Chocolate Guinness Cake

I’m pretty sure I’ve come across a winner here. The first time I sampled this gorgeous cake, which a friend made, it was absolutely to die for. That was it, I sourced the recipe and I don’t think I’ve made another chocolate cake recipe since.

I’m not a huge beer fan but it works perfectly with the chocolate, and the end result is super moist, chocolaty with an ever so slight taste of the Guinness.

For a slightly less elaborate presentation, you can definitely get away with a dusting of icing sugar. However, because I am pretty much in love with cream cheese, I definitely can’t pass up a decent spread of icing. And the combination of the creamy white topping on the dark black cake is visually stunning in my books.

This is hands-down the best chocolate cake ever. Moist, dark, chocolaty, and with a great silky texture so make sure you try it

Chocolate Guinness Cake

For the cake

• 250 ml guinness
• 250 grams butter
• 75 grams cocoa powder
• 400 grams caster sugar
• 142 ml sour cream
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla essence
• 275 grams plain flour
• 2 1/2 tsps baking soda

For the icing

• 300 grams cream cheese
• 150 grams icing sugar
• 50 grams butter

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and butter and line a 23 cm springform tin.

Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter – in spoons or slices – and heat until the butter’s melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and the baking soda.

Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.

When the cake’s cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese with the butter until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them all together until it makes a spreadable consistency. Spread the icing on top of the cake.

Late Summer Plum Cake

My family love stone fruit, especially plums! I have wonderful memories of eating loads of fruit in the summer holidays as we traveled to our favourite holiday spots across New Zealand. Being one of three kids, we sat shoulder-to-shoulder, often sandwiched between pillows, or clothing, or nursing a picnic basket on our laps – maybe a fresh bag of plums Mum had picked up from a stall on the side of the road. My memories are endless.

When I came across this cake recipe by Helen Jackson a few months ago on Foodlovers, it only made sense to make it for my Mum on her birthday. I have this thing about people making their own birthday cakes – it just isn’t right to me.

I was pretty happy with the way this plum cake turned out. We served it, dusted with a light sprinkling of icing sugar, and a dollop of unsweetened yoghurt on the side. It is moist, tender, and wonderfully fruity. It has just the right amount of sweetness.

You can of course use any kind of plums to make this cake. Do note, if the plums are too ripe, they will turn a bit mushy while baking. If they are not ripe enough, they won’t soften enough to infuse the cake with their wonderful juices. Choose ripe plums that are still quite firm to touch.

Alternatively, you can make it with apples, nectarines or peaches!

Late Summer Plum Cake
Serves 12

• 8 large plums
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 300 grams butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup ground almonds
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Icing sugar for dusting

Slice the plums and toss with sugar in a bowl, set aside. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Line a round cake tin with baking paper.

Beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy, add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add milk, vanilla and then combined flour, almonds and baking powder, gently mix.

Spread batter evenly into cake tin and then cover the surface with sugared plums.
Bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour, until cake tests cooked.  Serve fresh and almost warm with a dollop of yoghurt. Enjoy!

This is my entry for Sweet New Zealand. This month is hosted by Monica at Delissimon. Get along to her blog and check out all the mouthwatering recipes at the end of the month.

Gooey Salted Caramel Slice

I first tried salted caramel in the form of fudge at a popular London market last year. Best. Decision. Ever. It was absolutely mind-blowingly delicious! I’m pretty sure I ate my fair share of fudge that day. I definitely remember the sore tummy afterwards.

Recently I found this slice recipe in the Bite section of The Herald newspaper a couple of weeks back and I thought, why not! It was really just too good not to share with you lovely folk!

After I got this fix, I was on the hunt for more salted caramel and came across a recipe for  ice cream so watch this space!

Enjoy. Have a great weekend everybody!

Gooey Salted Caramel Slice

• 250 grams butter, softened
• 100 grams sugar
• 100 grams cornflour
• 50 grams icing sugar
• 350 grams flour
• 50 grams walnuts, chopped

Caramel

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 150 grams butter
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Heat oven to 170 degrees and line a 20 x 30 slice tin with non-stick baking paper.
Cream butter and sugar, add cornflour, icing sugar and flour. Mix together until it forms a ball. Divide the mixture in half, use one half to press it into the tin and place the other half in the fridge.

Bake for 20 minutes until just starting to colour. Remove from the oven and cool.

Make the caramel by melting the butter, golden syrup and condensed milk in a pot until well blended. Make sure you keep stirring to avoid burning. Take off the element and cool – I placed the pot in the fridge for about 20 minutes to speed up the process.

Spread the caramel evenly over the cooled base. Sprinkle over the walnuts. Dice up the remaining dough and sprinkle evenly over the top. Return to the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes.

When cool, slice into squares and store in a biscuit tin. If it lasts that long. Let’s be honest.

Coconut Whispers

A month or so ago I bought what has become one of my all-time favourite recipe books, Ladies, a Plate. This book, written by New Zealand author Alexa Johnston, is jam-packed full of traditional home baking. It gives a fantastic insight into New Zealand baking classics (some of which I did not know) over the years.

