Book Review–Gu Chocolate Cookbook

Once in every 3-4 months, we have a book sale organized in our office by lunch time by the book people, where we can buy book at a discount rate. Usually cheaper than the high street prices. Some times even cheaper than Amazon. Usually they will have lots of cookbooks, kids books and some novels. I love cookbooks so I make sure that I pay a visit to the sale, every time the book people comes to our site.

This time among all the lovely cookbooks I spotted the Gu chocolate cookbook. I didn't know that Gu had published a book on chocolate, so it came as a surprize to me and I knew I was going to buy that book instantly. Who wouldn’t just look at the cover picture. However people do say don’t judge the book by its cover! So I went in. Every page I turned I felt good. At the end of it it was like a magnet got stuck in my mind and hand, I just had to buy the book!

The hard covered, 200+ pages book contains many interesting recipes along with the usual suspects. The book has 6/7 chapters and you can choose recipes based on your situation demands. I just love the last chapter name its called “…for Chocolate Extremists”. The pictures of the book kept me glued to the book for a long time. They just looked out of the world. If you are  a chocolate lover, trust me you need to have this book.

I came back to my desk and just couldn't resist letting everyone know about my latest treasure. One of my colleague suggested that I should bake a cake from the book. I knew I was going to make something from the book soon but his suggestion narrowed it down to the exact thing. There were two chocolate cake recipes I was toggling between, but then in the end decided to go with Chocolate mousse cake with chocolate glaze on top.

I started on with the sponge which was pretty easy and straight-forward. Just melt the butter (200gm )add sugar(200gm) and start the mixer. Now added one egg at a time upto 5 eggs (the recipe suggested 6 but I thought 5 would be enough). I got the chocolate melted in a double boiler and set aside to cool down before adding to the cake mix. In a separate bowl I mixed all the dry ingredients, 150gms flour, 3tsp baking powder and 1tbsp baking soda (my addition).  Added the dry mix spoon by spoon to the wet mix while continue to mix with that electric mixer. Finally added the melted chocolate and gave it a good mix again.

I had preheated the oven to 170 degrees and placed a lined cake tin in it before starting on the cake mix so by now the oven is and the tin both are ready to bake. just pour the cake mix on the tin and baked for 50-55 minutes or until the skewers came out clean. Took the sponge out to cool it down and turned the oven down.

Now on to the chocolate mousse. This is an eggless mousse, just two ingredients 200gm dark chocolate and 200 ml double cream. Beat the cream till it forms the soft peak and melt the chocolate and add into it to a smooth mix. Chocolate mousse is ready for the spread. All I needed is the sponge to cool down. Since there was some time to that so I started to make my chocolate glaze.  Again started with melting 100 gm chocolate with 100ml double cream. To that added 100 gms of caster sugar and half a sachet of gelatine mix with 2 tbsp of water. I made the gelatine mix before so that no lumps formed in the chocolate glaze. Mixed every thing together and when it turned in to a rich dark pool of chocolate sauce, took it off the heat and let it cool.

Building the cake: I must say this was the toughest part of all. I have done this before but not with chocolate cream. I have always found cream and cream cheese frosting is the best frosting. Easy to spread and holds shape well. This chocolate mousse spread wasn’t an easy one. It took me longer time to do the icing than I anticipated and It wasn’t as smooth as I expected. Maybe I should have beaten the cream a bit longer but anyway, here I was spreading the mousse on the cake.first I added a bit of mousse to the cake base so that when I work on my sponge it shouldn't move. Next cut the cake in to half and spread generous amount of mousse on top of the bottom half.Carefully placed the top half of the sponge. Now covered the cake with rest of the chocolate mousse. This took a while. Finally when I finished I placed the cake in the fridge to set for at least 2-3 hrs. Then pour the glazed on top of the cake, making sure to cover every bit of it. Once that’s done, placed the cake back in to the fridge for the glaze to set on mousse and this time overnight.

I must say I didn’t manage to get the look I was after but I hopes it would taste good, and that’s what happened. My team mates loved it. I took the cake to office on Monday morning and there was nothing left when I left the office that evening. I was happy, all that hard work paid off.

Chocolate Cupcakes and a sweet moment to remember

Time flies, and just like that I didn't realise how these last six months came and went. So many things happened during this little time. I remember the day very clearly when my mum was coming to be with me for sometime. I was so excited and happy when I saw her coming through the doors, I was jumping with joy and happiness. She was here for the most important event of my life. I was so glad that she came and was with me for the birth of my baby. With the baby, my mum and my better half, time passed by like a blur and now I feel so sad as she will be leaving this weekend.

