Tag Archives: chocolate

Week Thirty Two – Mary Berry’s Cappuccino Cake

Posted on by
1

Week Thirty two and a special bake this week as it was my lovely hubby’s birthday.

After the success of the victoria sandwich cake, I thought the cappuccino cake would go down well with him and reading the recipe, Mary tells you to pretty much throw all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together, but do not over mix (??!!) So, I weighed out all the ingredients, put them all in a bowl and with a quick whizz of the electric hand mixer, job done, just needed to divide the mix between two sandwich tins and into the oven for about half an hour.

Mary Berry's Cappuccino Cake

After the half hour was up and timer had gone ping, I checked the cakes but they were not quite done so another five minutes or so and out they came. They looked lovely and after a few minutes, i was able to take them out of the tins and put them on the cooling racks.

A while later I finished the cakes with quite a lot of whipped cream, and coffee. To add my own spin to it, I added a few chocolate flakes to the top, some chocolate hearts and some candles.

Kim's Cappuccino Cake

Happy Birthday to my lovely hubby, hope you enjoyed your cake! xx

Week Twenty Nine – Mary Berry’s Divine Chocolate Birthday Cake

Posted on by
2

Greetings! Week twenty nine , just a little late in happening because hubby, the hairy hoolies and I managed to get away last week in our caravan for a long awaited chill out time and we stayed on a lovely site called Fairlight Woods. A beautiful small site with woods all around and doggy heaven! We were only 2 miles from the beach so I was happy too- I find the beach and the waves crashing onto the shore soooo relaxing and the dogs loved it too.

the hairy hoolies on Winchelsea Beach April 2013

Anyhow, back to the bake….as it was my other mum’s birthday, I chose the divine chocolate birthday cake recipe. I got all the ingredients and set off, thinking it would be just another twist on the usual sponge mix. How wrong I was. Mary asks for 5 eggs, 4 of them separated into yolk and white. You put the 4 yolks, a whole egg and the caster sugar in a bowl and whisk until thick and fluffy…..with me so far? Then melt the huge amounts of dark chocolate , add a spoon of hot water with a spoon of coffee granules, allow to cool slightly and add to the egg yolk mix with some ground almonds…..getting interesting isn’t it…….not a jot of flour in sight…..then whisk the egg whites until firm but not dry- an interesting phrase Mary! Then fold this into the mix and pour into the lined cake tin. Bake for 50 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean , allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out on to the rack to cool. I can honestly say this is the most peculiar recipe I have followed to date and wondered quite what would come out at the other end- I still had time to do a supermarket run to get a birthday cake if it was a disaster!

I must say, it didn’t look too bad when it came out and when I got it out of the tin, it retained it’s shape and had a lovely chocolatey aroma.

Kim's chocolate cake fresh out the oven

The icing was a breeze in comparison, oodles more dark chocolate ( not my favourite- so I resisted a nibble!) melted, with butter added, allow  to cool to get the consistancy and then cover the cake in it and allow to set. Decorate if you like. I had some pretty icing roses I added to it.

Kim's divine chocolate birthday cake

I took the cake to the birthday takeaway with some sparkler candles- I put five on the cake, and they were so difficult to light,then burned so quickly, we laughed so much just trying to get them done and “Happy Birthday” sung!

sparkler candlesHappy birthday!

Week Twenty Eight – Mary Berry’s Bunny Rabbit Cake & Easter Biscuits

Posted on by
1

Mary Berry's Bunny Rabbit Cake

Week twenty eight and the Easter theme continues. Mary makes a bunny rabbit birthday cake in her book but I thought it would make a nice easter cake and funnily enough, in my search for a bargain, I found a silicone easter bunny cake in my local Lidl and it inspired me. Mary’s recipe for making this cake is pretty much throw it all in a bowl and mix it together until smooth, so that’s exactly what I did!

the throw it all in together mix

The fun came when pouring the mix into the silicone bunny and ensuring it went into all the nooks and crannies! Then into the oven it went and the timer went on. While it was baking, I looked at how Mary suggested decorating it. She suggests dessicated coconut, but I thought grated chocolate might be more in keeping with Easter (that’s my excuse…..!) so I grated some milk chocolate, white chocolate, pink chocolate buttons and orange chocolate buttons and made the butter icing.

Lidl's silicone bunny case

I had also decided to make some Easter biscuits so I made this dough which was easy enough, and rolled out the dough. I didn’t have any easter cutters so I used a heart cutter.

