Scrumptious Chocolate cup-cake type thingys

I have been through a bit of a baking experimental stage, of late. Cookies, cakes, bread, pastries and cup cake type thingys. "What is a cup cake type thingy?" I hear you all say. Well I keep forgetting to buy cupcake cases, so i improvised at little, by using a silicone muffin tray/mould, and no cases. This was the pleasant result I got. This mix makes around 10-12 cakes.

Ingredients 

5oz Self raising flour

1 1/2oz Drinking chocolate

1 1/2oz cocoa powder

6oz Castor sugar

3oz Sunflower margarine
3oz Unsalted butter (softened) 

3 Large eggs

3 Tablespoons of hot water.

1. Preheat oven to 140 degrees.

2. Lightly butter the muffin tray, it does not have to be silicone. Place in fridge to chill the butter. (This will help prevent the cakes from splitting when removing from mould.)

3. Gently mix together all the ingredients, except the water. Do not over mix as this will make the cakes stodgy.

4. Slowly add the water, whilst mixing, until a smooth paste is formed.

5. Pour the mix nearly to the top of the moulds.

5. Place in the pre-heated oven for around 35 minutes, or until the cakes feel springy to the touch.

6. Remove from oven. Leave to cool in the tray for a few minutes, then gently prise from tin/mould and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Coconut and Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients

4oz softened butter
6oz icing sugar
2 tbsp Coconut milk or coconut cream
Seeds from one vanilla pod, or 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

1. Beat the butter and half of the icing sugar until smooth.
2. Add the rest of the icing sugar, beat again until smooth. Scrape the sides of bowl to make sure all is mixed well.
3. Add the Vanilla and coconut milk/cream, beat until very smooth.

Constructing the cakes
1. Once the cakes are cooled, using a sharp bread knife, carefully cut the tops off, creating a nice flat surface. Using cookie cutters/shapes cut stars, hearts, circles or whatever takes your fancy, from the cake tops.
2. Place frosting into a piping bag, or a freezer bag with the corner cut off, and generously pipe onto the cake. Then add your cut out shapes, dust a few with icing sugar and impress your friends with the finished pieces of art!


You can also use the cut-off tops sandwiched together with the frosting, as shown.

Many thanks to Julia England (@wannabefoodie76 on twitter, who also has a great blog A wanna be foodie!) for providing me with the basis of this recipe, general advice and all-round-good-banter!

Bravo Brownies

So continuing on a chocolate theme, thanks to a kind donation of a massive tub of quality chocolate nuggets, heres my next waist widener!
Everyone loves a gooey sticky Brownie. And I am no different.
There are loads of recipes around for brownie, some good, some bad, this one works for me. As with any recipe that includes chocolate, the better the chocolate, the better the taste, same goes for cocoa powder, buy the best that you can afford, your taste-buds will thank you for it!

Ingredients

• 250g unsalted butter (yes, that is a whole pack!!)
• 200g Dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids) bashed up.
• optional: 100g chopped nuts (I prefer brazils or almonds)
• 60g cocoa powder, sifted
• 65g plain flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 350g caster sugar
• 4 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 180c, get a baking tin (around 25cm in length) and line it with greaseproof paper.
2. In a largish bowl or dish, melt the chocolate and butter over some simmering water, stirring until smooth. (be careful that the bowl does not touch the water, as this will ruin the chocolate.)
3. In a separate bowl sift the flour, sugar and cocoa powder, then add the melted chocolate and nuts. Mix well, until all the ingredients are combined.
4. Beat the eggs, then add to the other ingredients, stir until silky and shiny, and when you can see no egg, pour the mixture into the lined tray.
5. Place in the oven for around 20-25 minutes, the outside wants to be bouncy and cracking in places and a knife or skewer should still come out sticky, when inserted into the brownie. The trick is to get the timing spot on. So check a couple of times if needed.
6. Allow the brownie to cool, for a couple of hours, then remove from tin and chop to desired sizes.

This is great from the fridge, or warmed with vanilla ice-cream or clotted cream. It'll keep for around 4-5 days in a sealed container.

Choco Pavement!

This is my version of Rocky Road, but you can throw anything you like into the chocolate syrup mix, nuts, marshmallows, biscuits, brownie, chocolate bars, dried fruit, raisins, jellied sweets, cereals and whatever else you have in your sweet cupboard!
  The one ingredient you should definitely add is salted peanuts as these give a real hit of salt, that goes so well with the chocolate. So please use this recipe as a guide and chuck in whatever ingredients you fancy into the chocolate syrup mix. And obviously the better the chocolate you use, the better the taste.

Ingredients
Chocolate Syrup mix

• 300g of good quality Chocolate 70% cocoa (use dark or milk, or a mixture of both). 
• 125g unsalted butter.
• 2 tablespoons of golden syrup.

Added extras

• 200g salted peanuts.
• 8 marshmallows chopped in half, or a handfull of mini mallows.
• 50g of roughly pistachio nuts
• 30g of rice krispies (puffed rice)
• 25g of roughly chopped brazil nut

1. Make the chocolate syrup by melting all the ingredients together in a bowl placed over a saucepan with couple of inches simmering water, make sure the bowl does not touch the water, else you will ruin the chocolate. Stir constantly until silky smooth.
2. Add your chosen ingredients to the melted chocolate syrup, and mix well. Pour into a tin foiled lined tray or tub, let it cool and refrigerate for around 3-4 hours until its set solid.
3. Remove from the tinfoil, and cut into bite-size pieces and place in the fridge in a sealed container until ready to eat! This will keep for around a week, but you'll not have any left by then!!!!

Choc n nana shake

1 minute to make, time it.
This makes around 1 1/2 pints.

Ingredients

• 1 large ripe banana.
• 4 heaped teaspoons of choc milk shake powder (Nesquik etc).
• pinch of cinnamon powder.
• 1 pint of milk (565ml) (full fat is best)

1. Mash up the banana with a little of the milk, until it has no lumps, I use  a food processor, a hand held blender works fine too, as would a fork!
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, and blitz for 20 seconds.
3. Pour into frozen glasses if possible. Guzzle!

Tip: For a thicker shake before blitzing add a scoop of ice-cream, chocolate or vanilla, you could also freeze your banana before hand.