Hairy Bikers' Chocolate & Hazelnut Cake (Torta Gianduia)

I was watching the Hairy Bikers' Bakeation program a couple of weeks ago and as soon as I saw them making this cake I knew I had to make it as soon as possible. Before making the cake they spent some time with a local hazelnut grower who showed them how he turned his hazelnuts into the most fabulous-looking homemade chocolate spread (like Nutella but more so). They then proceeded to make the most tempting-sounding cake and smothered it with the chocolate spread. I was sold.

So I stocked up on the necessary ingredients and today had the opportunity to make it. There are a few stages involved in the cakes construction - baking and blitzing the nuts, melting the chocolate, beating the eggs - but it was soon in the oven and filling the house with an amazing aroma. Sadly I didn't have any homemade Italian chocolate hazelnut spread to hand so Nutella was the next best thing and it was very satisfying to spread over the cooled and turned out cake. Just a few hazelnuts for decoration and it was ready to eat.

 The resulting cake was dense and moist, almost brownie-like in texture. As the recipe doesn't include flour it doesn't have the usual airy texture of a sponge cake but was rich and very chocolatey with plenty of texture and flavour from the hazelnuts. An undeniable winner from start to finish.

You can find the recipe here...what are you waiting for.....!

Book Review: Marshmallow Madness

Marshmallows had been on my list of things to make for ages so a few weeks ago I was very pleased to receive a book entirely devoted to them.  The cutely titled book Marshmallow Madness!: Dozens of Puffalicious Recipesis a bright and colourful book written by Shauna Sever and contains a wealth of information and tips on how to make marshmallows together with a plethora of recipes using a wide variety of flavour combinations.

For my first recipe I decided to start with the basics and try the Classic Vanilla Marshmallows. I've always thought that marshmallows would be a bit tricky to make but I was pleasantly surprised.  As long as you spend a little time getting all of the ingredients measured out the rest of the process is pretty straightforward. Yes, you will need to use a sugar thermometer when heating up the sugar but please don't let that put you off.  I think the whole process took me about thirty minutes from start to finish.  Having said that you do have to spend a little more time later on when the marshmallow has set and it's time to turn it out and cut it up but nothing too daunting.  It was actually quite fun and the marshmallows came away from the tin nicely and were easy to cut into squares.

They tasted good too and pretty similar to the shop-bought variety, although the texture isn't quite the same.  A sweet tooth is a pre-requisite though, for these ones anyway, and you wouldn't want to eat too many at one sitting.

The next recipe I tried was the Key Lime Pie which added lime juice to the basic recipe and used biscuit crumbs to coat the outside.  I liked this one even more than the vanilla as the lime juice helped to cut through the sweetness and the biscuit crumbs added lovely texture.

There are so many more varieties I want to try out - Deeply Chocolate, Strawberry, Buttered Rum, Sea Salt Caramel Swirl and maybe even the Maple-Bacon! - to name just a few.

Overall this is a lovely, well designed book, with recipes that really work.  You can find it on Amazon at the moment for around £8.  Many thanks to PGUK for sending me a copy to review.

Classic Vanilla Marshmallows
(from Marshmallow Madness by Shauna Sever)

4 1/2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin
1/2 cup cold water

3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup, divided (in the UK golden syrup is a good substitute)
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup classic coating (Sift together 1 1/2 cups confectioners' (icing) sugar and 1 cup cornstarch.  This will keep for ages in an airtight container)

1) Lightly coat an 8-by-8-inch baking tin with cooking spray or oil. Whisk together with gelatin and cold water in a small bowl and leave to soften for 5 minutes.

2) Stir together the sugar, 1/4 cup of the corn syrup, water and salt in a small to medium saucepan over a high heat. Boil, stirring occasionally, until the temperature reaches 240f.

3) Meanwhile, pour the remaining 1/4 cup of corn syrup into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.  Microwave the gelatin on high until completely melted, about 30 seconds.  Pour it into the mixer bowl.  Set the mixer speed to low and keep it running.  (I used a hand held mixer with only one speed setting and worked fine).

