Pumpkin Mocha Brownies

Warning: This turned into a really long blog post with much gushing.  Brownies don't even get a proper mention until paragraph...7.  

So.  Back in...I want to say early March, I was on of my jaunts in Edinburgh with my bestest bean Jess.  As is customary on our jaunts, we visited Waterstones and I came away with two books (because buy one get one half price), one of which was Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.  I had heard the name mentioned here and there on the Internet but had never actually investigated.  However, Fangirl's cute cover intrigued me and the premise even more so.  Fanfiction?  And a nerdy, shy girl?  And cute romance?  I thought it might be just my sort of book.  

It was.  I LOVED the book.  The way the characters are written and the relationships and the geekery!  It was so nice to see things I associated with in a book.  Growing up my interest in anime and fanfiction and such was not something the majority of people I went to school with shared.  I felt a bit...weird.  I never liked to talk about my interests because no one I knew got it.  I lived on the internet and talked about this sort of thing with internet friends instead.  It didn't help that I was a bit restricted in what I was allowed to do after school finished for the day so I never felt my relationship with my school friends was as good as the ones they had amongst themselves.  Not that I was a particularly social person.  Still am not really.  But I will say I did notice a difference in how close I felt to people once I went off to university (the first time around anyway) where there were people who liked the things I did and I could talk about them.  Two of those people are still my friends now, despite leaving university 3 years ago (I didn't stay in touch with anyone from highschool), and I'm marrying the third one in two weeks!

Okay, I went off topic a bit there, didn't I?  My point was that I really connected with the book and it cemented Rainbow Rowell as one of my favourite authors: one who I would immediately buy any book they released.  I only have three such authors (Jasper FForde and Gail Carriger being the other two).  The fiancé did buy Attachments and Eleanor and Park for me after I finished Fangirl and would not shut up about wanting to read more, and I preordered Landline soon after that.

Right, now I bet you're thinking, well that's all well and good, Becca, but what does any of that have to do with brownies?

Well, you see, back in April it was announced that Rainbow Rowell was coming to the UK to do a book tour.  Usually I do not get my hopes up as such tours rarely ever make their way to Scotland but would you believe it, the first stop was Glasgow!  Now, I'm in Fife so it's not exactly local but it would be completely possible to do a two hour train journey to Glasgow!  It was also in July so I would be on holiday and thus completely able to go.  I was so excited!  I invited Jess along because she lives near-ish to Glasgow and it is so much more fun to go with a friend.  I subsequently got her into Rainbow Rowell's books so that was a bonus!  So that's where I was on Thursday night: in Waterstones in Glasgow enjoying an awesome author talk and signing session from Rainbow Rowell.  It was so amazing and funny!  It was made even more fantastic for me because I won the Fangirl selfie competition for this event so I got a limited edition sparkly Fangirl necklace made by Tatty Devine.

You're still waiting to know where the brownies come in, aren't you?  Okay, okay, I'm almost there, I promise!  Right, so, leading up to the event I started getting the idea to be really nerdy.  This began with wanting to reproduce the shirt Cath wears in the book, which is a Keep Calm and Carry On t-shirt (because the fanfic she writes is called 'Carry On, Simon') and has a picture of Simon and Baz on it.  I couldn't find anything that specified colour (I may just be being blind) so I decided to use the colours to match the book: mint and pink.  It turned out very well, despite me dropping the brush twice and therefore having to spend a couple of days removing unwanted paint stains.  And Rainbow certainly seemed to like it.  But then the desire to be nerdy got worse.  This is where the brownies come in.  If any flavour and scent is associated with Fangirl it is that of the pumpkin mocha lattes from Starbucks.  Admittedly, I have never seen, smelt or tasted such a thing.  This may be down to 1) I don't go into coffee shops and 2) I don't know if that's a thing they have in the UK.  As I've said before, pumpkin seems to be a really popular flavour in the US but not here.  Anyway, I had the idea that I could bake something for Rainbow Rowell, which I could give her at the signing.  And whatever that something was, it would be pumpkin mocha, which I extrapolated to be something that had pumpkin, coffee and chocolate in it.  And this ended up being brownies.

