Chocolate Log Blog

Mooving up the Professional Ladder and a Giveaway #29

2013-05-22T12:53:00.000+01:00

It was Jac of Tinned Tomatoes that first alerted me to MOO business cards. I was so impressed by her wonderful photographs that I had to order some myself. Unlike any other cards I've seen, you can have a different picture on the back of each one if you like, which makes them not only fun but a walking gallery of your favourite blog photos. When I'm asked for a business card, not that I am very often, I can offer up several and ask the recipient to take their pick. It's nice to get a few oohs and aghhs and watch while the all important decision is made. It offers a completely new dimension to a standard business card.

It took me a while to venture onto the MOO website as I thought it might be a rather complicated and time consuming process. But eventually I overcame my suspicions and duly ordered a pack of fifty standard size cards made using recycled paper. I needn't have worried, the process was really easy. I was able to design my cards and choose the pictures in several stages as the design could be saved at any time and edited later. I chose two each of twenty five of my blog photos for the backs and on the front I used a section of my blog header photograph as a logo of sorts. The real difficulty was deciding whether to go for mini cards or the standard credit card size which fits easily into purses and wallets. The latter won out.

When the parcel arrived, I tore it open with indecent haste. I was thrilled with the results. To have a physical representation of my photographs was a first for me and I was impressed with just how good they looked. They are more expensive than cards I've bought before, but so much better - they look and feel classy. It was also good to have all my social media contact details together in one place.

No sooner had the cards arrived then I was regretting not having bought more - after all I wanted to hang on to one of each of my designs, Gollum fashion and that left only twenty five of my preciousses. As it happened, I spotted a giveaway over at Kavey Eats a couple of months later for a pack of MOO business cards. Amazingly, I won and like Gollum reunited with the ring, I was bouncing up and down with delight - thank you Kavey. I was able to recreate my favourite pictures and add some new ones as well. Another pack of fifty was soon winging its way towards me. These were somewhat different to my first batch as they were printed on standard paper, which is sourced from sustainable forests but is not recycled. The cards were thicker and slightly shinier.

The cards come in a handy holder with a "mine" and "theirs" tab to hold cards you are going to giveaway (maybe) and cards you collect. The top slides on and off easily and the whole thing is very properly made from recycled materials. My photographs don't do the cards justice, the images are crisp and clear and a lot lighter than they look here. Mini cards, postcards, stickers and labels are also available and I am sorely tempted to add to my collection.

Giveaway

MOO have kindly offered a pack of 50 classic business cards to one lucky Chocolate Log Blog reader from anywhere.

To be in with a chance of winning these fabulous cards, please fill in the Rafflecopter below. You will need to leave a comment on this post which then gives you additional chances to enter if you so wish. Rafflecopter will pick a winner at random from the entries received. Please give me some way of identifying you in the comment section as I will be verifying the validity of entries and will always check back to the comments to ensure that part has been done. Any automated entries will be disqualified. This giveaway is open worldwide, but you do need to be 18 or over to enter. Winners will need to respond within 7 days of being contacted. Failure to do this may result in another winner being picked.

Prizes are offered and provided by MOO and Chocolate Log Blog accepts no responsibility for the acts or defaults of said third party.

If you need some help using Rafflecopter, here's a quick clip to show you how.

Closing date is Wednesday 19 June 2013

You might also want to take a look at my giveaway page to see if there is anything else you would like to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mango and Chocolate Cake #BakeBrave - We Should Cocoa #33

2013-05-19T11:52:00.001+01:00

This month's We Should Cocoa is being hosted by Shaheen (see my post on Hunky Dorys) and seeing as she is also known as MangoCheeks, it came as no surprise that she chose mango as the special ingredient. I recently made a mango and chocolate combination so I know the two flavours go well together - Mexican chocolate pudding with chilli lime mango slices. The mango mendiants I once made were also very successful. Now, I adore mangoes, but I do hate preparing them and am often put off buying them because of this. Luckily, I had a tin of mango puree that I bought from an international shop in Plymouth a couple of years ago in order to make mango kulfi. It was well past its sell by date, but I couldn't see that it was likely to have gone off and luckily it hadn't.

My initial thought was to make a chocolate and mango ripple ice-cream, which I think could look and taste really good, but our freezer is currently stuffed to the gunnels and I couldn't squeeze anything else in. I had to think again. OK, how about a chocolate and mango cake?

It's World Baking Day today where we are all being encouraged to #Bake Brave and bake something that is just outside our comfort zone. There are 100 recipes on the website starting at level "I bake and cross my fingers" and ending at level "I bake therefore I am". My bake is at #16 and are these violet and rose fairy cakes. I'm not baking one of the 100 on the website, although there are many I find very tempting, but I'm setting my own challenge of #BakeBrave by making up a completely new cake as I need to include mango and I'm hoping it will turn out well.

It seemed a bit too obvious to make a chocolate cake and fill it with mango, so I decided to do it the other way around and have chocolate playing second fiddle to the mango by making a mango cake filled with chocolate. I was really excited at the thought of having a mango flavoured orange coloured sponge. I thought cardamom and coconut would add a little depth and work well with the mango flavour, so I included coconut flour and cardamom sugar to the bake.

So to the chocolate filling. My first thought was to fill the cake with a coconut chocolate ganache to compliment the coconut in the sponge. I was going to do this by whipping coconut cream and melted dark chocolate together. But before I made a start on this, I spotted an opened jar of milk chocolate sauce which really needed to be used up and as I cannot bare waste, I thought I ought to use that instead.

This is how I made

Mango, Cardamom, Coconut Chocolate Cream Cake

Sieved 200g flour (half wholemeal spelt, half white) into a bowl followed by 25g coconut flour, 1 rounded tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda.
Creamed 125g unsalted butter with 125g cardamom sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in two large duck eggs (3 hens eggs), one by one.
Stirred ⅓ of the flour into the egg mixture.
Stirred 100g mango puree in.
Repeated this process until all of the flour was used up and 300g mango puree had been used in total.
Divided the mixture between two 20cm (8") cake moulds and baked at 180C for 22 minutes.
Turned out on racks to cool.
Spread both cakes with a thick layer of chocolate sauce whilst warm so that it would soak into the sponge.
Left to cool completely.
Whipped 100ml double cream until peaks formed.
Sandwiched the two cakes together with the cream and dusted the top with icing sugar.

I have an idea in my head when I start baking of what the finished bake is going to look like. I'm invariably disappointed and usually even more disappointed with my photographs. This cake wasn't quite what I was expecting, but I did like the marbling effect produced by the chocolate sauce running down the sides and soaking into the sponge. Luckily, the taste doesn't usually disappoint and this cake was just as good as I imagined it would be: a faint hint of coconut, just the right amount of chocolate so as not to overwhelm and a light but moist sponge with a delicious well balanced mango flavour. It had a beautiful warm orange colour which conjured up the tropics which was something I was also hoping for - an excellent antidote to the very untropical weather we've been having recently. I was really pleased with it and myself.

I shall be making this cake again for sure and next time I will try the coconut chocolate ganache as I'd originally intended.

The very talented Shaheen of Allotment 2 Kitchen is hosting We Should Cocoa this month and has chosen that most sunshiny of fruits mango.

#BakeBrave for World Baking Day today 19th May

Calendar Cakes with Laura Loves Cakes and Dolly Bakes is #BakeBrave this month, so this post ties in very nicely.

With a very out of date tin of mango puree and jar of chocolate sauce, both in need of using up, I am submitting this to Credit Crunch Munch with Helen of Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla of Fab Food 4 All, but hosted this month by Janice of Farmersgirl Kitchen.

Everything's Hunky Dory in Newport

2013-05-16T10:27:00.003+01:00

I've been following Shaheen's blog, Allotment2Kitchen, for a few years now. I first knew her as MangoCheeks when she was living in Glasgow with her productive allotment and creative vegetarian cooking. Somehow, despite having a full time job, she managed to blog almost daily. She now has less time for blogging because she is running a vegetarian cafe in Newport and is having plenty of practice in putting her creative culinary skills to even better use. The cafe is Hunky Dorys - if ever you are in the vicinity of Newport, I strongly recommend you hunt it out.

Back in April when we were in that neck of the woods for my cousin's wedding, I was hoping we would find a bit of time to slip away and pay Shaheen and Hunky Dorys a visit. Luckily we did and a had a quick tour of Newport into the bargain. We slipped off after breakfast on Satruday morning and arrived in Newport bright and early, too early for Hunky Dorys, which didn't open until 10:00. This actually worked out really well as we had a chance to explore the city. The highlight for us was an impressive mural of the Chartists in an underground passage in the town centre. We were rather horrified to learn later from Shaheen that it was going to be knocked down to make way for a new shopping centre. Apparently feelings in the city were running high as a demonstration to protest against its demolition was going to be held later that day.

So to Hunky Dorys. I knew the food was going to be good, but had little idea what else to expect. I was delighted with what we found, we both were in fact. I now have serious cafe envy and wish we had something like it closer to home. The style was informal and friendly with wooden tables and chairs, cushions if you wanted them and various blackboards listing the scrumptious fare on offer - now that's what I call a proper vegetarian cafe. Breakfast and lunch are served as well as coffee and cake of course. I was impressed by the wide selection of speciality teas which included some particularly unusual ones. The menu changes regularly, so customers don't have a chance to get bored and vegans have plenty to choose from. Some of the fresh produce is home grown adding resonance to the name Allotment 2 Kitchen, or in this case Allotment 2 Cafe. I would have been very happy to stay for lunch as there were several things that sounded specially appetising and Shaheen's pies in particular are legendary. She has recently written a post about the first one she made, garlic mushroom parsley pies. My photographs, sadly do not to it justice, but they are the best I have.

Having ordered our cake and cups of chilli and ginkgo tea respectively, we sat down to soak up the ambience. Cakes? Yes, even after a massive breakfast at the hotel, we could not resist the array of tempting treats laid out before us. CT went for a strawberry chocolate cake and I had an Oreo chocolate one - both vegan and both absolutely delicious. We were soon joined by Shaheen, who managed to spare us a few minutes from her busy cooking schedule for an impromptu chat. CT thought she was absolutely gorgeous (which she was), so I had to remind him she was already taken. Corroboration came in the form of her husband D, who I was really pleased to meet as he is often mentioned on the Allotment 2 Kitchen blog. After a longer chin wag than she'd intended, Shaheen had to get back to ensuring her customers had something to eat for lunch, D had to go into town and we had a wedding to attend. It was with some regret that we had to leave so soon. It was a joy to meet Shaheen and finally get to see her excellent cafe. We both wish her every success with it.

Shaheen is hosting this month's We Should Cocoa and has chosen a particularly appropriate ingredient - do take a look.

