The Recipe Room

 Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate – what more do I need to say about this triple chocolate cake recipe?!  Get baking and enjoy. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed!

For another rich chocolate dessert to be eaten by the spoonful, try these intense little chocolate pots. They are sinfully tantalising!

 

A traditional Swedish dessert, this apple meringue pie is a real treat for the apple pie connoisseur.  With a crispy crust, scrumptious strawberry and tart apple filling, all covered with a light and delicious meringue, this pie is sure to satisfy even the most demanding of palates.  Although the recipe and finished product appear to be quite complex and difficult, in reality, it’s quite the opposite.  You’ll have it ready in just over an hour, and judging by past experience, it’ll only last about half that time before disappearing!

For another fruity meringue treat, try this iced fruit mountains and hot chocolate snow recipe.

 

This delicious date and raisin biscuit recipe was given to me years ago by a neighbour who was a real baking aficionado, and they instantly became one of my favourite biscuits!  I remember her house (and mine, as I lived right next door) used to always smell of cakes and biscuits at the weekends, which always left me with my mouth watering and wondering if it would be too cheeky to go over and ask for a sample!  Luckily, I never had to, as she eventually came over and offered me some of these delicious biscuits, and many other treats over the course of the years that I lived next to her.

To keep with the date theme, you could try this curly asparagus salad with goat’s cheese and Medjool dates as a meal before these biscuits. After all, you will probably need some healthy food to offset the sugar in this recipe!

As with most biscuit recipes, it’s pretty hard to go wrong. Just make sure you mix everything well and remember that the longer you let the dough sit in the refrigerator, the better they’ll turn out.  Enjoy!

 

 

This apple coffee cake is a deliciously spicy treat that goes extremely well with your cup of morning tea or coffee. For an afternoon or evening dessert, pair it with a xanté hot apple cocktail. The combined flavours will be delicious!

The tartness of the apples provides the perfect counterpoint to the aromatic sweetness of the coffee cake. In fact, I suggest you use the tartest apples you can find, as this really makes the cake stand out from the crowd. For a truly decadent delight, try adding some pecans or walnuts (or any other nut) to the batter. If you do, be sure to coat the nuts with a bit of flour before adding them to the mix, as this will help to keep them from sinking to the bottom during baking.

This is a French recipe originating from the Basque region, an area that borders France and Spain. That´s where I first tried this cake, after a very long morning walk around the city of Soule, France, and a quite heavy meal that included Coq Au Vin in a great restaurant where everything was fantastic. I didn´t know what to order for dessert, so the waiter recommended this delicacy, which is difficult to find even in Basque bakeries. Luckily, this rustic jewel is not hard to make, just hard to resist.

I really liked its textures and flavours, and thought it could also be an ideal afternoon tea time snack. It’s a cake with a crunchy textured top and bottom, and then a soft middle. The filling is simply pastry cream. The cake I first made consisted of a cake that was basically dripping with rum, a vanilla pastry cream and slivered almonds on top.

It is known in French as Gateau Basque, where the traditional filling is cherries; there are countless variations to the cake depending on where it is made. The stuffing can be varied depending on the requirements and availability: sometimes, powdered almonds or lemon zest may also be used to make the pastry of the cake, and the yeast may be replaced with baking powder. The cream filling may be flavoured with almonds, anise, rum or Armagnac, or it could also contain cherry jam.

As with most rolled cakes, this apple sauce ginger roll is a little bit labour intensive, so it’s not the best option if you’re short on either time or patience. However, if you’ve got the time to do it right, the end result is more than well worth the effort required!

Another example of an elaborate cake roll is this Chocolate Caterpillar Cake. The author of this recipe made it for her niece’s birthday, and I think it was really clever!

My apple sauce ginger roll recipe is one of my kids’ all-time favourites. Hopefully soon they’ll be old enough to help with the preparation! The recipe calls for apricot jam, but any other fruit jam should work just as well; let your taste buds be your guide and you can’t go wrong!

Every summer when I was a little girl, we used to visit my great-aunt who lived in Canada,  and she would often take us blueberry picking.  The picking itself was pure torture, bending over for hours on end picking the berries, scraping our hands on the bushes and wilting under the hot sun, but when we finally got home she would always make tons of blueberrydesserts, which made all the effort worth it.  My favourite of those desserts was blueberry cake. (A similar version is this delicious pistachio and blueberry cake.)

