Toffee Chocolate Matzah

It’s that time of year again… Yes its Easter but it’s also Passover, which means I can’t eat the lovely easter egg I got from work last night, boo!!

Passover means I can’t eat anything leavened for a whole week (what, no cake?!) So it means I have to be a little more creative with my baking! One thing that is in abundance at Passover is Matzah, a cracker that pretty much tastes like cardboard! So I decided to take matzah and transform it into something everyone wants to eat!

Toffee Chocolate Matzah

It’s so easy, ANYONE can make it!

Ingredients:

• 220g unsalted butter (I used kosher for passover rose butter)
• 215g brown sugar (I used demarera but ideally a finer sugar is better)
• 5 matzah
• Bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Salt
• 1tsp vanilla essence

Method:

• Assemble 2 trays lined with foil, then baking parchment, and arrange your matzah on them, filling all gaps
• Preheat oven to 180oC
• Melt together butter and sugar over a medium heat, until it is bubbling away.
• After cooking for a few minutes, take off heat, add a big pinch of salt and vanilla and mix
• Pour caramel mixture over matzah and put on oven
• The mixture should bubble up but not burn, so bake for 12-15 mins
• Remove from oven and sprinkle over chocolate chips immediately
• Leave for a few minutes, then use a spatchula to smooth the now melted chocolate into a thick layer over the caramel
• Leave to harden then break up and serve to your guests, preferably with a cup of tea!

Layers of goodness!

I can’t even taste the matzah!

Tate and Lyle Tasting House

Last night felt like a dream, wandering through corridors of edible goodies, picking Macarons off banisters and eating pillows, taking bites out of a popcorn bath and picking apart a meringue rug….

But I wasn’t in a dream, I was in the Tate and Lyle Tasting House!

Enter into the tasting house

We were greeted with an array of macarons, covering the bannisters and every windowsill in sight!

Macaron Bannisters

 

Macarons displays ripe for the tasting!

The British golden syrup room was a wondrous display of golden syrup, one of my favourite baking ingredients.

Its the Golden Syrup lion!

Doughnut Tower

 

Very British Baking

 

The second room we entered was the Pirates of the Carribean room, with a huge treasure chest made out of gingerbread! We spray painted our own gold doubloons, sampled the chocolate rum and raisin delights, and feasted on mountains of jewelled sweets!

An edible treasure chest of goodies

An edible sword!

Next we entered into the Mediterranean bedroom of delights, which might have been my favourite room!

Meringue rug of the sweetest, most delicious meringues I have ever tasted!

 

Bath of caramel popcorn

 

Lustrous popcorn cupcakes

From there, we entered into room of different edible delights, including a huge edible turtle, with real eggs filled with cake!

Turtle and eggs, all edible!

 

One of my favourite pieces was the 5 foot long Mardi Gras rainbow cake, so delicious I couldn’t tear myself away!

Taste the rainbow

And the Easter Island mud cake statue!

Take a bite…

Probably tying for my favourite room was the Mayan room, with a temple of fudge and delicious chocolate goodies, including a white chocolate heart filled with the gooiest salted caramel.

I worship your Sweetness!

I genuinely had one of the best evenings of my life, and cant thank enough my buddies over at Tate and Lyle, Mischief PR and my lovely friend Gemma at GG Closet for getting me in to this wonderland!

I only wish I had some of the recipes for these amazing creations!

Chocolate Spice Cake

This cake reminds me of honeyed spice cake, very moist, but not too dense. It’s actually quite light and fluffy, with a gorgeously sweet Biscoff-Maple glaze!

Smoothed to Perfection

The Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 130g plain flour
• 45g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp ground cinammon
• 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 55g dark brown sugar
• 100g caster sugar
• 235ml milk with a squeeze of jemon juice (you can use any milk here, even dairy free!)
• 80ml sunflower oil
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• For the glaze:
• 85g biscoff/speculoos
• 125g icing sugar
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• Splash of milk
• Chocolate to decorate (optional)

Method:

• Sift the flour and cocoa powder into your mixing bowl or stand mixer, and add in the rest of the dry ingredients
• Mix until well combined and no lumps remain
• Add in the milk, oil and vanilla and mix well
• Make sure all ingredients are well combined then pour into a lined loaf tin and bake on 175oC for 40-45 mins
• When cake is baked, leave to cool and make the glaze
• Sift in the icing sugar into a mixing bowl and add in the rest of the ingredients
• Mix vigorously until you get a thick glaze
• When cake is cooled, pour over the top and leave to set
• I grated chocolate over the top for a pretty finish

Moist and fluffy spice cake

 

Want a slice?

