Brownie Snaps

These little brownie snaps are just to die for!
Perfect to just give away in a little box or to bring joy to the office instead of a boring shop bought one..

Makes around 60.

This is what you need;

200g cubed chilled unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
50g Demerara sugar
250g all purpose flour
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1tbsp vanilla paste
1tbsp water (if needed)
1 beaten egg for brushing
50g pearl sugar (nib sugar)

Mix everything together into a dough and chill for around 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 180 g, gas mark 4, then divide your dough into 6 and roll them out to just thicker than finger size, flatten the rolls out a bit then brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle loads of pearl sugar on top. Bake in the middle of the oven for 10 min, then cut the biscuits sideways, should get around 10 our of each roll.
Let them cool and then dig in.

Enjoy x

Marshmallow Teacakes

What could be better than marshmallow fluff, chocolate and biscuits? Nothing..
So here is my recipe on teacakes, I make a thinner biscuit so I can fill them with more fluff 🙂

Makes 12

This is what you need;

• Biscuit

60g wholemeal flour
40g normal strong flour
1/2 tsp salt
25g butter
25g caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp milk
400g Dark chocolate

• Marshmallow Fluff

4 eggs
300g caster sugar
150 g golden syrup (or corn syrup if you’re in the US)
150 ml water
1/2 tsp salt

Start by melting your chocolate and set to one side to cool, then make the biscuits.
Weigh out all your ingredients, except for the milk,  for the biscuits and rub the butter between your fingertips to create a crumble texture. Now add the milk and create a dough roll it out to a £1 coin thickness and cut our 12 circles that are slightly smaller than the tea cake mould. Bake these in the oven for 12 minutes at 180 degrees, gas mark 4, when done let the biscuits cool then cover them in melted chocolate.

Now put 1 tbsp of the melted chocolate in the mould and swirl it around so you cover the whole dome, then use the back of a spoon to fill the gaps, let them cool next to an open window, but do not put them in the fridge as you will lose that nice shine. If you are really limited with time you can temper the chocolate before you put it into the moulds

Now, let’s make the fluff, this is my favorite part, after eating them of course!
In a saucepan add your sugar, syrup and water, make sure to mix everything so the sugar is wet. Put a thermometer in the pan as you need this to reach 240 F or 150 C,  bring to the boil.
When the thermometer reaches 200 F or 110C put your egg whites in a bowl and mix on a medium speed, when it’s frothy add the salt and whisk on the highest speed until you have soft peaks. At this point your sugar should be the right temp, 240F or 150C, take it off the heat then pour slowly on the side of the bowl and continue whisking on a high speed, and then add the vanilla paste.
TIP – use a kitchen aid with the balloon whisk attachment, as there is no way you will come out of this alive with a hand whisk.
Let this whisk until the bowl isn’t hot anymore and you have a really glossy and thick marshmallow fluff.
You can use this now or you can put it in the fridge and it should last for around 1 week.
Put the fluff in a piping bag with a normal round tip and pipe into the domes, pipe just over 2/3rds in each teacake.
Then put the biscuit on with the chocolate side up cover any gaps with chocolate and leave to set.
Now this can take up to 3 hours depending on the temp in your house but believe me, it’s worth the wait.

Enjoy x

Christmas Chocolate Treats

These little mouthfuls of chocolate heaven are just the BEST! You can mix and match flavors but here are my favorites.
You can find the molds for these on amazon, you need 25mm foil cases.

Makes 30 of each flavor

• Mint Chocolate

200g dark chcolate
100g coconut oil/fat
1 tbsp peppermint extract

• Chocolate Orange

200g milk chcolate
100g coconut oil/fat
1 Orange, zest and juice

• Salted Caramel Chocolates

100g milk chcolate
100g dark chocolate
100g coconut oil/fat
15 g caramel (if you made the banoffee cupcakes you should have a lot of caramel left, i used this)
10g sea salt

In a heatproof bowl add the chocolate and then coconut fat, when it’s completely melted and smooth add your third ingredients, except if your doing the caramel that you have to add bit by bit once the chocolate is in the cases, then pour into the cases and leave in the fridge to set. Add the sea salt after you have added the caramel.

Put in a little bag and give it to a real chocolate fanatic!

Enjoy x

Cracking Chocolate Cookies

These are the nicest biscuits ever!!

Makes 30 biccies

This Is What You Need;

100g Dark Chocolate
100g Butter
100g Caster Sugar
50g Muscovado Sugar
1/2 tbsp vanilla paste
175g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
5tbsp icing sugar (To roll the biscuits in)

Lets get baking!