Now that I have sat down to write this post I am reliving all those countless moments of pure joy and fun we had together. This post won’t finish if I try to pen down all of then but one such sweet moment was when we celebrated her birthday. It was always she who baked my birthday cake when I was growing up and this time I thought of baking one for her. I can’t tell you how nervous I was, especially because I was baking for her birthday. But she kept telling me keep it simple and gave me enough confidence so that I can finish my cupcakes. I made very simple chocolate cupcakes just like she wanted without the frosting on top and she loved it!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

100 gm plain flour

100 gm brown sugar

100 gm butter

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3 tbsp Cadbury's cocoa powder

Method:

Melt the butter and add the sugar to it and start beating it. Add the eggs and continue beating till the mixture turns pale yellow and smooth. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl then take one table spoon at a time and add into the wet mixture and keep beating. Continue this process till you have finished adding all the dry mix to the cake mix.

Preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Place the muffin cases in the the muffin tray and pour the cake mix on the muffin cases with a tablespoon. Bake for 20 minutes or till the cupcakes are done. Once done take them out of the oven and let them cool. you can do any frosting you like but I kept it simple and served it just like that.

Valentine’s day – Part 2

Although you can buy practically everything from the supermarket its always nice to have some personal touch to the food we cook or share. They don't have to be perfect and that’s the beauty of it.

I have got these beautiful bars of chocolate from Sainsbury, you can eat them just like that or you can use for your baking. I did. I noticed I don’t have any cupcake recipes here. Its Valentines day, another excuse to have chocolates and cakes. Not that I would like to bake a huge cake but a small one just for two of us or some cup cakes which we can finish in one go.

 

I had some beautiful little chocolate truffles which I thought I could use for decorating these chocolate muffins as my dear husband is not very fond of creamy icing.  After all, I was making these muffins for him only. BTW guess what I got in return, a trip to SFO and LA. Isn’t that great! Well it's our milestone anniversary weekend as well!

 

As usual I am referring to Nigella’s recipe. As you know if it involves chocolate and indulgence but is quick and easy, it has to be Nigella. For these little chocolate cupcakes I used her recipe from Nigella Feasts – Comfort Food. Here is a link to the video Choc Chip muffin.

  Ingredients :

For the cupcakes:

First the list of dry ingredients:

100 gm of dark chocolate (melted)

1/4 th cup of dark chocolate chip (recipe suggested 3/4th cup but as I used 100 gm of dark chocolate so I reduced the chocolate chip amount )

1+ 3/4 th cup sugar

1 + 3/4 cup plain flour

2 tsp of baking powder

1/2 tsp of baking soda

List of wet ingredients:

1 cup of milk

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

For the icing:

100 gm dark chocolate

100 gm white chocolate

100 gm melted butter

2 tbsp cherry Liquor (for the dark chocolate icing)

Sainsbury’s TTD Chocolate truffles

 

Method:

Pre heat the oven to 400 degree F. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl and keep it aside. In a separate bowl add one by one all the wet ingredients and whisk it together so that the egg is mixed well. Now add the mixed wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix it well. Place the muffin cups on the baking tray and scope the cake mix in them. Bake them in the oven for 20 minutes.

For the icing melt the dark and white chocolates separately and add 50 gm of butter to each of the melting chocolate. keep stirring and then finally add the cherry liquor to the dark chocolate for little extra flavouring.Once the muffins are cooled down I put the icing on them and decorated them with the chocolate truffles.

I am sending this as an entry to Maison Cupcake’s event Forever Nigella #2 “Seduced by Chocolate”

Time for Goodies

Last Monday I had an invitation to the Sainsbury’s food blogger meet in London. I was all set to go and on the day of the event I had to cancel my invitation because I had to be in another place at the same time. It wasn’t very happy about it as I have been waiting for it. Anyway, it may be next time. The next day, I received an email from Sainsbury’s, which cheered me up! I was about to receive a box full of goodies from Sainsbury’s. Isn’t that wonderful! It made me feel like it was already Christmas.

Friday morning, I received a huge box in the morning post. Much bigger than the pervious panettone box. And guess what I found inside the box? Here is the list. Thank you so much Santa Sainsbury’s for making my this Christmas so very special. Cheers!!!