This isn’t the exact recipe she used, but it’s fairly close to what I remember from those hot and humid Canadian summer afternoons so long ago.  I particularly like the way the blueberries seem to explode in your mouth with a burst of sweetness when you bite into one side of the cake.  Just make sure you let it cool well before you eat it as the blueberries retain the heat quite well and you can burn your tongue – trust me, I’m talking from experience on this one!

If you can’t get fresh blueberries, frozen ones will work perfectly well in their place. In fact you can’t really tell the difference, so if price is a problem, then go ahead and use the frozen berries which are generally a lot cheaper unless it’s the right season.  You can also try sprinkling a 50/50 mix of sugar and cinnamon on top for an extra-decadent delight.

Ingredients:

This is a recipe for traditional pound cake, just like Grandma used to make!  The reason it’s called pound cake is because of the original quantities of the main ingredients in the old imperial measuring system – a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of flour and a pound of eggs.  My now, doesn’t that sound healthy!?!

Well, be that as it may, this recipe has been a classic for ages, and it’s easy to see why.  Aside from being easy to remember and easy to make, it’s also very moist and delicious and loved by almost anyone with a sweet tooth!

I top my cake with icing sugar, but if you have a preference for chocolate, you could make this dark chocolate ganache to cover it.

Ingredients:

• 115g butter, softened
• 190g cake flour
• 300g granulated sugar
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 4 eggs
• Icing sugar for dusting

                                          

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 175ºC.
2. Grease and flour a 25cm x 15cm x 7cm loaf pan, or line with parchment paper. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter on medium speed in an electric mixer. Gradually add the granulated sugar and beat until light in colour.
4. Add the vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl in order to make sure mixture is well-blended.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. With the electric mixer on low speed, blend in the flour, baking powder and salt just until blended.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out with just a bit of crumb on it.
8. Remove the pound cake from the oven and place it on a wire cooling rack. Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
9. Carefully remove the cake from the pan and continue to cool on the wire rack until it’s completely cool. Remove and discard the baking parchment.
10.  Dust the top with the icing sugar and serve in slices.
11.  Any unused cake can be stored wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature, or it may also be frozen for later use.

Prep Time:  15 minutes

Cooking Time:  55 minutes

Serves:  6-8

Difficulty:  Easy

A bit of an exotic twist on your traditional pound cake recipe, this spicy pound cake is a breeze to make and a real delight to eat. My favourite way to eat it is dipping a big chunk into my Chai tea latte, though I realise that this may be a bit too rich and spicy for some palettes!

Tangerines are really better than oranges in this recipe, so if you can get them, use them! If not, it still tastes perfectly good with regular  oranges. Another option is to use half and half orange/tangerine and lemon or lime. If you’re feeling extra-adventurous, try scooping a dollop of pistachio ice-cream (Malai Kulfi) on top of the cake while it’s still warm (or reheat it in the microwave first).

For a chocolaty orange recipe, you can try my yellow layer cake with orange chocolate frosting or this dark chocolate and orange mousse recipe.

This sweet and spicy pear and nut bread makes for a great Christmas cake and also works very well as a carry-along snack for school or a car-trip out in the country.  It also goes great with a nice warm cup of tea, especially Earl Grey or English Breakfast.  I like to use hazelnuts, but walnuts also work very well. (For a chocolaty treat, try these poached pears with a hot white chocolate liqueur sauce.)

Ingredients:

• 4 pears, peeled and cored
• 110g butter, softened
• 300g granulated sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 240g cake flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1/4tsp salt
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1tsp nutmeg
• 250g seedless raisins
• 250g chopped hazelnuts

Instructions:

1. Cut two of the peeled and cored pears into 1.5cm slices.
2. Place the pears in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, uncovered over high heat, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, or until tender. Drain.
3. Purée the cooked pears in a food processor until they attain the consistency of applesauce. You should have about 250ml. Set aside.
4. Preheat the oven to 175ºC.
5. Grease and flour a 25 x 15 x 7 centimetre loaf pan, or line with baking parchment. Set aside.
6. In an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until light in colour.
7. Add the pear purée and vanilla extract and mix just until blended.
8. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
9. On low speed, gradually add the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Mix just until blended.
10.  Dice the two remaining pears and stir into the batter along with the raisins and nuts.
11.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
12.  Remove the cake from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire cooling rack for 10 to 15 minutes.
13.  Carefully remove the cake from the pan and continue to cool on the wire cooling rack. Remove and discard the parchment.
14.  Serve slightly warm or wrap in foil and store at room temperature.

Prep Time:  25 minutes

Cooking Time:  60 minutes

Serves:  10

Difficulty:  Medium