Chocolate Easter Egg Cheesecakes

This is a fun way to present a lemon vanilla cheesecake at Easter time. I have left out the traditional biscuit base, but you could always add that in if you wanted to, and add a layer of it in the bottom of the Easter egg.

I have made this filling dairy free but I will add both versions below so you have a choice. For my son's (the dairy free version) I also made  the chocolate egg as well using a mold I had at home anyway. I melted dairy free chocolate and  built up layers of the melted chocolate, chilling between layers. This recipe is so easily made dairy free and it tastes delicious!

Chocolate Easter Egg Cheesecakes

Serves 3 medium sized half-eggs (double the recipe for more)

Ingredients:

• 170g cream cheese (or dairy free version)
• 100ml double cream (or Elmlea plant double cream)
• 40g icing sugar, sifted
• 1t vanilla
• juice of 1/4 lemon
• 3 x half easter eggs
• decorations - such as marshmallows, mini eggs, mini creme eggs, sprinkles - whatever you have or would like to use.

Method:

1. Combine the cream cheese, sugar, lemon and vanilla in a bowl, whisking until it is smooth and well combined.
2. In a different bowl, whip the cream until it is thick with soft peaks and then fold it carefully into the cream cheese mixture until it is fully combined (you can whisk it briefly too).
3. Spoon into the chocolate Easter eggs, decorate and set in the fridge for 2-3 hours but preferably overnight.

 

Rocky Road (Easter edition)

 

A well-loved family favourite has been given an Easter makeover this year. You can, of course, adapt your decorations to suit what you have available, such as mini eggs, mini creme eggs etc.

I would normally make this into one batch in a 20cm x 20cm lined tin, but today I decided to split it between 3 trays to give as gifts to friends (we kept one for our family). It's always lovely to share the goodies!

If making these outside a celebration time, finish the batch off with a sprinkling of icing sugar over the top to decorate.

ROCKY ROAD

Serves 16

Ingredients:

• 200g rich tea biscuits 
• 300g dark chocolate
• 45mls golden syrup (3 x 15ml spoons)
• 125g butter
• 100g mini marshmallows

Method:

1.  Place the biscuits onto a ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to crush them into a combination of crumbs and small pieces. Tip the biscuits into a large bowl. 

2.  In a saucepan, combine the chocolate, butter and golden syrup and melt over a low heat. Take out 125ml of the melted mixture and set aside.

3. Pour the larger chocolate mixture into the biscuits and mix to combine. Add the marshmallows and mix until almost all coated and then pour this mixture into the lined pan (20cm x 20cm if making one batch). Spread evenly and smooth the top with a spoon.

4. Pour the remaining chocolate mixture over the top and spread it out to create a smoother layer. Add any decorations and then refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.  If adding icing sugar on top, do so once it has set in the fridge.

5. Remove from the pan and slice up into 16 pieces. Store in an airtight container, preferably in the fridge.

Chocolate Orange Hot Cross Buns

I love making hot cross buns! This year I made a batch of my lovely Cranberry and Orange buns but I wanted to also make some that my allergic son could also eat. So I used that as my basic recipe, and changed it to make it dairy free.
Needless to say my son LOVED them, and I must admit I did too!
If you've never made hot cross buns before, honestly they are quite easy, but they just take a bit of time due to the two lots of proving that are necessary for a light, fluffy bun.

Anyway, do have a go!

Chocolate Orange Hot Cross Buns

For the Buns:

300 ml milk - I used soya for my son

500 g strong white flour

75 g caster sugar

1 tsp salt

7g sachet fast-action yeast

50 g butter - melted - I used Stork block - non dairy

1 free range egg, beaten

100 g dark chocolate chips - dairy free

2 oranges, zest of both 

1 tsp mixed spice

sunflower oil for greasing the bowl

For the Cross:

75 g plain flour

5 tbsp water

For the Glaze:

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp boiling water

METHOD:

1. Bring the milk to the boil and then take it off the heat, transfer to a bowl and leave to cool down until it reaches hand temperature.

2. Zest the oranges into a small bowl. 

3. Mix the flour, spices, salt, sugar, yeast, butter and egg together in a bowl and then slowly add the warm milk, mixing until it forms a soft, sticky dough.

4. Knead the dough for about 5 mins or until is is smooth and elastic. I used the dough hook on my Kenwood mixer for this stage.

5. Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size. 

6. Tip the dough out of the bowl onto the bench top and knead it to remove any air bubbles. Flatten it out into a rectangular shape and sprinkle the chocolate chips and orange zest onto the dough. Fold the dough over to incorporate the toppings, and knead so they are well combined.

