Chocolate Brownie Meringue Cake for World Baking Day

Today is World Baking Day...last year it was 'Caking', this year it is Baking Brave. If you check out the World Baking Day website, you'll find 100 different recipe increasing in difficulty from 1 to 100. All you have to do is choose your level and then get baking!

My initial thought was to go straight to recipe 100 but then decided that it was probably actually better to pick something that I'd really enjoy baking and that other people would enjoy eating, so I plumped for level 91 which falls into the category of 'I bake, therefore I am!'. The recipe in question is a Chocolate Brownie Meringue Cake from World Baking Day Ambassador Miranda Gore-Brown who you may remember was a finalist on the Great British Bake Off. I chose this recipe as what's not to love about chocolate brownie, meringue, hazelnuts, raspberries and lashings of cream!

I'm not really a brownie aficionado but this was a really simple recipe to follow, it contains chocolate, icing sugar, margarine, eggs and flour. The brownie base was baked for 8 minutes before taking it out of the oven half cooked, at which point the hazelnut meringue was spread on top and it was then baked for a further 25 minutes.

Once the brownie and meringue was cooled the two halves were removed from their tins. In order to do this, a knife had to be run around the tin but this did give me a slightly scruffy finish. The final touch was to whip up some cream, icing sugar and raspberries to give the lovely pink layer in the middle.

I'm a bit of a baking perfectionist but I think for this one it is impossible to get a really smart finish, however the slightly dishevelled appearance is part of the charm of this cake I think! Cutting it neatly is also a bit of a challenge.

This is a lovely recipe which everyone will enjoy, it might be particular nice if you have friends with kids coming over for Sunday lunch for example. If you'd like to give it a whirl you can find Miranda's recipe here.

I'm entering this cake into this month's Calendar Cakes challenge as the theme this month is Baking Brave. So if you've baked anything for World Baking Day you can enter it here. We're also after any bakes that you have made in the month of May that are out of your comfort zone or particularly challenging and bear in mind that everyone's level of challenge is different, so whatever your own personal triumph, you're welcome to enter it into Calendar Cakes.

Calendar Cakes is hosted on alternate months here at Laura Loves Cakes and over at Dolly Bakes. You can find out the theme on the first of each month :-)

Christmas Wreath Cookies

These Christmas Wreath Cookies wouuld be great to serve to any guests that pop round during the festive period or alternatively they'd make really lovely Chirstmas gifts.

You can serve your cookies to guests as they are or alternatively for a bit of fancy presentation you could also thread them with some Christmassy ribbon and then display them on a mini christmas tree or on a twig tree such as the one below designed by David Stark.

These cookies are simple to make. You can use any cookie recipe you like so you can easily vary the flavour to suit your tastes. My cookies are chocolate with a hint of cinnamon but an alternative could be to make vanilla cookies and then melt dark chocolate to contrast.

To cut out the cookies I used an 8.5cm fluted cuter and then cut out a 4cm ring in the centre with a round cutter.

Then to decorate it was simply a case of drizzling melted white chocolate on each cookie. I used a piping bag to put the chocolate on the cookie and then the back of a spoon to spread it around a little, it was quite difficult to get perfect edges. Then whilst the chocolate is still wet each cookie was sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts, dark chocolate and crystallised rose peteals. The rose petals give a lovely contrasting colour to the cookies and they are actually rather tasty! However, a Christmassy alternative to the rose petals could be chopped sour cherries.

The first challenge I'm entering my chocolate wreath cookies into is Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked. Their theme is chocolate as there is always an abundance of the sweet stuff about at Christmas.

I'm also entering my cookies into this month's We Should Cocoa challenge as I added a teaspoon of cinnamon to the chocolate cookie recipe to give it a bit of festive spice. The theme for WSC this month is cinnamon and chocolate so these modified cookies fit the theme perfectly. I usually a stickler for following recipes to the letter, so adding a little cinnamon in place of a small amount of flour was quite adventurous for me! WSC is hosted by Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog and Chele at Chocolate Teapot.

 

Ingredients

245g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
1tsp cinnamon
250g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
140g icing sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
125g white chocolate, broken into pieces
75g dark chocolate
75g unblanched hazelnuts
Crystallised rose petals

The initial recipe suggested making the cookie dough by hand but I cheated and used a food processor...so you can choose either method! Before you start preheat your oven to 180c/160c fan/
gas 4.

Put the flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon and diced butter into a bowl and rub together until it ressembles fine breadcrumbs...or blitz it in your food processor. Add the egg yolks, icing sugar and the 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Mix this in well until you have a smooth dough and then wrap in clingfilm and pop in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.