Marzipan Macaroons or Kransekake

2013-05-13T07:08:00.000+01:00

I do love a good macaroon, so when I was hunting around for a K for this month's Alpha Bakes, I was delighted to find these kransekake (otherwise known as marzipan macaroons) in Scandilicious Baking by Signe Johansen. Until I found this recipe, I had no idea that almond macaroons were a Scandinavian speciality. I've always thought of them as very British, that is until the sophisticated Parisian macaron came along and swept all before it. Luckily, rustic macaroons are much more my style, I say that as I'd never have the patience to create the elegant structures beloved by the French. If you'd like tips on how to make the perfect macaron, hop over to Jill's blog, Mad About Macarons.

Anyway, I digress. These macaroons contain marzipan as well as almonds and can be finished off in any number of ways. I chose to use a chocolate drizzle; the only thing that can improve macaroons or marzipan in my book, is chocolate. The bitterness of dark chocolate helps to counteract the sweetness of the macaroon resulting in a nicely balanced biscuit.

This is how I made:

Kransekake

Melted 50g unsalted butter in a pan and left to cool.
Roughly chopped 200g marzipan.
Whizzed 100g whole almonds in a food processor with the marzipan and 100g golden icing sugar until the almonds were more or less ground, but with some larger chunks still intact,
Broke 3 duck egg whites into a bowl and whisked briefly with a pinch of salt and a scant teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Whisked in the melted butter.
Stirred in the almond mixture. At this point I realised my mixture was too wet - I had used duck eggs rather than the medium hens eggs stated. So I added 50g ground almonds.
Placed in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours.
Placed large teaspoonfuls on two lined baking trays - I made 20 but as the recipe stated 40-50, I suspect the macaroons were meant to be a lot smaller than I made them.
Baked at 200C for 7 minutes until just golden.
Much to my annoyance, the biscuits had all merged into each other, although it was my own fault for not leaving the suggested space in between each one - something I never seem to learn. So I took out a cutter and used this to shape the macaroons into presentable rounds, then left on a rack to cool.
I reckon from the amount of offcuts I had, I could have easily made another five or six biscuits.
Melted 30g dark chocolate and drizzled it over the macaroons.

Apart from my spacing disaster and ending up with two very large biscuits which I then had to rescue, I was very pleased with these macaroons. The end result looked perfectly respectable. I shall definitely make them again and take more care next time with both size and spacing. They were chewy, flavoursome and the larger pieces of nut gave added texture.

Don't forget it's World Baking Day this coming Sunday 19th May, so have a look at the website and #BakeBrave

It is Coeliac Awareness Week starting today (13th-19th May) and these biscuits are perfect for anyone unable to eat wheat or gluten as long as the marzipan and chocolate are properly gluten free. Some products may contain traces of gluten if they come from factories where gluten is used, so it is always worth checking the packaging. For more information on gluten free baking, pay a visit to Katie's blog Apple and Spice.

I am sending these marzipan macaroons off to Caroline Makes who has chosen K for this month's AlphaBakes and K is for Kranskake. This monthly challenge is hosted alternately by Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker.

I am also including these in that monthly groaning table of goodies which is Teatime Treats. Karen of Lavender and Lovage has chosen the biscuit tin and cookie jar as this month's theme and my macaroons filled up my biscuit tin very nicely. The challenge is alternately hosted by Kate of What Kate Baked.

Classic French, the monthly challenge from Jen of Blue Kitchen Bakes is macarons this month. Guest hosted by Victoria of A Kick at the Pantry Door, I think I might be winging it with these Scandinavian macaroons, but a girl has got to try.

The Pink Whisk Guide to Cake Making - Review and Giveaway #28

2013-05-11T09:38:00.001+01:00

I'm sure most of you will know Ruth Clemens as the highly accomplished finalist in the first series of The Great British Bake Off on BBC television three years ago. I expect most of you will be familiar with her engaging and informative blog The Pink Whisk. But did you know that she has published not one, but two print books as well as several e-books? The Busy Girl's Guide to Cake Decorating which I have to confess I have not seen, came first. I was, however, recently sent a copy of her second book, The Pink Whisk Guide to Cake Making to review. Published by David & Charles it is priced at £12.99 and is available in most book shops as well as from The Pink Whisk's very own online shop.

I have been following The Pink Whisk blog since its inception back in 2010 and have found it interesting, thorough and informative. I've tried a few of Ruth's recipes in the past and they have worked really well every time; she is not a 'fling it all together and hope for the best' type of girl. She has her readers very much in mind when writing and delivers well researched, practised and reliable recipes. This approach carries through to her book. In the introduction Ruth explains how she made 25 versions of her golden syrup cake before she was satisfied enough to include this recipe in her book - see what I mean about thorough?

Aimed primarily at the novice or unconfident baker, this 127 page step-by-step guide leads the reader gently but smartly through the art of making cakes. There is a guide to equipment, a comprehensive guide to basic ingredients and a few pages of techniques such as how to tell when a cake is properly baked, how to line a tin and how to rescue your cake when it looks as though it's gone wrong. The main part of the book contains the recipes and is divided between the three main methods of creation: creaming, whisking and melting. Top tips are given throughout and whilst the reader is given explicit technical instructions to follow, they are also encouraged to be adventurous and play with different flavours. Although there are only 28 recipes in total, they are by no means standard fare. Ruth has come up with a diversity of types and flavours and there are bakes here to interest the more experienced cook as well as the beginner. The rhubarb and custard bombe sounds particularly fun and quite a technical challenge as well - it's rhubarb season at the moment .....

As you'd expect from the pink whisk, pink is the dominant colour of the book with either text or pages in pink with flourishes of pastel blue which gives a bit of contrast. There are plenty of pictures to give an idea of what the final bake should look like, something that is lacking in most cookbooks these days. Many of the recipes have photos to accompany the step-by-step instructions. These recipes are then followed by something similar, so the same method can be used - a nifty way of providing interest without having to photograph every step again. Once a Victoria sponge has been mastered, for example, a whole world of combinations is opened up.

The banana and cardamom chocolate brownie cake grabbed my attention and I fully intended to make it. But when I was ready to start baking, I realised I didn't have any bananas. I did, however have some fudge made by my aunt and given to me at Christmas, so I rapidly changed track and turned my hand to Ruth's choc chip and fudge Madeira cake. I made a few adjustments of course - I just can't help myself (sorry Ruth!). For a start, I decided to make this as a traybake rather than a loaf cake.

This is how I made

Choc Chip and Fudge Madeira Squares

Creamed 150g unsalted butter with 150g vanilla sugar (caster) until very light & fluffy.
Beat in 2 duck eggs.
Sifted in 180g flour (half wholemeal spelt, half white) and 3/4 tsp baking powder.
Added 60g dark chocolate buttons and 50g chopped fudge.
Spooned into an 8" (20 cm) sq cake mould and baked at 180C for 25 minutes, when it was risen, golden and an inserted skewer came out clean.
Melted 25g dark chocolate and drizzled it very inelegantly over the top of the cake.
Scattered 25g chopped fudge over the top.
Allowed to cool then cut into 12 rectangles.

I had complete confidence in Ruth and knew this cake would turn out well and it did. It rose well, cut well, looked good and tasted good. It was not as sweet as I thought it might be, which I take to be a bonus. It's a real crowd pleaser that I suspect would go down well at any cake sale. That banana and cardamom chocolate brownie cake is definitely on my radar.

Giveaway

David & Charles have kindly offered a copy of this excellent book to two lucky Chocolate Log Blog readers.

To be in with a chance of winning one of the books, please fill in the Rafflecopter below. You will need to leave a comment on this post which then gives you additional chances to enter if you so wish. Rafflecopter will pick a winner at random from the entries received. Please give me some way of identifying you in the comment section as I will be verifying the validity of entries and will always check back to the comments to ensure that part has been done. Any automated entries will be disqualified. This giveaway is only open to those with a UK postal address. You need to be 18 or over to enter. Winners will need to respond within 7 days of being contacted. Failure to do this may result in another winner being picked.

Prizes are offered and provided by David & Charles and Chocolate Log Blog accepts no responsibility for the acts or defaults of said third party.

If you need some help using Rafflecopter, here's a quick clip to show you how.

Closing date is Saturday 8 June 2013

You might also want to take a look at my giveaway page to see if there is anything else you would like to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Figgy Bread Roll - Random Recipes # 28

2013-05-08T07:33:00.000+01:00

Dom has tasked us with randomly picking a bread recipe this month. Since I've started baking the odd yeasty loaf or two as an aside to my regular rye sourdough, I was quite excited by this challenge. The recent success I had with bagels spurred me on and as soon as I found out what the challenge was, I started randomising immediately, then dashed off to the bakers to buy some yeast with a big smile on my face. I've started using fresh yeast again recently because I'm wary of the "improvers" listed in the ingredients of dried yeast. As most of my cookbooks have a bread recipe or two in them, I decided to use Eat Your Books again to select my recipe from. Once I'd got my random number I simply counted down the list until I hit number 69 (of 88) and just hoped it wouldn't be one of my books with no bread recipes to be found. It wasn't. I picked Gaia's Kitchen by Julia Ponsonby, one of my favourite vegetarian cookbooks. Despite the favour I have shown it over the years, evinced by its rather tatty appearance, I'd never made one of her bread recipes. I counted them out and she had six. Another random number gave me Figgy Bread Roll, which amazingly gave me the very recipe I'd been eyeing up AND there was absolutely no cheating involved.

Although Dom asked us to stick to the recipe religiously, I couldn't do it - I had to get chocolate in after all. I did make the bread dough more or less as written, but changed the filling significantly. I had a Spanish fig and almond round that had somehow got pushed to the back of a cupboard a rather long time ago and was definitely in need of using. I therefore forwent the use of the other dried fruits and nuts in the recipe and used the whole round instead. I was also keen to take this opportunity to use the dandelion honey I made recently - recipe to follow in a future post.

This is how I made:

Figgy Bread Roll

Weighed 450g of wholemeal spelt and placed it in a bowl.
Added 1/2 tsp of Himalayan pink salt, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and 1 tbsp cardamom sugar (golden caster).
Stirred together and made a well in the centre.
Dissolved 1/2 oz fresh yeast in 300 ml warm water and poured this into the flour.
Mixed together until all incorporated then covered with a plastic bag and left in a warm place to rise for 1/2 an hour.
Kneaded for a few minutes, then rolled out onto floured surface into a rectangle about 10" by 6" and about 1 cm thick.

Meanwhile

Chopped 500g of a dried figs and almonds (probably around 400g figs and 100g almonds).
Added 1 tbsp cocoa, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon and 6 tbsp of dandelion honey and stirred to combine.

