Chocolate Chambord Cupcakes

I like to watch shows about murderers… That’s a slightly ominous beginning, but hear me out. I like to watch their relationships with those around them. The way that act with strangers, and more interestingly, the way they act/behave with their parents. Unconditional love is such an interesting concept to me, and watching parents act with love despite their children’s heinous crimes strikes me as very poignant.

My story is nothing like that, but… I got a puppy… I can understand unconditional love. No matter what he does wrong (digging, peeing inside, nipping) I can’t help but show him love and want to teach him. He is learning very quickly! He is currently learning not to beg for people food, even people food as fantastic as these delicious cupcakes.

These cupcakes were baked very purposely to use up what I had left of a bottle of Chambord.

Cooking time: 20 minutes
Prep time: 10 minutes active, 2hrs20min waiting
Yield: 24
What you need:
Cupcake:
in1 and 3/4 cup plain flour
– 2 cups sugar
– 3/4 cups cocoa powder
– 2tsp baking soda
– 1tsp baking powder
– 1tsp salt
– 1 cup buttermilk
– 1/2 cup vegetable oil
– 2 large eggs, room temperature
– 2tsp vanilla essence
– 1 cup fresh hot black coffee, minus 2tbs
– 2tbs Chambord

Ganache
– 500g dark chocolate, chopped
– 1 and 1/2 cups heavy cream
– 4tbs Chambord
– 24 fresh cherries (can use glazed if so desired)

What you do:
Cupcakes
– Line two standard cupcake tins with cupcake liners. (I use the reusable silicone ones, they are fantastic! But I would suggest paper ones if you are baking these for others, just so you don’t lose them!)
– Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix on low speed until well combined.
– In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla.
– With the mixer on a low speed, slowly add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture.
– With the mixture still on low, incorporate the coffee and Chambord until combined. (The mixture will look super wet, that’s okay, just what it needs to look like!)
– Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
– Divide the mixture into the cupcake liners. Only fill to 3/4 full. Any more and you will have overflow. (I was actually able to make an additional 3 giant cupcakes with this mix, but that was because my cupcake liners are a little smaller than my cupcake tin.)
– Bake for 18 to 22 minutes. (There are a variety of ways to tell if your cupcakes are done. As soon as you can smell their beautiful aroma, they bounce back when touched, a skewer comes out clean when pricked through the thickest part of the cake).

Ganache
– Place the chocolate pieces in a large heatproof bowl.
– Heat the cream in a medium saucepan over a medium heat until it just begins to boil. (Keep a hawk eye on it, it happens suddenly and can get very messy if you don’t catch it).
– Immediately pour the hot cream over the chocolate pieces. Set aside for five minutes.
– Whisk the cream and chocolate together until smooth. Starting at the center and working your way out. Allow to set for 2 hours. (You can do it in a fridge, but be careful it doesn’t set too hard. Also, setting time depends on temperature and humidity of the day).
– Stir in the Chambord.
– Pipe ganache onto cupcakes, and garnish with a fresh cherry.

These babies are rich, delicious, and so moist and decadent! Try them and let me know how you go in the comments below! These babies were delivered to my neighbour as a thank you!

Nutella Brioche

Oh my goodness! So the first thing that I need to do is apologise for the last two weeks; I just went AWOL. No warning, POOF! I was gone, and I am terribly sorry about that. I had a bunch of recipes backed up and ready to go, but for some reason they just… disappeared! Then on top of that, I have recently began working at my new job, which has simply DEVOURED all my available time, so I wasn’t able to sit down and rectify my unexpected and purely accidental hiatus.

But I am back now, and I am back with a BANG! I am sure you have all seen this video somewhere on cyber space lately. Well i had someone test me… challenge me if you will… to attempt to make this. You all know me well enough by now, to know that I don’t back down from a cooking challenge. So I accepted, and the results were purely fantastic!

Serves: 8 really hungry people, or 16 kinda hungry people

Time: 40 minutes (plus 1 – 2 hours of proving time)

What you need:

• 500g plain flour
• 190mL tepid milk
• 3tbs castor sugar
• 60g melted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1tsp salt
• 1tsp dried yeast
• Nutella
• 1tsp milk and 1tsp water for glaze
• icing sugar for dusting

What you do:

• Carefully mix the yeast and sugar into the tepid milk. (Note, if the milk is too cold, the yeast will not activate, if it is too hot it will kill the yeast.) Allow to sit, undisturbed, for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate.
• Meanwhile, break the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly.
• Sift the flour and salt together in a large bowl.
• Make a well in the centre and add the butter, eggs, and milk. Mix to s soft dough.
• Knead the dough for 10 minutes, or until smooth.
• Form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a damp towel, and store in a warm place with no draft until the dough has doubled in size.
• Meanwhile, find a dinner plate that fits snug inside your baking tray, you will use this plate as a template.
• Use the plate to cut out a circle of grease proof paper and place on your baking tray.
• Once the dough has double in size (45 minutes to an hour), turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knock back and knead for 3 – 4 minutes. Divide into four even pieces, and form each piece into a ball.
• Roll one ball into a circle measuring the diameter of your dinner plate, and measuring approximately 3 – 4mm thick.
• Place onto the prepared grease proof paper and top with a healthy layer of Nutella. Allow an area of 1cm from the edge of the dough remain Nutella free.
• Roll out the second ball of dough, and place on top of the first circle of dough and top with Nutella.
• Repeat with the third and fourth ball.
• Combine the off cuts, and create a final circle of dough and place on top. Do not cover this layer of dough with Nutella.
• Use a small drinking class, place in the centre of the dough circle.
• Using a sharp knife, cut the brioche into 16 even segments. Use the cup as a guide to ensure you leave a section in the middle uncut.
• Take a pair of adjacent segments. Lift and twist them away from each other 360 degrees. Press the ends of the segments together.
• Repeat this process for all remaining pairs of segments. (Here, the video may be really helpful to visualise what needs to be done).
• Cover the brioche lightly, with a lightly greased sheet of plastic wrap. Leave for 1 – 2 hours to prove.
• Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
• Brush the brioche with glaze, and place in the oven to bake for 20-25 minutes.
• Remove from the oven, and allow to cool slightly.
• Dust with icing sugar and serve.

Black Forest Chocolate Cake

When I was younger, I was that kid that never wore shoes and was always covered in dirt and bruises. To be 100% honest, not all that much has changed. If I don’t have to wear shoes because social conventions tell me I should, I will not have shoes on. I am regularly covered in bruises, and getting outside and digging in the dirt is still fun, so is climbing trees. When I was about 9 years old, I was playing with my cousins at their house. Their house was a mecca for climbable trees, and therefore our dream. We climbed all the trees, many times, until *THUD* I fell. While sitting on a branch approximately two meters in the air, above a brick pathway, I leaned backwards, laughing in my hysterically loud laugh, to something that only 9 year olds would find funny, and I lost my balance. I fell and landed directly onto the bricks and knocked myself out. To this day, my last memory stops about an hour before the fall, and picks back up when I come to in the backseat of my parent’s car.

Black Forest Cake… This is one of those decadent cakes that you see in the window and it looks so graceful and elegant. There seems to be an air of luxury, with an adult flair. I love dark chocolate, it seems to mature and sophisticated. The restaurant we went to made many comments on my cake as they were very impressed, my favorite one being “Oh wow… That certainly is no generic Cheesecake Shop cake, it’s amazing!” To be honest, I think this would be an amazing Christmas cake!

Serves: 10 hearty servings, 12 if you pushed it.

Time: 40 minutes (plus 1 hour cooling time)

What you need:

• 175g butter
• 200g dark cooking chocolate
• 300g plain flour
• 375g caster sugar
• 25g cocoa
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 eggs
• 200mL natural yoghurt
• 425g tin pitted cherries (reserve 2 tablespoons of the juice, drain the remaining)
• 100g cherry jam
• 4 tablespoons Chambord (or any other cherry liqueur). (Save an additional 4 tablespoons of cherry juice if you don’t want to use an alcohol).
• 500mL double cream
• 3 tablespoons icing sugar
• 10 – 12 cherries

What you do:

• Cut the butter into pieces, and cut 75g of the dark chocolate into pieces. Carefully melt the two together in a bowl and combine well. (Either melt over a pot of boiling water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl, or melt it VERY carefully in the microwave)
• Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda, and salt.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and yoghurt.
• Add the wet chocolate mix to the egg mix and combine well.
• Create a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the wet chocolate and egg mixture. Add 100mL of boiling water and combine well until the mixture is free of lumps. (This can be done with a hand whisk, a little tiring though).
• Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. (The reason I am not saying this at the start any more is actually a little money saving tip. As a general rule, ovens only take about three minutes to get to the correct heat. So to have an oven running on heat for a lengthy period of time while you prepare, is very wasteful. By turning it on now, we are not being wasteful, and the oven should be ready when you are ready to use it.)
• Prepare three, 20cm cake tins.
• Evenly divide the mixture between the three cake tins, bake for 25 minutes. (If the cakes are on different levels in your oven, shuffle them around with 5 minutes of cooking time remaining).
• Cakes are cooked when a skewer prick in the middle comes out clean.
• Meanwhile, prepare the remaining ingredients:
  • In a small bowl, combine the Chambord and the reserved cherry juice.
  • In a separate bowl, carefully heat 200mL of double cream.
  • Add the remaining dark chocolate, and stir until melted, combined, and smooth. Creating a chocolate glaze. Set aside.
  • In a separate bowl, combine the tinned cherries and cherry jam. Mush the cherries so they are not so big.
  • In another bowl, sift the icing sugar. Whisk together with the remaining cream until softly whipped.
• Once the cakes are cooked, keep them in the tins. Prick the tops a number of times with a skewer.
• Evenly pour the Chambord mixture over each cake, there should be two tablespoons of mixture for each cake.
• Allow the cakes to cool before removing from the tin.
• Once cooled, spread half the cream mixture over the base piece of cake.
• Top the cream with half the cherry mixture.
• Place the middle section of cake on top, and top with the remaining cream and cherries.
• Place the top piece of cake on top, and drizzle with the chocolate glaze mixture.
• Decorate with the cherries on top! I used 10 cherries, this made it easy to divide the cake into 10 even slices for my guests.

After Le Fiancé tried it, this is what he had to say (I have edited out some of our silly banter):

“I’m having your cake now. Ohhhhh sooo yum! And I’m not normally a fan of cherries in cakes, but this was good.”

If this cake can make someone, who doesn’t even LIKE fruit in cakes, LOVE this Black Forest Cake… then it is a winner in my books!

Blueberry and White Chocolate Muffins

We haven’t had a story about my blissfully insane grandmother. This story is not so much about her, as about an incident vaguely involving her. She originally hales from a state that is a four hour flight, or a three day drive from where we live. On a visit over to us, she was worried about the welfare of her pet sausage dog while we were gone because the dog was getting old. One of her friends was commissioned to look after the sausage dog while my grandma was gone. Unfortunately, the worst happened. Dear sausage dog passed away while my grandma was here. However, the friend looking after the dog didn’t know what to do, and was too afraid to inform my grandma as she thought she would be blamed. So she put the little dogs body in the deep freeze, with the intention of ‘thawing’ the dog so he would appear ‘freshly passed away’ upon my grandmas return back home. Needless to say my grandmother was much more lucid at this point in her life, and returned to find her poor sausage dog in the freezer. She took this surprisingly well, stating that at least she got to see her favourite pooch one more time before giving it the burial she wanted.

There will be no need to freeze these cupcakes, they will all get eaten before you get the chance.

Serves: 12 medium cupcakes

Time: 30 minutes

What you need:

• 6 tbsp sunflower oil
• 280g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 115g soft light brown sugar
• 150g blueberries
• 200g white chocolate chips
• 2 eggs
• 250ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

What you do:

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
• Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
• Stir in the blueberries, white chocolate chips, and sugar.
• Place the eggs in a large bowl and beat lightly.
• Beat in the milk, oil, and vanilla extract.
• Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and pour in the liquid mixture.
• Stir until just combined, be wary not to over mix as this will result in a heavier mixture.
• Spoon the mixture into prepared paper cases.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until well risen and golden brown and firm to touch.
• Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes.
• Serve warm or transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Gooey Chocolate and Cream Cheese Cupcakes.

My brother was not the only person in my family who was hoping I would have been born a boy. My father would have liked a boy too. He wanted to build and develop another sportsman! At a young age I was encouraged to play AFL (currently male dominated), and cricket. My father wanted me to succeed so much, he encouraged I first learn to play as a left hander. There were intentions of my becoming a captain of the female professional cricket team. Though I did not achieve these things, I am a skilled basketballer, and yes, I am a stronger left handed player, despite being right hand dominant.

Serves: 12 medium sized cupcake

Time: 45 minutes

What you need:

• 175g plain flour
• 20g cocoa powder
• ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 200g castor sugar
• 50ml sunflower oil
• 175ml water
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 150g soft, full fat, cream cheese
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 100g plain chocolate chips

What you do:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
• Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases. (I use those reusable silicon cupcake moulds. However, they are hard to take to events because you lose themL. I also always prepare to make 14 cupcakes, that way I can eat one, and I can keep one aside for Le Fiancé!)
• Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and bicarbonate of soda. For best results, sift together two or three times to ensure the powders are well combined.
• Stir 150g of the sugar into the flour.
• Add the oil, water, vinegar, and vanilla extract and stir well together until combined.
• Place remaining sugar, cream cheese, and egg in a large bowl and beat together until well mixed.
• Stir in the chocolate chips.
• Spoon the chocolate mixture into the paper cases.
• Top each with a spoonful of cream cheese mixture.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until firm to touch.
• Leave cupcakes to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Mars Bar, Malteser Slice

Alright… I’m going to say it. I’m going to make the call… This recipe… is HEALTHY!

