Tag Archives: chocolate

Favourite posts this week

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:: I don’t work from home, but was fascinated by and so impressed with the honesty in this post about help. Food for thought for the future.

:: This salad looks delicious, and a great use of fig jam!

:: Even though we are moving away, we really want our boy to be able to speak French. This post about learning a second language is something we’ll refer to time and time again, I’m sure.

:: Broccoli and pasta soup – simple ingredients, but looks delicious. My kind of cooking!

:: Beautiful microscopic photographs of food

:: Bacon fried rice – oh yeah!

:: It’s baby’s first birthday (sob!) in two weeks and I still don’t know what to do for a cake. Maybe these brownie cakes with chocolate coconut frosting will be a hit?

Ok, that’s it for now, I have packing to finish and homework to do!

Bake

xoxo

Favourite posts this week

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:: Salted caramel flapjacks and Vinegar cake recipes from The Guardian. I like the sound of a wine and date cake, having also seen a red wine fig cake this week. I shall let you know if/when I give it a go.

:: These cacao nib pancakes sound delicious, especially with coffee syrup. Hello Saturday morning treat :)

:: I hope in time I work out how I want to spend my days, post baby-raising. This post about being a “mompreneur” made me feel more positive!

:: A lesson in juicing. We try not to have too many kitchen gadgets, but maybe a juicer…?

:: Love the photos of this beautiful beetroot soup. I’m sure it tastes delicious too.

:: I’ve only made polenta once and I can’t say we were amazed by it. Joy’s recipe could change our opinion.

:: How to make chocolate bars. So simple, so pretty.

:: Less than a month until Valentine’s Day! Feeling crafty? These magnets are adorable, make them any time of year :)

:: Two lovely mom bloggers, one appropriate (to me) quote: “Comparison is the thief of joy. Just enjoy every moment and don’t compare it to what you expected or what it seems like others experiences are.” Ah, so true right now.

Check out the rest of the interview here.

:: Really enjoying this series on Parents Who Cook, especially when one of my favourite bloggers is featured. Some great advice in there.

:: An alternative to my lemon shortbread, how about something raw with Vanilla and Walnut?

:: Coconut hot chocolate? Perfect for these snowy days and nights.

:: So looking forward to our little guy being old enough to play games with. Shake and I play cards together a lot, but Soulemama has inspired me to look out for board games for my boys.

:: Yet another recipe that makes me want to make my own yoghurt! mustmustmust do it someday soon, especially given the amount our boy is eating these days :)

Favourite posts this week

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I’m sorry I missed the post last week. After some stormy days we lost normal internet for almost a week and Shake’s backup satellite internet for work was almost all used up by Skype (oops!) and what was left was too slow for me to use properly…

:: Guardian/OFM 20 best cookbooks of 2012. Do you agree?

:: What the British say and what they really mean! Very unlike the French who love to tell you how it is…

:: Mulled Wine – YES! Another reason I love this time of year.

:: Go Sainsburys! Great news about sustainable fish, which we are struggling to find over here…

:: We aren’t buying baby anything for Christmas, but will keep this post on ethical toys in mind in case anyone else wants to, and for next year too!

:: Ottolenghi’s spice cookies from Luisa look amazing!

:: Winter food in pictures. Cute.

:: Mmm another post from Mr Lebovitz this week. Looks delicious.

:: Caramelized beetroot tarte tartin – on my “to make soon” list.

:: I also have an avocado problem. This recipe won’t help, but will undoubtedly be yummy.

:: This video made us both chuckle – I am sure if I had Instagram I’d be doing all of this too…I’m friggin’ Michelangelo ;)

Right, have to dash, baby eating cat food (that’s ok right?), homework to be done, presents to be finished, rooms to be tidied, dinner to be prepped, siblings to be called….

Bake

xoxo

 

 

 

Favourite posts this week

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Afternoon walk companion

:: My sister-in-law makes the best cinnamon rolls. I want to make her these ones.

:: Luisa just had a baby, released a book and went on a book tour. She still has time to make awesome cookies. I don’t know how she does it!

:: I love to hear how people manage work/life/children etc. “Daddy day” sounds great to me!

:: We don’t have a microwave, but if we did we would probably eat chocolate fondants every day (recipe in french).

:: What an incredible place for kids to spend time – love, love love.

:: The photos! The meringues! The lifestyle! I’m not saying I wish I could be someone else..but if I could… ;)

:: A Superhealth Community – so many important points here.

:: Three very good things indeed – but I’d go for the pistachio honey.

:: Please, please, please someone come and make me these scones. Thanks!

:: Geometric Food Art – how creative!

:: Fascinating to read what these foodies eat during the day.