Spread this over the rectangle leaving a good cm clear all around.
Rolled up the dough lengthways and sealed the sides.
Placed on a lined baking tray seem side down.
Left to rise for another 30 minutes.
Brushed with milk then sprinkled 1 tbsp sesame seeds over the top.
Baked in centre of oven at 180C for 30 minutes.

The scent of sweet cinnamon wafting through the house as this loaf baked was indescribably good. The bread slathered with butter was better than good. It stayed sweetly and spicily scented for the several days it took to eat it - it was rather a large loaf.

Thanks to Dom of Belleau Kitchen for this wonderful loaf. It was simple to make requiring virtually no kneading and was not only light in texture, but delicious too. Hooray for Random Recipes.

As this loaf entailed using up a very old fig almond round given as a present and using homemade dandelion honey rather than real honey and malt extract, I am submitting this to Credit Crunch Munch which is being guest hosted by Janice of Farmersgirl Kitchen. Camilla of Fab Food 4 All and Helen of Fuss Free Flavours are the usual suspects.

Kokopelli's Chocolate - a Review

2013-05-05T08:57:00.000+01:00

Eating good quality chocolates made by an artisan producer is a privilege and one that I have been fortunate enough to enjoy on the odd occasion. I recently had the pleasure of receiving a box of Kokopelli's artisan handmade fresh chocolates. I've been following the story of Kokopelli's Chocolate since its founder Steph Saffer entered one of my We Should Cocoa challenges, the blackcurrant one, back in July last year. The business has been going from strength to strength since then. As well as selling her chocolates from her online shop, Steph also sells at various markets in London and holds workshops and hen party events - chocolate over some stripper would do it for me any day.

Kokopelli is an ancient Native American deity. Depicted as a hump backed flute player, he travels around spreading joy and fertility as he goes. This cheeky and creative character is an apt symbol for Steph's imaganative and joyful chocolates. She explains: "some say he originated in Olmec society, the first people to discover the revered cocoa bean and produce chocolate".

The box arrived well packaged and in perfect condition. With its distinctive livery, turquoise, brown and gold, the box looks good and invites further investigation. Tied with a brown ribbon, I thought it looked particularly stylish. After taking a quick peek inside, I inhaled deeply and breathed in the rich aroma of chocolate. It is not until I have done this that I feel I can sit back and admire the chocolates within, which I duly did. Nestled in the brown and gold packaging, sat some beautiful shiny chocolates made using one of the best couvertures available, Valrhona. Then it was time for the camera. Despite my eagerness to consume, I derive a perverse pleasure in delayed gratification - so much of the enjoyment is in the anticipation. After all, these are not chocolates to scoff in order to assuage a sugar craving, they are chocolates to linger over and savour.

I was not disappointed: the flavours were interesting and punchy. None of them were too sweet and like all good quality fresh chocolates, the flavours lingered on the palate long after the chocolate has disappeared.

Peanut Butter Praline - although the sea salt caramel beckoned, I was so intrigued by the peanut butter praline, that I just had to try this one first. No mistaking the peanut butter here, it tasted of Whole Earth peanuts without the vast quantities of sugar and salt found in so many brands - these tasted freshly roasted. The dark chocolate casing was just what was needed to support the robust flavour.

Raspberry & Black Pepper - there is a real mix of flavours and sensations going on here: tart fruity raspberries, with hint of heat and spice from the pepper and then the bitterness of dark chocolate. CT found the pepper helped ground the sweetness of the fruit.

Sea Salt Caramel - beautiful to behold; in the shape of a cocoa bean and dusted with gold, this could be resisted no longer. Sadly there was only one in the box. Oh, how I love salted caramel. Covered in dark chocolate, this one had a touch of salt that really brought out the caramel flavour without overwhelming it as some salted caramels do. I would have preferred the caramel to be a little more liquid and a higher proportion of caramel to chocolate, but those are minor quibbles - it was totally delicious.

Ginger Triangle - a smooth chocolate truffle heavily flavoured with ginger, this had a thin coating of milk chocolate - my idea of heaven and I think my favourite so far. CT agreed, an indulgent pleasure. I can imagine eating several of these and kidding myself they are good for me - it's the ginger you see. Although sweeter than some, it left a very pleasant heat in the mouth. This is definitely one for ginger lovers.

Roasted Hazelnut - the thin coating of white chocolate was just right. White chocolate is very sweet and can be overpowering in excess. The hazelnut praline was full of texture, smooth in parts but also with a slight crunch and yes, it really did taste of roasted hazelnuts. I don't normally associate white chocolate with nuts, but this combination worked very well.

Lime - a smooth ganache with a thin coating of dark chocolate, CT described this as deliciously sour. I found it a bit overpowering and it had a slightly drying feel in the mouth. Not, I hasten to add, that I would have refused a second one.

Sesame & Honey - covered in thin dark chocolate this one was reminiscent of halva, but not so sweet or gritty and with a milder taste. Both CT and I thoroughly approved of this one, finding it rich and filling, but in a very pleasant way.

Earl Grey - a smooth truffle filling, covered in a thin coating of milk chocolate, this was sweeter than some of the others. The fruity notes with sour overtones in the chocolate offset the sweetness, however. This would go very nicely with a cup of Earl Grey, the warm tea volatilising all those lovely flavourful molecules.

It's been great to finally try Steph's chocolates, I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I wish her every success with Kokopelli's Chocolate. If you'd like to find out more, there is a great 10 minute documentary video on the Kokopelli Chocolate site.

Bagels and Chocolate Spread

2013-05-03T09:24:00.002+01:00

It is very hard to beat a good bagel; it's even harder to find a good bagel. Having been on my list of things to try for many years, I finally got spurred into action by A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate, who put a picture on Facebook and stated they really weren't that hard. And she was absolutely right, they really aren't that hard to make. The difficulty comes in forming them into a good bagel shape, but I guess that might come with practice. As Dan's recipe in Short and Sweet was titled simple bagels*, that is the one I went for. I made a few changes of course. I used fresh yeast (1oz), only 1 tsp salt, substituted 100g of the flour for wholemeal and used a wooden spoon rather than a finger to make the hole in the middle.

I was just a little bit chuffed with the result. Not perfect in shape by any means, but they tasted fantastic and were much closer to the taste and texture of the bagels I've eaten both in New York and California.

As I said before, bagels are wonderful things and they lend themselves well to both savoury and sweet toppings. I have never, until now though tried them with chocolate spread. I tried one half with Atkins and Potts milk chocolate spread and the other half with the dark chocolate and gosh they were good! So now I realise there is only one thing for it, I must make my own chocolate spread.

This must have hit the zeitgeist, because I've never had so many comments on a Facebook post as these bagels generated.

* The recipe I've linked to is different from the book in terms of quantities and I prefer the latter which uses less sugar, salt and yeast.

As I've had my eye on Dan's recipe for a very long time, I am submitting this to Bookmarked Recipes with Jac of Tinned Tomatoes.

We Should Cocoa - the Honey Round-Up

2013-04-30T07:35:00.002+01:00

This month I set the incredibly hard task of getting bloggers to cook with honey and chocolate - boy, I can be so cruel sometimes! With bees very much in mind, did anyone notice the Save the Bees march in London on Friday. It was a win of sorts because neonicotinoid pesticides have now been banned in Europe for the next two years, a small victory perhaps, but it is a move in the right direction. I'm pleased to report that our bees are still alive, so I'm crossing lots of fingers that they will make it through this year after all.

An old saying goes, those in search of honey can expect to be stung by bees. This doesn't seem to have been the case here though. Participants, as per usual are a clever, creative and hardworking bunch, just like the bees themselves. Honey it seems is a versatile ingredient as evinced by these cakes, buns, scones, biscuits, desserts and sweets.

Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to meet the very lovely Shaheen of Allotment 2 Kitchen whose excellent vegetarian blog I've been following for some years now. I hope to be posting about this soon, but in the meantime, Shaheen is hosting May's We Should Cocoa, so do check out her blog tomorrow to see what the special ingredient is.

First timer Helen of The Crazy Kitchen got things going almost immediately after the challenge was announced. She made a bee line for a previously successful Mary Berry recipe, but made it her own with these honey and ginger cookies with white chocolate chunks.

After some honey and chocolate flapjacks went badly wrong by exploding in the oven, Dom of Belleau Kitchen thought he'd play it safe the second time around. I'm glad he did, because these millionaires honey flapjacks sound divine. A layer of honey flapjack, covered in caramel and topped off by chocolate - what's not to love?

Snowy of Cookbooks Galore decided to go rich, spicy and Polish for this one. Made with figs, nuts and lashings of honey, this Polish honey cake was topped off with chocolate icing.

Muffins it seems are a must for We Should Cocoa, or at least as far as Elizabeth of The Law Student's Cookbook is concerned. This month she's come up with a sure winner, banana honey muffins - not forgetting the chocolate chips of course.

More muffins from Vivian Pang Kitchen. But looks can be deceiving and the muffins are made from the left over batter of this deep chocolate pound cake. Vivian found the honey a bit overwhelming, but thought the flavours had improved considerably by the next day.

Now how about these warm thyme, honey and cocoa bean scones? These really got my taste buds going and although I haven't made any yet, I most certainly will. Hannah of Corner Cottage Bakery used local honey and has made these particularly appealing by baking them in a traditional scone round - takes me straight back to my childhood. Hannah found them particularly appealing as she fancied having a rest from the usual work out she gives her arms when kneading bread.

Now strangely Susan of The Spice Garden also made an old fashioned scone round. But before making her chocolate and walnut scones, she made her very own chocolate and honey bar - now that is true dedication to the We Should Cocoa cause.

Did you know Shetland has its very own bumblebee? Well until I read Elizabeth's Kitchen post on chocolate honey nutbars, I certainly didn't. She made these very professional and tasty looking snack bars in a bid to help fatten up her husband.

Apparently Ness of Jibber Jabber UK has unwanted chocolate gifts lying around her house (if you don't want them I can supply you with my address). Anyway, unwanted chocolate and unwanted honey found themselves bake fellows in these honey and chocolate flapjacks and luckily got eaten after all.

Now, I've seen, baked and eaten many a brownie in my time, but I'm not sure I've ever seen any quite as strikingly dark as these almost Gwyneth's fudgy brownies, baked by Stacy of Food Lust people Love. They started life off as a healthy version, but Stacy decided she preferred sugar - I think I'm with her on this one.

A seahorse nestling amongst a billowy pile of dough? Chocolate bunnies breeding like rabbits do? Intrigued? You might just want to check out the, Lucy's far out ideas over at The KitchenMaid. In the meantime, I wouldn't be averse to a breeding programme of these chocolate honey buns.

If running the London marathon is your thing, or any other marathon come to that then this rocket fuel chocolate breakfast smoothie might be the thing for you. Hopefully it kept Gill going last week, from the Tales of Pigling Bland.

