I’ve been a bit off the boil, so to speak, with cake baking. I did however make these chocolate pots on Saturday night for some friends – they are pretty delicious and dead simple.  They are very mousse-like without the use of horrible gelatine, so I’d call them a mousse rather than a chocolate pot, which implies that they are dense and dark. It’s the first recipe I’ve made from Chocolate Box, a book that came with a chocolate hamper from Marks and Spencer (a welcome Christmas present).

Ingredients
225g/8oz plain chocolate (I used Co-op’s own fair trade, which is very good)
4 eggs, separated
6 tbsp caster sugar
4 tbsp dark rum
4 tbsp double cream

Method (makes 6)
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water and leave to cool slightly.
Whisk the egg yolks with the caster sugar until very pale and fluffy (I didn’t get mine to go ‘fluffy’ – i think that’s the wrong description?)
Drizzle in the melted chocolate and fold together with the rum and cream.
Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form and fold into the chocolate mix in two batches. Divide between 6 individual dishes (I used my lovely ivy-leaf cups and saucers and you can see) and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

They suggest decorating with whipped cream and chocolate shapes but I just plonked a few raspberries on top which went beautifully with the chocolate.

My sister-in-law Riette once made us a delicious South African dessert, which was very much like a steamed pudding even though it was baked in the oven. I then discovered this recipe in my Green & Black’s cookbook – another South African dish with that wonderful steamed pud texture to it, made ‘tipsy’ by the boozy syrup. I made it at Christmas as an alternative to the conventional pudding and in honour of Riette and her homeland! It’s best served with custard we think. The G&B book has its own twist (mainly just have got it into the book if you ask me – you could easily leave out the chocolate). I would never have though this kind of dish would come out of South Africa as I imagine it to be roasting hot all the time (obviously not true), but apparently they’re very into their hot dinners!

Batter:
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
240g dates, stoned (or 250g with stones), chopped
125ml/ 4fl oz boiling water
40g unsalted butter
200g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
25g preserved ginger, chopped
100g glace (yuk) or dried cherries – definitely dried!
40g walnuts, chopped (last time I used pecans)
50g dark chocolate, minimum 60 percent cocoa solids

Syrup:
75g granulated sugar
200ml water
salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
25g unsalted butter
60ml brandy or dark rum

Oven and 180 degrees, grease a 23cm flan or pie dish well with butter (needs to be quite deep).

Pat the bicarb over the dates and pour over the boiling water, stir and leave to cool. Cream the butter, sugar together and add the eggs, beat thoroughly. Sift together the flour, bp and salt and stir into the creamed mixture.
Add the date mixture, cherries and nuts. Spoon the mixture into the pie dish and bake for 35 minutes. Place the chocolate in the freezer. Prepare the syrup – you need to pour this over the tart as soon as you get it out of the oven. Boil all the ingredients for the syrup together for about 6 minutes until they form a syrup.
Remove the tart from the oven and prick the surface all over with a fork. Immediately pour over the syrup then grate the chocolate over the top. Delicious! Great with custard on a winter evening, or any time really.

Discovered this recipe a few years back, as I’m not a huge fan of beetroot and was looking for palatable ways of using it up when we got it our veg box. The muffins are surprisingly light and using the beetroot makes such sense as, like carrots, they’re a high-sugar root vegetable. It’s from Jill Dupleix originally, but I’ve made a few minor adjustments. In fact, with this batch I used buttermilk as we had some hanging around in the fridge, and it worked well…. but I’ll give the more standard recipe here.

Preheat the over 180C (or 160C fan). Put 12 paper cases in a muffin tin.

Sift together:
75g cocoa powder
180g plain flour
2 t baking powder
Stir in:
200g caster sugar

With a food processor, blend 250g cooked beetroot until as smooth as possible.
Add:
3 eggs, one at a time
1 t vanilla essence
200ml corn oil

Pour the wet beetroot mix into the dry mix. Mix until smooth and combined.

Divide between the muffin cases and bake for 30 mins.

