Tag Archives: berry

Dark chocolate blackcurrant cake

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This month’s We Should Cocoa challenge, hosted by Choclette, has certainly proved rather challenging for me – to start with I had to get over my fear of the chosen ingredient, blackcurrants, which I developed after a mild allergic reaction to Ribena years ago, and secondly I had to actually find some of the elusive fruit to bake with.

All month I’ve been asking local fruit and veg traders if they had any or had seen any, but all said the bad weather had delayed them. I waited as long as I could, but in order to get the challenge baked and blogged in time I had to resort to blackcurrant jam instead of the real thing – sorry Choclette!

Luckily I’ve had this Dan Lepard recipe bookmarked for ages, which calls for a non-specific berry jam and none of the actual fruit.

The flavours worked brilliantly, with a plain chocolate sponge, jam sandwiching the layers and mixed into the icing, but unfortunately I think I baked the cake a little too long as it’s slightly on the dry side – I like chocolate cakes to be nice and moist, but that’s definitely baker error rather than a fault with the recipe.

I’ve only had a small slice, but my face isn’t covered in a massive rash and there’s been no throwing up as of yet, so I think my blackcurrant fear may have been unfounded – now I can look forward to finding ways to use the rest of the jam, which really is rather delicious!

Dark chocolate blackcurrant cake (adapted from a Dan Lepard recipe for the Guardian)

  • 125g dark chocolate
  • 100g butter
  • 50g golden syrup
  • 50ml natural yoghurt
  • 175g light brown sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 250g plain flour
  • 50g cocoa powder
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 jar blackcurrant jam
  • 75g dark chocolate
  • 150g icing sugar

Start by melting the 125g dark chocolate, butter and golden syrup over a saucepan of simmering water, and grease and line two 7″ round cake tins while it’s melting. Beat in the yoghurt, sugar, vanilla and eggs, one by one in that order. Sieve together the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and fold into the mix, then divide between the two tins and bake for 25-30 minutes at 180 degrees – check with a skewer and don’t overbake!

For the icing, melt the 75g dark chocolate and beat in 75g of the jam. Add the icing sugar and a little water and beat again, adding enough water to make a thick, smooth icing. It will set as it cools so don’t worry if it seems a little liquid. When the cakes are cooled, spread a thick layer of jam on the bottom half (level the top first if necessary) then place the second sponge on top and spread with the chocolate icing. Tastes good room temp or heated up with cream or ice cream!

Summer berry white chocolate muffins

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Is it just me, or is shopping for a newborn baby really hard?

I don’t have any younger family members and have always been pretty awful around children, so when it came to visiting my friends and their new baby for the first time I was a little daunted.

The advice other people gave me didn’t help either – don’t get toys, they’ll have loads already, don’t get newborn clothes, get 3/6/9 months clothes, but think about what time of year it will be when they get that old, etc etc…

Luckily, deciding what baked goods to take wasn’t anywhere near so tricky.

These muffins are quick and easy to make, transport well, suit both fruit and chocolate lovers, easy to eat while rushing around looking after baby and are nice and summery too – perfect!

The muffins went down well, and the baby gift I eventually decided on (tiger, lion, crocodile and zebra socks) was also ok, I think – at least socks can never be out of season…

Summer berry and white chocolate muffins (for baby Ethan!) (adapted from these muffins)

Makes 7 muffins (6 for the gift box, 1 for testing!)

  • 140g plain flour
  • 1/2 tbsp baking powder
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 100g frozen mixed summer berries (any large ones chopped)
  • 100g white chocolate, chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 125ml milk
  • 3tbsp sunflower oil

Combine the flour, baking power and caster sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk together the egg, milk and sunflower oil then pour into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Fold until the mixture is just combined, then stir in the berries and 75g of the chocolate. Divide between 7 muffin cases, then sprinkle the remaining chocolate on top. Bake at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until risen and golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Jam crumble bars

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I’m always on the lookout for things that are quick, cheap and keep and transport well for the friendly pony to take to work, and as soon as I saw these bars on 17 and Baking I knew they would be perfect.

The same mixture makes the base and the topping so they’re super quick to whip up, and all the ingredients are things I usually have on hand, plus the flavour can be adapted to whatever jam or fruit you need to use up.

I used a mix of blackcurrant and the last of my homemade raspberry rose jam, with a handful of frozen berries thrown on top which turned out great, and was a nice change from all the chocolate baking I’ve been doing lately!

Jam crumble bars (adapted from 17 and Baking)

Makes 8 large bars

  • 150g plain flour
  • 70g light brown sugar
  • 140g butter
  • 1 tbsp milk
  • 150g oats
  • 250g jam
  • handful frozen berries (optional)

Mix the flour and sugar in a food processor, then add in the butter and mix until it forms bread crumbs. Transfer into a bowl and stir in the oats, then add the milk and bring together with your hands into a dough. Press about 3/4 of the mix into an 8×8 square tin, lined with foil.

Spread the jam on top of the base, heating a little in the microwave if it’s too thick to spread easily. Add the berries on top if using. Sprinkle the rest of the oat mixture on top, then bake at 190 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until golden. Leave to cool before slicing into bars.

Baked berry sponge pudding

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After all the rich, chocolatey excess of Christmas, I was desperately craving something fruity.

I also had some small foil pudding basins that I never quite got around to using for Christmas pudding, so I decided a fruity steamed pudding was the way to go.

I’ve never attempted a steamed pudding before, and I was quite looking forward to the challenge, but as luck would have it the recipe I decided to use as a base called for oven baking anyway – maybe next time!

I made two small (1lb or 500ml) puddings from this recipe, and they turned out really moist and flavourful, a perfect fruity winter pudding!

Baked berry puddings (adapted from BBC Good Food)

  • 200g mixed berries (I used frozen)
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 85g butter
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 50g light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 1tbsp orange curd (zest of an orange would be fine)
  • 140g plain flour
  • 1.5 tsp baking powder

Put 25g of the berries in the bottom of each pudding basin, and sprinkle 1 tbsp caster sugar over each.

Beat together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, then add in the eggs one at a time. Fold in half the flour and baking powder followed by half of the milk and orange curd, then fold in the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk.

Use about 2/3 of the mixture to divide between the two puddings, spreading on top of the berries. Sprinkle the rest of the berries on top, then cover with the rest of the cake mix. Bake for an hour at 180 degrees, or until a skewer comes out clean. Mine rose rather well, making them a bit hard to turn upside down!

Serve warm with custard, cream or ice cream.