A plethora of desserts – chocolate fondants and white chocolate and cranberry cake

I have a very sweet tooth, which I’m trying to keep in check, but that is a post for another day. I fell off the wagon this weekend when the family was over, and I made three desserts – I really like having a selection to choose from.

My SiL is allergic to cinnamon, so she couldn’t eat the red fruit and apple crumble I made. She loves chocolate fondants, so I decided to try making some for her, which gave me the opportunity to test out some new molds I’d bought. Aaaand dessert #3 came in as I figured the kids wouldn’t eat either the crumble or the fondants, so I made a white chocolate and cranberry cake for them. Well, in the end, only the adults ate the cake, the kids were the biggest consumers of the fondants and only four portions of crumble went.

Felicity Cloake did the legwork on the fondant recipe – this is from her ‘perfect’ series. I doubled it to make four. This recipe makes two.

60g butter
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
60g dark chocolate
1 egg and 1 egg yolk
60g caster sugar
1 tablespoon of plain flour

Heat your oven to 200°. Grease the inside of 2 small ramekins or pudding molds, and then put the cocoa in one and turn it to coat the inside, holding it over the second mold to catch any that escapes. Do the same with the other mold.

Put the butter and chocolate into a heatproof bowl set over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water and stir occasionally until melted. Allow to cool slightly.

Whisk the egg, yolk, sugar and a pinch of salt until pale and fluffy. Gently fold in the melted chocolate and butter, and then the flour. Spoon into the prepared molds, stopping just shy of the top – at this point the mixture can be refrigerated until needed, or even frozen, as the puddings will not wait around once cooked.

Put on to a hot baking tray and cook for 12 minutes (14 if from cold, 16 if frozen) until the tops are set and coming away from the sides of the molds. Leave to rest for 30 seconds and then serve in the ramekins or turn out on to plates if you're feeling confident – they're great with clotted cream or plain ice cream.

Chocolate fondant - still in the mold

The cake I made was the one we tasted at the last Clandestine Cake Club. I used this recipe – here is the UK/gram equivalent. It actually looks really festive, so it would be great for a Christmas party. It looks as good as it tastes too.

Cranberry and white chocolate cake

For the jam

350g of fresh cranberries

150g sugar

the rid and juice of an orange

a teaspoon each of ground ginger and cinnamon

a couple of cloves – just remember how many you put in

(if all this is too much, just use a jar of cranberry jam – Carrefour does a delicious cherry, cranberry and red currant (I think…) jam)

For the cake

225g of white chocolate

300g of plain flour

a small sprinkle of salt

140g of soft butter

270g of castor sugar

4 eggs

a good teaspoon of vanilla – I use a jar I got in Ireland of Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste. I’ve seen the same brand, but not the vanilla, in the International Home of Cooking at Rue Léopold 3, 1000 Brussels (its near Sterling Books).

A good dash of milk

For the icing

170g white chocolate

100g of soft butter

50g icing sugar

another good teaspoon of vanilla

You start off by making the filling. In a saucepan, mix all the filling ingredients for it and bring to the boil. Once boiling, simmer for 10 minutes and then remove from the heat. Once its cool enough to not scald yourself on, go through it and fish out all the cloves you added. Then, whizz it through a food processor for a few seconds.

For the cake, melt the chocolate in a bowl over some boiling water until it is fully melted.

Pop your oven on to 190° and grease and line two 20cm cake tins.

In another bowl, beat the butter with the sugar until light n fluffy and its gone white, or at least a lot paler. This will take about 5-7 minutes of mixing. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition and add the vanilla with the last egg. Finally, mix though the flour, baking powder and salt until it’s just about combined and then mix though the melted chocolate. If your mixture is a bit thick, add a few dessertspoons of milk to loosen it. It should be the consistency of honey.

Spread the batter into the prepared cake tins.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick or skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool the cakes in their tins on wire racks for 10 minutes before removing them and cooling completely.

