Dairy Free creme "eggs"

A few weeks back, everyone was talking about creme eggs, and how the chocolate wasn't as good any more. In the past there has been much speculation about the diminishing size of the eggs too - so all in all, not good news for Cadbury. It got to a point where This Morning did a bit about it, and Paul Young showed the presenters how to make their own eggs.

This piqued my interest, as I had not considered making an egg before. The girls said that they would love to try a creme egg, so it was time to get the big bag of chocolate out and try for myself.

Ingredients

Vegan chocolate
Fondant icing sugar
Vanilla essence
Water

Silicon moulds are great for making chocolates, but as all I had were individual heart shaped moulds we had to have hearts and not eggs.

The chocolate I used was from Plamil. I've been using their chocolate for years now and you can buy the darkness of chocolate that you prefer by cocoa percentage (45%, 53%, 60% or 72%). For this I used the 53% cocoa, which is still quite dark. If you want to make them more like milk chocolate, you can use the 45% or the Moo free chocolate bars, which are both great.

So, I melted about 200g of chocolate slowly over a pan of gently simmering water, then turned the heat off, but left the chocolate so it would not set again. I put a few tablespoons of the fondant icing sugar into a bowl and added a little water and flavoured it with vanilla. It is a bit of trial and error to get the quantities right so add small amounts at a time until you get that thick, gooey icing that you know from creme eggs.

Next, take your silicon moulds and fill them nearly to the top with the melted chocolate. I put mine onto a plate, then popped them in the fridge for about 5 minutes. After that time, you need to take them out and tip the chocolate out. A thick layer will have started to set around the edges, and the rest will pour back into your melting bowl. Put them back in the fridge to set the chocolate.

Finally, add the fondant centre to the top of the chocolate shell and seal the top by totally covering it with the leftover melted chocolate. Put them back into the fridge and leave to set. When they are ready to be eaten, the silicon mould can be peeled off, but keep them in the fridge until you want to eat them. I haven't mastered how to temper chocolate yet, so they will be quite melty as you eat them!

3 ways with dates....and chocolate

Been away for a year, how did that happen? I've been baking and making but not blogging and I want to get back into it, so here is a great trio of things to do with dates.

A vegan friend of mine recently told me how she made her own twix bars, the recipe is from another site which I shall try to find in due course. The part that intrigued me was the use of dates to make the  caramel section. My girls can't eat dairy, and miss out on traditional chocolate bars, so maybe this was a way to create something for them. I already make dairy-free chocolate truffles with dates, cocoa and ground almonds and the girls love those, so today I tried out my own twix recipe:

1 pack of supermarket shortbread biscuits
100g moo-free chocolate bar
3 tbsp plamil catering chocolate
a block of dates (250g)
2tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp caramel flavouring

I heated up the dates and caramel flavouring with about 100ml of water to soften them, then when they were cooled, I blitzed them to a smooth paste with 2tbsp of cocoa powder.
This mix was then smeared thickly over 9 shortbread biscuits.


I melted the two chocolates together and cooled slightly before dropping each biscuit carefully in and turning it over very gently to coat it, using a fork. The coated biscuits were placed on the cool windowsill for about 30 minutes before going into the fridge. Done.


Almost.

I had a huge amount of the date mix left and the scrapings of the chocolate, which I couldn't waste. So, I thought to myself, what can I use this for?
My girls are always on at me to make whoopee pies, which I'm not so bothered about, but I was feeling generous (why else would I have been making twix bars in the first place?) so I made up the following batter:

2oz sunflower spread
2oz date mix from above
about 2tbsp of melted chocolate
1 egg
2.5oz self raising flour
a splash of soya milk to soften the mix

I mixed all this and made 12 dollops on a baking tray, then baked them at 180c for about 15 minutes. They looked fine, but I think that the mix could have been even softer to let them spread better.

