the marble rut

So there's been a bit of a thing going lately with marble cake & me. As much as I try to stay away from it because I feel we've seen more of each other than is healthy, I just don't seem to be able to. It's the children's fault, I promise.

Every time the children want cake, they want marble cake. Or lemon cake. That's acceptable too. They even discovered a great love for the cranberry & white chocolate cookies I told you about before, but even their buttery goodness has not conquered there desire for all cakes to be marbled.

When Will told me what he wanted for his birthday cake, well, you'll never be able to guess what he asked for, not in a million years. Oh, did I hear someone yell, 'marble cake?' Ah well, you're cleverer than I gave you credit for. Of course he wanted marble cake. What else?! Also, it needed to be a marble cake that was a football pitch. Okaaay.

Now, before you judge me, please remember that I never said I could decorate children's cakes. I might be able to do wonders with a piping bag, but novelty cakes? They're not really my thing. So, I will ashamedly show you a photo of this cake when it was four days old - Will did not want to spoil it at his birthday party, so refused to cut it. I had talk him into spoiling this 'masterpiece' today.

Feel free to laugh. I did. It looks awful. But just remember that we're talking about marble cake here, not about how to make children's birthday cakes, ok?

Right, deep breath...I might end up removing the photographic evidence from this blog because it is just so embarrassing, but I suppose pictures make blogs look better, even if they are embarrassing.

Are you rolling about laughing right now? Or maybe you just threw your head back with laughter? Please do tell me if this cake has induced laughter because that really would be the right response. Please don't tell me that it's good because I would have to call you a liar. The photo I would really love to show you is the one I took right after I'd taken this one - it's of Will licking the icing off the backside of one of the playmobil footballers - a classic shot - but I don't have his parents' permission to post photos of him here so I won't do that.

Swiftly moving on to this marble cake I keep jabbering about. I'll post the recipe here once & for all and hopefully I'll never have to talk about it again. Don't get me wrong, it's a tasty cake, but I am a little bit shocked about how marbling could take over my baking so much.

It is so simple to make. Essentially, if you were to follow this recipe for chocolate sponge, but divide the mixture in two before adding the cocoa, you'd be three quarters of the way to having your marble cake in the oven. I'll break it down for you anyway to try & make it as clear as is possible with a marble cake...

Marble Cake

ingredients

225g / 8oz unsalted butter, softened

225g / 8oz caster sugar

200g / 7oz self raising flour

25g / 1oz cocoa

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

150g milk chocolate - optional

1) Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas mark 4. Grease & line a rectangular roasting tin - approx. 30cm x 23cm. (I'm sorry, I don't know the exact dimensions of the tin I use.)

2) In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter & sugar.

3) Beat in one egg. Add a little flour, sieved, & the vanilla extract, then beat again.

4) Beat in the second, third and fourth eggs as above - adding a little flour with each addition.

5) Fold in the remaining flour.

6) Divide the mixture in half, putting one half into a new large bowl. 

I never bother to weigh the halves, I just go by sight & it's fine. All that happens if it's not very precise is that you'll end up with one half more chocolatey or vanilla-ry then the other half.

7) Add the sieved cocoa to one half and fold in. Dollop heaped dessertspoons of the mixture into the prepared tin then use a knife to swirl the vanilla & chocolate mixes together.

 

8) If you fancy some chocolatey goodness in your marble cake, melt 150g milk chocolate and drizzle in a swirly marbly fashion over the mixture. You'll end up with beautiful chunks of chocolate throughout the cake.

If you do this, the weight of the melted chocolate will mean that the cake does not rise evenly. This really isn't a problem as you cut it up into squares so it doesn't show. Unless, of course, you need to transform your cake into a football pitch. If that's the case, don't use melted chocolate otherwise you'll have lumpy turf.

9) Bake in the pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes away clean.

10) Leave the cake to cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring onto a wire rack & removing the baking paper.

On Wednesday I baked this cake twice. The second time around I used a bigger pan & went a little wild, using 5 eggs and increasing all of the other quantities by 1oz / 25g and it worked like a dream. So feel free to adapt to fit your cake requirements and the likelihood is, it'll work if you stick to the general rule of equal quantities of butter, sugar & flour.

Cake Count :: 902

white chocolate & cranberry cookies

I discovered this recipe in an advert in my delicious food magazine last Christmas. The advert was for Carnation Condensed Milk. In my view, Condensed Milk is the  secret ingredient required for my idea of the perfect cookie. Chewy & soft with a slightly crisp edge. Yum.
So, when I saw the advert, I knew I needed to go & buy some condensed milk at the soonest possible moment. Perfectly Christmassy with their cranberries, I thought, but having tasted them, I have become a little hooked and so this is no longer a recipe to be reserved for Christmas. This is one that should be baked as frequently as you like. For breakfast, lunch & dinner and a treat to go with your afternoon coffee if you fancy. 