With some thyme honey at hand and possible with Hannah's scones at the back of my mind, I was inspired to bake some honey, thyme and white chocolate Madeleines. I'm so glad I was, because they were scrumptious.

Scones proved to be a popular bake this month. I think I'm being given the subliminal or not so subliminal message that I need to try honey scones. I reckon these chocolate chip and honey scones from Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe are more like chocolate chunk scones - there is absolutely no skimping on the chocolate here and they sound very good indeed.

The most unusual entry yet has to be this aubergine chocolate cake from Natalie of HungryHinny. I did a double take when I first read it, but when I thought about it I could see that an oily vegetable such as aubergine might just work. It is both gluten and dairy free which is always a bonus. Natalie assures us that it is delicious; it certainly looks it.

Chocolate & honey fudge anyone? This plate of sweet delightfulness comes from Mari of NuttyTart.

If Caroline of Caroline Makes had stuck to the recipe, this chocolate tofu mousse with Oreo and peanut butter base would have been a tasty low fat dessert. Low fat it might not have turned out to be, but tasty it certainly was.

Now for some crazy swirls from Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker. These peanut butter, honey and chocolate cupcakes contain a hidden surprise. She's used leatherwood honey brought back from her travels in Australia and it must be good as it's in both the cake and the buttercream.

Suelle from Mainly Baking was a bit disappointed with this fabulous looking honey cheesecake with a hint of chocolate. The individual layers all tasted good on their own, but she felt the combination of lime blossom honey and chocolate just didn't work. I'd be happy to give a second opinion.

I do like a pretty cupcake and I do love maltesers so these malteser cupcakes from Claire of Under the Bluegum Tree are right up my street - even if the Maltesers are really Chuckles. Honeycomb made from real honey and incorporated into the buttercream can only add to the delight.

New to We Should Cocoa comes Rebecca of BakenQuilt with these delightful salted chocolate and honey caramels which by the name alone has my mouth watering. Rebecca is something of an expert on caramels and has some interesting flavours in her repertoire.

Apparently a jacket, hat and bullwhip are needed to make this Arabian styled chocolate, fig and pistachio cake. At least they are according to Chris of Cooking Around the World. I think I'll leave him to explain it, so do hop on over.

Katherine of Leeks and Limoni wanted to bake something genteel with subtle flavours to make the most of her floral scented honey from Anglesey. These honey, almond and white chocolate cupcakes were the pleasing result.

Jill of Lapin d'Or and More wanted to bake something where the honey took centre stage and after much searching came up with this fabulous boozy honey, fig and chocolate cake based on a recipe from Leon, Baking and Puddings. I can see why she had to tuck into the first slice as soon as it came out of the oven.

This honey chocolate cake was a second attempt at the challenge by Jean of Baking in Franglais who was not happy with her first - now that is what I call dedication. This cake, converted from cups to grams by Jean has a colossal amount of honey in it and as she describes it as having a brownie consistency, I was immediately won over.

First make some milk bread dough, then bake a loaf and make some chocolate chip milk buns by adding additional honey and chocolate to the dough. That's what Nazima of Franglais Kitchen did and I think will be following her example - what a lovely breakfast treat.

In a desperate bid to complete two challenges in one, Janine of Baking with Spirit trialed baking with both honey and raspberry liqueur. Luckily the combination worked and Janine reports that these honey cupcakes with raspberry liqueur icing were both light and delicious - success.

And more chocolate and honey madeleines, from Angela of Garden, Tea Cakes and Me this time. Actually Angela's came first, but due to communication errors I've only just managed to enter it. These ones contained cocoa powder and were brushed with warm honey after baking, which is an idea worth adopting I feel.

Rhubarb Fairy Cakes and Edible Flowers

2013-04-27T14:53:00.000+01:00

Spring, it's really here at last. Despite the rubbish weather we've been having, the hedges are alive with primroses, slightly later than usual but absolutely spectacular. Talking of spectacular flowers, I was recently given a punnet of edible ones from a local grower. The Flower Mill, based just up the road from us (in an old flour mill as it happens), grows chemical free flowers for decoration and also for eating. It's primarily a mail order business, so anyone in the UK can enjoy bouquets and posies of seasonal Cornish flowers as well as edible flowers to decorate cakes, salads or whatever else grabs their fancy. My punnet contained a collection of borage flowers, violas and different types of primulas. What fun - it was time to play.

Kate has chosen fairy cakes, cupcakes and muffins for this month's Tea Time Treats and fairy cakes seemed just the thing to showcase the beautiful flowers I'd received. As I like to bake seasonally where I can, rhubarb seemed to be an obvious choice. Now, I don't know why, but for some reason we've been unable to grow rhubarb down at our plot, it used to flourish on our old site. Luckily, my mother grows some in her garden, so it was all systems go.

This is how I made:

Rhubarb, Rose & White chocolate Fairy Cakes

Peeled and finely chopped 1 stick rhubarb (about 80g).
Chopped 50g white chocolate (G&B).
Creamed 75g unsalted butter with 90g golden caster sugar.
Beat in one duck egg.
Sifted in 100g flour (half wholemeal spelt, half white), 50g ground almonds, 1 scant teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch of bicarbonate of soda.
Added 1 tbsp yogurt and 1 tsp orange flower water.
Stirred in the chocolate and rhubarb.
Spooned into 12 fairy cake cases.
Baked at 180C for 20 minutes.
Turned out onto a wire rack and left to cool.

Stewed a few stems of chopped rhubarb without sugar which made a beautiful pink juice.
Sifted 100g icing sugar into a bowl.
Added 1 tsp orange flower water and poured in enough of the rhubarb juice to make a slightly runny icing.
Spooned over the top of the cakes.
With gay abandon, decorated the tops with beautiful edible flowers.

Due to the almonds, these veered more towards the dense texture than light and spongy, but, oh, they were delicious. Rhubarb is one of those ingredients that works particularly well in cakes, giving bursts of tartness and flavour in amongst the sweetness. The rhubarb juice gave the icing a tinge of pink which I was pleased with. I used the remaining rhubarb in a breakfast smoothie the following day and it was so good I'm now craving more.

As it happened, the cake cases came away from the cakes, making them look really tatty, so I removed them all together. Thank goodness for the flowers, which made these otherwise plain looking cakes into the real deal - fairy cakes of elegance and beauty. The flowers all had their own flavours and were not only good to look at but were good to eat too. In retrospect I regret not putting some of them into ice-cube trays, but I shall remember that for another time. Cool summer drinks would surely be enhanced with a flower or two floating on the surface. I was told that the flowers can be kept for 2-3 days in the fridge, but I was surprised at just how long they lasted out of the fridge and on the cakes - it was several hours before they showed any sign of wilting.

You can check out the range of options available at The Flower Mill here.

I am entering these fairy cakes into Tea Time Treats with Kate of What Kate Baked and Karen of Lavender and Lovage.

As edible flowers abound, I am also entering these into Herbs on Saturday with Karen of Lavender and Lovage. It just so happens that this month's prize is Cooking with Edible Flowers.

These would go down a treat I reckon for a St George spring fete, so I'm also entering these into Calendar Cakes with Dolly Bakes and Laura Loves Cakes.

As I've made everything from scratch as usual, I'm sending these off to Made with Love Mondays with Javelin Warrior.

And finally, because rhubarb is in season and I haven't submitted anything for ages, I'm entering these into Simple & in Season with Ren of Fabulicious Food.

Salted Chocolate and a Wedding

2013-04-25T09:38:00.000+01:00

It was my lovely cousin's wedding last weekend and as she was getting married to a Welshman, the wedding took place in Wales. Now this was not your average wedding but a rather grand affair lasting three days; due to work commitments, there was no time for a honeymoon. This gave the bride and groom a chance to spend time with their family and friends and likewise gave me an opportunity to have a proper catch up with my family. Day one was a spa day for some, with others such as myself, meeting the bride to be in the evening for a glass of champagne. I wanted to make her something as a pre-wedding soother - chocolate seemed the appropriate choice. I wasn't sure what her preferences for chocolate were, but guessed she might be a milk chocolate sort of girl. I decided to make a bar of salted milk chocolate and also some plain milk chocolate spoons in case she didn't like the salted option. Luckily, this turned out to be a favourite of hers. I also used a Good Luck label mould that I bought from Sew White just before Christmas along with the chocolate spoon moulds. So, it was time to put some of the tips I'd learnt from the chocolate course to good use and try my hand at chocolate tempering once again.

Milk Chocolate Spoons

This is how I made:

Salted Chocolate and Chocolate Spoons

Melted 150g milk chocolate (G&B 38%) in a bowl over a pan of hot water.
Removed from the heat and added a further 50g of chocolate, stirring until all of the chocolate had melted and the temperature had cooled to 29C.
Carefully spooned into six spoon moulds and one label mould.
Added a pinch of fleur de sel to the remaining chocolate, stirred then poured into my Golden Ticket mould, sent over from the chocolate queen herself Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.
Left to set then turned the chocolates out of the moulds, managing to break one of the spoons as I did so.

Congratulatory salted milk chocolate bar

The next day, the Golden Ticket looked beautiful, the spoons had bloomed and did not look beautiful at all. I suspect that my digital thermometer has not been calibrated correctly (mainly because I couldn't figure out how to do it) and is showing a lower temperature than the actual one. I'm assuming that as the salted chocolate had been left longer and was stirred a second time, it had in fact cooled to the correct temperature, whilst the first batch was still too hot.

Caerphilly Castle

The Wedding Day itself dawned bright and fair, but there was still a decided nip in the air. Caerphilly Castle proved to be a rather impressive setting for the wedding. It was built in the 13th Century by an English baron at the time of Henry III in a successful bid to keep the Welsh at bay. Surrounded by a moat and lakes, this is the second biggest mediaeval castle in Britain, Windsor being the first. It is particularly famous now for its leaning tower, damaged during the Civil War, which, whilst not quite as tall as the leaning tower of Pisa, inclines at a steeper angle. We had plenty of opportunities to explore the castle thoroughly.

Leaning Tower of Caerphilly

Impressive the castle may have been, but warm it was not - there was many a goose pimple to be seen throughout the day and evening as we all shivered in our wedding finery. Stiletto heels were in abundance, how they coped with the terrain I do not know, but thankfully no injuries occurred. The bride looked absolutely stunning and the wedding breakfast (at 16:30) was impressive. The waiting staff were excellent - friendly, but professional, managing to serve the food so it arrived hot and more importantly was delivered to the right people. My vegetarian options were scrumptious. I had a saffron, pea and asparagus risotto to start with and a tomato polenta stack for my main course. The pudding was a chocolate fondant which was appreciated by all. We'd previously enjoyed canapés along with champagne up in one of the towers - how those stilettos made it up and down the ancient spiral staircase, I'll never know. The canapés were also served warm and were particularly welcome. Speeches and dancing followed with the bride and groom doing an impressive first dance inspired by Dirty Dancing - they must have been practising for quite some time.