Once cooled, I made my third date and cocoa creation - frosting. Yep, if you mix equal quantities of the date mix and sunflower spread, you get the beginnings of a very good frosting consistency; it's not chocolatey enough, so I tagged another tbsp of cocoa powder and the same of icing sugar to get the texture just right. I spooned the frosting onto one cooled cake round, then sandwiched another cake on top.



A sprinkle of icing sugar and they are ready to eat:

Chocolate ginger cupcakes

A fair few months ago I went to a friend's baby shower and her sister-in-law had made a selection of delicious cakes. My favourite were her chocolate ginger cupcakes, a name which does not begin to describe the mix of flavours hiding inside. I made a version of them for the cake sale at the school Christmas Market today, here is the recipe.

Ingredients

4oz brown sugar
5oz self raising flour
1/4tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
1/4tsp ground nutmeg
4oz soya margarine
2 eggs
2tbsp golden syrup
3oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

Method

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, then add the eggs, margarine and syrup.
Whisk with an electric whisk until smooth then add the chocolate and mix together.
Spoon into 12 cupcake cases and bake at 150c for about 20 minutes, until cooked through.

When cool, the original recipe calls for whipped cream on top with chopped Crunchie bars sprinkled on top. I made frosting with philadelphia, butter and icing sugar, then sprinkled the Crunchie on top. To make them dairy-free, I have spooned cooled, melted dairy-free chocolate over the top, then topped with chopped honeycomb pieces.

Hummingbird cakes

Today, I had promised Charlotte that I would make chocolate cupcakes with her. A friend of mine made some lovely chocolate cupcakes for the Macmillan coffee morning the other week, and when I asked her, she said the recipe was from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook. I have that book, so Charlotte and I dipped in and found the recipe - yippee! Also, Emma was loitering and looking over our shoulders, so I agreed to make a batch of vanilla cupcakes with her too.

The sponge was much less fine textured and moist than my normal sponge recipe, which meant that the cases didn't peel away from the sides of the sponge for once, which was fantastic. Also, as the recipe uses a lot less margarine and milk instead (soya, obviously, for us) there were no ugly oily marks bleeding through the cake cases. These people know what they are doing!

Anyway, Charlotte did all the measuring and mixing and filling of cake cases herself for the first time. She also iced them with the icing that I made. Emma made hers with a little interference from mummy, but iced them herself. I tried half filling some cases and then dolloping a 1/2 tsp of lemon curd in, then topping up with mix. I haven't tried one of these yet, but they smell delicious.

Creamy chocolate pudding

By a convoluted route, I ended up on the website of Heavenly Treats and Treasures looking at their Chocovado pudding recipe. I make a pudding for the girls, inventively called "mango pudding" by blending together a mango and an avocado. Charlotte still loves it and she's been eating it since she was 6 months old (not just that, obviously!). It is pretty good, and most importantly dairy free but still creamy and sweet.

Well, I saw this recipe for what looked like a chocolate version of our mango pudding and had to try it out. I made it slightly differently, so I'll write the recipe out again here:

Ingredients

1 ripe avocado
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1/8 cup of agave/maple syrup
1/8 cup sweetened soya milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup dairy free vanilla ice cream

Method

Put all the ingredients except the ice cream in a blender and blend until smooth.
This was too rich tasting for the children, so I then added the ice cream and blended again to make a smooth, cold and creamy chocolate pudding.
This went down very well with Emma, but Charlotte still prefers her mango version.
I believe it would be fantastic in an ice cream sundae with chocolate brownie pieces, maybe some chopped banana and ice cream. When I get a chance to try that out I shall get a photo before we scoff it!

Biscuit cakes

After trying out the "graham cracker and chocolate chip muffin" recipe recently, I decided I would try to adapt my basic cupcake recipe to incorporate digestive biscuit crumbs and chocolate chips. Whilst the muffins were delicious, I was advised by one of my critics (mum) that they were a bit heavy and didn't need the crumble on top. It was my birthday yesterday and a group of us were going to the park for the afternoon, I needed to take some cakes along as the batch of cupcakes my mum had made were not going to be enough for everyone. I gazed around the kitchen, looking for inspiration and noticed the last few digestive biscuits loitering around the fruit bowl, and decided they needed using up, today was their day to shine...

