(Pretty cake sign in the background courtesy of Simone)

It’s like ra-i-ain on your wedding day

It’s a free ri-hi-de when you’ve already paid

It’s arri-i-ving at the cake competition

When they announce the win-nerrr.

That’s what happened and I feel only Alanis would understand.

I and my current partners-in-crime here in London had our hearts set on bringing a cake for some benefit at Wilton’s Music Hall. The general Sunday laziness and temperatures soaring above 20 made us an hour late with our entry to the competition: An orange and almond cake.

We pulled out the shiny object only to find that they had decided (probably for health reasons) not to judge by taste but rather by the amount of play-dough/hobby paint skills displayed in the final product which made our cake completely superfluous. Below are some of the other entries. Note our cake on the top left, just above one of the winners. My favourite is the open cavity with candied cherries on top. That one was hilarious.

So in the end we did the only decent thing: Handed in the cake and went straight up and bought half of it back while maintaining that we were just anonymous fans of “that cake with the shining stuff on top”.

Orange and Almond Cake (slightly tweaked recipe by Camilla Plum)

• 2 organic oranges
• 225 grams almonds, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 vanilla pod, only the seeds (keep the pod for another purpose)
• 225 grams sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 6 eggs

• 75 grams good dark chocolate (here: Green & Black’s organic cooking chocolate, 72%)
• 25 grams flaked almonds, lightly toasted

Put the whole oranges in a large saucepan, cover them with water, and boil them until the peel has turned slightly pale and it has all but cracked. It will take from 60-90 minutes depending on the stubbornness of the oranges. Meanwhile, peel the almonds, chop them coarsely, allowing a few larger bits if you like some resistance in your cake. Then slice the halved vanilla pod open, remove the seeds and mix them with a tablespoon of the sugar to separate them properly. Mix the almonds, sugar, vanilla, and baking powder in a bowl and set aside.

Turn the oven on to 160 degrees Celcius. Remove the cooked oranges from the saucepan. Now they should be soft enough to be pulled apart easily by hand. Make sure to remove any pips and then purée them into an even, kind of creamy paste, mix it with the dry ingredients and finally add the eggs one by one.

Use a regular sized round cake mould. If you choose the metal spring type, grease it with butter and dust it with regular flower before adding the cake batter, but if you have a silicone one you won’t need that. Bake on a tray just below the middle for about an hour or until the cake is soft but firm and nothing sticks to the fork. Be sure to check on it now and then as it does tend to scorch easily.

As soon as the cake has been removed from the oven, chop the chocolate coarsely and spread it out evenly on the still hot surface of the cake. You can choose to release the cake from the mould before adding the chocolate. That’s what I did here. Then, spread the melting chocolate and sprinkle the almond flakes on top. Done! Now skip off and be late for some do.

BONUS CELEBRITY AT WILTON’S: Barbara Windsor of Eastenders (who was being a really good sport):

As you might know, I’m a happy member of the Danish Chocolate Society (Chokoladeselskabet). The best part of that is taking the many different classes they offer on their programme. That includes chocolate tasting, the annual chocolate festival and then the baking and chocolate truffle making of course. I’ve done two courses at my favourite chocolate shop in Frederiksberg and both of them have been every chocolate lover’s wet dream. Getting to play around with their ingredients (all sorts of spices, fruit purees, liqueurs, decorative dusting powder etc.) and their gadgets (mostly truffle trays in all shapes and my biggest love of all time: the chocolate tap that sent out tempered chocolate at the whim of one’s foot on a pedal!) was just amazing. And I can’t believe that I managed to forget my freaking camera both times! I wanted soooo badly to show you how the tiny round chocolate bases were topped with little mountains of meringue filling and placed on a running tray and taken through the chocolate shower. That must be one of the world’s most beautiful man-made things ever! Anyway, here are the results of our endevour. At the end of the class we always share our products so we get to taste everyone’s choice of flavour and design. Mine is the one with the golddusted aniseed on top because I made a salty licorice filling on a base of lime-zested marcipan. Which turned out really delicious if I may say so misself (and I may, seeing as that is the whole point of being a blogger). Everyone should try taking such a class (it’s a one-nighter) before heading for the grave. And why not do it while your taste buds are at their best?