Start by melting the chocolate by putting a plate over steaming water, not boiling but simmering. Add the chocolate and the butter into the bowl, once completely melted put to one side so it cools.
Whisk the egg, sugar and vanilla, don’t beat it too much but just until combined, then sift flour and bicarbonate soda and roughly incorporated then add the melted chocolate and butter and mix well. Cover the bowl in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Preheat your oven to 200 fan, gas mark 6.

In a bowl, add the icing sugar and prepare a baking trey with greaseproof paper and divide the dough into 30 little balls, roll them in icing sugar and bake in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes for extra crunch.

Enjoy x

Chocolate Cake

This is not just any ordinary chocolate cake, triple chocolate cake with ombré icing BUT with less sugar so you can have two pieces…

This is what you need:
For the bottom layer you need half of the recipe the brownies 05.11.13

For the other two layers you need the recipe from 18.10.13. I only used 50f of the sugar from this recipe. Now divide the mixture into 2 bowls and add 50g white chocolate chunks in one bowl, then 50g of milk chocolate chunks, 2 tbsp cocoa powder and 2 tbsp of milk.

For the butter cream you need:
450g icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla paste
1 pinch of salt
2 eggs
450g unsalted butter
Pink food colouring
Green food colouring
Purple food colouring
Follow the recipes as normal and bake in the middle of the oven and set to one side to cool.
Now get 7 bowls and put 1 large tbsp butter cream in 6 of them and then leave the rest in the last bowl. So you put 2 and 2 bowls together so you have 3 pairs, in one of the bowls you put 10 drops and in the other you put 5 drops and mix well. You should end up with 2 shades of each colour, now if the cake has cooled start putting it together.
Brownie layer first and put a thin layer of butter cream, continue with the milk chocolate layer and finish with the white chocolate layer. Spread a thin layer of icing all around the sides and the rest on the top. Transfer the coloured icing into 6 piping bags and put them in the order you want. Start at the bottom and pipe a little blob of butter cream and with a pallet knife drag the butter cream around the cake and continue until your on the top.

And you have a showstopper of a cake!!!

Brownies

Bonfire night, a perfect night to make some triple chocolate brownies and watch the fireworks in your PJ’s.

Makes 15 large ones…

This is what you need:

250g unsalted butter
450g Sugar
6 medium eggs
200g self-raising flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp vanilla paste
1/2 tsp salt
300g mixed chocolate chunks (white, milk, dark)
1 roasting tin

Start by greasing your tin with butter and line it with grease proof paper, then preheat your oven to 180 fan, gas mark 4-5.
In a heatproof bowl over simmering water, melt 50g of the chocolate chunks with 50g of the butter and set to one side to cool. Put the remaining butter, vanilla paste and the sugar into a bowl and whisk until fluffy, by now the melted chocolate should have cooled so add this to the mixture, start adding your eggs one by one until fully incorporated. Sift your flour, cocoa powder and salt into the bowl and then fold in with a metal spoon, now for the final stage, add the chocolate chunks and roughly mix. Pour into the greased tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 35-40 minuted.

Let the brownies cool for about 15-20 minutes before cutting them up to little pieces of heaven.

Mudcake

Chocolate lovers this is the ONE for you!
This recipe can easily be made gluten free, just swap the flour, it’s also a great way of making a normal chocolate cake into an AMAZING chocolate cake. Just make this and have as a middle layer in a layer cake.

Makes 12 slices

This is what you need;

100g butter
250g sugar
90g self-raising flour
2 eggs
3 tbsp cocoa powder (70%)
1 tbsp vanilla paste
20g white chocolate chunks
20g milk chocolate chunks
20 g dark chocolate chunks
2 tbsp icing sugar for dusting

Start by preheating your oven to 180 fan, gas mark 4-5, grease your cake tin and line with grease proof paper. Now in a bowl mix sugar, vanilla paste and butter until fluffy.  Add the eggs one by one as this is your only raising agent, but don’t worry if it’s not too fluffy as it’s all about the gooeyness..
Sift flour and cocoa powder and add to the mix together with your chocolate chunks.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 min for a soft gooey inside….

I love icing sugar so I cut a heart out and put it in the middle of the cake then dust with icing sugar.
Serve with loosely whipped cream.

Cookies

This is an amazing recipe where you can experiment by adding flavors, here are my top 5.

Makes 20

This is what you need:

• Base Dough

225g butter
300g self-raising flour
1 pinch of salt
1 tbsp vanilla paste
1tsp Baking Soda
2 eggs
200g caster sugar

Start by preheating your oven to 150 degrees, gas mark 3, then in a bowl start by whisking the sugar, butter and vanilla paste gradually add the eggs one by one, whisk until you have a thick paste.
Sift your dry ingredients, if you do a chocolate base remove 2 tbsp flour and add 2 tbsp cocoa powder, into the bowl. Start mixing it all together, if you want to add chocolate chunks or cranberries this is your que. Now for uniform cookies I measure mine, I used 40g of dough for each of these cookies, roll into a ball and put on a grease proof baking trey or paper and bake in the middle of the oven for 9 minutes. Leave them to cool for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.

