Chocolate and Pear Cake

There are days when you need something sweet, and we thought this was perfect when we didn't have much in the house. This mainly uses products that you will have in your cupboard and fridge.

Ingredients:

- 2 cans pear halves in juice

- 190g plain flour

- 40g cocoa powder

- 190g caster sugar

- 225g butter, plus extra for greasing

- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

- 3 eggs

- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract

Recipe:

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees.

2. Drain the cans of pears and lay them, flat side down, on the bottom of the dish.

3. Put all of the ingredients into a bowl.

4. Mix together! 

This is honestly one of the most amazing tasting chocolate cake batters ever!!

5. Pour the chocolate batter over the pears and spread it out, its okay if some of the pear is poking out! 6. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, then leave to cool.

7. Serve with ice cream, or a chocolate sauce! It would be great with my chocolate peanut sauce (do pears and peanuts go? Only one way to find out!)

Let me know how it turns out of you try it, and if you do, send a photo on twitter or facebook!

Zoe x

Mixed Berry Crumble

A while ago I posted the recipe for a crumble. This time I made it as individual servings, instead of one big one.

Serves one.

Recipe:

Crumble: 
- 100g plain flour 

- 50g unsalted butter 

- 45g Demerara sugar (soft brown sugar)

Centre: 

- A few tbsp of frozen berries

- 1 tsp cornflour 

- 1 1/2 tsp sugar

- ½ tsp vanilla essence 

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

2. Place the flour, butter and baking soda into a bowl and rub with your fingers or mix with a fork, until it forms breadcrumbs. 

3. Add the sugar and mix together. This can go in the freezer until you are ready to use it.

4. In a ramekin, pour the berries, cornflour and sugar in and mix together.

5. Top the fruit with a few spoonfuls of the crumble topping. Cook in the oven for approximately 15-20 minutes.

Before being cooked...

Be careful! The ramekins are really hot when they come out of the oven, so you will probably need to transfer the crumble to a dish.

I then spooned the crumble out of the ramekins and served with vanilla ice cream. Custard or cream would also be lovely with this!

Zoe x

The Ultimate Chocolate Fudge Cake!

This is the best cake ever!! 

I'm not a massive fan of big cakes, I normally prefer cupcakes, but I absolutely love this cake!! There is no other way of describing it, other than the Ultimate Chocolate Fudge Cake!! 

This is another Nigella Lawson recipe, I saw it on one of her TV shows, where she describes it as the 'break-up cake', because you should be able to lick the bowl clean afterwards (maybe don't pour as much into the tins!) and that you should be able to eat the entire cake on your own!! Honestly, no one would have a problem with doing that, but it probably gets a bit sickly after more than 3 slices....You will have to find out!!

Recipe:

Cake:

- 210g of plain flour

- 200g caster sugar

- 1 tsp baking powder

- ½ tsp baking soda

- 2 tsp vanilla extract

- 150ml sour cream

- 175g butter, softened

- 40g cocoa powder

- 2 eggs

Icing:

- 170g semi-sweet chocolate

- 85g butter, softened

- 1 tbsp golden syrup

- 1 tbsp vanilla extract

- 125ml sour cream

- 310g icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2. Put all of the cake ingredients into a bowl and mix.

3. Pour the cake batter into two 8 inch tins and bake for 30 minutes.

4. Melt the chocolate for the icing and stir in the butter.

5. Pour the golden syrup and vanilla into the chocolate, then sift in the icing sugar. Mix together.

6. When the cakes have cooled, use 1/3 of the frosting on the bottom layer of the cake, then place the second layer of the cake onto the icing. (If the cakes are still warm, it will turn your icing all runny and ruin the cake)

7. Use another 1/3 of the frosting to decorate the top of the cake.

8. Then cover the edges in the frosting.

9. I like to grate some chocolate over the cake as a nice finishing touch.

I like to add some orange essence/juice/peel into the cake and the icing to make it into the Ultimate Chocolate Orange Cake!!

I will repost the recipe when I get some better, clearer pictures!!

Zoe x