Brownie bites

These would be my most requested dessert from people. My Mum goes crazy over them. They are very rich, fudgey and chocolatey.

As they are rich, a little goes a long way. Each bite should be approx 1 table spoon.


Note that this recipe will make A LOT of brownie bites. This is not a bad thing as they are really popular, however the other option is to save half the recipe to eat as regular brownies and use the remaining mixture for brownie bites. Both the brownie and brownie bites do freeze really well though.


To cover the brownie bites, the amount of chocolate needed will depend on various factors including how thickly you coat the bites and whether you are making the whole quantity of bites at once. If you are freezing some of the bites to use for another occasion, I freeze them uncoated.

Ingredients:
Brownies 
Chocolate ganache (1/2 recipe)


Chocolate, melted - the type you use is optional. I used a combination of milk and dark.
1 tbs oil for every cup of chocolate (optional - to make it smoother)


Decoration
Mini easter eggs - or anything you like, the possibilities are endless.

Method:

Make brownies according to the recipe and allow to cool before crumbling into a bowl and mixing in the ganache. Use your hands - it is much easier that using a spoon! Alternatively place all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth.


You want to achieve a texture similar to the centre of a truffle. Put mixture in fridge to cool for 15 minutes.

Roll into small balls (e.g. about a tablespoon size). At this stage, because I was making nests, I pushed my thumb into the centre of them to make a well. 

Pop them in the freezer for 30 minutes or so...this makes them easier to handle for the following steps.

Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Dip balls into chocolate. This is the hardest part. After doing a few you will get into a rhythm though. I found it easiest to use a couple of spoons. Be sure to shake of the excess melted chocolate otherwise you will really just end up with messy brownie bites with chocolate drips.
Add your decorations. Leave to set, either at room temperature or in the fridge. 


Notes:
Add your decorations fast as they will rely on the melted chocolate to adhere to the brownie bite. 
You can make them into different shapes

For decoration, you are only limited by your imagination. See here for a Christmas version.

Double the apple - Apple cake with apple filling

My Dad has been helping us a lot lately in our search for a new house. So as one way to say thank you, I baked him an apple cake.


Ingredients:
Cake (Adapted from Simply Recipes)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch salt
1 cup sugar (I used 3/4 white, one quarter brown)
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 cup apple sauce (plus extra to fill the cake) - recipe here is enough for the cake plus filling.
1/4 cup buttermilk


Method:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Greese and line a 20 x 20 cm square baking pan.
Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt into a large bowl and set aside.
Place the butter in another bowl and beat until pale, add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat to combine after each. Add the vanilla and the applesauce, and beat until combined.
Mix in half of dry ingredients. When nearly combined, add the buttermilk. Mix in the remaining dry ingredients, until fully incorporated. Be careful not to over-mix.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and place in centre of the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until cake is done. Test for doneness by lightly pressing the cake - it should spring back to the touch. Alternatively poke a toothpick into the centre of the cake - if it comes out clean, its done. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove from pan and leave to cool on wire rack.


Once cool, carefully slice in half and fill with the extra apple sauce.

Ice with cream cheese icing.

Double chocolate strawberry truffle baby cupcakes

I haven't baked in a while. Last weekend was Melbourne cup weekend, so we had four days off. We had a great day on Derby day, and a lazy Sunday. By Monday I was ready to bake! I wasn't really sure when I started making these how they would turn out, but I had truffle cupcakes in mind and was determined to give it a go. And... everyone likes strawberries dipped in chocolate, right?

I made the chocolate ganache and the strawberry curd a day before making the cupcakes to ensure they had firmed up enough to use.

Makes 24 mini cupcakes

Ingredients:

Truffle centre
Strawberry curd filling (adapted from Baking Bites)
200 grams strawberries, pureed
1/2 cup white sugar
5 tbs cornstarch
4 tbs thicken cream
1/4-1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted. Amount depends on how sweet your strawberries are.