Alexa’s interest in old-fashioned recipes began with her mothers copies of the New Zealand Women’s Institutes Home Cookery Book and the League of Mothers Cookery Book, as well as a number of church fundraising cookbooks. She also collects a large number of community recipe books.

The thing I love most is that each recipe comes with a tale, along with a wonderful full-page photograph. At the back of the book is a list of all the places these recipes were sourced from and I’d love to get a hold of some of the originals. Some of the cookbook titles just make you smile..

These biscuits are small and simple. They don’t require expensive ingredients and they don’t take long to make. They are extremely easy, light, and moorish. You can use dessicated coconut, as stated in the recipe, but the only coconut I had on hand was coconut thread and it worked just as well. This is coming from someone who loves the texture of cocunut, so perhaps stick with the dessicated stuff if you’re not so keen.

Her book is full of words of wisdom and helpful hints for successful home baking. Alexa also states and I have to agree:

A cup of tea without a biscuit is a missed opportunity.

On that note…

Coconut Whispers

• 55 grams butter, softened
• 115 grams white sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 150 grams dessicated coconut

Cream the butter and sugar using an electric mixer. Mix in the egg and the vanilla. Using a spoon, stir through the coconut.

Place teaspoonfuls of dough onto trays lined with baking paper, leaving space for spreading, and flatten slightly with a wet fork. Bake in a pre-heated 160 degree oven for 25 minutes or until golden, and cool the biscuits on the paper on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Mini Baked Chocolate Cheesecakes

Well, Happy New Year! I hope you’ve all had yourself a nice indulgent, and refreshing break. I admit I had intended to blog about this a little sooner but, you know…holidays happened. Hasn’t that sun been great?! Well, recently anyway

I found this recipe, by Donna Hay, in the New Zealand Herald last year.  Despite regularly browsing the lifestyle (namely food) pages of our online newspapers, I was instantly drawn to the rest of her equally indulgent and mouth-watering recipes. You can check them out here

The dessert itself is not heavy at all, and melted in my mouth with a slight moussy texture. I found the sliced fruit (berries, mainly) helped complete the richness and also made it perfect for someone who doesn’t have quite a sweet tooth.

I enjoyed the smaller individual-sized portions which are great if you are making them for a small group of people. There wasn’t any leftovers laying around in the fridge to taunt me in the days following!

So, welcome back to After Taste for 2013 – you can expect all sorts of exciting and tasty recipes to surface in the coming months and in the year ahead.

See you all again soon!

Mini Baked Chocolate Cheesecakes
Serves 4

• 100 grams chocolate biscuits
• 30 grams butter, melted
• 2 tbsp ground almonds
• 400 grams cream cheese
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 150 grams milk chocolate, melted
• Small amount of extra chocolate, for flaking on top
• Berries, to serve

Preheat oven to 150 degrees. Place the biscuits, butter and ground almonds in the bowl of a small food processor and process until roughly chopped. Spoon the mixture into the base of 4 x 1 cup-capacity ovenproof dishes and press down using the back of a spoon.

Place the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until smooth and thick. Fold through the chocolate and spoon over the biscuit bases.

Place the dishes on a baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm to touch. Allow to cool completely at room temperature before placing in the fridge for 2 hours.

Dust with roughly chopped chocolate flakes and top with berries of your choice. Enjoy.

This recipe is my entry in Sweet New Zealand for February 2013! Check out all the great recipes at Greedybread at the end of the month!

 

Raspberry and White Chocolate Fudge

My favourite brand of chocolate would have to be Whittaker’s, especially the delightful and fairly newly created White Raspberry chocolate block.

This delicious new flavour was an initiative of Samuel Marsden Collegiate School here in Wellington. As part of the Young Enterprise Scheme, a group girls put their thinking caps together and came up with this pink block in support of Breast Cancer.

Their pitch was so successful, the chocolate-maker adopted their idea and included a raspberry white chocolate in their line.

For each block of the chocolate sold, 20 cents will go to the Breast Cancer
Foundation. What a great reason to go out and get some and make this fudge in time for Christmas! I really think the raspberries beautifully complement the scrummy white chocolate. Enjoy!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Fudge
Makes 40 pieces

• 2 x 400g cans sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups firmly packed soft brown sugar
• 250 g butter
• 100 ml liquid glucose syrup (try your local pharmacy)
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 2 x 250 grams Whittaker’s White Raspberry chocolate, chopped
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Spray and line a slice tin or container with non stick baking paper.

Place all ingredients, except the white chocolate and vanilla, in a large heavy based saucepan and stir over medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.

Bring to the boil and boil gently until it becomes very thick and changes colour to a dark caramel brown paper shade – about 6 minutes, to the soft ball stage, 116 degrees on a sugar thermometer.

Stir often to prevent catching on the bottom. Remove from heat and stand until the bubbles subside. Stir in the white chocolate and vanilla until melted and smooth.

Pour into the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Cool to room temperature (about 3 hours ) then refrigerate until firm.Sprinkle over some leftover white chocolate once cooled. Cut into squares. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 6 weeks – if it really does last that long.

