Alphabakes (the blog challenge I co-host with Ros) was G, I thought Goo Goo Clusters would be fun to make. And then I saw a recipe for a Goo Goo Cluster Cake…

 

No comments please about January health kicks or pre-wedding diets as this is a very indulgent cake! So that’s why I made it for someone else…. I’ve mentioned before that I spend one day a month working on a project at an agency of very cool people. I spend the day in their offices and it almost always turns into a late night, so I feel the least I can do is take them some cake (and it seems to be greatly appreciated!).

 

I found a recipe for Goo Goo Clusters – or something resembling them, as it doesn’t really have nougat – here.

 

They were really easy to make – melt the chocolate with the condensed milk (I used Carnation), mix in the peanuts and marshmallows and pour into a pan (I lined a pan with greaseproof paper rather than buttering it) and set in the fridge.
 

 

I tried a little bit straight from the fridge and I have to say these are delicious!

 

Then I went to the Goo Goo website for this recipe for a Peanut Butter Goo Goo Chocolate PB Cake – though that name is a bit of a mouthful and I didn’t realise I actually needed to have made peanut butter Goo Goo Clusters, rather than chocolate – so instead I’m calling this a Chocolate and Peanut Butter Goo Goo Cake.

 

You can follow the recipe directly from the website; apparently this cake is available in the Nashville shop’s dessert bar. I want to go back there now!

 

I converted the measurements to grams but otherwise followed the recipe:

 

I melted the chocolate and butter, added the sugar and salt and heated until the sugar had dissolved.

 

Whisked in the eggs and then the cocoa powder.

 

 

Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes then cool. The cake did sink slightly but I wasn’t surprised as you may have noticed this is actually a flourless cake.

 

Meanwhile I made the peanut butter layer by beating together the peanut butter, sugar, milk, oil, egg yolks, vanilla, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
 

Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl and then fold in.

 

Bake for 25 minutes.

 

For the chocolate filling and glaze, melt the chocolate and butter, then remove from the heat and add milk, honey and vanilla.

I decided this was a bit thin and added some icing sugar to it as well.

 

Pour about a third of the mixture onto the chocolate cake, and gently top with the peanut butter cake. Pour the rest of the glaze on the top and allow to run down the sides. Sprinkle with chopped Goo Goo Clusters.

 

This cake was delicious, really decadent, and very popular in the office!

I'm sending this to Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter she has chosen this month is G.

 

Chocolate Fondue Bundt Cake

This recipe is from an idea I saw on The Pink Whisk and I want to give a giant nod to her and encourage you to visit her site. It’s such an original idea I can’t claim any credit for it, but it was so good I wanted to make it and share a picture with you all. This is a great recipe to share with friends particularly if you are having a dinner party on new year’s eve.

 

The idea is relatively simple but something I would never have thought of! Bake a bundt cake – a ring with a hole in the middle – make a chocolate ganache, and pour the liquid chocolate into the hole in the middle of the cake. Slice off chunks of cake and dip into the chocolate, fondue style!

 

If you cut around the cake working from the outside in, you can leave a ring of cake that will keep the chocolate ganache contained. I also added marshmallows for dipping which looked pretty around the cake as well.

 

I used my own recipe for this and following a friend’s suggestion did a marble cake; I had some oranges to use up so decided to make a chocolate orange bundt cake. I can't quite remember where I got the recipe from but these are the quantities I used:

 

Chocolate orange fondue bundt cake

 

3 1/2 cups self-raising flour

pinch of salt

225g butter, softened

2 cups caster sugar

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

zest and juice of 3 mandarin oranges (as I had some that needed using up - you could alternatively use one large orange)

1/2 cup cocoa powder

 

To make the chocolate ganache:

150g milk chocolate, chopped

200ml double cream

To serve: marshmallows

Grease and flour a bundt tin and preheat the oven to 180C.

Cream the butter and the sugar, and beat in the eggs.

Fold in the flour and sat and then the sour cream.

Separate half the mixture into another bowl and add the orange zest and juice to one and the cocoa powder to the other; mix well.

Place a spoonful of each mixture in turn around the bundt tin and repeat until all the mixture has been used.

 

Bake for around 45 minutes, checking with a skewer to see if the inside is cooked through. When cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool then turn out of the tin.

 

 

Make the fondue by bringing the cream to a simmer in a saucepan and adding the chocolate. Stir until it melts and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile find a flat serving plate that the cake will sit on neatly and trim the bottom of the cake if necessary so it sits flat. Arrange marshmallows around the base of the cake along with anything else you want to dip into the fondue such as strawberries.

 Pour the chocolate ganache into the centre of the cake and serve!

 

 

 

 Dip the marshmallows into the fondue and slice the outer ring of the cake, leaving enough of the cake to form a ring to keep the fondue in the middle, and dip the cake in the chocolate as well.

 

 

 

This makes a great talking point and sharing dessert and is a great idea from The Pink Whisk!

 

I think this cake would be perfect for new year's eve so I'm sending it to the Food Year Linkup, hosted by Charlotte's Lively Kitchen.

