Chocolate Panna Cotta

Every summer, when we have guests, I search high and low for no-bake desserts. Although I have accumulated lots of easy sweet recipes, yet the simplest and most satisfying in hot weather : Panna cotta never crossed my mind... ???
Okay better late than never. My first try at panna cotta was a success! I'll definitely be trying more variations of panna cotta for the rest of this summer and beyond :)

Chocolate Panna Cotta
serves : 4-5 pax
credit : thanks! Chocswirl 

Ingredients
2 Tbsp water
2 tsp gelatine powder
2 cups (single/pouring) cream *used 12% fat
1/3 cup (50g) icing sugar, sifted * adjusted to taste
100g dark chocolate, chopped * used regular chocolate +cocoa powder. probably the caused of slight graininess , which I don't mind.



Process :-
1) Place the cold water in a bowl, add the gelatine and let stand for 5 min or so until the gelatine absorbs the water.
2) Place the cream, sugar and chocolate in a sauce pan over medium heat and stir to melt the chocolate, allowing the cream to just come to the boil. Add the gelatine and stir for 1-2 min to dissolve it.
3) Strain the mixture and pour it into 4 x 1/2 cup capacity ramekins, that have been lightly greased with the oil.
4) Refrigerate for 4-6 hrs or overnight, until firm. Remove them from the fridge 5 min before serving, then unmould and serve.

Chocolate Swirl Cookies

You probably know and I've mentioned that I rarely bakes cookies or biscuits. We do tend to buy cookies / biscuits that have something to with chocolate. We ran out of bought snacks and since I have all the ingredients for this recipe, I quickly whip this up. I would be relying this as my go-to chocolate based cookies going forward. The quantity of sugar have been reduced to my taste which resulted in a more intense chocolate bite. For special occasions and a more decadent version, I intend to sandwich with chocolate butter cream!

Chocolate Swirl Cookies
via BBC Good Food

**I halved this recipe and yield around 24 medium-size cookies

Ingredients 
200g softened butter 
300g soft brown sugar (in my halved recipe, I reduced from 150gm to 75gm)
2 tsp vanilla extract 
2 eggs 
300g self raising flour (used regular plain flour)
80g cocoa powder 
1 tsp baking powder 
300g choc chips (eliminated)

My additions
++ rum, to taste
++ pinch of salt,  if using unsalted butter

Method

1. preheat oven to 180 c/ gas 4
2. cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in vanilla extract and eggs
3. in a separate bowl sift flour, cocoa and baking powder together
4. add flour mix to the creamed mix in stages( a third at a time) mix well. fold in choc chips until just combined.
5. spoon a tablespoon of the mixture on to a baking tray and just let it drop off the spoon, repeat until you have used up all the cookie mixture.
6. bake in preheated oven for 12 minutes, when you remove the cookies from the oven they will still be soft, leave to cool completely on the baking tray, where they will continue to cook slightly,when completely cold move to a cooling rack. then enjoy!

Marble cake

A favourite teatime cake of mine; which I finally successfully recreate. The buttery smell and crumbly but not dry textures is just as I remembered.

My notes :-
1) Halved the recipe and baked in loaf tin.
2) Roughly divided the cake batter, keeping vanilla batter the most. Added rum to pink (red food) batter.

Marble cake
via BBC Good Food

• 225g butter, softened
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 225g self-raising flour
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/gas 160C/gas 4. Grease a 20cm cake tin and line the bottom with a circle of greaseproof paper. If you want to make life easy, simply put all the ingredients (except the cocoa powder) into a food processor and whizz for 1-2 mins until smooth. If you prefer to mix by hand, beat the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Fold through the flour, milk and vanilla extract until the mixture is smooth.
2. Divide the mixture between 2 bowls. Stir the cocoa powder into the mixture in one of the bowls. Take 2 spoons and use them to dollop the chocolate and vanilla cake mixes into the tin alternately. When all the mixture has been used up (and if young kids are doing this, you’ll need to ensure the base of the tin is fairly evenly covered), tap the bottom on your work surface to ensure that there aren’t any air bubbles. Take a skewer and swirl it around the mixture in the tin a few times to create a marbled effect.
3. Bake the cake for 45-55 mins until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Turn out onto a cooling rack and leave to cool. Will keep for 3 days in an airtight container or freeze for up to 3 months.