Thankfully, these cookies got me out of my marble rut with great ease. Well, almost. More about that in my next post. I had dried cranberries in the cupboard & I knew where they needed to go. Into a big old mixing bowl with some condensed milk, plenty of butter & a few other bits & bobs. So, off they went...


White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies makes 50

ingredients

225g / 8oz unsalted butter, softened
225g / 8oz caster sugar
350g / 12oz self raising flour
150g /5.5oz white chocolate, chopped into chunks
397g tin condensed milk*
as many dried cranberries as you see fit!


* I didn't realise until baking a second batch of these cookies at home with my Mum last weekend that I have always used double the amount of condensed milk than the original recipe states. I tried using half the amount in my second batch & the cookies were still delicious but didn't spread as much, so were smaller, and they had less of a chewy-buttery feel to them. So I'm sticking with using too much. If you want to be slightly healthier, use a 170g tube of condensed milk  instead!

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180C /Gas Mark 4 / 350F. Grease 3 baking trays. You'll need to cook these in batches unless you happen to have an industrial sized double oven with lots of shelves, so I tend to use 3 trays at once. When the first batch has come out of the oven, I remove the cookies then regrease my original trays & use then again.

2) Beat together the butter & sugar. They don't need to be beaten for too long, just long enough to get them combined & a little bit fluffy.

3) Stir in the condensed milk.

4) Stir in the flour (no need to sieve) followed by the white chocolate & cranberries.

5) Using a teaspoon, place little balls of the cookie dough onto your baking trays, with plenty of space to spread. These guys love to take up as much space as possible when they go to hang out in their favourite place - the oven. 

6) Bake in the pre-heated oven for 12 minutes until going slightly golden around the edges. Remove from the oven & allow to cool on the baking tray for a couple of minutes. This will allow them time to harden slightly. If you try and remove them from the tray immediately, they'll be so soft that they'll break.

 
After a few minutes of resting time outside of the oven, remove from the baking trays and allow to cool on a wire rack, or just eat a few straight away while they're still warm. 
Because the quantities yield such a huge batch, you have more than enough to wrap a few up & give them away as presents, or to give to children as an after-school snack.

Cake Count :: 900

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

As promised, here's the recipe for the chocolate buttercream frosting that topped the chocolate wedding cupcakes...

This recipe is originally from joythebaker, who is a most excellent baker & blogger. I highly recommend visiting her little spot in cyberspace.

I have converted the quantities from American measures to metric for those of us who don't work in cups. (For those of you who do, follow the link to joy the baker's blog & they'll be right there for you.)

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting 

makes enough to frost about 40 small cupcakes or 25 large cupcakes

ingredients

170g butter at room temperature
75g cocoa
400g icing sugar
110ml milk
110ml double (heavy) cream
50g ovaltine (or other malt based drink)
2tsp vanilla essence


1) Beat together the butter & cocoa. (It will be quite stiff.)

2) Sieve in the icing sugar & beat to combine.

 

3) Gradually add in the milk & vanilla extract, beating well after each addition to create a smooth consistency.

4) In a measuring jug, stir together the cream & ovaltine.

5) Add a small quantity of the ovaltine mixture to the buttercream and beat to combine. You might not want to use all of the ovaltine mixture, so just keep adding it until it reaches your desired consistency. 
(I was piping the frosting so needed it to be thick enough to keep its shape, but if you're going to be spreading it on & like malty chocolate, add the whole lot!)

6)  Once your frosting has reached the desired consistency, either spread straight onto the cooled cakes, or fill a large piping bag fitted with either a star or round shaped nozzle and pipe away!


7) If using hundreds & thousands, or any other sprinkle to suit your fancy, now's the time to sprinkle away.


photo credits :: Ben Currer

heart melters

If I told you that these chocolate bitesize beauties are practically good for you, would you think I was lying to you?

Well, worry not, I would not lie about chocolate, would I.

Last Saturday afternoon, I felt like baking & I felt like chocolate. I remembered the beautifully named chocolate full stops from one of my newest recipe books & thought that now was the perfect time to bake them. 

As I perused the pages of Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache my eyes fell upon the recipe for an August Wedding Cake & my mind wandered to thinking through the practicalities of baking my own wedding cake. I reminded myself that now was not the time to be having such crazy thoughts, I was on a chocolate mission.

