Mushroom 'Mould' Cake.

A dense dark chocolate truffle cake, filled with chocolate cream and ruby-red raspberries, you would have to be a right fool to not eat this peculiar beauty. 

Yes, you read that correctly. I have indeed posted a recipe stating how to make a 'mouldy' mushroom CAKE. This cake has definitely gone off the radar (ha, see what I did there - gone off - did you get it? You got it right?!) for simultaneously pertaining to be 'disgusting', indulgent and über cool. It takes vintage to it's literal meaning.

For me, this was a spontaneous sculpture that I was itching to do. If any of you know me, I have many cravings each hour/day/week. A friend of mine uttered the phrase 'chocolate cake' and there it was, BAM, fixed in my mind, transforming me into a beast until I appeased my appetite. So, I popped down to my local Sainsbury's, bought the ingredients and was ready to bake.

But there was una problema..

I did NOT want to bake a standard chocolate cake. Incase you've guessed already, I'm a huge fan of raspberries and chocolate. When they both marry together, they produce offspring in your mouth, bursting out full of this awesome indescribable flavour. So gooood. Anyway, weird and slightly poor analogy aside; I was as per, grown tedious of making the same old chocolate buttercream cake, topped with berries, coated with cigarellos - yawn - boringgg.

And then, I was truly inspired. I witnessed a photo: a page from Lily Vanilli's book which had meringue shaped mushrooms. *Light bulb moment*

Next thing I know, this ensemble was assembled.

Ingredients:
200g softened butter
200g caster sugar
200g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder
4 medium eggs
Pinch of salt
Milk to loosen (optional)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
• Combine the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, usually this takes 5-7 mins. 
• Add the eggs one at a time until well-combined.
• Sift in the flour cocoa powder and add the salt.
• Beat together until it forms a smoooooth mixture.
• Dash in a tablespoon or two of milk if the mixture is super thick.
• Dollop the mix in either two 8 inch sandwich pans or an 8 inch cake tin and bake for around 30 minutes.
• Once baked let it cool on a wire wrack and place on a 12 inch cake board, ready to be filled and glazed.

The Filling:

150g dark chocolate (chopped)

25g unsalted butter

250ml double cream

Pinch of salt 

300g Raspberries

• Place the butter and chocolate in a bowl.
• Heat the cream until hot and pour into the chocolate, stirring it together until it melts and is well combined.
• Once cooled, fill the top of one layer with this and top evenly with fresh raspberries, placing the other layer on top.

The Truffle Glaze:

250g dark chocolate

15g unsalted butter

200ml double cream

Cocoa powder to dust

• Follow the same steps as with the filling.
• Spoon the glaze over the whole cake and let it set - but not completely.
• Dust the whole cake with cocoa powder so that it looks like soil.
• Decorate with the meringue mushrooms, by sticking them into the cake and also around: make it look like its going off and growing mushroom mould! You can even break pieces off of the cake so that they look like rocks.

The Meringue Mushrooms:

5 egg whites

1 tsp lemon juice

Pinch of salt

230g caster sugar

30g cocoa powder

100g chocolate

• Add lemon juice and salt to the get whites and whip until soft peaks are formed. Beat in the sugar slowly, a few tablespoons at a time, continuing until they get all stiff. Half the egg white mix, spooning the other half into another bowl. Fold in two-thirds of the cocoa powder in one half and the remaining in the other.
• Fill a piping bag with the beaten egg whites and using a round top, pipe mushroom stems - making sure they are long and wide enough to be stable.
• Pipe the same number of domes - these will be the tops of the shroomies!
• Bake them for about an hour and leave them in the oven so that they dry - another hour or so for this I'd say.
• To attach the tops to the stems, melt the chocolate and use this to stick the two together. The stems may need a bitta slicing so that they're flat and can stand upright.

And voila, the mushroom meringues are done! They're actually super tasty, so try not to eat them all before you decorate, particularly if you love real mushrooms and sweet stuff like me! I then added some edible flowers (and maybe some non edible leaves) to give it that extra gardeny feel. 

Pretty nifty eh? 

Dainty Cook x

White Chocolate 'Slab' Cake.

Want to know how this mouthwatering, pretty gem was made?

Filled and coated with fresh cream and jam, topped with chocolate curls and fresh berries.

Well, you've come to the right place.

Boredom beckoned and my new kitchen called. It was time to start baking again! But what to make? I was in the mood for cake. What kind though? I wanted to create something with an elegant touch, something with chocolate. Now cigarellos are a common elegant addition to cakes, they give them that nice chic finish. They look lovely, but they sure do cost a bomb. Around £25 for 500-750g, I may as well buy a cake for that much! Then I thought, chocolate shards - though they would have been too messy. Thus, the 'slabs' were born. Elegant yet edgy. Yep, that's what I was going to make.