One-bowl Chocolate fudge cake with chocolate sour cream frosting

In the last minute, I've decided to try out this chocolate cake for a birthday cake since my first bake (another chocolate cake recipe) failed! This cake turned out moist and stable, great with my go-to chocolate sour cream frosting. The left over also freezes well. PERFECT!
I've declared this is going to be go-to chocolate cake recipe from now on. No more fussing about with other recipes :p

Chocolate Cake

via kitchencorner

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1½ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

2 teaspoon granulated coffee

Chocolate sour-cream frosting

adapted from kwanster

100g chocolate, break into pieces
64g unsalted butter, at room temperature
50-64gm confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
Pinch of salt, sifted
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. sour cream , room temperature **12 or 20% fat
added rum for extra flavour

For the cake:-

1) Pre-heat oven at 180°c.

2) Add flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt to a large bowl. Whisk through to combine using a hand whisk to stir through flour mixture until combined well. 

3) Add milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla to flour mixture and mix together until well combined. Mix the granulated coffee with  boiling water then pour into the cake batter and mix well combine. 

4) Distribute cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans or one cake pan where you can cut horizontally after the cake is baked and cooled down. 

5) Bake for 30-35 minutes if using two pans or 1 hour until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. 

6)Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes, remove from the pan and cool completely.

For chocolate frosting :-
1) Melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Set aside to cool until just barely warm.
2) In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter on medium-high speed until pale.
3) Gradually mix in the sifted confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder and salt, beat until light and fluffy.
4) Beat in the melted and cooled chocolate and then the sour cream.
5) Continue beating until the mixture is smooth and well blended.

Frost cake and decorate as you desire.

No-bake biscuit cake

 

No-bake Biscuit cake

Ingredients

For the "cake" layer
adapted from Padhuskitchen

1x220gm packet of wheat biscuits, like the Marie biscuits. Used only 24 pcs. I used local brand "Albert"
1 cup of strong expresso / instant coffee

For the Chocolate frosting
adapted from Kwanster

100g chocolate, break into pieces
64g unsalted butter, at room temperature
50-64gm confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
Pinch of salt, sifted
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. sour cream , room temperature **12 or 20% fat
added rum for extra flavour


Preparation :-

1) Brew/ make 1 cup strong coffee, set it aside to cool.
2) Line loaf baking tin with cling film for easy removal when it is ready.
3) Once coffee is cooled, get started with the chocolate frosting :-

1. Melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Set aside to cool until just barely warm.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter on medium-high speed until pale.
3. Gradually mix in the sifted confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder and salt, beat until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in the melted and cooled chocolate and then the sour cream.
5. Continue beating until the mixture is smooth and well blended.

4) Start assembling the "cake" by dipping biscuit into coffee to soften biscuit a little. Dip piece by piece to create a base layer for the cake. Once first layer is form, spread 1/3 of the frosting over it.
5) Create second biscuit layer by dipping into coffee followed by spreading the second portion of the frosting.
6) Finally create the third layer and spread on the last portion of the frosting.
7) Leave it in the fridge for at least few hours to let it set. You can make this one day ahead before serving.
8) Serve this cold or slightly below room temperature.

Simple chocolate cake for Valentine's day!

Get the simple chocolate cake recipe from Joy of Baking

Chocolate sponge cake with mascapone whipped cream and punc flavoured butter cream

 

The story behind this cake was I started off wanting to bake a Hungarian classic, the Somlo Cake. That's when I came across a great sponge recipe; which I included below. As usual my mind can't just stick to one cake, I recalled another Hungarian cake, called LajcsiSzelet (Louie slice) ; which I haven't tasted before ; but the appearance really appeal to me.

Lajcsi Szelet (sort of)

Ingredients

Chocolate sponge cake
via you tube
basically based on the number of eggs you're using, the rest of ingredients just multiply by 2.

3 eggs
6 Tbsp water
1 sachet vanilla sugar
6 Tbsp sugar (I adjusted to my taste 4 Tbsp)
a pinch of salt

4 Tbsp All purpose flour
2 Tbsp cocoa powder, unsweetened
1 tsp baking powder
rum


Filling - Pink Layer
1x packet "punc" / pink pudding
300ml cold milk
84gm butter, room temperature
2-3 Tbsp powdered sugar

Filling - Vanilla Layer
1xpacket vanilla pudding
300ml cold milk
65gm butter, room temperature
2-3 Tbsp powdered sugar

Chocolate topping
100gm chocolate
3 Tbsp flavourless oil
rum

Method :-

Chocolate sponge cake

1) Pre-heat oven at 180°c / Gas mark 4. Grease and line baking sheet. Size
2) In a mixing bowl, crack in the eggs, pour in the water, sugars and a pinch of salt
3) Beat on medium to high speed for around 5 minutes, or until thick and creamy consistency.
4) Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into egg batter.
5) Beat again until dry ingredients are well combine.
6) Pour into baking dish.
7) Bake for around 12-14 minutes until the sponge spring back when touched.
8) set aside to cool for 30 mins. - 1 hour.