Taste the difference Almond Panettone – Italians are known for their taste when it comes to Christmas treats. I have tried the Panettone with chocolate bits and now this lovely almond one. It seems after baking this light, buttery textured Italian cake is hung upside down, which helps produce the exceptionally moist finish.

Taste the difference Swiss Truffles – The box had four types of truffles, and I have enjoyed them all.

• Rich Dark, made with single-origin chocolate from Madagascan Trinitario beans;
• Milk Chocolate, a traditional Gysi-family recipe using chocolate from Ghana and Ecuador;
• Vanilla Caramel, with fresh Swiss cream; and
• Marc de Champagne, filled with genuine French Marc de Champagne made with Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay grapes

Foiled chocolate racing cars – These little treats are ideal for Christmas stocking, but I would suggest buy them closed to Christmas eve, else you will just have to buy more and more of these goodies. As far as I am concerned I have finished these too. .

Taste the difference fruit and nut topped Christmas pudding is about as good as it gets. The glossy, luxury fruit topping is made with three different French glacé cherries, American almonds and pecans and some sweet-sour candied Moroccan orange halves. The pudding ingredients include juicy Turkish raisins and Greek currants mixed with Californian sultanas and Chilean raisins – all soaked in a warming, boozy blend of sherry, brandy and mixed spices. The pudding is gently steamed and then cooled before maturing for six months, allowing the world-on-a-plate flavours to develop just in time for Christmas.

Taste the difference Holly leaf Christmas cake is baked at a low temperature and the oven gets blasts of steam throughout the cooking process, helping to give it an exceptionally moist finished texture. When cooled it is laced with Cognac before being hand finished with a rich layer
of marzipan, white icing and hand-made edible holly and berry decorations.

Shortbread selection packed in a cute Scottish dog shaped box, just melts in mouth. Its buttery smooth texture is just ideal for a cuppa!   

Note: Some of the images are courtesy Sainsbury’s and I am taking a break gobbling down these gorgeous goodies.

Simple Pleasures - Panettone

 

Life is full of sweet surprises which suddenly appears and brings a smile on your face. Last week I received an email inviting me to try one of the Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference range of products, which will help in making this Christmas a perfect Christmas for all of their customers. I was delighted to receive the e-mail and decided to go with Taste the Difference Panettone from the list of products.

On Friday, I received a big box in the morning’s post. I knew it is cake but didn’t expect it to be in that big a box. It was huge and came in a very pretty looking festive gift box with a ribbon on top. I so fell in love with box that I didn’t want to open it for some time. I was expecting a small loaf inside it but finally, when I opened the box, I found this huge cake occupying the entire box in all three directions and left no space for any extra packaging.

 

I usually don’t like to share my piece of cake but it was such a huge cake even I knew I won’t be able to finish it alone. We were planning to see our friends over the weekend, so thought why not take this cake and get an opinion form everyone. So we took the cake to the party.

We had a rocking party in my friend’s house and after dinner was time for the movie. So my friend put the kettle on and I started to cut the huge Italian Chocolate cake in to pieces. I was almost done with it and realized we need some plates for everyone to enjoy their cake with some fresh coffee while watching the movie. It took me only few mutes to come back with the plates but by then all the pieces were gone. I couldn’t understand for a minute what just happened. I looked at the empty plate (well, almost empty - they saved a piece for me) and then looked around, almost everyone had finished eating. “Oh My God!! What a cake!!!” one of my friend broke the silence. Then one after the other everyone started telling how lovely the cake was. My best friend and the host of the party said “All time delicious, mouth watering cake. It literally melted in my mouth. Very special for Christmas”.We were around ten people in that room and everyone loved it!!

 

Finally, I got my piece of cake and I couldn’t agree more with my friends present in the room. The cake was extremely light, sweet, buttery and chocolaty at the same time. The texture was very similar to soft inner part of a croissant. The cake had a very thin chocolate layer on top and inside it was filled with small chocolate bits. Simply divine and a must for the upcoming festive season. Thank you Sainsbury's. We all love it and will definitely get more in near future.

Also thanks a ton for the chocolate and the coffee I received last month. The Ethiopian Sidamo Ground Coffee from Sainsbury’s Taste the difference range is amazingly smooth and the bitter sweet dark chocolate goes perfectly well with the coffee. Thanks!!!