Yes, finally we get to the brownies.  I've been in a bit of a tray bake mood of late.  In part because I am completely enamoured with my adjustable cake pan.  It is going to be the pan I use to make all my cake layers for the wedding cake and so any chance to practice with it is great.  It's wonderful for making brownies in as I can set it up to be the right size and it is really deep so there is no issue with overspill during baking and makes building layers really easy.  

Okay, I seriously need to stop talking about anything but brownies, even if the pan is tangentially related.  Right, pumpkin mocha brownies.  Like I said, after researching what went into a pumpkin mocha I knew I had to get coffee, pumpkin and chocolate in there, along with spices like cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.  At first I thought that I wanted to combine all those flavours into one thing.  So, initially I looked at how people made pumpkin mochas at home, which involved flavouring milk with pumpkin.  But no brownies I could think of were made with milk.  Then it occurred to me that it would much easier if I made a marbled brownie.  One part would be a chocolate and coffee brownie and the other a pumpkin brownie.  Both would have the spices in and I would mix them up in the tray so there was a bit of both in each slice after it was cut.  From there it was just a matter of finding (and slightly adapting) recipes for each part.  The Hummingbird Bakery came to the rescue there as I ended up modifying the brownie part of their S'mores brownies for the mocha and their pumpkin cake for the pumpkin part.  This meant adding in coffee and spices where there were none, more flour to compensate for added liquid and removing leavening agents because otherwise you end up with cake, not brownies.

I ended up with two mixtures of slightly different consistency, which made them slightly tricky to marble.  My original plan was to alternate each type when filling the pan but since the mocha was runnier, I decided I would put the denser pumpkin on the bottom then cover it with mocha.  I still attempted to marble and it sort of worked but possibly not as well as it could have done.

Ah well, the end result still turned out really well!  There's definitely some of each type in every piece of brownie, which was important.  It's possibly not as dense as it could be but that's not that big a deal.  The coffee flavour is subtle and the pumpkin lightens everything up so the chocolate isn't too heavy.  The fiancé and his family certainly liked them so I really hope Rainbow did too! Update: 14th July 2014 - She liked them!

@BeccasBaking THEY WERE DELICIOUS.

— Rainbow Rowell (@rainbowrowell) July 14, 2014

So I'm just ecstatic about that!

Recipe - inspired by Home Sweet Home
Makes 20

Mocha Brownie:

• 60g/2oz butter
• 60g/2oz dark chocolate
• 1 tbsp coffee granules
• 4 tbsp boiling water
• 100g/3.5oz light brown sugar
• 65g/2.25oz caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 2 eggs
• 100g/3.5oz plain flour

Pumpkin Brownie: 

• 2 eggs
• 125ml/4.5fl.oz sunflower oil
• 180g/6.25oz light brown sugar
• 215g/7.5oz pumpkin purée
• 170g/6oz plain flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3 and line a 20x30cm/8x12inch baking tray with foil, making sure to leave overhang on two sides to help lift the brownie out when it is ready.
2. Start with the mix for the mocha brownie.  Put the chocolate and butter into a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of barely simmering water (without letting the bowl touch the water) and melt together, stirring occasionally, until smooth.
3. Meanwhile, mix together the boiling water and coffee granules in a small cup until the granules have dissolved.
4. Once the chocolate mixture is completely melted, add the coffee and mix to incorporate before pouring the mixture into a large bowl.
5. Add the sugars, vanilla extract and salt to the chocolate mixture and stir thoroughly to combine.
6. Add the eggs and beat vigorously until the batter is smooth and shiny.
7. Sift in the flour and spices (crush the cloves beforehand) and stir until just incorporated.  Set aside.
8. Make the pumpkin batter by putting the eggs, oil, sugar and pumpkin purée into a large bowl and whisking together until well combined.
9. Sift the flour, spices, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the batter and then mix well until you get a smooth, even batter.
10. Pour the pumpkin batter into the prepared tray and spread smoothly so it covers the base.
11. Pour the chocolate mixture on top, making sure to cover all the pumpkin mix.
12. Take a butter knife and marble the two mixtures together by reaching down to the bottom of the mix and turning it over to bring some pumpkin to the top.
13. Bake for 35-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out almost clean and the top is slightly springy.  Leave to cool in the tin.
14. Once cool, remove from the tin and cut into squares using a plastic knife (that's a new trick I learned! The brownie doesn't stick to a plastic knife like it does a metal one and you get nice, clean slices).