Filling (same process for both flavours)
1) Cook pudding according to instruction without the sugar. Set it aside to cool
2) Whipped butter with sugar until light and fluffy
3) Whipped in the puddings until well combine.

Assembly
1) Divide chocolate sponge into 3 rectengle
2) Start spreading the pink butter cream on the first layer.
3) Place the second chocolate sponge cake on top. Spread the vanilla butter cream on top.
4) Finally place the third layer.
5) In the microwave or double boiler. Melt chocolate and oil until shinny, add in the rum and mix well.
6) Glaze the chocolate on top of cake and it it ready.

My Notes:-
1) I've used chocolate with 49% cocoa content ; which I find to overpowering.
2) The sponge cake recipe was so easy and could be reduced and multiply easily!
3) I'll probably add a layer of apricot jam next round to give some contrast in the taste.

No-bake chocolate hearts for Valentine's Day

Recipe same as this .

Chocolate chip and raisins cookies

As much as I like chocolate chip cookies, I haven't tried baking them before this. Turns out, it is so easy to just bake it at home with just some basic pantry staples.

Chocolate chip & Raisins cookies

source : ohbin

Ingredients :

100g butter (room temperature)
80g caster sugar
1 egg *
170g flour (sifted)
1/2 tsp baking soda (sifted)
1/8 tsp salt

170g choc chips

60g walnuts (chopped into small pieces)**

* I've used only left over egg white, as a result, the cookies weren't yellow in colour. 

** Replace walnuts with raisins (soaked in milk for one hour prior to baking, just drain milk before putting into cookie mixture)

Method:
1) Pre-heat oven to 180°c
2) Mix butter + sugar until fluffy.

3) Crack in egg and mix
4) Mix in flour, baking soda and salt.

5) Put in choc chips and walnuts, mix a bit.
6) Put a tsp full of dough onto the baking tray (with baking sheet on it) and bake for 10-15mins

Chocolate carrot cake

Chocolate Carrot Cake
http://mochachocolatarita.blogspot.com/2009/08/chocolate-carrot-cake-moist-very.html

2 eggs
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cups grated carrots
handful of cherries, chopped

Chocolate Icing
60gm chocolate
Rum essence, to taste
vegetable oil, as needed to loosen chocolate

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
Lightly grease a loaf pan.
Using a electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar until pale in colour. Add in vanilla extract and vegetable oil continue to mix until well combined.
In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.
Add flour mix into egg mixture and beat until well mixed, add grated carrots and chopped cherries and mix well.
Pour batter into your cake pan, bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Set aside to let it cool on a wire rack.

After cake is fully cooled, prepare chocolate icing by melting chocolate over double boiler or the microwave.
To loosen the melted chocolate add in about a teaspoon of vegetable oil and finally the rum essence.
Glaze the top of the cooled  cake with chocolate icing and let it set before serving.

Chocolate swiss roll with coconut butter cream

Chocolate swiss Roll
source : Hungarian cookery

Ingredients

For sponge cake
4 eggs, separated
salt
90gm sugar
90gm flour (minus 2 Tablespoons)
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder, unsweetened
1tsp baking powder
1 sachet vanilla sugar

For coconut butter cream-
100gm butter , softened
100gm powdered sugar
50gm desiccated coconut

For Glazing
Apricot jam, heated
60gm chocolate, melted
cooking oil, as need if chocolate is not spreadable
1 tsp Rum
Method
To make sponge cake
1. Pre-heat oven to 180°c.

2. Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt until it become stiff foam. Set aside

3. In a bowl combine together dry ingredients - flour, cocoa powder, baking powder. In another bowl beat egg yolks with sugar (+vanilla sugar) until creamy. When eggs mixture is creamy, add in the dry ingredients and combine well.

4. Fold egg white into egg yolk mixture carefully.

5. Prepare baking dish by lining it with parchment paper. Pour in the cake mixture and bake for 10-12 mins. It is ready when cake is springy when touched.

6. Remove cake from oven. Let it cool for a while ; but roll up cake when it is still hot. When cake is cooled completely, unrolled it and spread with your favourite jam or whipped cream.

To make coconut butter cream
1. Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Fold in desiccated coconut.
3. Fill cake as mentioned in point 6. above.

To finish
1. Heat apricot jam in microwave (30 seconds) for easier application.
2. Brush heated apricot jam all-over rolled cake
3. Melt chocolate using microwave or double-boiler, once melted, if consistency is not spreadable, add cooking oil (vege. oil) to loosen and give a nice shine. Spread all over roll-caked and let it set before serving.