Ahh David Lebovitz, don’t know the guy but I hear he’s living in Paris. Anyway, he has a very nice blog and some cookbooks on his conscience and that’s how I stumbled upon his recipe for Mint Chip Ice Cream. You see, I too have childhood memories of scooping up some kryptonite-green ice cream into the funny wafer cones my grandparents had back in Gordonvale. Naturally I had to try David’s version, especially because it promised to be much less damaging to my Superwoman shield, what with the natural colouring and all. Anyway, just thought I’d share my results with you and pass on the recipe to any of you who might also like the combo of cream, mint and dark crackling chocolate strings in one cool bowl of happy.

Below are the ingredients in my version – a little less sweet and creamy than David’s, because I don’t like the kind of greasy feeling it leaves on the inside of the mouth. Apart from that, just follow David’s instructions and you’ll have ice cream in no time.

David Lebovitz’ Mint Chip Ice Cream, done my way

• 500 ml regular milk
• 130 grams sugar (a tiny bit less than the original recipe suggested – I think this is plenty)
• 250 ml cream (38% fat)
• Pinch of salt
• 80 grams Swiss mint leaves (though I’ve made it with different kinds of mint, I would recommend sticking to the Swiss kind, because it has that sharp freshness needed to balance the cream)
• 6 pasteurized egg yolks

Click here to read the rest of the recipe.

Okay, it seems it’s going to be another post about another tart. But what a tart! Imagine the flavour of roasted hazelnuts and creamy chocolate truffle in one crunchy bite. Not bad eigh? And for once, the recipe’s a real no brainer.

Hazelnut and Chocolate Truffle Tartlet

Recipe adapted from a booklet that came with the September 2008 issue of a Danish ladies’ magazine called Femina.

(I must add that though I usually loathe the magazine itself, they often have suprisingly attractive recipes.)

Tart Shell

• 200 grams of hazelnuts
• 60 grams of muscovado sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 65 grams of melted butter

Chocolate Truffle Filling

• 1/4 litre of cream
• 175 grams of dark chocolate (~65 % cocoa)
• The juice and zest of one lime
• A splash of brandy

1. Set the oven to 165 degrees Celcius. Put the hazenuts in a pan and let them roast on low heat until the peel starts coming off. You might not get it all off, but a little is better than nothing and you want the nuts to start smelling great because that’s when they’ll add character to your tartlet.
2. Throw the nuts, sugar and salt into a food processor and grind them well (see the texture on the photo below).
3. Add the melted butter and mix it well.
4. Divide the mixture into five equal piles (60 grams a pop) and press them into shape in a tartlet mould (I used the disposable tin foil kind that is actually reusable and that I haven’t needed to grease so far). If the mixture keeps sticking to your fingers, you can use a slightly damp glass to press it into shape. Put the tartlets on a baking tray and let them bake for 20-30 minutes, BUT: be careful not to put the baking tray too high in the oven and keep a close watch on them as they tend to burn easily. Leave them to cool while you start making the truffle.
5. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and put them in a metal or glass bowl. Heat the cream until it is all but boiling, take it off the heat and pour it onto the chocolate while stirring. Stir until it has dissolved and add the lime zest, juice and a good splash of brandy to give it a slight tang. Let it cool until it has finger-temperature or less.
6. Pour the mixture into the tartlet shells as closely to the rim as possible. Let the truffle set in the fridge for 1-2 hours and serve with a scoop of sorbet (try this Fluffy plum sorbet). If you have any leftover truffle, let it set in the fridge for a couple of hours and cut it into squares or roll little balls and dip them in chocolate or fine cocoa. Perfect for serving as petits fours the next day.