Lemon Cornflake Slice

Rules to live by #1: You can never ever have too many lemons. Add to that, raspberries, passionfruit and cream chesse. Okay, the rest are entirely optional…

If you’re a reader of my blog, you will know I’m rather passionate about recipes that use lemon juice, rind, or zest.

So, for all you lemon lovers out there, here is yet another recipe for lemon slice I found in the weekend. This one is slightly chewy, fruity and particularly moreish. It slices up really well and is very deserving of a big slab of thick lemony icing! No holding back here

Happy Friday!

Lemon Cornflake Slice
Makes 32 pieces

Base:

• 100 g butter
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup coconut
• 1 cup cornflakes
• 1 cup rolled oats
• ¾ cup white plain flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder

Lemon icing:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 3 tbsp lemon zest
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 180°C. In a large saucepan melt butter, golden syrup and sugar together. Add remaining ingredients, and blend well.

Press the mixture into a greased 20cm x 30cm slice pan and bake for 15-20 minutes. Once the slice has cooled to room temperature, ice.

For the icing, beat together butter and icing sugar until smooth. Blend in the lemon juice and lemon zest. Spread over the base.

Slice up when the icing has set and store in an air-tight container.

This is my entry for Sweet New Zealand this month. Head along to The Kitchen Maid and check out all the super tasty entries on offer! Click here to enter!

Very Berry Muffins

This recipe for berry muffins is a great way to use up leftover yoghurt and berries. They are fantastic straight out of the oven but keep extremely well in a sealed container for a couple of days. Alternatively, pop them in the freezer and take them out as needed. Tasty.

Very Berry Muffins
Makes 40+ mini muffins

• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup yoghurt (this can be anything – I used a pottle of Meadow Fresh Live Lite Berry Crème)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup oil (canola is good here)
• 1 1/2 cup berries (I used frozen raspberries, but a mix of blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries would be great)
• 3 tbsp honey

Preheat the oven to about 190 degrees. I decided I felt like mini muffins on this particular afternoon but you can easily use whatever you desire – line a standard muffin tray with paper cases or just spray a mini muffin tray.

Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre of the mixture.

Lightly beat the egg with the yoghurt, milk and oil. Pour into the well and stir together. Lastly fold i the berries. Spoon the mixture evenly into the prepared muffin tray.

Bake in the preheated over for 20-25 minutes until the muffins are well risen and golden brown. Remove from the oven and while still warm, brush with honey.

Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Filled Muffins

What can I say? These muffins are epic. This is your ideal recipe to whip up on a cold, blustery day like it is in Wellington at the moment, infact all over New Zealand I believe!

I like them best straight out of the oven when the piping hot cream cheese just oozes out from between the chocolatety goodness. Incredible.

Guess you’ll just have to try the recipe to know what I’m talkin’ ’bout

Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Filled Muffins
Makes 12

• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tsp milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Filling:

• 100 grams cream cheese, softened (I used light Philadelphia cream cheese)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp flour

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or spray well with non stick cooking spray. Set aside.

In large bowl, beat the oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, sour cream and milk until well combined and light in color, for 3 minutes or so. Fold in remaining ingredients until just combined.

In small bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar and flour together until smooth. Set aside.

Scoop 1 large spoonful of muffin batter into prepared muffin tins to be 1/3 way full. Drop small spoonfuls of cream cheese mixture into middle of muffin batter (should be about 1 1/2-2 teaspoons per muffin). Scoop another large spoonful of muffin batter and pour overtop cream cheese mixture. Muffin tins should be filled 2/3-3/4 way full.

Bake 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes before removing from tins. Once cooled, store in air tight containers, ideally in the fridge.

They also freeze particularly well Enjoy.

Tramper’s Oat Slice

Don’t ask me why this recipe, which I found sandwiched between a few hundred pages of one of my Mum’s recipes books, is called Tramper’s Oat Slice. I suppose it is a bit like a homemade energy bar…maybe that’s why.

From the look of it, it was probably a recipe found in the Dominion Post a couple of years ago, and it has become a favourite in our household.  The blurb before the recipe says that the recipe was developed by Deb Baxter who owned a cafe in Blenheim. It’s a real sort of muesli, health bar and is quite tasty, and nutritious!

The addition of lemon juice and lemon rind really adds to the slice and gives it a great tangy flavour that comes through the oats and seeds. You can add as much dried fruit as you like – things like chopped apricots work well, alongside sultanas. This is the kind of slice that you can mix up, and change depending on what you might have lingering your pantry cupboard. Enjoy!

Tramper’s Oat Slice
Makes 40

• 125 g butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup sultanas
• 1/2 cup apricots, chopped
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp lemon zest, finely grated

Preheat your oven to about 180 degrees. Grease a sponge roll tin with a small amount of spray, and line with baking paper.

Place the butter in a bowl, add sugar, golden syrup. Beat until pale and creamy. Add the egg and beat until well combined.

Add flour, baking powder, coconut, rolled oats, sultanas, apricots, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat until well combined.

Place in tin, and press down. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Slice up when the slice has cooled down a bit and store in an air tight container.