Week 38 - Chocolate bread and butter pudding

Another week, another choc fest! After last week’s Mississippi mud pie I was planning to go for something a little more on the savoury end of the spectrum for this week’s bake but we had a celebration planned and chocolate, chocolate, chocolate was requested!

Our good friends James and Lotte got engaged a few weeks ago and this past Friday we finally got the chance to celebrate with them. As it was such a special occasion I asked the happy couple what they would like me to make for them and James being a huge chocolate fan requested anything chocolaty. I decided that as there has been a turn in the weather recently it was time to break out the autumnal recipes and try a hot pudding, bread and butter to be exact. For this I had to look no further than the cooking/baking legend that is Delia Smith and we all agreed this recipe did her proud.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/sweet/chocolate-bread-and-butter-pudding.html

Ingredients

• 9 slices of good quality white bread, one day old, taken from a large, medium sliced loaf. My bread was a day old but could really have done with being a bit more stale, it was a bit soft and squidgy, being a bit harder would have been better I think, it would have given the pudding extra crunch.  

•  5 oz (150 g) dark chocolate (70-75% cocoa solids), broken into small pieces. I did my usual and mixed milk and dark chocolate, 50g milk to 100g dark.

•  3 oz (75 g) butter

•  15 fl oz (425 ml) whipping cream

• 4 tablespoons dark rum

•  4 oz (110 g) caster sugar

•  good pinch cinnamon

•  3 large eggs

To serve

•  well chilled pouring cream

Method

1. Begin by removing the crusts from the slices of bread, which should leave you with 9 pieces about 4 inches (10 cm) square. So now cut each slice into 4 triangles. Next, place the chocolate, whipping cream, rum, sugar, butter and cinnamon in a bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, being careful not to let the bowl touch the water, then wait until the butter and chocolate have melted and the sugar has completely dissolved. I have never really bothered doing this proper method of melting chocolate and butter before, I usually just stick them in the microwave but seeing as though this is a Delia recipe I thought I better do things properly or she might jump out of the laptop and tell me off!!
2. Next, remove the bowl from the heat and give it a really good stir to amalgamate all the ingredients.Now in a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and then pour the chocolate mixture over them and whisk again very thoroughly to blend them together.
3. Then spoon about a ½ inch (1 cm) layer of the chocolate mixture into the base of the dish and arrange half the bread triangles over the chocolate in overlapping rows. Now, pour half the remaining chocolate mixture all over the bread as evenly as possible, then arrange the rest of the triangles over that, finishing off with a layer of chocolate. Use a fork to press the bread gently down so that it gets covered very evenly with the liquid as it cools.
4. Cover the dish with clingfilm and allow to stand at room temperature for 2 hours before transferring it to the fridge for a minimum of 24 (I left it for 24 hours to soak) (but preferably 48) hours before cooking.
5. When you're ready to cook the pudding, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C). Remove the clingfilm and bake in the oven on a high shelf for 30-35 minutes, by which time the top will be crunchy and the inside soft and squidgy. Leave it to stand for 10 minutes before serving with well-chilled pouring cream poured over.

The votes are in and the future Mr and Mrs LOVED it!! They also said I could make their wedding cake...in the shape of an elephant...not sure if they were serious about either me making the cake or it being an elephant (they had both had a few drinks by this point.....) but I am happy to give it a whirl!!

I have to say the pudding didn’t look super appealing before it went in the oven, I thought it looked like I had poured Bisto gravy over some leftover sandwiches but I should have trusted Delia, she is a baking institution and sure enough after 35 minutes in the oven it was crispy, gooey, chocolaty goodness. It was the perfect treat to warm your cockles as the autumn nights have started to draw in. We not only got the chance to try a new bake this week but also a new type of cutlery, the spoonfork (a spoon on one end, fork on the other), which Lotte ‘liberated’ from a conference in Maastricht. This proved to be most useful for the bread and butter pudding as you could use the spoon for the gooey bits and fork end for the crunchy bits, it was fantastic. Good find Lotte!!

Let’s see if I can have a chocolate free week next week......

Have a tasty week xx Linds xx

P.S I also made my second cake for Free Cakes for Kids this week, another Princess Cake, this time I was lucky enough to be able to deliver it to the family’s home which was lovely. 

