The best chocolate brownies..

Easter weekend has been and gone but I’m still dreaming about the delicious chocolate brownies I made last weekend. I’m a sucker for chocolate brownies and trust me when i say I’ve tried a lot of brownie recipes in my time but this recipe hands down is the best. The end result produces a gooey yet fudgey textured chocolatey brownie. I am yet to meet someone who hasn’t gone back for another cheeky piece.

I thought I’d do a slight twist on the normal creme egg brownies I’ve seen on social media sites recently by adding my other two favourite easter treats malteaser bunnies and mini eggs. Any chocolate extras can be added to this recipe some of my favourite chocolatey extras include Rolos (which I’ve done before, see picture above), white chocolate chips and Crunchie bars. Be warned this recipe is not lacking in the calorie department but everyone needs a treat now and then right?

The best chocolate brownies

• 185g Soft Butter
• 185g Dark Chocolate
• 85g Plain Flour
• 40g Cocoa Powder
• 3 Large Eggs
• 275g Caster Sugar
• 4 Malteaser bunnies
• 1 pack mini eggs
• 3 creme eggs halved

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C and grease a shallow square tin.
2. Melt together the butter and chocolate and leave to cool until room temperature
3. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until thick and creamy
4. Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the eggy mouse and fold gently together using a spatula
5. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder and gently fold into the chocolate mixture
6. Pour the mixture into the baking tin cook for 10 mins
7. After 10 minutes take the brownie out of the oven and arrange the malteaser bunnies, mini eggs and creme egg halves into the mixture pushing them in gently, put back into the oven and cook for another 10-15 minutes
8. The brownie should have a slight crispy crust with no wobble, leave to cool

Happy Baking

x

Owl Cupcakes...

Cupcakes have to be one of life's simple pleasures a mini cake in an assortment of flavours topped off with a sticky sweet swirl of deliciousness.  However disappointingly I have had a few experiences where cupcakes look so delicious and tasty with all there toppings and sprinkles but once bitten into are dry and lack flavour. Thankfully these cute little owl cupcakes are moist chocolatey and an absolute delight to look at.

I could spend hours decorating cupcakes and I probably did making these too. These cupcakes are a rich moist chocolate sponge recipe adopted from the hummingbird bakeries book, one of my favourites for any cupcake orientated recipe. I chose to make both vanilla and chocolate frosting as some people find chocolate cake with chocolate frosting a little too rich, particularly my mum.

The owl decorations involved halving an Oreo for both eyes, making sure there was white filling on both sides of the biscuit (trust me this is harder than it looks) and smarties for the eyes and nose.

For the two tone cupcakes a star tip was used vanilla icing was filled into one piping bag, and chocolate in the other both piping bags were then placed into a piping back with a star icing nozzle at the end. Once swirled onto the cakes this creates an effective and simple two tone effect.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 100g self-raising flour
• 20g cocoa powder
• 140g caster sugar
• 1 1/2tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 120ml whole milk
• 1 egg
• ¼tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Put the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.
2. Whisk the milk, egg and vanilla extract together in a jug, then slowly pour about half into the flour mixture, beat to combine and turn the mixer up to high speed to get rid of any lumps.
3. Turn the mixer down to a slower speed and slowly pour in the remaining milk mixture, mix until the batter is smooth
4. Using an ice cream scoop pour the mixture into the paper cases until 2/3 full bake for 20-25 minutes, a cocktail stick inserted should come out clean
5. Leave the cupcakes until cold

Chocolate Frosting 

• 300g icing sugar, sifted
• 100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 40g cocoa powder, sifted
• 40ml whole milk

Method:

1. Beat the icing sugar, butter and cocoa powder together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.
2. Turn the mixer down to slow speed. Add the milk to the butter mixture a couple of tablespoons at a time. Once all the milk has been incorporated, turn the mixer up to high speed.
3. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Its important that the cupcakes are completely cool before you start to pipe otherwise you will end up with a melting sticky mess.