 

 

 

WIN: Bake In Black Review, Giveaway & Chocolate Cream Marshmallow Pie

It's not often I look at a cookery book and think 'that's genius'. I mean sure, I'm impressed by people who have been able to start a whole new cookery craze or style of eating like Deliciously Ella, but for me to actually flick through the book and smile at each and every recipe is quite unusual.

This week I was sent a recipe book called Bake In Black - Music Inspired Baking. Eve and David O'Sullivan are a food writer and musician who decided to combine their two loves, taking a song or album by a band they love and creating a recipe inspired by it. It's not just a play on words on the title (though the name of the book itself references Amy Winehouse) but they soak up what the music is about and infuse that into the food.

That results in recipes including:
Sex Pistols: God save the cream (angel cake with minted whipped cream, strawberries and blueberries)
Guns 'n' Roses: Sweet tooth o'mine (three-tier honey, molasses and maple cake with cream cheese icing)
Megadeath: Megadeath by Chocolate (chocolate and meringue layer cake)
Deep Purple: Smoke on the Rosewater (gluten free chocolate, almond and beetroot cakes with rosewater icing)
Meatloaf: Battenberg out of hell (chocolate and raspberry Battenberg)
Led Zeppelin: Glazed and confused (lavender-infused ring doughnuts with milk chocolate glaze)
and so on, and so on.

I hadn't heard of a lot of the songs or even some of the bands - this book has more of a heavy metal than a pop slant (but maybe there's an idea for a follow-up).

The book is really well presented with colour pictures for every recipe, and some interesting props in the photos, such as doughnuts resting on a guitar. The instructions are carefully thought through and easy to follow and I think this book would make a great gift for someone who loves music and baking.

I made a recipe from it called Faith No S'More - based on Faith No More of course, but also s'mores which are an American campfire snack. They have given me permission to reproduce the recipe here.

Serves 8
you need:
375g sweet shortcrust pastry
flour for rolling
200g dark chocolate, chopped
100g milk chocolate, chopped
300ml double cream
2 eggs
pinch of salt
small bag of marshmallows

Preheat oven to 180C/375F/Gas 4. Roll out the pastry to 1/2 cm thickness and use to line a 23cm pastry case [I used a loose-bottomed cake tin]. Chill while you make the filling.

 

Put the 2 chopped chocolates in separate bowls then bring the cream to the boil. Once boiling, pour into a measuring jug, then add 200ml cream to the dark chocolate and 100ml to the milk chocolate. Let stand for a minute or so, then stir each chocolate, separately, to combine.

Whisk the eggs into the dark chocolate, then pour into the pastry case. Add blobs of the milk chocolate mixture to the tin, then swirl gently to achieve a marbled effect [I found this quite difficult and ended up just pouring most of the milk chocolate on top of the dark chocolate].

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden an the mixture is almost firm. Allow to cool a little then chill in the fridge until set.

 

To make the topping, heat the grill to high, then top the pie with marshmallows so they cover the surface evenly. Put small pieces of foil around the pastry edges to stop them burning then put the pie under the grill and cook until the marshmallows are scorched, campfire style, around 2 minutes [from the picture in the book I thought the marshmallows were supposed to melt which they didn't really do, so I left them under the grill too long and the tops burnt! I managed to lift the burnt parts off and then it did look much better].

This was a gorgeous dessert, really indulgent and the melted marshmallow on top really took it to another level. I think it might actually have been nicer with a biscuit base rather than pastry but my other half very much enjoyed it, helping himself to two slices!

Now that I've whetted your appetite you can enter to win a copy of the book for yourself from Musicroom! UK addresses only though please.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How to make Soft Nougat or Homemade Marshmallow Fluff

I recently came up with an idea for a cupcake which I will share with you soon, which needed nougat in the middle. I decided that the kind of nougat you buy in bars would be too hard, so wondered if there was such a thing as soft nougat. Luckily there is, it’s not that hard to make and it tastes delicious on its own as well! In fact it reminded me a lot of marshmallow fluff both in terms of flavour and texture so I think I can get away with calling it either soft nougat or marshmallow fluff.

I found this recipe on Craftsy.com which was relatively easyto do; though you do need a sugar thermometer and to be very precise. It's also pretty helpful if you have a stand mixer like a Kitchenaid.

I substituted golden syrup for the light corn syrup as you can't get that in the UK (or not easily). Other than that I followed the steps in this recipe so this blog post is more to point you in the direction of that recipe, and show you how mine looked at each stage. And as I mentioned I will refer back to this post when I write about my amazing cupcakes!

Sugar, golden syrup and water in the saucepan

My brilliant digital thermometer, which I reviewed in this post about making marshmallows. In fact the technique for making nougat is quite similar.

Testing the temperature of the sugar

Beating the egg whites in my trusty Kitchenaid

 

After the sugar is added the mixture thickens

 

I lined a small square pan with clingfilm (trust me - you will never get it out the pan otherwise!) and put it in the fridge to set. It never set really hard like the bars of nougat you can buy - and it wasn't even as firm as the nougat you get in a chocolate bar like Mars. Instead it was more like a thicker, stickier marshmallow fluff. It tasted amazing and I kept eating spoonfuls straight from the fridge, but I did save enough of it to use it in the recipe I had made it for!