No stilettos here

White Hydrangeas everywhere

Nice Touches

Polenta Stack

Chocolate Fondant

Cupcake Tower

The Bride & Groom

Day three was another gathering of family and friends, this time for a hefty lunchtime meal in a nearby inn, with lashings of punch for those not driving. Many were staying the night, along with the bride and groom, but not us. With heavy stomachs but cheery hearts, CT, my mother and I wended our way back home to Cornwall.

Last of the Cupcakes

A Red Teapot - Review and Giveaway #27

2013-04-24T08:46:00.003+01:00

I think I have discovered my ideal shop. Perhaps I should qualify that with my ideal non-food shop. I love red and I especially love red in my kitchen. Red Candy is an online shop that features mostly red home accessories including kitchen and dining ware. When I was asked if I'd like to review one of the pieces from the site, I became quite feverish and spent an inordinate amount of time imagining my home bedecked in all things red as I hopped from one item to another. The pieces are interesting and often quirky; trying to choose only one item was very very hard. I loved the clocks and would have been happy to relieve Red Candy of several of these, but sense asserted itself: how many clocks can my kitchen take? Much as I wanted one of the clocks, I realised they didn't really fit in with my blog so I had a rethink.

Tea, however does. Tea is a perfect accompaniment to a nice slice of chocolate cake or chocolate biscuit and has made regular appearances on my blog. Tea is my drink of preference. Not builder's tea, very rarely any sort of black tea, but light and refreshing teas such as green and white, honeybush or my favourite, rooibos. I also drink matcha and herbal teas some of which I gather from the garden. For preference I drink loose leaf tea. I find it is generally of a higher quality than that found in tea bags and thus has a better flavour. The tea leaves can also be used a second and even third time. But, I do not like the bitterness of over brewed tea, so a way is needed of getting those tea leaves out before this happens. I've seen any number of infusers over the years and none have ever worked so well as a removable infuser that sits in a teapot.

So, when I came across a bright red six cup teapot with inbuilt infuser by Price & Kensington, I didn't have to think again. Not only do I not have a large teapot, I don't have a red one at all (well not one that is completely red anyway). The teapots on the site were many and varied, but all were red. Mine was one of the more conventional ones, but whilst I was tempted by some of the QDO designs, this, I thought, was the most practical. Having chosen, I awaited its arrival with trepidation - would it live up to my expectations, or would the infuser fall apart at first use (which has happened before) or worse still, be a hopeless pourer, spilling more tea on the table than into the cup? The pot duly arrived and I dashed off to make a pot of tea with it. I thought I'd try the last of my chocolate tea, a mixture of chocolate beans, rooibos and spices from Chash which I've been drinking on special occasions and this was a special occasion. The pot was big, red and shiny which in itself made me feel cheerful and put a smile on my face. The infuser, I was relieved to find was quite sturdy, of stainless steel construction and fitted nicely into the teapot whilst still allowing the lid to go on and the tea to be poured. It has its own handle for easy removal at any stage of the process. Used leaves are easily tapped out into the compost bin or out on the garden. This oh so wonderful teapot is not only a great pourer, but not a single drip has it left anywhere it shouldn't. The spout is a slightly different shape to others I've seen, the tip is slightly flattened, which I guess accounts for its amazing non-drip proclivity. It now sits happily in my kitchen where it will be very well used.

I've just noticed that there is a sale on at Red Candy and I might be paying a visit as soon as I've finished writing this.

Giveaway

Red Candy have kindly offered one of these marvellous teapots to one lucky Chocolate Log Blog reader.

To be in with a chance of winning this teapot, please fill in the Rafflecopter below. You will need to leave a comment on this post which then gives you additional chances to enter if you so wish. Rafflecopter will pick a winner at random from the entries received. Please give me some way of identifying you in the comment section as I will be verifying the validity of entries and will always check back to the comments to ensure that part has been done. Any automated entries will be disqualified. This giveaway is only open to those with a UK postal address. You need to be 18 or over to enter. Winners will need to respond within 7 days of being contacted. Failure to do this may result in another winner being picked.

Prizes are offered and provided by Red Candy and Chocolate Log Blog accepts no responsibility for the acts or defaults of said third party.

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Closing date is Wednesday 22 May 2013

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Apple, Orange Pudding with a Ginger Chocolate Crunchy Oat Topping

2013-04-22T09:04:00.000+01:00

Well there's a mouthful and I should probably have come up with something a bit snappier, but it pretty much describes this pudding. I'd just made Karen's Orange Liqueur (shockingly back in October 2011), so I had a load of oranges minus their skin that needed using up fast. I also noticed at about the same time that some of the apples I'd been given a while ago looked like they were in need of using too. So an apple and orange pudding of some kind it had to be. Time being limited, a nice easy oaty one seemed to be in order.

This is what I did to make:

Apple, Orange Pudding with a Ginger Chocolate Crunchy Oat Topping

Peeled, cored and sliced 5 large Cornish cooking apples.
Layered them in a buttered ovenproof dish with 50g demerara sugar scattered amongst the apples.
Poured over the juice of two oranges and a little water.
Melted 75g butter in a large pan with 1 heaped tbsp golden syrup.
Stirred in 8oz rolled oats, 1/2 tsp ground ginger and 40g chopped crystallised ginger.
Stirred in 50g chopped 60% dark chocolate.
Spooned this over the top of the apples.
Baked for 30 minutes at 180C.

Thanks to Alpha Bakes for getting me to dig out this rather delicious pudding I'd completely forgotten about. I wanted to enter this month's AlphaBakes and was hoping to make some A is for Almond macaroons, but time is running out and I'm currently on my way back from my cousin's three day wedding in Wales. So I had a quick check through my drafts and found this A is for Apple, Orange Pudding with a Ginger and Chocolate Crunchy Oat Topping. AlphaBakes is hosted this month by Ros of The more than occasional baker and on alternate month's by Caroline Makes.

As I had both apples and oranges in need of using up, I am entering this into the No Waste Food Challenge, which this month is fruit. Established by Kate of Turquoise Lemons, this month is hosted by Elizabeth's Kitchen.

And for much the same reason as above, I am also entering this pudding into Credit Crunch Munch with Camilla of Fab Food 4 All and Helen of Fuss Free Flavours.

Honey, Thyme and White Chocolate Madeleines - We Should Cocoa #32

2013-04-19T16:23:00.000+01:00

As soon as I chose honey for this month's We Should Cocoa, I've done nothing but dream of honey bakes. I love honey and if money was no object would use it instead of sugar almost exclusively. As well as the flavour, honey has a lot of health benefits which are not found in sugar. When I saw that Classic French this month was madeleines, my mind immediately moved to how I could incorporate honey and chocolate into these delicate little French cakes. I was recently sent some New Zealand Honey to try out and whilst I liked the woody notes of the 10+ pre-biotic Beech Forest Honeydew, I thought the more floral notes of the 10+ antioxidant Thyme Honey would work better here. Right until the last minute I was going to grate some milk chocolate into the mix which I thought would give a pretty speckled look. However, I wanted a hint of thyme to shine through and I thought this would be better achieved with white chocolate. I had seen a recipe for Honey Madeleines in a recent book I was sent for review purposes, Stacie Bakes, so I set to and adapted it quite heavily.

This is how I made:

Honey, Thyme and White Chocolate Madeleines

Melted 50g unsalted butter in a small pan over low heat.
Added 50g chopped white chocolate and 1 heaped tbsp thyme honey.
Beat 2 duck eggs with 50g cardamom (caster) sugar until thick, pale and tripled in volume.
Poured the chocolate mixture gently down the side of the bowl and folded into the egg mixture as gently as possible.
Sifted in 75g unbleached flour and just over half teaspoon of baking powder.
Finally folded in a scant teaspoon of finely chopped fresh lemon thyme.
Spooned into 16 madeleine moulds and baked in the middle of the oven at 180C for ten minutes.
Turned out onto a wire rack to cool.

These were by far and away the most delicious madeleines I've made yet. The honey was the predominate flavour, but it also gave them a succulent and sticky texture which was just delightful. White chocolate seems to work really well in bakes and although the flavour can't be detected, it gives them a certain body and je ne sais quoi. They are very different without it. Lemon thyme & cardamom sugar combined to give a soupcon of citrus to the proceedings. They could, of course, be dusted with icing sugar, but I thought they were quite pretty in their yellow and brown livery, so left them au natural. I got the desired "foot" that is required for a classic madeleine, but in my short madeleine making career, I have not so far had a problem with this. Unlike most madeleines that really need to be eaten as soon after baking as possible, these improved with age and became stickier and even more scrumptious, although that didn't prevent us from tucking in immediately.

I am obviously entering these madeleines into my very own We Should Cocoa.

I am also submitting them to Classic French with Jen of Blue Kitchen Bakes who has chosen Madeleines as this month's theme.

I adore herbs and use them a lot both in my cooking and for medicinal and cosmetic purposes, but I rarely pair them with chocolate. So it is a rare event that I am able to enter Karen's excellent Herbs on Saturdays and I am always a little bit excited when I can do so - you never know I might just win a book. This month's book sounds especially good and right up my street - cooking with edible flowers by Miriam Jacobs. I'm crossing fingers.

Thanks to the New Zealand Honey Co. for sending me some of their delicious honey to try.

Stacie Bakes - a Review

2013-04-18T09:20:00.002+01:00

We don't have a television, so I had not heard of Stacie Stewart until I was sent her book to review. On finding out she reached the Masterchef finals in 2010 and is now on ITVs food. Glorious.food, I wasn't much the wiser. Well, along with this august claim to fame, she also has a bakery supplying cakes and bakes to shops and events around the country. Ahh, now I get it, she's a baker - my interest awakened.

The 208 page hardback book is an eclectic mix of recipes with vintage, classics and modern bakes both from Britain and abroad given a Stacie twist. The chapters are arranged by the calendar, starting off with New Year, New Baking Rules and ending with Christmas Baking & Gifts. Some of the recipes seemed to have been placed a little arbitrarily: Turkish delight with pistachios sounds delightful, but I'm not sure I'd have put it in the chapter for Mother's Day and Vintage Tea. There is an introductory section on baking tips and equipment, which I thought would be particularly useful to the novice cook and is rarely covered. Such essentials as: oven temperatures vary - I had no idea about this when I started baking and it has caused no end of problems with both burnt and underdone bakes; toast nuts before you use them both for added flavour and loosening skins. Other tips are scattered throughout the book.

