Chocolate Birthday Cake

Suddenly Baby turned one this week. Don't know how it happened so quickly but there we are. As she doesn't have any friends yet, she had to have her cake in the middle of Scrap's Hallowe'en party, in amongst the bats and the eyeball jellies. Not that she noticed.
This is a good chocolate cake for kids as it's very light and not actually very chocolatey and I find that it suits those below five better that way. It's basically a big red velvet cupcake but a lot easier and without all the unnecessary red food colouring.

Serves 18 - 20
300g caster sugar
120g butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
280ml carton of buttermilk
25g cocoa powder
300ml plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 tbsp wine vinegar
sprinkles, to decorate
FOR THE FROSTING
600g icing sugar
150g butter
200g soft cheese
75g milk chocolate, chopped

1 Preheat the oven to 170C / Gas 3. Using an electric whisk, beat the sugar and butter together until soft and pale - this takes a while and once you've had enough of whisking add the eggs one at a time followed by the vanilla and buttermilk then cocoa and flour. Add the bicarb and vinegar and whisk again for a couple of minutes until light and voluminous.

2 Divide between three buttered and lined 20cm cake tins and bake for 25 minutes. Lift onto wire racks and leave to cool.

3 Whisk together the icing sugar and butter - I find it easier to add the icing sugar a bit at a time so the whole kitchen doesn't get coated in a fine layer of dust. Once it's well beaten, add the soft cheese and whisk again - don't over beat at this stage or the icing can start to over-soften.

4 Take a third of the mixture and stir in the chopped ch0colate, use this to sandwhich the cakes toegther then swirl the rest of the icing all over. Decorate with sprinkles (I cut a heart out of a piece of paper and used as a template) and leave to set. Happy Birthday!

Home Made Easter Truffle Eggs

If you've got two long weeks off school to fill, these eggs are easy for kids to make and they taste nice.
Makes 12
200g dark chocolate
200g milk chocolate
400g sponge cake such as Madeira or marble cake, made into crumbs
100g rasins, sultanas, dried blueberries or cranberries
50g chopped nuts or dessicated coconut
To decorate
Dessicated coconut, cocoa powder, finely grated dark or white chocolate

Break the chocolate into pieces and melt in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water until smooth. Str in the cake crumbs, fruit and nuts.

Chill for 30 minutes then mould into 12 egg shapes.

Scatter some coconut, cocoa or grated chocolate onto a plate and roll the chocolate eggs in it to coat. Line cardboard egg boxes or egg cups with circles cut from greaseproof paper and sit in the eggs. Can be stored in the fridge but are best eaten at room temperature.

Winter Collection: Yule Log

This is one of those really old-fashioned cakes that I've not made since domestic science at school and thought would be easy, but actually, there's a lot here that can go wrong.
But as we're going to be away for Christmas and we were having a little neighbours' tea party yesterday, I thought I'd give it a go. I like to have everything sorted the day before but this really has to be eaten on the same day. I didn't enjoy the risk of making it on the morning of the party and although it was a bit of a faff and me and melted chocolate don't get on so well, it was a big hit and the icing covers a whole lot of cracks! Have a go!

Serves 12
75g self raising flour
50g cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
100g golden caster sugar, plus a little extra for sprinkling
5 large eggs
FOR THE FILLING
250g mascarpone
icing sugar, to taste
splash of double cream
FOR THE ICING
200ml double cream, broken into pieces
200g dark chocolate

1 Preheat the oven to 190C / Gas 5. Line a 30x40cm Swiss roll tin with baking parchment and rub with a little butter.

2 Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl. In a second bowl, whisk the sugar and eggs until thick and airy – they should roughly triple in volume. Sift over the flour mixture and gently fold in, making sure there are no pockets of flour hiding in the bottom of the bowl.

3 Pour into the tin as evenly as possible then bake for 10 – 12 minutes until just firm to the touch. Sprinkle some sugar onto a sheet of baking parchment and turn out the sponge. Peel off the paper then roll it up with the new sheet of paper inside. Leave to cool completely.

4 Make the icing. Pour the cream into a small and bring to the boil. Add the chocolate and stir to melt. Leave to cool completely then chill until thick enough to spread – keep your eye on it as it cools - it’s runny for ages then suddenly changes from runny to thick to too-thick-to-spread in quite a short time.

5 Make the filling: beat the mascarpone with a wooden spoon to soften a little then add icing sugar to taste – it may be a little to thick to spread so a little cream to soften.

6 Open out the sponge and spread with the mascarpone mixture, if you like, grate over some chocolate then roll up. Cut a diagonal slice off and place next to the log to look like a branch. Spread with the chocolate icing in a wood-like pattern and leave to set. Dust with icing before serving.