Grasshopper Slices

For some reason, my brain is struggling to put together something interesting to say for this blog entry.  On the last one, once I started talking about doughnuts the words just poured out and I had a decent read in no time.  Today though...today it's just not coming.  As a result, I guess today's post shall be a bit on the short side since there clearly isn't much to talk about.

So anyway, at some point last week there was a birthday.  The fiancé went up to Dundee to visit his friends and celebrate said birthday on Saturday.  And since the Dundee bunch are one of my favourite groups of guinea pigs because they always appreciate any baking I send their way, I offered to bake something for him to take with him.  It was a great excuse to try out a recipe I had been eyeing up in a recipe book I got for my birthday last year from my lovely sister.  It just looked so cool, okay?  I was terribly attracted to the photo as I loved the bright green against the dark brown.  So awesome!  The fact that it is chocolate and mint was a bonus as that is a well liked combination amongst this group and the fiancé.

The base is pretty easy.  It's a brownie.  Brownies are not that hard.  Oh, but the other layers.  The other layers are ganache!  As we all know, ganache is one of my nemeses!  And true to its nature, the ganache was evil because it split on me, as it always does.  Why is something with only two ingredients so hard for me to make?  Well, in part I think it's because I can be lazy and don't chop up the chocolate as finely as I should.  In all honesty, I don't chop it at all.  I just break it into its squares and leave it at that.  Consequently they are too big to completely melt before the cream has cooled.  So I then end up trying to run extra heat through and everything splits.  Which happened and the mixture was looking funny and lumpy and oily and not beautiful and smooth.  BUT!  I have learnt many things since starting this blog and one was that the oil is the cocoa butter splitting away and that this usually happens if something gets too hot.  I also learnt that you can get it to reincorporate!  So I threw the leftover cream and some milk into the mess and whisked the hell out of it!  And you know what?  It worked!  I saved it.  It became beautifully smooth and perfect and you have no idea just how pleased I was.

And it was well worth the effort.  These things were loved by everyone who had one and they were scoffed!  The poor fiancé was even being introduced to people as 'the fiancé of the person who made the cake'.  That amuses me.  And it's nice to have one's baking appreciated.

 

Recipe - adapted from Home Sweet Home

Makes 15-20 pieces (depends on how big you want to cut them)

Brownie Base:

• 200g/7oz dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
• 200g/7oz butter
• 250g/9oz icing sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 115g/4oz plain flour

Mint Ganache:

• 250ml/9fl.oz double cream
• 1kg/2lb 3oz white chocolate
•  2 tbsp peppermint extract
• Green food colouring

Chocolate Ganache:

• 125ml/4.5fl.oz double cream
• 270g/9.5oz dark chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas Mark 3 and grease line a 23 x 32 x 5cm (9 x 13 x 2inch) baking tin with baking parchment. 
2. Melt the dark chocolate for the brownie base in a heat proof bowl placed over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure to not let the water touch the bowl.  Once melted, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
3. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and icing sugar until it is smooth and creamy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in after each addition.
5. Add the flour and mix to combine.
6. Add the melted chocolate and stir in until evenly incorporated into the batter.
7. Pour into the prepared tin and smooth out so the batter reaches the edges and is of even thickness.
8. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a light crust has formed on the top.
9. Allow to cool completely inside the tin.
10. Make the ganaches whilst the brownie bakes.  For the mint ganache, chop up the white chocolate and place into a medium sized bowl.
11. Bring the double cream to a gentle simmer in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally, and then pour through a sieve into the bowl of white chocolate.
12. Leave the chocolate to melt on its own and then stir until the mixture is smooth. (If the ganache splits, do not panic!  Add a little bit of cream or milk to the ganache and then whisk the hell out of it!  Using an electric hand whisk will be quicker and easier but keep beating until the mixture reincorporates the cocoa butter and smooths out.  It will happen, just be patient.)
13. Add the mint extract and food colouring and beat until evenly distributed and smooth.
14. Cover with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least an hour to firm up.
15. For the chocolate ganache, chop up the dark chocolate and place into a medium sized bowl. 
16. Bring the double cream to a gentle simmer in a small saucepan, stirring occasionally, and then pour through a sieve into the bowl of dark chocolate. 
17. Leave the chocolate to melt on its own and then stir until the mixture is smooth. 
18. Cover with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least an hour to firm up.
19. To assemble, remove the mint ganache from the fridge and give it a quick stir.
20. Spread the mint ganache evenly over the top of the cooled brownie base, cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge to chill for 30-60 minutes.
21. Once firm, remove and repeat with the chocolate ganache.
22. Chill for at least 2 hours, or overnight, before serving.
23. Remove from the tin and cut into desired sized pieces. 

