Tag Archives: raspberry

Raspberry and dark chocolate blondies

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Raspberry and dark chocolate blondies

I’ve never really been that much of a fan of pairing raspberries and dark chocolate – I’ve always felt the tartness of raspberries is much better complemented by the sweetness of white chocolate.

With that in mind, I’m not entirely sure why a couple of weeks ago I became fixated with making dark chocolate and raspberry blondies, but I’m glad I did as this recipe has totally converted me.

I did a quick search on Google and Pinterest for recipes but nothing that came up was really what I wanted, so I ended up using this recipe as the basic blondie mix, swapping the white chocolate for dark and adding a small punnet of raspberries.

The bars were just dense and fudgy enough to be blondie-ish rather than cakey; the raspberries added bursts of fruity tartness, and the chunks of dark chocolate were a great contrast both in flavour and texture.

The blondies were sweet enough to balance the dark chocolate and raspberries, and I think that’s why I liked these so much – I still think I wouldn’t be a huge fan of raspberries in a brownie, but maybe I should give it a go and maybe be pleasantly surprised…

Raspberry and dark chocolate blondies (blondie recipe adapted from Baking Bites)

  • 115g butter
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 120g plain flour
  • 100g dark chocolate, chopped
  • 100g fresh raspberries

Beat the butter and sugar together until well mixed, then add the egg and vanilla and beat again. Fold in the flour and white chocolate chips, then gently fold in the raspberries – don’t over-mix or they will stain the batter pink. Spread the mixture into a greased and lined 8×8″ square baking tin and bake at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until golden and set. Leave to cool completely before cutting into squares otherwise they’ll be far too gooey to cut neatly!

Raspberry and white chocolate tarts

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These tarts aren’t at all what I was planning on baking at the weekend.

I wanted to make a blueberry buckle, but everywhere I went the price of blueberries was extortionate – I thought being in season made things cheaper?! As the recipe called for 4 or 5 packs, that plan swiftly went out the window.

Raspberries on the other hand were only £1.25 per punnet, so I bought some of those instead and decided to use up the last of my raspberry curd in these little tarts.

White chocolate is a classic partner for raspberry, and I had a spare 100g cream cheese from another recipe (to be posted soon) so that sorted out the other layer of the tarts – and in the end I think everything came together rather nicely!

I think some of the best things I’ve made have come about from using what I have to hand rather than following a recipe, and these are a great example of that – although the buckle is still on my to-bake list, just as soon as I spy a blueberry bargain…

Raspberry and white chocolate tarts

Makes 4 individual tarts

  • 50g butter
  • 100g plain flour
  • 25g icing sugar
  • 8 tbsp raspberry curd
  • 100g cream cheese
  • 65g white chocolate
  • icing sugar to taste
  • 150g raspberries

To make the pastry, sieve together the flour and sugar, then rub in the butter until the mixture forms a fine breadcrumb-like texture. Add in a tiny bit of water and cut through the mixture with a butter knife – it should start to come together into a dough, but if you have any dry crumbs around the edges of the bowl add a little more water. Knead the dough briefly, then chill for half an hour.

Once chilled, divide the dough into four equal pieces and roll each out into a circle about 12cm round. Lay the pastry into 10cm round tart tins, prick the bottom with a fork and return to the fridge for an hour or so.

When you’re ready to bake the tarts, line with baking paper and baking beans (or dry rice/pasta) and blind bake for 10 minutes, then remove the paper and beans and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes, or until crisp and just starting to go golden. Unfortunately I got distracted taking photos of something else so mine are a little browner on the edges than I would have liked…

Melt 15g of the white chocolate and use to brush the bases of the tarts. This will help stop the curd making the pastry go soggy. When the chocolate has set, spread 2 tbsp raspberry curd into the bottom of each, and chill in the fridge while you make the white chocolate layer.

Melt the remaining 50g white chocolate then beat into the cream cheese until well mixed. You can add an extra pinch of icing sugar at this point if you want, depending on how sweet you want the tarts to be. As the raspberry curd was quite runny, I piped the white chocolate mix on top, starting around the edge and working my way in so it wouldn’t sink and mess up the layers.

