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

Peanutella Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies made with crunchy peanut butter and somewhat subtle dollops of Nutella, which ultimately ballet on your tongue. 
They're THAT good.

I cannot tell you how much I adore peanut butter. I used to not like it once upon a time. In fact, I despised the very thing. Then came a time where anything found in a jar and could be consumed by a spoon was a huge hit as I started university. Spoonfuls of peanut butter whilst studying for my first year exams had become a ritual. That and having a packet of chocolate fingers to dip in a jar full. This is how we students do les examens!

Anyway, it's a known fact that peanut butter goes a bit too well with chocolate. I mean, forget yer peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, s'all about pb and Nutella!

And when I realised I could put the two together in my absolute fave biscuit - the cookie - I felt like a kitchen goddess. *Halo appears*

Here's how they were put together:

Ingredients:
225g unsalted butter (softish)
200g caster sugar (you can play around if you want it less sweet)
200g soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
240g crunchy peanut butter
40g nutella
340g plain flour
2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
85g dark chocolate chips (or chopped)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 170C, Gas 3. Fan assisted ovens lower the temp by 10-20C and prepare baking trays with greaseproof/baking paper.
• Using an electric mixer with the paddle or a handheld electric whisk, mix the butter and sugars together until they transform into a wonderful light and fluffy mixture.
• One at a time, crack in the eggs and mix well. Be sure to scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl!
• Turn the mixer down to a slow speed and beat in the vanilla and peanut butter.
• Gradually add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix well until a smooth dough is formed. Then add the Nutella - this is actually optional and I only add a little to give it a subtle taste.
• Sprinkle in the chocolate chips - I aways find this the best bit, I don't know why!
• Scoop out equal amounts of the cookie dough on each tray using a tablespoon spoon or scooper. Make sure they're spread apart as they expand while baking.

• Bake for roughly 10 minutes, or until they're golden brown around the edges and quite flat. They will be super soft in the middle but that's what you want. They tend to harden later anyway.
• Cool  the cookies slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies should be nicely soft and chewy and a teeny crunchy on the outside. Mmmmm.

Seriously these literally melt in your mouth when you eat them fresh. I was so pleased with these, I genuinely wanted to marry myself. Yup. I mean being able to bake super soft mouth melting cookies!?! You need magical hands. Oh and maybe this recipe….

So have a go and let me know how it turns out! :)

Dainty cook x

Crème-to-the-Brûlée

Vanilla crème brûlée, with strawberry, white chocolate spoons and a smooth salted caramel disc - topped with crunchy honeycomb pieces. 

Mouth watering yet?


I can't deny that this is one of my ultimate fave desserts. The baked creamy goodness that instantly melts on your tongue, exposing its vanilla flavour as it begins to tango with your tastebuds. Oh but the best part, the fun part, cracking the burnt crunchy sugar with your spoon as you begin to dig in. The smooth and the crisp become an unbeatable fusion of textures.

And it's no wonder it's sort of named after these textures - crème brûlée - 'burnt cream' in French, is the most delicious yet simple of desserts to make and here's how I made it:

Ingredients:

For the vanilla crème brûlée:
440ml double cream
100ml full fat milk
55g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod/3tsp good quality vanilla extract
5 egg yolks

White Chocolate spoons:
200g white chocolate chips

(Smooth) Salted Caramel Disc:
80g salted butter
75g soft light brown sugar
75g caster sugar
120ml cream
1/2tsp sea salt
Honeycomb pieces (bought)

Method:

• Combine the double cream, milk and vanilla extract (or a slit vanilla pod) into a saucepan and leave to the side.
• Separate the yolks from the whites and place in a mixing bowl, adding the caster sugar. The separating is probably the only tricky part to this - well I find it a pain to be honest! Then whisk the yolks and sugar together until pale and slightly fluffy.
• Bring the saucepan onto the heat until the sides begin to bubble a bit.
• Gradually with a hand whisk, stir in the hot cream mix into the egg. You'll see it will foam up once done, try get rid of all the foam with a large spoon.
• Pour into ramekins, jars or a big dish and place these in a ban marie filled with boiled water about 1.5-2cm high and pop it into the oven for 30-35 minutes.
• You want the crème brûlée to be slightly wobbly in the middle and not completely set. Place these in the fridge and scatter teaspoon of caster sugar on the top surface and then blowtorch until its burnt! Do this closer to the serving time and pop 'em back in the fridge.

And that's pretty much it! For the additional extras and decoration:
To make the chocolate spoon:

• Melt white chocolate in a bowl over simmering water (water bath) until runny and fill up the spoon moulds, placing them in the fridge.

The smooth salted caramel disc:

• Melt the butter and sugars in a saucepan for 3 minutes or until dissolved, swirling it from time to time.
• Add the cream and sea salt and swirl again - get those hips shaking! I mean, use a wooden spoon to stir the sugar mixture…
• Once amalgamated, taste to check if there's enough salt and then pour into a jug to set!

This makes quite a bit, so you can store it up to a week to use for other nommy desserts. Or you know just to eat with a spoon instead of yer good ol' Ben and Jerry's!

Make a circle onto a serving plate, (I used a cookie cutter) and top with honeycomb pieces. Okay so, I had recently bought some ready made ones from Lakeland and used these, but if you want the homemade recipe check out my Get Loose: Chocolate and Honeycomb Mousse recipe!

That's about it! I added chocolate dots around each component to finish off, as well as a strawberry in each jar, as this creamy concotion goes well with berries and maybe there were some growing in my garden…

Cute little desserts, don't you think?