4) When the syrup reaches 240f, slowly pour it into the mixer bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes. Increase to medium-high and beat for 5 more minutes.  Beat on the highest setting for 1 to 2 minutes more and beat in the vanilla. The finished marshmallow will be opaque white, fluffy and tripled in volume.

5) Pour it into the prepared tin using an offset spatula to smooth it into the corners.  Sift coating evenly and generously over the top.  Let set for at least 6 hours in a cool, dry place.

6) Use a knife to loosen the marshmallow from the edges of the pan. Invert the slab onto a coating-dusted work surface and dust it with more coating. Cut into whatever sized pieces you wish (a pizza cutter works great for squares). Dip the sticky edges of the marshmallows in more coating, patting of the excess.

Makes about 2 dozen 1 1/2 inch marshmallows.

Nigella's Flourless Chocolate Lime Cake with Margarita Cream

A new blog post at last! Unfortunately, I've been having trouble finding the time to sit down with my laptop lately what with visits from family, upcoming trips and birthdays and various other things that come under that general heading called "life".  But I just had to share this fabulous recipe from Nigella's most recent book Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home that, like so many, I had been wanting to try for ages.

It's a well know fact that chocolate and lime sit very happily together in recipes as I'd previously proved with Nigella's Chocolate Key Lime Pie - a triumph of flavour combinations.  This recipe takes similar flavours and mixes them up to make a delicious, flourless chocolate cake.  This cake has plenty of chocolate and eggs and a small amount of ground almonds in place of the flour. These combine to form a rather runny cake batter which transforms into a rich, moist but still light cake. The lime juice adds a citrusy edge that reminded me of a Chocolate Marmalade cake that I've made a number of times.

The thing that really takes this cake to the next level though is the Margarita Cream that you can serve with it. Lime juice, Cointreau, Tequila and icing sugar are added to cream and beaten to produce something that is nothing short of heavenly.  The usual rich, heavy cream is transformed into something light, fragrant and utterly delicious. As Nigella suggests, this could easily be served as dessert in it's own right with just a biscuit or two on the side.

The whole thing was very easy to put together. If making it for a dinner party the cake can be made several hours, or even a day in advance and the cream takes just 5 minutes to whisk together before serving.

You can find the recipe for both the cake and the cream on Nigella's website here and I urge you to try it!

Hotel Chocolat Easter Egg - The Winner

I'm pleased to announce that the winner of the Hotel Chocolate Easter Egg Giveaway is....

CORINA!

Please email me your address as soon as you can so I can arrange for your prize to be posted to you.

Thanks again to Hotel Chocolat for sending me their fabulous Rocky Road Easter Egg to review and for letting me host this competition.

Cambridge Clandestine Cake Club - 24th March 2012

Last weekend I finally got the chance to do something that I've been wanting to do for a while - attend a Clandestine Cake Club event!

You may have heard of these as the profile of the Clandestine Cake Club has been on the rise recently following a number of television appearances by Cake Club members and in particular the founder of the CCC, Lynn Hill. Events are also being regularly covered by newspapers and magazines both locally and nationally.

For the uninitiated though, the idea is a very simple one. A cake enthusiast decides to host an event, a location is found and the invitation to join in is thrown open to anyone who fancies coming along (subject to availability - more and more events are filling to capacity well in advance). Participants then make a cake and bring it along, with a guest aswell if they like. On the day itself the cakes are shared and discussed (but never judged!) and a good time is had by all.

As I mentioned above, I've been wanting to attend one of these events for ages but haven't been able to so I was very happy to hear that a date had been announced for a Cambridge meet on a day I was actually free.  This particular event was hosted by Miss Sue Flay of The Secluded Tea Party fame and she found us a great location in the heart of Cambridge at the La Tasca Tapas Bar, who were very helpful and accommodating.