Ingredients

2.5 oz self raising flour
2 oz digestive biscuit crumbs
1/2 tsp baking powder
4 oz soya margarine
4 oz caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz dairy free "milk" chocolate chips
2 eggs

Method

Cream the margarine and sugar in a bowl.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
Add 1 egg, vanilla and a tbsp of the dry mix to the wet mix and stir well.
Repeat with the other egg and more of the dry mix.
Add the rest of the dry mix and the chocolate chips and stir.

This mix made 18 small cupcakes, which cooked at 180c for 13 minutes. They were very light and moist, so I think another time I would add the biscuit crumbs as extra to the 4.5oz flour instead of substituting 2 oz of the flour with biscuit crumbs and baking powder. The flavour was great though, so worth trying again to get the texture right.

Marbled bunnies and cupcakes

Two children want to make cakes and inevitably both want to do everything themselves. I am fed up with saying who gets to crack the eggs or measure the sugar so I let them both make cake mix at the same time. Charlotte made chocolate cake mix and Emma made vanilla cake mix. I then swirled the two together and we made marbled cakes. All of us are happy and we get lots of lovely cakes to enjoy.

Charlotte made a mix using 4:4:4:2 ratio with 1 oz of cocoa powder added to it.
Emma made a 5:4:4:2 mix with 1 tsp vanilla extract added to it.

We swirled the two mixes together and dolloped the mix into the prepared bunny mould and some  cupcake cases. We cooked them at 180c until a skewer poked in came out clean - about 20 minutes for the bunnies and 15 minutes for the cupcakes.

"Graham cracker" chocolate chip muffins

I came across a recipe the other day for Graham cracker chocolate chip muffins and they looked and sounded delicious. I couldn't get hold of Graham crackers here in the UK, so I had to resort to digestive biscuits in this recipe adaptation. I have made them dairy-free, and am hoping that I haven't lost too much of the taste of the original recipe in the process.

Ingredients

2 cups of plain flour
1tbsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup of digestive biscuit crumbs
1 cup sweetened soya milk
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1 large egg
2tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup dairy free "milk" chocolate chips

topping:
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup light brown soft sugar
1/4 cup golden granulated sugar
1/2 cup digestive biscuit crumbs
3/4tsp cinnamon
3tbsp soya margarine, melted

Method 

Mix flour, crumbs, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
Mix oil, milk, egg and vanilla in a jug.
Add the wet to the dry mix and stir well to combine.
Finally add the chocolate chips and mix in.

In a smaller bowl, mix the topping ingredients together. The mix should be crumbly. I have changed the ingredient quantities from the original, as my version of the original was really gloopy. It must be due to the water content of the margarine.

I made 16 muffins in lined muffin tins with this quantity of mix, with each case 2/3 full of mix. I then added a teaspoon of the crumbly topping to each muffin and baked at 190c (fan) for around 15 minutes until they were cooked through. They smell amazing. They taste delicious, especially while still warm!

More chocolate brownie cake!

I made the cake for my friend's son yesterday. I finished off the icing today before taking it to the party. I had a flash of inspiration, and decided to make a number 5 in the sprinkles. I printed out a big number 5, then traced it onto a big piece of greaseproof paper. I carefully cut the 5 out to leave a stencil, then also cut a 5 shape out as a second stencil.

I placed the 5 shape in the middle of the cake, then sprinkled chocolate vermicelli all over. When the 5 was removed, I was left with plain icing only in that area. I then placed the 5 stencil over the cake, leaving just the 5 of icing showing. I carefully pressed star shaped sprinkles into the icing to make the 5, it turned out pretty well.

The big baking session begins

Cut up and ready for the cake sale.