7. Divide the dough into 12 even sized pieces, and roll each piece into a smooth ball on a lightly floured surface - you shouldn't need much flour at this stage. Also, it's okay to knead these pieces a bit more to shape them. Arrange them onto a tray lined with baking parchment, leaving enough room so that they just touch when they expand and rise (about 1-2cm apart depending on their size).

8. Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

9. Set aside to prove for another hour. At this stage I placed the tray into a clean plastic shopping bag rather than covering in cling film.

10. For the cross, mix the flour with 5 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Add the water a tablespoon at a time, so that you get the right consistency for a thick paste. Spoon the paste into a disposable piping bag (or ziplock bag) and trim off the bottom of the bag - a small opening is all you need. Pipe along each row of buns in one direction only, then come back and do the opposite direction to make crosses, all in one go. Don't do individual buns, it will look messy and take so much longer.

10. Bake for 20-25 mins on the middle shelf in the oven, or until golden brown.

11. Mix the caster sugar and water together until the sugar dissolves, and then when they buns are straight out of the oven brush them liberally with the glaze so the tops are all covered.

12. Gently rip the buns apart to eat and enjoy!

Ready for the oven!

Glazed with the sugar syrup straight out of the oven.

Creme Egg Bundt Cake

I baked up a storm in the kitchen today, making goodies to sell at the Year 6 Bake Sale tomorrow. We do one annually to raise money for charity and as I organise it, it's only fair that I contribute. This year I was tossing up what to make, but in the end I went for an Easter theme. You can see the other Easter bakes here.

Last year I made this same cake, it's my 'go to' chocolate bundt cake; my absolute favourite! This year I made the icing white (yellow last year and I just couldn't get past the brown/yellow combo which I have always disliked!) and it is soooo much nicer. A simple icing sugar/water glaze, a few chopped Cadbury's Creme Eggs on top and away we go!

I won't write out the whole recipe again, but if you want it, you can find the cake recipe here.

I let it cool in the tin for about 20 mins before inverting onto a rack and allowing to cool. Once cool, I sliced the uneven top off to give a flat bottom.

I didn't measure the icing, I simple sifted an amount of icing sugar, added some water, slowly so it doesn't get too runny and then poured it over the top. I used 3 large creme eggs, cut in half, and dotted a few of the smaller ones in between. It was really so simple.

I love the filling oozing out......

This cake keeps fresh in an airtight container for at least a week (if it lasts that long!)

Notes:

• I always use a cake release spray when using bundt tins, and the cakes come out perfectly, ever single time.
• When cutting the creme eggs, don't worry if they are uneven, broken and oozing filling, it all adds to the charm.

Happy Easter!

Easter Bunny Bark

I love Easter baking, perhaps even more than Christmas. Last year I made a white chocolate bark, but I wanted to try dark chocolate this year. My first attempt, with 70% chocolate didn't really work. It was my first attempt at tempering chocolate and I think I melted it too fast and it bloomed. This is where the cocoa butter separates and has a 'white' appearance. In addition, I think the chocolate was just too dark for children to eat. So, this time I went back to my favourite baking chocolate, it's Sainsburys Belgium Dark Cooking Chocolate. It's so nice to work with, and appeals to all tastes when eating.

I have been collecting all the Easter chocs; Cadbury's mini eggs, Smarties mini eggs, Sainsbury's micro mini eggs, Cadbury's Hoppy Bunny bar, Maltesers Bunnies and the Wilton Easter sprinkles, ready for this project. It's sooo tempting to sneak a few!

It's pretty simple to make bark. You melt the chocolate, slowly, trust me, pour it onto a tray lined with parchment paper, add the decorations and then refrigerate to set. After it had hardened, break it up and package it into bags to give as gifts.

If you would like to temper the chocolate to give it that 'crack' as you break it, the BBC Good Food guide to tempering chocolate is really good.

Good luck and happy 'barking'!

Chocolate Peppermint Biscuits

The candy cane biscuits (cookies) are a festive twist on my standard ones. When I say 'mine' I really mean Nigella's as it's her base recipe, but you know, I made them, so these particular one are mine!

This month I am part of a Christmas cookie swap, so I need to make two x a dozen biscuits to send to two other ladies who I am matched up with. One of my partners is gluten free, so I have made some cranberry and pistachio biscuits for her and for my other ones, I am sending these. I absolutely love them. I love anything with chocolate and mint, and the addition of the candy cane on top is perfection in my world!

