Thursday, May 31, 2012

May Roundup

FUDGE! They all look so delicious. Well done everyone. My eyes just gained 10 pounds.


Sunday, May 27, 2012

DECADENT CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE

Posted by -Winnish, Original post (in Hebrew) can be found HERE


Very rich Chocolate Fudge Cake
wit
h White & Dark chocolate icing



We love chocolate cake (who doesn't??) and I really like to try new recipes all the time.
This cake is one of the best Chocolate fudge Cake I've ever eaten or baked




I found the original recipe here, but I've made some changes

9' round pan

225g (1 cup) Soft butter
300g (1½ cups) white sugar
2 heaping teaspoons trimoline sugar (invert sugar)
4 eggs
½ teaspoon baking soda
200 ml cream - low fat
50 ml milk
280 g white flour
45 g cornstarch
1 cup chocolate chips
225 g baking chocolate 
1/3 cup chocolate syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Glazing
110 g white chocolate, chopped
½ cup chocolate chips
50 g butter



Melt the chocolate (in double boiler or carefully in the microwave) and let cool. Put a baking sheet on the bottom of the pan, grease and flour it with cocoa - bottom and sides of pan.Preheat oven to 150C (300F) degrees 
Mix flour and cornflour in a small bowl.Cream butter and  trimolie sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Gradually add sugar and beat well at medium speed. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition 
Add the melted chocolate, chocolate syrup and vanilla extract and mix well.
Dissolve the baking soda + milk + cream and stir well. It is important to take a large dish/container as it immediately doubles the volume. 
On a low speed add the flour mixture alternating with the cream mixture in 2-3 time, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until blended.
Stop the mixer, 
Add the chocolate chips and stir.
Transfer the batter into the pan and smooth the surface. Bake for 85-95 minutes -  until the cake is springy to the touch. Remove cake from the oven and immediately invert it onto a serving plate and cool completely



Glaze
Melt 25g butter and white chocolate (in a double boiler or carefully in the microwave) until smooth.
Drizzle on the cake (I put baking/wax paper all around in order to keep the serving plate clean)
Melt the rest of the butter
 (25g) with the chocolate chips - in the same way, and drizzle on top and in between white-chocolate drizzle




¯ I actually made the cake "Parve", so Instead of using butter, I used butter-flavored margarine, vanilla-flavored soy milk and non-dairy milk, Believe me this cake turned out delicious!

¯ You can warm it in the microwave for a few seconds and,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, YUMMY !!!





Black Forest Fudge

Posted by - Laura loves cakes (www.lauralovescakes.blogspot.com)


Well, it's fair to say that May has been quite a hardcore baking month, I've been baking like a demon and have been more than a little cross-eyed on a number of occasions after piping, sticking and cutting cake decorations! So I thought I'd try something completely different this weekend. I've probably made fudge at some point in the dim and distant past but I don't remember it.
It turns out that fudge is fairly easy to make, all you need is a sugar thermometer and the taste testers definitely enjoyed this one...but quite frankly I think it would be difficult to find someone who didn't like a mixture of white chocolate, dark chocolate, double cream and sugar!!

Once you've made your fudge you have to chill it in the fridge overnight before cutting it into squares, however if you take it out and leave it, it gets pretty soft. So we discovered that for optimal fudge eating it is best to leave it in the fridge and then take it out about 10 minutes before you want to eat it...if you can wait that long! :-)

Ingredients

40g unsalted butter
100g dark glace cherries
500g gold caster sugar
275ml double cream
75 g dark chocolate
50g white chocolate

Ideally, you need a 17cm square tin for this fudge but I only have a 20cm square tin and that seemed to work just as well. The first thing to do is butter and line the base and sides of the tin. In preparation it is also helpful to chop up the cherries at this point. The recipe suggested halving 50g worth and quartering the remaining 25g but I didn't find this to be enough so I increased it to 100g. Also grate both of the white and dark chocolate into seperate bowls.

The sugar, cream and butter should then be combined in a heavy based saucepan, you also need to add 3 tablespoons of water before heating gently for 5-10 minutes, this should dissolve the sugar. Once you've reached this stage, increase the temperature and bring the mixture to the boil. Pop in a sugar thermometre and head to 113 degrees celsius (235F). Once the mixture reaches this stage and is nice and thick, take it off the heat.

Pour a third of the mixture in a metal bowl (I used another saucepan), add the white chocolate to this bowl and the dark chocolate to the original saucepan. Stir both until slightly thickened, I think I waited too long as my fudge didn't swirl quite as well as I had hoped, so don't wait too long!
Finally, pour the dark chocolate fudge into the bottom of the prepared tin, scatter the quartered cherries over the top before pouring over the white chocolate mix to cover. Then to get the swirl effect, drag a skewer through the mix to create two tone swirls. To finish, place the halved cherries on top and then chill in the tin overnight. Turn the fudge out of the tin to cut into squares. The recipe suggests it makes 49 squares, so cut it 7 by 7 or larger if you wish! :-)