Chocolate and Marshmallow Brownies

So it's a brand new year and thus begins a brand new set of dessert challenges over at Lady Behind the Curtain.  There are certainly some interesting ones coming up, that's for sure (bacon and maple?!).  Anyway, this month starts us off with something fairly simple: chocolate pudding (or cocoa) and marshmallows.  Admittedly, I was not entirely sure what it meant by 'chocolate pudding' so I opted for the cocoa option.

I decided I to kill two birds with one stone with this bake.  Not only would it be my challenge bake but it would also be the bake that I would give to my friend Jess when I saw her on Saturday.  I know Jess likes brownies so that seemed like an ideal choice for both categories.  What did we do Saturday?  Well, we went to see The Lion King in Edinburgh!  It was so cool!  All the costumes and singing.  I was grinning like an idiot throughout the whole thing.  Jess also brought along the other part of my Christmas present which was a handmade doll of one of my characters.  It's amazing!  It has bendy hands and removable clothes and is just wonderful!  So I felt extra guilty as I did a very stupid thing and forgot to bring the brownies with me!  They were made and bagged up and everything.  I just didn't take them out of the fridge and put them in my bag in the morning.  I only realised when I was sitting in Kirkcaldy station waiting for the train.  Very stupid of me indeed!  So I posted them to her first thing Monday morning and she got to enjoy them Tuesday instead.  Better late than never I suppose.

The idea for these was sparked by the idea of hot-chocolate, since cocoa and marshmallows invokes that image.  So I could make chocolate brownies and have marshmallows on top.  But when I think hot-chocolate, I also think cream.  The classic image comes with a lovely swirl of cream on top of the drink upon which the marshmallows sit.  But I didn't want to put cream on the brownies but there should be something to represent it.  That's when I stumbled across Love and Olive Oil's Peppermint Bark Brownies (thank you Pinterest), with their layer of white chocolate on top.  That would be perfect!  Plus the brownie recipe itself looked to be a good one to work with, with a little tweaking so it wasn't peppermint of course.

Now, someone out there may remember that I am not a brownie aficionado.  I do not like them and hence have not really baked them.  I did make one attempt at blondies last year but ended up with something more akin to cakes due to making a mistake with my choice of flour.  This meant I was a little apprehensive going in to this bake, and throughout as I had no idea what each stage should look like.  However, there didn't seem to be any disasters and when the brownies came out and were cut up I thought they looked right (very compacted and moist looking).  

Turns out they taste really good too.  The fiancé says I always bake well with chocolate and that all the parts melded together well.  And I got very excitable texts from Jess saying how yummy they are and that she had already eaten a number of them.