The recipes look to be really interesting and I have bookmarked a fair few of them. Each one starts with a little introduction, which I found to be a nice touch. Both historical and personal factoids are included; I didn't know that the northern classic, singin' hinnies got their name from the whistling noise they made when cooking. There are a few gluten free recipes and a couple of "healthy" bakes, but the majority are full-on lip smackingly indulgent. Peaches baked in sweet wine are served with amaretti studded ricotta. Beehive bars for breakfast sound a tad decadent to me with their copious amounts of sugar, butter and syrup, but I' wouldn't say no to them at any other time of the day. Rhubarb Tarte Tatin makes for a very interesting twist on the classic and one I am keen to try. Elvis gets a clever tribute with blue suede choux - choux pastry filled with peanut butter cream and topped with caramel and bananas. I was pleased to see that chocolate was well represented throughout the book; chocolate cake filled with salted caramel custard had me reaching for a bookmark immediately.

Cheese & Leek Scones on bottom tier

As well as adapting her recipe for madeleines (post to follow soon), I made Stacie's cheese and leek scones for Easter Tea, pretty much as the recipe stated, other than substituting some of the flour for wholemeal. They were the star of the show, knocking my Simnel Cake and other fancy treats into the shade. I shall certainly be making those again. Both recipes were easy to follow and very importantly, worked.

The type face is blocky and I found it a bit difficult to read. With her vintage beehive hairstyle and heavy black eyelashes, Stacie is not to be missed. In fact whilst the pictures are good, there seem to be far more of Stacie than the bakes she's made. I would have preferred it the other way around.

All in all, I think it's worthy of a place on my cookbook shelves.

Chocolate and Goats Cheese Tarts - Random Recipes #27

2013-04-16T07:30:00.000+01:00

Dom is up to his old tricks again and has randomised Random Recipes even more than usual by getting us to use a highly technical random thingamidoodah to pick our books for us this month. Luckily I didn't have to count all of my books as they are scattered around the house - I used the oh so wonderful Eat Your Books which has all of my cookery books logged, current count being 88. In went number 88 to the thingamidoodah and out came number 31. Arranging them alphabetically by author gave me Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. Now wonderful as this books is, it didn't seem likely I'd be lucky enough to find a recipe I could easily adapt to include chocolate, so I rearranged the books alphabetically by title and was much more successful. This time number 31 gave me The Chocolate Lovers by local boys the Tanner Brothers. No longer any need to worry about adapting recipes to include chocolate. So the next stage was over to CT to pick a number, which he did. Number 49 got me Chocolate and Devon blue cheese tarts.

Hooray - absolutely perfect! I would normally have used some Cornish Blue instead of the Devon, but I just so happened to have some of Ethel's wonderful Capricorn Goats Cheese which I've been wanting to try with dark chocolate. Thus it was that the Tanner Brothers creation morphed into these chocolate and goats cheese tarts. I had to adapt the recipe slightly as I halved the quantity of filling and it didn't fit neatly into halves.

This is how I made:

Chocolate and Goats Cheese Tarts

Sifted 250g flour (half wholemeal spelt & half white) into a bowl.
Added a pinch of salt and 1.5 tsp icing sugar.
Cubed 125g unsalted butter and rubbed these into the flour until the mixture resembled breadcrumbs.
Made a well in the centre, added 1 small (ish) duck egg and enough water to form a soft but not wet dough (about 50 ml).
Stirred this in with a knife, then bought together with my hands to form a ball of dough.
Flattened to form a disc then placed in a plastic bag and left in the fridge for an hour.
Rolled the dough out as thinly as possible and lined 4 9 cm tart cases, 2 slightly larger foil cases and a foil flan case. I was planning on using the larger flan case for a quiche and the others for the chocolate tarts, but in the end I only had enough filling for 1 of the additional foil cases.
Placed back in the fridge whilst I put the oven and it warmed up to 180C.
Placed them on the top shelf and baked for about 12 minutes until they were golden.

Melted 85g unsalted butter with 100g 70% dark chocolate (G&B) in a pan over very low heat. Left to cool.
Whisked 1 large duck egg with 25g cardamom sugar (caster) until pale and thick.
Poured the chocolate mixture down the side of the bowl and folded into the egg as gently as possible.
Folded in 20g sifted white flour.
Divided the mixture between five of the tart cases.
Scattered 75g Capricorn goats cheese cut into small pieces over the tops.
Baked at 180C for about 7 minutes.
Left to cool (apart from one which I just couldn't help diving into).

I sort of thought I was going to like these and I was right. Theye were delicious warm not long out of the oven, but equally delicious cold. They had a mousse like texture and the salty cheese was a perfect foil for the dark chocolate. If you like salted chocolate like I do, these are well worth getting acquainted with and even if you don't, you may well like them. CT tells me I'm sweet enough without (I wish), but I really liked the barely sweet nature of these. I don't know if it was the inclusion of icing sugar or my careful handling of the dough, but this was the best pastry I've ever made - it was so flaky, CT thought it was meant to be flaky pastry.

The wonderful Random Recipes monthly challenge is hosted by the Dashing Dom over at Belleau Kitchen and it gets us all to use books and recipes which might otherwise sit gathering dust on the shelves.

As Nazima has chosen cheese this month, I'm also submitting this to One Ingredient hosted alternately by Franglais Kitchen and How to Cook Good Food.

Organic Eggs and a Cornish Holiday Discount

2013-04-14T10:44:00.002+01:00

Some of you may have noticed that I have been using Penbugle Farm organic eggs in some of my recent bakes. Keen as I am to support local businesses, I am even more so when they are organically certified by the Soil Association. As you may be tired of hearing by now, I am a long term supporter of the Soil Association, believing that they are ethically driven and offer the most rigourous organic standards that exist anywhere. They also campaign for more sustainable farming practices and higher quality food for all. This is especially true when it comes to egg production. Soil Association certified eggs must come from free range chickens that have proper outdoor access to grass. This not only leads to healthy and happy hens, but the eggs are better too. See my post on Ingredients are the Key and on duck eggs back along when I first started this blog.

Penbugle Hen - photo courtesy of Allison Livingstone

The chooks at Penbugle are all reared on the farm and have plenty of outdoor field space to run about in during the day. They have even more of it than the minimum required by the Soil Association. They also have access to indoor scratching and bathing areas as well as the nest boxes of course. What about foxes you may ask? The secret weapon in the Penbugle armoury are some rather gorgeous alpacas. Cute they may be, but they will not tolerate foxes in their fields and will drive them off and even kill them if they can. Oh and their fibre is rather lovely too.

By a strange coincidence, I spotted a Penbugle stand at the Three Bags Full market, held on Friday to celebrate Liskeard's wool heritage. They weren't selling wool, but fibre from their alpacas instead. The fibre is not only very soft, but light, extremely warm due to the hollow fibres and hard wearing too - think of grandad's camel hair coat.

The following day, somewhat drenched after dancing the Community Scarf around Liskeard in the rain, I actually got to meet the Fox Patrol in person. They were taking part in the continuation of the Three Bags Full festivities along with some Penbugle sheep and a well dressed tractor courtesy of Victoria Knittingfairy.

Penbugle double yolker, with a dab of chilli sauce

Thanks to Alison of Gingerpop Communications and to Lizzie of Penbugle Farm, I was sent a couple of dozen eggs to try out - just when I needed them most. I had several cakes to make for a friend's birthday, culminating in this lime and pistachio layer cake. The eggs were large and as it turned out many of them were double yokers too - not something I've seen very often.

I was determined to keep some back from the cake making, so we could try them au naturel. We had a couple of them boiled for Easter Day and a couple poached on another occasion. They tasted particularly good. CT being an avid egg eater is something of a connoisseur in these matters, so his thumbs up really means something.

Penbugle Farm, is not only a working organic farm with rare breed cattle, sheep, pigs, hens, ponies and alpacas, but it also provides holiday accommodation in the form of wigwams and bell tents as well as tent pitches if you want to bring your own. So if you fancy a bit of glamping or even camping and a chance to get away from it all, this might well be the spot for you. Living in a particularly pretty part of Cornwall as we do, I can tell you it is well worth a visit. Most visitors to Cornwall charge down to the more well know western parts of the county, completely passing us by - it's their loss. The farm is situated close to the pretty village of Duloe complete with its own stone circle. It is only five miles from the fishing village of Looe and the beautiful Cornish coast and only a few miles from Bodmin Moor. This provides plenty of good walking opportunities, wildlife spotting and a chance to explore our mining heritage. The farm is, of course, very close to my charming home town of Liskeard!

Cornish Holiday Discount

Penbugle Farm are offering Chocolate Log Blog readers a 10% discount on any wigwam holiday plus a welcome pack of local produce, including their own organic eggs of course. To be eligible for the discount, just mention "choc log blog" when booking. To take advantage of this offer, holidays must be booked before 14th May and taken by the end of September 2013.

Chocolate Puffs - Organic, Vegan and Almost Raw

2013-04-11T08:45:00.001+01:00

Coconut oil seems to be the new superfood that everyone is raving about. I have been using it now for many years, mostly as a skin moisturiser and eaten in its raw state spread on toast. Occasionally I've used it for making raw chocolates or cooking savoury dishes. However, it was not until The Groovy Food Company sent me some of their organic virgin coconut oil to try did I think about using it in baking. Ahh, now that got the brain cells firing. But as soon as the many possibilities started to emerge, I changed my mind; I decided I wanted keep it in its raw state. Something quick and delicious that was truly healthy and 100% organic was in order - not something I achieve very often.

Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, so can easily be used as a spread or body butter. It melts very quickly and has a high heat threshold making it ideal for stir fries in particular. It contains medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) which are a healthy fat quickly transformed by the body into energy and are not stored as body fat. For maximum benefit, coconut oil is best used in its cold pressed state. It is said to help reduce abdominal obesity and protect against insulin resistance thus reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. It is also said to benefit digestive disorders and boost the bodies immune system due to the high percentage of lauric acid contained. Used on the face and body, it acts as a good moisturiser and has many purported benefits including protection from UV radiation from the sun.

On opening the jar, a powerful aroma of coconut was released and I couldn't resist tasting some. It was both sweet and unmistakably coconutty which is more than can be said of some I've tried.

I was also sent a bottle of The Groovy Food Company's organic premium agave nectar, which is often used as a low Gi sugar substitute. I am an occasional user of agave nectar, but this gave me an opportunity to try it out in a few more things. I tried it out in my matcha smoothies as a substitute for the honey and it worked very well, proving a lot easier to handle than honey as it less viscous.

So, what I wanted to make was a healthy version of that children's classic rice crispy cakes. My first task was to find some sugar free crunchy cereal, not something I thought was going to be particularly difficult. So I was truly shocked when I went to my local Co-operative, only to find they sold no sugar free cereal at all except for oats. I trekked off to our local health food shop and found the last bag of unsweetened cereal they had in stock - luckily it was puffed rice, which is what I'd been hoping for.