Cool on a rack, then dust with icing sugar for serving. Or not.

This is the partner cake to Jo’s “Eggsperiment”, as we got stuck into both side-by-side. Thanks to Jo or Lawrence for the pic too!

It’s another Dan Lepard. The sponge itself is made in a marginally convoluted fashion (separating eggs, making a kind of meringue mix with the whites), but it’s nice – with a crumbly, even texture not unlike a Madeira (according to Jo). The best part of this recipe is the icing, which is a bit like a ganache, but using crème fraîche. This gives it an almost citrussy tang, which is rather nice.

Here’s the recipe.

I love this recipe, it really deals with a cookie craving and you can adapt it so easily. The original recipe was in the Guardian Weekend (January 20 2007) with some other delicious cakes and tarts by Gill Meller. I like adding rolled oats and raisins but this batch was milk and dark chocolate. I’m about to make some oaty ones with dates (dates in cakes and biscuits are always a winner).

The Recipe:

125g unsalted butter
100g unrefined granulated sugar
75g light muscovado sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
100g extras – chinks of chocolate, oats, nuts, dried fruit, preserved/crystalised ginger, pinenuts etc….

Oven at 190 degrees, line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
Melt the butter, put the two sugars (I vary the sugars too depending on what I have) in a bowl, pour over the butter and beat well. Break in the egg and add the vanilla, beat to combine. Sift in the flour, bp and salt then stir in your chosen extras.
Dot heaped dessertspoonfuls on the trays leaving plenty of space between. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to harden on the tray for a few minutes before lifting up the baking parchment and transferring to a wire rack.

Then, put the kettle on.

I would be posting Tipsy Tart – the alternative to Christmas pudding that I made on Christmas day. It’s a South African recipe and like all their puddings – delicious! In the chaos however I neglected to photograph it so I’ll just have to make it again and post it at a later date.

This therefore is not a very Christmassy recipe but delicious all the same, I always like trying new chocolate cake recipes. It’s from the Chocolate book I’ve used quite a lot now and I made it for my sort-of-sister-in-law’s ‘cake day’ to celebrate the impending birth of Ivy’s cousin.

It’s a melted chocolate recipe, something I seem to have trouble doing lately – I don’t seem to be able to heat it to the right temperature or I keep burning it. Not sure what’s going on, a whole bar of Green & Blacks wasted though, most annoying.

Everybody seems to be making cupcakes at the moment. I baked them for my friend whose birthday it was on Friday and fortuitously she had just received a tiered cake stand from another friend – perfect timing!

I just got this recipe from the internet but used a simple butter icing as I didn’t have enough chocolate to melt. I’d like to make that killer American-style frosting some time, when I have the patience to mess about with separating eggs (not that complicated I know, I was just feeling lazy).

I also used the little silicone cupcake moulds, a present for my birthday. It would be nice idea to bake someone little cakes in them as a complete gift. I’ll have to do that some time.

These were delicious and very moist, I couldn’t resist the Hundreds and Thousands!

It seems a tradition now to make Lawrence’s birthday cake of the lemon variety, he claims, or did so once, that it’s his cake of choice. I reckon any cake his now his cake of choice, he’s given up trying to convince himself that he doesn’t really have a sweet tooth! Perhaps it’s living with me that did it?

I had a look on the internet this time, uninspired by lemon cakes in my cook books and found this one on the Good Food website.

It looked so tempting, I didn’t have enough almonds so made up the amount with poppy seeds. This may be why it sank! Or I opened the oven too quickly at once stage. It’s funny, we were only just talking about cake disasters the other day and how cross Dan gets when things go wrong (obviously I do too, but I think he’s more of a passionate baker than me!) I thought we should publish the mistakes and catastrophes – makes it a bit more of an honest blog. I’m sure I’ve published some near disasters on here.