Chocolate truffle filling (Adapted from Simply Recipes)
150g good quality dark chocolate chopped into small pieces
1/3 cup of thickened cream
3/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Cupcakes
Half this chocolate cupcake recipe

Method:

Strawberry curd filling
Combine strawberries and sugar in a food processor and blend until very smooth. Add cornstarch and blend again. Strain into a medium saucepan. Over medium heat, cook until it just comes to boil - this shouldn't take long. Stir continuously and cook for about a minute, until the mixture thickens slightly (If it covers the back of a wooden spoon, this is the thickness you want). Pour into a heat proof container and cover the top of it with cling wrap. By having the cling wrap in contact with the curd it will prevent a skin from forming. Leave to cool and thicken.

Chocolate truffle filling

Put cream in a microwave safe bowl and put it in the microwave on medium for one minute. Stir, then return to microwave for another 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and add chocolate, stirring regularly until chocolate is melted and incorporated. Stir it regularly - it should start to look lovely and smooth. Pop in the fridge to cool.

Once both the strawberry curd and chocolate mixture have cooled and thickened, line a plastic container with baking paper and pour the ganache into a smooth layer. Top with the strawberry curd and pop back in the fridge over night.

Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 176 degrees C. Spray 24 mini silicon cupcake moulds and place on a baking tray.

Sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Add eggs, milk, vanilla and oil. Beat ingredients with a mixer for approx two minutes. Occasionally scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure all ingredients are incorporated. Add the boiling water, and beat until just blended. Don't over-mix. Make sure you pour the mixture into the liners when they are on the tray that you are using to put them in the oven - due to the boiling water, the mixture is very runny!Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean. Mine took about 12 minutes. Leave in the moulds to cool for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

To assemble the cupcakes:

15 minutes prior to filling the cupcakes, remove the truffle filling from the fridge.

Use this method to hollow out the top of the cupcake and fill with the truffle filling. You will need approx one teaspoon per cupcake.

Chocolate layer cake with chocolate ganache

I must admit I was nervous about the addition of coffee into the cake. Love them both individually, but not combined. I did some research and found that apparently the coffee deepens the chocolate flavour, resulting in a delicious chocolate flavour with no coffee taste. I was skeptical. Mr X added to my anxiety when he tasted the raw cake batter. "Hmmm... is there coffee in the cake? That's all I can taste!". Uh-oh. But popped the cake in the oven anyway. Mr X tasted the cake once baked and changed his mind about the coffee taste. I got the thumbs up. Phew!

The oil is used instead of butter leaving the cake lovely and moist - it also stays fresh longer without going dry.

Ingredients:
Cake
3 cups plain flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp baking soda
Pinch salt
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (sifted)
1 1/3 cups rice bran oil
1 1/2 cups buttermilk - well shaken
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups freshly brewed hot coffee (I used two shots of long black from our coffee machine topped up to 1 1/2 cups with warm water)
1 1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste

Ganache (enough to fill cake between the layers and to ice the cake) 
250 grams dark chocolate
100 grams of milk chocolate
3/4 cups thickened cream

Method:
Preheat the oven to 176 degrees C degrees. Grease and line two 20cm round cake pans with baking paper.

Place flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Add oil and buttermilk. Add the eggs one at a time, beating the mixture continuously on low with an electric beater. Slowly pour hot coffee down the side of the bowl and into the mixture, continuing to mix on low speed. Add vanilla and mix until batter is smooth. Divide into pans. Pop in oven and bake until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs, about 30-35 minutes. Rotate half way through baking. Mine took 35 minutes to bake. Let cool in pans for at least 20 minutes.

While cakes are baking, pop the cream in a microwave on medium head for one minute, being careful not to burn it. Add chocolate to cream and mix, allowing the chocolate to melt. Continue to stir until fully incorporated. It looks so smooth and shiny - you will not be able to risk tasting it! Delicious!  Set aside to cool and thicken at room temperature, stirring occasionally.