Finally, add the fresh raspberries on top of the tarts – then eat!

Peach melba swiss roll

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The colours of a peach melba alone are enough to make it an amazing dessert, before you even come to the fantastic flavours.

Peaches, raspberry, vanilla – what’s not to like?

I’ve had some leftover raspberry curd in my fridge waiting to be used for a while now, and I’m not quite sure why but I’ve had my heart set on it filling a swiss roll, so I’ve just been patiently waiting for the right time to make one.

I based it on a recipe from the Great British Bake Off cookbook for a flourless lemon cream roll, swapping the lemon in the sponge for vanilla, the lemon curd for my raspberry curd, and adding some fresh shopped peaches as I bought my first punnet of the year at the weekend and they are the best, juiciest, delicious peaches ever!

I reckon as desserts go, this is a pretty healthy one – the sponge is fatless and flourless, so as long as you ignore the whipped cream I think it’s almost virtuous!

The only thing that tainted this swiss roll is that the weather let me down and we didn’t have a gorgeous summer’s day to eat it on – but I guess that just means an excuse to make it again…

Peach melba swiss roll (very loosely adapted from The Great British Bake Off cookbook)

  • 4 eggs, separated
  • 125g caster sugar
  • 100g ground almonds
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • 5 tbsp raspberry curd
  • 150ml double cream
  • 1 fresh peach
  • icing sugar to dust

To make the sponge, line a 20 x 30cm baking tray with baking paper. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then in a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light, airy and mousse-like – the book recommends 3 minutes, I took a little less. Fold the almonds and vanilla into the egg yolk and sugar mix, then fold in the egg whites gently, a third at a time, until completely mixed in. Spread into the baking tray and bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes, until golden and springy. Remove from the oven and leave in the tray to cool, covered with another piece of baking paper and a damp tea towel.

Whip the cream until almost stiff, and peel, core and chop the peach into small pieces. When the sponge is cool, take the baking paper off the top, dust with icing sugar then flip the sponge over on top. Trim about half a centimetre off each side, and score a line 2cm in from one of the short edges, then spread the raspberry curd all over. Spread the cream on top of that, to within about 1 inch of the edge, then sprinkle the pieces of peach on top. Start rolling from the end where you scored the line, and keep going rolling tightly until you get to the end. Place on a plate seam-side down and keep in the fridge until ready to serve.

Coconut, blackberry and raspberry crown cupcakes

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These crown cupcakes are the first of my two ‘fit for a queen‘ competition entries (which won me third place, in case I hadn’t mentioned!)

They’re kind of a royal-ed up version of my coconut and strawberry cupcakes, based on the same sponge recipe but with a raspberry curd filling and blackberry and raspberry cream cheese icing, and of course the golden crowns on top.

I think the corgi tarts seemed more popular at the competition, but I actually preferred these as I’m all about the fruit in the summer, and I love the coconut and berry combination.

I’m also especially proud of these because I seem to finally be getting the hang of piping icing onto cupcakes in a bit of a fancy pattern!

I won’t lie, these are pretty time consuming and do use some slightly hard to find ingredients, but I think they are well worth the effort for a special occasion!

Coconut, blackberry and raspberry crown cupcakes (based on this recipe):

Makes 9 cupcakes

  • 30g desiccated coconut
  • 105g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 85g butter
  • 135g caster sugar
  • 2 medium eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 90ml coconut milk

For the filling, icing and decoration

  • 2 tbsp raspberry curd (recipe here)
  • 200g cream cheese
  • 100g butter
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 10g freeze-dried blackberries
  • 10g freeze-dried raspberries
  • 30g white candy melts
  • edible gold paint

To make the cupcakes, follow the method here (the ingredients listed above are half the quantities of the original recipe but that’s the only difference).

To fill the cupcakes, use an apple corer to make holes in the centre of each, then spoon in a little raspberry curd before replacing the bits of sponge you removed.

