Left with Cake scraps? Or, as in my case, leftover tea cake from the market that noone wanted? :$
Cake gets a makeover for a post school treat 😀 …. There you go – Chocolate pops!
Chocolate Pops
Take a plain cake
Powder it with your hand
Pour warm melted chocolate*
Mix it well
Refrigerate till hard
Take it out and make balls
Roll it around pop stick or ice-cream stick and roll it in sprinkles…
*Place a bowl with chocolate over a bowl of simmering hot water till the chocolate melts or else heat fresh cream and toss in, chocolate into it, mix till its melts completely
Kids simply love this one! You can even try them to make the balls and roll it in sprinkles for you!
In want of spending the day productively and creatively, Tabita and I decided to try our hand at a deceptively hard dish called Chocolate Delices. Tabita is a friend and a baker who’s creations you can check out, on her Facebook page called Love Bites.
Armed with our recipe book and all ingredients we set off. And the outcome was this…
Chocolate Mousse (Chocolate Delices)
If you want to try your hand at this simple no bake dessert…here’s the recipe which we tweaked a little bit..
Caster Sugar – 1/4 cup (55 grams)
Whipping cream – 200 ml
Fresh cream – 225 ml
Dark chocolate – 450 grams (roughly chopped)
Gelatine – 5 grams (roughly 1 and 1/2 teaspoon)
Egg – 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk
For Ganache
Cream  155 ml
Chocolate – 100 grams
Line your ring moulds with transparency sheet (used for projectors) cut into circle for the bottom and rectangle to line around the ring. We used loose bottomed moulds which made it easier to take the chocolate delices out of the mould
Place sugar and 1 tablespoon of water in a pan over high heat. Do not stir. Once you get a dark caramel gradually add 125 ml of fresh cream and stir using a metal spoon..(I did my research to find out why only metal spoon and apparently metal spoons are less likely to carry trace amounts of fat, air bubbles, or other food particles than a rough-surfaced wooden spoon. These foreign particles can also cause the sugar to crystallize). Stir it till the caramel dissolves.
Place 100 grams of chocolate in a bowl and pour the above hot cream mixture. Stir until melted and combined. Pour into the mould and put it in refrigerator for about 30 minutes to set it. This is our truffle base.
To prepare the mousse, place 150 grams chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water until melted. Keep aside to cool.
Whisk 200 ml of whipping cream to stiff peaks. Chill it in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes to firm.
Add few tablespoons of cold water to the gelatin and soften it (it takes about 3 minutes). Microwave it for 30 seconds and leave it to cool.
Place 100 ml of fresh cream in a pan and slowly bring it to boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the gelatin until dissolved.
Add the gelatin mixture, egg and egg yolk into the melted chocolate and mix.
Fold in the whipping cream.
Spoon or pipe in this mixture into the mould with truffle base.
Refrigerate overnight.
For ganache, boil the cream and pourit over roughly chopped chocolates.
Pour ganache over the mousse, and level it. Chill for atleast 3 hours to set.
Serve with strawberry coulis*
* You need caster sugar and water to boil. Add chopped strawberries (or any berries) and cook till its soft.Puree it.
TipÂ
Add dash of orange liqour into the mousse for that added flavor. Orange and chocolate goes very well…
You may add the liquor to puree if not the mousse.
You can serve it with fresh fruits too, since the dessert in itself will be too sweet and chocolate-y! 🙂
As per the legend, the creation of chocolate chip cookies was a complete accident. Â One day while making cookies, Ruth Graves Wakefield ( inventor of the Toll House brand of chocolate chip cookies) realized she was out of an ingredient for the recipe she was using. She had run out of baker’s chocolate, so she substituted it with a semisweet chocolate bar from Nestle. However, unlike the baker’s chocolate, the chopped up chocolate bar did not melt and mix into the batter like Ruth thought it would. The small pieces of chocolate only softened and the chocolate chip cookie was born.
What a yummy accident! 🙂
Here’s a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie from A’s Chocolate Factory, run by a young and talented Ann Benjamin in the city of Kochi.
Chocolate Chip Cookies Pic: Ann Benjamin
All purpose flour (Maida) – 1 and half cups
Unsalted butter – 100 gms (melted)
Caster sugar – 1/2 cup
Dark brown sugar– 1/2 cup
Egg – 1
Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon (tsp)
Baking soda – 1/2 teaspoon
Salt – a pinch
Chocolate chips – 1 cup
Optional :
Cornflakes (crushed)- 1 cup
Rolled oats -1 cup
Combine maida, baking soda and salt well. Keep aside.
Preheat oven at 150 degrees for 10 mins.
Line the tray with parchment paper.
Add both the sugars to the butter. Whisk it until the mixture is thick.
Add in the egg and vanilla essence. Whisk it again for about a minute.
Add in the dry ingredients.
Form a dough using hands and then add the chocolate chips,cornflakes and rolled oats.
Make equal sized balls and gently press the top while placing on the baking tray
Thanks Chitra for the easy chocolate cake recipe 🙂
All purpose flour (Maida) – 1 cup (heaped)
Sugar – 3/4th cup
Refined Sunflower oil – 3/4th cup
Baking powder – ¾ tsp
Cocoa Powder – 1/4th cup
Vanilla essence- ½ tsp
Eggs – 4 nos
For Icing:Â Chitra used the ready-made Pillsbury chocolate icing on this cake. To make your own home made icing you can use the following. Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, add fresh cream to it. Initially it will become a bit hard, but keep adding the cream and stir well, till pouring consistency is reached.