:: For those of you in the UK with Sky, have you seen Girls? We watched the whole series in 2 days – watch it!!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend

Bake

xoxo

 

Macarons part deux

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Coffee and chocolate macarons

I don’t know if you follow us on twitter, but if you do you’ll know that I managed to sneak in the second attempt of macaron making today.

Mixing on baby’s floor a.k.a multitasking

Those of you with babies will know that this is a minor miracle, especially when baby is napping less and moving more!

Nevertheless, I had my points for improvement from last time and was therefore focused and efficient.

Coffee macaron mix

I decided that whilst I’m still learning, I will reduce my quantities to just one egg white. I can’t stand waste! I didn’t weigh it though, so next time I will.

I made a few more folds when mixing than last time (although it was technically fewer as I had a larger volume then…but you know what I mean!). I think I should do more folds still next time as the mix was still a little pointy.

Time to rest

I also let the macarons rest for the full hour before baking, although I found some advice today saying 20-40 minutes is plenty…hmmm. Please ignore the fact that I didn’t fill my circles – laziness? lack of time? I just wanted to make more!

Some cracks did form, but only on half of the macarons – the ones at the back of the oven. Next time I might turn them around halfway through cooking.

Nicer bottom eh? This time only one stuck to the baking paper! I baked them for 15 minutes and then left them in the oven for another 2 minutes with the oven switched off.

Macaron “feet” starting to form

So the infamous macaron feet did start to form, which is much better than last time! Maybe with a little more folding the feet will improve. I’ll also reduce the resting time.

I filled the macarons with a chocolate buttercream, too generously according to just one person ;)

They were gone within an hour!

Bake

xoxo

Alternative Chocolate Cake

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Sometimes I need chocolate, but I don’t need as much comfort as this cake provides.

Sometimes I don’t have any butter. This is rare, but sadly true.

Sometimes I feel like using different flours, just because they make me feel a little less naughty.

So when these powers are combined, I make this Olive oil, Chocolate and Rosemary cake.

The recipe is from one of my favourite books – Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. It’s honestly worth buying the book for the chocolate chip cookie recipe alone – they are the best I have ever tasted. Hmm. I need to buy some chocolate chips this week…

I really hope you make this cake soon. You won’t regret it. The flavour is so interesting (in a good way!) with the nutty spelt flour, hint of herb and the comfort of the good, dark chocolate.

Chocolate, Olive Oil & Rosemary cake

olive oil for the pan
3/4 cup spelt flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 eggs
1 cup olive oil
3/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (at least 70% cacao), chopped/shaved into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 180degreesC. Rub a 9 1/2-inch fluted tart pan with olive oil.

Sift the flours and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the sugar and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs with the olive oil, milk and rosemary. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, gently mixing just until combined. Stir in the chocolate.

Pour the batter into the pan, spreading it evenly and smoothing the top.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the top is domed, golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

The cake is extra delicious when served still warm.

Bake

xoxo

 

Bean Chilli with Chocolate and Walnuts

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Last week I mentioned to you that I wanted to make this chilli, but to my surprise (and delight!) Shake made it for us a couple of days ago.

It was honestly delicious and I look forward to making it myself another time.

We left out the coffee, as September is water only for us (counting down the days to October, oh dear), but next time we will probably add it.

Thanks GKS for the recipe – think it will be a favourite of ours for Autumn/Winter.

Now my dears, go make this and snuggle up with the one you love.

Bake

xoxo

p.s. We have added a page to share with you the blogs we love. If there are any you like that we don’t know about, do let us know! xoxo

Chocolate Guinness cake

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In a little under a month we will celebrate our first wedding anniversary. I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone, but then again it has been a busy one (wedding, baby, moving house, moving country!).

You may or may not be surprised to hear that I baked our wedding cake. I’m sure I’ll tell you about it another time, but since then this chocolate Guinness cake has been our go-to cake of choice.

Cat approved ! I promise she didn’t lick it…

Last weekend we went to a birthday party and took this cake with us. Not necessarily the most appropriate cake for a one year old girl, but it was certainly enjoyed by the adults.

There is a crazy (to me) amount of sugar in this cake, but it’s probably necessary to balance out the bitter Guinness, so I haven’t played around with the proportion of sugar from original recipe.

You should find this to be an extremely moist cake, in a good way, with a deep chocolate flavour. As cream cheese isn’t as readily available here as in the UK, I tend to leave it plain or simply add an icing sugar glaze. I’m sure the cream cheese frosting would make it feel even more decadent.