Here are a few lessons I learned along the way of my baking journey to making chocolate full stops & how they came to be known by me as heart melters.

:: adapting recipes is a fine & fun thing to do, if you know what you're doing. usually, just changing the kind of tin you bake in is perfectly acceptable. usually, but not always.

:: it really is possible to bake something chocolatey that also boasts a vegetable ingredient.

:: rather than trusting your instincts & cutting out the vegetable ingredient because it seems ever so slightly mad, trust the beautiful woman who designed these recipes & enjoy the feeling of baking rebelliously

(NB: rebellious in this context means not using any butter but using butternut squash instead. Sure, they both have 'butter' in their name, but one is most definitely not butter.)

:: don't mistake an ice cube tray from ikea for a clever silicone tray. it might just melt in the oven.

After reading my lessons for the day, if you feel like you trust me enough to try this, I would highly recommend heart melters as part of your daily diet.


choocolate heart melters

ingredients makes 24

150g peeled, diced butternut squash
50g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
1 egg
60g caster sugar
20g rice flour (or plain flour if you don't have any - I used plain)
20g ground almonds
20g cocoa
2 tsp baking powder

1) Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas mark 4 / 350. Line two mini muffin trays with petit four cases. If you happen to have silicone mini muffin trays, use these - no greasing or cases required. If you don't have any of the above, just use a baking tray and line up your petit four cases (or any small kind of cake case you can find) in neat little rows.

2) Place the diced butternut squash in a saucepan & cover with water. Bring to the boil & let them bubble away for 6 mins. Drain the water and add the chocolate chunks. Stir together then leave for a couple of minutes before stirring again. The chocolate melts wonderfully from the heat of the squash.

3) Whisk the egg & sugar together in a large mixing bowl for 3 minutes. Add the flour, ground almonds, cocoa & baking powder, and whisk until everything is combined.

4) Having stirred the chocolate & butternut squash together, puree the mixture using a hand held blender, or food processor. Whisk the puree into the egg mixture until combined.

5) Using 2 teaspoons, carefully dollop small amounts of the mixture into each case, then bake in the oven for 12 minutes. (if you use larger cases, they'll probably need 15 - 20 minutes baking time.)

6) Remove from the oven & leave on a wire rack to cool. Or, if you're really desperate to see if this recipe has actually worked, eat them straight out of the oven.


Cake Count :: 703
 

marbly meringue

Why am I stuck on a marble theme at the moment? I have no idea, so I'll just roll with it until something else comes along.

So, this is my latest marbly creation, an adaptation of the Divine Chocolate Book chocolate meringues.

These are meant to be served as mini meringue mountains, but Eaton Mess was the order of the day & I wanted to do something a little more exciting than plain meringue. Knowing that this meringue was going to have a meeting with a rolling pin as soon as it had cooled, I didn't bother with making mini's, I just blobbed it right out of the bowl, onto the tray.

With a little bit of necessary fiddling with oven temperatures during cooking, the meringue couldn't have turned out more perfect.

Now, I don't know about you, but both John & I love meringue that it as chewy as possible - the joy is in the chew rather than the crunch - wouldn't you agree?

Unwittling, adapting the temperature during cooking & changing the cooking times seemed to be the perfect little trick for getting the texture right. In the recipe, I'll give you the official times stated & the Hannah times, so you can choose, depending on what you prefer.

chocolate meringue
ingredients
100g chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
3 egg whites
a pinch of cream of tartar
175g caster sugar
1. Preheat the oven to 120C / Gas mark 1/2 / 250F

2. Break up the chocolate & melt in a heatproof bowl over simmering water, or in the microwave. Once melted, remove from heat
3. In a clean mixing bowl, whist the egg whites until almost stiff, then pour in the sugar & cream of tartar & whisk briefly until stiff. (my mixture was not particularly stiff, which might also have affected the overall texture)

4. Drizzle the chocolate over the meringue mixture, then fold in using a metal spoon. To make the most of your marbling, only fold 3-4 times.
5. Scrape the meringue mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, in one big old heap. Or, if you'd like to make smaller meringues, dollop dessertspoons-full onto the tray, evenly spaced.

6. Bake in the preheated oven for two hours until firm. (the official way.)

or...
Bake for 30 minutes at 120C then increase the heat to 140 and bake for a further 60 minutes, putting the meringue on a low rack in the oven, then remove after this time. (the Hannah way.)
I then smashed up the meringue in the most loving way possible, and ate it with strawberries & cream. Yum.