I was one of the first to arrive and was tempted straight away by the fabulous cakes already waiting on the table.  More and more people arrived with more and more cakes until we eventually had about seventeen gorgeous cakes (I lost count!) lined up on the table.  Somehow we all managed to be very polite and not dive in straight away but once everyone was there and we were told to dig there was no holding back!

As much as I would like to have tried every cake that morning my stomach frustratingly started to complain about being full after the first three slices.  I pushed on though and eventually managed about five slices, although by the end they were considerably smaller than the first one!  No matter though as there was still a vast amount of cake left at the end which we all shared out and took home with us. I'm afraid I can't remember all of the different cakes we had to choose from but some of the highlights were Caramel Cinnamon, Chocolate Beetroot, Chocolate & Strawberry, Chocolate Marmalade, Coffee, Carrot & Walnut, Miss Sue Flay's Tuck Shop Layer Cake (as seen on The One Show!), Pistachio & Rosewater and Coconut.  I had a very happy couple of days sampling the leftovers!

It really was a fun and sociable morning eating, drinking and chatting to like-minded people about cake.  A special mention must go to the guest of honour, Lynn Hill herself, the founder of the Clandestine Cake Club, who had come all the way down from Leeds to join us.  It was lovely to meet her and she had some great cakey stories to share with us.

Anyone interested in attending a Clandestine Cake Club event, or even hosting one, should start by visiting the CCC website where you can find more information about the club and an extensive list of upcoming events.

And what cake did I make? Well, I decided to go with an old favourite - Nigella's Courgette Cake with Lime Curd filling - and then went to town adorning it with white chocolate fingers and lime marshmallows.  I think it turned out pretty well!

For a couple more write-ups of the morning and some more delicious cake pictures have a look at these accounts by fellow bloggers The Afternoon Tease and Miss Igs.

Riverford Cookbook Giveaway - The Winner

I am pleased to announce that the winners of the Riverford Cookbook Giveaway are.....

NICK AND KATHERINE!

Please email me your address as soon as you can so I can arrange for your prize to be sent to you.

Many thanks to Riverford for letting me host this competition.

Hotel Chocolat's Rocky Road to Caramel Egg & a Giveaway!

Do you remember that 80s advert for chocolate mousse which had the tagline "sssh...don't tell the children"..?  Well those were the words that popped into my head when I unwrapped this lovely looking package from Hotel Chocolat that arrived on my doorstep earlier this week. Unfortuntely, my two can sniff out chocolate a mile way and my telling them that it's grown up chocolate doesn't seem to be washing!

No matter though, as this is one of Hotel Chocolat's Extra Thick Eggs which are very generously proportioned eggs with plenty to go around. This one, the Rocky Road to Caramel egg, is split into two halves, both wrapped in luxuriously thick gold foil and made from Hotel Chocolat's 40% milk chocolate.  One half sports a coat of milk chocolate, puffed rice, cookies and chocolate chunks and the other a layer of caramel chocolate over a base of milk chocolate.

Concealed inside each half is tempting selection of chocolates, 12 in total, most of which have either a crunchy or caramel element. Not surprisingly there weren't any I didn't like but if I had to pick favourites I'd probably choose the Caramel Praline, the Billionaire Shortbread and the Sticky Toffee.

All of Hotel Chocolat's Extra Thick Eggs cost £26.00, or if you really want to push the boat out you might want to try one of their indulgent Ostrich Easter Eggs.  For a more moderate budget, I really like the look of the Beastie Egg selection and of course, there's a good selection of gifts for children.

And yes, as the title suggests, Hotel Chocolat are offering one very lucky reader the chance to win one of their Rocky Road to Caramel Eggs.  To be in with a chance, just have a look at their Extra Thick Easter Egg selection and let me know which you find the most tempting.  You can leave a comment below or on my Facebook page. Alternatively, you can post the following message on Twitter...

I've entered the @HalfaPotofCream competition to win a @HotelChocolat Extra Thick Easter Egg - http://tinyurl.com/729h8u9 

The competition closes at midnight on Wednesday 28th March and I will announce the winner a couple of days later.  Only UK entries allowed I'm afraid.

Good Luck!