To make the icing, grind the freeze-dried berries in a food processor into dust, then add to the icing sugar. I had to order them in at a local health food shop, so if you can’t find any I think fresh berries would probably work too, but I really wanted to use freeze-dried for the amazing colour and also so they wouldn’t affect the consistency of the icing.

Beat the butter to soften, then add in half the cream cheese and sift in the icing sugar and berries. Beat until well mixed and no lumps remain, then add in the second half of the cream cheese and quickly beat again, just enough to combine everything. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes, then pipe on top of the cupcakes – I used a Wilton star nozzle but any would be fine.

To make the crowns, I used an ingredient that’s completely new to me, but that may be down to a sheltered life – candy melts.

They’re essentially like chocolate buttons, except they set harder and don’t require any tempering – perfect for chocolate decorations. I’m not sure how widely available they are but I got mine at a specialist kitchen and bakeware shop. I used a roll of baking paper to pipe the crown shapes on to, then slid them off once they were completely set. They were quite fragile and some did break, but you can use a some more of the white melts as a glue to fix them up.

I then painted the crowns gold with an edible paint, giving them two coats for a really nice colour. You can buy edible paints online and in baking shops, but I found mine at a local pannier market for a bargain £2.75!  Pop the crowns on top of the cupcakes, and there you have it – coconut, blackberry and raspberry cupcakes, fit for a queen!

Homemade raspberry curd

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There’s not really much to say about this raspberry curd, other than that it is so good and so addictive it’s taking all my willpower not to sit and eat the whole jar by the spoonful.

Lemon curd is one of my favourite things ever, but this might be even better. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but it has the right balance of sweetness and zingyness, and just look at the colour – no photoshopping here, it really is this vivid a pink!

I made this to fill my competition coconut cupcakes (coming soon!), but I have quite a bit leftover so can’t wait to use it again – an suggestions what it might go well with?

Homemade raspberry curd (adapted from Waitrose)

  • 150g frozen raspberries, defrosted
  • 2 small eggs, beaten
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 75ml lemon juice
  • 50g butter
  • 100g sugar

Begin by blending the raspberries in a food processor until as liquid as you can get them. Add the raspberries to the beaten eggs and push the mixture through a sieve into a large mixing bowl – it takes a bit of effort but you should end up with a bowl of raspberry liquid and the seeds and any thick bits of egg to be thrown away.

 

Add the rest of the ingredients to a saucepan and gently heat, stirring until all the butter and sugar has dissolved then bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, then slowly add to the raspberry and egg mixture, whisking as you pour it in.

Return the mixture back to the saucepan, and bring back to the boil over a medium heat, stirring constantly.

Keep it simmering until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, then remove from the heat and pour into a heatproof jar. Leave to cool, then eat with anything and everything you fancy!

White chocolate raspberry rose cake

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For this month’s We Should Cocoa challenge, Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog chose rose as the special ingredient.

I instantly thought of a recipe for a white chocolate gateau from my favourite cookbook, Chocolate by Joanna Farrow. It uses creme fraiche mixed with rosewater as the filling for two white chocolate sponges, filled with buttercream.

Although that was the inspiration, I wasn’t utterly convinced by the creme fraiche idea, so I thought about how I could incorporate the rose into a different filling. Eventually I settled on making a raspberry rose jam, which would also serve the purpose of ticking jam off my to-bake list.

I was a little worried the cake would be too dry with just jam as the filling, so I also added some white chocolate cream cheese between each layer.

Just to go completely over the top I made white chocolate modelling paste roses and leaves to decorate the cake, and tie in with the rose theme.

This is a pretty grand cake, but luckily I had the perfect reason to make it, as one of my colleagues had her last day at work this week before going on maternity leave. Unfortunately she got sick and didn’t make it in for her last day, but we took the cake to her house instead and she was kind enough to give us half back to share in the office, which I think everyone had secretly been hoping she would. Thanks Sam!