Cake Count :: 679

italian chocolate marbled cheesecake

This little number is a beauty. 

Until I discovered this recipe, I was rather wary of cheesecakes that called to be baked, having had a run-in with one of Nigella's recipes where you put the cheesecake tin in a basin of water while it baked in the oven. The results were disasterous & inedible.

Having never been let down by the Divine Chocolate Recipe book, I decided that I would brave the baked cheesecake route once again, sans water.

The only quibble (note to self: use the word 'quibble' more frequently - it's fun) I have with this recipe is the quantities for the base ingredients. The last time I baked it, I doubled the quantities and it still was not quite thick enough to compliment the dense height of the cheesecake. The great thing is about making biscuit bases is that if, when you put your crumbly buttery mixture into the tin & it doesn't look like enough, it takes hardly anytime at all to blitz up a bit more. I'll give you the doubled quantity that I used, but I would recommend doubling again!

italian chocolate marbled cheesecake

ingredients

base

100g butter

200g digestive biscuits (feel free to substitute for ginger nuts or butter crunch biscuits, or any crunchy thing you like!)

cream mixture

250 g marscapone

100g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

chocolate mixture

300g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

150g unsalted butter, room temperature

3 eggs

100g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 150C / Gas mark 2 / 300F

2. To make the base, crush your biscuits in either a food processor, or, using a rolling pin and a sealable bag to avoid crumbs flying everywhere. Melt the butter in a saucepan or the microwave (being careful not to boil) then stir the two together& press onto the base. Leave in the fridge to chill until it's needed.

3. To make the cream mixture, put the marscapone, sugar and vanilla into a bowl & beat well. Add the egg & beat until smooth. (It will be a very runny mixture, fret not.)

4. To make the chocolate mixture: Break up the chocolate & melt, either in a heatproof bowl over simmering water, or in the microwave. Once melted, stir in the butter (diced) until melted.

5. In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence for 3-4 mins until lovely&frothy. Add the melted chocolate mixture to this and whisk to combine.

6. Remove the base from the fridge & spoon 3/4 of the chocolate mixture onto the base. Pour the white cream mixture on top, then dollop the last bit of the chocolate mixture on top of this. Lovingly swirl it all together to create a marbled effect.

7. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 mins until just firm to the touch. Turn the oven off, leaving the tin inside & allow to cool. Once cool, remove from the oven, cover, and leave to chill in the fridge until it's needed.

If you're short for time, as I was when I last baked this, leave in the oven to cool after the cooking time for as long as possible, then remove & just enjoy it at whatever temperature it's at!

 

Chocolate Heaven

This dessert has been likened to chocolate brownie. I think it has something more to it than just being brownie.

Not that I have anything against brownies, but when this is a dessert baked in a round tin and has biscuits in, to me, it just isn't brownie.

I once baked Chocolate Heaven, and a girl who was paying a fleeting visit to Bristol from Australia, who just so happened to eat it, sought me out via e-mail from Down Under because she needed the recipe that badly.

So here it is...

Chocolate Heaven

Ingredients

350g / 12oz dark chocolate (pref. 70% cocoa solids)
225g / 8oz unsalted butter
5 eggs
300g / 10oz golden caster sugar
100g / 4oz butter biscuits or shortbread (I use fox's butter crunch biscuits)

To serve:
cream & blueberries

1) Grease & line a 23cm / 9" round springform tin. Preheat the oven to 160C / 140C fan oven / gas mark 3

2) Place the chocolate and butter (diced) into a glass bowl and place over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted.

3) Whist the eggs and sugar for 5 minutes using an electric whisk (or a balloon whisk if you don't have access to an electric one, and happen to possess a whole lot of arm power). When the mixture is light and bubbly, and has doubled in volume, it's perfect.

4) Pour the chocolate mixture into the egg muxture, then gently but thoroughly, fold in. Add the broken biscuits then fold them in.

5) Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes until just firm. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about half an hour.

You can serve it while still warm - it will be amazingly gooey and impossible to make it look beautiful, but totally delicious. Or, you can wait until it has cooled and serve cold.
If you chill it (up to a day ahead) it will be lovely and fudgy.

Isn't this brilliant? A dessert that can be gooey or fudgy or a little bit like brownie? I love it.

If you're anything like me, you'll be searching for the flour in the ingredients list. Even when you've read over it a good few times to know that your eyes are not deceiving you, you will get to the stage where, in a regular sponge cake recipe, you'd add the flour, and think, 'have I missed something?!'

Nope. You have not. There is not a single ounce of the lovely white stuff in this dessert.

Enjoy.