Anyway, taking a leaf out of Mary Berry’s book (not literally) I decided to make the sunken middle a feature and filled it with Chocolate hearts and balls (not sure about the balls). To add to the mishaps, I was working against the clock and decided to cheat and melt the chocolate in the microwave – never being lazy and doing that again! I started again in the smoke-filled kitchen, the conventional way, a bowl over simmering water. Not the best quality chocolate – it was an emergency operation) so it’s a bit patchy.

It’s a lovely moist cake that goes well with crème fraîche or a bit of cream perhaps. I baked in a smaller tin than they suggest which may also be the reason it sank – the volume of ingredients is rather large and needs a wider tin. Yummy though!

This is another recipe from the Green & Blacks book. I’m always a little nervous about pastry and blind baking but this is a great recipe and it turned out well. The only issue was the oven temperature I think it needed to be higher than they recommend (of course all ovens vary) and so it baked for a little too long which dried the pears out a bit. I’ll know for next time though, it’s definitely one I’d make again, it looks impressive and tastes great but is less tricky than it appears.

Pastry:
250g plain flour
1 tsp salt
110g Unsalted b utter
2 large egg yolks
4-5 tbsp water

Filling:
125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
2 large eggs
100g dark chocolate (minimum 60 % cocoa solids)
1 dsp finely chopped preserved ginger in syrup
25g plain flour
125g ground almonds
4 just ripe pears
apricot jam to glaze

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Make the pastry – sift the flour and salt in a large bowl, cut in the butter and rub into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. In a small bowl whisk together the yolks and the cold water briefly then add to the mixture. Mix until they come together as a ball, wrap the dough in greaseproof paper and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling out to line you tin. Bake the pastry blind by covering it with greaseproof baber and filling with baking beans (dried kidney beans in my case) for about 15-20 minutes or until it’s a light golden colour. Remove the pastry and lower the heat to 160 (I may have only lowered it marginally at the stage, on reflection).

Make the filling – cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat the eggs and slowly add to the mix. Melt the chocolate over simmering water, allow to cool for a few minutes before adding to the mix with the ginger. Mix in the flour and almonds and leave to cool before spreading over the pastry base.

Halve, peel and core the pears. Slice into wedges and arrange in a fan shape on top of the chocolate mix, pressing lightly. Bake for around 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Brush with apricot jam while still hot.

I served it as they suggest with simple chocolate sauce – evil!
100g dark choc (as above)
125ml double or whipping cream
10g unsalted butter
Melt the chocolate with the cream in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water, stirring frequently. Once the chocolate has melted add the butter and serve warm… With everything!

Sorry I’ve been silent for a while, been juggling many relatives visiting, going back to work and preparing for an exhibition… excuses, excuses. This does not mean I haven’t been baking of course. I need to catch up!

I love cheesecake and am not normally a fan of the baked sort as I think I’ve said before but this is with a biscuit or shortbread style base so not the sponge kind.

This is from my fabulous Chocolate book and is less complicated that the ingredients might imply.

Base
75g plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
75g semolina
50g caster sugar
115g unsalted butter, softened

Filling
225g cream cheese
120ml natural yogurt
2 eggs, beaten
75g caster sugar
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
75g raisins
45ml (3 tbsp) plain chocolate chips

Topping
75g plain chocolate, chopped into small pieces
2 tbsp golden syrup
40g (3 tbsp)butter

Oven at 150 degrees. Sift the flour, cocoa into a mixing bowl and stir in the sugar and semolina. Rub the butter into the flour mixture until it makes a firm dough. Press the dough into the base of a 22 cm springform tin. Prick all over with a fork and bake for 15 minutes. Remove but leave the oven on.

Make the filling; in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese with the yogurt, eggs and sugar until evenly mixed. Stir in the lemon rind, raisins and choc chips.
Smooth the cream cheese mix over the chocolate shortbread base and bake for a further 35-45 minutes or until golden and just set. Cool in the tin on a wire rack.

Next make the topping; combine the chocolate, syrup and butter in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Stir gently until melted. Pour over the cheesecake and leave to set. Remove the sides of the tin and slide on to a serving plate. Yum!