Winter Collection: Chocolate Brownie Cake

A bit squidgy in the middle and crumbly on the outside. With so many nut allergies around I swapped the usual chopped nuts for sultanas.
Serves 12
225g unsalted butter
350g dark chocolate
4 large eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
350g light muscovado sugar
225g plain flour
75g small sultanas
small handful chocolate buttons
cocoa powder for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. Grease a 23cm and line a 23cm loose-bottomed cake tin.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a small pan. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla until pale and airy. Stir in the chocolate mixture, flour and sultanas and pour into the tin. Scatter over the chocolate buttons.

Bake for about an hour until risen and craggy. Shake the tin gently, a slight wobble in the centre is good. Leave to cool in the tin for a while. Dust lightly with cocoa before slicing.

Children's Chocolate Party Cake

One of the mums at Scrap's nursery organised a leavers' party this weekend. It was held in a lovely sports pavillion and while the nice girls quietly joined in with the juggler and his plate spinning, all the grubby boys spent their time running the full length of the fields, only legging it back when he started fire-eating.
Anyway, I made the cakes - some little fairies and a very basic chocolate sponge made to look exciting with curly wurlies and rolos.Serves 20
6 eggs
300g caster sugar
275g self raising four
25g good cocoa
300g softened butter
FOR THE ICING
180g dark chocolate, melted and cooled
250g butter, softened
280g icing sugar
chocolates: minstrels, buttons, planets, maltesers etc

Mix together the cake ingredients with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy. Divide between two lined, 23cm, loose-bottomed tins and bake at 180C for 20 minutes or so until risen and just set. Leave to cool.

Beat together the chocolate, butter and icing sugar. Use a quarter of it to sandwich the cakes together then spread the rest up the sides and over the top. Scatter the chocolates on top and leave to set.

Chewy Chocolate Biscuits

Makes 18

75g dark chocolate

100g butter

125g brown sugar

100g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

125g any chocolate (dark, milk, white or mixture) roughly chopped

These biscuits are good. Crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle. Add some nuts too if you like them.

Preheat the the oven to 180 C/ Gas 4. Melt together the dark chocolate and butter. Add the sugar, flour, bicarb, vanilla and egg and whisk until smooth and well blended.

Stir in the chocolate and place heaped teaspoons, well spaced apart on non-stick baking sheets. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes - the biscuits rise and then flatten out - take them out as soon as they flatten. Leave to firm up a bit on the tray then lift off and cool completely on a wire rack.

Toffee Flapjacks

Makes 16
200g butter
200g brown sugar
200g honey
350g porridge oats
100g mixed dried fruit and seeds
75g Maya Gold or other good dark chocolate, melted

Preheat the oven to 160 / gas 4. Heat the butter, sugar and honey together until melted. Stir in the oats, fruits and seeds and press into a rectangular non-stick baking tin. Bake for 20 - 40 minutes until golden. The longer you bake, the firmer and more toffee-ish the flapjacks. Leave to cool and harden before removing from the tin and cutting into squares or bars. Drizzle over the melted chocolate and leave to set.

Brandy Snaps Are Very Easy To Make

I was doing a food-styling job the other day and the recipe said 'Take the brandy snap baskets out of the packet, place on a baking sheet and warm in the oven for a few minutes until they open out to make flat discs'. I opened both my packets of 6 Askeys Brandy Snap Baskets (FROM WAITROSE!) and do you know, all but one of them were broken into at least four pieces! So I rummaged through the cupboards, all in a tizz, mixed some everyday stuff up and in 10 minutes had much nicer (and cheaper!) brandy snaps than you can get from Waitrose.
Try them, they're so easy! Then sandwich a stack together with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce and eat very quickly.
And don't buy anything made by Askeys because it might well ruin your dinner party.

Brandy Snaps
Heat together equal quantities of butter, golden syrup and sugar (50g will make about 8 snaps). Stir in the same amount of plain flour, a bit of ground ginger and a squeeze of lemon or lime juice. Spread out thinly on a non-stick baking sheet and bake at 190C for 6 - 8 mins until golden brown. Leave to cool into discs or while still warm, roll into tubes round a wooden spoon handle or drape them over the bottom of a glass to make baskets.

Hot Fudge Sauce
Place 170g evaporated milk and 225g dark chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water and warm together for about 10 minutes until smooth and fudgy. Use warm.

Brownies

I love chocolate with cherries. This is a basic recipe but the brownies turn out nicely.

150g good dark chocolate
100g unsalted butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 large eggs, beaten
few drops vanilla extract
100g self raising flour
150g icing sugar
25g cocoa powder
50g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Break the chocolate into a small pan and add the butter and syrup. Heat gently, stirring until melted; leave to cool slightly.