White Chocolate Raspberry Rose Cake

For the sponge:

  • 4 eggs
  • 125g caster sugar
  • 125g plain flour
  • 50g white chocolate, grated
Whisk together the eggs and sugar in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, until it leaves a trail when you lift the whisk. Remove from the heat, the whisk for a further 5 minutes. Fold in the sifted flour and chocolate then split the mixture between two 8″ cake tins and bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes, until golden and springy.
For the filling:
Melt the white chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water, then beat into the cream cheese. When the cakes are cool cut each in half so you have four layers. I always put them in the freezer for half an hour beforehand to make them easier to cut. Place one layer on a plate or cakeboard and spread with a layer of jam. Spread another piece of cake with a layer of the cream cheese, then place on top of the jam (cream cheese side down). Repeat 3 times, ending with a layer of sponge with no filling on top.
For the icing:
  • 200g white chocolate
  • 75g butter
  • 125g icing sugar
  • 2 or 3 tbsp milk
Melt the chocolate and butter together over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from the heat and beat in the icing sugar, adding milk a spoonful at a time if it seems too thick. Chill until a spreadable consistency, then spread all over the top and sides of the cake. I actually didn’t have enough icing as the crumb coat was quite tricky to do, so I ended up making half of this amount again to finish it off.
For the modelling paste:
  • 125g white chocolate
  • 2 tbsp liquid glucose
Melt the white chocolate, then beat in the glucose. It should create a ball that comes off the sides of the bowl. Chill in the fridge for a few hours (I left it overnight) then bring back to room temperature (or give it a quick blast in the microwave). I used this tutorial to make 4 roses, and cut leaf shapes out of the remaining paste.

My first ever cake order!

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This week was pretty awesome, as I made my first ever paid-for cake! My lovely neighbour Jo, of Mocha Jo Cake fame, asked if I could make one for her friends’ joint birthday party.

Obviously I was super excited and said yes straight away, before asking exactly what kind of cake she’d like.

It was a simple, but specific brief. Firstly, all products had to be organic if possible. She wanted a victoria sponge with jam and cream, so I used my raspberry rose jam and a big dollop of whipped cream for the filling.

She wanted berries, so strawberries went in with the filling…

And in a neat little ring on top…

And then raspberries were heaped on in the middle.

Looking pretty tasty, right?

Then came the final request…. Broccoli.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love broccoli. But on a cake?! Literally, it hurt so much to do this to my beautiful cake, but as I’ve learnt in my day job you can’t argue with a client… Apparently her friends would find it hilarious, so on went the lovely little raw green florets. Delicious!

I would post a recipe, but I seriously doubt anyone would want to make this… Jo loved it though, so my first ever cake order was a success!

Raspberry Rose Jam

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I’ve wanted to make my own jam for a while, but have always been a bit put off by the fact it’s WAY cheaper to buy.

I finally decided it to do it this week, in preparation for my entry to the August We Should Cocoa challenge, the theme of which is rose.

I found this recipe for raspberry and rose water jam, which appealed because it didn’t require any specialist equipment or my own body weight in fruit and sugar.

The recipe is really simple, but calls for heating the sugar in the oven before using. I was a bit doubtful about this, and was proved right as the sugar started to caramelise and was unusable. As I’d already started boiling the raspberries I just threw in some more sugar straight from the packet, and to be honest I can’t really see any negative effect this has had.

This jam has so far been used on scones and as the filling for a very special victoria sponge, which will be blogged about soon. It will also be used in my We Should Cocoa entry which I’ll be baking later this week!

Raspberry Rose Jam (adapted from Waitrose’s recipe):

  • 500g raspberries (I used frozen, defrosted)
  • 500g jam sugar
  • 2 tsp rose essence
Place the clean jars you are going to use in the oven on a low temperature (I filled one large and one small jar). Gently heat the raspberries in a large saucepan and slowly bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and add in the sugar and rose essence. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, then bring back to the boil for another 10 minutes. Test if the jam is ready by pouring a little on to a cold plate, leave it a couple of second then tip the plate. If the jam doesn’t run then it’s ready! Pout into the pre-heated jars and leave to cool.