Recipe - adapted from Love and Olive Oil

Makes 18

Brownies:

• 115g/4oz milk chocolate
• 115g/4oz dark chocolate
• 115g/4oz butter
• 85g/3oz plain flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 125g/4.5oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 

Topping:

• 170g/6oz white chocolate
• 1.5 tbsp vegetable margarine / vegetable shortening (I used Stork)
• 150g/5oz small marshmallows

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease and line a 20cm/8inch square cake tin with baking parchment, making sure to leave a slight overhang so you can lift it out later.
2. Break up the chocolate and cut the butter into cubes.
3. Place a medium sized glass bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (without letting the bowl touch the water) and melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring occasionally.
4. Meanwhile, sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a small bowl and put to one side.
5. When the chocolate and butter are completely melted, whisk them until smooth and remove from the heat
6. Whisk the sugar into the chocolate mix until it has dissolved and the mixture has cooled slightly.
7. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and whisk until just combined.
8. Add the flour mix and gently fold in using a rubber spatula until incorporated.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.
10. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
11. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
12. Melt the white chocolate and margarine/shortening together in a glass bowl placed over a pan of gently simmering water.  Be careful not to overheat it so stir once in a while to keep the temperature down.
13. Remove from the heat before completely melted and stir until it finishes melting.
14. Spread over the top of the cooled brownies in a thin, even layer.
15. Decorate with marshmallows.
16. Chill in the fridge overnight.
17. Remove the brownies from the pan and use a large knife to cut them into 9 squares.  Cut each of these squares in half diagonally so that you end up with 18 triangles.

Pear, Raisin and Maple Squares

It's Lady Behind the Curtain Dessert Challenge time again and this month's ingredients were pears and maple.  How exciting, more ingredients I have never used before, let alone in combination!

Now, I am wondering if I am developing a habit when it comes to these challenges.  Just like last time, I ended up making two different things: one that I was not happy with and therefore does not get to grace the blog and then a second which is absolutely adored by everyone who gets to eat it.  It is madness.  Hopefully, this will not become a regular thing.  It can be a bit exhausting, as well as disappointing for a perfectionist like me.

Admittedly, this month's failure was still edible and did taste good according to my guinea pigs.  The problem was the textures didn't gel.  With both recipes, I was substituting a lot of ingredients.  So the original recipe I had found the recipe was for apple cookies.  Now, as you know by now, being British, when I hear the word 'cookie' I think crunchy, not soft.  So I was expecting a crunchy, crumbly biscuit filled with pear and drizzled in a maple syrup glaze.  What I ended up with was soft cakes with chunks of hard pear in and drizzled with the glaze.  It did not work and I was annoyed.  Even though they got eaten and were enjoyed, the texture thing was something everyone agreed on so it was out.  It wasn't getting used and I needed to come up with something else instead.

Now, the magazine I was using for the ghost cookies was still sitting out during this dilemma.  So I decided to flick through it idly and brood.  Along the way I stumbled across a recipe for apple, raisin and honey squares.  It did not look too complicated and there were oats involved so it was more likely to yield the crumbly, crunchy texture I was after.  Dare I try and mess with the recipe?  Yes I dared!  I like that I am getting confident enough to do such things.  So out went the apple and honey, in went the pears and maple syrup.  I also decided to spice up with crust on the squares with some spices that compliment both of the challenge ingredients: ginger, cardamom and a little nutmeg.

The result?  Fantastic!  They came out so well and everyone loved them.  That was more like it.  And I even got a lovely written review from one of the lovely teachers are Markinch Primary which arrived inside the tin I had sent them in:

"Your latest creation was FAB!  I'm not a fan of ginger but loved it in these cakes.  The buttery outside was really moreish - consistency was soft, moist and crumbly - lovely!  The pear and fruit was gorgeous.  I ate up all the crumbs in the tin. 10/10 Thank you."

Isn't that just so lovely?  Plus it tells you everything you need to know about how they taste, which is better than me just telling you. 

Recipe - inspired by Rachel Allen and the Kerrygold Community Recipe e-book via Baking Heaven Summer 2012

Makes about 25

• 225g/8oz self-raising flour
• 225g/8oz porridge oats
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1.5 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 225g/8oz butter
• 225g/8oz caster sugar
• 90ml/3fl.oz maple syrup
• 2 dessert pears (about 185g/6.5oz)
• 115g/4oz raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease and line a 23cm/9inch square cake tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Peel, core and finely chop up the pears.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, porridge oats, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, nutmeg and cardamom.
4. Put the butter, caster sugar and 2 tablespoons worth of the maple syrup  into a saucepan and melt over a medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent it from getting too hot.
5. Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour the mixture into the dry ingredients and mix to combine.
6. Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface.
7. Mix together the pears, raisins and remaining maple syrup and then distribute evenly over the oat mixture in the tin.
8. Cover with the remaining oat mixture and smooth over.
9. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to rest in the tin for 10-15 minutes.
11. Remove from the tin and cut into 25 squares before placing them on a wire rack to finish cooling.

