Chocolate Souffle's

Always wanted to make these, but never tried thinking they would be difficult, they're not! :)

Ingredients:

For Sauce:

140ml Single Cream
25g Sugar
100g Dark Chocolate
25 g Butter

For Souffle's:

50g Sugar
175g Dark Chocolate
2tbsp Double Cream
4 Egg Yolks
5 Egg Whites


Make the sauce by heating the cream and sugar until it boils, remove from heat, then stir in the chocolate and butter till melted, keep warm.

For the souffle's, brush 6 ramekins with melted butter and dust with sugar.
Melt the chocolate and cream, remove from heat.
Mix in the egg yolks.
In separate bowl, whisk egg whites till peak forms, add the sugar a little at a time, and whisk again.
Add 1 tbsp of egg whites to chocolate mix and mix till combined.
Then fold in rest of egg whites.

Divide mixture between the ramekins, place on baking tray, and bake in oven Gas 6 till risen and starting to brown. (do not open oven door)
Remove from oven, dust with a little icing sugar, and serve immediately with chocolate sauce, and/or ice-cream.

Enjoy!

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Hi all, hope all you mums out there had a lovely mothers day, I was spoilt as usual, chocolate, flowers, wine (hic!) oh and a ticket to go and see Harry Potter World near London for later in the year! yay! big HP fan, even at my age.

Been a quiet couple of days here, wasn't raining yesterday, so took my 2 little Chihuahuas out for a walk, needless to say, being so close to the ground, they got their bellies full of mud in the woods.

This Winky and Molly, worn out after their walk!




Today, the cars in for its MOT, so thought I'd make some cupcakes for the home round the corner.



For cakes:

6oz Castor Sugar
6oz Margarine
8oz SR Flour
3 Eggs (beaten)
1 Medium Carrot (grated)
2tsp Mixed Spice
2tbsp Chopped Nuts


For Frosting:

300ml Double Cream
2tbsp Cream Cheese
1tbsp Icing Sugar
1tsp Lemon Flavouring
chopped nuts and grated carrot to decorate

Make cakes by beating sugar and margarine together till light and fluffy, add beaten eggs a little at a time, with a spoonful of the flour mix.
Fold in flour, mixed spice, grated carrot and nuts.
I used an icecream scoop to measure and placed one scoop in each cupcake paper case, (made 18).

Bake Gas 6 until risen and light golden brown.
Place on wire rack to cool.

For frosting: Whisk double cream and cream cheese till thickens a little, add icing sugar and flavouring and beat till thickens.


When cakes cooled, pipe frosting on cakes, then sprinkle with chopped nuts and a little of the grated carrot.

Enjoy!

Key Lime Pie

Another 1st for me! This is absolutely delicious, not over sweet and light.

Ingredients:

250g Digestives (crushed)

85g Butter

300ml Double Cream

Small Can of Condensed Milk

Juice and zest of 5 Limes

Melt butter in large pan gently, remove from heat and mix in crushed digestives well.

Place in deep loose bottomed cake tin, press down and smooth up the sides slightly.

Chill base in fridge while making filling.

Whisk together double cream and condensed milk, then add juice and zest of limes (keep a little of the zest to one side). Whisk till it thickens.

Pour mix onto base and chill in fridge for 1-2 hours.

When ready to serve, pipe some whipped cream on top, and sprinkle with remainder of lime zest.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Viennese Fingers

These are same recipe as my Viennese Biscuits on a previous page as below:

viennese recipe :- 

Put mixture into large piping bag with large open star nozzle, and pipe fingers onto greased baking tray, leaving space for spreading.

Bake until ridges are starting to brown, remove from oven and allow to cool still on tray for a while, before using palette knife to remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Melt chocolate in glass or steel bowl over pan of simmering water.

Dip half of fingers into chocolate gently ( they are delicate), then shake a few sprinkles on if desired.
Place on baking parchment and leave till chocolate set.
Store in air tight tin, between layers of parchment paper to kitchen roll.

Enjoy!

Molten Chocolate Pots

Something I've never made made before, but always wanted to try...
This was my 2nd attempt, all I did, was reduce the cooking time by 3 minutes.

Makes 2

60g Good Dark Chocolate
60g Butter
50g Castor Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
40g Plain Flour
Cocoa powder

Grease the 2 individual basins with butter and dust with the cocoa powder.
Heat the butter and chocolate in pan gently till melted, then remove from heat,
Stir in the sugar with wooden spoon till smooth.
Whisk in 1 egg and yolk of the other with essence.
Add the flour and beat in with wooden spoon till smooth.

Place in moulds on baking tray, and bake in centre of oven, Gas 6 for exactly 12 minutes.

Remove from oven, then slide knife around inside of mould and turn into bowl.
Serve immediately with a scoop of ice-cream or cream.

Yummy!!!

Enjoy!

Raspberry Cupcakes

I used 10 of the cupcakes I made yesterday, and decorated them with cream cheese raspberry frosting.

Frosting:

4oz Double Cream
2oz Mascarpone 
1tbsp Icing Sugar
Pink food colouring
Raspberry Flavouring
Fresh Raspberries

Whip double cream until becoming thick and creamy, add icing sugar, cream cheese and flavouring, and whip until it form peaks.

Put 1/3 of frosting into separate bowl, and add a little pink colouring and mix.

For piping, I used a 3 bag  coupler and a Russian ball piping tube.
I put white frosting in 2 bags, and pink in 3rd bag.
Then piped rosettes on each cupcake, added a raspberry on top, and sprinkled with a little icing sugar.

If anyone would like a demonstration of these piping techniques, add a comment here, and I will do my best :)

Enjoy!

Breakfast Egg Muffins

This is an easy to do recipe, ideal for breakfast or as a snack.
Can be done ahead and frozen.

Ingredients:   Yields 12    

6 Eggs
1/4 Pint Milk
1 Chopped Onion
Chopped Pancetta or Bacon
Grated Cheese

Grease a 12 piece cupcake tray.
Brown off pancetta and onion together, and place on kitchen paper to drain fat off.

Divide bacon mix into the 12 cupcake tins.
Add a little grated cheese on top.
Beat the eggs and milk together in a jug, with seasoning, then pour on top of bacon mix.
Bake in oven Gas 5, till risen and starting to brown.

When done, use a tablespoon to scoop out muffins and place on plate, eat straightaway, or leave to cool before freezing.

Enjoy!