Whip the eggs and sugar together in a blender, till the sugar dissolves completely, and the consistency is slightly creamy
Then add the vanilla essence and refined oil to the egg sugar mixture, whip again thoroughly
In the meantime, sieve together the maida, cocoa powder, and baking powder
Grease a baking dish and lightly dust with maida
Gently add the whipped mixture to the flour mixture, stirring continuously, beating the mixture till air bubbles are visible on the top.
Gently pour the mixture into the greased tin and bake in pre heated oven at 180 degrees for 45 minutes.
Check with a knife to see if done, cool.
Cut the cake into two equal halves, (use a thread to get a clean cut)
Slather the icing onto both the halves, join them again
Cover the cake with the icing, place in the fridge to cool and the icing to set
Later you can dust the cake with icing sugar, using a sieve, (can use any stencil too, to create patterns)
*for a healthier version, replace all purpose flour with wheat flour. The cake will be browner but tastes equally good.
Chitra Gupta is a homemaker and a mother of two lovely kids. She believes in making food interesting and enticing through lots of experimenting. She ensures her family has healthy food through the week. However, some days she believes in some sinful indulgence too!
Melt butter, golden syrup and the milk chocolate in a double boiler**
Stir and remove from the double boiler
To it add cornflakes and stir well with a wooden spoon
Spoon it carefully into muffin cases and leave it in the refrigerator for about an hour
Use up the same day or store them in airtight container for later use
* you can use honey too
** the container needs to be placed in a pan with water. The ingredients get melted with the heat of the water and not through direct heat
hope you liked and enjoyed the baby food special….till next time…happy cooking! 🙂
Picnics, parties, school lunch break and any time snack; muffins are an all time favorite for most of us! Plain sponge, coffee, chocolate there are so many way one can bake muffins! This one is with Chocolate and Walnut. The last recipe for the walnut week. That definitely doesn’t mean no more walnuts! If I come across an interesting recipe, would definitely share!
Something that really excites all, kids or adult is a warm freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. The buttery crumbly texture as you bite into thick chunks of chocolate, the feeling is absolutely divine! 🙂 Check it out!
Butter – 120 gms
Sugar Powder – 135 gms
Egg – 1 no. (beaten)
All purpuse flour (Maida) – 180 gms
Baking soda – 1/2 tsp
Chocolate chips – 150 gms (dark / white depending on your choice)
Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
Beat butter until smooth. Now add sugar powder gradually and keep beating.
Add the beaten egg with vanilla essence.
Sieve the flour and baking soda once
Add sieved flour to the butter mixture gradually and mix
Add chocolate chips
The dough that you get should be of slightly thick consistency.
Form balls and flatten slightly
Put them on a greased tray leaving gaps between each dough mix
Bake in a pre heated oven at 180 degree C for 15 minutes
This is the recipe for a basic chocolate cake that can act as a base for other more exciting cakes like truffles etc :). Its absolutely yumm 🙂
Butter – 225 gms
Eggs – 4 nos
All purpose Flour (Refined flour) – 175 gms
Sugar powder – 250 gms
Baking powder – 1 tsp
Baking soda – 1 tsp
Vanilla essence – 1 and ½ tsp
Cocoa powder – 50 gms
Water – 1 cup OR ½ cup water and ½ cup curd (plain yogurt)*
Cook 50 gms of cocoa in ½ cup water on direct heat and keep it aside to cool
Take butter and sugar together in a bowl and using an electric beater beat them together in one direction.
Combine flour, baking powder and soda and sieve once.
To the sugar mixture add 1 and ½ tsp vanilla essence and beat. Now add eggs and beat. Add to it the cooled cocoa mixture and keep beating, Now add flour mixture and fold the cake gently and lightly. The consistency of the batter should not be too loose or too tight.
Pour the batter into greased mould and level it by tapping the mould against the kitchen slab.
Now with hands push the batter towards the mould wall on all sides. This is to ensure that the cake during baking process doesn’t swell up and crack from the center.
Bake in a pre heated oven at 180 degree C for 25 minutes
Serve as is or pour chocolate sauce, nuts and other cake decorating stuff over it.
*while using curd put ½ cup curd after you put cocoa in the batter…I always use curd since it adds to the flavor of the cake. So my suggestion would be to use curd!
Have fun baking and do leave me your feedback. I will be back with more exciting cake recipes soon.
Tour de France took us to the stunning Bourg St. Maurice. a ski resort town in France where I met lovely Lucie and her family who stay in Les Arcs ski resort with a mind blowing view to the Alps! Check my travel diary on Composed Volcano for more information.
As I cooked a Indian meal for them, Lucie decided to prepare some yummy chocolate muffins. Though there are various recipes one may find, this one to my opinion is the simplest!
So here’s Lucie’s version of the recipe
Refined Flour – 80 gms
Eggs – 4 nos
Sugar – 180 gms
Combination of milk and dark chocolate – 140 gms
Butter – 140 gms
Melt chocolate and butter on direct heat
In a bowl add sugar, flour,eggs,melted chocolate and blend it nicely with a spoon
in a non stick muffin tray dole out the above mixture
Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 15 minutes for a creamy effect and for 20 minutes to bake it completely
Akshayapatram 