Stir in the eggs, vanilla, flour, icing sugar, cocoa and chocolate chips, mixing until well blended. Pour the mixture into a 15cm square tin and bake for 25 minutes until set and crusty.

Cut into squares and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Literally :(

A random box of chocs - clearly long lost - has just turned up behind some horrendous NRG DRNX at the back of the fridge at work. On opening them I discovered the above. A chocolate turkey with "all" the "trimmings". I can sense your mouth watering from here...

Easter Chocolate Tarts

Makes 24
500g shortcrust pastry
80g dark chocolate
40g butter
25g plain flour
50g golden caster sugar
2 eggs
TOPPING
50g dark chocolate
2 tbsp milk
icing sugar
Cadbury’s Mini Eggs

Heat the oven to 180C /gas 4. Roll out the pastry thinly and use to line 2 x 12 hole tartlet tins. Prick with a fork, line with a bit of foil and bake for 8 minutes then lift out the foil and cook for a minute more.

Melt the chocolate and butter together and leave to cool a little. Beat in the flour, sugar and eggs. Spoon into the cases and bake for 6-8 minutes until just set. Leave to cool.

Melt the chocolate and milk together then leave to cool a little. Add a bit of icing sugar to sweeten and thicken - if it starts to set before you're ready, just give it a few seconds in the microwave. Place a little dollop of the chocolate mixture on top of each tart and sit some eggs on top.

A Taste For Advent-Ure

Scrap's grand-parents gave him an advent calendar at the weekend. It's very lovely but it's got no chocolate in it. When I was a child I didn't get a single advent calendar and would have been delighted to open a little window and find a picture of little robin on a snowy branch. Not so sure about Scrap though. He's already learned to expect a foil compartment with a tiny Mars bar in it...

Chocolate Cheesecake

Yes, I have a hangover. Yes, I have made a pudding for my lunch.

Serves 8
200 g pack stem ginger biscuits
50 g butter, melted
150g bar Green & Blacks Organic Cooking chocolate
3 x 250g tubs mascarpone
125 g light brown muscovado sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
3 large eggs
extra thick single cream, to serve

1 Preheat the oven to 180C, gas mark 4. Place the cookies in a strong plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. Tip into a large bowl and stir in the melted butter until evenly mixed.

2 Tip the crumb mixture into a 23cm non-stick, spring-form cake tin, pressing down firmly with the back of a spoon. Place in the fridge to chill for 5 or 10 minutes.

3 Meanwhile, gently melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water or in a microwave then leave to cool a little.

4 Place the mascarpone, sugar, cornflour and eggs in a large bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth. Whisk in the cooled melted chocolate. Pour into the prepared tin, level the surface and place on a baking sheet and cook for 45 minutes until risen – it will still feel a little wobbly but will set as it cools.

5 Turn off the oven, open the door and leave the cheesecake until completely cool. Chill until ready to eat it then turn out of the tin, cut into wedges and serve with cream.

The Diet

Not going so well today. Again :(

A weekend of pasta at mum's followed by Brownies at The Herne Tavern

Fruit and Nut Fridge Cake

Not exactly the same as chocolate crispy cakes, but not far off:







2 x 100g bars Green & Black’s Maya Gold chocolate
50g butter, diced
4 tbsp golden syrup
200g ginger biscuits
100g macadamias or almonds
200g glace cherries
1 tsp cocoa powder, to dust

1 Break the chocolate into a small pan then add the butter and syrup. Heat very gently, stirring from time to time until smooth and glossy.

2 Break the biscuits into a large bowl. Stir in the nuts and cherries then carefully stir in the chocolate mixture until evenly coated.

3 Tip the mixture into a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin patting down carefully. Chill for a least two hours. Dust the surface with cocoa before slicing with a serrated knife.

Elizabeth Street, SW1

For years now, Charlotte Street has been my favourite London street for eating and drinking. It's lined on either side with great places: Rasa, Passione, Roka, The Charlotte Street Hotel, Fino etc etc. But for shopping as well as eating, Elizabeth Street has become my new favourite.

The other day, I was meeting a friend in Oliveto, a low-key Sardinian place that I'd heard did great pasta and pizza. She was late when I called her from our table and I could tell she'd only just got into a cab. I ordered a coke, ate the whole bread basket, read my book and studied the menu. The waiter was clearing away the table next to me when I mentioned to him that I'd never eaten a sea urchin before (it appears twice on the menu once raw as a starter and once with pasta) he looked at me and said, "Just a moment please" in a very, very strong Italian accent and walked off. I thought he might be struggling a bit with my Derby accent and had gone to ask someone else to see to me when he came back a few minutes later with a piece of hot bruschetta and a little dish with a raw sea urchin in it! How's that for service!