I settled for an 8 inch Victoria Sponge cake and I was going to cover the whole thing with fresh cream. You could use buttercream instead if that's what you prefer, however in my household, fresh cream goes down better.

For the sponge:
250g softened butter.
250g* Caster sugar. 
250g self raising flour.
4 medium eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract.
1/4 cup milk to loosen (optional)
1/2 tsp baking powder (optional)

*If you know you're going to add more sweet stuff to your cake, such as buttercream, chocolate, jam etc. I'd put about 20g or so less sugar so it doesn't become overly sweet. Again this is personal preference and how you lot enjoy your cake!

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/Gas mark 4.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.
• Add an egg one at a time, whisking in between each addition of the egg so they are fully incorporated.
• Dash a teaspoon of vanilla extract in (I love sniffing this, it smells gorgeous!)
• Sift in the self raising flour using a sieve and then fold into the mixture. Beat until its thick and smooth.
• To loosen it up a lil, pour in around a quarter of a cup of milk. You don't have to add the whole thing at once and you don't have to add as much, I just prefer my mixture to be slightly runny.
• If you want, put some baking powder in the end and mix awayyy.
• Grease your cake tins (non stick) with butter and dollop half the mixture in one and half in the other, then flatten it out by shaking the tin. I like to pretend i'm Mexican and shake along with the tins, but you know, that's optional too.

That's all it takes folks! Pop 'em in the middle shelf of the oven for 20-25 mins or until they turn a nice golden colour.

Now that the main sponge has been effortlessly created. Here comes the messy/artsy bit - well kinda - the filling!
You can put whatever you like, peanut butter and nutella, buttercream and caramel sauce. Your choice. But the classic is always the best. I went for fresh cream and strawberry jam. Nom.

Filling:
500ml Double cream
Strawberry/Raspberry Jam.

Method:

• Once the sponges are done, take them out of the oven and leave them to cool. Then transfer on to a wire rack till they're completely chillin'!
• Whip up all the cream, adding around 15g of caster sugar (I just chucked some in to be honest) in, half way through the whipping process.
• On one sponge spread a good amount of the whipped cream. On the other, spread some generous spoonfuls of jam.
• Now it's time for the jam and cream to kiss. Carefully place the jammed cake on top of the other and press down.
• Coat the rest of the cake in cream and leave to set.

Filling: DONE.

Okay, so the slightly fiddly and tricky bit starts here. The chocolate slabs and the deco!

Usually tempering with chocolate involves thermometers and heating and cooling chocolate to a specific temperature in order to achieve a nice glossy finish. I however, think that's unnecessary with white chocolate and we can all use our own initiative with this technique.

For this you would use the same method as for chocolate shards. The difference is, we're making squares/rectangles by measuring them out.


Chocolate Slabs:
280g Plain White chocolate (chopped).
Baking Paper or Acetate.

I used baking paper as it is easily available and we all have it somewhere in our kitchen..

Method:

• Line a tray with baking paper so that it just fits inside.
• To melt the chocolate, fill a saucepan with water and place a bowl on top. You could use a microwave, but I feel that this has more control and you're less likely to go wrong.
• Throw in your chocolate and leave to melt on a high heat, stirring occasionally. When it has all melted leave to cool for a minute. 
• Drizzle the melted chocolate over the paper and then spread thinly and evenly all over with a spatula. Leave to cool.
• After it's cooled, though not entirely set, measure out and score the rectangles using a ruler. Mine were about 9cmX7cm. (I checked the height of my cake.) Once you've done this, put them in the fridge to harden.
• When they've hardened, re-score the chocolate carefully and separate the rectangles. You will now have your slabs in shape!
• Lastly, very very carefully peel off the paper from the chocolate, this can be fiddly, so take your time.
• Once you have your slabs press one side into the edge of the cake and repeat all the way round. I put the rippled effect facing the outside, but you could turn them the other way for a smoother finish. 

The cake looks pretty even when plain, but I decided to go the extra mile and add milk and white chocolate curls on top and then decorated them with fresh berries, which  compliment the cream. And voila! You have a perfectly chic cake fit for any special occasion.

The berries really 'shine' out amongst the white chocolate.

If I do say so myself, it was one of the best cakes I had tasted in a while. So moist, light and delicious, yet beautiful to look at too.

If I can make it, so can you :)

Let me know how you lot get on!


The Dainty Cook x