Cake Count :: 677

fifteen minutes of fun

If you will allow me, I would like to wax lyrical for a few moments about my baking slot this afternoon.

Some of the best times I've had baking have been been I've had a recent caffeine hit. Today was one of those days. I'd had a coffee at an establishment where the coffee is a little stronger than I am used to, and leaves me buzzing. What a fun feeling that can be.

So, fresh from my coffee, I decided I needed to bake.Why? Because I love to, and because it gives me a little something more to write about in this little space.

Then came the decision of what to bake. For some reason, I seem to be a bit stuck on chocolate at the moment. I love the beautiful brown stuff, I really do, but today, it feels like Summer, and Summer & Fruit are always a beautiful combination. Even though I wanted to bake something light and fruity and summery, I couldn't help but gravitate towards chocolate. Maybe it's my hormones. Who knows. So I let my hormones, or whatever else it was, do the talking, but asserted my criteria of baking something new. Not the same old same old.

Anyhow, I flitted to and fro across my room, from my reading chair to my laptop, searching for inspiration amidst the pages of my baking books & from the most brilliant source that is joy the baker. (This woman is brilliant, and it really is worth the effort to convert her American measurements to taste the goodness of her recipes.)

In the end (which actually took about 3 minutes - it's amazing how fast I can get things done with the help of caffeine), I settled on some chocolate malt squares. This satiated my need to bake something chocolate, and something new.

Here's a little rundown of the thoughts whizzing through my head as I baked, which ended up in the form of a top 10 list (although as I type this, I'm not sure that there's actually 10 things on this list, but it has a better ring to it than 'top 4' or likewise).

1) Oooh that vanilla extract smells good. I am so glad I discovered the value of buying more expensive vanilla extract. It is so worth it.

2) There's something quite fun about creating flour clouds as you sieve. Sieving always reminds me of my Grandad pouring tea.
Random connection to sieving?
Yep.You see, I remember my Grandad pouring tea from a teapot (my family only like proper tea), and pouring it from an increasingly great height, thus giving you 'high tea.' I like to sieve from great heights because more height gives you more air, and air is good, and because it reminds me of my Grandad. I also like it because you create an unavoidable mess, but that's ok, because it's necessary.

3) Yeees, the sun is shining and I am warm & wearing an apron and that is a happy combination.

4) I like that this recipe calls for Ovaltine. The malty smell reminds me of home & my Mother making bedtime drinks.

5) I enjoy the slight thrill that comes from multitasking while baking - stirring the melting bowl of chocolate on the hob and beating the eggs & sugar simultaneously. There's always the chance that this could all go horribly wrong, and that's exciting. (Thankfully, it never has gone horribly wrong, except for the time where I might have draped the electrical cord from the beaters in the flame from the hob. That might not have been a good thing to do.)

6) This caffeine makes me want to race. Right now, the only racing I can do is against myself&the clock. So that's exactly what I do. The race is on to make these bites of chocolate goodness within the time specified necessary for making them: 15 minutes.

7) Woohoo! I succeeded at number 6. To the minute. And I managed two trips to the recycling bin in that time & welcomed home three of the five children I live with. Success.

If you've made it this far, thanks for indulging me. Here's what I baked...

Chocolate Malt Squares (yields 16 - 20 depending on how big you allow the pieces to be)

Ingredients

175g light muscovado sugar
175g butter
400g dark chocolate (no need for 70% cocoa solids, but if you like it, use it.)
175g wholemeal self raising flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp Ovaltine (or alternative malt-based drink)
3 eggs

1) Pre-heat the oven to 190C / Gas Mark 5. Grease & line an 8 " square tin

2) Melt 175g of the chocolate and the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water

3) In a small bowl, combine the Ovaltine with 2 tbsp water & set aside

4) In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs & sugar until nice & frothy

5) Add the vanilla extract & Ovaltine mixture to the eggs & sugar and mix together

6) Stir in the melted chocolate & butter

7) Sift the flour in, pouring in the grains that don't sieve, they add interesting texture

8) Chop up the remaining chocolate and stir in

9) Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40 mins until a skewer inserted comes away almost clean. (A bit of residue is good because the squares will be slightly gooey.)

10) Place tin on a wire cooling rack & leave to cool in the tin

My overall verdict on this recipe?

To be honest, I thought that there was a bit too much chocolate in this recipe. I'd like to try it again with less, and maybe substitute some of the dark choc for maybe some chocolate orange, although this might take away from the subtle malt taste. You could probably enhance the malty-ness with Malteasers.