He told me how in Italy he loves to eat them straight from the sea and something about only harvesting them when there's a full moon. Actually I found the urchin a bit full-on and more than a little slimy, but I loved his passion for them and obviously I had to eat it all because he'd given it me specially. Anyway, eventually my friend showed up and I chose a glass of rosé and Malloredus Sardi, a pasta dish with sausages - it was amazing. My pasta was homemade, every little single piece rolled by hand and not only that but the sausages were homemade too. And all for just £11. Great service, great food, good wine, good prices. We were both delighted!

Then my friend noticed that we were directly across the road from The Chocolate Society so we ran over and had spectacular chocolate ice cream (with a piece of hokey pokey chocolate and an espresso) for pudding. On the four minute walk to Sloane Square we stopped at surely the best food shops and clothing boutiques London has to offer: Poilane, Ben de Lisi, Jeroboams, Baker & Spice

Elizabeth Street, then. If you are female and have a spare hour or two, you need to take a walk down there very, very soon indeed...

M&S Melting Middle Chocolate Puddings

I do a lot of work for M&S, they're one of my biggest clients so obviously I love them. The other night, when Robert made a lovely annual dinner for me, he bought those chocolate puddings. They've been on telly a lot you know, those "not just any sodding pudding etc" and Rob clearly knows I like chocolate. Anyway all the reviews say they're amazing. They do look amazing, all brown and oozy but they don't actually taste of chocolate. Mine was nice and warm and came with a scoop of fabulous Mackies ice cream on the side. But it didn't taste like chocolate. It maybe tasted a bit of cocoa but really, close your eyes and you could be eating bread pudding. Anyone else had one? Am I wrong?

Caramel Ripple Brownies

My friend Myriam's food blog Once Upon A Tart is fast becoming the best around. She is hosting her first food event Browniebabe of the Month and here is my entry. I've made this brownie for years and it's lovely - two thirds brownie, one third caramel cheesecake.

Makes 16
100 g plain chocolate
100 g unsalted butter
2 eggs, beaten
150 g light muscovado sugar
50 g plain flour
FOR THE CARAMEL RIPPLE
225 g soft cheese
50 g dark muscovado sugar
few drops vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 170C, gas mark 3. Line a 20cm square shallow cake tin with silicone paper.

Break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl then add the butter and set over a pan of gently simmering water, stirring from time to time until melted.

Meanwhile, make the caramel ripple mixture, mix together the soft cheese, muscovado sugar, vanilla and egg and set aside.

Stir the eggs and sugar into the chocolate mixture then sift over the flour and gently fold in.

Spoon half of the brownie mixture into the tin then alternately dollop teaspoonfuls of the caramel mixture and the remaining brownie mixture into the tin. Using a chop stick or skewer, lightly ripple together to make a marbled top.

Bake for 30 minutes until just set. Leave to cool in the tin then cut into squares and cool completely on a wire rack.

Almost-Instant Chocolate Sauce

Three tablespoons of double cream (whole, unopened carton left over from Mothers Day last Sunday and only one day out of date) and 50g or so broken good milk chocolate (cupboard still full of every type), splash of water. Microwave on medium, mix, pour over icecream and serve with last few biscuits. Everyone happy.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

I made this chocolate cake for JJ’s baby shower yesterday. She’s gone wheat-free and lovely David Herbert has this recipe in his Perfect cookbook. I was hung-over (thanks Heidi) and found it hard to concentrate but it came out very well, all things considered – these sorts of cake are meant to sink a little in the middle, ok. I decided to make a quick frosting to pour over the cake to give it some shine but flipping Scrap stuck a finger and thumb into as it was sitting out to set which didn’t help.

Anyway, we had a really great afternoon (thanks Lol) and I may make this cake again in double for Scrap’s birthday cake as his best-friend is gluten-free but then there’s always the problem of children and nuts. Anyone know a flourless, nutless chocolate cake that tastes wonderful?

250g dark chocolate, broken
165g caster sugar
150g unsalted butter
2 tbsp strong black coffee
125g ground almonds
5 eggs, separated
For the frosting
150ml double cream
knob of butter
100g dark chocolate, broken

Preheat the oven to 180C/ gas 4. Grease a 23cm non-stick spring form cake tin and line the base with baking paper.

Gently melt the chocolate, sugar and butter, stirring occasionally until smooth.

Transfer to a large bowl, and beat in the ground almonds and egg yolks.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form medium-firm peaks. Stir a third of the whites into the chocolate mixture to slacken it then gently fold through the remaining whites.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 45 minutes until the cake feels firm to the touch but is still a little soft in the centre.

Allow to cool in the tin, it will sink a little. David dusts his with icing sugar but it you want frosting, bring the cream and butter to the boil in a small pan. Add the chocolate and leave to melt. Stir to mix well then pour over the cake and leave to set.