Once baked and cooled, carefully remove cakes from pans. Place one layer of cake on a serving plate. If the cakes are a little uneven onto, carefully trim the tops with a serrated knife. Place some of ganache in the middle of the cake and smooth it out towards the edges using a spatula. Repeat the process with the second cake, before placing the untrimmed side down on the top of the first cake, forming two layers. Press down gently.

Spoon more ganache on the top and smooth it around the sides, adding more ganache as needed to cover the entire cake. Leave it to set for a few minutes (if pressed for time, put it in the fridge for 10 minutes) then smooth on another layer.

Another nice option would be to put caramel in between the layers before covering with ganache.

Cake bites ... what a mess!

Inspired by Bakerella's super cute cake balls and cake pops, I decided I had to attempt them! Most Monday's Mr X takes my baking leftovers to work - but it is a public holiday in Melbourne today (yay!) so I baked these.

This is my first attempt at cake bites. I'm making them with banana cake, but the possibilities are endless. Next time I think I'll try chocolate or a vanilla cake. Or maybe a combination of the two...

Most cake pop / ball / bites that are featured up on various blogs tend to use a cake mix, but I don't like using them so I made my own cake.


Ingredients:

Cake ingredients (Minus the cinnamon, and I upped the vanilla to 1tsp) 


Nutella icing
1/3 cup nutella, softened
1/3 cup icing sugar, sifted
2 tbs unsalted butter
less than 1/3 cup milk

Step 1# Bake cake and let it cool completely.
Step 2# Make icing (you will need between 1/3 to 2/3 cup of icing for this, depending on how big your cake is). I used about a 1/2 cup.
Step 3# Crumble cake up into a large bowl with or hands, or in the food processor.
Step 4# Mix 1/3 cup icing into the crumbled cake.

Although messy, I think it is easiest to mix with your hands until thoroughly combined. You want to achieve a texture similar to the centre of a truffle. Mix in additional icing if necessary. Basically, you just want enough icing added so that the cake crumbs are bound when you roll them into balls. What you don't want is to add so much icing that the mixture becomes mushy and wet.
Step 5# Pop mixture in the fridge for an hour or so to harden, this will make step 6 easier! Or if you want, skip this step and go straight to 6.
Step 6# Roll mixture into bite sized balls. I used a rounded tbsp of mixture per ball, and place them on a plate or tray lined with baking paper. At this stage I couldn't resist drizzling extra nutella over them....

Step 7# Pop into freezer for an hour
Step 8# Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl on medium, checking frequently to stir. Be careful not to burn!
Step 9# Dip balls into chocolate. This is the hardest part, and you can see from the photos that I was not awesome at it! In fact, I was terrible. I used a couple of toothpicks.

Using a toothpick, pick up a balls and dip in the chocolate. Using a second toothpick in the other hand help the ball slid off the toothpick. Lightly tap off excess chocolate. Leave to set. 

Step 10# Eat.

Triple chocolate brownies

I found this recipe on the Exclusively Food website - it is a great site with many delicious recipes that I want to try. If only I had more time to bake! Featuring dark, milk and white chocolate, it is lovely and dense and oh so chocolatey.


Straight out of the oven it is moist and a little bit gooey in the centre. The chocolate chunks are melted and soft. Yum. Other ways that it can be eaten are at room temperature, or from the fridge, when the brownie is still fudgey and the chocolate is firm. To make it even more rich, you could serve it warm with chocolate sauce drizzled over it.


Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C, and grease and line a 20 x 20 cm square cake tin (I used a silicon one).
Serves approx 12 people


Ingredients:
For the brownie batter
125g butter, room temperature
150g milk chocolate, chopped up or broken into pieces
50g dark chocolate, chopped up or broken into pieces
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
3/4 + 1 tbs plain flour
1/4 cup self-raising flour


For the chocolate chunks (to add to the brownie batter)
125g dairy milk chocolate, chopped into chunks
125 white chocolate (I used Milky bar), chopped into chunks
Note - you could use top deck or other chocolate (Caramello, perhaps?)