This is how I made:

Vegan Chocolate Puffs

Melted 1 heaped tbsp cold pressed coconut oil in a pan over low heat.
Added 50g 100% cocoa chocolate.
Stirred in 1 tbsp cashew nut butter (any nut butter would be good, but that was the one I had to hand).
Added 3 tbsp agave nectar, 1 tsp raw cocoa powder, 1 tsp vanilla extract (homemade) and a pinch of Himalayan pink rock salt.
Stirred until smooth, then removed from heat.
Weighed 100g 100% puffed rice into a bowl, then poured over the chocolate mixture and stirred until all of the rice was coated.
Placed teaspoonfuls of the mixture into mini muffin cases and pressed the rest into two silicone moulds.
Left in my cold kitchen to set, but would normally put them in the fridge.

My attempt at a butterfly

These were so damn delicious, I polished off rather more than I should have done as soon as I'd taken the photographs. They were light and crunchy and the chocolate coating had a lovely smooth mouth feel. They tasted sweet and chocolatey and the blend of cashew butter and coconut oil gave a nutty and fragrant quality redolent of the tropics.

Now I'm away to ponder exactly what bake I want to try with the coconut oil.

The Groovy Food Company products can be found at Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose amongst other places.

I'm entering these into Breakfast Club, founded by Helen of Fuss Free Flavours and hosted this month by Gill of Tales Pigling Bland who has chosen rocket fuel as the theme with a view to help her run the London Marathon. I reckon these would make a very tasty rocket fuel for breakfast that isn't going to sit heavily on the stomach, but would provide plenty of energy and nutrients.

Lime and Pistachio Cake with Chocolate Shards

2013-04-08T07:12:00.001+01:00

As soon as I saw the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook, I knew immediately I wanted to make this Pistachio & Lime Cake for my friend's upcoming birthday. This is one of Lynn Hill's own and it is the one that graces the front cover of the book. So for the grand finale of my friend's birthday bake, this is what I made - my most ambitious cake yet. I had kept back a few of the Brazilian limes on purpose to go out with a bang. I made my signature lime and ginger curd as a filling for the cake and also thought I'd try making crystallised lime to decorate the top. I had plenty of organic eggs courtesy of Penbugle Farm. I made my usual adjustments, you know I can't help it.

This is how I made:

Pistachio and Lime Cake with Chocolate Shards

Sliced two well scrubbed lime very thinly.
Simmered in a sugar syrup made of 50g granulated sugar and 50ml water for about 45 minutes (or until the peel is soft and translucent).
Laid out on some parchment paper over a wire rack in a warm place for 24 hours to dry.

Creamed 300g unsalted butter with 300g caster sugar, with my trusty wooden spoon, until very pale and fluffy.
Grated in the rind of three well scrubbed limes and creamed some more.
Chopped 50g pistachio nuts into bits & beat these into the mixture.
Beat in 5 large organic eggs one at a time, adding in a little flour with the last two to prevent curdling.
Sifted in 300g flour (half wholemeal, half white) with 2 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda.
Stirred this in as gently as possible together with the juice of two limes.
Divided the mixture between three 8" cake moulds and baked at 180C for 20 minutes until the top was firm and a skewer inserted into the centre came out clean.

Whilst the cakes were cooking, made a syrup by heating the juice of two limes with 2 tbsp caster sugar until the sugar had dissolved.
Poured this over the cakes as soon as they were out of the oven, then left them to cool.
Turned out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Creamed 150g unsalted butter with 150g icing sugar until very pale and fluffy.
Grated in the zest of a lime and creamed some more.
Beat in 150g cream cheese.

Melted 75g dark chocolate in a pan over hot water.
Poured onto a wooden board and spread out to about 3mm thickness with a palate knife.
Sprinkled 25g chopped pistachios over the top and left to set.
Cut into longish triangular shards.

Roughly chopped another 50g pistachios.
Placed one of the cakes on a serving plate and covered with a third of the cream cheese icing.
Spread 3 tbsp of ginger and lime curd over the top.
Scattered over a third of the pistachios.
Placed a 2nd cake on top and repeated the process.
Placed the 3rd cake on top and spread with the remaining icing.
Placed a ring of crystallised lime rings around the outside of the cake.
Stuck the chocolate shards in the centre.
Scattered the remaining chopped pistachios over the top.

Many thanks to Lynn Hill for this wonderful recipe. It made a stunning cake and caused a sensation among the party guests and most importantly of all, the birthday girl was absolutely delighted. Oh and by the way, it was truly mouth-watering.

I'm entering this wonder into Bookmarked Recipes. This is a monthly event hosted by Jac of Tinned Tomatoes.

As I made everything here entirely from scratch, I am entering it into Javelin Warriors Made with Love Mondays.

I'm also entering it into Credit Crunch Munch hosted alternately by Fab Food for All and Fuss Free Flavours. Now I know this may not look much like a frugal dish, but I had loads of limes which really did need using up and also lots of eggs which needed using, so if you take those out of the equation, it's not quite as extravagant as it looks AND it was a birthday cake for a very special occasion :)

Cocoa Boutique - A Review

2013-04-07T09:35:00.000+01:00

Oh the excitement. The pleasure of an unopened box of chocolates just waiting to be discovered. The expectation is doubled when I don't know what the box contains. I have, occasionally, been disappointed, but these chocolates were from Cocoa Boutique and I have reviewed them before, so I knew I was going to like them. They arrived rather mysteriously; I was not expecting them and had had no correspondence about it, but I am not one to turn down a box of nice chocolates that has been posted through my door. Cocoa Boutique is a chocolate club, so they are set up for parcels that can fit through a letterbox - I wish more would do that: better to be gratified instantly than to have to wait for a redelivery. This box was visually very pleasing and the enticing aroma of chocolate wafting up made me impatient to get stuck in.

Before even looking at the card to see what flavours awaited me, I followed the visual cues and went straight for the chocolate that appealed to me most. It was the Passion Fruit, a flavour I have a love hate relationship with when it comes to chocolate. Done well, it can be exquisite, but done badly it can taste synthetic and unpleasant. I was relieved to find, this fell into the first category. Paired with dark chocolate, it was sharp, fruity, aromatic and full flavoured, leaving behind a mixture of dark chocolate and passionfruit flavour that lingered on the palate for some considerable time after the chocolate had been consumed. I could quite see why this chocolate by Sun Trigg has won several awards.

Following this jump into the unknown and my lust being sated for a while, I was a little more restrained with my further tastings. I looked at the guide to see just what I had in store. There were some delicious sounding chocolates and flavour combinations, but my eye fell on the cocoa dusted salted caramel and as I would be addicted to these if my pocket allowed, this was my very next choice. The caramel was a little thicker than I've had before, but no less delicious for that and the salt erring towards subtlety brought out the flavour without tasting particularly salty. Note for CT: a box of these would be my idea of bliss.

Marzipan - just how I like it. It had a homemade feel and was almondy both in texture and taste without tasting of almond essence and it was not too sweet either.

Gazillionaires Shortbread - a fun idea, but sweeter than the salted caramel and like millionaires shortbread, just too sweet for me.

Double Praline - I enjoyed the two different flavours and textures stacked one on top of the other.

The Frothing Hot Chocolate was not only fun to look at, but contained a bit of a surprise - it was certainly very hot!

Add caption

Other chocolates of particular note were: the Raspberry Champagne Truffle which tasted of both raspberries and champagne but were a little too sweet for me; a Lemon Meringue Whip which had the flavour of lemon meringue pie, but was also rather too sweet and a very good Cherry Brandy.

All in all, I thought this was a good box of chocolates and I'd be happy for someone to subscribe me to the service for a while - hint, hint! There was a good mix of dark, milk and white chocolate and a varied mix of textures and flavours to make this a box that can be indulged in by one single chocoholic - why are you looking at me? Or it could be shared out amongst friends and family - there should be something here to suit everyone's taste.

Peach and White Chocolate Cake - a Valentine's Day Surprise

2013-04-04T13:49:00.001+01:00

Well, I maybe posting this a little later than intended, but it now coincides with my 500th blog post, which turns out to be very apt timing indeed. Read on.

For the first time in more years than I care to remember, I had a surprise Valentine in the post this year. Valentine's Day is a particularly special day for me as it's when I started Chocolate Log Blog. This year, I spent the morning at Waterstones in Truro with fellow members of Cornwall's Clandestine Cake Club helping the launch party of the CCC Cookbook go with a swing, or rather go with cake. In the afternoon, as we were in the vicinity, CT and I made the most of the sunshine and went for a welcome walk around the National Trust's Trelissick Garden. Not only were there lots of snowdrops, camellias, rhododendrons and even azaleas in flower, but there were a number of striking artworks we hadn't seen before.

A rather lovely day was topped off very nicely when I arrived home to find an unexpected parcel. A parcel containing a big red Valentine's box all tied up with a heart shaped card and red bow. I'd sort of got an inkling from the address that it was probably aimed more at my blog than at me personally, but this in no way detracted from my delight at finding a host of golden stone fruit nestling in the box, South African plums, peaches and nectarines.

The peaches in particular looked as though they needed using up pretty fast, so off I went to Eat Your Books to see what peachy recipes I might have to inspire me. I found several and all looked good, but in the end I thought I'd try something based on Mollie Katzen's Peach Puddingcake from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. I adapted things a little, converted the US cup measures into metric and added white chocolate and flaked almonds.

This is how I made

Peach and White Chocolate Cake

Melted 40g unsalted butter and 50g vanillary white chocolate (G&B) in a small pan over a low heat. Set aside to cool a little.
Stoned and sliced two medium peaches and one nectarine.
Whisked 2 duck eggs with 200g (1 cup) of light brown sugar until thick and pale.
Added 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1/4 tsp almond extract and whisked for a little longer.
Sieved in 300g (2 cups) flour (1/2 wholemeal spelt, half white), 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp allspice and 1/4 tsp salt.
Folded this as gently as possible into the mixture.
Mixed in 240 ml (1 cup) milk, bit by bit.
Stirred in the butter & chocolate as gently as possible followed by the peach slices.
Spooned into a 9" sq cake mould.
Placed the nectarine slices on top and scattered with a spoonful of flaked almonds.
Baked at 180C for 35 minutes until well risen, golden and firm on top.
Left to cool and cut into 16 squares.

I ate a square whilst it was still warm and it was absolutely gorgeous. Soft, sweet and peachy. It was nearly as good cold and was polished off rather too quickly.

Many thanks to Chocolate Log Blog's mystery Valentine and I hope to commence with the next 500 posts very shortly.

