Soft Centred Chocolate Bites

So what do you think?

This week was the turn of the Soft Centred Chocolate Bites, which were taken from a lovely little recipe book called Everyday Baking, given to me by my friend Laura for my last Birthday.

It's a fantastic book and contains pretty much everything you could ever wish to bake, so you won't be surprised to hear that I'll be using it several more times, as I make my way through the Challenge list!

(Incidentally here's a photo of the book's cover, if you want to look for it - It's very good and very easy to understand!)

Go on, go look for it!

The recipe itself was very straight forward and oh so delicious (I've adapted it everso slightly, but not so much as you'd tell!)

So what you'll need...

* TO MAKE 7/8 CHOCOLATE BITES*

• 4 Tablespoons of Soft Margarine
  
• 55g/2oz Caster Sugar
  
• 1 Large Egg
• 85g/ 3oz Self raising Flour
  
• 1.5 Tablespoons of Cocoa Powder
• 1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
  
• 1 Bar of Plain Chocolate (Segmented is best)
• Icing Sugar for Dusting
• Strawberry Garnish
  

Recipe

1. Put 8 paper cases in a muffin tin.

2. Put the margarine, sugar, egg, flour, baking powder and cocoa into a mixing bowl and beat together until smooth.

3. Spoon half the mixture into the paper cases. Using a teaspoon make an indentation in the centre of each cake. Break the chocolate into eight segments and place a piece in each indentation (although I would recommend you use two, because one isn't quite enough!)

4. Spoon the remaining cake mix on the top of each cake until the cases are almost full.


5. Bake the cakes in a pre heated over at 190C/ 375F/Gas Mark 5 for 20 minutes.

6. Remove from oven and leave to stand for two minutes, before lightly dusting with icing sugar for presentation.

Fresh out of the Oven

The Verdict?

These mini chocolate bites were incredibly delicious - even if I do say so myself - and I would certainly recommend them to anyone who wants make them - really, go on make them, you won't regret it!
The only thing I would say is that the chocolate quantities in the centre should be doubled (I've noted this in the recipe) but this can be easily adjusted to make them the perfect cakes.

Next week I'm jumping over to the savoury side of the wall to make Black Olive Focaccia so check back soon to see how that goes!

Until then,

Happy Baking!

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Royal Wedding Fun!

I've been waiting to do this post for ages, (1) because it's the first time I've written about something I've actually made myself, (2) because I've been planning these little things for about a month and a half, and (3) because...well... it's the royal wedding - only the most exciting day of the year - well my year anyway! (Oh and (4) coz it just so happened to be my birthday as well! so Yay for me!)

Fresh out of the oven

On the 29th April 2011, Royal Wedding day, we had a Tea Party, with flags and finger sandwiches - very refined and very English, I know - and my contribution was a cupcake celebration, so on Wednesday morning I started with baking the cakes, ready for decoration on Friday.
Now, you probably think it was a little premature to bake the cakes three days in advance, and that they might dry out, but oddly enough I always find that if cakes are left to stand for a few days, then they become a lot denser and nicer to eat!

For the occasion, I bought some special little Union Jack cases and flags from The Works, for 99p, so that my cakes had a 'British' feel!
I must admit that I was a little worried about using coloured cake cases, because last time I did the dye somehow managed to leak into the cake and ruin the entire batch, which wasn't good at all! However this time, I threw caution to the wind and used them again - I'm glad I did, because they added a really great feel to the cakes, that no other cases would have given.

Crowns

My other decorations came from a few places... I got the crowns from John Lewis, for about £3 for five, and the Will and Kate toppers came from a company called Simply Topps on Amazon, who sold me a pack of 24 for the brilliant price of around £2 including P&P! (Not bad eh?)

These decorations were brillaint and, as you can see, hid a multitude of sins on my unpiped icing beneath!

Totes Rah! (as Heat Magazine would say - God I'm so classy with my reading materials aren't I?)

The Wedding itself was beautiful (don't you think?)and the tea party a complete success - So I think that all in all it was one of those days which can be classed as pretty damn perfect!

Congratulations Will & Kate!!!

Happy Baking
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