White Chocolate Cake Slice With Chocolate Chips

Okay, I have a confession.  These were supposed to be brownies.  However, the result I ended up with was much lighter; essentially like cake.  I'm pretty sure brownies are meant to be denser.  The pictures of the ones from the recipe certainly look denser.  But that's what I get for using the wrong flour.  Of course, if a recipe uses flour they should at least say what type.  There are lots out there you know!  If I just see flour, I guess, usually based on if there's baking powder or some other raising agent.  If there is a raising agent, then I go plain.  If not, I go self-raising.  Of course, it occurred to me after I added it that maybe I was wrong.  But oh well, too late by that point.  I know for next time.

Yes, it must be pretty obvious I've never made brownies before (well, except those brownie cupcakes from Hallowe'en I guess).  I've never had a desire to.  Especially as all the ones I've been made to try are chocolate ones and I do not really like chocolate flavoured anything.  It all tastes so bitter to me.  But then I stumbled across a recipe for white chocolate brownies.  Now they sounded appealing!  I love white chocolate, which I know is not strictly chocolate.  It's a shame it doesn't impart its flavour to cake the same way other chocolate does due to it not containing cocoa, but rather cocoa butter.  But it does give a extra nice bit of smooth sweetness to it which I like.  Add in chocolate chips and what basically sounds like vanilla sponge and really it was perfect.

And the end result is delicious.  It's just not a brownie.  It's a cake.  A delicious cake but a cake nonetheless and that's not what I was aiming for.  So yes, next time I'll make sure to use plain flour.  In the meantime, have the cake version of the recipe.

Recipe - adapted from Tartelette
Makes about 12

• 85g/3oz butter
• 225g/8oz white chocolate
• 60g/2oz caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 150g/5.3oz self-raising flour
• 45g/1.5oz milk chocolate chips
• 45g/1.5oz white chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease and flour a 20cm/8inch square tin.
2. Put half the chocolate in a glass bowl with the butter and place over a pan of simmering water to melt.
3. Once melted, add the rest of the chocolate and stir in until smooth.
4. Beat the eggs and sugar together into a bowl until pale and thick.
5. Add the butter-chocolate, vanilla extract and flour and mix until smooth.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
7. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. Leave to cool in the tin.
9. Once cool, remove from the tin and cut into 12 pieces.

Marbled Millionaire Shortbread

I've been wanting to make this since the middle of last week.  I was just reading recipes and suddenly had a craving for it.  Unfortunately I had no condensed milk and had to wait until I got a chance to go to the big supermarket to get some.  I also did not have the right type or size of tray and didn't get a trip to Lakeland in Edinburgh until Tuesday.  Admittedly, I had specifically chosen Tuesday myself the week before since one of my favourite authors was signing books in the Waterstone's on Princes Street that day, so it's my own fault I had to wait.  Then there was finding a time to make it.  Yesterday my boyfriend had work so it seemed a perfect time because it would keep me amused and distract me from being lonely.

For the most part it turned out okay.  The underside of the shortbread got burnt in some places.  My oven temperature is clearly uneven.  I'm going to need to get an oven thermometer.  I really wasn't sure if the caramel was right.  I did everything it said and it thickened up but I didn't know what colour it ought to be and I thought it was a bit pale.  I'm also a bit undecided on the taste of it myself.  My boyfriend says it's fine, if a bit gooey.  It is ridiculously gooey.  The chocolate came out fab.  The marbling effect looked so cool!  Here's a shot of it before I cut it up:

I have discovered a love of marbling it seems.  So a mixed bag of results really.  I personally do not like it because of the caramel.  My boyfriend says they taste fine, even the slightly burnt pieces.  I'll be offering some up to his friends tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.  As long as someone likes it and it gets eaten, I'll be happy.

