Chocolate Pots

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Or 'I'm moving house and only have use of a microwave' pots!

These are the most wonderful little desserts that are deceptively made in your microwave in 25-30 seconds. Sadly the only photo Ihave was when I attempted to make a kind of baked Alaska version, This didn't work and the ice-cream just melted and escaped over the top.

I've been moving recently and Delo shared this recipe which he invented in a previous career as a bar-tender! They can be knocked up with a few store cupboard ingredients and some milk and cream. Maybe one to keep in store for this festive season.

Ingredients - for one

2 oreos

1 heaped teaspoon of horlicks

1 shot glass of half and half (1/2 milk 1/2 cream)

Blend together the oreos and the horlicks. You can use a blender - or the end of a rolling pin in a cup (which I did). Then combine with the half and half. Put into a small microwaveable dish  - like a ramekin or I used espresso cups. 

Microwave at full power for 34 seconds - if you're using a 750watt microwave. There will be a little experimenting here to see what suits your machine best. Then serve right away with a dollop of cold vanilla ice-cream.

The colour is so dark - it makes me wonder what the hell is in oreos. Don't let this picture fool you - they can look very pretty if you're more careful than me and don;t throw ice-cream in the microwave. I'm not one to use ready made ingredients like this often, but when needs must. This really is a super little 'cheats' desert.

In other exciting news I'm heading to the Cooks Academy in the new year to get some proper tuition in how to be a massive food mastermind. I can't wait, if anyone has some spare chef tunics lying around all donations will be gladly accepted.

Happy Christmas

Lu x

Mum's Chocolate Cake

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Cake is gonna get you!

Here's Cake-ie!

My mum has been making this cake ever since I can remember - I think she got the recipe from Martha down the road - but I'm claiming it for my mum. Any occasion of note which involved kids saw this cake getting whipped up. It's a moist and delicious and appears a lot more complex than the simple recipe that makes it. The secret ingredient is black treacle - I won't hide it from you! 

Ingredients

9oz Caster Sugar

9oz Self Raising Flour

9oz Butter

3 eggs

2 tablespoons of Cocoa Powder

1/2 teaspoon of Baking Powder

1 tablespoon of Black Treacle

A dash of milk

For the icing

5oz of Icing Sugar

1.5oz Cocoa Powder

2oz Caster Sugar

3 tablespoons Water

3 oz Butter

Preheat the oven to Gas mark 4/180oc, and grease 2 circular cake tins, and line the bottoms. I used cake tins that had a diameter of 10 inches.

Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder together in a large bowl. Add in the softened butter, eggs, treacle and the milk. Blend them all together until very well mixed, add more milk if the mixture appears too chick. Spoon into the tins and bake at the centre of the oven for 40 mins. 

Meanwhile you can prepare the icing. Sift the icing sugar and the cocoa powder into a bowl. Place the caster sugar, water and butter in a small pan.

When the cake is cooked it should spring up from a gentle press down, or a skewer should come out clean when poked into the centre. Remove gently form tins and allow to cool.

To make the icing - melt together the contents of the pan and then mix into the icing sugar mixture. If the mixture is a little thick for spreading - just add the smallest dash of boiling water and that should loosen it out a small bit. Similarly if it's to runny you could sieve in some more icing sugar. Spread over and between the two cooled sponges and you're done.

Decorate with chocolates and marshmallows for kids - or give it a dusting of icing sugar or cocoa powder for the adults. You can also make this in a tray and slice out little squares. It looks a bit like a scary ominous monster in this photo I think! It's the cake for every chocolate cake moment

Squidgy chocolate birthday cake

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Chocolate mousse in a cake

It was my fellas birthday and I had a whole day off work! I decided to spend the morning making him a cake, and not just any cake...

I adapted this recipe from Delias squidgy chocolate log. It is light (there is no flour in it at all) and very decadent, perfect for a birthday cake and it looks really impressive.

The chocolate mousse nearly turned into a complete disaster as when I added the egg yolks to the hot chocolate the whole thing went rock hard and I had to throw it all away. The second batch I let the chocolate cool a bit longer and only put in half the amount of egg yolks. It still went a bit strange but I persevered with the mixing and it was delicious in the end.

Ingredients:

6 large eggs, seperated

5oz caster sugar

2 oz cocoa powder

filling:

8 oz plain chocolate

2 large egg seperated (Delia uses both yolks but I couldnt make this work, I only used 2 yolk and 2 whites)

8 fl oz double cream, whipped until very thick (but not butter!)

other filling:

8 fl oz double cream, whipped until very thick, see above

topping:

icing sugar

red berries

method:

Start with the filling. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Meanwhile, beat the two egg yolks in a very clean bowl with a clean beater until they are stiff. You should be able to hold the bowl upside down without anything falling away. When the chocolate is melted, take off the heat and let the bowl cool down until you can hold it comfortably. The chocolate should also be a bit cooler. Whip the egg yolk and add it to the warm chocolate. The yolk will cook in the chocolate and turn the whole thing quite stiff, don't panic! Keep mixing it. Fold the beaten egg whites in to the chocolate mixture. Don't beat it, fold it! Then fold in the whipped cream and continue folding until everything is nicely mixed. refrigerate this mixture for an hour or so until ready to use.

For the cake grease a large baking tray, line it with baking parchment and then grease that too. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a large bowl until they start to thicken. Add the cocoa powder an whisk this in too. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they are stiff (see above). Add the egg whites to the chocolate mixture and carefully fold everything together. Don't whisk or beat as this will destroy the air bubbles and the cake will be totally flat and gross. Pur the mixture into the tin, and bake for 20-25 mins in a pre heated oven at 180c. When you take out the cake it should be springy and puffy and not too dark.

At this point, Delia turns the cake into a roulade, but I think a chocolate mousse cake is a bit more impressive.

I let the cake cool and then I cut it into three rectangles the same size (I used a ruler to measure exact thirds!). Then I spread half the mouse onto the first piece, followed by half the whipped cream. I topped this with the second piece of cake, and then spread that with the rest of the mousse, followed by the rest of the cream. I sprinkled some icing sugar over this and topped with some sharp red currents. This really added some dimension to teh flavours. If Iwas making it again I would probably add some red currents or strawberrys in a layer within the actual cake.

It was amazing! Light, rich, not too rich, contrasting with the sharp berries. Yum! Colm was very happy

Chocolate Brownies

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A chocolate hit!

I had a chocolate craving, and felt like bringing a nice treat in to work the next day.

I left these in the oven a little too long, they were still good, but not as gooey as they should have been.

It turned out to be only me and Claire in work the next day... oh well, all the more for us!!

300g Flour

2 Tbsp Cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

200g butter

200g dark chocolate

1 tsp instant coffee

250g brown sugar

4 large eggs

melt the chocolate, butter and espresso together in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Add the sugar and remove from the heat. The sugar will not melt but don't worry! Allow this mixture to cool for 10 mins. Meanwhile, measure out the flour and sift it together with the cocoa powder and salt

Mix the eggs, one at a time, in to the chocolate and butter mixture. Then carefully fold the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture. Don't over mix this or it will become too cakey.

Bake in a greased baking tray lined with greaseproof paper (also greased!) at 270c for 20 mins (or a little less if you oven is hot!) don't over cook, the brownies should be gooey in the middle.

Take out of the oven and allow to cool for as long as you can bear before cutting into squares and scoffing!