I am on a baking mission this week. I made two banana cakes yesterday and sent one in to nursery for their snack time treat. I made a big slab of rich chocolate cake today for the cake sale at school tomorrow, as a practice for the cake I shall be making on saturday for my friend's little boy's birthday party. The chocolate cake is one I make for really special occasions, so those who get a bit at the cake sale tomorrow are very lucky! I don't make it very often as it is super-sweet and rich and uses up a lot of my chocolate supply. It is based on a chocolate brownie recipe which is heavenly in itself, I totally recommend making them too!

Rich chocolate cake ingredients

275g plain chocolate (I use these)
275g soya margarine
180g chocolate chips (white and "milk" or just "milk" - you can buy both from Plamil too.)
175g plain flour
slightly heaped tbsp baking powder
4 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
200g caster sugar
125g light brown soft sugar


Method

How the top looks when it is cooked and ready to cool.

Melt the margarine and chocolate over a pan of simmering water to melt.
Measure out flour and baking powder and set aside.
Mix together the eggs, sugars and vanilla in a large bowl, then add the melted chocolate and mix well.
Add the flour and baking powder and mix well. The mix will be very gloopy.
Finally add the chocolate chips and mix, then pour the mix into a 7" square tin that has been greased and lined with baking paper.
Bake for around an hour at 170c, don't be tempted to turn the heat up to speed up the process, as the cake will burn before the middle is cooked.

Once the cake was cooked and cooled (it takes ages to cool as it is so dense) I made up a dairy-free cream cheese icing with the following ingredients:

1 tbsp dairy-free cream cheese (available on the high street in Holland and Barrett)
1 tbsp soya margarine
2tsp cocoa powder
icing sugar to make a thick but spreadable icing.

I spread this on the cake and sprinkled stars on top before cutting it into squares with a bread knife. I started off with pieces that are much too big, I think it should be cut into 25 squares. If I had one, I'd make it in a bigger tin and have less chunky pieces.

Jubilee school cake sale

It was the monthly cake sale at school today. I decided to go all out and make a Union flag cake and some chocolate crunchie cakes.

Union cake method

Make a 5:4:4:2 cake mix, using 3 eggs, so it becomes 7.5:6:6:3 with 1 tsp vanilla extract added.
Pour into a 9"x7" lined baking tin and bake at 180c for around 30 minutes until a toothpick poked in comes out clean and the cake is light brown on top.

Make a batch of icing, using 3 tbsp cream cheese, 1 tbsp butter, 1 tsp vanilla and enough icing sugar to make a soft consistency. Split the icing into 3 bowls and add blue food colouring to one and red to another. Use icing bags to pipe the icing into the flag design once the cake is cool. I used a flat icing nozzle to make the icing lines reasonably neat and flat.


Chocolate crunchie cake method

Make up a batch of simple chocolate cake mix and add about 100g of dairy-free "milk" chocolate chips.
Spoon the mix into 12 large cupcake cases and bake at 180c for around 18 minutes, until cooked through. Leave to cool in the tin.
When cooled, melt together 100g dairy-free "milk" chocolate and 50g dairy-free dark chocolate.
Spoon a dessert spoon of melted chocolate onto the top of each cake and sprinkle honeycomb pieces on top.

Peanut butter and chocolate cookies

I love peanut butter. The best use for peanut butter (crunchy, not the smooth stuff) is in a fluffernutter. Made with 2 slices of white toast instead of bread, it is my absolute favourite yummy treat. I am also partial to peanut butter cookies, but as the children don't like them, I don't make them too often.

Then, I had a breakthrough. Emma now likes peanut and honey based cereal, and so I have an excuse for trying a brand new peanut cookie recipe on the family. Introducing the peanut butter and chocolate chip dairy-free cookie - I think it needs a better name.