Happy Baking 

x

Chocolate Orange Dream

My housemates are bigggg chocolate orange fans and so after handing in my dissertation I thought I’d celebrate. Any normal person would probably go to the pub and celebrate with a glass of wine but i decided to celebrate by baking, obviously aided with a bottle of wine.

This recipe was adopted from Mary Berry’s chocolate and orange cake, i chose to add the juice of an orange to make the orange flavour that little more intense. The result; a perfectly balanced rich chocolate cake with a mouth watering orange flavour, what a dream combination.

Chocolate Orange Cake

• 100g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
• 50g good quality cocoa powder
• 90ml boiling water
• 3 large free-range eggs
• 4 tbsp milk
• 175g self-raising flour, sifted
• 1 rounded tsp baking powder, sifted into the flour
• 300g golden caster sugar
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• Juice of half an orange

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/fan160°C/gas 4. Grease 3 x 20cm round sandwich tins and line the bases with baking paper.
2. Measure the cocoa and boiling water into a large bowl and mix to a paste. Add the remaining ingredients and beat again until combined
3. Divide the sponge mixture evenly between the prepared tins. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until the sponges are well risen and shrinking away from the sides of the tin. Remove the sponges from the oven, turn out of their tins onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely

Chocolate Orange Ganache

• 200g dark chocolate
• 200ml double cream
• Half grated orange
• 2 tbsp icing sugar

1.  For the icing and filling, put the chocolate and cream in a bowl, Then stand over a pan of simmering water for 10 minutes until melted (don’t let the bowl touch the water), stirring from time to time. Set aside to cool until it thickens to a spreadable consistency
2. Add the grated orange and shift in the icing sugar stir until combined
3. To finish spread the top of two sponges with the icing and put on top of each other. Cover the top of the cake with the remainder of the icing, then grate any left over orange zest on the top

The Beehive Cake

\

I made this show stopping cake for my Grandmas 80th. She loves a carrot cake and i couldn’t just give her a simple two tier cake for her 80th could I? This involved a lot of time and patience but ten tonne of grated carrot and cream cheese cinnamon frosting later it was done, well worth the time to see the pleasure on everyones faces when they tried it.

The cake idea came from a post I saw on Pinterest. Overall there were about 5 layers sandwiched together with lashings of frosting. The bees were made from marzipan rolled into little balls with pumpkin seed wings and the stripes drawn on with an edible black pen.

My pet hate are cakes that look amazing and taste bland and dry, thats why i ensured this cake was moist and of course flavoursome resulting in a lovely cake sweetened with the cream cheese and cinnamon frosting. For anyone who is a huge carrot cake fan this recipe is a must try, a personal favourite of my housemates with a carrot cake normally not lasting longer than a day.

Carrot Cake:

• 300g soft light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 300ml sunflower oil
• 300g plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon , plus extra to decorate
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract
• 300g carrots , grated
• 100g shelled walnuts , chopped, plus extra, chopped and whole, to decorate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c and grease and line 3 x 20cm cake tins
2. Put the sugar, eggs and oil in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
3. Slowly add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt and vanilla extract and continue to beat until well mixed.
4. Stir in the grated carrots and walnuts by hand until they are all evenly dispersed. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tins and smooth over with a palette knife. Bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 minutes, or until golden brown and the sponge bounces back when touched.
5. Leave the cakes to cool slightly in the tins before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Cinnamon Frosting

• 300g icing sugar , sifted
• 50g unsalted butter , at room temperature
• 125g cream cheese, cold
• 2 tsp cinnamon – to taste

Method:

1. Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.
2. Add the cream cheese and cinnamon in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed
3. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. Do not overbeat, as it can quickly become runny.
4. To finish spread the top of two sponges with the icing and put on top of each other. Cover the top of the cake with the remainder of the icing.

Happy Baking

x