The cake came out of the oven and was left to cool a while before I took it out of the silicone shape. It came out really well and I left it to cool completely. The biscuits went into the oven at this point. My hubby likes this point as he gets to have “first dibs” on the leftovers in the bowl and if there isn’t anything in it that is harmful to the dogs, they often get the last lickings before it goes in the dishwasher!

the hoolies love the bowl

The decorating of the rabbit cake was trickier than it looked. Having to put on the butter cream and then the chocolate shavings and trying to keep any bits that fell on the floor away from the dogs- in case anyone doesn’t know, chocolate , raisins, currants etc- VERY bad for dogs, can even kill them so please don’t let them anywhere near them.

Kims Bunny Rabbit Cake

Finally the cake was finished, the tidying up of all the shavings, bowls and surfaces took forever.

Mary Berry's Easter Biscuits

The biscuits, I decided to put an icing cap on so I rolled out some fondant icing, and used the heart cutter to cut the toppings. I have some pretty cutters so I pressed these into the topping and then allowed the icing to set before using food colourings to paint them to make them look pretty.

Kim's Easter Biscuits

 

Week Twelve – Marbled Chocolate Ring Cake

Posted on by
1

Week twelve and I feel like I have settled into this challenge now and look forward to what to make next. This week was a special week for me as I passed my Social Care with Children & Families Diploma, and with a Distinction too! Woohooo! So I was looking for this week’s inspiration with the view of a celebration and this fitted the moment, and I could do it in my mixer, as my thumb is on the road to recovery but not up to any hand mixing yet.

Mary Berry’s recipe called for a ring mould tin and to line this. Not as easy as it sounds so I thought I would look online to see if there any any hints and tips. Unfortunately I found nothing, zip, nada…….so decided to give it a go myself. It didn’t look pretty but it did the job!

The mix was pretty straightforward, just throw pretty much everything in a bowl and mix- my kind of cooking! Then add half this mixture in various places in the tin, add the cocoa/water mix to the rest of the mix , and then add to the tin. This should give it it’s marbled effect. Then into the oven for 40 minutes or so.

40 minutes later and the buzzer pinged, I looked at it but it was a bit underdone so I added another 5 minutes to the timer. Then it was done , time for a little cooling and then to tip it out. The paper lining worked well and came off easily and then the cake was left to cool.

The topping is pretty much dark chocolate, mixed with some butter and melted, then poured on the top. Mine covered the whole cake but didn’t look as smooth as Mary’s photo in the bible. This topping then needed to cool before the final drizzle of milk chocolate to finish it off.

I am pleased with the final result and can’t wait to cut into it to see how well the marbled sponge came out. Oh, and my certificate is in the photo – to prove that I did it and I can now add the following letters after my name – S.A.C. Dip……. very posh so……

 

signing off for week twelve’s efforts

Kim, S.A.C. Dip.

Week seven – Cheese & Olive Scone ….and a bonus..Chocolate Crispies!

Posted on by
1

Week seven…and it’s a bit late in publishing, my mum went home and I didn’t feel like baking ….or blogging…but now I’m back in the saddle, so where were we?

I fancied a savoury challenge this week and thought that Mary Berry’s Cheese & Olive Scone fitted the bill. It isn’t like your usual scones in that you don’t cut them out into neat little rounds, the recipe suggests you press it into a rectangular tin and mark it out into sections and bake. That’s what I did.

It mixed easily enough, no hiccups with making the dough and into the oven it went.

I also decided to do a “bonus” recipe, Mary’s bible has a children’s section and there were the old favourites of Chocolate Crispies recipe. Now, I am no “great shakes” in the cooking department, but even I thought that I would feel like a fraud if I devoted a week’s blog and challenge to chocolate crispies on their own…….!

So while I waited for the scone to bake, I mixed up the chocolate crispies and spooned the mixture into the cases. I then put these into the fridge and took out the scone bake.

The recipe said to take it out of the oven after 15 minutes and sprinkle grated parmesan cheese over it and return it to the oven for 5 minutes. I did this and got out the cooling rack ready.

I was really pleased with the way the scone turned out. I allowed it to cool and cut it into sections and put it in an airtight tin. We sampled it the following day with a little butter and even if I do say so myself, it wasn’t half bad!

So what to do next week? Back to something sweet I think………..