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cake chocolate coffee food

chocolate cake

chocolate cake with coffee cream

The first test for my new Kenwood: a proper cake. It was to take round someone’s house too, so it couldn’t mess up. I was going to go with a cookstr recipe, but I ended up with a Marcus Wareing one. I let the mixer do it’s thing on butter, sugar, cocoa, flour and eggs, then baked in the oven. Oddly it took nearly an hour and a half for a skewer to come out clean, and it was a little on the heavy side. The guests were polite enough, but I trust Liam’s honest criticism: “Dad, it’s too dry”. I’m really not a cake and sponge guy, but I need to fix that this year.

Luckily the coffee cream was out of this world, so much so that I licked the bowl clean afterwards. I blended a strong espresso with mascarpone cheese and sugar, then added some whipped cream to give it some air and bulk. It was great, it’s coming out again in another guise.

Categories
chocolate food marshmallows

rocky road crunch bars


What a terrible picture. Doesn’t do it the slightest bit of a justice. It’s a typical Nigella orgy of sugar: melted chocolate, golden syrup and cream, mixed with broken biscuits and mini marshmallows. Set it in the fridge and cut to size. Unfortunately one piece, no matter the size, is never enough.

Categories
chocolate food

christmas pudini bonbons

The glorious Nigella strikes with these utterly sublime treats. So much fun, and must’ve constituted at least three gifts! So easy too: cooked Christmas pudding (Sainsbury’s cheapest), mixed with booze and melted chocolate. Add melted white chocolate and top with cut glacé cherries (fiddlesome), and there you have it. Cute!

Christmas pudini bonbons:

125g dark chocolate, chopped and melted

350g Christmas pudding (either leftover or cooked and cooled)

60ml sherry, marsala wine or other pokey liqeur

2 tablespoons golden syrup

100g white chocolate

Mixed coloured glacé cherries, snipped

  1. Mix the chocolate, pudding, booze and syrup together and form into balls. This is extremely messy!
  2. Leave in the fridge to set for a couple of hours, then top with melted white chocolate and cherries.
Categories
chocolate eating out food

chocolate-covered pretzels

Holsten’s, the diner where they filmed the last scene of The Sopranos. As part of a tour we stopped there for complimentary onion rings and sampled some of their home-made chocolates. My favourites were chocolate-covered pretzels, which seemed to get outlawed in the UK ten years ago. Petition for their return!

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