I can already hear you all yelling at me, “yeah right, how can maltesers be healthy, you tell LIES Shasa’s OmNomNom… lies…”

But hear me out! Gluttony is an issue, Over eating. It is over eating that leads to weight gain. Eating more than we should/need and not using all that we have eaten in physical activity. Tack on to that the amazing flavor that chocolate is, and how hard it is to stop after just one bite. Now I shall share with you, how my caramel malteser slice is healthy… You simply, cannot, overeat! You cannot eat more than one in one sitting. This slice is that RICH with chocolatey and caramel goodness, that one is enough! You eat one piece of this calorie filled chocolate morsel of amazingness, and you just can’t eat another one! See! Healthy!

Serves: 30 – 40

Time: 1hr 30minutes

What you need:

– 1 bag Maltesers – 1 cup of which are roughly crushed

– 4 x 53g Mars Bars – roughly chopped

– 1/2 cup condensed milk (If you use an old tin, it will be nice and caramely)

– 1 packet Chocolate Ripple Biscuits – finely crushed

– 2 blocks milk chocolate (Cadbury)

– 100g unsalted butter

– 1tsp vegetable oil

What you do:

– Line the base and sides of a slice tin with baking paper. 

– In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the butter and condensed milk. Stirring constantly until well combined. 

– In a bowl, combine the Chocolate Ripple biscuits, the Mars Bars, and the crushed Maltesers. 

– Add the condensed milk and stir until combined.

– Pour the mixture into the prepared slice tin, and press out to the sides, and flatten until even.

– Place in the fridge to set for an hour.

– Carefully melt the chocolate, stir in the vegetable oil.

– Evenly spread the melted chocolate over the chilled biscuit base. 

– While still wet, press whole Maltesers into the top, evenly spaced.

– Place back in the fridge for 15 minutes, and allow to partially set. 

– Cut into bite sized pieces, and put back into the fridge until completed set.

– NOTE: The reason you don’t cut it up once it is fully set is because it is simply too hard! Do it while it is partially set and you wont have broken bits of chocolate everywhere, and they will look a lot nicer.

 

DELICIOUS! Now TRY to over indulge on these morsels of rich chocolately, caramely fantasticness!

Choc-Mint Cupcake

Ohhhhhhh these are amazing! They taste like an Aero chocolate having a party in your mouth!!

Chocolate and mint, is one of the greatest chocolate flavour combinations. Even if Le Fiancé disagrees…

Totes impressed all the people at my new work! Hashtag winning! (Please don’t judge me, that was written for lolz… That was too)

What you need:
– 280g plain flour
– 1tbs baking powder
– a pinch of salt
– 115g castor sugar
– 150g milk chocolate chips
– 2 eggs
– 1 cup milk
– 6tbs sunflower oil
– 1tsp peppermint extract
– 1-2 drops of green food colouring (optional)
Icing.
– 175g double cream
– 175g milk chocolate pieces

What you do:
– Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
– Line a 12 hole pan with paper cupcake pans.
– Sift together the dry ingredients. (If you have heeded my words and use powder dye, put it in now. If you use liquid or gel dye, add it with the liquids).
– Stir through the chocolate chips.
– In a separate bowl lightly whisk the eggs.
– Then beat in the milk, oil and peppermint extract. (And liquid food dye).
– Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, and slowly pour in the wet ingredients. Slowly stirring and incorporating the dry ingredients together. Continue until all the ingredients are just combined. Stir gently and be wary not to over mix.
– Spoon into the prepared paper pans.
– Bake for 20 minutes or until well risen and firm to touch. This part made me laugh, my cupcakes looked like they were poking their tongues out.

– Once cooked, leave to cool in the tin for at least 5 minutes.
– I chose to cut the tops off the cupcakes so they would be even heights and look pretty when iced.
Icing.
– Carefully melt together the cream and chocolate pieces.
– Allow to cool, then place in the freezer for 5 minutes. Then stir.
– Continue the pattern of putting it in the freezer and stirring until the icing is firm and the consistency of peanut butter.
– Spread over cooled cupcakes.