Recipe - adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

For the shortbread:

• 250g/9oz plain flour
• 75g/3oz caster sugar
• 175g/6oz butter

 For the caramel

• 100g/4oz butter
• 100g/4oz light muscovado sugar
• 2 x 397g/14oz cans of condensed milk

For the topping:

• 100g/4oz milk chocolate
• 100g/4oz white chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 then grease and line a 33 x 23cm/13 x 19inch swiss roll tin.
2.  Mix the flour and the sugar together in a large bowl.
3. Add the butter and rub it into the sugar and flour with your fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
4. Knead the mixture together into a dough then press into the tin.  You might think you don't have enough but you will be able to fill the tin with a fairly thin layer of shortbread.
5. Prick the dough all over with a fork and then put in the oven to bake for about 20 minutes.  The shortbread should be firm to the touch after this time.
6. Remove and cool in the tin.
7. Make the caramel by putting all its ingredients in a saucepan and heating gently until the sugar dissolves.
8. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, before reducing to a simmer for about 5 minutes.  You must keep stirring and make sure your spoon scrapes the bottom of the pan or the caramel will catch and burn.  The mixture will darken as you cook it and should take on a thicker consistency.
9. When ready, remove from the heat and pour over the shortbread.  Leave it to cool.
10. Melt the chocolate in two separate bowls over saucepans of hot water.
11. When melted, spoon each type onto the cooled caramel in an alternating pattern.
12. Run a skewer gently through the chocolate, particularly over the edges where the two chocolate types meet, to create the marble pattern.
13. Leave to set.
14. Cut the shortbread into squares or blocks.  I did this whilst it was still in the tin but you can take it out to cut if you want.

Chocolate Marble Cake Squares

Wednesday seems to have become 'make cakes for boyfriend's friends' day.  Completely voluntarily of course.  I don't need much of an excuse to bake and this way I can experiment with a whole bunch of things I probably wouldn't try otherwise.  Having willing guinea pigs is fun.

I have never made marble cake before and thought it was about time that I tried.  It just looks so cool.  So I decided to make a big square cake, then cut it up into smaller ones.  I intended to dip them in chocolate but I ended up with much less time on Wednesday than originally planned so I just made a quick chocolate icing instead.  Hence the slightly unimaginative photos too.

Again they went down well and all the leftovers were taken home by people so the boyfriend returned with empty boxes.  So yay!  They're all coming over this weekend to see our flat so I shall be attempting something else that has caught my eye in one of my books.  As well as making cake pops because they were specially requested.

The recipe for the cake comes from Cake Decorating magazine.  I flicked through a few recipes before settling on this one, though I created the marbled effect a bit differently, because I wanted it to look very marbled.

Recipe - adapted from Cake Decorating issue 4

Makes 16 squares

• 225g/8oz butter
• 225g/8oz caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 275g/10oz self-raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1.5 tsp cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp hot water
• 150g/5oz milk chocolate
• 100g/4oz butter
• 2 tbsp water 

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 then grease and line a 23cm/9inch square cake tin.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and creamy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and mix in.
4. Add the vanilla extract and mix.
5. Fold the flour and the baking powder into the mixture until smooth.
6. Add the milk and stir thoroughly.
7. Put half the mixture into a different bowl.
8. In a small bowl mix together the cocoa powder and the hot water until completely smooth.  Allow to cool slightly.
9. Add the cocoa mix to one of the bowls of cake batter and mix well until evenly combined.
10. Put alternating spoonfuls of each mixture into the cake tin until you use it all up.
11. Take a fork and swirl it through the mixture to create the marble effect.  Don't stir or overdo it or you'll just get a watered down chocolate cake.
12. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour.  The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
13. Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  Cake must be completely cooled before adding the icing.
14. Using a serrated knife, cut the cake into 16 squares.
15. To make the icing, break the chocolate into pieces and put in a glass bowl along with the water and the butter.
16. Put the bowl over a saucepan of hot water to melt the contents, stirring occasionally until you get a smooth icing.
17. Put a baking tray covered in greaseproof paper under the cooling rack and then pour the icing over the top of each cake, easing it over the edges so it runs down the sides.
18. Leave to set.