I doubled the recipe and tripled the glaze this time, and managed to get 67 biscuits and some left over glaze, but I was generous with it. Usually I'm scrapping the bottom of the pan to get it all out.
Just a little hint, if the glaze starts to thicken, just put it back on a low heat for a few seconds and it will go runny again.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Ingredients:
100g soft butter
150g light brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1 egg
150g plain flour (all purpose)
35g cocoa powder
1/2 t baking powder
200g dark chocolate chips

For the Glaze
75g icing sugar
1 x 15ml T cocoa, sieved
1.5 x 15ml T boiling water
1/4 t peppermint extract
Crushed candy canes

Method:
1.Preheat oven for 180 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugar (I use my freestanding mixer), then beat in the vanilla extract and egg.
3. Mix the flour, cocoa and baking powder in a bowl and gradually beat in to the creamed mixture. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Using a rounded 15ml tablespoon measure, spoon out scoops of cookie dough (I actually use a small icecream scoop) and place on a  lined baking sheet, leaving a little space between each one.
5. Bake in the oven for 13 mins and then let them sit on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before moving them to a cooling rack, with some baking paper underneath to catch escaping glaze later.
6. Put the glaze ingredients into a saucepan and heat until combined.
7. Using a teaspoon, zigzag the glaze over each cooling cookie and sprinkle with crush candy cane.

Makes 30+

+.

Star Wars themed 7th Birthday

This week, is my son's 7th birthday. He is Star Wars mad...and I mean mad for it! My husband thinks he could enter the TV show 'Mastermind', and he's probably correct. Anyway, it was a simple choice for the theme for his party. I knew I had to keep it all simple, as it's also a busy time for me, work wise this month.

Anyway I found some ideas on Pinterest, most completely unachievable for me, some do-able. I love the idea of the Storm Trooper marshmallows, and after making ghosts for Halloween, I knew I could this easily. It just took white marshmallows, cake pop sticks and an edible black pen - all of which I had!

We had bought some Star Wars cookie cutters from Lakeland, and I used the Darth Vader & Storm Trooper ones to make some chocolate biscuits for the take home 'party bag'. I also put in the marshmallow pop, for a tasty goodie bag.

I use Sweetopolita's Dark Chocolate Sugar Cookie recipe for my biscuits. It's a really delicious biscuit, although quite a soft dough, so it needs a lot of chilling, between every stage.

I also used some cupcake wrappers, also from Lakeland, and instead of cupcakes, I made some chocolate crackles for the party.

Chocolate Crackles

Makes about 24

4-5 cups of rice krispies (rice bubbles)

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1 c mini marshmallows

200g melted chocolate - I like to use Sainsbury's dark chocolate cooking chocolate

Mix all together until coated by the melted chocolate and then spoon into the wrappers. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to a week.

And now for the cake. These stress me out as I am NOT a good cake decorator and I am nervous and pretty hopeless with fondant covered cakes. I tried to come up with simple ideas and even bought some black and white fondant, but in the end I went for buttercream and ganache and used small Star Wars figures as decorations. They looked like they were playing 'Stuck in the Mud' (cake), and the bonus was my son had some new toys to play with afterwards! I thought the cake looked great.

I've made this cake recipe before, but in a Bundt tin, so this time I split the mixture into 3 x 8 inch tins and cooked them each for 23 minutes on 180deg C and layered them with homemade raspberry jam in the middle. I much prefer this to buttercream between the layers.

The ganache on top is my favourite kind - dark chocolate and coconut milk instead of normal cow's cream.

Coconut Milk Ganache

(Dairy free, but without a strong coconut flavour)

200g dark chocolate

1/3 c coconut milk - mainly solid, and a touch of the liquid.

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in an heatproof bowl. Gently heat the milk until it is hot but not quite boiling and pour over the chocolate. Mix and then leave until the chocolate has melted.

Mix until it is smooth and silky. Cool and pour onto the cake and use a offset spatula to spread and drip off the edges of the cake.

Any left over ganache is DELICIOUS on top of vanilla icecream.

Good luck and May the Force be with You!

Halloween Oreo Spider Cake

 

I love Halloween! We didn't celebrate it at all as kids in Australia, and I think even now it's pretty low key, but here in the UK it's bigger and I am loving it. To be honest, we didn't do much for it before we had our son, but for me, having kids is a good excuse to get into it!

Each year now, we hold a party at our place for the kids in our street (and sometimes a few extra friends). It's so much fun, a few games, some fun food and then out trick or treating! The kids get super excited, all dressed up and gorging on sweeties and chocolate.