FUN TIP!
All those pieces you cut off the top of the cupcakes, can me smooshed together with leftover icing, making a delicious mouthful of aero tasting, fantastic flavoured, perfectly portioned, deliciousness.

Chocolate Peppermint Slice

Here is another recipe blog for St. Patricks Day! This one is a sweet sensation compared to my last lot of Irish fare I sent your way (Irish Stew).

This recipe is one of my favorites! I have always thought that one of the best flavor combinations is peppermint and chocolate. Some may disagree but boo to you, more for me!

What you need:
55g butter
55g caster sugar
115g plain flour
230g icing sugar
1-2tbs warm water
1/2tsp peppermint extract
2tsp green food colouring (powder is best!)
200g plain chocolate, broken into pieces

What you do:
– Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
– Grease a 20x20cm baking tin.
– Place the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
– Mix in the flour (may be easier to do this with your hands) until it all binds together.
– Kneed to a smooth dough, and press into the baking pan.
– Prick the surface all over with a fork, and put in the oven for 10-15minutes or until lightly browned.
– Leave to cool in the tin.
– Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, and slowly add the water. You want it to just combine, if the mixture is too runny it won’t set well.
– Add the peppermint extract, and food colouring.
– Spread over the base and allow to set.
– Carefully melt the chocolate, do not burn!
– Spread over the icing, be careful not to pour on one spot otherwise you may re-melt the peppermint icing.
– Leave to set.
– Cut into squares and serve.

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich Biscuit

If you are looking for an inexpensive way to celebrate Valentines Day but without cheeping out… Cook!

This rich and decadent biscuits are delicious, quick to make, and you would already have most of the ingredients in your cupboard!

My fiancé is a Nutella fiend, so I thought I would put a spin on the humble biscuit, and make it something he won’t forget. Needless to say, he loved it!

Now you don’t have to sandwich them, I just chose to… Why? Well I made a boo and fixed it! I’ll explain later.

This recipe yields 12 sandwiches, or 24 biscuits.

What you need:
– 2 cups plain flour
– 1 tsp baking soda
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
– 1 cup sugar
– 1/2 cup brown sugar
– 2 eggs
– 1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
– 1/2 cup Nutella
– 1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chips

What you do:
– Preheat the oven to 180degrees Celsius. Prepare baking sheets with baking paper.
– In a bowl (not the mix master bowl), sieve together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
– In the bowl of the mixer, cream the butter and the two sugars. Add the eggs and the vanilla and beat until well combined.
– Gradually add the flour until the mixture is well combined. Add more flour if you feel your mixture is too wet.
– Now beat in the Nutella and the chocolate chips.
– Using dessert spoons (or an ice cream scoop) and drop spoonfuls on to baking sheets. These do spread out a bit.
– Bake for 9 to 12 minutes.
– Top with more Nutella once cooled.
Now this is where I made my mistake. I couldn’t figure out how to transport them to my fiancé valentine! So I sandwiched them together! Therefore producing a decadent, rich, Nutella cookie sandwich biscuit thing!!
Absolutely drool worthy!

Brownie Based Baked Cheesecake

Here is the second recipe that I have made as a result of my minor Facebook milestone! A baked cheesecake! I love cheesecake! I also love brownies… So why not combine the two!!

A quick note, this DOES need 4 hours of chilling! So either make it the night before or early in the day!

What you need:
Brownie
– 115g butter, room temperature
– 115g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
– 200g sugar
– 2 eggs
– 1/4cup milk
– 120g plain flour
Cheesecake
– 500g cream cheese, room temperature
– 140g sugar
– 3 eggs
– 1tsp vanilla essence
– 1/2cup Greek yogurt

What to do:
Brownie
– Preheat oven to 180degrees Celsius.
– Line a 25cm springform cake tin and set aside.
– Carefully melt together the butter and chocolate, stirring frequently until smooth.
– Beat in the sugar. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
– Turn mix master to medium speed and beat in the eggs and milk.
– Turn to a low speed, and mix in the flour until just blended.
– Spoon into the prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake for 25 minutes.
– Meanwhile prepare the cheesecake layer.
Cheesecake
– When you do remove the brownie layer, lower the temperature of the oven to 160degrees Celsius.
– Beat together all the cheesecake ingredients until smooth. This may take 10 minutes.
– Pour over the brownie base and put back in the oven.
– Bake for 50 minutes until the centre is almost set.
– Chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours, or overnight if possible.
– Run a knife around the edge to loosen the cake from the pan before serving, to prevent it from sticking.