Homemade Cake Pops For Grown Ups!

Makes about 20

Ingredients

4oz Caster Sugar

4oz Butter or Margarine

3oz Self Raising Flour

1oz Cocoa Powder

2 Eggs

100g Dark Chocolate

100ml Condensed Milk

4tbsp Cointreau

To Decorate

2 Chocolate Oranges

or 200g White Chocolate with colouring and 2tsp orange essence.

This recipe is exactly the same as my other cake pop recipe but with a few changes.

Turn oven to 180oC. Firstly bake your cake, cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy then add one egg at a time. Use an electric whisk it will give you a lovely light airy sponge. Add flour and cocoa and whisk until combined. Put in a baking tray and bake for 25-35 mins depending on your oven and the size of the tin.

Once the cake is baked and cooled put in a food processor to crumb. Melt your dark chocolate and condensed milk together in a bowl over a pan of hot water then add the cointreau. Pour in your cake crumbs and mix together put heaped spoonfuls on to a plate then let these chill in a fridge for 1-2 hours.

Once the mixture has cooled roll the spooned out mixture into balls. Melt your decorating chocolate, decorate and add whatever sprinkles you want. Let them set and you are done!

This ones for all the grown ups to enjoy. :-)

Edinburgh German Christmas Market

I'm feeling very festive at the moment (if you hadn't already worked it out from the Christmas re-vamp to the page) So today I went to have a look at the German market on Princes Street and found these sweet treats :-). There are lots of savoury nibbles there too! If your looking for something to do over the festive season and are in the Edinburgh vicinity then I recommend having a look around.

Keep an eye out from the 1st of December there will be lots of festive sweet treats. Some perfect for gifts, some traditional treats and some to keep you warm on these cold Winter nights. 

Cookies and Cream Fudge Brownies

Cookies and cream on the left. Chocolate orange on the right.

The cookies and cream brownies come from a Lorraine Pascale recipe, the chocolate orange is a variation I like.


Ingredients

165g butter, plus extra for greasing

200g dark chocolate, broken up

3 free-range eggs

2 free-range egg yolks

1 vanilla pod, Scrape out the seeds (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)

165g soft light brown sugar

2 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp cocoa powder

pinch of salt

155g Oreos, broken up (or chocolate orange)

(tsp orange essence for chocolate orange fudge brownies)

icing sugar, for dusting

Pre-heat your oven to 180oC. Melt the butter in a saucepan then remove from heat and add chocolate. (the heat from the butter will melt it). In another bowl whisk the eggs and egg yolks until fluffy. Add the sugar gradually in instalments so that you keep the air in your mixture. Pour the chocolate around the edge of the bowl so that you keep as much air in as possible. Add the flour, cocoa, salt and 2/3 of the biscuits. Mix it all together and then pour it into a baking tray. Scatter the remaining biscuits on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes again depending on your oven. The middle will be slightly gooey once cooked. Allow to cool and then sprinkle some icing sugar on top.

An alternative is to replace the oreos with chocolate orange and add a tsp of orange essence to make a chocolate orange fudge brownie.

Enjoy. 

Coconut Macaroons

Makes about 20

Ingredients

45g Plain Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

225g Desiccated Coconut

170ml Condensed Milk

1tsp Vanilla Essence

Pre-heat your oven to 180oC. Mix flour, coconut and salt in a bowl. Pour in the condensed milk and vanilla and stir. It will make a thick sticky mixture. Spoon heaped tablespoons on a baking tray and bake for 15-20 mins until golden. Baking time will depend on your oven.

Place them on a rack to cool. I like to sprinkle them with a little Icing Sugar to serve but that's optional.

Meringues

Makes 24

Ingredients

4 Egg Whites

1/8tsp Salt

285g Caster Sugar

1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence

Pre-heat your oven to 110oC and line a baking tray with grease proof paper. With an electric whisk beat the egg whites and salt. When they start to form soft peaks add half of the sugar keep whisking and add the vanilla and remaining sugar. After a while the mixture will hold stiff peaks. Pipe the meringue onto the baking tray and bake for 2 hours. Leave sitting in the oven to cool.

Serving suggestion

Ingredients

Strawberries

Greek Yogurt

Honey

Icing Sugar

Break up a meringue and place in the bottom of a glass. Mash some strawberries up and add a table spoon of icing sugar to them and top the meringue with this. Mix a spoonful of honey into the Greek yogurt and pour this over the strawberries. Top with some halved strawberries and a meringue.

Beetroot Chocolate Fudge Cake

This recipe comes from Cook Yourself Thin.

Ingredients

250g Dark Chocolate

3 Eggs

250g Light Muscovado Sugar

1 Vanilla Pod. (cut in half length ways and seeds scraped out)

2 tbsp Maple Syrup

2 tbsp Honey

40g Self-raising Flour

40g Plain Flour

1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

25g Cocoa Powder

50g Ground Almonds

250g Raw Beetroot (peeled and grated)

100ml Strong Black Coffee

30ml Sunflower Oil

To decorate

150g  Dark Chocolate. (I use 2/3 milk 1/3 dark)

3 tbsp Strong Black Coffee

1tsp Vanilla Essence

3 tbsp Honey

Preheat your oven to 150oC. Melt your chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water and set aside to cool a little. In a large bowl beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla, mayple syrup and honey together for about three minutes. Gently fold in the flours, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cocoa and ground almonds. Mix until all combined.

Dab the beetroot with kitchen roll to remove excess liquid. Mix the beetroot, cooled chocolate, coffee and oil into the mixture. Put the mixture in a tin and place on the middle shelf of your oven for 1 hour 30 mins. After this put tin foil over your cake and bake for another 30 mins. Your can check your cake is ready by inserting a skewer. (This being a moist recipe might not come out completely clean so use your own judgement on wether you think it's too runny.) Leave the cake to cool.

For the icing melt the chocolate and mix in the coffee and vanilla. This will make your chocolate seize up a bit but then add your honey and it will relax agian. Allow to cool slightly (5mins) then spread over your cake. Add any decoration you want.

I'll let you decide if you think it's a healthier option ;-)