Week 37 - Mississippi Mud Pie

This week’s bake was a full-on chocfest and luckily I had a band of merry testers to try out the results to let me know if it was up to scratch. This weekend I popped down to Kent for a family party with my husband Dave and when we arrived back this afternoon I set about quickly whipping up this week’s bake which was Mississippi mud pie. This is a recipe I have been wanting to try for a while, I found it back in July when I was looking for American recipes to try whilst we were on holiday in ‘the south’ of the USA with our good friends Karlie and Neil. It was about time that I finally got round to making it and letting them try it. This recipe came from the main BBC website (not my usual BBC Good Food site but it is still a fab resource) and was originally featured by Simon Rimmer on the TV programme ‘Something for the Weekend’. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mississippimudpie_93659

Ingredients

For the base

• 300g/10½oz bourbon biscuits, crushed
• 75g/2½oz butter, melted (I didn’t feel this was enough butter to make the biscuit mixture stick together so I added a bit more, probably about 95g in total)

For the filling

• 85g/3oz dark chocolate, minimum 70 per cent cocoa solids (I used milk chocolate instead because as you probably already know I prefer it)
• 85g/3oz butter
• 2 free-range eggs
• 85g/3oz muscovado sugar
• 100ml/3½oz double cream

For the fudge sauce

• 150g/5½oz dark chocolate, minimum 70 per cent cocoa solids (I used 100g dark, 50g milk)
• 150ml/5½fl oz double cream, plus extra to serve
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 175g/6oz icing sugar, sieved

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/365F/Gas 4.
2. Mix the biscuits and melted butter together in a bowl. Press the mixture into the base and sides of a 23cm/9in springform tin. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
3. For the filling, melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. (Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water). I know this is probably a much better way to do it but I just put the chocolate and butter in the microwave on a low setting to melt instead.
4. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and sugar together in a bowl for 5-6 minutes, or until thick and creamy. Fold in the cream and melted chocolate mixture. Pour into the chilled springform tin and bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes, or until just set. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely.
5. Meanwhile, for the fudge sauce, heat all of the fudge sauce ingredients in a saucepan, stirring regularly, over a medium heat until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
6. Spread the sauce over the cooled pie and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. Serve with double cream. We were all a bit keen to try the pie so I didn’t really let the cake cool before adding the fudge and putting it in the fridge.
   
   
   
   Karlie and Neil popped over for the official taste testing and brought Karlie’s brother Tom and his girlfriend Josie with them too. Luckily they all brought their sweet teeth with them because while they all agreed it was a winner, it was SERIOUSLY chocolaty and sugary, so much so that Karlie had to stop eating for a break because she thought she might be getting the sugar shakes!! Everyone also agreed that even though it was already horribly calorific it was better with the suggested double cream served on top as well.

Josie and Karlie - pre sugar rush

Dave and Neil

Tom on his first of several slices...

Also, I think the fact that I didn’t actually let it cool properly before serving it was actually a good thing because the pie was still a bit warm and gooey in the middle which was a nice touch.

I would say if you are a serious chocolate lover and are looking for an alternative to a chocolate fudge cake then this is the pie for you. It certainly left my taste testers satisfied.

I might have to try something savoury next week to counteract all the sugar!

Have a yummy week x Linds x

Week 36 - Princess Castle Cake

This week’s bake was probably the most stressful of the year but by far the most rewarding and it was only a Victoria sponge!!! A few weeks ago a friend of mine Rebecca sent me a link to a charity called Free Cakes for Kids that she thought I might be interested in. Just days after I logged on to look at it another friend Kathryn was round for dinner with her husband and mentioned that she had started to volunteer with the Edinburgh branch of Free Cakes https://www.facebook.com/FreeCakesForKidsEdinburgh?fref=ts! Small world, huh? She put me in touch with the coordinator Lesley so I could find out more. Basically the organisation works in local networks around the UK and the coordinators take referrals from organisations who know of children who, for whatever reason will not be getting a birthday cake this year. Then one of the loyal, dedicated volunteers in the network whips up a tasty cake, usually with a theme relating to the child’s favourite thing (such as One Direction, Smurfs, pirates, princesses and other things that don’t necessarily lend themselves to cake!) and delivers it to the referring organisation for them to pass onto the child. So, this week was my initiation... my task was to make a birthday cake for Phoebe who was turning 6 years old and who would like ‘something Princess themed or anything girly’.