 

Chocolate Guinness cake
- serves 6-8 people
adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery’s Cake Days (their recipe makes a far larger cake)

Ingredients

125ml Guinness (1/2 a bottle. Drink the rest whilst you make the cake ;) )
125g unsalter butter
40g cocoa powder
200g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
70ml crème fraîche (or sour cream, or buttermilk)
140g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp baking powder

Frosting (optional)
25g unsalted butter
150g icing sugar
60g cream cheese

I have used both a square brownie tin and a 20cm spring-form cake tin.
It was difficult to take the cake out of the brownie tin…

Method

Preheat oven to 175degC

Pour Guinness into saucepan and add the butter. Melt over a moderate heat, but don’t bring to the boil.

Once melted, remove from the heat and add the cocoa powder and the sugar. Stir until smooth.

Beat the eggs with the vanilla extract and crème fraîche in a separate bowl/jug. Add to the chocolatey saucepan.

Sift the flour, bicarb and baking podwer into a large bowl.

Whisk (or stir) the liquid ingredients into the flour bowl. Try to remove lumps!

 

Once combined, pour into your greased/lined baking tin.

Bake for approximately 40 minutes – you don’t want to overcook it or it will be very crumbly.

If you are making the icing, combine the butter and icing sugar until smooth. Add the cream cheese and mix until light and fluffy.

Ice the cake once it has cooled completely.

Enjoy!

Bake
xoxo

Chocolate mousse

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Can you guess what we’re making?

It’s time to use up those egg whites!

Chocolate mousse is something I remember my mum making when I was very little, whenever my parents had dinner parties (80s-tastic!). I was allowed to lick the bowl :)

I made up my own recipe after reading a few from my favourite people (David/Julia, Raymond, Molly, Deb), so feel free to modify as you like.

I recommend using a good quality chocolate (70% plus) as it will make a difference to the overall taste.

Chocolate mousse
- serves 2 greedy people

Ingredients

100g  dark chocolate
glug of double cream
tablespoon vanilla extract (mine still tastes of rum, which was a good thing here)
a shot of strong coffee (I used what was left in our cafetière that morning)
2 eggs whites
6 teaspoons caster sugar

Method

Combine the chocolate, double cream, vanilla and coffee in a heatproof bowl.

Melting for the mousse – mmmm chocolate soup

Melt the chocolate and above ingredients over a pan of simmering water. The water shouldn’t touch the bottom of the bowl – you don’t want the chocolate to overheat.

Meanwhile, start whisking the egg whites in a large clean bowl. This won’t take too long if you have an electric whisk, but it took me about 7 minutes to get them just right by hand.

The whisking begins…

When your whites have formed stiff peaks start to incorporate the sugar, one teaspoon at a time, whisking between each addition.

Whisking continued

When the chocolate has cooled slightly and the egg whites are ready, it’s time to start combining the mousse.

Using a metal spoon (so you don’t loose all those lovely bubbles) place 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate bowl and stir through in a figure of eight.

Mixing mousse

Once this third has been combined, stir through a tablespoon at a time until all the egg whites have been used. Try not to over-mix.

Pour into serving dishes and refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.

Use your finger to tidy (and eat) your mess…

Optional: serve at 10pm after your husband has rocked your teething baby to sleep.

Chocolate mousse helps (parents) with teething – FACT.

How do you use your egg whites? Feel free to leave a comment below :)

Enjoy!

Bake

xoxo

 

 

 

I didn’t make you truffles…

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Not truffles

I am one of those people who gets grumpy if I don’t have a snack around.

It doesn’t have to be naughty, there are no chocolate bars or crisps around here, but sometimes I need something to perk me up.

When looking around one of our new supermarkets, we found “date pâté ” on sale (and ridiculously cheap too). Having used many dates that needed pitting for Shake’s birthday cake recently I could see the benefit of buying them already blended and in bulk.

I’ve seen so many recipes online where dates are used to sweeten treats and decided to just make something up that sounded good to me and wouldn’t take long to make (i.e. during nap time!).

Oh, just in case you wondered about the title, my step-father thought these were truffles and was pretty disappointed that they weren’t (until he tried them!).

Raw treat sweets – makes about 20

I haven’t been more specific with the name above as you can really change them up depending on what you have at home and what you like!

Ingredients

4 heaped tablespoons date pâté (or 2 cups pitted dates)
2 tablespoons shredded coconut
1/2 teaspoon cacao powder
2 tablespoons rolled oats

Method

Put all ingredients in hand blender or food processor and blitz until smooth and combined.

Taking teapoon-sized amounts, roll into truffle shapes.

Enjoy with a cup of coffee (optional) :)

Store somewhere cool and dry.

Other flavour suggestions: cacao nibs, cinnamon, vanilla, dried apricots, dried figs, walnuts…

Enjoy!

Bake

xoxo