Dainty Cook x

'Jannat' in a Jar: AKA Nutella.

In Arabic, 'Jannat' means heaven. And to me, that's exactly what Nutella is. Well any hazelnut spread really, but nothing beats good ol' Nutella. I just can't express my love for this chocolatey goodness. On hot toast in the mornings or as a midnight snack, with breadsticks, chappatis even. Anything! The best is, and I'm not ashamed to admit it, getting your fingers dirty and licking them off straight from the jar. It turns all of us into big kids.

When hazelnut meets chocolate, awesome chemistry is made. And at times I've wanted to sandwich macarons or other goodies with Nutella. But sometimes, the shop bought jar doesn't quite fit in with the homemade baked delights.

Recently, I ran out (shock horror) and thought I'd make my own. I read that it tastes better. I mean what could possibly be better than Nutella!? So I thought I'd finally give it a go.

Here's how I made it:

Ingredients: 
230g hazelnuts
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 and 1/4 cup icing sugar 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons any flavourless oil, hazelnut oil works better, if available.
1/4 teaspoon salt

HOW TO MAKE THIS GOD GIVEN GIFT:

• Get your hazelnuts and put it in a baking tray in the middle shelf of an oven to roast for around 15 minutes. Or until you get a hazelnutty aroma wafting in the kitchen, but then that could also signal that they're burnt so....errr just keep an eye on 'em.

•If they're blanched you've saved yourself a lot of time. It also shows you have common sense to buy blanched nuts so you don't have to take the skin off later. But if you're non-sensical, like myself, (is that even a word?!) then once roasted, place them in a bowl with another bowl the same size on top and shake, shake, shake them, 'till they're practically naked.

•Grind them in a food processor until it turns into a thick paste like consistency, make sure to get all the oil out of them.

•Dollop in your icing sugar, oil, vanilla extract and salt and blend away. 

•Now it could still be really thick, in that case add a bit more oil, if it's too smooth then you could add more icing sugar, or grind it for longer, some of us prefer it that way however. I know I do if I'm also gonna use it to fill stuff.

And voila, you have your own Nutella and though it's not quite the same, it tastes 100x more flavoursome then the real thing! Like heavennn *sings* And it couldn't be easier!

Kinda just added my own label, because I'm cool like that.

Also, I just discovered that Nutella is actually pronounced as 'Noo-tella'. I think I fell more into a fit of hysterics, rather than disappointment as I found this out. Seriously?! NOO-tella. With my pea-NOOT butter sandwich?! Ha! No. Just no.

Try not to sleep with the jar of this amazing stuff. Because that's weird. Not that I do that or anything...

The Dainty Cook x

Bake Yourself Happy.

Some of you may have noticed (or maybe none of you, I guess I'm not that popular), that I've kapeesh-ed for a while. I'd been a busy bee over the summer and also a very very lazy bee. I can barely use my lappy because they are so full of food and other photos resided over time thanks to Mr Canon and so, haven't really been photographing my recent bakes. No photos, no awesome blog posts, of course.

But I will soon. Pinky pwomise.

More macaron antics in the summer

And now, final year of uni is taking it's toll on me, as I inevitably expected. But no, I promised myself I shall still continue to bake. I mean why do I have to stop? Well you see the thing for me is, I use baking as means of channeling my stress elsewhere? As a means of distraction. You see, when I'm stressed, or anxious or just have something on my mind, I bake.

And I like to make more complex things because it takes longer, it needs the utmost concentration and dedication and with that - for that day - for that moment - I forget about everything else, as I stand amazed by my finished baked good. Or appalled even. And it's actually one of the only things I can successfully concentrate on.

Decorated a cake with these royal icing sheep recently, took agesss.

Whilst being at uni however, I just don't feel like I can do that. I don't have time to spend on faffing over how each length of pastry aren't exactly the same measurements or the butter icing isn't completely level or smooth, yanowarramean? I have to let go of my perfectionism and compromise on style. And you know, sometimes the er, not nicest looking of things, actually turn out to be one of the bestest things you've ever eaten!

So anyway, while I have been baking these past few weeks, I'm consciously aware of the fact that I have deadlines looming, books to be read, dissertations to be started and I'm not very relaxed as I work my hands into a bowl of flour. In fact, now it's more of a form of procrastination. Don't get me wrong, I have a HUGE sweet tooth and I always get urges to bake, even if it is 3am in the morning. I love it, it's fun, it's crafty, you don't even have to be good at it. Also it's food. I like food.

Snailbons!

And then I realised, who gives a crap about whether it's simple or takes forever to do, as long as I've baked something that tastes good, I'm happy. And that's why I bake. To lift the low mood, the humdrum of a glum day and not just because I can't be bothered to read Austen.

I mean these no bake type makes are a GOD send - and I've been doing more of these recently.

Peanut butter cup with Marshmallow, mmm. I'll show you how I made this and take a better pic soon, promise!

And I think while stress and anxiety levels are kinda peaking right now, I shall stick to these no-bake wonders that the Lord has blessed us all with.

Yeah so the next coupla posts will be 'quickies' made whilst I've been overwhelmed with too much Wordsworth and words in general. Or I might just stop posting, again. (Also for photos, instagram wins. SorryNotSorry.)

Go ahead and bake yourself happy, which is what Marian Keyes does. I like her. I do.

Mini Lemon Meringue Pie.

The Dainty Cook x