After lots of searching on Pinterest, and creative planning discussions with my husband Dave I finally decided to try to make a Princess Castle. This was followed by a fairly expensive, lengthy trip to Lakeland to get appropriate sized cake tins, fondant icing, edible glitter, a cake board etc. etc. etc. but it was worth it and hopefully I will get the chance to do lots more cakes for Free Cakes Edinburgh so it will all come in handy again. With all the right equipment it was time to start the creation. I have to say I really was quite nervous, as I don’t have any children of my own I’ve never made a kids’ novelty cake before and I don’t have much experience with fondant icing so it was going to be a steep learning curve. I also kept thinking about little Phoebe and what she was going think, it was so much pressure making cakes for other people. I remember my mum making me amazing novelty cakes when I was a child, I was so worried about messing it up and her being traumatised for life by my dodgy turrets or a princess toppling over the wall that was falling down!! But I got a huge list of hints and tips from Kathryn and some help from my good friend Jen so it was time to bite the bullet and get on with it...

Jen gets to work!

I decided to keep the cake itself quite basic because the decorating was going to take a while and I also thought a Victoria sponge with strawberry jam and butter cream was probably a safe choice for a wee girl. So my usual Vicky sponge recipe it would be. I doubled the quantities of everything below (I left them here just in case you want to use the normal recipe) to make enough to fill a 10inch, a 6inch and 4 ice cream cones filled with cake batter.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1997/classic-victoria-sandwich

Ingredients

For the cake

• 200g caster sugar
• 200g softened butter
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 200g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp milk

For the filling

• 100g butter, softened
• 140g icing sugar, sifted
• drop vanilla extract (optional)
• 340g jar good-quality strawberry jam

Method

1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Butter two 20cm sandwich tins and line with non-stick baking paper. In a large bowl, beat all the cake ingredients together until you have a smooth, soft batter.
2. Divide the mixture between the tins, smooth the surface with a spatula or the back of a spoon, then bake for about 20 mins until golden and the cake springs back when pressed. Turn onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
3. To make the filling, beat the butter until smooth and creamy, then gradually beat in icing sugar. Beat in vanilla extract if you’re using it. Spread the butter cream over the bottom of one of the sponges, top it with jam and sandwich the second sponge on top. Dust with a little icing sugar before serving. Keep in an airtight container and eat within 2 days.

     Decoration

• 1kg white fondant roll icing – rolled out as per the packet instructions to approximately 4-5mm
• 500g pink fondant icing – doors, windows, walls all stuck onto the white fondant using ‘fondant glue’ which is just a block of fondant glue warmed up with a drop of water in the microwave. Thanks for the tip Kat!!
• 1 tub of edible pink glitter
• 1 tub of hundreds and thousands
• 4 flat bottomed ice cream cones and 4 standard ice cream cones
• LOADs of icing sugar
• Apricot jam for sticking the fondant icing to the cake
• Writing icing tubes for the name

In the end I was quite pleased with the result, it took several hours, a few mishaps along the way, total carnage in our kitchen and quite a lot of anxiety but in the end the cake vaguely resembled a princess castle. I also learnt LOADS for next time I do a Free Cakes for Kids cake so fingers crossed I will get a bit quicker.

Kitchen warzone

Kathryn kindly and safely delivered the castle and her amazing Smurf cake to the referring organisation Mentor http://www.mentoruk.org.uk/blog/ and got some lovely feedback to say how excited the children would be to receive them which was nice.

The finished castle

I will never meet Phoebe, or know if she really likes Victoria sponge or edible glitter but that doesn’t matter, it still feels rewarding to have done something as simple as bake for a great cause. I really hope she enjoyed her cake and maybe, just maybe in 20 years’ time she will be making a cake for her kids and remember the slightly dodgy turrets and sparkly castle cake that someone made her once...

Happy baking 

xx Linds xx