This month's No Waste Food Challenge, chosen by Turquoise Lemons but hosted by Elizabeth's Kitchen is fruit. Well, stone fruit doesn't usually last very long and the peaches in particular needed using quickly, so I think this peach and white chocolate cake qualifies.

I'm also submitting this to Javelin Warrior's weekly made from scratch challenge, Made with Love Mondays.

The theme for Calendar Cakes this month is The Great British Show. Well, this may be adapted from an American recipe, but it is just the sort of cake you'd find for sale at an English fete, so I'm hoping it counts. This is a monthly challenge hosted by Dolly Bakes and Laura Loves Cakes.

Choc a Bloc Cake Mould - Giveaway #26

2013-04-02T07:24:00.000+01:00

As some of you may know, I'm a big fan of silicone cake moulds. As I've said on many an occasion, they have revolutionised my baking life. No more faffing around with scissors and bits of paper. It's true that I've had the odd disaster when the cake has stuck to the bottom of the mould, but these occurrences have been rare. The folks at Mustard must have known my penchant for all things silicone (well perhaps not all things silicone ;-) and sent this fun Choc a Bloc cake mould to try. They are also offering one as a a giveaway to readers of my blog.

I couldn't wait to try it so grabbed my bowl and spoon and set too. The result was this banana, chocolate and peanut butter cake. Like a bar of chocolate, I found myself unable to stop at one square.

Giveaway

Mustard have kindly offered two Choc a Bloc Cake moulds as a giveaway on Chocolate Log Blog.

To be in with a chance of winning one of these tins, please fill in the Rafflecopter below. You will need to leave a comment on this post which then gives you additional chances to enter if you so wish. Rafflecopter will pick a winner at random from the entries received. Please give me some way of identifying you in the comment section as I will be verifying the validity of entries and will always check back to the comments to ensure that part has been done. Any automated entries will be disqualified. This giveaway is only open to those with a UK postal address. You need to be 18 or over to enter. Winners will need to respond within 7 days of being contacted. Failure to do this may result in another winner being picked.

Prizes are offered and provided by Mustard and Chocolate Log Blog accepts no responsibility for the acts or defaults of said third party.

If you need some help using Rafflecopter, here's a quick clip to show you how.

Closing date is Tuesday 30 April 2013

Mustard are also offering this rather splendid biscuit tin - hurry though, there is only today left to enter.

You might also want to take a look at my giveaway page to see if there is anything else you would like to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We Should Cocoa #32

2013-04-01T09:09:00.000+01:00

First off I'd like to say a big thank you to Jen of Blue Kitchen Bakes for hosting the February ginger challenge and Lucy of The Kitchenmaid for the March fame challenge. Do have a look at the round-ups if you haven't done so already. Human ingenuity is well represented.

So, onto this month's theme - nothing fancy: leeks. Only joking, it is April Fool's Day.

No, the real challenge is something else. Read on.

Last year in the UK, the weather was atrocious; not only did fruit and vegetables suffer, but so did pollinating insects like bees and butterflies. People weren't too keen on it either. Let's hope for a better one this year. Just our luck, 2012 was the year we got our bees which live at my mother's. They have been having a very hard time of it and we are not sure if they will survive this year. The weather is currently too cold for them to be active.

So with this in mind, I'm hoping you will all support your local bee keepers by buying local honey. Although it is not traditionally harvested at this time of year, it's warm colour and sweet taste remind us of the good things to come, spring being the herald to summer. April is when bees start to get properly busy (usually). You may have guessed by now, this month's We Should Cocoa theme is honey.

For some inspiration, if needed, have a look at some of the honey and chocolate recipes I've tried in the past.

Here is a quick reminder of how to submit your entries:
E-mail the link to your submission (one only per challenge please) and include: your name, the name of your blog, your recipe title and a photograph (please can you make these no bigger than 800 x 600 pixels) to: weshouldcocoa@yahoo.co.uk

If you want to find out more about the plight of bees head to the Soil Association.

Choc Cross Buns

2013-03-30T08:39:00.001Z

I originally planned to make hot cross buns on the traditional day of Maundy Thursday, but what with one thing and another, action was postponed until Good Friday. I based these on a mish mash of recipes and techniques, (I suppose you could call it fusion baking): Andrew Whitley and his pre-ferment, use of wholemeal flour and pre-soaked fruit; Dan Lepard for kneading techniques; Peyton and Byrne for quantities (more or less), and Rachel Allen for spices. I was wondering about the best way of incorporating chocolate. I wanted to retain the qualities of a traditional hot cross bun, so was shying away from adding chocolate to the actual mix. It was CT who suggested making a chocolate cross on top and calling them Choc Cross Buns, what a wonder he is.

This is how I made:

Hot Cross Buns (Choc Cross Buns)

Soaked 3oz raisins and 2oz homemade mixed peel in 20ml hot water and 20 ml of homemade redcurrant liqueur (any juice or alcohol or just plain water could be used here).
Mixed 1 oz fresh yeast with 150ml warm water and 60ml milk.
Added 10g cardamom (caster) sugar and 150g wholemeal flour.
Stirred and left in a warm place to do it's thing for an hour.

Put 350g strong white flour into a bowl with 40g cardamom (caster) sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp allspice, a good grating of nutmeg and a pinch of salt.
Rubbed in 20g unsalted butter.
Added the pre-ferment and kneaded in rhe bowl for 10 minutes.
Added the soaked fruit and liquid and kneaded for a further 5 minutes.
Covered with plastic, left in a warm place and left for 30 minutes when it had doubled in size.

Oiled my hands and the work surface and turned out the dough.
Stretched it into an oblong shape and plunged my fingers in to aerate the dough.
Folded one third into the middle and covered with the other third trying to trap as much air in to the dough as possible.
Gave a quarter turn.
Repeated the process, only this time covered with pieces of unsalted butter (25g) before folding in much the same way as for puff pastry.
Repeated the process again with another 25g of unsalted butter.
Divided into 14 rolls and placed on two baking trays.
Left to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about 30 minutes).

Made a flour and cocoa paste by mixing 4 tbsp of water with 60g strong white flour, 10g cocoa and a large pinch of chilli powder.
Brushed the buns with milk.
Piped the cocoa paste across the buns to form crosses.
Baked at 220C for 15 minutes.

Dissolved 50g caster sugar in 60g water by heating it gently in a pan.
Brushed this over the buns to glaze as soon as they were out of the oven.

We immediately and greedily stuffed down two each, they smelled so heavenly. Luckily they tasted pretty sublime too.

I am sending these over to Javelin Warriors Made with Love Mondays where everything is made by scratch.

I have a number of Easter Bakes including a simnel cake and various things I'm planning on baking for an Easter tea tomorrow, but this is the only one I've got time to post. So I am submitting these Choc Cross Buns to the Easter Extravaganza themed Calendar Cakes hosted alternately by Laura Loves Cakes and Dolly Bakes.

I'm also entering these into Choc Filled Easter hosted by Jagruti's Cooking Odyssey.

Chococo Brownies and Matcha Madeleines

2013-03-28T08:21:00.001Z

Last weekend saw me very busy with a mammoth bake for a friend's birthday party. When asked if I could make some cakes to bring along, the only request made was for small cakes that were easy to eat and weren't cupcakes. It took me a while to come up with some ideas. I wanted to include lots of different flavours, textures and colours. Eventually I got there. Sometimes I find it hard to get hold of good quality free range eggs. Luckily, I had plenty of organic ones from Penbugle Farm which I'd been given to use.

Brownies just had to be on the menu. I decided to use a recipe from my newest chocolate book Chococo which CT bought for me as a Valantines surprise. This uses far less sugar than is normal in brownies, but the author Claire Burnet claims that they are still sweet and delicious. I Swapped the pecans for walnuts, the rice flour for buckwheat flour and made a few other adjustments.

This is how I made:

Walnut Brownies

Melted 150g unsalted butter with 225g 70% dark chocolate in a pan over low heat, then left to cool.
Whisked 125g dark brown sugar with 3 large organic eggs. 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1/4 tsp fleur de sel using electric beaters until mixture was thick, pale and doubled in volume.
Sifted in 50g buckwheat flour and folded in as lightly as possible.
Stirred in 60g chopped walnuts as lightly as possible.
Folded in the chocolate mixture until just incorporated.
Poured into a 22cm (9") sq cake mould and scattered 20g chopped walnuts over the top.
Baked at 180C for 17 minutes. Left to go cold then cut into 16 squares.

These were not like your average brownie; they were very light and quite delicate. Despite the reduced amount of sugar compared to most brownies, Claire was right: these tasted sweet and delicious.

As well as the honey and spice cakes I've already blogged about, I also made Blackcurrant Bakewell Slices and Date and Rum Slices. The piece de resistance which I will post about later was this lime and pistachio birthday cake. CT got into the spirit of thing and drew appropriately illustrated labels for each bake. We all had a deal of fun on the night including a Beetle Drive and lots of dancing.

The final bake I took along were these Japanese green tea Madeleines which CT refers to as Matcheleines and which I based on my chocolate chilli Madeleines. As some of you will have gathered by now, I am a big fan of using matcha in baking. It works particularly well, not only giving an interesting colour, but adding great flavour too. They were as good as I was hoping they might be; CT would have happily demolished the lot given half the chance. There were certainly none left at the end of the evening. Perhaps I should have made crepes as my friend is actually Breton.

This is how I made:

Matcha Madeleines (Matcheleines)

Melted 75g unsalted butter gently in a small pan then set aside to cool.
Whisked 2 duck eggs and 75g golden caster sugar together for quite a long time it seemed, using electric beaters. Whisked until the mixture had trebled in volume and was pale and thick.
Sifted in 90g flour (half spelt, half white), 1 tbsp matcha (Japanese powdered green tea) and 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda.
Folded this in as gently as possible trying not to lose too much air from the eggs.
Poured the butter in down one side of the bowl and folded this in until just incorporated.
Placed 1 tbsp of the mixture into each of 16 Madeleine moulds.
Baked for 10 minutes at 200C until well risen and firm to the touch.
Turned out onto a wire rack to cool.
Dusted with caster sugar.

As Madeleines are a classic French bake (mais peut etre pas normalment avec le matcha), I am entering them into Tea Time Treats where the theme this month is French tarts, cakes bakes and pastries - ooh la la. Hosted this month with Karen of Lavender and Lovage, the challenge is co-hosted by Kate of What Kate Baked.

These also fit nicely into Bloggers Around the World where Chris has chosen Japan for this month's national cuisine. Matcha is the taste of Japan for CT who drank it zealously whilst he was there.

I'm also entering the brownies into Choc Full Easter over at Jagruti's Cooking Odyssey an Easter event celebrating ..... chocolate of course!