Chocolate Cake Bites

My intention this morning was to make Ice Cream Cakes for my nieces, and croissants for a hangover breakfast on Sunday morning for my sister, dad and me.  What came out the other end of the day was Ice Cream Cakes and experimental Chocolate Bites.

I have too many cake ideas fighting inside my head and it's starting to get a bit noisy, so the croissants were unfortunately sidelined on this occasion so I could let out some ideas.

Now, bear in mind that these aren't meant to look perfect (no, really), because they're mostly a taste/idea experiment.  I also couldn't get hold of the silicone moulds I wanted for them in time to try them out, and excitement won out over patience.

So here we have Chocolate Bites:



Chocolate Bites


There are two flavours with the same basic idea.  They're made up of chocolate sponge as the base, topped with whipped cream, coated in melted chocolate.  The variations are:

1. Choc 'n' Orange Cake Bites

• Chocolate sponge
• Drizzled with orange syrup (sugar and orange juice)
• Topped with whipped cream which is flavoured with a little orange extract and lots of orange zest
• Coated with milk chocolate
• Decorated with orange zest



Choc 'n' Orange Cake Bites


2. Choc 'n' Ginger Cake Bites

• Chocolate sponge
• Drizzled with ginger syrup (the syrup from a jar of preserved stem ginger)
• Spinkled with chopped preserved stem ginger (from the same jar)
• Topped with plain whipped cream
• Coated with dark chocolate
• Decorated with preserved stem ginger





Choc 'n' Ginger Cake Bites

You might think that as there's one less orange cake than there are ginger, that I've already taste tested one.  You'd be wrong.  That one was a fallen soldier.  Literally.  He fell off the tray when I was putting them in the fridge, cream-side down of course  :(  I hate cake waste!

So there they are, all imperfect and not at all glossy.  The intention, when I have the lovely bendy, non stick silicone tray I want, is that they'll be perfect domes of cakey goodness.  Until then homemade imperfection will just have to do.

Oh and just in case there was any doubt... cakey goodness is the best kind!

Ice Cream Cakes. Sort of.

A short while ago I made Raspberry & Marshmallow Cupcakes.  When two of my nieces taste tested them for me I asked them if I were to make marshmallow cakes again, what flavour should I put with them?  The answer was, of course, chocolate.  They were specific though.  They asked for chocolate chips and chocolate sauce.

So there I was soaking in the bath yesterday thinking about cake (this isn't as unusual as it sounds!), and I considered adding a flake as decoration, stuck out like a '99', and I realised just how much it would look like an ice cream.  Then the cogs really started turning.  How could I make it look even more like an ice cream?  It was simple.  Bake the cakes in flat-bottomed ice cream cones instead of paper cases.

Now, I've googled this since I sat down to write this blog and of course I'm not the first person to think of it, but I do wonder whether I'm the first to mess around with it quite this much....

Oh, wait.  You need photos first!



'99' Ice Cream Cakes

 Before I continue, I feel I should add that I didn't intend for the marshmallow topping to look like melting ice cream.  It should have been all pert and pretty like it just came out of the Mr Whippy machine, but some accidents are happy ones and I think these are just cute!

So, yes, I baked the little cakes inside ice cream cones... or rather, cups.  It was just bog standard vanilla sponge, but once they were cooled I took out the cores and filled them with marshmallow.  Next I pushed some chocolate chips down into the marshmallow, then added more marshmallow in a ring around the edge which gave me more of a well.  Then I poured in chocolate sauce.  Oh yes!  "And then what?  There can't be more!".  Oh yes there can.  I added more chocolate chips, then finished piping on the marshmallow.  I popped in the Flakes and dusted them with an equal mix of icing sugar and cornflour.

So there they are, my '99 Ice Cream Cakes.

You might think that I stopped at that little experiment but you'd be wrong.  Look here...

Haribo Ice Cream Cake

The Haribo Ice Cream Cake was inspired by my sister who recently made a cake and decorated it with Haribo.  I also have a friend who could quite possibly live on them, so she may want to be prepared for a cakey delivery tomorrow!  You know who you are.

I followed the same steps as with the '99' cakes, but substituted the chocolate sauce for raspberry sauce, and the chocolate chips and Flake for Haribo.

Personally I prefer the chocolate version, which happily for my friend means she gets more Haribo cakes.  Hurrah!

I have a headache now.  Perhaps it's too much baking and not enough eating.  Or maybe I got that the wrong way round... hmmmmmmm...

Tomorrow I have soup and stew to make, perhaps with a side order of sundried tomato and parmesan buns.  If I get around to it, there might be photos of those too.

My Big Cheesy Buns

Indeed.  I do have big cheesy buns.  There are seven in total because I ate one with my soup!

This weekend I was planning to bake something bready that would challenge me, but other events took over, my life became an unexpected blur of activity, and this morning all I really wanted to bake was bog-standard bread rolls.  Except with a bit of very strong parmesan on top for some delectable cheesiness.

My big cheesy buns

The recipe I used is here.  It's a Hairy Bikers recipe, and unusually it suggests kneading the dough the first time for 20-25 mins.  I only kneaded mine for about 10 mins and it was plenty.  It was all nice and silky smooth so I figured I was onto a winner.

My first proving time took about 1 hour, and the second proving after shaping into buns and directly before baking was about 30 mins.

The result was eight large, light, fluffy buns, and I couldn't be happier.  For my next batch I'll make 12 from the same recipe because these are a little too big for my current dietary requirements.  However for basic bun loveliness I see no reason to look for any other recipe.

My next bready challenge may involve focaccia.  Or... oooooh... I could drive myself demented with Mr Hollywood's eight-strand plaited loaf!