A Chocoholic's Chocolate Cake

This rather unassuming looking cake was made at the beginning of the week for one of my work friend's birthday's (he has more of a sweet tooth than even me, shocking I know).  I was surprised at the reaction it got ... people I have never even met before were coming up to me all day to tell me how fantastic this cake tasted and even the non-chocoholics wanted seconds!  Being packed full of chocolate in both the cake and icing it was a hard task to decline the offer of a slice I can tell you.  The recipe is actually featured on the front cover of this month's Olive Magazine and called for 2 x 18cm cake pans to make the sponges.  The smallest pans I have are 20cm so I adapted the recipe to suit and made it into a sandwich cake rather than a 4 layer chocolate masterpiece!

A Chocoholics Chocolate Cake
175g SR flour, sifted
3 tbsp 70% cocoa powder
1 tsp instant coffee powder (optional)
175g butter, completely softened, plus extra for lining the tin
175g golden caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1-2 tbsp milk
100g 70% dark chocolate, melted and cooled
Icing
500ml double cream
500g milk chocolate, chopped

Make the icing first (it takes a while to cool and thicken).  Put the chocolate into a bowl.  Pour the cream into a pan and heat until simmering.  Take off the heat and pour it over the chocolate.  Stir until the mixture is smooth.  Cool, then chill, until really thick but spreadable.

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C.  Butter and base line 2 x 20cm sandwich tins with baking parchment.  Take 3 tbsp flour from the full flour amount and put them back in the flour bag - the cocoa powder will make up the difference.

Put all the cake ingredients except the chocolate in a large bowl.  Beat them together with an electric whisk (or whizz in a food processor) until you have a creamy mixture, then fold in the melted chocolate.  Add a little more milk if the mix is too stiff - it should fall easily from a spoon.

Divide the mixture between the 2 tins and level.  Bake on the same shelf in the oven for 20-25 mins or until the sponge springs back when pressed.  Cool for 5 mins, turn out onto a wire rack, peel off the paper and cool completely.

Sandwich the layers together with a little icing, then spread the rest on top thickly.

Serves 10
Adapted from Olive Magazine, April 11

If I have one complaint it is that the icing didn't firm up as much as I would have liked.  Everyone who ate the cake felt it was the perfect consistency but I would have liked it to be a wee more truffle like in consistency.  Not sure if I should try adding butter (as in a proper chocolate truffle recipe) or if the mixture just needs a really good whisking before popping it in the fridge.  Watch this space for trial and error updates!

National Chocolate Week ~ Cappuccino Thumbprint Biscuits

Welcome to National Chocolate Week!  Last year I celebrated by making a chocolate related treat each day, but by the time the end of the week arrived not only had a gained a large amount of weight but I was also getting pretty sick of the sight of chocolate.  Such a travesty!!!!  So ... I'm not promising that much for this year ... maybe one or two posts ... maybe not!?!?!?  We'll see what happens ;0)

Tomorrow night I'm off to a wine tasting with Oz Clarke and then off to the Playhouse to see James Martin for the Love Cooking show.  I absolutely refused to pay the price of the ticket when they were first released but that wonderful sister in law of mine managed to win some tickets!  I only mention this now so as you know that there won't be any chocolate type post tomorrow cause I'll be too busy being a rotten old lush and drooling over James lol

Anyhoo, back to Chocolate Week [sigh!] and a small explanation for how I came to make this recipe.  I spent the weekend "trying" to clear out the stack of food magazines that have been growing in a steady pile by my side of the bed.  The stack was threatening to take over my marriage so some tough action was required!  This recipe was in one of the magazines that had to go but the idea of a Thumbprint Biscuit with white chocolate in place of the jam sounded like my kind of a Thumbprint Biscuit, the recipe had to be saved and made.  So pleased I did, these treats are yummy ... and I'm not even that fond of coffee!