They have a texture that falls somewhere between brownies & sponge cake, and the wholemeal flour adds to this. Nicely squishy&moist without being gooey. I'd like to try these again, adapting the recipe slightly. Watch this space...

Cake Count :: 676

fifteen minutes of fun

If you will allow me, I would like to wax lyrical for a few moments about my baking slot this afternoon.

Some of the best times I've had baking have been been I've had a recent caffeine hit.

Today was one of those days. I'd had a coffee at an establishment where the coffee is a little stronger than I am used to, and leaves me buzzing.

What a fun feeling that can be.

So, fresh from my coffee, I decided I needed to bake.

Why? Because I love to, and because it gives me a little something more to write about in this little space.

Then came the decision of what to bake. For some reason, i seem to be a bit stuck on chocolate at the moment. I love the beautiful brown stuff, I really do, but today, it feels like Summer, and Summer & Fruit are always a beautiful combination. Even though I wanted to bake something light and fruity and summery, I couldn't help but gravitate towards chocolate. Maybe it's my hormones. Who knows. So I let my hormones, or whatever else it was, do the talking, but asserted my criteria of baking something new. Not the same old same old.

Anyhow, I flitted to and fro across my room, from my reading chair to my laptop, searching for inspiration amidst the pages of my baking books & from the most brilliant source that is joy the baker. (This woman is brilliant, and it really is worth the effort to convert her American measurements to taste the goodness of her recipes.)

In the end (which actually took about 3 minutes - it's amazing how fast I can get things done with the help of caffeine), I settled on some chocolate malt squares. This satiated my need to bake something chocolate, and something new.

Here's a little rundown of the thoughts whizzing through my head as I baked, which ended up in the form of a top 10 list (although as I type this, I'm not sure that there's actually 10 things on this list, but it has a better ring to it than 'top 4' or likewise).

1) Oooh that vanilla extract smells good. I am so glad I discovered the value of buying more expensive vanilla extract. It is so worth it.

2) There's something quite fun about creating flour clouds as you sieve. Sieving always reminds me of my Grandad pouring tea.
Random connection to sieving? Yep.
You see, I remember my Grandad pouring tea from a teapot (my family only like proper tea), and pouring it from an increasingly great height, thus giving you 'high tea.'
I like to sieve from great heights because more height gives you more air, and air is good, and because it reminds me of my Grandad. I also like it because you create an unavoidable mess, but that's ok, because it's necessary.

3) Yeees, the sun is shining and I am warm & wearing an apron and that is a happy combination.

4) I like that this recipe calls for Ovaltine. The malty smell reminds me of home & my Mother making bedtime drinks.

5) I enjoy the slight thrill that comes from multitasking while baking - stirring the melting bowl of chocolate on the hob and beating the eggs & sugar simultaneously. There's always the chance that this could all go horribly wrong, and that's exciting.
(Thankfully, it never has gone horribly wrong, except for the time where I might have draped the electrical cord from the beaters in the flame from the hob. That might not have been a good thing to do.)

6) This caffeine makes me want to race. Right now, the only racing I can do is against myself&the clock. So that's exactly what I do. The race is on to make these bites of chocolate goodness within the time specified necessary for making them: 15 minutes.

7) Woohoo! I succeeded at number 6. To the minute. And I managed two trips to the recycling bin in that time & welcomed home three of the five children I live with. Success.

If you've made it this far, thanks for indulging me. Here's what I baked..

Chocolate Malt Squares (yields 16 - 20 depending on how big you allow the pieces to be)

Ingredients
175g light muscovado sugar
175g butter
400g dark chocolate (no need for 70% cocoa solids, but if you like it, use it.)
175g wholemeal self raising flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp Ovaltine (or alternative malt-based drink)
3 eggs

1) Pre-heat the oven to 190C / Gas Mark 5. Grease & line an 8 " square tin

2) Melt 175g of the chocolate and the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water

3) In a small bowl, combine the Ovaltine with 2 tbsp water & set aside

4) In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs & sugar until nice & frothy

5) Add the vanilla extract & Ovaltine mixture to the eggs & sugar and mix together

6) Stir in the melted chocolate & butter

7) Sift the flour in, pouring in the grains that don't sieve, they add interesting texture

8) Chop up the remaining chocolate and stir in

9) Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40 mins until a skewer inserted comes away almost clean. (A bit of residue is good because the squares will be slightly gooey.)

10) Place tin on a wire cooling rack & leave to cool in the tin


My overall verdict on this recipe?
To be honest, I thought that there was a bit too much chocolate in this recipe. I'd like t0 try it again with less, and maybe substitute some of the dark choc for maybe some chocolate orange, although this might take away from the subtle malt taste.