 

Rice Krispy addiction

You know those little chocolate krispy cakes of goodness that you used to much when you were little? Made with dark chocolate when you were told to be healthy, and milk or white as a treat?

Yeah… addictive RIGHT?! Also one of the easiest things to make when you need a quick chocolate fix!

I’ve made 2 of these beauties recently, one a classic milk chocolate with white chocolate drizzled on top:

Classic milk chocolate

So scrummy and brought me straight back to my childhood! I also made a second batch which was slightly more gourmet: White chocolate and peanut butter with salted caramel topping…

These were totally addictive and went down extremely well. All I did was add a dollop of natural peanut butter to melted white chocolate and mixed well, then poured some of my homemade caramel sauce (recipe here) on top and put in the fridge to set. I will definitely be making these again when I need a quick choccy fix!

Tell me, do you still make rice krispy cakes as a guilty pleasure?!

 

Guinness Cupcakes with Salted caramel buttercream

Todays cupcakes are the cupcakes I made for my own birthday (no cake is as good as homemade cake!) I’m a massive chocoholic as well as loving a challenge so I decided to make some cupcakes I had never attempted before.

I love the cake!

Chocolate Guinness cupcakes with Salted Caramel Marscapone buttercream. Makes 36 approx.

Ingredients:
For the cake:

- 375 ml Guinness

- 330g butter

- 130g cocoa powder

- 400g plain flour

- 350g caster sugar

- 2 tbs baking powder

- pinch of salt

- 3 eggs

- 200g sour cream

For the buttercream:

- 150g caster sugar

- 150g light brown  sugar

- 75g unsalted butter

- 200ml single cream

- 75ml golden syrup

- pinch of salt

- 220g marscapone

- 110g butter

- 750g icing sugar

- 1/2 tsp Vanilla bean paste or 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

- Melt together the guinness and butter in a saucepan over a low heat

- When melted, sift in cocoa powder and leave to cool

- Sift in plain flour and baking powder, then add rest of cake ingredients into a bowl and mix well, using a hand or stand mixer.

- Add in chocolatey guinness mixture when cooled and mix well again.

- Scoop the batter (it will be quite wet) into cupcake cases with an ice cream scoop.

- Bake on 180oC for 15 minutes approx.Take out of pan and leave to cool.

- To make the salted caramel, put caster sugar into a pan with 25ml water and let boil (do NOT stir!) until sugar becomes darker. (Approx 8 mins)

- Add in butter, when that is melted add in brown sugar, cream and golden syrup.

- I made a softer sauce, so I let the caramel boil until 113oC then poured into a container.

- To make the buttercream, sift in icing sugar, then add in butter and marscapone, and 2 large scoops of caramel. Save the rest for drizzling!

- Mix well with a hand or stand mixer for about 4 mins, then pipe on top of cupcakes, and drizzle the caramel syrup on top.

- Top with a sprinkle of fleur de sel, and optionally, some glitter!

Look at these lovelies!

I like these cupcakes as they were moist and very rich, as well as being a proper dense yet satisfying cupcake, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do, and I recommend you have one with a cuppa… in fact that’s what im going to do right now!

Gimme one

Pumpkin Pancakes and Porridge

Morning! I’ve got the perfect breakfast post for you today, and it’s Pumpkin-themed, what better?! I’ve missed big american-style breakfasts on my healthy eating kick, so I thought I’d give it a go, and i’m happy I did because I had 2 very yummy breakfasts this weekend. First up, Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Pancakes with caramel drizzle

These were delish!

The recipe:

• 1 cup (american measurement) of pureed pumpkin (you can find the brand Libby’s in Waitrose)
• 2 dollops (heaped tablespoons) of fat free greek yogurt
• 8 eggs
• half a tsp of bicarbonate of soda
• some vanilla bean paste
• 2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp mixed spice

Method:

• Whisk all wet ingredients together, then stir in the dry ingredients until the batter comes together. It should be quite thin
• I used a few sprays of fry light but you can use butter in a frying pan
• Scoop the batter in (I used an ice cream scoop)
• When the pancake bubbles up on one side, flip it

Flippin’ amazing!

Serve whilst hot! I stacked berries in the middle of my pancakes for an extra healthy kick, plus drizzled my sugar free caramel syrup on top. My mum’s boyfriend positively guzzled them down and he isn’t even on a healthy kick!

Stacked with berries and drizzled with sauce

These definitely fuelled my snowy 7-mile walk on the heath!

Walking with Kolo the snow dog

On Sunday morning I wanted to use up the rest of my pumpkin, so I called on Chocolate Covered Katie’s recipe for healthy baked oatmeal (That’s porridge to us Brits!)