I love all the baking for the party, with my cake always a centre piece. So, this year I decided to make this Oreo Spider Cake - I had found the idea on Pinterest and adapted it to suit my recipes.

I reuse my cake bunting each year. I painstakingly made it a couple of years ago, cutting all the tiny triangles and sewing the letters together with needle and thread. It's super cute!

 So, basically, this is a chocolate cake with an oreo buttercream inside and out. This cake recipe is a real favourite and one portion of the recipe made all four layers; it's huge! The spiders are made from mini oreos and I piped on some plain buttercream for the eyes. The legs and middle of the eyes are made with a chocolate ganache. More about my ganache later!

 

The cake itself is not overly sweet, but be warned, the oreo and buttercream combo more than makes up for it...good though!

Oreo Spider Cake

• Servings: 15-20

For the Cake:

1 1/4 cups water
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons bi carb soda (baking soda)
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 cup sunflower oil - or a similar neutral oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted

1. Place an oven rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 180 degrees C.

2. Line 4 x 20cm pans with baking parchment on the bottoms only.

3. Whisk water and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Remove from heat and let come to room temperature.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, mix together sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs and egg yolk on low for just one minute. Add the milk, oil and vanilla extract and mix on low again for another minute.
5. Add the flour and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes more.  Add the cooled cocoa mixture and mix on medium speed for 3 minutes. The batter will seem quite loose and liquid.  Pour evenly into the prepared cake pans and cook for 25 mins , or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. 

6. Let the cake cool for about 10 mins in the pan and then invert onto a cooling rack. Once cooled you can trim off any uneven tops to make it level, or just leave it as I did this time.

For the Oreo Buttercream:
I have to now admit I cheated here, and used tubs of Betty Crocker ready made vanilla buttercream. (Shocking, I know! LOL) I almost always use this, as my son is allergic to cow's milk and these tubs are dairy free, and I am yet to find a dairy free 'butter' that makes a buttercream as nice as the real thing. Anyway we like this buttercream and it's easy to use. But it is an expensive way to do it.
(You can, of course, use your usual buttercream recipe, but do keep some aside for the eyes and crumb coat before you add the oreos).

3.5 tubs of vanilla buttercream style frosting
1 x packet of oreo biscuits, crushed

I crushed the biscuits and then mixed them with 3 tubs of buttercream (although I didn't quite use all of it).
The remaining tub I kept plain to use as the spider eyes and for the crumb coat.

Use half the oreo buttercream in between the layers of the cake. Then use the plain buttercream to make a crumb coat. If you have never crumb coated before, check out this video for a quick tutorial.
Chill your coated cake in the fridge for at least 30 mins. I left mine in overnight as I was working in the evening.

Use the remaining oreo buttercream to cover the cake completely.

For the Dark Chocolate Ganache:

200g best quality dark chocolate, chopped (I used Sainsbury's dark cooking chocolate as it is dairy free and I simply like it)
1/cup (125ml) coconut milk (from the tin)

To make the ganache, heat the coconut milk in a heavy pot, just until it begins to simmer. Remove from the heat and add it to the chopped chocolate. Let the chocolate melt for a a few minutes or so, then mix to combine. 

Leave the ganache to cool down and thicken.

For the Spiders
10-12 mini oreos
Ganache (see above)
buttercream eyes (see above)

Separate the mini oreos and scrape out the filling. Pipe on the eyes and leave to dry overnight.
Stick the spiders onto the cake and then pipe the ganache legs on each spider.

Store in an airtight container - this will stay fresh for about 10 days, if you can resist it for that long!

Notes:
The ganache recipe makes FAR more than you will need, so you can reduce it all, but it is such an utterly delicious recipe (and no strong coconut flavour really) so we use to dip fruit in, over icecream etc, so it's worth having a bigger batch! And dairy free- so a real bonus!

Wagon Wheel Slice

Wagon Wheels are a favourite biscuit of mine - they remind me of my childhood, although I swear they were much bigger in those days. Over here in the UK, you get a choice of wagon wheels with or without jam in them. In my opinion, what's the point of leaving the jam out? I am 'Team Jammy' all the way!

Anyway I saw this recipe posted on a fab Facebook group I am in, and knew straight away I wanted to give them ago. The original post came from a FB page called Aussie Tucker - The Great Australian Bite.

The biscuit base is quite soft like the original, not crunchy at all. Interestingly enough I didn't have quite enough jam in the house, so I thought that layer would be quite thin, but in reality it is plenty and any more would be too sickly sweet I think.