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What we’ve got here is what I would call a “A chocolate covered cream/cottage cheese bar containing grated rye bread”. The thing is, seeing as I don’t have a full grasp of Latvian (or even a pinch) it’s kinda hard to figure out just what the hell is going on in the food department. All I know is, there was a whole lotta sweet cheesus going around in their cake and candy selection. And this was a bit like the first Food Gambling treat, actually not that bad, but a bit strangely yeasty behind all of the sweet and yoghurty sourness of it all. Maybe if I had stored it properly and tried it before the “best before” date, I might have enjoyed it.

Are you ready for the next round of Food Gambling? By now I’m sure you know, that it’s not always safe to judge a snack by its wrapping. However, that is exactly what I want you to do. Look at this Latvian snack and give me your best bet as to what it might contain. Here are your options:

Yup – it’s a grainy cheap tasting nougat bar. On trying it I had this sneaky feeling that they had wiped the floor at some factory and chucked the dirt into a humongous pot of EU-rejected milk chocolate, squeezed the mixture into the shape of a bar and covered it in more rejected chocolate. A disgrace, I tell you.

And yet I ate it all and didn’t look back.

Ahh Sunday. With the laziness and the stained sweat pants and the greasy hair stowed away in a knot. Gotta love it. That and the fact that you actually have time to fool around in the kitchen (not with your sex partner but with a spatula. Sorry, just realised that it might be potato-potaaartow to some people…), anyway, found this amazing looking but not quite as sexy sounding recipe on one of my favourite foodie blogs called 101 Cookbooks (maybe it’s a tiny bit because the blogger is also called Heidi). It’s for  “Chocolate Puddle Cookies” and is very simple but still has enough little dangers to keep you challenged. The “cakes” are basically crispy-chewy chocolate macaroon-like cookies but with no flour whatsoever. The batter consists mainly of cocoa, powdered sugar, egg whites and nuts. But be careful to follow the recipe or else you’ll end up with very very hard marengue like cookies. (as I did the second time I tried it and got overzealous with the cooking time).

The only changes I made to Heidi’s recipe were in the ingredients and not the process, so here are the ingredients I used, in case you want to try them out with her instructions:

Chocolate Puddle Cookies (1/4 of the original recipe ~ 5 large cookies or 10 small ones)

• 75 grams roasted, peeled and coarsely chopped hazelnuts (I love the smell of them, the look of them, the taste of them and they go sooo much better with chocolate of any kind than the slightly bitter walnuts)
• 110 grams powdered sugar
• A small 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla sugar
• 1 tsp grated Nescafé (to enhance the chocolate flavour)
• 15 grams Valrhona cocoa (not used in the pictures above – there I used regular Dutch cocoa which was very nice but not nearly as dark and intense as Valrhona)

Whenever I’m travelling, this blog works as my cookbook. So imagine my surprise when I wanted to suggest a nice chocolate recipe for my niece’s baptism in Stockholm and I couldn’t find one single chocolate recipe here! And it’s not like I haven’t been yapping on about the endless pleasures of the cocoa persuasion, but somehow I’ve managed to avoid actually putting that into action. So sorry! Luckily I’ve found just the right recipe to make amends with on a very pretty sister blog called Cannelle et Vanille: French Chocolate Macaroons.

I have attempted to make macaroons before with mediocre results, as this mugshot shows. But when I found this recipe I instantly knew I had the key to perfection (with a few cracks and dents;-). There was just something about the details concerning the egg white and the fact that there are so many different delicious looking macaroons on that blog that made me trust the writer 100%. And it really paid off. I made the macaroons following the recipe as religiously as possible. The only change I made was in the ganache where I used dark chocolate (Lindt  70%) instead of milk chocolate and replaced the passion fruit with raspberries.