The vanilla bean paste I use

For the icing, melt the white chocolate in a bowl over boiling water. Leave it to cool for about 20 minutes (I didn’t pay attention to this, and added the warm chocolate to the rest of the icing, and well, the whole lot curdled. Bin!). Even after 20 minutes, it hadn’t started solidifying again, so no worries in that department.

In a large bowl, beat the butter, vanilla and the icing sugar until fluffy. When the chocolate is cool, mix it through the icing.

To construct the cake, slice each of the cakes in half horizontally and slather the jam on layer 1, put the other half on, slather that, then layer 3 – more jam – and then the lid of the cake. I only covered the top of the cake with the icing.

Just desserts – baked toffee cheesecake

I made this cheesecake for mothers day this weekend. It’s a calorie-fest, which is what all desserts should be. We got 12 wedges from this.

Baked toffee cheesecake

I’d never made toffee before, but given how simple it is, I will make it again. And I will definitely make the cheesecake again, even though I’m not a huge fan of them usually. There was not a very strong taste of toffee from the cake itself, so you could always double the amount of toffee you make and add the extra to the mixture.

Toffee cheesecake

Ingredients

For the base

250g dinosaur biscuits (I used the ones in the yellow box. The original recipe uses chocolate digestives)

75g butter

(the original recipe has 100g pecans and 150g biscuits but as one of the party has a nut allergy, I left these out)

For the filling

375g caster sugar

4 tbsp cold water

150g white chocolate, broken into squares

600g full-fat cream cheese

150ml double cream

2 free-range egg yolks

4 free-range eggs

For the topping

300ml double cream

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and lightly oil a 23cm/9in springform cake tin.

Put the biscuits into a food processor and blend to a coarse powder. Alternatively, put them in a bag and bash them with a rolling pin. Melt the butter in a small pot and pour into the food processor with the motor running. Blend until the biscuits and butter are thoroughly combined.

Place the crumb mixture into the cake tin. Spread evenly over the base and press down lightly with the back of a spoon. Place the tin in the fridge and leave the base to set while you make the filling.

For the filling, put 200g/7oz of the caster sugar in a saucepan with the cold water and heat gently until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Bring the liquid to the boil and cook for 4-5 minutes without stirring until the sugar syrup turns a deep golden brown. Swirl the caramel around the pan gently as it bubbles.

Bubbling water and sugar, waiting to go brown

As soon as the caramel is the colour of toffee, remove from the heat and carefully pour onto the lined baking tray. Tilt the tin so the caramel covers the base evenly. Leave to cool and set – this only takes a few minutes.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Take off the heat and leave to cool for 20 minutes, but do not allow to set.

Melted white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and boil a kettle of water.

Put the cheese, cream, remaining sugar, egg yolks and eggs in a food processor and blend until smooth. Gradually add the cooled chocolate with the motor running and blend until just mixed.

Crushed toffee

Crush the hardened caramel into small shards using the end of a rolling pin. Fold half of the caramel into the cheese mixture and pour gently on to the biscuit base. (Keep the rest on the tray, lightly covered with clingfilm in a cool place. Do not put in the fridge or the moisture will cause the caramel to soften).

Put a large piece of aluminium foil on the work surface. Place the tin in the centre of the foil and bring up the sides to create a foil bowl around the cheesecake.

Place in a medium-sized roasting tin and add enough just-boiled water to rise 2cm/¾in up the sides of the tin. Carefully place the roasting tin in the centre of the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes. The cheesecake is ready when it is almost, but not fully, set.

When the cheesecake is ready, turn off the oven but leave the cheesecake inside for a further 30 minutes. (This will help prevent the surface cracking as the cheesecake cools).

Lift the cake tin from the water and peel off the foil. Put the cheesecake in the fridge, cover and chill for at least two hours before serving.

To serve, carefully release the tin and slide the cheesecake onto a flat serving plate or cake stand, using a palette knife to help you. Whip the cream until soft peaks form and spoon in big fluffy clouds over the cheesecake. Scatter the remaining shards of caramel on top. Serve in wedges.