Place the milk chocolate and dark chocolate (from batter ingredients) into a microwave safe bowl, and microwave in bursts on medium until just melted (check and stir frequently - you don't want the chocolate to burn, what a waste of chocolate that would be!). Place in mixing bowl. Melt butter, then add it to the melted chocolate and stir. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
Once the chocolate/butter mixture has cooled, add in the sugar and eggs, stirring to combine. Add the two flours and mix.
Add the chocolate chunks to the batter, stir to combine.
Poor into prepared baking pan, and place in the oven for 25-35 minutes, depending on your oven. You really need to be careful not to over bake - bake until still soft in centre, but cooked through. Once cooled, it will firm up. I know that sounds a little vague, but just watch it carefully in final minutes of baking and you will know what I mean!

Dust with icing sugar if desired.


Shoeboxgirl

Apple crumble muffins

I am glad my husband wasn't at home when I baked these ... wow, what a mess! I blame the crumble topping! This is the first time I have used rice bran oil. The original recipe called for 2/3 cup vegetable oil, but I thought I'd try halving the oil and making up for it by adding apple puree. Rice bran oil has a more subtle taste compared to vegetable oil, and has a nutty sort of flavour.

This recipe makes 18 muffins or 12 muffins + 1 loaf cake approx. The muffins take 25-30 minutes to cook, while the cake took approx 50 minutes. Today I baked 12 muffins and 1 loaf cake. 

Ingredients:

Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup rice bran oil
• 1/3 cup apple puree
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarb soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup butter milk
• 2 cups grated apple (approx 3 large apples)

Crumble topping

• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Method:

Preheat oven to 176 degrees Celcius (fan-forced oven). Grease and line muffin pan.

Muffins

In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, oil, apple puree, egg and vanilla until smooth.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, soda and salt. Add cinnamon. 

Add the oil and sugar mixture to the flour mixture, then add in the buttermilk.

Fold in grated apple until just combined.

Spoon mixture into prepared muffin pan.

Crumble topping

Mix butter, sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Sprinkle crumble mixture over muffins before popping them in the oven to bake. Bake them for around 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and tops spring back.

For the loaf cake, I greased and lined a standard loaf pan, and poured remaining mixture into it. I sprinked the remaining crumble topping onto it, and baked it for approx 45-50 minutes.

shoeboxgirl

Banana cake with cream cheese icing

This cake is tried and tested, I've made it many times. If making it for my husband, I ice it thickly with cream cheese icing as that's the way he likes it. When I make it for my brother and Dad, they like it without icing.


This cake is a great way to use up the over ripe bananas often left over in the fruit bowl at the end of the week. I freeze them and when I have a few I'll make a cake.


Ingredients:

Cake

• 125g salted butter, softened 
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 slightly rounded cup of very ripe, mashed banana (approx 2-3 large bananas)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon natural vanilla essence
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (this gives a mild cinamony flavour - use more if you prefer!)
• 2 large eggs
• 100ml (1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon) buttermilk
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Cream cheese icing

• 100g cream cheese, softened
• 50g butter, softened
• 1 2/3 cups icing sugar
• 1 3/4 teaspoons lemon juice

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius (fan-forced) / 180 degrees Celsius (if oven not fan-forced).

Grease the side and base of 22cm diameter round cake pan and line base of the pan with non-stick baking paper.

Mix butter, sugar, banana, vanilla and eggs in a food processor for approx 1-2 mins, scrape down sides of processor and ensure all ingredients are evenly mixed. 

Add buttermilk and mix to combine.

Add ground cinnamon, sifted flour and bicarb soda to food processor and process until just combined, being careful not to over-mix the batter. 

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake for between 50-60 minutes, or until a skewer or knife inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. If during baking time you see the top getting overly brown, lightly cover it with al foil to prevent burning.

Cream cheese icing

Beat cream cheese and butter by hand or using an electric mixer until creamy. Sift in icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add lemon juice and beat to combine. 

Spread icing over top and sides of cooled cake.

shoeboxgirl