Chocolate Peppermint Brownies

I love the combination of chocolate and peppermint, so I decided to give my regular brownies a Christmassy twist today with the addition of peppermint icing. I had recently bought some paste-style food colouring, and I wanted to try it out, so I combined the two.

I used the Chocolate Brownie recipe in Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess which is not on her website, but I imagine any brownie recipe would work. As I don't eat nuts, I leave the walnuts out, and I don't know how well nuts work with peppermint, so I would stick to a plain chocolate brownie.

I then made up plain glace icing, with about 300g icing sugar and 6 tablespoons of hot water. I then added half a capful of peppermint flavouring. I reserved about two tablespoons of the white icing, and spread the rest over the brownies. I then used my red food colouring to dye the leftover icing a candy cane pink, which I piped in stripes across the brownies. To hide my terrible icing, I 'feathered' it using a skewer.

The final combination works really well!

Mousse au Chocolat

Chocolate Mousse has been on my 'To Cook' list for a long time. I read somewhere that everyone should have a chocolate mousse recipe in their repetoire, but I hadn't had a suitable occasion to make one, and I wasn't about to spend a fortune on good chocolate and ages separating eggs for nothing special.

However, this weekend, we were invited to Sunday lunch with my sister and brother in law, who love good food, and Tim volunteered me to make a dessert. This was my opportunity.

The recipe I followed was very simple, following Raymond Blanc:

Mousse au Chocolat

225g Dark Chocolate
8 egg whites
25g caster sugar


Melt the chocolate over a saucepan of boiling water.

Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks. Fold in the sugar.

Fold a third of the egg whites into the chocolate to loosen the mixture. Then fold the chocolate mixture into the egg whites. Chill for at least 2 hours.

Beware! This mousse is very rich, so you only need a small amount. If I didn't have to transport it, I would have served it in tiny bowls or espresso cups. As we had to take it in the car, I served it in a big white bowl and it was delicious, even if I do have a slight anxiety about eating raw eggs.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

The new husband was having a cake sale to raise money for BBC Children in Need, and asked me to help hime provide cakes for it. Nigella recommends her Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes, saying that hers sold a pound a piece, but I'm sure there was the Nigella factor there - I would definitely pay a pound for s cupcake made by Nigella! But the husband liked the idea, so I said I would make them for him.

The cakes were quite expensive to make, and if I were to do it again I would put milk chocolate, not dark, into the icing as personally I found it a bit too bitter, but they looked very dramatic. Nigella said that hers made 12 but I made them a bit smaller and came out with about 40. I had a bit of drama as I put the batter into the cases, and had just put them in the oven when I realised I had forgotten to add the eggs! They were sitting, ready beaten, in their jug! I had to scrape the batter back into the pan and start again.

The husband did actually ice the cakes, I can't take any credit for that, but I did at least prepare the icing! Reports are that they sold well. We went away for the weekend so he left early and hadn't found out how much they had raised. I'll post an update when we know.

We went to Dublin for the weekend. Brilliant city, brilliant fun, lovely food. But we have eaten a little too much meat, so I'll be looking for some lighter veggie recipes that will still keep us warm. Any veggie foodie blogs out there?

Cloud Cake

So my first post really did have to be about Chocolate Cake. And this was no ordinary chocolate cake. This was Nigella's Cloud Cake.

I had heard about this mythical cake first from my (now) Sister-in-law, Suzie. Then I read about it in the Newspaper. A light, airy yet decadent cake. But it wasn't in the Chocolate Cake Hall of Fame.

So, in a bid to reverse the downward trend of cake-baking brought about by the prospect of the Wedding Day, and much commented on by new husband (it was the topic of his Groom's Speech), I spent Sunday afternoon whisking this cake together.

The reason the cake is so light and heavenly (like clouds), is because of the eggs. The eggs are separated, the whites whisked and then the chocolate, egg yolks and butter are folded into the mixture. There is no flour in this recipe which means that it is suitable for those who need wheat-free.

I didn't do the whipped cream topping as I wanted the cake to keep for a couple of days, so I served the whipped cream on the side, which I preferred. Its a luxury cake, but it is heavenly, and deserves the accolades!

INGREDIENTS


250g dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids
125g unsalted butter, softened
6 eggs: 2 whole, 4 separated
175g caster sugar
2 tablespoons Cointreau (optional)
grated zest of 1 orange (optional)
23cm springform cake tin
for the cream topping:
500ml double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon Cointreau (optional)
1/2 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder for sprinkling for the cream topping

METHOD


1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.

2. Line the bottom of the cake tin with baking parchment.

3. Melt the chocolate either in a double boiler or a microwave, and then let the butter melt in the warm chocolate.

4. Beat the 2 whole eggs and 4 egg yolks with 75g of the caster sugar, then gently add the chocolate mixture, the Cointreau and orange zest.

5. In another bowl, whisk the 4 egg whites until foamy, then gradually add the 100g of sugar and whisk until the whites are holding their shape but not too stiff.

6. Lighten the chocolate mixture with a dollop of egg whites, and then fold in the rest of the whites. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35–40 minutes or until the cake is risen and cracked and the centre is no longer wobbly. Cool the cake in its tin on a wire rack; the middle will sink as it cools.

7. When you are ready to eat, place the still tin-bound cake on a cake stand or plate for serving and carefully remove the cake from its tin. Don’t worry about cracks or rough edges: it’s the crater look we’re going for here. Whip the cream until it’s soft and then add the vanilla and Cointreau and continue whisking until the cream is firm but not stiff.

8. Fill the crater of the cake with the whipped cream, easing it out gently towards the edges of the cake, and dust the top lightly with cocoa powder pushed through a tea-strainer.