Raspberry Ganache (makes just the right amount for the macaroons)

• 100 grams dark chocolate (70%)
• 50 grams (frozen) raspberries
• 20 grams cream
• 15 grams butter
• A splash of rhum
• A blob or two of glucose
• A pinch of salt

Start by chopping the chocolate into nice little bits and set them aside in a bowl that can stand some heat and place a sieve on top. Then heat the cream and the whole raspberries in a saucepan while you mash the berries into the cream. When the berries have dissolved as much as possible and the mixture is slowly starting to boil, take the saucepan from the heat and pour the cream through the sieve and over the chocolate. You only want to get rid of the raspberry seeds, so make sure that when you have, you immediately start stirring the melting chocolate into the pink cream. When all of the chocolate has melted, add a splash of rhum and a pinch of salt to deepen the flavour and sweeten it with some glucose (or syrup). And that’s it. Now pour the mixture into a piping bag and leave it in the fridge for five minutes before squeezing it out onto your baked and cooled macaroons. I promise you, these are the best treats ever and you won’t believe you’ve actually made them yourself!

The texture and the flavour were spot on and the look very nice  if you like the rustic and not French-nazi-patisserie chef-style. But I would like to learn how to make all of the macaroons the same size and without cracks in the surface.

NOTE: I just attended a patisserie class last night (May 5th) at La Glace in Copenhagen. There we learnt, that the cracks can be avoided by, among other things, making sure the almond-cocoa-sugar mixture is completely even and mixed, before adding the meringue.

Anyone who has ever read a recipe in a women’s magazine would probably recognize the expression “great for when you have unexpected guests dropping by” but I’m not going to perpetuate that illusion. I’m pretty sure the mobile revolution has killed off that kind of spontaneity a long time ago. Anyway, this little delicious number is an adapted version of one such recipe and it usually comes in handy in the morning when I feel like bringing a cake to work or when I’m struck by a sudden craving. In other words: It’s damn easy and fast.

Raspberry-Chocolate-Coconut Muffins (makes 12)

• 1 egg
• 1 decilitre fine cane sugar
• 1/2 decilitre milk
• 1/2 decilitre rapeseed oil (for baking)
• 1 decilitre dessicated coconut, lightly roasted and cooled down
• 1 decilitre flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 50 grams chopped dark chocolate
• 1 decilitre (frozen) raspberries

Turn the oven on to 225 degrees Celcius. Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another bowl and then mix them together. Finally – add the raspberries to the mixture. It’s supposed to be quite runny, but don’t worry, that will change in the oven. Distribute the mixture in a muffin tray and put it on a cooking plate in the middle of the oven for about 10 mins. Check them with a cooking pin just to be sure before you take them out. Allow them to cool for a bit and then try to release them from the tray so the chocolate bits don’t stick to the bottom. Now get comfy in your couch (or at work) and bite into that coconutty delight with tangy bursts of raspberry and sweet chocolate rewards.

This is NOT a 10 minute treat. Not by a longshot. But oh my G does it hit the spot after 2-3 hours of messing about in the kitchen. While it may not be a beginner’s recipe, it’s not as hard as one might think. The only problem is the chocolate, but come on, when has chocolate ever really been a problem?

Chocolate drippings everywhere just give you an extra excuse to taste the stuff as you go along.

• 3 (pasteurized) egg whites
• 20 grams sugar
• 1/2 vanilla pod
• 15 raspberries, mashed (you can choose to remove the seeds by pressing them through a sieve first)
  —————–
• 50 grams water
• 225 grams sugar

• 150 grams marzipan
• 20 grams chopped almonds

• 200 grams very dark chocolate, e.g. Lindt 85% cocoa which has a very nice acidity

• Place the tip of the piping bag on the middle of a marzipan circle.
• Hold it upright and squeeze out an even blob that goes almost to the edge of the base
• Stick the tip into the blob and squeeze some more, always lifting it slightly upwards as you go. This should result in layered “waves” of meringue that turn smaller as you reach the wanted height. Mine were about 7 cm tall. See above photo for details.
• When all of the bases have been topped with meringue, leave them to set for 30 mins.