Chocolate mousse & cream triffle cake

I intended to bake this Hungarian chocolate butter cream sponge cake (aka Ludlab) again for my FIL since I received favourable reviews the last time I made it. As the butter cream in that recipe was a bit heavy for my liking, I searched for a chocolate mousse recipe to replace the butter based one. I know the portion of chocolate mousse would not be enough to satisfy my FIL preference of more creamy filling less cake and so I added chocolate flavoured whipped cream to it. Finally, when I was deciding on presentation of the cake, I have to take into account on the convenience of travelling with a layered cake ; presenting it in a triffle cake form would be much easier to carry around - done!

Everyone loved the cake. It was chocolaty and light at the same time. There's plan to bake it again next week for another celebration.

Chocolate mousse & cream triffle cake

Ingredients

For Sponge cake ( source : flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/elfrieda/sets/72157601094692691/ )
3 eggs,
3 tbsp caster or superfine sugar
1 tbsp cocoa
3 tbsp cake flour {substitute with 3 tbsp plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder}

For the filling :-for Chocolate mousse (source http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/330616/really-easy-chocolate-mousse )

75g dark chocolate , chopped and melted (use a standard dark chocolate for this rather than a high cocoa one as it combines better)
2 eggs, separated
25g butter , melted
2 tbsp golden caster sugar
1 tbsp coffee liquor (optional)- I used rum

for chocolate flavour whipped cream
125g dark chocolate
250ml whipping cream
1 sachet cream stabiliser
powdered sugar, to taste

For the syrup
200g sour cherry preserve, with juice (roughly divide into 3 portions)
a pinch of cinnamon
sugar, to taste
2 tsp rum

For chocolate ganache
45g chocolate
a little cream or milk just to loosen chocolate

Processes
For sponge cake (I baked this few days earlier before and kept in freezer)
Grease 18cm cake tin with a small amount of butter and sprinkle a bit of cocoa in the pan to prevent sticking.
Separate eggs, cream yolks with sugar until pale.
Mix flour, baking powder and cocoa in a separate bowl.
Beat egg whites separately until stiff.
Gently combine wet and dry ingredients.
Bake in 180°c/350°F oven in round cake tin for 25 minutes or until cooked.
Set aside to cool. Once cool, cut across horizontally to create 2 cake layers.

For syrup (this can be prepare earlier as well and kept in the fridge)
Place sauce pan over low heat, pour the juice from cherry preserve into sauce pan, and sprinkle 1 portion of the sour cherry preserve, sugar and cinnamon. Cook it down until a thick consistency. Not too thick as this will use to moist the cake

For chocolate mousse
Melt chocolate and butter in microwave for 30 seconds until melted. Mix together melted chocolate and butter until well combine. Then quickly mix in the egg yolks.
In another bowl, whisk the egg whites and whisk in the sugar gradually until mixture is shinny and stiffFold in the two mixture and along add in coffee liquor if using (I used rum).

Start assembling cake

In a glass bowl, put one of the the layered cakes in the bottom of glass bowl. Brush some sour cherry syrup on the cakes and sprinkle with pieces of sour cherry (cooked together with juice)

Pour in the chocolate mousse, sprinkle with 2nd portion of sour cherries. Let it set in the fridge for 2 hours.

Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate ganache simply by microwaving the chocolate and a little bit of cream or milk til loosen and melted. Melting chocolate in microwave needs to be done by heating gradually, if chocolate is stiff add cream/milk to loosen.

For second piece of sponge cake, again brush the sour cherry syrup to moisten , let it soak up of the syrup before spreading the chocolate ganache prepared above, finally dot it with the 3rd portion of sour cherry. Set this cake layer aside while waiting for chocolate mousse to set.

For chocolate flavour whipped cream
Once chocolate mousse is set,
Melt chocolate set aside.
Start whipping the cream with sugar and cream stabiliser.
Half way through the whipping process, pour in the melted chocolate and whipped until it holds. Don not over whipped.

Pour this whipper cream over the set chocolate mousse, finally topped with the 2nd layer (the one with chocolate ganache)of sponge cake prepare earlier and it is ready.

Serve cold.

Chocolate cake in-a-minute cooked using microwave !

