***Akviles Virtuve***

It’s my chocoholic friend’s birthday today so last night I decided to make her the chocolatiest (is that a word??) cake I could. I remembered a recipe I saw in Edd Kimber’s new baking book for his Ultimate Chocolate Cake. A 3-sponge chocolate cake with ganache in between each layer and spread over the top and sides. Immense!

This cake was relatively easy to make, but the icing took a bit of time and patience! But the end result was worth it. The sponges were as light as air and the ganache was sublime. It also didn’t taste too sweet or sickly which was a surprise. I thought it might, given how it looks.

My chocoholic friend adored it and even my non-chocolate loving friends loved it! Overall, it was a great success!

For the sponge
110g / 3.8oz unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
110g / 3.8oz plain chocolate (at least 60-70% cocoa solids)
280ml boiling water
3 tbsp cocoa powder
140ml buttermilk
280g / 9.8oz plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
340g / 12oz soft brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs, lightly beaten

For the ganache
225g / 8oz butter
285g / 10oz plain chocolate (at least 60–70% cocoa solids)
2 tbsp golden syrup
240ml double cream

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line three 20cm round cake tins with baking parchment, then grease the parchment too.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave or a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.

Set aside to cool slightly. In a medium bowl, whisk the water and cocoa powder together, then whisk in the buttermilk and set aside.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt together into a medium bowl. In a separate bowl use an electric hand mixer beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, beating until fully combined.

With the mixer on low pour the cooled chocolate into the mixture..

Once fully combined, add a third of the flour mixture followed by half the buttermilk mixture.

Repeat and then add the final third of flour mixture.

Divide equally among the three prepared tins (I did this by weighing the mixture and dividing it by weight. A bit messy but worth it!) and bake for 25–30 minutes or until a cocktail stick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

To make the ganache, melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in the microwave or a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Once melted and smooth, add the cream and mix to combine.

Remove from the heat and allow to set until spreadable, about 15–20 minutes. If the ganache is not setting at room temperature you can refrigerate, but watch carefully that it stays spreadable.

When the tins are out of the oven, cool in the tins for 10 minutes before inverting onto wire racks to cool completely.

To assemble the cake, put the first layer of cake on a serving plate or cake board. Spread a layer of ganache over the top of the cake and put the second cake layer on top, then repeat.

Put the final layer of cake on top and spread the remaining ganache over the top and sides of the cake.

Decorate with anything you fancy. Here I’ve used gold edible glitter.

MINI MERINGUE NESTS

When I have people over for dinner I tend to make a pavlova. It’s easy and everyone loves it. Even friends who profess not to like pavlova end up loving it. I recently had a dinner party and I made a chocolate cake and a pavlova for pudding. One of my friends said they wouldn’t have the pavlova as they didn’t like it. By the end of the night, he had more pavlova than everyone else and didn’t even touch the chocolate cake!

So when I was planning my Christmas party, I knew I wanted all the food to be in bite size pieces. Let’s face it, pavlova can be a messy experience. So I decided to scale it down and make small meringue nests, topped with cream and a single raspberry. Then I thought it would be nice to make it just that little bit richer and more decadent so I decided to whip up some mascarpone and then add a few tablespoons of condensed milk. Wow, that tasted good. I could have just eaten the bowl of that on my own. You can add as much or as little as you want. I have quite a sweet tooth so I added quite a bit. And I must say, even my friends who don’t have such a sweet tooth really liked this mix.

To add a bit of texture, I crushed some pistachios in the food processor and sprinkled them on top of the mascarpone mix before adding a raspberry.

It’s a bit difficult to give exact measurements as I was making loads of these and a pavlova at the same time so I was dividing my mixture up. These are some rough instructions…

Ingredients
For the meringue nests:
4 free-range egg whites
250g caster sugar
½ tbsp cornflour
1 tsp malt vinegar

For the topping:
500g mascarpone
Condensed milk – you can choose how much you want to add depending on how sweet your tooth is!
Handful of natural pistachios (not salted), crushed. Not too fine though, leave some bigger pieces for texture.
Punnet of raspberries.

Method
Preheat the oven to 150C and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

In a bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed.