Lightly dust your work surface with flour and roll out the dough. This recipe makes about 16 cookies. To cut them out use an 8.5cm fluted cutter and then cut out a smaller round circle from the centre of each cookie using a 3 or 4cm cutter. Place the cookies on a greased baking tray or line your tray with greaseproof paper before putting them on. Make sure you leave sufficient space around each cookie.

Place the cookies in the preheated oven for around 15 minutes but make sure you keep an eye on them as they may catch a little before that. They should begin to darken around the edges when ready. Cool on a wire rack.

To decorate, melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Whilst it is melting use a potato peeler to create dark chocolate curls. Once melted the white chocolate should be drizzled around each wreath cookie. I used a piping back to make it easier and neater and then spread the white chocolate with the back of a spoon. When you're happy with this sprinkle each cookie with a mixture of the hazelnuts, dark chocolate curls and rose petals. I would recommend completing one cookie at a time otherwise by the time you come to sprinkling on the top, the chocolate may have already set and then the nuts and so on won't stick.

* Adapted from Hamlyn's 200 Christmas Recipes

Choc, Orange & Hazelnut Lollipops

These chocolate, orange and hazelnut lollipops are guaranteed to make you start feeling Christmassy, everyone who came into the house whilst I was making them commented on the lovely aroma...chocolate, orange and toasted nuts!

The lollies are really simple to make and you can add your own spin to them by using different flavours and toppings. They're perfect for a party or as a Christmas gift, just add a cellophane wrapper and a little ribbon...et voila!

These lollies are my entry into Random Recipes hosted by Dom over at Belleau Kitchen. Our means of random selection this month was by birthday number. My birthday being on the 27th, I counted along my bookshelf to book number 27 which was Jo Wheatley's A Passion for Baking.

These were easy to make, all you have to do is melt down the chocolate and then pipe chocolate circles onto baking parchment. Add a lolly stick and leave to set. You can buy lollipop sticks from most cake suppliers now as they're also useful for making other things, such as cake pops or cookie pops.

Once the lolly outlines are set just fill in the middle with the remaining chocolate and sprinkle over with your topping of choice...in this case demerera, orange zest and hazelnuts. You just need to make sure that the chocolate you pour in the circles is cool enough as otherwise it will melt the outline and the sharp edge will be lost. Leave to set again and then gently peel off the baking parchment and they are ready to serve. The whole process can be done in about 30-40 minutes.

I think these lollies are always going to look slightly rustic as it is very difficult to pipe a perfect chocolate circle but in some ways that adds to their charm as it shows you've gone to the effort of making something homemade.

If you're having a party these lollies will make a great addition to your table. They can be displayed by sticking the lollies into oranges as Jo does in her book and then guests can help themselves.

I also happened to have some of these Hope & Greenwood Traditional ABC Letters at home so I thought it might be nice to personalise some of the lollies by putting on individual names...however, if you decide to do this only make them for friends or children who have very short names...William and Catherine might miss out! ;-)

You can also customise your lollies in all sorts of other ways...why not try different flavour chocolate. The lollies I made would have tasted great with orange flavoured chocolate. Children are also more likely to enjoy milk chocolate rather than dark chocolate. Or how about adding some popping candy or some Jazzies. Kids might also enjoy making these around Christmas time.

There's still time to enter Random Recipes...just count along your bookshelf according to the day of the month you were born and then flick through that book and whichever recipe you land on is the one to make.

 

Ingredients

150-200g dark chocolate
40g toasted hazelnuts
15g demerera sugar
Zest of 1 orange

If you would like to toast your own hazelnuts you can find out how to do so here.

Sit a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and then melt the chocolate. You can also do this on a low heat in the microwave but you will need to stir it every 10-15 seconds or so. Then remove from th eheat and allow to cool a little, I probably waited 5 minutes or so.

Using baking parchment draw on the outline of your circles. This recipe will yield about 10 and each circle needs to be around 5cm in diametre. You then need to flip your paper over so that the pencil is on the bottom.

Once the chocolate is cooled, spoon about a third into a piping bag (I used greaseproof paper bags) and then snip a little bit of the end to give a fine piping point. Following the lines you drew on the baking paper create the outline of the circle. You need a steady hand for this and I went round each circle twice. Next place a lolly stick in each lolly, the end will need to sit at least 1 cm into the middle. The outlines then need to set, so put the tray in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.

When completely set, spoon the remaining mixture into each lolly to fill in the centre. I actually used a piping bag at this stage too and found it a lot easier. Finally, sprinkle the demerera, hazelnuts and orange zest over the top and again leave to set in the fridge. When set you can gently peel your lollies off the paper and they're ready to serve!

* Adapted from Jo Wheatley's A Passion for Baking