Chocolate cake in-a-minute {cooked using microwave}
Recipe from collaborative curry

Ingredients
4 Tbsp plain flour
4 Tbsp white sugar (changed to 1 Tbsp white + 1 Tbsp brown)
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
a pinch of Salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 large Egg, room temp
3 Tbsp milk
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
a dash of vanilla extract (switched to rum)
2 microwave-safe coffee mugs (I cooked it in mini casserole microwave-safe dish)


Method
1. Mix together dry ingredients
2. In another bowl beat the egg lightly, next add-in the rest of the wet ingredients ; mix well with a fork.
3. Mix in the dry mixture , mix until well combined.
4. Pour the batter into your microwave-safe baking dish
5. Microwave on high for a minute (my microw. is 900w). At this point the centre of the cake is gooey, it is cooked. Just keep in the microwave for another 10 seconds. Do not overcook or you might end up with a dry cake.
6. Let it cool before digging in!

No bake biscuit cake

This is going to be a great recipe for the hot summer months especially when I crave Gerbeaud cake / slice . To me this is a cheat version of the classic Hungarian confection ; one of my favourite sweets from Hungary!

No bake biscuit cake
source : Local Hungarian cooking mag

Ingredients
250gm biscuit crumbs
200gm powdered sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar / or use vanilla extract
120gm margarine (I used butter, melted)
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 Tbsp rum
100gm ground walnuts
grated zest of 1 orange (I used lemon)
Milk, as needed to combine

Chocolate icing
100gm dark chocolate

Method
1)Mix together dry ingredients and then combine in the wet ingredients. Press the mass into a rectangular tin and spread to get 2cm thickness

2)Melt chocolates and cover the top of cake.

verdict
I like it! need to be brave with milk! the "cake" base was a bit loose. Perhaps next time I'll try with vanilla cream filled biscuit crumbs.

Upside-down sour cherries black forest cake

My new favourite cake recipe. So easy and delicious! I've halved the recipe and turned all just fine!

Hungarian chocolate cream sponge cake a.k.a Lúdláb

For my husband's name day I made him this classic Hungarian chocolate sponge with chocolate cream and sour cherry filling a.k.a Lúdláb ; which translates to "Goose foot". Not sure how the name came about , perhaps the shape?

Thank you Elfrieda for posting an English version of the recipe. I found your version only after translating a Hungarian version...

I'm re-posting her recipe below with my own notes and alteration in brackets { } for my future reference.

Lúdláb

Sponge cake batter:
3 eggs,
3 tbsp caster or superfine sugar
1 tbsp cocoa
3 tbsp cake flour {substitute with 3 tbsp plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder}

Filling:
400 g sour cherry preserves or compote {with some drops of essence of rum}

Chocolate buttercream:
300 ml cream {used only 200ml}
4 tbsp icing sugar
150 g bittersweet chocolate {used about 80g bittersweet (70°%) + cooking choco}
1 tbsp cocoa powder
200 g butter

Fondant:
200 g bittersweet chocolate {omitted - as I decided leaving it out should be fine}

Prepare sponge cake:
Grease 9" cake pan with a small amount of butter and sprinkle a bit of cocoa in the pan to prevent sticking.
Separate eggs, cream yolks with sugar until pale.
Mix flour and cocoa in a separate bowl.
Beat egg whites separately until stiff.
Gently combine wet and dry ingredients.
Bake in 180 C/350 F oven in round cakeform for 25 minutes or until cooked.

For the chocolate buttercream:
Heat cream with sugar, add chopped chocolate and mix until chocolate is melted. Add cocoa. {Beat butter until light and fluffy}
When completely cool, mix with butter(room temperature).

Preparing the Ludlab:
{With cake} still in the cake pan, {spread half the choco. butter cream on sponge}, pour the sour cherry preserves onto the sponge cake, then spread the {remaining} chocolate buttercream on top. Cover with chocolate fondant (simply melted chocolate).

While in the pliable stage, cut the cake into pieces with a heated knife. I waited until the chocolate fondant had hardened and I had a heck of a time slicing the cake.

Allow cake to cool to room temperature or refrigerate for cold Ludlab. It is an extremely rich cake so a small piece for each person is all that you will need. In a regular sized cake pan, count on 14-16 slim slices.

Variation:
Heat sour cherry preserves in small pan and add a tablespoon of brandy or kirsch. Cook for a few minutes to allow alcohol to evaporate, remove from heat and let cool. Smooth over sponge cake as directed above.

Notes
1) With increase sugar by a little
2) will add vanilla extract to buttercream instead of rum.

Moist chocolate Cake

M M mmmmm..the taste does live up to the name - moist! The recipe made me 3 small alum. foil trays and I alone finisehd 3/4 of a tray..help, someone please hide it

.

My normal practice whenever baking a cake is reduce the qty. of sugar stated, but somehow for this one I followed to the T and the sweetness was balanced with the after taste of cocoa / coffee...simply perfect!!

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Head over to Pusiva's for the recipe.