Then whisk in the sugar, one tablespoonful at a time, until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed.

Add the cornflour and vinegar to the egg white and fold in lightly with a metal spoon. It should look lovely and silky.

Half fill a piping bag with the mixture and using a star shaped nozzle, pipe the mix into the desired size.

With a wet teaspoon, press down in the middle to form a nest shape.

I decided that I want to make some with a swirl effect so stirred in some red food colouring.

Unfortunately this didn’t quite work out as planned. Instead the mix came out pink. But it didn’t matter, they actually looked really nice.

Place into the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 120C/250F/Gas Mark ½. Cook for an hour, then turn off the oven and leave in the oven while it cools completely. I usually do this at night and leave overnight.

Remove the meringues from the oven and carefully remove the baking parchment.

Meringues will keep like this for a few days in an airtight container if you’re making them in advance for a party. When you are ready to assemble, beat the mascarpone until smooth and creamy then add the desired amount of condensed milk. Start off with a couple of tablespoons and taste. If you want it sweeter, just add more until its right for you.

Take a teaspoon and spoon the mix onto the meringue nests. Take care as they’re very delicate and could easily break. Top with some crushed pistachios then add a raspberry to the top.

These are really delicious. When I was planning them I thought they would taste good…how could they not? It’s sugar, mascarpone and condensed milk! But they actually tasted better than I expected. The pistachio added a different texture and taste and the tartness of the raspberry cut through the sweetness of the mascarpone mix and the meringue. I loved them and will definitely be making them again.

You can adapt this recipe however you want. You can use whipped cream if you prefer, you could drizzle some raspberry sauce over the top, you could use different berries or fruit. You can pretty much do anything.

Enjoy!

MARY BERRY’S CHOCOLATE ROULADE

I knew I needed a centrepiece for my table when I had my Christmas party and my first thought was a yule log. However I was running out of time so decided to opt for a chocolate roulade. More or less the same thing but without the ganache over the top.

I immediately thought of Mary Berry’s chocolate roulade. She set it as a task in the last series of The Great British Bake Off (http://aspoonful-of-sugar.tumblr.com/post/11025270216/the-great-british-bake-off) and I wanted to try it out.

Its made without flour or butter so it as light as a feather. And it is absolutely delicious! Try it out this Christmas…you won’t be disappointed.

Ingredients
175g/6oz good-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
6 free-range eggs, separated
175g/6oz caster sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
300ml/10fl oz double cream
icing sugar, to dust

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160 Fan/Gas 4. Lightly grease a 33cm x 23cm/13in x 9in Swiss roll tin then line the base and sides of the tin with a large sheet of greaseproof paper, pushing it into the corners. Make a small diagonal snip in each corner of the paper; this helps to fit the paper snugly into the corners of the tin.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. (Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water.)

Place the egg whites in a large bowl and whisk until stiff but not dry. If you turn the bowl upside down, the whites should be stiff enough not to fall out.

Put the egg yolks in a separate bowl with the sugar and whisk using the same whisk (no need to wash it) on high speed for 2-3 minutes or until thick and creamy and the mixture leaves a thick ribbon-like trail when the beaters are lifted.

Pour in the cooled chocolate and gently fold together until well combined.

Gently stir two large spoonfuls of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to loosen the mix, then fold in the remaining egg whites using a large metal spoon (you don’t want to squash out the air you have just beaten in).

Sift the cocoa over the top and lightly fold it in.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and gently move the tin around until the mixture is level.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until risen and the top feels firm and slightly crisp. Remove from the oven, leave in the tin (expect the roulade to fall and crack a little) and set aside until cold.

Whip the cream until it just holds its shape. Lay a large piece of greaseproof paper on the work surface and dust it lightly with icing sugar.

Turn the roulade out on to the paper so its lining paper is on top, then carefully peel off the paper.

Spread the roulade with the whipped cream, leaving a border of about 2cm/¾in all the way around the edges.

With one of the shortest edges facing you, make a cut along it with a sharp knife, going about half way through the sponge. This will help to start the rolling up. Now roll this cut edge over tightly to start with and use the paper to help continue the tight rolling, by pulling it away from you as you roll.