Ingredients

3 oz soya margarine
4 oz soft brown sugar
5 1/2 oz peanut butter
4 1/2 oz plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg (I used a medium sized one)
6 oz dairy-free chocolate chips (I used 3 oz of dark and 3 oz of milk)

Method

Cream together the margarine and sugar, then add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
Add the peanut butter and mix.
Add the flour and bicarb and mix to make a soft dough.
Finally, stir in the chocolate chips.
You are supposed to put the dough for peanut butter cookies in the fridge for an hour to firm the dough and make it easier to use, but I am always in too much of a rush to bother. It does help the next stage if you do, though.
Take a tablespoon of mix at a time and place on a baking tray, then squash it down to a biscuit shape with a fork. I forgot to do this bit today, so I got mine out of the oven after a minute or so and squashed them - the chocolate was already melted and oozed all over the place, hence the finished biscuits having a mashed-up chocolatey top to them.
Cook at 180c for about 12 minutes, until they are browning around the edges.
Use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to cool.
Makes 18 large cookies.

On tasting them, I think that they needed a bit more sugar, and when I make them again (they are very good) I will use 5 oz of sugar. I love the crumbly texture you get from the peanut butter and the fact that these are a little less nutty than plain peanut butter ones. Conclusion - I am very pleased.

Simple dairy-free chocolate cake

It's my Mother-in-law's birthday this week, and I have made a cake to take with us when we go to see her. The general consensus in the house today was that she would love a chocolate cake (hmmmmm, who were the children really thinking about I wonder), and I realised that I don't have a quick, simple chocolate cake recipe written down anywhere. I decided to record how I made it this time, and here is the recipe:

Ingredients

6 oz soya margarine
6 oz soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
3 oz plain flour
2 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

Method

Cream together the soya spread, sugar and cocoa powder.
Add an egg and a tbsp of the flour and mix.
Add the other egg, the rest of the flour and the baking powder and mix.
Scrape the mix into a lined baking tin, I used a 7" square tin.
Bake for about 20 minutes at 180c.

When the cake had cooled, I cut it in half and sandwiched it to with a rather tasty alternative to buttercream. I read in a baking book about making a cake filling using marshmallow fluff, something we all love in our household. I mixed 3 tbsp of fluff with 1 tbsp of soya spread, 3 tbsp icing sugar and 1 tbsp of cocoa powder.

I iced the cake with icing made from icing sugar, water and cocoa and then put dairy-free chocolate beans on top.

Dairy-free choc chip cookies

I love those big, chewy chocolate chip cookies, but  I can hardly stuff my face with something while my dairy-allergic 5 year old looks on with her mouth watering, can I? I looked into it and googled recipes which I tried out with some adaptations. I eventually created the following recipe, which is practically indistinguishable from the dairy-laden version. I just made some, so I thought I would share the recipe:

Ingredients


300g plain flour
Slightly heaped 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Good pinch of salt
170g Dairy free soya spread
220g dark brown soft sugar
80g white caster sugar
1 tbsp vanilla essence
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
330g  dairy-free choc chips (I use a mix of dark and "milk" choc chips)

Method

Cream together the sugars and soya spread.
Beat together the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and add to the sugar mix.
Add the flour, bicarb and salt and stir until well mixed.

Ready to go in the oven (half of the total number)

Finally add the choc chips and stir in.
Dollop blobs of mix onto baking trays covered with baking parchment, you need to space them out pretty well as they spread loads while they cook.
Cook for about 20 minutes in the oven at 170c.

Leave them to cool for a bit on the trays before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely, they will be very soft when they first come out of the oven but firm up as they cool. I defy you to leave them to fully cool before you try one. Mmmmmm.

Just out of the oven

You can swap the soya spread back for butter and the choc chips back for dairy ones if you don't need them to be dairy free.

One last thing, I read somewhere that you can freeze egg yolks for use later on. When I made the meringues the other day I did just that, unfortunately the one I tried to defrost to use today was a lumpy sludge and not useable, so maybe I did it wrong...

One happy little girl with her cookie