You could probably enhance the malty-ness with Malteasers.

They have a texture that falls somewhere between brownies & sponge cake, and the wholemeal flour adds to this. Nicely squishy&moist without being gooey.

I'd like to try these again, adapting the recipe slightly. Watch this space...

Cake Count :: 676

there's always more room for chocolate

So, you might be thinking that this little cookie looks very similar to another little chocolate cookie featured here a while ago.

I will forgive you for thinking that because yes, there is a slight similarity in that they are both beautifully chocolatey and a little crackly in appearance.

But. There is a beautiful difference between the two. Let me elaborate.

Sometimes you might be in need of a fast chocolate fix. My old favourite just does not quite match these shiny-cracked beauties in speed of getting from bowl to oven to mouth to satisfy that chocolate craving. These are so quick to make. 20 minutes from start to finish. I kid you not. They are softer, shinier and gooey-er than my old favourite - and the very reason that my old favourite is just that - old. These are the new kids on the block and they're here to stay.

I have made scores of these cookies over the last few months and I love them just as much every single time.

Without further ado, I give you...

The Chocolate Brownie Cookie

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
50g unsalted butter, very soft
2 eggs
150g caster sugar
25g plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa
¼ tsp baking powder
50g chocolate chopped (optional - I tend not to bother and save the chocolate for another occasion!)


1 :: Pre-heat the oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4 & grease 3 large baking trays
2 :: Break up the chocolate into squares, put them in a glass bowl and melt
in the microwave or in a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.
3 :: Chop up the butter then stir into the chocolate. (The heat from the
chocolate melts the butter.)
4 :: In a different bowl, put the eggs and sugar in and use an electric mixer
to beat them for 4 minutes.
5 :: Beat in the chocolate to the egg and sugar mixture.
6 :: Sieve in the flour, baking powder and cocoa & gently fold in with a metal spoon.
8 :: If you are adding chocolate chunks, stir these in gently.
Place 1 heaped tsp of mixture onto the tray, leaving plenty of space in between each cookie.
10 :: Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. They will look soft when you take them
out, but that's ok, they'll get a bit harder when they cool down, and you don't want to lose the gooey-ness

If you'd like to add a bit of a twist, swap the regular dark chocolate for dark choc&orange. Trust me, you won't regret it if you do.


Cake Count: 660

Brownies

Simply because sometimes brownies is exactly what a family needs. Especially when there are five hungry children to feed.

These brownies are less of the goo&crunch variety, more of the dense&rich type.

Scrumdidliiumptious.

Cake Count :: 574

Cake Friday

One of the children I look after goes to a secondary school where they employ this brilliant idea:

Cake Friday

Each Friday, three children in the tutor group bakes enough cakes for 1 per pupil, so everyone gets 3 cakes.

Last week, it was our turn to bake, but it was a bit of a last minute thing, and tagged on to the end of an afternoon of baking these and these. So this is what we cobbled together:

Chocolate Honeycomb Crunch
Ingredients:
225g / 8oz butter
225g / 8oz caster sugar
200g / 7oz self raising flour
25g / 1oz cocoa
3 eggs

For the Icing:
50g / 2oz hard margerine (comes in 250g block form - I use Stork)
200g / 7oz icing sugar, sifted
25g / 1oz cocoa
2 tbsp milk
1 Crunchie Bar, crushed


1 :: Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas Mark 4
2 :: Place 24 cupcake cases in two 12-hole muffin trays (if you only have one, just bake in two batches)
3 :: In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy
4 :: Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition
5 :: Sift in the flour & cocoa and fold in with a metal spoon. (If you want to be speedy, just carrying on mixing with electric beaters)
6 :: Put 1.5 heaped dessertspoons of the mixture into each cupcase
7 :: Bake in the preheated oven for 15 - 20 mins, then leave to cool on a wire cooling rack.

For the Icing
1 :: Melt the butter in a saucepan
2 :: Remove from heat then add the sifted icing sugar & cocoa, stirring gently with a wooden spoon. At this stage, the icing will not look like a great consistency, but don't worry, the milk changes that.
3 :: Add the milk and beat until a smooth, shiny consistency is reached.
4 :: Using a knife, spread a generous amount of the icing onto each cooled cupcake.
5 :: Sprinkle a little bit of honeycomb-Crunchie goodness onto each cake.


Sidenote: I often find that the fat separates from the sugar - I haven't yet worked out why this is but the solution is to add a little more milk. It works like a dream.

Cake Count :: 558

Chocolate Chequerboard Cake

There are some old classics in the cake world that never let you down and everybody loves.