Pumpkin Porridge

The recipe:

• 35g porridge oats
• Quarter american cup pureed pumpkin
• Splash of skimmed milk
• Tbs sweetener such as splenda
• 100 ml water
• tsp cinnamon
• dash of nutmeg
• splash of vanilla esscence

Method

• Combine all ingredients and mix until combined
• Pour into a heat-proof ramekin
• Bake on 200oC for 20 mins
• Turn up to 250oC for last 5 mins for a crispy top
• Serve warm, I put some berries in the top and obviously also drizzled on some of my favourite caramel sauce!

Tastes like a big breakfast cookie!

I hope you enjoy! Whats your favourite weekend breakfast?

Healthy Baking 2

Hi Cake Snobs! As some of you may know, I’ve changed my diet since the end of August this year to try and be a bit healthier. Of course i’m still making/baking cupcakes which means still having a taste but it means that the other aspects of my diet are better. Yesterday I reached my Club 10 award in Slimming World, which means I’ve lost 10% of my body weight. I’m really happy and hope it will spur me on further! So without further ado, here’s some recipes I made for last night’s SW buffet:

Lemon Meringue Pie:

Syn free LMP

 

• 500g Quark (fat free cream cheese)
• Juice & zest of 1 and a 1/2 lemons
• 6 tbs sweetener (I use splenda)
• 5 egg yolks
• Beat this in a bowl and spoon into silicone cupcake cases or ramekins
• Bake in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for about 14 mins
• Whilst this is happening, whisk remaining egg whites (5) with a squeeze of lemon juice until it forms soft peaks, then add in about 4tbs sweetener and vanilla essence.
• Once “pies” have been baked, pipe or spoon this mixture on top and bake for a further 8 mins.
• Serve once slightly cooled.

Take a bite of pie!

Mini meringues

I’ve also been enjoying breakfast, and my favourite weekend treat is to kick back with a bowl of special porridge, which I make as normal but add a dash of cinnamon to the oats/milk/water whilst cooking. Once the porridge is made, I drizze some Walden Farms sugar&fat free caramel syrup over it and add a handful of fresh raspberries. DELISH!

Special Porridge

For a pimped up version – bake your porridge oats for half an hour, it tastes like a muffin!

Macaron Madness

In case you’ve been on another planet for the past few months, a new craze has taken the dessert world by storm! The new pastry du jour is none other than the humble French macaron, made famous by such big names as Pierre Herme, Laduree and have even been brought over the channel to the UK by chefs such as Edd Kimber.

My choco-caramel macarons!

The macaron, although unassuming is a daunting challenge! A mix of meringue and almonds make this dessert one tricky little sandwich!

I used a Pierre Herme recipe to make a box of macarons for my friend’s engagement party this weekend, and I can tell you now, they were difficult to make, the steps and timing are all precise, but I got there in the end!

Caramel chocolate macarons with a choc-caramel ganache and crushed salted chocolate

The inside view

Enjoying our macarons after all the hard work!

Get your hands on one whilst you can!

 

If you want to order these beauties please let me know by emailing me: headcakesnob@gmail.com

Dr Who Cupcakes

This weekend I made Dr Who cupcakes for a birthday. These were vanilla cupcakes, filled with either raspberry jam or dulce de leche, bringing an extra flavour sensation to the cupcake, and keeping it extra moist!

I topped these with Dr Who figures made from edible rice paper. Needless to say the birthday boy was very happy and the cupcakes didn’t last past the weekend!

 

Diamonds… and chocolate are a girl’s best friends!

On Wednesday night I was the lucky recipient of 2 tickets to the Gu Puds and Nicholas James chocolate & diamonds evening.

I was promised a masterclass in both these subject, and that is definitely what I got! We arrived at Nicholas James, a beautiful contemporary jewellery store on Hatton Gardens.

Here we were greeted  by a sweet array of smoked salmon and CHOCOLATE (yes you heard right!) blinis.

However weird they might sound, they tasted delish!

We were also treated to a strong but delectable chocolate martini which we sipped until we felt rather tipsy!

We were then treated to a diamond masterclass by the founder of Nicholas James. I also fell in love with a stunning pair of diamond earrings – similar to those below (a casual £2.5k and 2 months salary for me!)

Then Gu head chef Fred talked to us about chocolate and his time at Gu, whilst we sampled gorgeous chocolate canapes that included chocolate raspberry tarts and raspberry choux pastry buns.

The sea-salt caramel edible diamonds were my favourite sweet of the evening.

We were even presented with a huge goodie bag at the end of the evening! (PS the best goodie bag i’ve ever received!)

I want to say a massive thank you to Gu and Nicholas James for selecting me to be a part of this evening, and just want to let them know i’m always free for another fabulous evening!