Uber-chocolate muffins

You know sometimes when you just NEED chocolate? This is the closest to an instant IV drip of homemade chocolate goodness that you can get.

As of now I am officially "on a diet"  - so of course I need chocolate!

I often have cravings for those warm chocolate muffins with melting choc chunks in that you get in cafes and supermarkets. Well, this is them. But without all the weird chemical preservatives. I cannot tell you how good they are.

I was told off last year for sharing recipes on how to use up easter eggs - no one has to do that I was told - well we do - so that's how we made our chocolate chunks!

Adapted from Joy of Baking who in turn borrowed it from King Arthur Flour  Baker's Companion!

Red velvet cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting

I am a newcomer to the pleasures of red velvet, as are my husband and friends. We are all evangelists now! The rich red brown cocoa sponge, balanced with the rich, creamy sweetness of a white chocolate and cream cheese frosting. Pure decadence!

The cupcakes originate from the Hummingbird Bakery cook book. The icing is mine. And boy is it good... but not good for you!

Preheat oven to 170C
12 hole cupcake/ muffin tin with  paper cases

60g unsalted butter at room temperature
150g caster sugar
1 egg
20g cocoa powder
1 1/2 tablespoons red food colouring
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

Icing 

60g unsalted butter (soft)

200g icing sugar

100g cream cheese (Philadelphia) cold from fridge

75g white chocolate

With an electric whisk beat the sugar and butter until light, add the egg. Combine cocoa, food colouring, vanilla and 2 tbsp of the buttermilk to make a smooth paste. Whisk into the butter and sugar. Add half of the buttermilk, then half the flour with baking powder added, repeat and whisk till very smooth. Then for the kitchen magic. Sprinkle the baking soda with your fingers to get rid of lumps into the centre of the batter, pour over the vinegar and watch it fizz with a child's delight. Whisk up to combine. Spoon quickly into the cases and pop into the oven. Cook for 20 mins or so till risen and set in the middle.

Cool on a wire rack, take out of the tin after 5 mins.

Leave until completely cool. Meanwhile make the icing.

Melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over boiling water. DO NOT let the bowl come in contact with the water. Remove before it is completely melted and stir as it finishes melting. White chocolate can overheat and go grainy easily. This happens even more easily with cheap  white chocolate. Leave to cool for about 10 mins.

Whisk butter and sugar with an electric whisk, if helps to add the sugar gradually so you don't get a snow storm. It WILL come together. When light and fluffy add cream cheese and whisk well. Add the cooled white chocolate, beat just until combined. Be sure that the cupcakes are completely cool before you ice them. At lest an hour after coming out of the oven.

Enjoy!

Chocolate pavlova... with raspberries and cream

For my sister, Mirin

Crisp on the outside, squidgy on the inside, fat free (before you add the cream!) and very chocolatey... served with raspberries... and cream!

3 egg whites
75 g/ 3 oz caster sugar
3 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp corn flour/ corn starch

Preheat oven to 150C

Whisk egg whites till stiff. Add sugar, whisk till glossy. Add other ingredients whisk until combined.

Put onto a non stick baking sheet - spread about 1 1/2 inches thick, about 9 inches in diameter. Bake for 45 mins at 150C. (It will be crisp to the touch - my oven is quite fast, so yours might need a little longer.)

When cool, cover with 250 ml cream whipped and a punnet of fresh raspberries, and dust with icing sugar.

Perfect All-American Chocolate Cake

For Leigh, Lydia and Francesca

Imagine if a brownie and a chocolate cake had a baby. This would be it...

This cake is from  Rose Levy Beranbaum's authoritative Cake Bible. I made this today for my 3-year-old's birthday. The description in the Bible was pretty grand. I read it to my guests before we ate it. Partly to scoff... but, after trying it, we all agreed it was spot on - and not at all immodest.

"This cake has a full chocolate flavour and exceptionally soft, fine texture for a chocolate butter cake...Ross Horovitz, after photographing this cake of Chocolatier magazine, said "when you bite into this cake," he rhapsodised, " its seems light; then it becomes fudgy and chocolaty; then jist when you begin to think you have something, it simply vanishes so you want to take another bite!" My mother was more succinct: "It tastes like a chocolate bar but softer." And that was my goal."

So you have to try it really, don't you? (And if you love baking I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The woman is a baking goddess - scientific in the extreme in her approach and consistently perfect in her recipes.

I have adapted the recipe very slightly...