The first cake I ever learned to bake is one of these classics. Straight from my Mother's kitchen.
There's nothing fancy about this sponge, but it's perfectly perfect when all you want is a light tea time sponge.

So, when cake was requested by the children I look after, this is what came out of the oven.

I'm afraid this post has stumped me a number of times. Or rather, blogger has failed me on more than one occasion in writing this post. I cannot recall the number of times I've typed out the recipe and then lost all the text, so for now, it's a recipe in photos.

Cake Count :: 502

an unexpected favourite

Well this week has turned out to be another little boost towards my 2010 goal.

It all started on Monday evening. At the job I have that involves me cooking for some lovely people, I had been more productive than usual, so had less cooking to do on Tuesday. I asked the lady who I cook for if there was anything she'd like me to do instead of cooking as I'd have extra time on Tuesday, she said, 'you could bake some cakes for the kids?'

Aaaaah. Music to my ears.

At this, one of the children piped up, 'ooh can we have one of those tall square cakes?'

Interpretation provided by Mum: Battenburg.

I have to say, I do not like this cake, but I understand the beauty of it. So, I suggested a compromise:

Chocolate Chequerboard Cake.

But that is for another blog post.

{You're getting a glimpse into my rambly mind here. You see, I'd uploaded the photos for this blog post with the intention of telling you about my favourite cookie, but I have digressed. Back to the original.}

So anyway, after the mention of Chocolate Chequerboard Cake, one of the other children mentioned that on Thursday her school was having a non-uniform day in aid of Haiti, and she'd quite like to make something to sell at a stall at lunchtime.

{Interpretation: She'd like me to make something to sell at the stall. Fine by me.}

And that's where these cookies come in.

Up until 2007, I had not managed to bake a good cookie. The mixture would always look great, but would then spread and go all crispy in the baking process.

I have since then, discovered a secret ingredient: Condensed milk. What a beautiful ingredient. My cookie companion.

During a cookie conversation with a friend, I mention my lack of a good recipe, and she said, 'My mum has a great recipe for cookies. l've never tried it, but it's supposed to be really good. I'll get it for you.'

Now, I don't know about you, but often when people say they'll pass on a recipe, it doesn't happen. Not for lack of good intention, but because, with a recipe like this, as is so often the case, you need to go and find it / ask someone to pass it on, etc, and so the buck gets passed and dropped.

Thankfully, this friend is the most organised person I have ever met. She does not forget. So, a few days after our conversation, I had the recipe in my hand for what was to become my favourite cookie recipe to date.

So, dear friends, here is the recipe, being passed on, just as it should be. I love that my growing recipe collection isn't made up simply of beautiful books stuffed full of recipes written by somebody else, but consists of recipes from here, there and everywhere. From family and friends, and family of friends, and websites lovingly created by people who love to bake. Even as I write this, I am getting excited about the prospect of all the recipes that are to be found.

Enough of my jibber-jabbing, and onto the recipe...

Double Chocolate Cookies :: Makes about 22 {depending on how big /small you make them}

Ingredients
200g / 7oz dark chocolate
60g / 2oz unsalted butter
60g / 2oz white chocolate chips
225g / 8oz self raising flour
397g / 14oz tin condensed milk

1 :: Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180C / 350F

2 :: Break up the dark chocolate and melt, along with the butter, in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water.

3 :: Once melted, remove from the heat and stir in the entire can of condensed milk. Set aside for 10-15 mins to cool slightly.

4 :: Stir in the flour gradually (no need to sieve).

5 :: Stir in the white chocolate chips. On this occasion I cut up a bar of white chocolate as it was cheaper to buy it in this form than in ready-made chips, but roll with whatever you feel like. Personally, I think that little chips look better than cut up chocolate, but there we go.

6 :: Leave the dough to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
This was the first recipe that made me see that cookie dough really is, and should be, dough-like, just as the term suggests. It feels brilliantly springy to touch - not that you would ever catch me doing such a thing...

8 :: Spoon heaped teaspoons of the mixture onto a greased baking tray, leaving plenty of space in between to allow for spreading. If you want the cookies to have a smooth-ish appearance, it might be worth rolling the ball of dough in your hands before placing on the tray, but I quite like the rough-rocky-like apppearance they have from just scooping and pushing onto the tray.

9 :: Bake in the preheated oven for 10 - 12 minutes.
The cookies are ready when they're just starting to go crisp on top but are still very soft.
Remember that cookies always harden as they cool, so you do not want to bake them until they're hard, unless you want to bite into a brown rock!

Cake Count :: 501