Chocolate & Cranberry Cake

Ingredients
100g Butter
100g Dark Cooking Chocolate
3 Eggs, light beaten
1/2 cup Sour Cream
1 cup Self-raising Flour
1 tbsp Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 cup Almond Meal
3/4 cup Caster Sugar
1/2 cup Dried Cranberries

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180c or 160c fan. Line and grease a cake tin.

2. Melt butter and chocolate in a small saucepan on low. Stir until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.

3. Mix the eggs and sour cream until combined. Then pour into the butter and chocolate mixture. Mix well.

4. Put flour, cocoa, baking powder, almond meal, sugar and cranberries into a large mixing bowl. Mix until all ingredients are evenly distributed. Pour in chocolate mixture and mix until combined.

5. Bake for approx. 30-45mins.

High Tea

Having been given the notice to ship out of our apartment by the end of the month, there can be no better way but to say farewell with high tea (the high tea was actually planned before but where's the drama in that?).

I made my own Raspberry Jam in the microwave and cheated by adding gelatin to set the jam. It tasted pretty good and it was so quick and easy. I used 1 cup frozen raspberries, 1 cup caster sugar, squeeze of lemon juice and 2 sheet gold strength gelatin leaves. First you microwave the berries and lemon juice for 5mins, then add sugar, stir and microwave for a further 10mins (be careful as it might boil over the bowl). Soak the gelatin leaves, squeeze the excess water, stir into the mixture, put it in the fridge and voila! homemade jam.

To save time, I brought the sweet tart shells and filled it with various flavoured creams. You can add anything to whipped cream: berries, lemon, lime, chocolate, nuts, candied fruits....the list goes on.

Also, thanks to the 'cake baker' for baking such a yummy flourless Mandarin and Almond cake.

Buttermilk Scones
Ingredients
1 tbsp icing sugar

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 1/2 tbsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 cup buttermilk

30g butter, melted

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200c.

2. Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix. Add the wet ingredients and stir with a cutting motion with a knife.

3. Knead quickly and press out onto a floured surface to 3 cm thick. Cut with a scone cutter or round cookie cutter.
4. Bake for approx 10mins until slightly golden and puffed. Served warm with jam and cream.

Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
250g dark chocolate
200ml thicken cream

Method
1. Chop the chocolate into fine pieces and put into a bowl. Heat 1/3 of the cream but do not boil. Once warm, pour into the chocolate and mix until smooth.

2. Whip remaining cream until thick and fold into the chocolate mixture. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Lemon and Mint Cream

Ingredients

250ml thicken cream

zest of 2 lemons

2 tsp vanilla

handful of mint leaves, finely chopped

Method

1. Whip cream until thick and mix in lemon zest and vanilla.

2. Just before serving fold in mint leaves.

The tea and coffee bar

Pre-high tea chocolates

Flourless Mandarin & Almond Cake, Moroccan Chicken and Smoked Salmon finger sandwiches

Scones with homemade Raspberry Jam and Chocolate Mousse Tarts

Lemon and Mint tarts

Chocolate Raspberry Hazelnut Cake

Sometimes when I make things up the photos and the story don't always end up here, mainly because it turns out slightly weird and I wouldn't recommend the recipe to anyone. It is to my delight this time, its actually really really good.

I took the base recipe for a plain sponge cake, halved that (it was for two sponge cakes) and added a few extras. I had it in my mind I wanted to make a chocolate raspberry and hazelnut cake. As I started to pour the mixture into the tin, I realised it was abit gluggy so in order to make it moist I added about half a cup of milk.


The baking time for the original sponge cake took only 20mins at 180c. From experience I knew the baking time for my cake will take longer because I've added a liquid ingredient and additional ingredients but after 30mins my cake was still runny in the middle. So I turned down the heat, to prevent burning on the sides, and baked it for 50mins (checking every 15-10mins).

Since the mixture was so gluggy to begin with (almost like brownie mixture), I thought the result would be like a brownie but no! It was so soft and airy (must have been the milk!). Needless to say, am very chuffed with the result. The best cake I've ever made up...