• White chocolate / cranberry

60g of white chocolate chunks
75g of dried cranberries

• Chocolate chunk caramel melt

60g of milk chocolate chunks
20 smashed up pieces of caramel chocolate (smash one by one square and put on the top of your dough ball)

• Chocolate chunk / peanut butter

30g milk chocolate chunk30g dark (70%) chocolate chunks
20 1/2 tsp smooth peanut butter (make a little whole in the top of the dough ball and fill with peanut butter)

• White Chocolate heaven

200g of white chocolate (make your dough ball then push one square of white chocolate into the ball and keep rolling)

• White / Milk chocolate peace cookies

half and half dough of chocolate and white chocolate dough (weigh out 20g of each and put next to each other then roll)

Now stack them up and take a big bite!

Double love biscuits

Makes 20 big ones….

Vanilla jammy dodgers just isn’t enough, lets put a chocolate layer on this!

This is what you need:

200g Self-raising flour
100g butter
50g caster sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla paste
1tsp corn flour
(make this dough again and add 2 heaped tsp of cocoa powder)
150g of raspberry or strawberry jam.

Let’s get baking!
Start by whisking the butter, sugar and vanilla paste, add the egg and whisk until you get an even mixture. Sift the flour and the corn flour (when you do the chocolate dough just add the cocoa powder at this stage).
Knead the dough until combined, don’t worry if it’s a bit sticky, wrap in cling film and let it chill in the fridge for about 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, on a lightly floured surface knead the dough adding flour as you go along until the dough is smooth, make sure not to overwork the dough as the butter will melt and you will have to add flour for the rest of the day 🙂
Roll your chocolate dough out to around 0.5cm and use a 7cm cutter, I used a lid, and make 20 circles. Then take your vanilla dough and use the same cutter then place a small heart shaped cutter, or any other shape works too, in the middle.
Bake the biscuits in the middle of the oven for about 17 minutes.

Once they have cooled start putting the biscuits together,  put 1 tsp jam on the chocolate base and then chuck the lid on and voilà, you have a red heat in the middle of an epic biscuit!

This is a definite dunker so get your tea brewing.

Pink Pony Charity Cake

Serves 6-8

To raise money for charity Ralph Lauren are putting on a charity event called Pink Pony, so naturally I have to donate a cake that’s pink, filled with chocolate, raspberries and covered in lace.

This is what you need:

170g of self-rising flour
170g soft butter (if it’s still hard, use a fork and mash it until soft)
150g granulated sugar
3 medium eggs (room temperature)
1 big tsp baking powder
100g chopped white chocolate

Chocolate Butter Cream with raspberry swirls:
335g of dark chocolate (70%+)
450g unsalted butter
1 pinch of salt
450g icing sugar
1 tbsp of vanilla paste
2 eggs
50g raspberries (save 8 for decorations)

Decorate with ready-to-roll pink icing, raspberries and butter cream swirls.

Ready, set, BAKE

Start by greasing and lining a 20cm (diameter) cake tin and pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees or gas mark 5.

Start by whisking butter, sugar and vanilla paste, start adding the eggs one by one until the butter mix is smooth. Sift flour and baking soda into the butter mix then fold in the chopped white chocolate for extra chocolaty sponge… Yummy
Level out the mixture in the tin and bake in the middle of the over for 40-45 min, don’t open the oven door as the sponge will sink.

Whilst this is baking away start making the butter cream.
Melt the chocolate by chopping the chocolate and but in a metal bowl to melt in a water bath over simmering water.
Put sugar, butter, salt and vanilla paste in a bowl and mix until fluffy, start adding the confectionery sugar gradually once incorporated add the eggs one by one and mix for 3 minutes / egg to create a light and fluffy cream. Add the chocolate slowly and keep a steady stream whilst whisking, put 1/3rd of the cream into a separate bowl once mixed start by folding the raspberries in.

Once the cake has cooled, cut in half to create a nice layer with goodness, spread the raspberry chocolate cream between the layers and level it out before adding the top. Add the normal chocolate butter cream on top and level the cake with cream and cover the sides. With a rolling pin dusted with confectionery roll out the icing and cover the cake.
Add some butter cream in a piping bag and make 6 or 8 swirls of butter cream and top with raspberries.

The lace is optional and if you want to add this you can buy online or in selected baking shops.

Now grab and fork and dig in 🙂