posts

Rocky Road Chocolate Cakes

Moya11 Comments

Looking at the Good Food Calendar hanging in my kitchen I could not help but take  notice of the very rich and delectable looking Rocky Road Chocolate Cake featured for the month of April… it was like as if the photograph was saying…“bake me”, “bake me”… so I did exactly that!  It has been quite some time since I made anything rocky road and with my son back for the holidays, home baked goodies were back on the menu.

I quite liked the idea of a chocolate cake topped with a layer of rocky road which consisted of  melted chocolate, marshmallows, walnuts, raisins and crunchy Maltesers… definitely a rustic and homely looking bake!

Place some Rocky Road Chocolate Cakes into little gift boxes and give to family and friends for a special Easter treat.

Rocky Road Chocolate Cakes

( recipe and method from the 2012 Good Food Calendar)

Ingredients:

  • 175g/6oz butter, plus extra for greasing
  • 200g/8oz light soft brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 140g/5oz self-raising flour
  • 50g/2oz cocoa powder
  • For the Rock Road
  • 100g/4oz butter
  • 300g/11oz dark chocolate, roughly chopped
  • 3 tablespoons golden syrup
  • 12 marshmallows, halved with scissors
  • 85g/3oz Maltesers
  • 85g/ raisins
  • 50g/2oz walnut halves

Note: Looking at the recipe I decided to add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract when mixing the ingredients for the chocolate cake base.

Rubbing a little vegetable oil on the scissors, helps prevent the marshmallows from sticking.

I omitted the raisins from the rocky road layer.

Chilling the finished cake makes cutting into squares much easier.

You will need a 20cm square cake tin greased and lined (side and base) with baking parchment.

How to make: Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/160C fan/Gas 4.

Gently melt the butter in a large pan, cool for 5 minutes, then stir in the eggs, flour and cocoa and beat well. Spoon into tin, level the surface and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

To make the rocky road: Gently melt the butter, chocolate and syrup together. Cool for 15 minutes, then stir in the marshmallows, Maltesers, raisins and walnuts. Make sure the chocolate is cool because if it isn’t the marshmallows will melt. Spoon on top of cake in tin and lightly spread to cover it completely. Leave to set in a cool place. Remove from tin, carefully strip off the lining paper and cut into squares.

Easy: Colour some white eggs with food coloring. Mix a few drops of food colouring with some water in a bowl. Place eggs into the coloured water and leave until eggs are desired colour

posts · the lemon tree

the lemon tree

Moya27 Comments

Gardening in Bahrain definitely poses some great challenges and if you are “no expert” like me, then gardening can become quite exhausting at times! However, I do try my hand at keeping a few edibles in the garden such as herbs, lemons, limes (still waiting), dates, lemongrass and some baby tomatoes.

What I absolutely love about gardening and especially this time of year, is witnessing the first stages of growth… then watching that new beginning transform into an edible culinary ingredient that has endless possibilities both in cooking and baking!

Two years ago I planted a lemon tree (which was quite big to begin with) into a very large pot and was very excited at the prospect of growing my own organic lemons! Sigh… last year I ended up with about five lemons! It was quite a painful sight, seeing lots of new buds (potential lemons) fall to the ground and realize that my efforts of successfully growing lemons was not to be! So now you know that this post is not going to be about  “how to grow lemons”…  but a glimpse into the new beginnings within the garden that sometimes we fail to notice as our busy lives consume our every waking hour. This year I am feeling more hopeful with each new stage of growth on my lemon tree! So take a moment, marvel and appreciate the life of a lemon…

 Buds

The amount of buds growing on the lemon tree will determine the volume of fruit it produces… if of course they don’t fall… like mine did last year! Apparently you need to underwater at this stage.

Flowers

The buds of the lemon tree blossom and the flowers exude an intoxicating soft lemony perfume that fills the surrounding air…and what an amazing scent it is!

 Ripening Fruit

The flower is in bloom and peeking out from its center is the developing lemon!

Lemons need plenty of water at this stage of growth so the fruit becomes full and juicy.
This was one of last years lemons which seemed to take so long to ripen… !
 
My quest to successfully grow lemons will continue!  In the mean time, if anyone out there in cyber space is an expert on the subject of citrus trees I would love your advice!

You might like to try some recipes using lemons. Click on image for recipes!

baking · food + drink · posts

cookies from a jar

Moya17 Comments

When I saw that this months Sweet Adventures Blog Hop which is hosted by The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader and the theme Layer upon Layer… immediately I thought of using filo pastry! No desserts or sweet would be complete with using only one sheet of this very fine paper-like pastry, so making something with layers of filo pastry seemed apt!

But then I remembered a different kind of layer upon layer while teaching cooking at a private school… Cookies from a Jar! The idea and the recipe (which has been adapted) are from a book that I own “Gifts in a Jar for Kids”

Cookies from a Jar is a fun project and a great way of getting your kids involved in the kitchen and I know first hand how excited  kids can get… especially when they hear the words “baking” and “cookies”!

This project is also a fun way of introducing and teaching your kids how to measure correctly using the appropriate kitchen tools. Decorating the jars with colourful fabric, ribbon and gift tags, kids will love giving these Cookies from a Jar as gifts to friends and family! Mum’s if you need to send in something yummy (send some baked samples as well) for school fair’s or fund-raisers… “Cookies from a Jar” will be a big hit!

Rainbow Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (85g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup (25g) old-fashioned oats
  • 1/4 cup (54g) mixture of M&M’s and Smarties
  • 1/4 cup (40g) milk chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup (42g) soft brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup (54g) castor sugar
  • 1/4 cup (8g) Rice Krispies

Useful Kitchen Jewellery:

  • measuring cups and spoons
  • mixing bowls
  • wooden spoon
  • cookie sheet
  • wire cooling rack

If you are giving these Cookies from a Jar as gifts:

You will need a clear plastic (kid friendly) or glass 400ml wide-mouth jar, some fabric, ribbon and gift tags of your choice.

Layer each ingredient in the order given from the above recipe starting with the flour and ending with the Rice Krispies into the jar. The jar will be full to the brim and you may need to press the last layer of ingredients down into the jar so they fit, if a bigger jar was used the ingredients would move around and spoil the layers.

The extra ingredients needed and the instructions on how to make and bake the cookies should be written or typed on a small sheet of paper, folded and placed between the lid and the fabric before tying down with ribbon.

Ingredients:

  • 1 jar of Rainbow Cookie Mix
  • 1/4 cup (50g) salted butter, melted
  • 2 tablespoons of beaten egg
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

How to make:

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/160 Fan/Gas 4.

Place the contents of the jar of cookie mix into a mixing bowl and with a wooden spoon thoroughly mix all the ingredients together.

Mix the butter, egg and vanilla together and pour over cookie mix, stir until mixture is well blended and you end up with one big ball (you might need to use your hands) of cookie dough.

Break off walnut sized pieces of cookie dough and shape into balls, then place 2 inches apart on a non-stick cookie sheet.

Bake for about 15 minutes. Let the cookies cool for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack to cool. Store cookies in an airtight container.

Note:  All ingredients measured with cups and spoons in the above recipe should be leveled off. I have also given the weights in grams for more consistency!

Before you go buying lots of jars, check one out first to make sure all the ingredients fit, variations on volume of jars can occur!

After adding the flour you might need to wipe the inside of the jar with a clean paper towel.

Once the jars are assembled they can be stored in a cool place for a couple of months. The brown sugar tends to clump up after some time so I suggest that you make sure you break up all the lumps with the back of a spoon before adding the liquid ingredients!

Check out all the other entries by clicking on the on this link “The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader”.