Coconut and raspberry loaf cake

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After one of my colleagues bought a delicious banana and raisin loaf into work last week, I’ve found it hard getting loaves off my mind.

I think sometimes they get a bit overlooked in favour of fancier cakes piled high with icing, or cupcakes and bars that come in convenient bite size pieces – but that’s a shame as boring shape doesn’t at all mean boring taste!

I first made this loaf a few months ago, as a thank-you present for my aunt and uncle for letting me stay at their house. Unfortunately I didn’t get to try any then, so I knew I’d make it again at some point.

It’s adapted from a Levi Roots recipe for a simple coconut loaf, but with a handful of raspberrries thrown in to make it even more delicious.

The original is my go-to for a basic coconut sponge, as the addition of lime really makes it taste tropical and delicious, and the texture is perfect.

Make this cake!!

Coconut and raspberry loaf cake (adapted from a Levi Roots recipe):

  • 175g butter
  • 175g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • zest and juice of 2 limes
  • 50g desiccated coconut
  • 175g self raising flour
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 200g raspberries
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the lime zest and juice. It’ll probably look a bit curdled at this point, but don’t worry. Beat in the desiccated coconut then sift in the flour and baking powder and fold until just combined. Toss the raspberries in a little flour (to stop them sinking) then layer up the cake batter and raspberries into a medium sized greased and lined loaf tin. Bake at 180 degrees for about 50 minutes, until the top is golden and a skewer comes out clean. Slice thickly and enjoy!

Baked raspberry cheesecake

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I have been massively slack in updating this blog recently, and have a huge backlog of things I’ve baked but not posted about yet. This cheesecake I actually made for my mum’s birthday on June 15th, over 2 weeks ago!

But, it was an awesome cheesecake, so better late than never.

If I had to pick one thing as my baking ‘speciality’, it would probably be cheesecake. I’ve been adapting one recipe for a couple of years and now have it down to an art, with WAY over-complicated cooking methods – but it is delicious.

My mum doesn’t like spongey cakes, so I knew for certain I would make her a cheesecake for her birthday (the big five-oh!) but it took me a while to decide on the flavour.

I was toying with the idea of a Lorraine Pascal white chocolate amaretto cheesecake, but instead decided to go for baked raspberry. I’ve made plenty before with raspberries on top, but never actually in the cheesecake mix, so I was excited to try something new.

I adapted the recipe from the BBC Good Food version, which had received rave reviews so I thought it was worth a go. Me and my mum both prefer a sponge base to a biscuit base though, so I made that the night before – making the whole cheesecake a 3 day effort…

Day 1

  • 60g butter
  • 60g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 40g self raising flour
  • 25g ground almonds
  • 1 tsp baking powder
Beat all the ingredients together in one go (as it isn’t particularly important for the cake to rise). Spread the mix into a 9″ round springform cake tin, lined with greaseproof paper, an bake for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees. Leave to cool for an hour or so, or overnight as I did.
Day 2
  • 600g cream cheese
  • 2 tbsp plain flour
  • 175g caster sugar
  • 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 142ml pot sour cream
  • 200g raspberries
Beat all the ingredients apart from the raspberries in a large mixing bowl. Fold in the raspberries then pour the mix on top of the cooled sponge base. Place on a high shelf in the oven, with a baking tray with 1cm boiling water on the shelf underneath. Bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 110 degrees and cook for a further hour and a half. After an hour and a half, turn off the oven but leave the cheesecake in to cool, preferably overnight (this prevents cracking on top).
Day 3
  • 200g cream cheese
  • 100g white chocolate
  • icing sugar to taste
  • 15 raspberries
Melt the white chocolate over a low heat, then beat into the cream cheese. Sift in the icing sugar little by little until it reaches the right level of sweetness, then spread over the top of the cheesecake. Place the raspberries on top to decorate, then remove the whole thing from the tin. Serve and enjoy!
(Apologies for the hideous lighting, but the photos were rushed as my family were keen to eat!)