* Adapted from Mrs Hope's Chocolate Box

Friday, May 25, 2012

My Chocolate Fudge

Posted by - Angeline

May challenge is to make any kind of fudge which is hosted by Rena from Have The Cake. I would love to try to make some fudge ended I decided to join with the rest of the bakers from around the world. Basically, all fudge recipes are almost similar to each other. It only depends what side ingredients we wanted to put in or anything we preferred personally. I've referred quite a few site regards fudge and here I have my own recipe after try and error. Eh hem...this is my second time (My first trial failed) making and it is a success to me.
1 can of condensed milk
2 cups of semi chocolate chips (Hershey's)
1 cup of dark chocolate - chopped
1/2 cup of hazelnuts - toasted
1 cup of rice bubbles
5 pcs of Quacker oats biscuits
Utensils you may need a wooden spatula and of course wrap a baking tray with an aluminium foil which is slightly wider sheet so you can cover the hot fudge and easy for storage later on.
 Method:
1. Bring a can of condensed milk to a boil with medium heat. Stir gradually so the base will not easily get burnt.
2. When the condensed milk start bubbling, immediately remove from the stove.
3. Pour in the semi sweet chocolates chips and also the dark chocolate which I have cut into small equally size in order to melt evenly.
4. Then keep stirring with a wooden spatula until the fudge become smooth, creamy and slightly thicken. Do not over stir. Please refer HERE for better fudge results.
5. Add in the rest of the ingredients; nuts, rice bubbles and chunks oat cookies and mix it well.
6. Spread the hot fudge evenly on a square baking tin which has been line with aluminium foil. Cover and fold the aluminium foil from the side and slightly press the fudge. So it covered all the side areas of the baking pan.
7. Bang the pan 1-2 times to get rid of air bubbles and leave to cool down at room temperature before putting in the fridge.
8. Let the fudge cool in the fridge for 30mins or 1 hour before cutting. Do not keep it for more than 1 hour, or else the fudge will be harden and it is hard to cut.
9. After cutting, you can always keep it dry and air-tight containers or it can keep for a longer period in the fridge.
It is good to choose the good quality of chocolate chips/bars. A good one usually have more radiant, glow, shining texture and smells great too. I'm very particular with chocolates because I love chocolates. I even drizzled some melted white chocolate on top the fudge for fun. LoL, my last minute addition.
The good things about fudge is no mess and no baking is needed. Since I'm waiting for my fudge to set inside the fridge. I have the idea of wrapping up all my fudge pieces using baking paper.
 Tadda, here you are my fudge in wrappers.
It even looks prettier with ribbons. Don't they?
It reminds me of Christmas sweet treats. I don't mind if Christmas comes early this year. Enjoy!


Right here I'm submitting my chocolate fudge to Have The Cake May Challenge - Fudge

Double Fudge Chocolate Cake

Posted by -Anuja @simple-baking



I made this Double Fudge Chocolate Cake as a "welcome home" treat for Saee, but the kid was so exhausted last night that she fell asleep even before finishing her dinner. No worries, she had it for breakfast this morning. That girl surely loves her chocolate!


Last week I was in no mood for baking, as the mercury was really soaring high here, and I had these amazing Mango Ice Cream (even though it was finished off in 10 minutes flat, it satisfied my sweet cravings) and Watermelon Granita to keep me company and to please guests dropping by. But my kiddo coming home from a successful camping trip deserves a cake..a chocolate cake..no make that double fudge chocolate cake!


The moment I saw this gorgeous creation on  Food Network's site under Ina Garten's recipes, I knew I HAVE to make it. All that gooey chocolaty deliciousness was calling my name and Saee's homecoming was certainly a special occasion to bake this beauty.


I m killing two birds with this cake. As you probably know that the Star Chef for this month's Cook Like a Star bloghop, organized by the very talented Zoe @ Bake for Happy Kids, is Ina Garten, so m linking this post to her blog. Secondly, the topic for this month's Have The Cake is Fudge, so linking this to their bloghop too. Do visit these sites to feed your eyes the awesome creations made by my blogger friends.

                                                    
Fudge is essentially a very sweet, and extremely rich confectionery. It is made by mixing sugar, butter, and milk and heating it, and then beating the mixture while it cools so that it acquires a smooth, creamy consistency.


The chocolate cake was very rich and super moist (because of the addition of both buttermilk and yogurt) and the frosting was so yummy that I couldn't stop licking my fingers. I kept it simple by decorating it with star sprinkles (cook like a star...star sprinkles...get it???) and Ira was more than happy to pick all the stars by her cute little hands thereby making cute dents in the cake.


Double Fudge Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Food Network
(I halved the original recipe and baked the cake in an 8 inch round cake pan, the baking time remains same)
Ingredients:
220g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for the tin
450g plain flour, plus extra for dusting the tin
200g good cocoa powder
2 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
200g granulated sugar
200g light brown sugar
3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
3 tsp pure vanilla essence
125ml buttermilk, at room temperature
175ml sour cream, at room temperature (I used yogurt)
3 tbsp freshly brewed coffee

For the Icing:
700g milk chocolate chips
375ml double cream (I used Amul Low Fat cream)
2 tbsp golden syrup (see substitutions)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla essence
4 tbsp (50g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Smarties or M&Ms for decorating

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Butter and flour a 30.5 x 46 x 4-cm cake tin and set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars on high speed until light, approximately 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla and mix well. Combine the buttermilk, sour cream, and coffee.
On low speed, add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture alternately in thirds, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture. Mix the batter only until blended.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a cocktail stick comes out clean. Cool to room temperature before icing.
Place the chocolate chips and double cream in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chips are completely melted. Off the heat, add the golden syrup and vanilla and allow the chocolate mixture to cool to room temperature.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the chocolate mixture and softened butter on medium speed for a few minutes, until it's thickened. Spread the frosting evenly on the cake. Decorate with sprinkles.
I sliced the cake horizontally into two and filled it with 1/2 the icing and the rest was used to frost the entire cake.