Wagon Wheel Slice

From Aussie Tucker - the Great Australian Bite

Ingredients

For the base:
60g (¼ cup) unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 cup + 3 tablespoons plain flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt

For the jam:
1/3 cup raspberry jam

For the marshmallow:
2 dessertspoons gelatine powder
1 cup water
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup sifted icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence


For the chocolate layer:
185g dark chocolate, broken into pieces (I used dark choc chips)
1 T sunflower oil

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease a 3cm-deep, 16cm x 26cm slice pan. Line base and sides with baking paper, extending paper 2cm from edge on all sides.

Melt butter. Set aside to cool slightly. Add sugar and egg and mix well. Add sifted flour, baking powder and salt and stir until dough comes together. Press mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. 

Spread warm base with jam.

Meanwhile, soak gelatine powder in 1 cup of water (give it at least 10 minutes to soak properly), after 10 mins add 1 cup caster sugar and dissolve gently in a saucepan over a low heat, then raise heat and boil for 8 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and then add 1 cup of sifted icing sugar. 

In a large, deep bowl, beat with an electric mixer until white and thick (should take about 3-4 minutes). Add vanilla essence, and beat until well combined. Spoon almost all (*SEE NOTE BELOW) of the mixture over jam layer and place in refrigerator to set.

Place the chocolate and oil in a small, clean, dry heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a small saucepan of barely simmering water over low heat (make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water). Use a dry metal spoon to stir gently for 2 minutes or until chocolate melts and is smooth. Pour evenly over marshmallow layer and smooth the surface with a knife.

Refrigerate for 2 hours or until set. Stand at room temperature for 5 minutes (I waited about 30 just to make sure the chocolate wouldn't crack) before cutting into pieces with a hot knife and serving.

*NOTE: I find that this makes a little more than needed, but this isn't a problem! Just lightly grease a small plastic container and pour excess in. I put my excess into some silicon jelly moulds for a bit of fun!

Place in refrigerator for about 20 mins to set; a nice, but sugary treat for the kids!

Enjoy! xx

Chocolate and Zucchini Bread

I've been wanting to bake with zucchini (courgette) for a long time now and have been looking at some recipes, but this week one came up in my fb newsfeed that was just too irresistible to pass up.

Looking back over my recent bakes, I have realised just how much chocolate features and I feel I need to explain myself. Whilst I do love chocolate cakes, I also like a range of other flavours too. But my son has multiple food allergies and part of a desensitisation program he needs to eat cake or biscuit with egg and butter in it three times a week. And because chocolate cake is his favouite and one he is guaranteed to eat, to tend to go for those. I have, however, really enjoyed making a variety of new recipes for him, and the last few have been stunningly delicious. I did substitute soya milk for the sour cream in the recipe, as my son can't have the cream.

This cake, has a whole zucchini in it - I still call it zucchini, as that's what we call it in Australia, but over here in the UK it is called courgette. I made sure to squeeze the excess juice out of it after I grated it. It's a very runny mixture anyway so I'm not sure if it matters that much, but worth doing anyway.

On the top is the most deliciously crunchy crust made from sugar and cinnamon...I just love it. Oh by the way, I halved the amount of crunchy topping you need, and even then I didn't use it all...worth noting.

So, have I tempted you yet? I hope so, this was such a quick and easy bake to make, and so deliciously moist and flavoursome. 

And the best bit? My son, who hates zucchini, said he absolutely LOVED this cake (I didn't tell him the secret ingredient!!)

You can find the recipe here:

Chocolate and Zucchini Bread

Happy baking!

Kris x

Oreo Bundt Cake

As soon as I saw the Oreo Bundt Cake from Olivia at Liv For Cake. I knew I had to give it a go. She used Nordic Ware's newest square pan, which I don't have, so I used one of my favourites that I DO have instead.

I can't even pretend that mine looks as good as hers - the cake looked great before I attempted to put the topping on. I was going for the marshmallow to ooze down the spirals, but it just didn't pour as I hoped so it ended up being an all-over covering. Hehehe.....oh well.

Anyway I couldn't resist having a slice, even though I made it to take into work tomorrow - I know my work friends will forgive a big piece missing!

If you would like to make this cake, go to Liv For Cake and follow the recipe there - I will add, that for 2 sticks of butter, that coverts to 225g. And for the topping, I used about 4-5 tablespoons of cream to make it runny enough. Maybe even a little more would be even better.

Let me know if you give it a go.

Kris x