Cappuccino Thumbprint Biscuits
285g plain flour
100g cocoa powder
2 tbsp ground coffee (I used a vanilla flavoured ground coffee from Whittards - could spend my salary in that store!)
2 tsp sea salt
225g unsalted butter, softened
285g caster sugar plus more for rolling
2 large egg yolks
2 tbsp double cream
200g white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a large bowl and stir in the ground coffee.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together with a fork, until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the egg yolks and cream, whisking as you add them, until well combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then gradually whisk in the flour and cocoa.

Take large teaspoons of the dough, roll them into balls and place 2cm apart on two baking sheets lined with baking paper. Using your thumb or the end of a wooden spoon, press gently in the centre of each biscuit to create a dent.

Place the trays into the oven and bake for 10 mins, rotating the trays halfway through cooking so that they cook evenly.

Remove the trays from the oven. If any of the biscuits have closed up, open out the indents again by pressing with the end of a wooden spoon. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of boiling water. When melted, spoon a little into the indent of each biscuit. Leave to cool, until the chocolate has set, then serve with a caffe latte, if you like. The biscuits will keep, in a sealed container, for up to a week.

Makes about 40 biscuits
Delicious, May 09

• This recipe makes a large batch, so for a smaller quantity, store half of the dough mixture in the freezer for up to 1 month.
• Once you’ve mastered the biscuits, start experimenting with different flavoured chocolates for the filling. For a fiery version, melt some chopped fresh chilli into a good quality dark chocolate.

CBC 19 - National Cupcake Week

In order to help celebrate National Cupcake Week I headed to the bookshelf and found this recipe for Choca Mocha Cupcakes in Susannah Blake's 'Cupcake Heaven'.  Owing to the fact that I've actually done an ok-ish job at eating healthily this week and that Hubby and I are off to a friends wedding next week, which in turn means I need to fit into a dress for the event (!!!!) I opted to make cupcakes that I knew I wouldn't touch.  Coffee is not a flavour I enjoy to either drink or eat but oddly enough I love the smell of it being ground and brewed.  Wierdness is clearly my forte!

So taste testing duties for these guys was left to Hubby and the crew from work.  Hubby liked the subtle flavour of the coffee in the cupcake itself but found the flavour in the buttercream a bit on the strong side, although it is fair to note that he likes his coffee on the milky side.  The guys at work, however, loved them! I pretty much had to pull teeth to draw some feedback from them that wasn't positive.  Even then it was only to say that the cupcake was a bit on the dry side - which I did wonder about while making the batter.  It seemed quite thick and 'gloppy' and once they were baked they seemed quite dry on the outside.  Not inedible though so I think next time I'll add a dash of milk or maybe cut back on the cocoa, I always think that baking with cocoa tends to add to a drier finished product.

Choca-Mocha Cupcakes
100g dark chocolate, chopped
150g unsalted butter, at room temp
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp cocoa powder
100g SR flour
2 tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water
40g chocolate covered coffee beans (I omitted these as I didn't have any to hand)
Icing
100g unsalted butter, at room temp
200g icing sugar, sifted
2 tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water
Grated chocolate or chocolate sprinkles, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Line a 12 hole cupcake tin with paper cases.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water.  Do not let the bowl touch the water.  Leave until almost melted, then set aside to cool slightly.

Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs, one at a time.  Stir in the melted chocolate and cocoa powder.  Sift the flour into the mixture and stir in, then stir in the coffee, followed by the coffee beans.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 mins until risen and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To decorate, beat the butter, sugar and coffee together in a bowl until pale and fluffy.  Spread the mixture smoothly over the cakes and sprinkle with grated chocolate or sprinkles.

Makes 12

I found the icing recipe didn't go quite as far as I would have liked it to for the piping style I had in mind, hence the kind of messy topping.  Hopefully it still looks a bit cappuccino like in appearance though?  Next time I'd make more of the icing and decorate to my hearts content ;0)