These pretty little cookies are chunky, chewy and full of cheer! Packed full of cranberries, macadamia nuts and white chocolate, each mouthful promises little jewels and treasures and deliciousness. They are perfect for serving up to friends, wrapping in cellophane and pretty red ribbon as a gift, or dunking in steaming tea as you curl up on the couch this Christmas. With that blissful combination of crunchy edges and a pillowy-soft centre, whatever their destiny they won’t last long!
This pretty little sponge cake is delicately light, delightfully fruity and quite frankly scrumptious. Don’t be afraid of attempting the ever-so daunting sponge and it’s poorly understood pal, the passionfruit curd. Both recipes may seem like technical challenges beyond your reach, but I’ve detailed a few key steps that should allow you to sail straight to baking bliss. And the result is worth it; the slight tartness of the passionfruit curd and fresh blueberries are a wonderful complement to the velvety whipped cream, which I’ve laced with vanilla bean. Served up with a cup of tea on a warm summer’s day, this cake couldn’t get any more… lovely.
Before you raise your eyebrows in suspicion of this cake’s unusual secret ingredient, let me argue its case. I was served this Dark Chocolate and Beetroot Cake upon arrival in London last year. It was baked lovingly by my cousins, drizzled with dark chocolate ganache and intricately decorated with a white chocolate welcome message. I was so taken aback by how incredibly rich and velvety the first bite was. The idea is not to actually taste the beetroot, but there is a dark, seductive, earthy tone to the cake that is utterly delicious.
Here is a slab of joy that I’m smitten to share with you; I’ve re-incarnated Cadbury’s gift to the world in slice form, and it is destined to unite cherry ripe lovers and convert cherry ripe haters. Is there such a thing as a cherry ripe hater? What a sad soul. Let’s not dwell on such pitiful things, back to this swanky ol’ Cherry, Chocolate and Coconut slice! A crunchy chocolate biscuit base sets the stage, and is a worthy foundation for the soft, sweet, chewy coconut and cherry filling, bursting with juicy chunks of cherry. Atop all that lies a silky layer of chocolate and coconut ganache, that catches clouds of coconut flakes.
This is no ordinary chocolate cake; the four layered tower is held together by a rich and velvety dark chocolate buttercream, laced with cinnamon and chilli, and topped with toasted fluffy marshmallows. The result is a subtle, intriguing and devilishly delicious combination of sugar, spice and heat. A Mexican Hot Chocolate Cake that promises seduction, fascination and admiration. On a separate note, it’s ridiculously fun setting fire to the marshmallows just prior to serving. Technically you should hold a flame torch/match over the marshmallows until they just start to toast. But obviously I got a bit overexcited by my new toy, and ended up frantically blowing out the flames that threatened to engulf my latest creation! Not sure I’m old enough to play with fire without supervision.
I’m back! After a few weeks of resting the old broken arm, I am now mobile and full of energy and ready for some serious baking. I thought I’d crash back onto the blogging scene with something fancy, so I present to you this monstrously imposing and ridiculously delicious absurdity of a creation; 2 layers of rich, fluffy chocolate cake sandwiched together with slatherings of peanut swiss meringue buttercream, filled with raspberries, shredded coconut and mini marshmallows. I couldn’t help but drizzle the whole thing in dark chocolate ganache prior to piling rocky road and crunchy peanuts on top… Whoops.
Fancy a batch of these pillowy-soft centred, crispy edged, slightly salted, honey-laced cookies? Packed with generous chunks of dark chocolate, crunchy pistachios and the promise of that perfect chewy texture, they’re a little exotic and utterly seductive. Perfect for late night snacking with a cup of tea, I used whole wheat flour for thicker cookies, and dark brown sugar for an almost caramel-like flavour. These devilish darlings don’t disappoint.
Hello you. Yes, you. I know you can’t take your eyes off me. I’m rich, warm and utterly irresistible, and I’m begging you to just take a bite…I’m certainly not a treat for the faint-hearted. If you allow yourself to indulge, you’ll first encounter a trace of salt that just touches your lips as your discover a drizzle of thick, velvety caramel nestled on my surface. Then, your teeth will overcome gentle resistance from my crisp surface before collapsing into a deep, thick, chocolatey mouthful of brownie bliss. The room will become hazy as a seductive combination of sugar and salt enrapture your senses, and you’ll be licking your lips and gazing longingly at your second bite before you’ve finished your first. And that’s ok, because there’s plenty of me to enjoy. I can be yours, tonight, if you’ll just whip out that apron and mixing bowl and spend a sweet hour in the kitchen. Oh, and any leftover salted caramel sauce can by drizzled generously over icecream… Tempting?
If there was any of this cheesecake left, I’d gladly offer you a slice, but unfortunately I just polished off 1/4 of the last piece that was carefully split and shared tonight. I went for full-force decadence with this one, because it was a birthday gift for a spectacular old friend of mine. The cheesecake starts with a crunchy ginger nut base, which lovingly embraces a velvety, creamy, not-too-sweet filling. The goats cheese is a wonderful offset to the richness of the cake, and provides a deliciously light texture with the slightest tang. Topped with a fragrant rhubarb, raspberry and ginger compote, this masterpiece takes under 1 hour to prepare and is, quite frankly, divine.
What a week! I woke up last Saturday to a hefty looking spike in my stats, and after doing some sleuthing, I was absolutely giddy to see that visitors were being directed from the wonderful Frankie Magazine website! They ever so kindly published my Raspberry, Coconut and White Chocolate Celebration Cake, and it quite literally made my heart soar. You can see what they had to say about it here. Frankie provide an utter haven for the craft/food/music/DIY minded, and also offer very thought provoking and progressive journalism regarding life, love and other important matters. So I cannot thank them enough for sharing some of my baking with their loyal league of followers.
one perfect mess 