Ingredients
50g sifted cocoa powder
6 tablespoons boiling water
3 large eggs
50ml milk
175g selfraising flour
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder
100g softened butter
275g caster sugar
Preheat the oven to 180. Grease the cake tins and line with non-stick baking parchment. Blend the cocoa and boiling water in a large bowl, then add the remaining cake ingredients and beat until the mixture has become a smooth, quite thick batter. Divide equally between the prepared tins and level the surface. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until well-risen and the top of the cakes spring back when lightly pressed with a finger. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and peel off the baking paper. Leave to finish cooling.
This recipe is a bastard to try. I added more selfraising flour after I didn’t get a thick batter when all the ingredients were added, and I wasn’t sure whether the sandwich tins I use for Victoria sponge were deep enough. The recipe book calls for 20cm deep tins! 8 inches! It is getting very poofy in the oven, but does it need to be that deep? I’m pretty sure this is going to become a failure; I’m gonna try the shortbread or the lemon creams again after this; really annoyed but the chocolate smell is delicious.
Icing & Filling
3 tablespoons apricot jam
150g plain chocolate
150ml pouring double cream
To make the icing, warm the apricot jam in a very small pan, then spread a little over the base of one cake and the top of the other. Break the chocolate into pieces and gently heat with the cream in a heatproof bowl set over a simmering bain-marie until the chocolate has melted. Remove the bowl from the heat and stir the mixture to make sure the chocolate has completely melted. Leave to cool until it is on the point of setting and then spread on top of the apricot jam on both cakes. Sandwich them together with one chocolate fudge on top of the cake and the other in the middle.
Friday, 18 November 2011
15: Peppermint Creams
I'm dubbing these "Peppermint Clouds" because with a small flower cookie cutter, they do look rather like clouds arranged on greaseproof paper. I'm certain they will taste equally delicious if I use lemon essence instead of peppermint flavouring.
Peppermint Creams from BBC Good Food
250g icing sugar
30ml double cream
½ an egg white
Peppermint essence
Green food colouring (optional)
200g dark chocolate, melted
Mix all the ingredients, except the chocolate, to a stiff paste, adding the essence and colour in drips until you have a flavour and colour you like. Roll the paste into a sausage about 4cm across and cut it into thick slices. Neaten into smooth, even discs and dry on a sheet of baking parchment, or roll into a sheet, cut neat fingers and dry. Dip half of each cream into the chocolate and leave to set on the paper. Double dip if you have time. Decorate if you like. Makes 30.
This is the recipe I made, omitting the cream after seeing comments from people who’d already tried it and found that it made the mixture too runny. I struggled with getting the peppermint paste to roll into a sausage, as well, because when I went to slice it, it produced squashed rounds rather than neat discs. In the end I rolled it out with a pin and used a flower cookie cutter to produce cloud shapes out of the white peppermint cream mixture. This had its own problems; the mixture is quite sticky, even with a liberal dusting of icing sugar on the chopping board to produce a ‘floured’ surface! They are currently sitting to dry. I nibbled on some cut off bits and they do taste quite nicely and sweetly of peppermint. Instructions on the essence bottle say to put no more than a teaspoon with 250g icing sugar. I also added a whole egg white to the cream mixture because the second recipe I found (see below) calls for two for less than twice this recipe, and I doubt enough of the icing sugar could have been combined with merely half one egg white. We’ll see how they taste when they’re dry. I’m going to acquire more butter and try lemon melting moments as well; something I can bring into work and share with the girls, as they are by and large quite into baking and cooking and seem like they’d be appreciative.
Lotte Duncan’s Peppermint Creams
450g icing sugar
2 egg whites
Peppermint essence
Food colouring
Dolly mixtures/silver balls/etc for decorating
Sift the sugar. Place the egg whites in a bowl and beat lightly with a fork, just sufficiently to break up the albumen. Add half the icing sugar and stir until well mixed, using a wooden spoon. Beat for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the icing sugar and the essence until the mixture is stiff. You may need to add more icing sugar. Separate the mixture into three and add different food colourings to each. Pastels are nice. Roll out and cut out into shapes - hearts, circles and stars. Decorate with the sweets. Lay the sweets out on sheets of greaseproof paper to dry out. Makes 30-40.
Peppermint Creams from BBC Good Food
250g icing sugar
30ml double cream
½ an egg white
Peppermint essence
Green food colouring (optional)
200g dark chocolate, melted
Mix all the ingredients, except the chocolate, to a stiff paste, adding the essence and colour in drips until you have a flavour and colour you like. Roll the paste into a sausage about 4cm across and cut it into thick slices. Neaten into smooth, even discs and dry on a sheet of baking parchment, or roll into a sheet, cut neat fingers and dry. Dip half of each cream into the chocolate and leave to set on the paper. Double dip if you have time. Decorate if you like. Makes 30.
This is the recipe I made, omitting the cream after seeing comments from people who’d already tried it and found that it made the mixture too runny. I struggled with getting the peppermint paste to roll into a sausage, as well, because when I went to slice it, it produced squashed rounds rather than neat discs. In the end I rolled it out with a pin and used a flower cookie cutter to produce cloud shapes out of the white peppermint cream mixture. This had its own problems; the mixture is quite sticky, even with a liberal dusting of icing sugar on the chopping board to produce a ‘floured’ surface! They are currently sitting to dry. I nibbled on some cut off bits and they do taste quite nicely and sweetly of peppermint. Instructions on the essence bottle say to put no more than a teaspoon with 250g icing sugar. I also added a whole egg white to the cream mixture because the second recipe I found (see below) calls for two for less than twice this recipe, and I doubt enough of the icing sugar could have been combined with merely half one egg white. We’ll see how they taste when they’re dry. I’m going to acquire more butter and try lemon melting moments as well; something I can bring into work and share with the girls, as they are by and large quite into baking and cooking and seem like they’d be appreciative.
Lotte Duncan’s Peppermint Creams
450g icing sugar
2 egg whites
Peppermint essence
Food colouring
Dolly mixtures/silver balls/etc for decorating
Sift the sugar. Place the egg whites in a bowl and beat lightly with a fork, just sufficiently to break up the albumen. Add half the icing sugar and stir until well mixed, using a wooden spoon. Beat for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the icing sugar and the essence until the mixture is stiff. You may need to add more icing sugar. Separate the mixture into three and add different food colourings to each. Pastels are nice. Roll out and cut out into shapes - hearts, circles and stars. Decorate with the sweets. Lay the sweets out on sheets of greaseproof paper to dry out. Makes 30-40.
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