Chocolate Raspberry and Hazelnut Cake

Ingredients
150g butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup self-raising flour (or 1 cup plain flour + 2 tbsp baking soda)
1/2 cup raspberries
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1 handful hazelnuts, roughly chopped
1/2 cup milk

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 160c.

2. Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla and beat in eggs one at a time until combined.

3. Mix in flour and cocoa powder. Then add milk. When combined mix in hazelnuts and raspberries.

4. Pour into a cake tin and bake on 160c for approx. 50mins. It is recommended that you check the cake after 30mins, then every 15-10mins after that until baked.

Velvet Cupcakes

This cake is very dense but not sweet. Due to the high cocoa powder content if you can, use high quality cocoa powder as you can taste the difference. To paraphrase my colleague when I told her I bought 300g of cocoa powder for $15, "The normal stuff is gritty. You can taste this is good quality.". I hope she wasn't trying to make me feel better but I'll have to agree because this stuff gave more of a 'cocoa' flavour than the supermarket stuff. I've tasted this stuff and sadly for my wallet I can never go back. The chili powder gives it an extra something and the red colouring (using cake decorating gels) enhances the cocoa colour.

Unfortunately there are no pictures as the ones on the camera turned out really crappy.

Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup caster sugar
8 tbsp cocoa powder
3 eggs
1 cup milk
150g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
1/2 tsp chili powder (optional)
1 tsp red food colouring (optional)

Method
1. Cream butter and sugar until creamy. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time. Beat until smooth.

2. Add the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

3. Dissolve the colouring into the milk. Add in milk a bit at a time. Mix until smooth.

4. Bake for 20mins. The result should be dense and has a velvety texture.

Icing
75g dark cooking chocolate
2 tsp icing sugar
sprinkle of chili powder (optional)
1 tsp red gel colouring*
Hot water, as needed

Melt the chocolate then add the colouring and chili powder. Add hot water, a teaspoon at a time until runny and smooth. Mix in icing sugar. If it is too runny add more sugar, if it is too hard add more hot water.

*You can get gel colouring from speciality food stores and cake decorating shops. If you use basic good colouring it will be very runny. If you omit to use the gel colouring, omit the water as well.

Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

I did steal this recipe from Martha Stewart but have modified several ingredients.

Ingredients

1 cup roughly chopped dark chocolate
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp cocoa powder
150g butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup treacle
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp hot water

1. Combine flour, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cocoa powder. Set aside.
2. Beat butter and ginger until pale. Add brown sugar, beat until combined. Add treacle, beat until combined.
3. Dissolve baking powder into the water (the mixture will fizz slightly).
4. Mix half the combined dry ingredients into the butter. Mix in baking powder and the remaining dry ingredients into the batter. Mix in chocolate. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
5. Pre-heat oven to 165 degrees. Spoon 1 tsp of the dough and use your hands to roll into a ball. Bake for 10 - 12mins. Once baked, use the back of the teaspoon and press gently into the center of the cookie to make an indentation. The cookie should be soft enough to do this and the edges might crack slightly.

Naughty, Naughty Chocolate Brownies

Equals lots and lots of chocolate! Not to be eaten if you are on a diet.
Photo can be found on my facebook.

Ingredients

180g dark cooking chocolate, chopped
180g white cooking chocolate, chopped
80g extra dark cooking chocolate, chopped
3 x regular size chocolate bars (bounty, cherry ripe and mars bar work best), chopped
150g butter, chopped
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups plain flour

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees.
2. Place 180g of dark chocolate and butter in a small saucepan. Stir and melt over low heat. Take it off the heat as soon as the mixture is combined and glossy.
3. Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl, gently beat the eggs and sugar together. The mixture will become thick and the sugar will not dissolve at this stage.
4. Pour the melted chocolate mixture into the eggs and stir to combine.
5. Sift and add the cocoa, flour, baking powder and stir to combine. This mixture will become very thick.
6. Fold through the extra dark chocolate, white chocolate and chocolate bars.
7. Line a medium sized square/rectangular cake tin and pour the mixture into the tin.
8. Bake for approximately 50mins or until cooked. Cool and cut into squares.

Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Photo coming soon!

Ingredients
288g white sugar
175g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
118g melted butter
250ml warm water
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
2. In a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs then add in the melted butter and whisk to combine. Add in the water and vanilla, stir.
3. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until combine.
4. Pour the batter into a greased cake tin and bake for 30mins.
5. When cooked, lay out on a baking rack to cool completely before spreading with ganache.

For the ganache
150ml thick cream
300g of dark cooking chocolate

1. Melt the chocolate until smooth. Keep the chocolate warm by sitting the bowl on top of a large pot of hot water.

2. Pour the cream into a small pot and on a low heat until the cream start to bubble. Immediately, take it off the stove and add to the melted chocolate. Whisk to combine. The ganache should be thick and glossy. Spread onto the cake and serve.

Black Forest Trifle

A different take on the traditional trifle, this is a quick and easy recipe. Depending on taste and the size of the serving bowl, more cream, custard and cake maybe required.



Ingredients
1 chocolate sponge cake (see recipes on this site), sliced in half horizontally
300ml thicken cream
300ml pouring custard
1 pkg frozen cherries (defrosted and quartered)
1 pkg port wine jelly mixture

1. Make jelly following instructions on the package. (The jelly needs to be made first as it will take 2-3 hrs to set). When set, break up the jelly with a fork.

2. Beat cream until thick and fold in cherries.

To assemble trifle:
3. Layer sponge cake to cover the bottom of the bowl.

4. Pour in half the custard to evenly cover the sponge layer. Sprinkle half the jelly over the custard, then half the cream mixture to cover the entrie layer.

5. Layer again with the remaining sponge cake, the repeat the custard, jelly (reserving a little for decoration) and cream layer.

6. To decorate, sprinkle the outer circumference with remaining jelly and the centre with shaved dark chocolate.

Chocolate Sponge Cake

This cake doesn't rise, so don't be alarmed when cooked and its butter free.

Ingredients
4 egg whites
2 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder

1. Line a cake pan and pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks with the vanilla until combined. Set aside.

3. Place egg whites and cream of tartar in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until foamy. Gradually beat in the sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Then beat in the egg yolk mixture until combined - be careful not to over mix at this stage.

4. Sift flour and cocoa powder and fold lightly into the egg mixture.

5. Bake in a 180 degree oven for 10-15mins or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Turn onto cake rack to cool.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

Makes 20 x cup cakes or 1 x 18cm cake.

This combo may sound weird but the end result is a moist, soft cake with a deep, dark colouring (looks very chocolaty). Similar to a carrot cake, you can’t taste the beetroot. If you don’t mention it, no one will know it’s got beetroot in it!



Ingredients
50g cocoa powder
90g plain flour
90g self raising flour
250g caster sugar
3 small cooked fresh beetroot
3 eggs
200ml vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Equipment
Food processer/blender

1. Clean any excess dirt off the beetroots and wrap each one in foil. Roast the wrapped beetroot in a 180 degree oven for 30mins - 40mins. Unwrap and carefully peel off the skin. Leave to cool.

2. Pre heat oven to 180 degrees. To make cupcakes; line a muffin tray with cupcake patties. To make a cake; butter and flour an 18cm round or square cake tin.

3. Sift the cocoa, plain flour and self raising flour into a bowl. Mix in the caster sugar and set aside.

4. Puree the beetroot in a food processor/blender. Add in the eggs, one at a time, then add the oil and vanilla and process until smooth.

5. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the beetroot mixture into the well. Lightly mix, using a rubber spatula and pour into the prepared tin.

6. For cup cakes; bake for 15mins - 20mins, for cake; bake for 40mins (or until skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean). The cake won't rise a great deal and the top may crack. Allow to cool before decorating with frosting.

Chocolate frosting
1.5 cups icing sugar
25g unsalted butter, softened
100g dark cooking chocolate, broken into pieces
milk as required
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. To make frosting, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Melt the chocolate using either a double boiler or using the microwave.

3. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla extract to the butter mixture. Add in milk to beat until smooth and soft. Decorate as desired.